by Francis Montagu

On 28th October Wrington celebrates the 300th anniversary of the death of a man whose writings had a crucial influence on one of the most important legal documents of all time, the Declaration of Independence of the USA and whose portrait hangs in the house of the founder of that constitution, Thomas Jefferson, in Monticello, Virginia.

John Locke was born in a cottage in Wrington on 24th July 1632. His father, also called John, was a solicitor’s clerk in Pensford and his mother Agnes Keene, came from Wrington. The cottage, the site of which is within the churchyard of All Saints’ Parish Church, has since been demolished but a commemorative stone marks the spot.

His Essay on Human Understanding and his Treatises of Government have an abiding influence to this day. He argued for political and religious toleration, against the divine right of kings, for government to derive from and be responsible to the people, for there to be a “social contract ” between the rulers and the ruled.

But he lived in intolerant times. As a pupil at Westminster School in 1649 he spent the day of Charles I’s execution arguing its rights and wrongs with a fellow pupil, the poet John Dryden.

Another legal personality of his time, Judge Jeffreys, is also associated with Wrington - but less happily. The site of hangman’s tree in the village marks the spot where Jeffreys is said to have had 3 men hanged after the battle of Sedgemoor in 1685.

What connections might the Locke family have had with Wrington and indeed with this firm? One of the documents in our possession is a terrier, or landholding register of Wrington Manor in 1739, made for the Earl of Bath. The names of Thomas Lock and Sam Lock appear as tenants under a lease dated September 1719 of a house and garden adjoining the Golden Lion public house, which is still “going strong” today. They may well have been relations of John’s family, as spellings were not exact in those days. Possibly too they were clients of our firm’s predecessors, through whom the terrier - and many other records - have come down to ourselves.

Due to his influence on Jefferson, John Locke may well be better known in America than in England. At Bennetts we have established our own practice in America through one of our partners Kevin Burke who is qualified as an English solicitor and as a US attorney in the states of Florida and Ohio. This is a connection which gives the anniversary of John Locke a particular significance for us.

Francis Montagu
Bennetts 14 9 2004
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Other documentation we were able to exhibit, thanks to Joyce Smith, included Locke's report of his ill-fated investigation of the mines of Mendip for Robert Boyle. [see next page]