the mill house

The Mill House

later the site of Bowring's Row

 

In 1715 'A Survey of the Portreeve Lands in Yeovill Burrough' recorded "Gifford French and Richard Pudden. December 1708 - A Burgage called the Mill House and garden in South Streete - To hold the Easterne parte as it is now divided into the said Gifford and Frances his wife, and the Western parte unto Richard Pudden for 99 yeares if the said Frances and Sarah daughter of the said Richard and Gifford French - or either - shall so long live."

Using this information it is possible to trace back this Corporation property in the Rent of Assize who was renting the property as far back as 1615 as follows -

1615 - John Hull, 7s.
1669 - Mathew Wills
1708 - Gifford French and Richard Pudden, 8s. divided into eastern and western parts
1715 - Robert Hayne
1734-1745 - Samuel Dampier, 15s.
1758 - Giles Hayne, tinsmith
1771 - Widow Hayne (Giles' widow)
1775 - Hellena Hayne, widow, 15s.
1780 - Brett, late Mrs Hayne, 15s.
1800 - William Cayme, late Hayne's, 15s.
1806 - Rev FT Jennings
1813 - William Cayme, 15s. W Cayme on north
1835 - Robert Cayme, 15s.
1847 - Robert Cayme - dwelling house occupied by T Cornish, warehouse
           R Cayme proposed sale, £62 reserve - no bid.
1871 - Six cottages on site of

The 'Brett' of 1780 above and William Cayme were partners in a sailcloth manufacturing business trading in the late 18th and early 19th centuries called Brett & Cayme.

Additionally, on a lease dated 8 June 1759 made between Elizabeth Mullins, widow, and Onesiphorus Penny, glover and Portreeve & Burgesses John Boucher, Philip Francis, Henry Peddle and James Cook, a "Burgage in South Street in the possession of Giles Wills and then Samuel Chinnock and since of John Mullins, late husband of Elizabeth Mullins...." A mortgage dated 16 June 1760 was made for "Elizabeth Mullins by John Daniell, merchant, of Yeovil" and in her will dated 21 January 1761 Elizabeth left "To son Francis one shilling, remainder to John Daniell, merchant, and William Daniell his younger son, glover, to be sold for settlement of debts, remainder to John and William Daniell." On 3 January 1763 the mortgage was transferred "Elizabeth Mullins to William Daniell junior." John Daniell and William Daniell were the grandfather and father of Yeovil draper and town developer Peter Daniell whose name appears several times on the 1913 map below, by which time he had inherited all the family's lands in the town centre.

In 1766, on a lease dated 7 December for a rent of 13s 4d made between William Daniell, glover of Yeovil, and James Dyer, clothier and portreeve and burgesses Onesiphorus Penny, Ambrose Seward, James Coole and Henry Peddle "Dwellinghouse in South Street and use of a furnace and well facing north side of burgage 50 feet by 14 feet now in possession of Widow Sawtell.

In 1871 'A True and Perfect Terrier' recorded "All that Burgage or Dwelling House called the Mill House and Garden aforesaid, in a certain street there called the South Street, formerly divided into two Tenements, but some years since taken down and six cottages built on the site thereof, and numbered 36 in the Corporation Survey, 1813, and which said premises fell into hand upon the death of Joseph Price, 1863." The six cottages were called Bowring's Row and were extant in 1813 as seen on the map of that date below.

Bowring's Row survived into the start of the twentieth century.

 

MAP


 

Part of John Martin's 1813 map of Yeovil showing properties owned by the Corporation in black. Bowring's Row is shown at centre bottom (above the 'R' in South Street) between Tabernacle Lane to the west and Grope Lane (today's Wine Street) to the east. The site of Bowring's Row had earlier been the site of Mill House and its garden.