Sevier

The earliest reference to the word ’sevier’ found so far in 1307 in Bristol archive record 5139/28  when it was used in connection with a bridge in the Temple parish.  The first reference to that family was in 1576 when  William Sevier was appointed as a schoolteacher in Winterbourne, Bristol in 1576. He was appointed as reader or lay preacher in 1579.

The earliest record found for the Sevier family in Somerset is published in FreeReg when presumably a different William Sevier had a daughter, Joane, baptised in Ditcheat on 6th December 1594. Ditcheat is south of Shepton Mallet  and Shepton mallet was the centre of one cluster of Seviers who were involved in various cloth related industries.

There was another cluster around Chew Stoke and Chew Magna who were also liking to cloth making but were higher up the social scale and were involved with well –to-do families like the Babers.

There appears to have been linked to a wealthy branch of the Sevier family who lived in Wells but had interests in Dinder.  The Wells and Chew Magna families may have been closely related and the family named as sponsor of the Sevier charity.

Elizabeth Sevier of  Brockley married Henry Chambre of Bourten on 3rd of August 1738 adds another possible Huguenot name to the list and another tenuous link to Chewton Mendip. Brockely was in the Chewton Hundred.

Isaac Gollige of Clofford married Ann Sevier also of Cloford on 2nd November 1823. Cloford is near Frome and coincidentally Witham Friary.  There was a large concentration of Seviers in Cloford extends the geographical spread to the Wiltshire boundary and the groom’s family name may strengthen the Huguenot links.

The probably irrelevant co-incidence with the proximity to Witham Friary is that the village was the site of a Carthusian Priory and that order owned the rectory manor of Chewton Mendip at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries.

What may not be a coincidence is that Esott Sevier married William Michell in Doulting on 27th February 1689/90. However, the link here may be to the last prior of  Witham Friary was John Mitchell and the name Michell/Mitchell was still used in the 18th century for a holding that was probably formerly Carthusian Land.

The Chewton Mendip poor-law  records list a Mr Sevier as the rate payer. The lack of the first name which makes him difficult to identify but shows he was a man of some standard to justify the title of ‘Mr’ which was reserved for the wealthier members of society. His wife or daughter may have been called Anne because she was mentioned in a lease dated 1766.

The Seviers were not listed as residents of Chewton Mendip so they may have been absentee landlords . The lease held by Mr Sevier was for land that was probably close to Richard Jenkin’s land in Chewton Mendip. Mr Jenkins lived in Wells and held the living of Dinder and Croscombe  but later built the first Gothick  Chewton Priory in Chewton Mendip soon after 1766.