Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/437

 ii s. ix. MAY so, i9it.] NOTES AND QUERIES ,

431

these as used by the English army. Where can I find a description of them ? I have all the references to the Roman machines in Vegetius's, Julius Caesar's, and other writers' books, and am familiar with the ancient Greek machines as described in the ' Polior- ketika.' L. L. K.

PRICE AND WHITCHURCH FAMILIES. (11 S. ix, 371.)

THE Whitchurch family occupied an impor tant position in Somersetshire in the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries. The places where they chiefly flourished are Frome and the adjacent village of Nunney. They turn up in several other parishes also, and I believe they originated at Whitchurch, near Bristol. In the days of Elizabeth members of the family are found at Road, a few miles to the east of Frome. This place was once a thriving market" town, but is now a hamlet, and was in 1860 the scene of the famous Road murder. The Whitchurchs are also found at Beckington, an ancient village just outside Frome ; at Long Ashton ; Staple ton, near Bristol ; and at Bristol itself. The modern Domesday return mentions members of the family still holding property at Back- well, the village next to Long Ashton, and close to Bristol.

The foundations of the family were laid by William Whitchurch, a linendraper of Frome (see will of William Whitchurch, linendraper " of Froome Zellwood " [61 Dale]). In the original query at above reference Frome Selwood is printed " Froomesetwood." This is an error. The earlier name of Frome was Frome Selwood, but the second name is now no longer used. The Whitchurchs flourished in business, and about the middle of the seventeenth century William Whitchurch became lord of the manor of Nunney, about three miles south- west of Frome. Nunney Castle, dating from the thirteenth century, has been a ruin for centuries, but adjoining the ruins is a manor house known as the Castle House, and this is where the Whitchurch family lived for several generations. Previous to its occupation by them, it was owned by the Prater family. Richard Symoncls's 'Diary' says it was a " faire stone house in which Mr. Prater's sonne lives," Prater, the father, no doubt occupying the Castle. Leland visited the place twice, and mentions the

Castle, " a praty castle at the weste end of the Paroche churche." The manor house was at that time probably not built.

In Buck's ' Antiquities,' 1733, there will be found what is, as far as I know, the only existing view of the house lived in by the Whitchurchs. It appears in the picture ' The North-East View of Nunye Castle in the County of Somerset.' One -half of the plate is filled by an engraving of the manor house, a pretty view of a residence with a trim garden. It bears this inscription: "To John Whitchurch, Esq., this plate is grate- fully inscribed by his obliged servants Sam 1 and Nath. Buck." Underneath is written :

" This castle having been for many ages the seat of the family of Delamere in the time of .K. Richard. IT. by an heiress past into the family of Paulet ancestor to the present Duke of Bolton in ye time of Q. Eliz. ye 1st Marquis of Winchester who sold it to John Prater Esq. whose descendants sold it to W m Whitchurch Esq."

Collinsoii's account is fairly full :

" At the beginning of the present century [the eighteenth] William Whitchurch, esq. was lord of it, and was succeeded in it by William his son ; after whose death it was sold to discharge some debts and legacies ; but was afterwards repur- chased by Elizabeth, the relict of the said William Whitchurch, who left it by will in 1749 to James Theobald, of Waltham-place in the county of Berks, esq. the present proprietor."

" The living is a rectory in the deanery of Frome ; the patronage has been always annexed to the manor. In 1292 the rectory was valued at fifteen marks and a half. The present incum- bent is the Bey. Samuel Whitchurch. There are about fifty or sixty acres of glebe. The parsonage - house, now uninhabited, was partly rebuilt by the late Rev. Samuel Whitchurch ; who was presented to the living by the guardians of William Whitchurch, a minor, in the year 1734." Collin- son (1791), ii. 219.

" Against the south wall is an elegant mural monument of white and Sienna marble, the tablet whereof is thus inscribed : ' Under the com- munion table are deposited the remains of Eliza- beth and James, also near the reading desk those of James-Wadham, the beloved curate of this parish, who was called off the 5th day of January, 1776 ; sons and daughter of Samuel Whitchurch, rector, and Elizabeth his wife, daughter oi Thomas Coward, of Spargrove, esq. in the latter of which graves their affectionate parents hope in due time to rest, in consolatory expectation of a joint resurrection to eternal life, through the merits and mediation of their blessed Redeemer.' Arms : Gules, three talbots' heads erased or ; on a chief argent, guttee de sang, a lion passant- sable. " Collinson, ii. 220-21.

William Whitchurch of Nunney was appointed High Sheriff: of Somerset, 27 Nov. , 1690.

Samuel Whitchurch, D.D., sometime In- cumbent of Stapleton, near Bristol, succeeded to the family living of Nunney, and was for fifty years Rector there. He married, Sept.