Mastr John Horseleigh, Knyght, of the p’ysshe of Clyffton was maryd to Edith the wyffe late off John Stocker, m’chawnte of Havenpool the xiiij daje of December be p’vylegge gevyn by our sup’me hedd of the chyrche of Ingelonde Kynge Henry the viii th 1539.

 

Now, if you turn to the long and elaborate pedigree of the ancient family of the Horseleighs of Clyfton Horseleigh, you will find no mention whatever of this alliance, notwithstanding the privilege given by the Sovereign and head of the Church; the said Sir John being therein chronicled as marrying, at a date apparently⁵ earlier than the above, the daughter and heiress of Richard Phelipson, of Montislope, in Nether⁶ Wessex, a lady who outlived him, of which marriage there were issue two daughters and a son, who succeeded him in his estates.  How are we to account for these, as it would seem, contemporaneous wives?  A strange local tradition only can help us, and this can be briefly⁷ told.

 

One evening in the autumn of the year 1540 or 1541, a young sailor, whose Christian⁸ name was Roger, but whose surname is not known, landed at his native place of Havenpool, on the South Wessex coast, after a voyage in the Newfoundland trade, then newly sprung into existence.  He returned in the ship Primrose⁹ with a cargo¹⁰ of ‘trayne oyle brought home from the New Founde Lande,’ to quote from the town records of the date.  During his absence of two summers and a winter, which made up the term of a Newfoundland ‘spell,’ many unlooked-for changes had occurred within the quiet little

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