MYRFYLD (MEIRFELD, MERRIFIELD), Richard.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
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.

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Authors: Roger Virgoe / N. M. Fuidge

Notes