Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 Excerpt: ...brasses to members of the Wadham family, which had been turned out of the church by a former vicar to make way for his encaustic tiles, and were sold among his effects after his death. One records the memory of Nicholas Wadham, son of Sir Nicholas, Captain of the Isle of Wight, by his second wife, Margaret Seymour, aunt of Queen Jane. A small shield has the arms of Wadham impaling Seymour, --two wings in lure. The second brass is imperfect, and has been supposed by Mr. Rogers and others to be that of fane, the first wife of the same Sir Nicholas, daughter of Robert Hill of Halfway, and grandmother of the Founder. This, however, is disproved by a very curious document which has never been published. About 1630, Mr. Thomas Lyte, of Lyte's Cary, in the parish of Charlton Mackerell, Somerset, drew up a most voluminous pedigree of his family, which he illustrated with sketches of monuments and short biographical notices. Here we find, 'Joane Lady Wadham, st ma. to Walton of Barton, Esquire, Secondly, to Sir Nicholas Wadham, Knt., died at Merefield, Aug an. 5 Mary, buried at Won.' This is accompanied by a sketch of the monument, probably a brass, representing a female figure holding a book in her left hand, and a rosary in her right, with a copy of the epitaph which enables us to restore the missing half. This fourth Lady Wadham, who is not mentioned in any of the published pedigrees, had a son and daughter by her first marriage. The son 'in his younger years fell into lewd companye, and zvas attainted of feolony, ' and his lands were forfeited to the Crown. But Sir Nicholas being 'gratious with the King, ' obtained them back and restored them to his wife. Joan Lady Wadham outlived her husband and died, as the epitaph states, in 1557'. From the village green a side
