306 



Charles, Lord Stourton, fyc. 



some nice points touching the Crown's rights during the minority 

 of the Duke of Cornwall. That however Charles Stourton 

 established his claim and had it confirmed to him, appears from 

 the Petition of Dame Anne his widow (Document No. 66) in which 

 she prays, towards her child's maintenance, " only the Estate of 

 Stourton, and the lease of the Manor of Mere granted to her late 

 husband" 1 



Coward's Complaint. 

 Among the Proceedings in the Star Chamber 6 Edw. VI. is 

 another complaint lodged against Lord Stourton by one Robert 

 Coward for a violent ejection of him the said Coward, from some 

 copyhold land at Seals Clevedon 2 near Stourton. 



1 The Stourton family had a very ancient connexion with Mere. So far hack 

 as 1399-1400 (1 & 2 Hen. IV.) there had heen a Grant by Henry TY, as Duke 

 of Cornwall, to William Stourton (see top of pedigree p. 244) on a repairing 

 lease for five years at 66s. per annum, of " Our Lodge and the herbage of our 

 Park of Mere; Our beasts of chase to be also reasonably kept up," (" ultra 

 rationabilem sustentationem ferarum nostrarum.") The Stourtons had also long 

 been watching for the chance of purchasing it. In 1552 the Steward of Mere, for 

 the Crown, was Sir John Zouche: and in that year King Edward VI. had some 

 intention of selling it. In a letter upon the subject to the Eoyal Commissioners, 

 dated Wilton 9th January 1552, Sir John Zouche recommends that the sale 

 should be postponed, and says " Indede the late Lord Stourton" (William, who 

 died 1548) " in the tyme of the late King Henry th'eight was very desirous of 

 the purchase of it: which when his Majestie " (Hen. VIII, ) "understode, he 

 did forthwith stay it, although the money were before-hand paid." (Sir R. C. 

 Hoare, Mere, p. 26.) The Patent Rolls inform us that Charles Lord Stourton 

 had the lease of the Manor of Mere renewed to him for forty years, in 1553. 

 The riotous proceedings mentioned in the Text were most likely Charles Stour- 

 ton's own way of asserting his rights before the law did so more regularly. 

 It will be recollected that at the end of the Narrative of the Murder (above, 

 p. 253) an allusion was made to some violent seizure of Mr. Thomas Chafyn's 

 stock in payment of certain damages said to have been awarded to Lord Stourton 

 in an Action against Chafyn. The " Action " mentioned in the Narrative does 

 not seem to have been the regular trial at law about the lease : so that there 

 may have been more riotous proceedings. The reader will probably be satisfied 

 with the number set before him, without requiring any further identification of 

 the particular causes that led to them. 



2 Seals (now Zeals) is a Tything in the parish of Mere, containing two Manors^ 

 Seals Aylesbury (or Over Seals) and Seals Clivedon (or Nether Seals); the second 

 name in each case being that of an ancient owner. The arms of the Clivedon 

 family are on the gallery in More Church. Seals Clivedon adjoins Bouham 



