JOHN COLLINSON'S HISTORY - 1
History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset by John Collinson1
NINEHEAD-FLORY, anciently NICHEHEDE is a fmall parifh in the extreme angle of this hundred towards the fouthwest, being fituated betwixt Milverton and Wellington, from which laft parifh it is divided by the river Tone.
A mile eaftward from the church is EAST-NINEHEAD, or NINEHEAD-MONKS or MONKTON; and about half a mile north is the hamlet of Upcot.
In this parifh is alfo CHIPLEIGH-HOUSE, the ancient eftate of the Warre family, now of Edward Clarke, efq.
The manor of Ninehead is included in the Conqueror's furvey in the number of thofe lands which owed fervice to the Bifhop of Winchefter's court at Taunton, and has been always held under that great lordfhip. In the time of Henry I. and King Stephen, it was the poffeffion of Ranalph de Fluri, who in allufion to his name bore on his feal a chevron between three croffes flory, which arms with a little variation of the croffes were afterwards ufed by the family of de Wyke, who it feems by some intermarriage with the Floris became poffeffed of the manor of Ninehead. To the faid Ranalph de Fluri fucceeded Robert and Hugh de Fluri, both of whom were living in the time of Henry II.
John de Wyke was lord of this manor in the time of King Edw. I. whom he attended in an expedition againft the Scots, and was fucceeded by another John de Wyke, and he by Philip de Wyke, who held this manor, and that of Withiel-Flory 13 Edw. II. He had two fons, Walter and John, of whom the latter inherited this manor, and was living in the time of Edw. III. having iffue a fon of the fame name, who was refident at Ninehead 13 Ric. II. He married Catharine daughter of Sir William Bonville, knt. and relict of Sir John Cobham, knt. in whofe right he had the manor of Yeovilton in this county for his life.11 He died 12 Henry IV. feized of that manor, and the manor of Ninehead-Flory, as alfo a moiety of the manor of Lillifdon, leaving Robert his fon and heir then of the age of nineteen years. This Robert was father of John Wyke, who was of Ninehead in the time of Edw. IV. and died the l0th of that reign, feized of the manors of Ninehead-Flory, Withiel, Uphill, and Oldmixon, leaving Richard his brother and heir of the age of fixty years. Which Richard Wyke (or Wykes, as he is called in the inquifition) died i Ric. III. feized of the manors of Ninehead and Witbiel-Flory, held by knight's fervice of the Bifhop of Winchefter, the fourth part of the manors of Uphill and Chrifton, held of Thomas lord Stanley, as of his manor of Blagdon, and four meffuages, eighty acres of arable land, twenty acres of meadow, and forty acres of pafture in Oldmixon, held of John Arthur. John his fon and heir was then of the age of forty years. The faid John Wyke, fon and heir of Richard, was a knight of the Bath at the marriage of Arthur fon of Henry VII. with the Princefs Catharine of Spain, and was succeeded in the poffeffion of this manor by Richard Wyke, who held it with Withiel of the Bifhop of Winchefter, the latter end of the reign of Henry VII. He married Eleanor Hadley of Withycombe by whom he had iffue Richard Wyke of Ninehead, who married Margaret daughter of George Rolle, of Stevenstone in the county of Devon, efq; by whom he had a numerous offspring, and dying in 1590, was buried in the parifh church of Ninehead.
There was a branch ot this fame family feated at Court de Wick, in the parifh of Yatton, in the hundred of Winterftoke, which eftate paffed to the Chedders, Kens, and Poulets.
1. These pages are taken from ‘The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset: collected from authentick records, and an actual survey made by the late Mr Edmund Rack...’ by the Reverend John Collinson [Bath, 1791] The original spelling and punctuation have been retained. For ease of reading on-screen extra paragraph breaks have been added. The original footnotes are not included. The original had no illustrations other than the colophon reproduced at the end.