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January, 2012:

Dorset’s Lost Villages

Jan 24th, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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In his landmark study of 1954 ‘The Lost Villages of England’ landscape historian Maurice Beresford cites nineteen places in Dorset where a village had existed in the middle ages, but was later abandoned.

This tally of lost parishes or hamlets does not include the contemporary example of Tyneham, which is probably best known throughout the county as a textbook case of a deserted village. But Tyneham was a community deserted under duress, and under the national emergency of a world war in which the military were above the law in commandeering land and properties for gunnery training. The desertion of by far the majority of England’s medieval villages however, was a much more insidious process, and was mainly underpinned by instances of failed harvests, plague, enclosure, ecclesiastical sequestration, economic decline, or combinations of these. And this process was taking place at least a century before Tyneham and more typically several centuries before it.

Rural depopulation of course is still going on today. Some may say that in a sense many villages still occupied are “lost” or deserted in winter because of their high proportion of second homes owned by affluent townies who have priced local people out of their local housing. The present generation has therefore been forced out in search of employment and an affordable home.

There is no question of second home ownership causing the decline of those villages lost before the 20th century, but rather the other factors already mentioned. We tend to think of villages as collections of houses, farms, a few shops or pubs clustered around a church, green or pond. But following complete dereliction the buildings will progressively fall into ruin. If the buildings were mostly of brick or stone they would understandably persist for many decades, even in the erosive British climate. But the housing stock in medieval times was usually of much more perishable materials such as timber, thatch, wattle, daub and cob, which would have vanished completely over four or five centuries, hastened probably by robbing or re-use of the materials.

What would be left once the buildings had disappeared? As over the centuries of its use the streets of a former village would be worn down relative to the surface upon which buildings stood, what then remains is a field of earthworks in very low relief showing home platforms (tofts) usually aligned along one or two streets preserved either as holloways or shallow linear depressions. Crofts or gardens, quarry pits, well-shafts or rubble footings may also be present. Often beyond the settlement earthworks one would see the ridge-and-furrow of the medieval open-field system of arable farming. Of course, we invariably see these features preserved only in fields, which have permanently reverted to pasture and have never been ploughed, since this activity would destroy the earthworks.

The later 14th and 15th centuries in Dorset are noted for villages either abandoned entirely or reduced to a hamlet or single farmstead. For instance Holworth in the parish of Chaldon Herring is one of the few sites to have been excavated. Here, a rectangular field of about 6 acres shows house platforms and a holloway, marking when a row of cottages once stood along the north side of a single street. Behind the tofts can be seen linear strips and boundaries of each property’s garden and field running down to a stream.

In Dorset several instances occurred where a village was moved to another site by a monastic house or a powerful country squire wishing to empark more of his estate. This is what happened to the first Milton Abbas, one of a long string of villages along the Milborne Brook. This village prospered from the estate of the Benedictine Abbey in the 10th century, but between 1770 and 1776 the then squire Lord Milton (Joseph Damer) relocated 100 homes, 3 inns and a school to a new site, so that he would have an un-interrupted view from his new manor house. The old Milton then disappeared beneath a new ornamental lake.

Again, Moor Crichel was moved to a new site in the parish of Witchampton and re-named New Town by Humphrey Sturt when he enlarged the estate of Crichel House, though in New Town only one cob and thatch house remains today. East Lulworth was a thriving coastal community with a castle and deer park in 1770, but by 1790 the village had been relocated half a mile to the east so that the castle estate could be enlarged. Fortunately for posterity, on this occasion the village life before removal was recorded in a painting by Margaret Weld. Kingston Russell declined in the 16th century, though nine cottages survived east of the manor house until the turn of the 18th century. The building of Kington Russell House (16th-17th centuries), arrested the decline until the 19th century, when landscaping removed what remained of the village.

It is noticeable that in their distribution the abandoned villages are most abundant on the chalk lands. For example in the Cerne Valley there are six within two miles of one another. Those so far identified have been named Pulston (A&B); Herriston (A&B); Cowden and Charlton. Even more noteworthy are a group of four in the upper Piddle valley south of Piddlehinton, all but one of these being completely deserted. There are Combe Deverel and North and South Louvard. Another group lies along the upper North Winterborne valley and includes West Philipston, which was deserted in the 15th century, and West Nicholston.

The valley of the Piddle is also notable as the location of Bardolfeston, one of the most familiar deserted villages of Dorset, which lies adjacent to Athelhampton. Bardolfeston was originally a parish in its own right but was finally abandoned in the 16th century after a long decline attributed to the building of Athelhampton House in 1495. The manor and hamlet of Cheselbourne Ford, near Dewlish House, had a population of 6 in Domesday, just 4 in 1327, and no inhabitants at all by the mid 17th century. It is only visable today as a series of closes on the west side of Devil’s Brook.

Knowlton, in the parish of Woodlands is better known for its complex of ancient henges and ruined church, but the village itself, which grew up along the south bank of the River Allen, was long ago deserted. However, nearby is the farmstead Brockington, which impinges on extensive settlement remains covering 10 acres. This area includes the site where Knowlton once stood, and seems to indicate that the two were once almost united.

In the north-east parish of Sixpenny Handley was once the village of Minchington, one of two settlements belonging to Shaftesbury Abbey in the reign of Edward II. Its size and extent remain unknown and no part of the site is occupied by a building today. Similarly, Philipston is recorded as being in the parish of Wimborne St. Giles, but does not appear on Isaac Taylor’s map.

Two other places who’s names and buildings only survive today in a single farm are Didlington and Lazerton. Didlington was a hamlet held by the church at Domesday, but by 1743 all that remained were some building foundations, the chapel’s font, and a mill on the Allen. The village had disappeared entirely by 1765, leaving only as Didlington Farm. Lazerton is much better known as an authenticated site between Stourpaine and Iwerne Stepleton. Domesday recorded a population of 30, but the hamlet had almost vanished by the mid 15th century, leaving the name to survive only in Lazerton Farm. Iwerne Stepleton was itself deserted by 1662, leaving only the house with the remains of the parsonage in its grounds. The RCHM placed Cripton as a manor and villa reduced to a small farmhouse on or very near to Came Home Farm, though no remains have been found here.

Winterborne Farrington was a separate parish in the south Winterborne valley. Hutchins wrote that by 1773 Winterborne Farringdon was entirely de-populated. Both Farringdon and Winterborne Came were experiencing decline as early as the 14th century. On the site of Winterborne Farringdon only the east gable of St. Germains Church is still standing amid the earthworks of the village it once served.

Other of Dorset’s Medieval Villages’s, which may be noted are:

Modbury is one of two truly deserted villages in the Bride valley north of Bridport, located across the road between Litton Cheney and Burton Bradstock.

Holworth was a village of Saxon origin found on excavation to have had Romano-British occupation on its site. It was part of the Milton Abbey Estate at Domesday.

West Burton and West Ringstead represent two former settlements in a coastal position. West Burton is first mentioned in a Charter of Bindon Abbey in 1313 but was entirely abandoned between the 14th and 15th centuries. West Ringstead is a 10 acre site showing clear outline traces of a village with some remains of the church on land near Ringstead Bay.

Sturthill lies adjacent to its chapel and has a traceable plan. It was disused and in ruins after the 17th century.

Colber is the only authentic deserted village site north of the chalkland belt. It lay west of the Stour opposite Sturminster Newton. Eight acres in size it was a royal manor at Domesday, but is now only a parcel of empty open ground.

Gatemerston is the only instance so far known of a hamlet being spontaneously evacuated by fire. Its exact location is no longer known, but is thought to lie on the West to East Lulworth road.

St. John Baptist – Parish Church of Bere Regis

Jan 17th, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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If there were one parish church in Dorset which could be said to have had an illustrious and historic pedigree, then St. John Baptist at Bere Regis would rank very high as a worthy contender. As in many other parishes in the county, there has been a church here since Saxon times; but that simple structure now lost in time has become the nucleus of the present building, with fragments buried deeply within the enclosing fabric, a palimpsest for all later additions and elaborations.

The Saxon church, although mainly of timber, may have had some stonework possibly incorporated into the new church later, for there is an odd alignment of the old north transept, to be seen in the most easterly arch of the north arcade. The first stone church is believed to date from about 1050. It was cruciform in plan and some evidence of a north transept exists; though there is no evidence of a south transept. Much of the south wall of the north transept remains; the arch between the nave and the north transept seems to have been modified in the 12th century. The stone corbel to be seen above it once supported a lower nave roof at a time when the tower was higher.

Nothing remains of the original chancel, but an excavation in August 1963 proved its foundations and dimensions. For a purpose not understood the present church was built with its central axis a little north of that of the nave. This left the first chancel’s south wall footing lying a little beyond the present chancel’s south wall, where excavation proved it to be about one foot below ground level.

In the mid-12th century the cruciform church was enlarged by the addition of a south aisle and a three-arch arcade in the nave’s south wall. The south aisle has disappeared through later enlargement, but the arcade remains. The font, originally thought to be Norman, is now considered to be 12th century. The bowl is original, shallow-carved with inter-lacing semi-circular arches bearing floral patterns.

By the 14th century the Turbeville family were Lords of the Manor and are believed responsible for the alterations and additions of this period. This was to extend the nave and both aisles westwards by adding additional arches to the arcades. A new west wall was also built at the end of the nave. It was about this time that the south hagioscope (squint) was added to give a view into the chancel. The squint on the north side is no more than a tunnel-like aperture of unknown date. The Turbervilles used the south aisle for their tomb vault.

The roof loft appears to have been added in about 1485 when the old nave roof was removed, probably to allow the construction of the present ornate and guilded “Twelve Apostle” roof built by Cardinal John Morton, who also inspired much of the rest of the work carried out in the last quarter of the 15th century. (See Archived Articles for a biography of Cardinal Morton.) Six trusses, each with large tie-beams are carried on wall posts and corbel springers, with vertical posts above and cusped and arched braces supporting principal rafters. One of the guilded bosses bears Morton’s seal. The old north transept and tower were retained, and the old narrow north aisle rebuilt to its present width with cinquefoil-headed windows.

It is probable that in either the 13th or 14th centuries the original north transept was heightened to form a tower, and would account for the retention of this part of the building until the west tower was built about 1500. This tower and the Morton Chapel were then added. Work carried out on the north aisle and nave at the end of the previous century must have been completed before 1500, as there is a distinct difference in the style of the work. It is noticeable that in the north aisle and nave clerestory the earlier 15th century windows have cinquefoil and trefoil-headed lights, whereas the windows of the Morton Chapel and associated nave clerestory windows have plain heads. The old west wall of the nave seems to have been re-built or thickened.

The tower, in three stages, was a simple addition. It is faced with chequered ashlar and flints, embattled and pinnacled. The stair turret is on the north-west corner and there are buttresses on each face. By 1552 the tower had 4 bells, increased to 5 in 1609. None of these bells have survived, though some of their metal has been re-cycled in casting the present ones. Simultaneously the old tower at the east end of the north aisle was dismantled. The south porch is thought to have been added early in the 16th century, but as it was mainly re-built in 1875, the origin cannot be stated with certainty; it seems to be later than the widening of the south aisle.

Early in the 16th century the 14th century east window of the south aisle was replaced with a square-headed window with five lights, but this was itself replaced in 1875. As a condition of his will of 1535, John Turbeville appears to have instigated the Turbeville Window – one of the special features of this church – and the altar-tomb memorial beneath it. Some 16th century bench ends still exist.

During the 17th century the church was brought to its full development and all work since has been mainly that of maintenance and repair. It is interesting that during the Reformation the capstone of the altar was disguised as a paving slab in the floor and not re-discovered and restored until 1875. The pulpit, with its six panels of intricate carving also dates from this century, but was removed in 1875 to be re-mounted as panelling in the vestry.

In the 18th century Morton’s roof was repaired and re-painted in its original colours; the east gable and south clerestory walls were re-built. For the latter the former windows were re-used, and the south arcade columns and capitals were repaired with new stone inserts. All the flagstone flooring was lifted and renewed with boards, joists and glazed tiles (during this work it was discovered that the nave and south aisle floors had been raised to the level of the north aisle and chancel.)

The west gallery, box pews, pulpit and vicar’s desk were renewed as part of the Victorian restoration, the new fittings in oak being the work of Harry Hems of Exeter. The font, which had been positioned in the north aisle, was moved to its present position in 1875. But the restoration of that year resulted in the loss of several ancient features, though others came to light as well: the altar stone, squints, first chancel arch, arch stone, carved stone capital of 1200 and four stones now incorporated into the north aisle. The unstable north wall of the chancel was underpinned by a concrete foundation and the upper part of the east window was renewed, as was the entire chancel roof. The whole of the north wall of the north aisle – except for the east bay – was rebuilt. In the south aisle the 15th century square-headed east window was removed and replaced by the present one. The east gable was also re-built and the south aisle roof renewed. The flooring had to be replaced again in 1894 with concrete, due to attack of the wood floor by dry rot.

In September 1901 a fund was established for re-building and renewing the organ and in 1905 an oak screen was erected in place of curtains formerly hanging on the south side of the vestry. This screen was a memorial to George Hibbs, a former chorister, churchwarden and barrel-organist. In 1906 the roof over the south aisle and nave had to be repaired after it was found to be leaking in ten places. More fundraising was started in 1907 towards the provision of an oak reredos behind the altar. By the 1918 war repair work was outstanding, most urgent being the re-tuning and hanging of the bells and renewal of the bell-frame. A new treble bell was added, bringing the peal to six and the tower itself was found to be in need of repairs. The chandelier paraffin lamps, which had previously lit the church, were replaced by electric lighting in 1925.

In 1931 the lead on the north aisle roof was re-laid, and extensive repairs to the tower carried out. By the Second World War Death Watch Beetle had become well established in the nave roof, necessitating repair and preservation treatment. The slates of the chancel roof were re-hung in 1950, and the whole church was re-wired. The chancel choir stalls were removed to the east end of the nave in 1966 to accommodate a larger choir. The tower was cleaned in 1971 and in 1999 the addition of a concealed kitchen unit at the west end of the south aisle and a toilet for the disabled bring the developments at St. John Baptist fully into the 21st century.

Miss Julia Colson of Swanage

Jan 9th, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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She was a kindly, good-hearted lady, a stalwart of the church, confident and not shy in letting her opinions be known. A woman of independent means, Julia Colson knew that with privilege came responsibilities. In his seventy-ninth year Thomas Masters Hardy (1887-1976), the son of a Swanage builder, thought it important to write down his memories of this “grand old lady.” As a boy he had attended classes run by her and she clearly played a part in shaping his life and the lives of many other young men of Swanage.

Her father was the Reverend John Morton Colson who for forty years was the Rector of St. Peter’s, Dorchester. He married Julia Story of Stockton, Durham, at Stockton on the 27th of April 1826. Julia was their first child, baptised at St Mary’s, Piddlehinton on the 21st of March 1830; she had one sibling, a brother, Thomas Morton Colson, who was baptised in the same church on the 10th of May 1833. (See our story Thomas Morton Colson 1833-1908 in the Swanage Category.)

Her grandfather was the Reverend Thomas Morton Colson (1764-1830), he took over the position of Rector of Studland from his father, The Reverend Thomas Colson, following his death in 1784. The middle name of Morton is in remembrance of Jane Morton, the second wife of the Reverend Thomas Colson.

Census records from 1841 to 1861 reveal the family home was at Swanage and subsequent census returns tell us that following the death of her father in 1863 and her mother’s passing two years later she continued to live in the town until her death in the closing month of 1916. Mr Hardy recalls: “she was a great church worker and used to run a Coal Club and Blanket Club for Swanage and Herston.”

In those days Swanage had a fleet of ketch-rigged sailing vessels, taking away stone, bringing back coal and building materials as well as engaging in other coastal work. Julia Colson was the local agent for the Shipwrecked Mariners Society and she is remembered for attending the wreck of the Netto at Peveril Point ledges in 1900 and making all the arrangements for the welfare of the captain and his crew. When Mr William Brown, Coxswain of the Swanage lifeboat, lost his life in a gale during 1895 it was Julia Colson who broke the news to his widow and family and some years later she had to tell Mrs Brown that her youngest son had been drowned when a sailing boat was run down off Swanage by the pleasure steamer Stirling Castle.
 
For well over fifty years Julia Colson ran a class for teenage boys and taught them reading, writing and drawing. Mr Hardy remembers she had text books on trades and encouraged her pupils to take up subjects connected with their trades, such as masonry and building construction. Mr Hardy recalls “there were piles of drawings of church tracery windows, arches, buildings, also ships and boats – mostly etchings these latter – and she could tell you the names of former lads who copied these same drawings. I think every boy who went to the classes copied the particular etching called ‘The Wolf, Brig of War, off Dover, flying signal flags.”

The classes commenced in the autumn and went on until the spring.  The Sunday classes lasted only half-an-hour as Julia Colson knew the lads liked to take a walk along the cliffs. A dinner was held at the end of each year when roast beef, two large veal and ham pies and other treats were served and the best drawing by each lad was exhibited. There was no charge for the classes; Julia Colson provided everything and each Christmas she gave each lad the Parish Church Almanac and also a pair of mittens that she had knitted herself. There were book prizes for the best class attendance. Mr Hardy recorded an occasion when he could not decide which of his drawings he would put forward for the “party.”  He told a chum that he “would toss a coin.“ Miss Colson overheard him and told him in a stern voice “I will have no gambling in this house” and selected the drawing herself.

She kept a library and her students would take out books, returning them on Fridays. She employed a young lad to work in the garden and run errands for her and he would take books to the lighthouse-keepers and bring back the ones lent previously. On a fine summer’s evening she would have ‘her boy’ row her boat to the stone quay where she would board and he would row her around the bay.

Mr Hardy remembers her arriving at church one Sunday and seeing a silk top hat placed on the font – she knocked it off with her umbrella as she sailed down the aisle. On another occasion the parson’s sermon was rather long, so Miss Colson announced she had to get home to her dinner and left the church.
 
Mr Hardy tells us: “If we met Miss Colson outdoors, we had to give her the naval salute and she would promptly return it, but she wore dark blue glasses and looked straight in front. However, she would reprimand a boy if, thinking she did not see him, he did not salute.”

A Miss Bartlett of Wareham was a life-long friend and the two ladies visited each other for their summer holidays. Julia Colson died during the First World War when some of her lads were away in the services but they were well represented by many of her older ‘old boys’ who were present at her funeral.

Pouncy Family at Dorchester

Jan 6th, 2012
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Previously, we have written about the respected Dorchester journalist Harry Pouncy (1870-1925) and John Pouncy (1818-1894) the house painter turned photographic innovator and his son Walter Pouncy (1845-1918), who in his day was Dorchester’s pre-eminent photographer. But the municipal records for Dorchester reveal that in the early 17th century many of the family were an unruly lot. (See our stories: ‘Harry Pouncy – A Great Publicist for the Dorset Scene,’ and ‘John Pouncy’ in the Dorchester Category.)

Frequently on the wrong side of the law they saw themselves as victims of the town authorities. As butchers they leased their premises in the Shambles near St. Peter’s church from The Corporation. They were a couple of rungs up the social ladder and one or two of them were surprisingly well connected. Much of the trouble stemmed from them preferring the old ways; they were at odds with those trying to reform the town but at the same time some of them were Freemen of the town and one of them was appointed the town’s “Viewer of flesh.”

In 1606, after the arrival in Dorchester of the puritan minister the Reverend John White, the townsfolk were persuaded to turn away from their ungodly ways and most saw the Great Fire of 1613 as a sign of God’s displeasure with them all. (See our story ‘The Great Fire of Dorchester,’ in the Dorchester Category.)

While Matthew Chubb, at the time Dorchester’s richest resident, demonstrated his disapproval of the reverend gentleman and his puritan ways by surreptitiously publishing slanders against him and very publicly choosing to walk to Fordington for his Sunday sermon, the Pouncy’s were more hands-on with their objections and frequently clashed with any one representing authority. (See our story ‘Matthew Chubb of Dorchester’ in the Dorchester Category.)

At a ceremony at Dorchester’s Holy Trinity Church on the 16th of June 1570 John Pouncy married Margaret Haggard uniting two of the town’s families of butchers. We don’t know a lot about the couple other than that they had a large family and at least two sons,  of whom Thomas and Roger, survived. In the accounts for the borough for 1585 there is an entry: “Paid to Hunte, the Surgion, for healinge of Pouncye.”

The name of Thomas Pouncy appears in the borough records. He was in trouble on one occasion for missing church and he also had a couple of drinking offences listed against him. Yet he was a saint when compared to his son and some other family members; he was considered respectable enough to sit on juries.

Roger Pouncy was a Sheriff’s bailiff for the gentry as well as being a butcher and he was a member of Matthew Chubb’s circle. Chubb left RogerPouncy a small bequest. Roger was to become the most prosperous of the Pouncy’s and has been described elsewhere as the “Godfather to the unruly and unregenerate of Dorchester,” perhaps, a reference to the fact the he often gave bond or stood surety for family and others who found themselves in trouble. Roger Pouncy like Matthew Chubb preferred the old ways and disliked the reforming tendency of the town authorities. In his old-age he was an angry and embittered man.

Thomas’ son, also named Thomas, was a thug and regularly in trouble with the authorities. The records tell of how he threatened to kill a man and then threw his meat cleaver at him. There is a report of him threatening a maid at an ale house, beating-up a man from Martinstown, breaking a bull-keeper’s head with a cudgel at a bull baiting session and he was frequently accused of abusing the constables, sergeants and anyone in authority. He had little respect for his own family: in 1633 he was bound over following attacks on his mother-in-law and when in 1637 he was charged with attempting to stab a neighbour the records reveal that his wife had run away and left their children on the church steps. 
Thomas and Rogers son’s came to the attention of the authorities in 1632 as we can see from an entry for June 1st:  “1632, June I. ” William Douche, servant to Mathew Bonger of this Borough, Henry Pouncey and William Pouncey, Sonne Nathaniell, Giles Morey yonger, Rychard Stone the glouer’s Sonne, Edward Meller sonne of Wm. Meller. Wm. Douch confeseth that all these boyes and John Green’s sonne met together vpon Sabbath day last at Burton in farmer Monday’s ground, and played at Nine Holes for money, a farthing a game. Wm. Douch confesseth he lost one farthing and Wm. Perry, Htimfrey Perry’s sonne, lost a penny in that company. This was doen about 4 of the clock at afternoone, and not one of them were at ther parish church at prayer at afternoone that day, nor at any other church. These all being greate boyes, yt is ordered they shall find good sureties to play no more at vnlawfull games, and shall pay xzd. A peice for absens from church at that time.”

A few months later William Pouncy, the son of Roger Pouncy, was put in the stocks for a similar offence: “1632-3, March 9. Wm. Pouncy, son of Roger Pouncey, senr., confesseth that he and other young men ” in two severall companies thr they plad Five Holes, some other Nine Holes,”at the time of Evening Prayers and sermon. Wm. Pouncey committed to the stocks.”

An entry in the town records for 1633 suggests the Pouncy womenfolk behaved little better than their husbands: “1633, June 28. ” It is now ordered that Christian Jenkens, Susan Lyeigh wife of John lyeigh, Charitie Robenson, and Thampson Pouncey wife of Thomas Pouncey the elder, shalbe plounced or duckt three severall times vnder the water for common Scolds presented at the last Iyawe day, and a warrant granted to the constables to that purpose the same day.”

There is an entry in the records for March 26th 1636: “Thomasyn, wife of Thomas Powncy” saith that a little before Easter last Roberte Powncy, sonne of Roger Powncy of the Borough aforesaid, being in his father’s howse in the same Borough, and there being some speeches vsed that the said Roberte Powncy was to goe to Mr. White, the minister, to be examined before he came to the Sacrament, he, the said Roberte Powncy, said he would not go to the said Mr. White, he would see his . . . . on fire in or at the pulpit first.”

Another of Thomas’s sons, Henry, found himself before the courts on a charge of incest with his younger sister Grace. It seems the two youngsters shared a bed, probably as a result of overcrowding and the girl complained about her brother’s unwanted attentions. The boy found himself in the workhouse because he was “Masterless and living in a lewd and uncivil manner.”

Another of Roger Pouncy’s sons, also named Roger was a little less rowdy than his cousin, Thomas. Nevertheless, he would frequently clash with the authorities, often as a result of his duties as a Sheriff’s bailiff acting for the country gentry. It seems he was foulmouthed and he was charged for uttering 24 oaths during one argument with the authorities. He would use violent language to denounce the town’s officers and when that did not work he would think little of assaulting them.

Like Matthew Chubb and most of the country gentry the Pouncy’s were set against the Reverend White and his puritan ways but they were fighting a loosing battle. Come the Civil War Dorchester was for Parliament and The Corporation provided a list of Royalist sympathisers in the town; the list was kept in London and the Pouncy family was on it. On the Restoration one member of the family was granted a pension for services to the King.

Later in the 17th century the Pouncy’s were still making trouble and two of them were arrested but escaped. In 1699 there were complaints about eight unlicensed ale-houses in the town and again the family was involved.
 
In the 18th century the name of Harry Pouncy appears on a list of school masters at Trinity School  and then there was Robert Pouncy born 1756 (possibly the son of the schoolmaster) who was a Captain in the British East India Company, and in 1813 the name of Thomas Pouncy is included in a list of Dorchester’s freeholders. It seems respectability evolves.