yeovil people
sir john horsey
Lord of Hendford Manor
Sir John Horsey
(d 1546) was
Lord of the
Manor of Clifton
Maybank and a
knight of Henry
VIII.
He was born the
son of Sir John
Horsey and
Elizabeth Turges.
He married Joan
Mawdley by whom
he had two sons,
Sir John Horsey
(1510-1565) and
Roger Horsey,
and two
daughters, Mary
and Joan.
He served as a Justice of the Peace in Somerset and Dorset, and served as Sheriff for those counties for 1537 and 1544. He was elected knight of the shire (MP) for Dorset in 1539.
In 1538 Sir John obtained the lease of the lordship and parsonage of Yeovil for an annual fee of £45 (around £35,000 at today's value). His descendants kept the Lordship of the Manor of Hendford in the family until 1610.
When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in the 16th century, Sir John, intending to collect a large share of the monastic property from the Crown, bribed Thomas Cromwell to appoint the compliant John Barnstable Abbot of Sherborne Abbey. Barnstable was elected in 1535, and surrendered the monastery in 1539. The deed was acknowledged by his signature and those of 16 monks, who all got pensions.
In 1539, the demesne lands of the monastery including the Great Court, the Abbot's Garden, West Garden, Pyggy's Barton and the Prior's Garden, all in Sherborne, were given to Horsey by the king, for which Horsey paid £1,242 3s 9d plus £16 10s 6d (around £900,000 at today's value) for "the site of the church, steeple, campanile and churchyard of the monastery," and other property.
Horsey
subsequently
sold Sherborne
Abbey to the
vicar and
townspeople of
Sherborne.
Both Horsey and
his son are
buried in
Sherborne Abbey:
an "impressive"
tomb with
life-size
effigies of the
two in medieval
armour is to be
found there in
the Wykeham
Chapel.
The Horsey
family name is
perpetuated in
Horsey Lane.