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Is it possible that the church warden meant she could find no gravestone of Jasper HANCOCK rather than no burial? Just wondered....

Thank you Pat/Paul for all the useful information you have unearthed for me. It's actually my grandfather, Edward James (Jim) Tilley, and his brothers who went to Brynmelyn School. His letter (I've attached the first page) mentions a visit to Wembley and he describes the British Empire Exhibition of 1924. I also took a look at the website of  Kassam Janmohamed and he has a great school photo from 1923, too fuzzy to make out the faces but I've asked for a better scanned image.

We looked at the folder of information about Brynmelyn School in Weston Library this afternoon and found it very interesting.  The school was opened as "Brynmelyn" on the 9th September 1881 with Francis A KNIGHT and John LAWRENCE as Principals.  It opened after the demise of  a school called "Woodside" in Weston which had strong links with the Friends' School at Sidcot, but had recently closed.  The partnership was dissolved in 1883 and Francis KNIGHT continued alone as Headmaster

When Brynmelyn opened it had 8 boarders and 5 day-scholars and at its largest had 43 pupils.  They continued the connection with Sidcot. 

An advertisement in a newspaper of 1885 describes it as:

      EDUCATION AT THE SEASIDE.

      BRYNMELYN, WESTON-SUPER-MARE.

      FOR THE SONS OF GENTLEMEN.

The School occupies a fine healthy position on the south slope of Weston Hill. In addition to the usual subjects, instruction is given in Science and Natural History. Lessons are given in the Laboratory and Workshop. Good playground and cricket field ; sea bathing twice a week ; the bath used in winter is covered and warmed. Individual attention as regards the training and health of the Boys is a marked feature of this Establishment, Reference kindly permitted to Dr. Roxburgh, Weston- super-Mare; and Thomas Taynton, Esq., Wotton Hill House, Gloucester. For prospectus and terms apply the Principal, F, A. Knight.

Francis KNIGHT wrote a brief history of the school in 1900 when it had been going for 21 years - he includes detail about Woodside School - And finishes with this:

"Brynmelyn finds its children scattered in every corner of the world; Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the States, Rhodesia, Cape Colony, West Coast of Africa, the Straits Settlements, Siam, Burma, Turkey and China. A strong contingent of them have been fighting for Queen and Country in the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony"

Henry E LANDON became the Headmaster of Brynmelyn at sometime between 1891and 1901 and continued as Head until his death in  Dec 1923.  The file contains a photograph of the pupils dated 1909

No names on this one but there are others of past pupils especially several  of Harry WELCHMAN  (1886-1966) who was a successful musical star of theatre and film in the early 20th century and for a time lived in Congresbury

Does your father's letter say anything about the school?

In your original enquiry you stated that Jasper HANCOCK had died in Feb 1810.  There is an abstract from a will in  the National Archives of a Jasper HANCOCK who died in Brean in 1810 - presumably you have seen this and can confirm that this is the Jasper who married Ann PETHERAM in 1750.  The records of burials at Lympsham to which Graham refers do state that the Jasper HANCOCK who was buried there in Feb 1810 was from Brean.

From our transcriptions I can see that Jasper, son of Jasper and Ann, was christened in 1758 and from the Burial Records of Lympsham a Jasper HANCOCK was buried in Lympsham in 1832, aged 74 which fits the birth date of the son.  This is why I was saying that to take a look at the transcriptions yourself would be helpful.  You know your family and would be able to sort out the various links.

Our trancriptions are taken from a photograph (Film) of the official church records which would have been originally held by the church but are now in the Somerset Heritage Centre in Taunton.