In the third generation from the above grant this Manor passed with an heiress into the hands of William de Placetis. A generation later it was divided between three co-heiresses, Sabina, Evelina, and Emma. Then arose a question about the office of Forester, and it was found that it appertained to a particular messuage and meadow, and that these were included within the portion of Sabina, so she was declared Forester in fee of the forests of Exmoor, Neroche, Selwood, and Mendip, likewise custodian of the warren of Somerton; and these offices she discharged by deputy. In her time (26 Edw. I) occurred the Perambulation of the forests of the county, in pursuance of the Charter of the Forests which had been granted by Henry III. The forests were to be reduced to their ancient and lawful bounds, according to their limits at the accession of Henry I. The annual value of the lands then disafforested was more than a hundred times as great as that of the legal forest of North Petherton. In the time of Edward III the Manor of Newton with its rights and appurtenances belonged to Roger, earl of Mortimer, in whose descendants and in the dukes of York it continued to the time of Edward IV, when it came to the Crown, and then the Manor was quoted as Newton Regis. During this period the powers of Forester were delegated, and some interesting names occur in the list of deputies: 14 Ric. II. Richard Brettle and Gefferey Chaucer, esqrs., by the appointment of the earl of March. 21 Ric. II. Gefferey Chaucer, by Alienor, countess of March. 4 Hen. V. Thomas Chaucer, by Edward, earl of March. 8 Hen. VI. William Wrothe and Thomas Attemore. 12 Hen. VI. William Wrothe. 29 Hen. VI. Sir William Bonville and Richard Luttrell, by the duke of York. 14 Edw. IV. Sir Giles D’Aubeny, for life. 23 Hen. VII. Robert Wrothe, for thirty years. Soon after the expiration of which term Sir Thomas Wrothe, son and heir of the last-named Robert, purchased of Edward VI the fee of Petherton Park and the Manor of Newton Regis. The office of Forester had now fallen into decay and the ancient glory had departed, and the transfer of this property appears to have been governed by the ordinary considerations. In the time of Queen Elizabeth the descendants of Sir Thomas pulled down the park house, and carried the materials to a lodge called the Broad Lodge, which (said Collinson in 1791) ‘the late Sir Thomas Wrothe improved to a handsome dwelling. The whole park[47] is now converted into farms.’ The improvements of Sir Thomas Wrothe, here mentioned, have a probable connexion with our subject.