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MYRFYLD (MEIRFELD, MERRIFIELD), Richard.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
?m. Alice Young, 1s.
Offices Held
Biography
The Merrifields of Crewkerne were minor country gentlemen who may have taken their name from Merrifield near Ilton, Somerset. Early in the 16th century the wills of members of the family describe them as yeomen, but the lists of Members for the Parliament of 1558 style Richard Myrfyld ‘generosus’; on the indenture no style is given.
Information about Myrfyld or Merrifield is almost entirely lacking. A Richard Myrfyld appears in one of the heraldic visitations with a brother Robert who is there described as ‘canon of Christchurch, Dorset’: if, as is likely, this is Christchurch, Hampshire, the canon must have been known to John White, bishop of Winchester and lord of Taunton. This Richard Myrfyld’s son and namesake was living at Crewkerne, Somerset, in 1591.
Harl. 1559, f.114; Som. Med. Wills (Som. Rec. Soc. xix), 158, 166, 225; Vis. Som. (Harl. Soc. xi), 74; C193/32/2; C219/25/97; Wm. Salt Lib. SMS 264.