Rich

Somerset archive record Q/SR/68/65 dated 1633  is about the examinations of Thomas Rich of Chewton Mendip who was a husbandman (farmer) and John Pippett, who was servant of Joane Addams, who was a, widow concerning Anthony Bemond stating the church should be served before the King on a sabbath day.

This record is of interest in a number of ways. It is the earliest reference found to the Rich family in Chewton Mendip and it is another example of the religious tensions that contributed to the civil war in 1642. The reference to the Addams family may help to identify where the Thomas Rich was farming.

The  18th century Chewton Mendip churchwarden accounts and poor-law records  show that Benjamin Rich was paying rates for a number of  estates in the West End tithing which means they may have been close to Adams Corner.

Benjamin Rich may have combined some form of business involved with the materials trade.The parish paid him for hessian cloth in 1758.

Thre were several generations of Benjamin Richs  in the 18th century and one of them was a libidinous person because at least two women had illegitimate children by him. It is possible there were two Benjamin Richs fathering ‘base born’ children but a woman with the last name of Church (the first name is illegible) had a daughter, Grace by Benjamin Rich in 1771. Susannah Pickering had at least 5 children by Benjamin Rich in the late 1770’s and 1780s.

George Rich of Wells was one of the Wells Turnpike Commissioners in 1819.