The case of Miles v. Magan for breach of promise of marriage was scheduled to be held at the Bristol Assizes on 18 August 1858. With the defendant named as the member of parliament for Westmeath in Ireland, damages laid at £10,000 and some hundreds of love letters ready to be produced as evidence, the … Read more
Mary Hudson was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1745. Her mother Susannah Hudson (c.1720-1778) remarried in 1765 at St Andrew, Holborn, to Thomas Kirby, who died in January 1773 in Sherborne. Mary was married on 14 February 1767/8 at the church of St Bartholomew the Less in London, to William Willmott (1741-1787), a silk … Read more
‘Send party to cottage Newland opposite cinema. I trapped’ – this message was relayed to the local emergency services at 17:19 on 30 September 1940 by Maude Steele (1901-1997), the supervising telephonist at Sherborne Telephone Exchange who was later awarded the George Medal for her bravery that day when she refused to leave her post … Read more
Rachel Bosher was born in about 1721, the daughter of Charles Bosher, a Bristol merchant tailor, and his wife Rachel. On 4 February 1748 Rachel Bosher was married at St Mary’s church, Bathwick, to Robert Goadby (1720–1778), formerly a Bath bookseller who in 1744 became proprietor of the Western Flying Post, or Yeovil Mercury. Robert and … Read more
Louisa Barnes was born at 8 Garden Terrace, Harlow, Essex on 16 August 1905, the eldest daughter of John William Barnes (b.1875) and Mary Ann Barnes (née Fielder) (1879-1942). By April 1911 the family were living at Lower Zeals in Wiltshire, where John Barnes was employed as a groom. Their second daughter Olga Mary Barnes … Read more
Georgina Binnie-Clark was born at the Digby Hotel in Sherborne on 24 April 1871, one of seven children born to Arthur Walter Binnie Clark (1834-1913), manager of the Digby Hotel and former valet to George Wingfield Digby (1797-1883), and Maria Louise Clark (née Letheby) (1837-1908). Georgina’s parents were married by licence at Taunton in Somerset … Read more
On 26 April 1736, Hannah Baugh of the parish of St James Westminster was married by licence at St Luke’s Chelsea to printer and widower William Bettinson. In 1737, William Bettinson and George Price (whose name disappears from the record after June 1737) moved to Sherborne and established a printing house (now Bute House) in … Read more
Above the south-west door of the church of St Mary Magdalene at Castleton a stone plaque records the long service of Margaret Barnard to the Earls of Digby, and also her gift of £20 towards the building of the church: ‘Here lieth the Body of MARGARET BARNARD An old faithful servant to ye Earls of … Read more