| Robert Earle, the rector of Litton considered it necessary to remind his parishioners of what the ‘correct’ form of worship was in 1616. The memorandum was written out of sequence on what was previously a blank page opposite the list of burials starting in 1582. |
| Robert Earle (1567 – 1617) was a prebend of Wells Cathedral, and rector of Litton (19/07/1568 – 22/10/1617 ). Litton was owned by the Bishop of Bath & Wells at the time so Robert Earle was directly appointed by the bishop. |
| This contrasts with Chewton Mendip where the church lands were owned by the Kingsmill family. The lords of the temporal manor of Chewton Mendip at the time were, and still are, the Waldegrave family. They had been rewarded by Mary I for suporting her in her Catholic faith but Sir Edward Waldegrave was imprisoned in 1562 by Elizabeth I for practicing his Catholic faith too openly. |
| The vicar of Chewton Mendip at the time was Anthoney Eglesfield who may have been related to the other knight who supported Mary when she was being pressurised to convert to the protestant faith. Anthony Eglesfiled had been appointed by Roger Manners who had been close to Mary but also gained the support of Elizabeth so it is assumed that Anthoney Eglesfield followed an elastic approach to religious dogma. |
| It is not clear what the Litton parishioners were doing wrong but this was a time or rising tensions between the ‘high church’ bishop of Bath & Wells and the predominantly ‘low church’ parishes. This religious conflict contributed to the civil war that broke out in the 1640s. Some of the family names in the list of signaturies are are well known but others are ‘new’ to this website. |
| Transcribed by, Wendy Loxton, Mike Gould and Andrew Plaster. Checked by Polly Rubery. The transcribed text is in italic. |
chewtonmendiphistory 