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Coker, East (St. Michael)

COKER, EAST (St. Michael), a parish, in the union of Yeovil, hundred of Houndsborough, Barwick, and Coker, W. division of Somerset, 3 miles (S. W. by W.) from Yeovil; containing, with the hamlet of North Coker, 1334 inhabitants, and comprising by measurement 2081 acres. Nearly one-half of the population is employed in the manufacture of sail-cloth, which is carried on to a great extent; and limestone, and stone for building and for the roads, are quarried. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £12. 6. 3.; patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; impropriator, W. Helyar, Esq., as lessee under the Dean and Chapter. The rectorial tithes have been commuted for £335, and the vicarial for £267. 10.; the glebe comprises 7 acres, with a glebe-house. The church is a neat cruciform edifice, with a central tower. There is a place of worship for Baptists. The foundations of a Roman building were discovered in a field in 1753; one of the rooms had a beautiful pavement representing persons lying on a couch, beneath which were found a hypocaust, several coffins, burnt bones, &c. There are remains of a religious house, called Nash Abbey, in the parish, supposed to have been an appendage to that of Montacute. Dampier, the celebrated circumnavigator, was born here in 1652.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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