the history of yeovil's pubs

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masons' Arms

Rotten Row (Market Street)

 

The Masons' Arms was a short-lived beerhouse run by Samuel Trask but, since it was a named establishment I have given it its own page. From the records it is not possible to pinpoint the location of the Mason's Arms within Rotten Row.

Rotten Row was, at the time of these records, an early name for today's Market Street and, confusingly it was also known as Reckleford. Rotten Row was named after the broad track in Hyde Park, London, still reserved for the exercise of horses.



 

 

Samuel Trask was the only licensee. He was a roper by trade and was born in Somerset around 1791. On 25 December 1820 he married Mary Sweet at Merriott, but Mary died in September 1838. Samuel married his second wife, Ann, in January 1841 in Yeovil. Although the Mason's Arms was listed in Robson's 1835 Somerset Directory, Trask was not named, although he was listed as its licensee in the 1839 Directory. In the 1841 census he was listed with his second wife, Ann, and his two sons and a daughter from his first marriage. He was listed again in Pigot's Directory in 1842 but then I lost him in the records until his death in Yeovil in December 1865 aged about 74.


licensees

 

1835 – Licensee not named (Robson’s 1835 Somerset Directory - Beer Houses) listed as
            Masons' Arms but without a location
1839 – Samuel Trask – Beer Retailer (Robson’s 1839 Directory)
1840 – Samuel Trash (sic) (Somerset Gazette 1840 Directory - Beer Houses) as Masons' Arms
1841 – Samuel Trask – Roper (1861 census) pub not named but listed in Rotten Row
1842 – Samuel Trask – Retailer of Beer (Pigot’s 1842-4 Directory) listed in Reckleford