A third instance is taken from the Court roll of the manor of Chedzoy, near Bridgwater. The plague had made its appearance at Bridgwater, as before related, some time previous to November 21, 1348. It was to be expected, therefore, that the rolls of a manor only three miles off would show some sign of the mortality among the tenants about the same period. As a matter of fact a glance through the parchment record of a court held on St. Katherine's day, November 25, 1348, shows that it had made its appearance some time between September 29th and November 25th. On this latter day some few of the tenants of the manor are noted as dead, and three or four fairly large holdings have also fallen into the hands of the lord of the manor, no heirs being forthcoming. Amongst others, one William Hammond, who had rented and worked a water-mill, at a place called _le Slap_, had been carried off by the sickness. The house, it is noted, had since, up to the date of the court, stood vacant. The mill wheel no longer spun round at its work, for William Hammond, the miller, had left no one to succeed him in his occupation. But this was only a beginning. The next court was held on Thursday after the Epiphany, January 8th, 1349. What a terrible Christmas time it must have been for those Somerset villagers on the low-lying ground about Bridgwater, flooded and sodden by the long months of incessant rain! At least twenty more tenants are marked off upon [p169] the roll as dead, and as in this case the actual days of their deaths are given, it is clear the plague claimed many victims in this neighbourhood about the close of December, 1348. Between this and March 23, 1349, the sickness was at its worst in this manor of Chedzoy. The record of the proceedings at the court, held on "Monday after the feast of St. Benedict," 1349, occupies two long skins of parchment closely written on both sides. Some 50 or 60 fines are paid by new tenants on their taking possession of the lands and houses, which had belonged to others now dead and gone. Again, who can tell how many had perished in each house? One thing is absolutely clear. In this single Somerset village many homes had been left vacant without a solitary inhabitant; many were taken over by new tenants not connected with the old occupier; and in more than one instance people came forward to act as guardians to young children who had apparently been left alone in the world by the death of every near relative. Take an instance. At this court one John Cran, who, by the way, took up the house and lands formerly held by his father, who is said to have died, also agreed with the officer of the court to take charge of William, the son of Nicholas atte Slope, for the said Nicholas, and apparently every other near relative of the boy William had perished in the sickness.