Notable Former and Current Residents
Yeovil has been the home or birthplace to several notable people. Robert Harbin who was born in 1526, was a mercer by profession, who lived and died in Yeovil. He is buried in St. John the Baptist Church. His house, located at the edge of town and named Newton Surmaville, was completed in 1612. Harbin was granted his coat of arms in May 1612 and given the title "Gentleman". He was not knighted. Stukeley Westcott was an early American (17th century) settler. and the co-founder, with Roger Williams and 11 others, of Providence, Rhode Island (1636), an early American religious freedom asylum.
Michael T. Davies, a traditionalist Catholic writer and public figure was born in Yeovil in 1936, while the film historian William K. Everson was born in the town in 1929.
Sports people from the town include: James Lees, an aquatic equestrian, Martin Cranie a Coventry Football Club defender, and Sam Weale who is an Olympic Pentathlete and his twin brother Chris is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Shrewsbury Town, having previously played for hometown club Yeovil Town. The cricketer Ian Botham was born in Yeovil. Heather Stanning, a rower who won a gold medal in the 2012 Olympic Games was born in Yeovil.
The arts are represented by Jim Cregan, a guitarist with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, the musician John Parish, and his younger sister the actress Sarah Parish.
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Famous quotes containing the words notable, current and/or residents:
“a notable prince that was called King John;
And he ruled England with main and with might,
For he did great wrong, and maintained little right.”
—Unknown. King John and the Abbot of Canterbury (l. 2–4)
“Gradually the village murmur subsided, and we seemed to be embarked on the placid current of our dreams, floating from past to future as silently as one awakes to fresh morning or evening thoughts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)