AN ILLEGAL CHANDLER
From records of Quarter Sessions held at Ilchester 22-25 April 1628:

Information by William Connock against Willm Barnard of yevell husband-man for vsing the trade of a Chaundler not being an Apprentice Contrary the form of the Statute made Anno.quinto Elizabethe,etc. Jo.ffarewell.

BURIED AT CROSS ROADS
‘COUNTRY NEWS – Yeovil, Sept.3. This Morning a Maid Servant to Mr.Tho. Shean of this Town, was found drown’d in the River near the Town. The Coroner’s Inquest sate on her Body, and brought in their Verdict, Self Murder.’ – The Sherborne Mercury, 6 September 1737.

‘A girl of the name of Sherstone, 20 years of age, servant to Mr. Isaac Mullins, farmer of Yeovil, put a period to her existence on Monday morning by taking a portion of arsenic, the coroner’s jury sat on Wednesday on her body, and brought in their verdict felo de se. She was buried at the cross roads near the town. No cause is assigned for her committing this rash act, except a notice from her employer to quit his service for inattention to his afflicted mother.’ – The Western Flying Post, 9 May 1814.

Ten years after the second of the above two reports an Act of 4 George IV directed, that for the future a felo de se may be buried in the unconsecrated portion of a churchyard between the hours of nine and twelve at night, and expressly states ‘without any stake being driven through the body’. The last being a reference to the custom of driving a stake through the body of a felon or suicide ‘to prevent the ghost from rising to the face of the earth again!’, and there is record, after such a burial in Dorset, that the burial party strewed the road back to the village with handfuls of tintacks, and linseed, apparently to delay the ghost until cock-crow!

REPEAL OF CYDER ACT AND BAN OF FRENCH GLOVES, 1766
YEOVIL. – April 28, 1766 – On this day the Inhabitants of Yeovil, on account of the repeal of the Cyder Act and the prohibition of the importation of French gloves (gloving being the principal trade of the town) have devoted the greatest part of the last week to bell-ringing and other diversions: three sheep being roasted whole on the last three days, and two vessels of cyder continually running at their market-house. – Newspaper cutting.

‘VELOCIPEDE RACE AT YEOVIL, 1819
‘PEDESTRIAN HORSE-RACING – On Thursday evening last, a velocipede race was contested by Mr Butt, linen draper, and Mr Leonard, ironmonger, of Yeovil, . . . Mr.L., in consequence of being rather shorter in the legs than his opponent, was allowed the privilege of wearing a pair of lady’s clogs, but these artificial heels were not able to cope with the natural alertness of the linen draper, who beat his antagonist by one minute and a half, completing the mile in six minutes. The gentlemen after- wards retired to an inn for refreshment.’ – Western Flying Post, 4 November 1819.

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