Excerpt from Balch Genealogica In 1845, my father, Mr. Thomas Balch, soon after his admission to the New York Bar, began to collect the information contained in this book. He never ceased in this aim until his death in 1877. After graduating at Harvard, I took up the work as he had left it and slowly added to the material in hand. In searching for facts, I often was misled into exploring a false trail. Gradually, the evi dence sifted down to rock-bottom. I have taken the utmost care to verify all statements, and yet there are certam errors in this work, for in a genealogy covering a period of more than four centuries, it is impossible to avoid them. In 1886 and 1897 I visited in Somersetshire, Bridgwater, and in 1897 Ilminster and Horton, collecting on both trips valuable information; The documents in the archives in England I have had copied by competent experts, but I could not compare them with the originals. They are here reprinted in extenso. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.