Nine generations have sprung from yeoman Anthony Merewether of Sedgehill.² This place is not a village or a hamlet but is more a district notable for its pools and streams, probably giving rise to its name, descriptive of a hill where sedge grows. This is reflected in some of the local place-names such as Berrybrook, Wellgrove Lane, and Whitemarsh Farm which is on some of the highest ground in the parish.

Anthony married before 1706, perhaps in the previous year when there were election riots in Salisbury, but we know only his bride's Christian name, Sarah.³ Perhaps he was the same Anthony who in 1715 was a Churchwarden at Sedgehill and may also have been the one who signed his name to a Terrier⁴ on 24 March 1733. Fortunately, he made a Will [signed in a very shaky hand], which was proved in the Archdeacon of Sarum's Court 20 July 1739.

In the name of God amen.
I Anthony Merewether of Sedgehill in the County of Wilts Yeoman doe make and ordaine this my last Will and Testament.
Item I give and bequeath unto my daughter Elizabeth the wife of John King of Sedgehill one shilling.⁵
Item I give unto my daughter Sarah the wife of Thomas Jupe of Cuclington in the County of Somerset the sume of one shilling.
Item I give unto my daughter Ebenezar Merewether the sume of one shilling.
Item I give unto my son Anthony Merewether the sume of one shilling.
Item I give unto my daughter Ann Merewether the sume of one shilling.
All the rest of my goods and chattles whatsoever or wheresoever to bee found I give and bequeath joyntly and altogether unto my wife Sarah Merewether my son John Merewether and my son Andrew Merewether whom I make my whole executors and doe desire they would doe their endevour to breed up my younger children who are not yet provided for and lett them have their share of my substance as they doe come of age.
Anthony Merewether.
Signed sealed publiced and declared in the presence of
Edward Frowd, [and] the marke of Elizabeth Hooper August 15th 1738.

Anthony was fortunate not to live to experience the very severe winter of 1740 the year in which the diarist Parson James Woodforde was born and who had later noted that the snows had held fast for 13 weeks.⁶ It is likely that Anthony laid the foundations of the family's later prosperity during times of rising fortunes in Georgian England when experiments with crops and different forms of husbandry were to play their parts in improving national wealth. There is no record of his burial, but his wife Sarah lived on until at least 1758 when their son John remembered her in his Will. At this time there were several other Merryweather families living around Sedgehill but it is impossible to untangle families where the only record is a name in the parish register. For example of the two Sarah Merryweathers buried in Sedgehill churchyard 23 July 1764 and 3 February 1765, it is impossible to determine which was Anthony's widow.

The couple had eight known children and as both John and Andrew were made executors of their father's Will they must have been over 21 on the day in 1738 when it was drawn up, but little is known about any of these offspring other than the heir John. However, a late surprise discovery found seven Merryweather children baptised as 'adults of Sedgehill' all at nearby Berwick St. Leonard and because their Christian names match – and include Ebenezer - there is little doubt that, for some unexplained reason, these late, adult baptisms are indeed the children of Anthony and Sarah. It is suspected that they were all former Methodists.

John Merewether was born ca.1707, baptised as an adult at Berwick St. Leonard 6 October 1737 and died in 1758 (see Chapter 3).

Andrew Merewether seems to have been the next eldest after John. Baptised at Berwick St. Leonard 26 November 1737 he may have been the Andrew buried at Sedgehill 24 March 1782.

Anthony Merewether baptised at Berwick St. Leonard 19 May 1740, one of the executors of his father's Will was alive in 1758 when his elder brother John made his Will. In it, he was appointed a trustee of Deane's Farm on behalf of John's heir also named John, and was left £10 for his trouble. Anthony was also charged with the duty of assisting the widow, 'in and about the farm to save her from unfair dealings,' so presumably he was a farmer. We do not know when he died, but he comes to notice again in an Administration Bond sworn on 2 December 1818.⁷ It was entered into by Matthew and Charles Davies, Gents and William Butt, confectioner, all of Warminster, Wiltshire who were bound in the sum of £30 to the Archdeacon of Sarum now that Anthony was dead (see Chapter 3).

Elizabeth Merewether was baptised at Berwick St. Leonard 6 October 1737. Later there that day she married John King of Sedgehill. Their only known issue is John, alive in 1738.

Sarah Merewether was baptised at Berwick St. Leonard 26 November 1737 and was married there on the 18 April 1738 to Thomas Jupe of Mere (later of Cucklington in Somerset).

Ebenezar Merewether, as Anthony's Will makes clear, was a girl. She was baptised 26 November 1737 at Berwick St. Leonard and buried at Sedgehill 2 January 1765, unmarried.

Ann Merewether, baptised 19 May 1740 at Berwick St. Leonard may have been the Ann buried at Sedgehill 20 August 1742.

Mary Merewether is not included in the Berwick baptisms and is otherwise another name with no accompanying facts. The probability is that she was the Mary buried 1 December 1766 at Sedgehill.

¹ The Vicar of Wakefield.
² Yeomen were usually freeholders farming their own land worth 40/- [£2.00] or more a year. They were entitled to vote for Shire representatives and serve on juries.
³ This marriage may never be traced as parish records are missing.
⁴ A register of civil or ecclesiastical lands described by their site, boundaries and acreage. A tablet 1765[?] over the church porch records that John Merryweather was Churchwarden and William Fricker Overseer.
⁵ 'Cut him off with a shilling' has more than one interpretation. It recognised that a person had been provided for in the lifetime of the testator. Wills were challengeable if e.g. children were omitted, sometimes on the grounds that the testator was perhaps of failing memory and therefore could have been of unsound mind.
⁶ J Beresford, Ed. The Diary of a Country Parson 1758-1802. OUP 1987. This most delightful and charitable of men was writing of an area about 10 miles to the west of Sedgehill. There can be no better introduction to the more tranquil and timeless aspects of 18th century English village life than that enshrined in the peace which breathes from the Parson's pen.
⁷ Archdeacon of Sarum Wills 1800-1858. No.121.