The architectural antiquities of the city of Wells by John Henry Parker, 1866:

William Gascoigne, Esq., of Bridgwater, who was elected one of the representatives in parliament for that town in 1413, and whose son, "William Gascoigne, lived in Wells, and represented the city in parliament, having been chosen to fill that office in 1447. In 1417, William Gascoigne the elder purchased one-third of the manor of Newton Placey, in the parish of North Petherton, near Bridgwater, of John de Garton, a descendant of Emma, one of the three sisters and co-heiresses of Sir Richard de Placetis, from whose family the name of the manor, Placey, or Placetis, was derived. William Gascoigne, the son, married Johane, daughter of Robert Bavent, and widow of Humphrey Scovell, lord of the manor of Brockley, Somerset, and by whom she had three daughters, her co-heiresses. Elizabeth, the third daughter, married Sir Nicholas Harvey, whose son and heir, Humphrey Harvey, was elected member of parliament for "Wells in 1482, and 1488. He was a man of great wealth and importance, having married Agnes, daughter of John Attewater, Esq., of Wells, whose extensive estates in Wells and other parts of Somersetshire he thus acquired. As a proof of the local influence of this John Attewater, it may be mentioned that he was M.P. for Wells 23 Edward IV. and 1 Richard II., and Mayor of the city no less than ten times between the years 1453 and 1485.