eer: ft eee l ee
a a * - Pain TNO ey i fig Ne et, Se
ore. hw" J ahaa ct = ell, Ee, ell ee ee i» Pa tags ae Soe og Op
pu The ee,
te anneal ery,
my MH tein’
ee eae
~ rete te)
THE
WILTSHIRE Archeological aut Batural Arstory MAGAZINE,
Published unver the Birection of the Society
FORMED IN THAT COUNTY, A.D. 1853.
VOL. XXIV.
DEVIZES : H. F. Bout, 4, Saint Joun Srreer.
1889.
Tur Enitor of the Wiltshire Magazine desires that it should be distinctly understood that neither he nor the Committee of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society hold themselves in any way answerable for any statements or opinions expressed in the Magazine; for all of which the Authors of the several papers and communications are alone responsible.
No LXXI. JULY, 1889. Vou. XXIV.
THE
WILTSHIRE Arebwologival ont Matural Bistory
MAGAZINE,
Published unver the Direction
OF THE SOCIETY FORMED IN THAT COUNTY, eet AD, (1968.
DEVIZES: PRINTED AND SOLD FOR THE Society By H. F Butt, Sarnt Joun STREET,
Price 5s. 6d.— Members Gratis.
he AE
DEF Ne Aan tne SNES SSA AN aE MEG ARR NOTICE TO MEMBERS. __
"#
ot eae ys Tae Members who have not paid their Subscriptions to the Society for
the current year, are requested to remit the same forthwith to the Financial Secrétary, Mr. Davin Owen, 31, Long Street, Devizes, to whom also all communications as to the supply of Magazines should be addressed, and of whom most of the back Numbers may be had.
The Numbers of this Magazine will be delivered gratis, as issued, to Members who are not in arrear of their Annual Subserip- tions, but in accordance with Byelaw No. 8 “ The Financial Secretary shall give notice to Members in arrear, and the Society’s publications will not be forwarded to Members whose subscriptions shall remain unpaid after such notice.”
All other communications to be addressed to the Honorary Seere- taries: the Rev. A. C. Smrra, Old Park, Devizes; and H. E. Mepzicorr, Esq., Sandfield, Potterne, Devizes.
The Rev. A. O. Smirx will be much obliged to observers of birds in all parts of the county, to forward to him notices of rare oocurrences, early arrivals of migrants, or any remarkable facts connected with birds, which may come under their notice.
a ———————————————————————————————————————————— Just Published, by the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society, One Volume, 8vo, 504 pp., with map, Extra Cloth.
The Flowering Plants of Wiltshire.
BY THE REV. T. A. PRESTON, M.A.,
Price to the Public, 16s.; but sent gratis to every Member of the Society.
Lately Published, One Volume, 8vo., 613 pp., Extra Cloth.
The Birds of Wiltshire. BY THE REV. A. C. SMITH, M.A. Price 16s. Half-price to Members of the Society.
SECOND EDITION OF
The British and Roman Antiquities of
the North Whltshire Downs.
BY THE REV. A. C. SMITH, M.A. One Volume, Atlas 4to, 248 pp., 17 large Maps, and 110 Woodeuts, Extra Cloth. Price £2 2s.
Wilishire— Lhe Lopographical Collections
of Fohn Aubrey, F_R.S., A.D. 165G—70.
CORRECTED AND ENLARGED
BY THE REV. CANON J. E. JACKSON, M.A., F.S.A.
In 4to, Cloth, pp. 491, with 46 Plates. Price £2 10s, :
—
a se es
THE
WILTSHIRE
Archeological and Batural Wistory
MAGAZINE,
No. LXXI. JULY, 1889. Vout. XXIV.
Contents,
Account oF THE THIRTY-FIFTH GENERAL MEETING, AT CALNE... NovrEs ON THE CHURCHES VISITED BY THE Society 1n Avatst, 1888: See ee PEO ER EEE) Ae 4 dxadutnai quia canseccucsscssecacsavveudnaceces “ere Caine: By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.......sscssescseeeseceereee On THE SEALs oF THE BisHors oF Satispury (Opening Address of the Antiquarian Section at the Annual Meeting of tne Institute at Salisbury) : By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Salisbury ............ aa “Tom Moorr”: By the Rev. W. H. Hitchcock...........csscsesseccsseenves DONATIONS TO MUSEUM AND LIBRARY....scsscsccscnsecscsccsresccensssesees
ILLUSTRATIONS. Seals of the Bishops of Salisbury, Plate I. ....... ehoas 224 ” ” ” Plata UD is acces ees 230 » ” pet) db later Mle. se ccscucs 239 DEVIZES :
H. F. Buut, 4, Saint Joun Sreesr.
——-
UTTER tok Fee 7 CRE TOV
ee e3n710D | if or “ee is
ama. TA omic lf rianad . , q-
2988! rave3A 21 Tra1008 get ru canis eon OHO cms zo aaroy
erent ee
dekeasy squeal 73s) <aaied~ a 1 ,acastale Math am) 09h nd) yl 5 yeh. eethbA gurisayO) veiw ene Teak et Sg otuiiecl! oof too airs laweAgs f
Sepusiavarys “ag vids il Nace a
nae Pelavesei ees eneceeatbess srs ert shenpiser, oy am,
a : ray oes j 5 a Bost cl sata viel pide WS eqoilist add Yo “inn oes ashevwpenaes EF atl +] cs 3 es n
Ob... TTD otal eee
WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE.
“ MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUE ONUS.’—Ovid.
THE THIRTY-FIFTH GENERAL MEETING
OF THE
Wiltshire Archeological and Natural Mistory Society,’ HELD AT CALNE, August Tth, 8th, and 9th, 1888, THE PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY,
Tue Riegut Rev. Tue Lorp BisHop oF SALISBURY,
IN THE CHAIR,
fXASROM various causes this was the first occasion on which the Society held its Annual Meeting at Calne, several previous intentions of doing so having from one cause and another miscarried. The attractions, however, of the neighbourhood are very great, and embrace some of the grandest monuments of antiquity in Wiltshire: the weather was all that could be desired. No wonder, then, that the Meeting was well attended throughout, and was completely successful.
The General Meeting for receiving the Report and transacting the business of the Society was fixed for 3 o’clock, at the Town Hall, but as the arrival of the Right Rev. President had been un- fortunately delayed, and there was much work to be done, on the motion of the Rev. A. C. Suir, Tar Ven. AncHDEACON BucHANAN
Y
a ee
1 The Editor desires to acknowledge the great assistance he has derived, in preparing the account of this Meeting, from the columns of the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, and the Devizes and Wilts Advertiser.
VOL. XXIV.—NO, LXXI, k
182 The Thirty-Fifth General Meeting.
took the chair, and opened the proceedings by calling on one of the General Secretaries to read
THE REPORT, ¢
which the Rev. A. C. Smirx read as follows:—
“The Committee has once more the pleasure of recording the general progress of the Society, the number of names now on the books amounting to three hundred and sixty-three, being an increase of thirteen since this time last year. We have, at the same time, to deplore the death of no less than nine of our number, and amongst them are two of our original Members, viz., Mr. Leach, of Devizes Castle, who on more than one occasion hospitably received the Society therein, and our highly valued and deeply lamented Curator, Mr. Henry Cunnington, to whose unwearied exertions, and those of many members of his family, we are altogether indebted for the excellent condition of our Museum, and who was always most indefatigable in promoting the objects of our Society by every means in his power. This, indeed, is a loss for the Society, the extent of which we have not yet realised, and we feel that for perseverance and energy, com- bined with archeological knowledge and skill, our late Curator was one whom we cannot replace, and all those who have worked with him on the Committee still miss, and shall long continue to miss, the active part he took in the working of the Society. In addition to these original Members we should also specially mention the loss of Mr. Robert Clark, of Devizes, who for more than twenty years was one of the most regular attendants on the Committee; also the Rev. E. L. Barnwell, of Melksham House, who was a very great authority on archzological subjects, and up to the time of his death and for many years previously was also a Member of our Committee ; and again, Mr. Alfred Seymour, of Knoyle, some time Member for Salisbury, and whose hospitable entertainment of the Society during the Shaftesbury Meeting in 1884 will be in the recollection of all who attended that Meeting. We would also mention with regret the loss of Mr. S. B. Merriman, of London; Sir William Guise, of Elmore Court, Gloucester ; and Mrs. Whinfield, of Woodleigh, Bradford-on-Avon,
aa
CONTENTS OF VOL, XXIV.
No. LXX.
Account of the Thirty-Fourth General Meeting, at Salisbury.....cssssecves Opening Address to the Section of Architecture at the Salisbury Meeting : By the Rev. PRECENTOR VENABLES,.....sccsssescsecscseseseavessncnseseuees The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire (Continued): By Mz. ARTHUR SPER DNU ETC ieere pf ieee tae ae neniceeeaseincaeene=sbaiesrsdeecnsenssvssssinne dee stecns The Wiltshire Compounders (Continued) : Communicated i; Mr. J AMES PNPRNGEEON Scanian tcntivand sant iatencagnaTestvaasedestdydcnesaccsts sees Sgoisbadcec cere Notes on Bowl’s Barrow: By Mr, CunninaTon, F.G.S, .....scecseeees Copy of the Terrier of the Parish of Hilmarton, Wilts, dated J: are 17th, 1704: (Communicated by the Rev. Canon GoppakD, Vicar of MsAELIVALTG ONL) = faint velo th ttoea die epSisetaes ab avnaaues aaihau's sti dsatestweanweaveses oe * Licence to Crenellate ” j MGorinanieted by ine Rey. ‘E. PrEacock) . Extract from a letter ta Rev. James Douglas, Author of “ Nenia Brit- annica,” by Mr. Cunnington, F.S.A. .........000 Bh oetigantok ase cSesgeaueeant sa
Donations to the Museum, MCHA tuagvackuppeneapscahedecancanseeseopavestarerenns
No LXXI,
Account of the Thirty-Fifth General Meeting, at Calne ....sssscsecseeeenees Notes on the Churches visited by the Society in August, 1888: By C. E. BOR TUNG, FGA, csc ssusevcasesscesseccssenccnscunssasuaabeses suaneeeaasentes Sees Calne: By the Rev. Canon J. EH. JACKSON, FS.A. ....ccscseceseeveeeeens On the Seals of the Bishops of Salisbury (Opening Address of the ‘Age quarian Section at the Annual Meeting of the Institute at Salisbury) : By the Right Rev. the Bishor oF SALISBURY . Tom Moore”: By the Rev. W. H. HITCHCOCK .wi.sesseseseeceeeees veveee Donations to Museum and Library sssssosscssssccrsevsesssveenesvenvecvecveeoes
PAGE
129 130
iv. CONTENTS OF VOL. XXIV.
No. LXXII. Cherhill Gleanings: By the Rev. W. C. PLENDEBLEATH wicsessseseesseene 257 Stanley Abbey: By the Rev. Canon Eddrup ....sccceceeseeseensneereeenne nes 271
The Descent of the Manor of Stockton: By J. E. Nightingale, F.S.A. 281 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire (Continued) : By Mz. ARTHUR
SCHOMBERG ..sccssccscccccsccnccscenvcnecaeconcssecueseesensesseseeseeseceeceuecsns 287 The Wiltshire Compounders (Continued) : (Communicated by Mr.
JAMES WAYLEN)......ssccscsscsccscevcesceeeseeersssesencnss sesneeveasenceseaeses 308 Passing Children through a cleft Ash Tree to cure Rupture .........s00++ 344 On the Pottery from Pans Lane, Devizes......sccseeesseereeeereeeeneeeee eeaee 345 Notes on a Group of Barrows on Beckhampton Downs: By WiLLIaM
CUNNINGTON, EGS. ....ccsercccsrsessccsccscesecsscsscsonescsccessesesoccsceses 346 Donations to Museum and Bibrary .....csscscssseserseeneeeeenenseneeseeaesees 348 General Index to the Wiltshire Magazine, Vols. XVII. to XXIV. ...... i-lxvi.
Illustrations.
Lower Jaw (No. 16) found in Bowl’s Barrow, with a vertebra on the condyle, 108. Three views of an ancient British Skull (synostotic) found in Bowl’s Barrow, South Wilts, by the late Dr. John Thurnam, 1864, 109.
Seals of the Bishops of Salisbury, Plate I., 224. Ditto, Plate II., 230. Ditto, Plate III., 239. .
Views of Cherhill Downs and Cherhill Church, 237. Map of Site of Stanley Abbey, A.D. 1154, 274. Fac-simile of autograph of Henry, second Earl of Pembroke, 284. Fac-simile of autograph of John Penruddocke, 284.
11 JUL. 91
NOVEMBER, 1888, Vout. XXIV.
THE
WILTSHIRE Areheolagical and Hatural Wistory
MAGAZINE,
Bublished under the Direction
OF THE
SOCIETY FORMED IN THAT COUNTY,
DEVIZES: Pginrep anv Sonp ror tHE Socrety By H. F. Bott, Sarnt Jonn Sreeer.
Price 53. 6d.—Members Gratis.
Op et ee a | 7 ' > *t ¥
NOTICE TO MEMBERS.
Members who have not paid their Subscriptions to the Society for the current year, are requested to remit the same forthwith to the Financial Secretary, Mr. Witt1am Nort, 15, High Street, Devizes, to whom also all communications as to the supply of Magazines should be addressed, and of whom most of the back Numbers may be had.
The Numbers of this Magazine will be delivered gratis, as issued, to Members who are not in arrear of their Annual Subserip- tions, but in accordance with Byelaw No. 8 “ The Financial Secretary shall give notice to Members in arrear, and the Society’s publications will not be forwarded to Members whose subscriptions shall remain unpaid after such notice.”
All other communications to be addressed to the Honorary Secre- taries: the Rev. A. C. Smitu, Old Park, Devizes; and H. E. Mepuicorr, Esq., Sandfield, Potterne, Devizes.
The Rev. A. C. Smrru will be much obliged to observers of birds in all parts of the county, to forward to him notices of rare occurrences, early arrivals of migrants, or any remarkable facts connected with birds, which may come under their notice.
—
es oe
WILTSHIRE Archeological ant Batural Bistory MAGAZINE.
No. LXX. NOVEMBER, 1888. Vout. XXIV.
Contents. PAGE Account oF THE THIRTY-FourTH GENERAL MEETING, AT SALISBURY 1 Orentnc ApDpRESs TO THE SECTION oF ARCHITECTURE AT THE Satispury Merxtine : by the Rev. Precentor Venables...........0ss000 34 Tae Cuurcu Hezatpry oF NortH WILtTsHIRE (Continued): By NREL Y SCUONUCIO Hh. foc cseeShendeilsssvecestestecsesiceavs1nasdesvayvcqruscas 44 Tue WILTsHIRE CompounDERS (Continued) : (communicated by Mr. SUMRERE ME VRESOIPNN) Se dos scl ander toateaeaorsaksene sansapvanbieciCesoutheversxeancay 58 Norres on Bowt’s Barzow: By Mr. Cunnington, F.GS. ............06 : 104
Copy oF THE TERRIER OF THE PaRisH oF HILMARTON, WILTS, DATED JaNuABY 177TH, 1704: (Communicated by the Rev. Canon SNE MICE) EMMMERIOET DON Yee ain bi acsa caste osannevenenss'exont ene sch tndetseks 125 Licence to CreneLLaTE” : (Communicated by the Rev. E. Peacock) 127 Extract rrom a Lerrer to Rey. James Dovetas, AUTHOR OF -“Nenta Brirannica,” By Mr. CUNNINGTON, F.S.A. ......seceeeees 129
DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM, 1888 ...,.csscsscsecssensceees Src 130 ILLUSTRATIONS. ee Jaw (No. 16), found in Bowl’s Barrow, with a VoRtsord: Di Ge OORU WIC 27 .uc scp .c-dachas eB nakesp caves eave Scane 108
Three views of an ancient British Skull (synostotic) found in Bowl’s Barrow, South Wilts, by the late Dr. John PRUETT ROEM.» 5c ainss0s sae aakecaeacKMauaerenewen nas Sasha wae 109
DEVIZES : H, F. Bout, 4, Sarnt Jonny Srpesr.
5
WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE.
“ MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS. —Ovid.
THE THIRTY-FOURTH GENERAL MEETING OF THE Wiltshire Archeological and Natural Wistory Society,’
HELD AT SALISBURY, IN CONJUNCTION WITH
Che Roval Archxolugtcal Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Tuesday, August 2nd, to Tuesday, August 9th, 1887,
PRESIDENT OF THE MEETING,
Lr.-Geyerat A. H. Lans-Fox Prrt-Rivers, D.C.L., F.B.S., F.S.A.
S the Royal Archezological Institute decided to hold its Annual Meeting in 1887 at Salisbury, the Wiltshire Archzological Society at once made arrangements to take ad- vantage of the visit of the parent Society to their county, and join that Body. The Institute had once before held its meeting at Salisbury, but that was in its early days, as long back as 1849, at a time when the prevalence of the cholera very much marred the pleasure of the visitors to our county; so that to the majority of those who assisted at the meeting last year the visit of the great National Archeological Society to Wiltshire was a new experience, The Inaugural Meeting was held in the Council House, at noon, on Tuesday, August 2nd, the Mayor or Satissury (F. Griffin, Esq.)
_ in the chair, when a large number of ladies and gentlemen attended.
1 The Editor of the Magazine desires to acknowledge the very great assistance he has derived, in preparing the report of this Meeting, from the columns of the Salisbury and Winchester Journal, and from the Jowrnal of the Royal Archeological Institute.
VOL. XXIV.—NO. LXxX, B
2 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
The intention of this preliminary meeting was two-fold ; first, the formal reception of the Institute and the hearty assurance of welcome on the part of the city authorities and the county Archzo- logical Society, both of which were most cordial in their expressions of satisfaction and the honour they felt in receiving the visit of the Royal Archeological Institute: and then the hearing of the Presi- dent’s Address.
Tue Mayor said that on behalf of the Corporation and his fellow citizens he had much pleasure in bidding them a cordial and hearty welcome to the ancient city of Salisbury. They rejoiced that this— the second visit of the Members of the Royal Archeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, after a lapse of thirty-eight years—had fallen on more happy times than did the former visit to the city in 1849. On that occasion, under the presidency of the late lamented scholar and statesman, Sidney Herbert, the Members of this Insti- tute met at a time when the country, and Salisbury in particular, was suffering from a fearful visitation of epidemic cholera. But the present visit occurred during a year of unprecedented thanksgiving and re- joicing,, for the fifty happy and glorious years’ reign of the Queen, in which he trusted the ancient and loyal city of Salisbury had taken a prominent part. It would ill become him in the presence of so many learned and distinguished archeologists to enlarge on the subject of their visit. It had often been asserted that few if any of the counties in England could vie with Wiltshire in the variety and interest of its ancient remains, evincing the successive ages of Celtic, Roman, Saxon, and Norman occupations. The city and immediate neighbourhood afforded a rich field for architectural and archzo- logical study. Old Sarum—the parent city—held no mean place in our national antiquities. That masterpiece of Gothic architecture, Salisbury Cathedral, with its steeple pointing heavenward, was the just pride of the city. The downs and plains teemed with memorials —notably Stonehenge—of a far distant epoch; mute mysteries reared by a race that had passed away and left no record behind. To the archeologist their thanks were due for reviving interest in the preservation of those ancient landmarks whose origin baffled all research and conjecture. In conclusion he desired to express
RES OO er
7 a ee
The Inaugural Meeting. 8
the hope that their visit might be pleasant, enjoyable, and in- structive, and that they might be blessed with good health and with fine weather, which was such a necessary factor for the proper en- joyment of the many and varied excursions arranged for by the Committee.
Tue Bisnop, as President of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society, read the following address :—* It gives me the greatest pleasure to receive your Lordship the President and the other Members of the Archeological Institute in a double capacity. I welcome you to this city as sixty-eighth Bishop of Salisbury, and as sixty-second Bishop of New Sarum. I welcome you also as President of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society. Iam glad that your visit has come at a time when I have been long enough in residence here to appreciate to some extent the wealth of interest in the land and the city over which it is my lot to preside. It is impossible for a Bishop of Salisbury, whether he looks down upon the Cathedral and city from the heights of Old Sarum—a city founded as one orderly peaceful whole by the master mind of Richard Poor—or looks up to the spire from that house in which his predecessors have lived in almost uninterrupted succession since the year 1220, or perceives the needle point of that same spire from the plain on which still reposes the isolated sanctuary of Stonehenge, or drives along the green wooded valleys, in which the little villages, with ancient Churches and manor houses, cluster along the sparkling streams like jewels upon a silver thread. It is impossible for him, [ say, whether at home or on his journeys, to forget the debt that he owes to the past and to those who, like yourselves, have linked the present and past together, and made them a living whole. The cultured home-like aspect of our English scenery, which strikes visitors from across the Atlantic as making it like a garden in comparison to their own harder-featured soil, is due greatly to the spirit of reverence and of sympathetic treatment of our old buildings and their associations, which is a fruit of the good work done by your society and its kindred brotherhoods. The quick kindling interest, the pride, the emulation which makes parish vie with parish, rich and poor alike joining, especially in the interior
B 2
4 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
adornment and the reverent festal use of their Churches, are living fruits of the same spirit, without which a bishop’s labours would be far less bright than, thank God, they are at the present day. There are but few of our parish Churches which do not form a worthy setting and gathering place for the solemn offices of the Church, and especially for that rite of confirmation for which I have reason so often to visit them. Therefore, my lord and gentlemen, I thank you as Bishop again and again. As President of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society, I have a yet more decided and special reason for welcoming you here. Your last meeting in this city was in the year 1849. On that occasion the veteran, John Britton, then about seventy-eight years old, editor and in great part writer of the ‘ Beauties of England and Wales,’ and of the ‘ Architectural and Cathedral Antiquities of Great Britain,’ but especially connected with this county, put forth a circular of some importance. It showed cause why the Wiltshire Topographical Society should be transformed into a larger and more popular institution, after the example of other local societies which had been stirred into existence by the visits of your Institute. The plan was not taken up at once, but on October 12th, 1853, the im- portant society which I now have the honour to represent was brought into actual being at an inaugural meeting at Devizes. The foundation of its library and museum was laid by the purchase of Mr. Britton’s collection of books, drawings, &c., which are deposited at Devizes. The Marquis of Lansdowne was named Patron, and the first President was Mr. Poulett Scrope, who in his very interesting first address insisted on the duty of the new Society to complete the work which Sir Richard Colt Hoare and his assistants had left unfinished. Of the twenty-nine hundreds of the County of Wilts, he told us, ‘fifteen have been described under the title of Sir Richard Hoare’s “ Modern Wiltshire.” But they are, speaking generally, neither the most extensive nor the most important.’ He then goes on to describe those parts of North Wilts which have been, so to say, neglected. To you, then, in some measure, is due the foundation of that Society whose twenty-two or twenty-three volumes since published are such a treasure to the future historian of the county.
The Inaugural Meeting. 5
I regret to say that I must still say ‘ the future historian.”' How it is so I do not venture to say, in the regretted absence of the first Secretaries, the Rev. A. C. Smith and Mr. Lukis, and of Canon Jaekson and others who have laboured so assiduously at illustrating our antiquities. Perhaps they may have done better in gathering materials piecemeal rather than in attempting prematurely a book which ought to be a final collection as far as anything human can be final. We have since your visit learnt, I think, something more of the true meaning and scope of antiquarian pursuits. Weare less, perhaps, of speculators, and less also of medievalists. We go further backward into the roots of things. We examine with as much care (in the person of General Pitt-Rivers, as shown by the admirable volume now lying on the table) the isolated civilisation of a little Romano-British village as we should a great and magnifi« cent monument. We are as careful (under the guidance of Mr. Nightingale) to register and to treasure the pieces of plate presented to our Churches in the Georgian era as we do those rare pieces of pre-Reformation times. We have, therefore, perhaps, gained some- thing in method. I trust that before your next visit we shall be able not only to present you with twenty volumes or so of our Magazine, but with a smaller number of a history worthy of this great county.”
Eart Percy, in replying, said :—-“ On behalf of the Institute of which I have the honour to be President, I have to express our most
-1To prevent misunderstanding it may be desirable to explain that the Society from the beginning did not propose to itself to complete the history of the county, but only ‘to collect and publish information on the antiquities and natural history of Wiltshire.” And though it is true that the first President, in his address at the Opening Meeting of the Society, expressed a hope that many of those present might live to see “a complete history of Wiltshire,” and urged on the Society to “ prepare some of the requisite materials,” the Society cannot congratulate itself that the man of leisure is yet forthcoming who is competent for that great work ; for it will require one who shall combine taste and ability for carrying out so arduous a labour, together with the ample means at his command which such a work would entail. On the other hand, it is confidently hoped that the Society has not been unsuccessful in providing a considerable mass of information which may hereafter prove serviceable to the future historian of our county.—[ Ep. ]
6 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
grateful thanks to you for the cordial expressions of weleome which have proceeded both from the Corporation and from the local Society. I can assure you that there are few places which this Institute can visit with greater pleasure than the city and neighbourhood in which we stand at the present moment. You, Mr. Mayor, were kind enough to mention one or two exceptional circumstances which marked the first occasion when this Institute met at Salisbury ; but I think you omitted one fact which Members of the Institute can- not forget—that that meeting took place very shortly after the first inauguration of this Institute as a separate society, and that we were then, I may say, in a tentative condition. The Institute no doubt, was then started with the most sanguine hopes of success and long life and prosperity. But the future is always uncertain, and it is a source of great gratification to the Institute to return here in this Jubilee year, after thirty-eight years of successful ex- istence, and to witness the hearty reception which we have met with to-day, and the kindly remembrance of our former visit, so well expressed by the Mayor. My Lord Bishop, with regard to what so kindly fell from you, it will be, I am sure, a gratification to the Members of the Institute to feel that to their last meeting was in no small degree due the inauguration of the Society over which you so ably and fitly preside. For my own part I think we must all feel that, however enjoyable to ourselves these annual meeting's are, yet our object must be to promote and strengthen the exertions of those who live in the localities we visit. And I am sure of this—that the high position which the Wiltshire Archzo- logical Society occupies is a sign that the efforts of the Royal Archeological Institute have not been unavailing in promoting the study of the antiquities of Wiltshire as of other parts of the country. Wiltshire stands in a peculiar position, as has already been fitly said. Its remains are unique; and I have heard—I am a stranger myself ; Iam not speaking from knowledge, but from a report, and I trust a false one—that in times past these remains have suffered perhaps from not having guardians to take that intelligent interest in them which the present generation is able to do. I heard only the other day a story—I trust it is a story in every sense of the word—of
The President’s Address. 7
the proprietor of one of the best known ancient memorials in this county—I won’t mention names—who, taking a party of visitors to see it one day, found a party of tourists there before him; and this party of tourists—we hope not knowing whom they were addressing —sent a very polite message to him requesting him, if possible, to lend them a hammer. I trust that this is a myth, or, if not alto- gether a myth, that its only possible foundation dates back to a period very far distant. But I am certain that Wiltshire must stand in a very exceptional position indeed, and I feel that the exertions of the Archeological Society have brought about an intelligent respect for the memorials of the past which exist in the locality. I thank you very much, Mr. Mayor and My Lord Bishop, for the kind reception you have given us. In the name of the Members of the Institute I heartily thank you. I now beg to call upon General Pitt-Rivers to take the chair as President of the Meeting. I need say nothing of General Pitt-Rivers for [ am sure you must all know there is no one better able to preside over this Meeting than he.”
THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS.
Lirut.-Gryerat A, H. Lane-Fox Pirt-Rivers, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.8.A., having taken the chair, delivered the following address :—
* Tt is thirty-eight years since this Society last met at Salisbury, a period which has probably been more prolific of scientific discovery than any other in the history of this country or of the world. Archeology has not fallen short of its sister sciences in the race for knowledge, and, although it appears proper that on an oceasion like the present my discourse should be general and retrospective, the time allotted to me is totally insufficient to enable me to deal adequately with the progress that has taken place. Indeed, when I consider that Wiltshire is classical ground for the branch of prehistoric archeology that I have undertaken to deal with, and that, amongst the practical explorers in this Wiltshire field are included the names of Aubrey, Stukeley, Hoare, Cunnington, Prestwich, Merewether, Thurnam, Warne, Blackmore, Stevens, and A. C. Smith, I almost feel that I must owe my present position to the rashness with which
8 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
I have undertaken a task from which others may have shrunk. Having ascertained it to be the wish of some of your leading Members that I should devote my lecture to a consideration of the particular branch of archeology to which my attention has been chiefly given, I will endeavour to sketch out roughly the progress of prehistoric research since the Society met here in 1849, not at- tempting to record all the discoveries that have been made, or even a large part of them, but to trace out as far as possible the main lines of progress, and, as I am the lecturer on this occasion, I hope it will not be thought inappropriate if I refer to such of my own humble discoveries as may be applicable to the matter, and show their bearing on the general question. In so doing I shall divide the subject under two heads. Firstly I shall speak of prehistoric or non-historic archeology, including in the latter the vestiges of the Romanised Britons, which, though falling within historic times, have left no written record; and secondly I shall refer—if I have time—to the quaternary period, or that which, preceding the prehis- toric period, goes back to the very earliest traces of man. In dealing with the prehistoric age our attention must be given chiefly to the grave mounds, as being the class of relics that archzologists have studied most carefully hitherto, but I hope I shall be able to show that valuable information is to be derived from excavations on the sites of camps and villages, and that more attention will probably be paid to them in future. As early as the beginning of the seven- teenth century Camden seems to have distinguished two kinds of barrows, which he described as the round and those with sharp tops, which were probably the long barrows, and he supposed them to be the graves of soldiers, for bones, he says, are found in them. But Stukeley classified them more carefully, and gave them various kinds of fanciful names, which, with some modifications, have attached to them ever since. Thurnam does full justice to Stukeley’s work, although it must be admitted that, viewed by the light of modern discovery, his name has been handed down to us chiefly as an ex- ample of what to avoid in archeology. A characteristic specimen of Stukeley’s quaint and imaginative way of dealing with the subject of his studies may be seen in his account of the origin of
The President’s Address. 9
the sarsen stones which cover the surface of the Wiltshire downs. © As the chalky matter of the earth hardened at creation,’ he says, ‘it spewed out the most solid body of the stones of greater specific gravity than itself, and, assisted by the centrifuge power owing to the rotation of the earth upon its axis, threw them upon its surface, where they now lie. This,’ he adds, ‘is my opinion concerning this appearance, which I often attentively considered.’ We are not without our Stukeleys at the present time, when the progress of science has lessened the excuse for us, and we ought, therefore, to be lenient to our predecessors. ‘Two things we ought to learn from history,’ says Dr. Arnold in his lectures on modern history published in 1841, ‘one, that we are not ourselves superior to our fathers; another, that we are shamefully and monstrously inferior to them if we do not advance beyond them.’ And this, if it is not borne out by an extended view of human nature, or by the light of recent discovery, is nevertheless sufficiently true to prevent our exulting over our ancestors in consequence of our superior knowledge, It would be a profitless task tc recount the opinions of our prede- cessors if we did not find fault with their methods and their con- clusions; but, in doing so, we must not be taken to condemn them personally because they do not represent the uppermost rungs of the ladder that we are climbing. Sir Richard Colt Hoare was the first to apply himself to the study of our Wiltshire tumuli by the only satisfactory method, viz., by excavation in them. Taking for his motto, “We speak from facts, not theory,’ he opened three hundred and seventy-nine barrows, and recorded their contents in two folio volumes, with ample illustrations. He differentiated the long from the round barrows, and showed that the former contained no metal implements, and none but the rudest kinds of pottery, and that they were probably the earliest, but he did not thoroughly establish a Stone Age, and it is a question whether those most valuable items of evidence, the flint flake and the scraper, did not entirely escape his notice. When we consider the time that he devoted to his excavations, and the number of them that must have passed under his eyes, we may well ask what evidence we ourselves are failing to notice, through ignorance of its bearing upon our
10 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
investigations. Hoare speaks of Wiltshire, in his preface, as a country little known and hitherto undescribed, and there can be no doubt that as a topographer he fulfilled his task admirably. He was sound in principle, and where he failed was through not applying his principles more thoroughly. He correctly established the se- quence of the different modes of interment, pronouncing inhumation in a contracted position to be the earliest, after which inhumation was practised conjointly with cremation; and inhumation in an ex- tended position he proved to be the latest mode of interment, but he failed to distinguish in some cages between Saxon and late Celtic burials. He distinguished primary from secondary interments in the same tumulus, and he correctly classified the three kinds of urns found in the graves as funereal urns, drinking vessels, and incense cups; but he described bronze dagger blades as lance heads, and, by that means, led Sir Samuel Meyrick into error in his work on the weapons and costume of the Ancient Britons, published in 1815. He claims with justice to be the first, with Mr. Cunnington, to take notice of the sites of British villages, and he attempted to classify the camps and earthworks by the size of their ramparts and external appearance, but his examination of them was cursory and insufficient for his conclusions. But where he failed totally was in neglecting to take any notice of the skeletons found in the graves. The scientific study of human osteology had not commenced in his time, and his mind was a blank upon all anthropological subjects. He thought it right to re-inter them quickly without measuring them. Here and there we find them spoken of only as the skeleton of a stout person or a tall person, and in only one instance he describes a skeleton, saying that ‘it grinned horribly a ghastly smile, a singularity that I have never before noticed.’ No doubt the skeleton must have been laughing at him for his unscientific method of dealing with it, and when we think of the large amount of racial evidence that he destroyed in this way, and the compara- tively small number of skeletons that have remained in the barrows to be examined since, it is almost enough to give any lover of antiquity a ghastly smile. Sir Richard Hoare’s researches were followed by those of Dean Merewether, which were published in
The President’s Address. jal
the Salisbury volume of the Institute in 1849. He improved somewhat upon Sir Richard’s method by measuring the thigh bones of some of the skeletons, but without arriving at any results as to race or stature. He also roughly measured two skulls of oxen found in the tumuli, which was also an advance upon Sir Richard, who did no more in the way of describing one or two of those he found than by saying that in the opinion of a butcher of his acquaintance some of them were the largest of the kind that he had seen. No systematic measurements of the bones of animals with a view to the comparison of domesticated breeds appears to have been made until Professor Rolleston and Professor Boyd Dawkins applied their biological knowledge to the inquiry. In my most recent investiga- tions into the Romano-British villages near Rushmore, I have en- deavoured to improve upon this by establishing, with the approval of Professor Moseley, F.R.S., and Dr. Garson, of the Royal College of Surgeons, a regular scale of measurements by means of which we shall be able, from a single bone or fragment of skull, to ascertain approximately the size and some of the peculiarities of the domesticated breeds in use by the ancient Britons. But an entirely new era in prehistorie archeology was to be inaugurated by methods imported from other sciences. Whilst geology was to earry us back to periods that had not before been thought of in the history of man, anthropology was to teach us how to estimate the stature and physical peculiarities of the skeletons found in the graves, and ethnology was to enable us to appreciate the social and material condition of the aborigines of our country by a comparison of their relics with the arts of modern savages. All these branches have now become indispensable for the prehistorian. Dr, Thurnam was the first to apply anthropology to the elucidation of our Wiltshire barrows, and his papers are included amongst the earliest contribu- tions to the newly-established Anthropological Society in 1865-7. Profiting by the contemporary researches of Professors Thomsen and Nilsson in Scandinavia, and those of Canon Greenwell in the Yorkshire Wolds, he systematised the results of Sir Richard Hoare’s investigations, and separated the tumuli more definitely into those of the Stone, Bronze, and [ron Ages, which began -to be finally
12 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
accepted by archeologists, and about the same time the volume on Prehistoric Times, by Sir John Lubbock, published in 1865, the excavations of Messrs. Lartet and Christy in the bone caves of France, and the treatises on the stone and bronze implements of Great Britain, by Dr. Evans, contributed to establish what had only been lightly touched by the earlier writers. Thurnam re- opened some of the barrows which had been examined by Hoare, and added greatly to the number by his own excavations. Sir Richard had abandoned his excavations in the long barrows as being very unproductive of relics of human workmanship, and, taking no notice of skeletons, he confessed himself unable to derive any satisfactory information from them or to determine the purpose for which they were constructed. Thurnam nuw showed that besides relics of the Stone Age the long barrows contained the bones of a particular race, small in stature, averaging not more than 5ft. 5°4in. in height, as computed by the measurement of the lony bones of twenty-five individuals. They had also the peculiarity of very long heads, the average breadth of which was in proportion to their lengths, as 71 to 100, a much longer head than that of any race now inhabiting Europe. On the other hand, the skeletons found in the round barrows he showed by a computation from the long bones of twenty-seven individuals, measured by himself and others, were those of a people of large stature, averaging 5ft. 8-4in. in height, or 3in, taller than the long barrow people, and having heads rounder than those of any people now inhabiting Europe, the proportion of breadth to length being as 81 to 100. Here, then, we have un- doubtedly one of the most important prehistoric discoveries of our time. By a comparison of the results of his excavations with the scanty notices of aborigines by ancient authors and the investigations of anthropologists into the physical characteristics of the existing races of man, Dr. Thurnam was able to show that these two kinds of skeletons represented two great primitive races of mankind. The tall round-headed skeletons were those of the Celts, a branch of the great nomadic race of the North, which all history records under various names and in innumerable tribes and nations, as having been constantly drifting westward from their original home in
The Presidents Address. 13
Northern Asia, where their representative round-headed people still exist, retaining all their pristine idiosyneracies. These were the people whom Czsar speaks of as the Belgw, and whom he describes as a recent importation into Britain from the Continent. The short long-headed people were the Iberians, a race about whose origin less can be said with certainty. Whilst some have been so bold as to endeavour to trace them across the Atlantic, Professor Huxley brings them by way of Egypt from the Melanesian people of Australia and the Asiatic Isles. It seems likely, both from their stature and head-form, as well as from the scanty evidence of their colour in ancient histories, that they must have had affinity for some or other of the dark races of mankind which now occupy the Southern hemisphere. This much, at any rate, may be said without drawing too largely on our imaginative faculties, that the round head and light complexion is a northern, whilst the long head and dark skin is a southern peculiarity of the races which occupy the world at the present time, and that the two classes of skeletons found in the barrows may be those of branches of those two great primitive races which met and contended for the mastery in the British Isles at the time we are speaking of. Thus far the evidence derived from archzological sources is in complete harmony with tradition and with ethnology, but as we approach non-historic times, and attempt to deal with the unrecorded life of the Britons who were contemporaneous with our earliest histories, we find ourselves involved in some obscurity. The extension of the Roman Empire to Britain checked for more than three centuries the westerly drifting of nomades into Britain, and turned the current of migra- tion northward into Scotland and round to Ireland, so that at the end of that time the Britons found their Scandinavian enemies upon them from the north as well as from the east, One of the last acts of the Roman Emperors was to post a force on the east coast of England, which was called the Saxon shore, to repel these invaders, but no sooner was that force withdrawn than the full tide of westerly migration set in again direct upon Southern Britain with results that are well known to usall. During the comparative blank in history that follows that period we almost lose sight of the
14 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
Britons. Whilst some believe them to have been nearly exterminated or driven westward into Brittany, others, and amongst them Pro- fessor Huxley, consider that the amount of Celtic blood in the veins of the modern Englishman is considerably in excess of what has hitherto been supposed. The investigations of Dr. Beddoe in England and of Dr. Broca and Topinard in France tend to confirm this view, and to show that in the existing population of Europe and in the West of England and Wales in particular, a small dark race may still be seen, such as would correspond to the survivors of the aboriginal long barrow Britons. If, as seems probable from this, the Britons continued to exist in considerable numbers during the Saxon epoch, what became of the two distinct races, the long-headed dark, short, people, and the tall, round-headed fair people, revealed to us by the excavations in the barrows? Did they mix, and in mixing blend their physical peculiarities, or did they maintain an independent existence, retaining the stature, colour, and head-form that belonged to their respective stocks? In the investigation of this matter we are met with difficulties in the way of determining the nationality of skeletons belonging to the Roman age. The Romans did not invade this country alone, but brought with them auxiliaries from all parts of the world, who afterwards colonised the country, so that, as Mr. Wright has pointed out in his ‘Celt Roman, and Saxon,’ a skeleton of this period may be of any nationality. It may be that of a Fortensian, a Tungrian, a Vetation, a Dalmation, a Crispian, a Spaniard, or a Dacian. These colonists, however, appear to have settled more frequently in the east and north of Britain. Inthe West of England, and especially in spots that are remote from the main centres of Roman occupation, the probability of coming upon the skeletons of Britons is very much greater. Dr. Thurnam was of opinion that the Durotriges of Dorsetshire and the Dobuni of Gloucestershire were aboriginal ~ races whose territory may have been encroached upon by the Belge, but was never entirely overrun by them. He also draws a dis« tinction between the unchambered long barrows of Wiltshire and the chambered long barrows of Gloucestershire, for, whilst twenty- seven skulls from the unchambered long barrows of Wiltshire had
The President’s Address. 15
a breadth index as low as 69, forty skulls from the chambered long barrows of Gloucestershire’ had the somewhat higher index of 71, and these, he considered, afforded evidence of a mixture of tribes ; although 71 is a longer skull than that of any existing European people. He thought the chambered long barrows showed by their contents that they continued to be used by the aboriginal tribes up to and within the Roman era, and the plain bowl barrow also, he believed, to belong to the aboriginal tribes; whilst the bell-shaped and disc-shaped barrows he thought were the graves of the Belge. It is evident, therefore, that we must not lose sight of these two distinct races in our investigations into the relics of the Romanised Britons, and the district immediately to the west of where we are now assembled appears to be that which is likely to be most fruitful in evidence relating to that period. As we go westward from Salisbury to Blandford, we pass over a region which on two separate lines of evidence may be regarded as an ancient ethnical frontier. Here, by the investigations of Dr. Beddoe and others into the physical conditions of the existing population, we begin to come upon traces of the short dark-haired people whom he believes to be the survivors of the earliest wave of Britons. My own measure- ments of the present inhabitants of the district confirm this opinion. Here also, in the neighbourhood of Woodyates, we cross the western boundary of the region of bell and disc-shaped barrows, which Dry Thurnam believed to be the graves of the Belg, and pass over to the region of the bowl-shaped barrows, containing inferior relics, which he conjectures to have belonged to the aboriginal Durotriges, and the twenty-one barrows which I have opened at Rushmore, to the west of this boundary line, have all been found to be bowl barrows, or bowl barrows with a ditch round them, which Thurnam thought to be a later combination of the bowl and bell-shaped forms. It is a position which, probably owing to the extent of dense forest to the west and south in prehistoric times, has always afforded a standing point for the earliest races in resisting the en- roachments of succeeding waves of migration from the east. Here, or hereabouts, Professor Rhys has shown that the Goidels, or first wave of the Celts, for some time contended against the Brythons,
16 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
or second Celtic invasion. Here also, Mr. Green, in his ‘ Making of England,’ proves that the West Welsh withstood the Saxons for some time after the latter had penetrated as far as Wilton. Across this region, also, but a little to the east of the boundary defined by the barrows, runs the great Bokerly Dyke, about which much has been written, but nothing known. Its direction and position show it to have been a line of boundary defence thrown up by a western people against invaders from the north and east, and the proper examination of it hereafter will be of much interest.!_ On the whole the district in question is one which is especially worthy of the attention of anthropologists and of archzologists. The evidence to be derived from the tumuli is now nearly exhausted, for although more remain to be opened, the majority have already been rifled, and it is to the vestiges of the Romanised Britons that we must now turn for in- formation. Happily the antiquities of this hitherto almost un- explored period present themselves here in great abundance. All over the hilly district Sir Richard Hoare describes the villages of the Romanised Britons, He did not examine them carefully, as I have already said, but he made plans of a number of them, which are to be seen in his great work. Two of these villages are on my property, close to Rushmore, and during the last six years I have thoroughly excavated them, trenching over every foot of ground and bringing to light all the pits, ditches, and relics of the in- habitants that were to be found beneath the surface. The results of the first of these villages, viz., that on Woodcuts Common, have been put together in the 4to volume, containing seventy-four plates, which I am now issuing privately on the occasion of this meeting, and I hope io have the pleasure of conducting some of the Members of the Society over the villages themselves, and the Museum at Farnham, which contains the models of them and the relics found
Since writing this, General Rivers has cut a section 34ft. wide completely through the ditch and rampart of Bockerly Dyke, and from the Roman pottery, fibule, and coins of Claudius Tetricus, and Constantinus, found deep in the body of the rampart, he considers it conclusively proved that the dyke was thrown up in late Roman or post-Roman times. The results of these excavations will be given in a second volume of his “ Excavations near Rushmore.”
The President’s Address. 17
in them, on Tuesday. On this account I do not propose to describe the villages now, but merely to mention the main anthropological results which have a bearing on the subject of this address. They are satisfactorily proved by the coins and all the contents to be of Roman age, but of British construction. Contrary to all expectation it was found that they were in the habit of burying their dead in their villlages in pits which had been previously made for other purposes, such as store houses or refuse pits, and of these pits one hundred and ninety-one have been dug out in the two villages. Twenty-eight skeletons were found in positions to prove that they were those of the inhabitants of the two villages. By a calculation from all the long bones it has been found that their average stature for the males was 5ft, 2in., and for the females 4ft. 10in. This unexpected result shows that they were a remarkably short race, shorter by 3in. than the short people of the long barrows, whose average height, as already mentioned, was 5ft. 5in. The average cephalic or breadth index, for the males and females to- gether, was found to be 74, which, by a comparison with the 71 of the long barrows, and the 81 of the round barrows, shows that in head-form, no Jess than in stature, they approached the long barrow people more closely than those of the round barrows, and the bodies being mostly crouched up near the tops of the pits showed that they had retained their ancient form of burial although the extended bodies of a few of them implies a partial introduction of more recent customs. The tibiz of some of these skeletons were also decidedly platyenemic or flat-boned, more so than those of any existing European race, which is an additional link of connection with the earliest inhabitants of this country. But whilst the breadth index of the heads stands intermediate between that of the long and round barrow people, one or two of the skulls were markedly brachycephalic or round-headed, reaching to 82, whilst one or two others were hyperdolichocephalic or markedly long-headed, reaching to 68, which exceptional extremes, according to the laws of heredity, are precisely what we should expect on the supposition of a mixture of two races. We may, therefore, assume as a working hypothesis, until some more reasonable theory is devised, that these people were VOL, XXIV.—NO, LXX, Cc
18 The Thirty-Vourth General Meeting.
a tribe of the Durotriges partially mixed with the Belge, and also perhaps with the Romans, of which race—in the opinion of Drs. Beddoe and Garson, who have examined the skulls—some trace may be seen in one or two of them. Unlike the skulls of the earlier Britons their teeth showed traces of decay, and they were afflicted to some extent with rheumatoid arthrites, or ‘Poor Man’s Gout.? Whether the exceptionally short stature of this Rushmore tribe of Britons was accentuated by evils attendant upon slavery or by the drafting of some of their largest men into the Roman legions abroad is a point upon which we can only speculate. I shall not attempt to dogmatise or to fix with precision the ethnical position of this diminutive race, for it is evident that we are only on the threshold of the inquiry. The tribe of Roman Britons at Frilford examined by Professor Rolleston, if they really were Roman Britons, had an average stature of 5ft. 8in. for the males, so that a marked difference may have existed between the different tribes, as might reasonably be expected. I have another village close by to explore, after which other villages on my property remain to be examined. If it is thought that twenty-eight skeletons is a small number on which to base a calculation of stature, it must be remembered that the skeletons of Ancient Britons are scarce, but in the opinion of good physical anthropologists the number is sufficient to form a good approximate idea of the height. Dr. Thurnam based his important conclusions upon no more than twenty-five long barrow and twenty-seven round barrow people, so that my evidence is fully equal to his in respect to the number of cases computed from. I have now occupied so much time with the barrows that I must defer what I had to say about the drift period. No one now requires to be reminded of the great advance of knowledge that has been brought about by the study of the drift gravels, which at the lowest computation has quadrupled the time during which we are enabled to investigate the works of man. No longer confined to the last three thousand or four thousand years, the archeologist has been earried back far into geological time, and has been brought in view of the earliest struggles of our ape-like ancestors to become men. No individual amongst those who assembled here in 1849 had the
The President’s Address. 19
least idea that beneath his very feet were to be found the relics of man’s workmanship at a time when he was contemporaneous with the elephant and other extinct animals. But the discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes in the valley of the Somme were going on at that time, although they were not recognised by men of science until ten years later, when our countrymen, Mr. Evans and Mr. Prestwich, confirmed the opinions of the French savant. The valley of the Avon, near Salisbury, was one of the first places examined by Mr. Prestwich after his return from France in 1859, but although the gravels had been well looked over by him and their fauna duly recorded, no paleolithic implements were discovered until later by Dr. Blackmore! and Mr. Stevens in the drift beds at Fisherton and elsewhere, where they were found in beds that had been deposited before the valley had worked its way down to the level on which Salisbury now stands. Since then, through the munificence of Mr. W. Blackmore, the Museum, which bears his name, has made Salisbury a place of reference for information on the antiquities of this period. Similar discoveries were soon made in the valley of the Thames, in which I had the privilege of taking part. Although not the first discoverer of palolithic implements in the Thames valley, as they had previously been found by Mr. Leech, Mr. Prestwich, and Dr. Evans on the seashore near Reculver® I believe I may elaim priority for the part of the river near London. Having earefully watched for the space of a year or more excavations in the drift gravel at Acton, I was able in 1872 to show by means of plans and sections published in the Quarterly Journal of the Geo- logical Society the exact analogy of the palolithic site there with that of the valley of the Somme near Amiens and Abbeville. Other similar discoveries have since been made in the valley of the Exe and elsewhere in this country. The nature of the implements found in these gravels was such as to fully bear out the doctrine of evolution, being characterised by extreme simplicity as compared with the stone implements of a later date, and they introduce us to a condition of the arts of man in which a simple flake or a flint ? Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xx., 1864, p. 188. * Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xvii., 1861, p. 362. c 2
20 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
held in the hand at one end and trimmed to a point at the other appears to have afforded the most advanced idea of a general tool for all the purposes of life, so that the paleolithic or earliest form of implements can be everywhere distinguished by their simplicity from the neolithic or stone implements of a later date, and they are more or less the same in all the localities in which they have been found. As regards the time necessary for the erosion of the valleys and the deposition of the beds belonging to this period it is generally admitted that it cannot be computed in years. At first geologists were inclined to demand an enormous time for it, but recently, in consequence of the observations on the erosion of glaciers, less time has been thought necessary, and Mr. Prestwich, in a paper read lately before the Geological Society, has given his reasons for believing that the time estimated since the termination of the last glacial epoch may be greatly curtailed. But although the sequence of palzolithic, neolithic, and bronze implements had been firmly established in the north and west of Europe, it had not been proved that the same sequence took place in Egypt, Assyria, and those countries in which civilisation dates back to a very much earlier time, for it seemed certain that the Stone Age of the north and west of Europe was contemparaneous with a very much more advanced civilisation in the south and east. The attention of archeologists had, therefore, been turned for some time to the question of a Stone Age in Egypt. The valley of the Nile, it was found, was covered with flint implements which corresponded in form to those of the paleolithie type of Europe. But this coincidence of form alone, though highly suggestive for the reasons I have given, was not in itself sufficient to determine sequence, because they had been found only on the surface, and in order to prove them anterior to Egyptian civilisation it would be necessary to adduce the same kind of evidence of their antiquity that had been shown in Europe, by finding them in the gravels in the sides of the valley and in places which could be proved to have been undisturbed since Egyptian civilisation commenced, and this was the more necessary beeause it was known that flints were used for embalming purposes in Egyptian times. Here I may be permitted again to refer to
; | 3 +
7,
The President’s Address. 21
a discovery of my own, although in introducing it into so brief and condensed an account of the history of the subjeet I must again claim your indulgence as a lecturer. Being in Egypt in 1881, and having devoted particular attention to this point, I was fortunate enough to find flint flakes and an implement in parts of the gravel of the Nile near Thebes, into which gravel, after it had become nearly as hard as rock by exposure, the Egyptians had cut the square-topped chambers of their tombs, and I ehiselled several of these implements out of the gravel beneath stratified seams of sand and loam in the sides of the Egyptian tombs themselves. These flints, I believe, afforded the first absolute evidence of the priority of the use of flint implements to the time of the building of Thebes, and to a time before the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings had been completely eroded. At any rate it was the first discovery of the kind which had been recorded. I exhibit a section of these gravels, showing the position of the flints and of the tombs, and the seams of gravel, and the implements themselves are also exhibited. I have not been able to go to Egypt since, but I believe that by further search upon that site it may be possible to determine when flint implements were first introduced there, for I could not, after careful search, find them deeper in the gravel than a certain level. If this should prove to be the case it will be an important additional item of evidence. As regards the osteology of the human skeletons discovered in the drift, our knowledge of them appears to develope slowly. If, as I have said, the skeletons of the Ancient Britons are rare, still less frequent must be those of quaternary man, our knowledge of which must depend on the accidental washing of them into drift deposits, or the discovery of them in the floors of caves belonging to that period. For some time it was contended that no approach towards lower forms of life could be recognised in the skeletons of this period, and that the one or two abnormal skulls that had been brought to light were either those of idiots or were the result of disease. But in the presence of additional discoveries of similar skulls and skeletons that have since been made in different parts of the world, and more particularly in Belgium, this position ean no longer be maintained. Within the last year two additional
22 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
skeletons have been discovered in the quaternary deposits of a cave at Spy, in the province of Namur, and have been reported upon by M. Fraipont in the ‘ Bulletin de ’ Academie Royale des Sciences’ in Belgium. The following are reported by M. Fraipont to be the peculiarities in which these skeletons depart from the human form, and approach that of the anthropoid apes. The superciliary ridges are more developed, and the forehead more shelving than those of any existing race of men, in which respect they resemble the orang, gorilla, and chimpanzee. The chin is more receding than those of any existing race of men, The forward curve of the femur is also greater than in any existing race of men, and the angle and size of the articular surface of this bone and the tibia is such as to show that the individuals must have walked with their legs slightly bent. In other respects the skeletons are pronounced strictly human. These appear to be the latest facts revealed to us by the earliest specimens of our race. If they militate against some cherished dogmas, we have nevertheless no alternative but to accept them if they are established on sufficient evidence. I cannot myself see how human conduct is likely to be affected disadvantageously by recognising the humble origin of mankind. If it teaches us to take less pride in our ancestry and to place more reliance on ourselves, this cannot fail to serve as an additional incentive to industry and respectability. Nor are our relations with the Supreme Power presented to us in an unfavourable light by this discovery, for, if man was created originally in the image of God, it is obvious that the very best of us have greatly degenerated. But if, on the other hand, we recognise that we have sprung from inferior beings, then there is no cause for anxiety on account of the occasional backsliding observable amongst men, and we are encouraged to hope that, with the help of Providence, notwithstanding frequent relapses towards the primitive condition of our forefathers, we may continue to im- prove in the long run as we have done hitherto.”
Eart Percy said he was sure he should be expressing the opinion of the Meeting if he proposed a hearty vote of thanks to General Pitt-Rivers for the very interesting lecture he had delivered to them. He did not know whether he should call it a lecture or not. He
“es ™
Stonehenge Excursion. 23
supposed strictly speaking he should call it an address. General Pitt-Rivers had travelled, aud he thought usefully travelled, from the usual course of proceeding on an occasion of that kind. Other Presidents of Meetings of that kind had only addressed them in a very cursory manner, travelling over a lot of ground and stopping at no particular point. General Pitt-Rivers had, however, taken one point and given them an excellent address upon it. He sup- posed General Pitt-Rivers would allow them to pass a very hearty vote of thanks to him without endorsing all the conclusions he had arrived at—because he for one was inclined to dispute some of them.
The motion was carried with applause, and the Meeting terminated.
The afternoon was devoted to an inspection of the Cathedral, the Bishop’s Palace, and St. Nicholas’ Hospital ; and in the evening a Conversazione was held in the Council House, under the presidency of General Pitt-Rivers, when the Bisuor or Sattspury opened the Antiquarian Section by reading a paper on the “ Seals of the Bishops of Salisbury.” This was followed by a paper, read by Mr. J. H. Moutz, of Dorchester, entitled “ A Description of the Vetus Regis- trum Sarisberiense,” with a short notice of some of the other MSS. at Salisbury. For both of these interesting papers the hearty thanks of the Meeting were offered from the chair.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3rp. SroneHence Excursion.
A large party left Salisbury at 10, a.m., and first drove to Old Sarum, where they were gratified by a paper on that ancient fortress by the President of the Meeting, Gmnzrat Pirr-Rivurs. After a careful examination of this fine old camp and site of the former city, the archeologists next drove to Great Durnford Church, the details of which were pointed out by Mr. G. H. Gorpon; and then to Amesbury Church, which was described by PrecENToR VENABLES, and where it was announced that the fine old screen which once decorated the chancel was offered by Mr. Edwards (who had care- fully preserved it), for replacement in its original position; an offer which we trust will be gratefully accepted. After luncheon, the party proceeded by Vespasian’s Camp to Stonehenge, where GENERAL Pirt-Rivers first called attention to the great difference of opinion
24 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
which existed amongst antiquaries as to the age and intention of this world-renowned monument; and expressed his belief that if the Archzological Societies could first agree amongst themselves what they deemed most desirable for its protection, the owner, Sir Edmund Antrobus, would probably give his consent to any reasonable proposal that. might be made. The Rey. E. Duxz, calling on the many barrows surrounding Stonehenge as corroborating his view, very powerfully advocated the pre-Roman erection of that monument, in which he was supported by Mr. A. Evans, who went carefully into the question, and gave as his opinion of its approximate date B.C. 450. Dr. Cox, on the other hand, advocating the view of Mr. Fergusson (which has never found much favour with the main body of Wiltshire archzologists), argued that the great monument dated from post-Roman times, and might probably be attributed to the middle of the fifth century A.D. The Rev. Presenpary ScartH observed on the injuries that had acerued to the stones within the last twenty years, and others gave similar testimony: and thus ended another visit of learned antiquaries to Stonehenge, on which all the old theories were respectively touched, but no fresh evidence was elicited either as to its age or its object; nothing, too, alas! was done as to its protection and preservation. The next halt was at Lake House, where the Rev. E. Dux received his numerous guests with his usual hospitality and kindness, and pointed out the many objects of interest in his excellent collection. Before leaving PrecEntor VENABLES expressed, on the part of the visitors, their most hearty thanks, and then all drove back to Salisbury, which was reached at 7, p.m.
At 8.30 a Conversazione was held at the Council House, when the Historical Section was opened by its President, the Very Rev. Toe Dean or Satispury; who most happily pointed out the successful historical researches which have been made of late years by the deans, canons, prebendaries, and other members of the Cathedral bodies of England. This was followed by a paper by the Rev. C. H. Mayo on “ Dorset Bibliography,” which gave rise to an animated discussion, begun by the Bishop of Salisbury, as to the means of collecting materials for a county history, and in which the
Report. 25
Rev. Str Tatsot Baker, the Rev. C. H. Mayo, and the Rev. PreBenpary Scartu took part.
The President of the Antiquarian Section, the Bishop of Salisbury, then took the chair, when a paper was read by Sin Tatpot Baker, which had been prepared by Dr. Wake Smart, on “Celtic and Roman Antiquities in the district bounded by Bokerley Dyke and the River Stour.” The cordial thanks of the Meeting having been duly offered from the chair to the authors of the several papers read, the conversazione terminated.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 4ru.
The Annual Meeting of the Institute took place in the Council Chamber at 10, am., Eart Percy in the chair, when the report was read, the balance sheet presented, an address to Her Majesty on the occasion of her Jubilee agreed to, and the usual business of the Institute transacted. This Meeting was confined to Members of the Institute only, and whilst it was taking place, the Annual Meeting of the Wiltshire Archzological and Natural History Society was held at the Bishop’s Palace, the Lorp BisHop or THE Diocese (the President of the Society) in the chair. There were also present :—General Pitt-Rivers, the Rev. E. H. Goddard, the Rev. M. Meade, the Rev. C. V. Goddard, Mr. Bell, Mr. C. E. Ponting, Mr. A. B. Fisher, and Mr. H. E. Medlicott (one of the Hon. Secretaries).
Tue Bisnor opened the proceedings by calling on Mr. H. E. Mep.icorr to read the following annual report for 1887 :—
REPORT.
“The Committee of the Wiltshire Archeological and Natural History Society has again the satisfaction of recording the well- being of the Society, which continues to hold on its even course, and to carry on the work for which it was instituted with quiet perseverance. But though flourishing, with somewhat increased numbers, we must not omit to mention the losses by death (happily fewer in number than it has been our province to record of late years) which the Society has sustained since our last Annual Meeting.
26 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
Of these we would first mention the late Lord Ailesbury, whose generous hospitality shewn to the Society at Savernake will never be forgotten by those who attended the Marlborough Meeting in 1879. Sir Alexander Malet, again, was one who showed constant interest in the proceedings of our Society, and would, but for the infirmities of age, have some years since occupied the President’s chair, which the Society invited him to fill. Mr. Henry Weaver, of Devizes, was another old and valued Member, whose decease we are also called upon to lament. In addition to these there are but five others, who, either on account of removal from the county or from other causes, have withdrawn from the Society since the be- ginning of this year. So that the number of names now on the books (including, as usual, those of the Societies with which pub- lications are exchanged) amounts to three hundred and fifty-three, being an increase of fourteen since last year’s report.
“In regard to Finance, our balance in hand is about £150, as against £99 3s. 6d. at the beginning of the year; this increase is mainly due to the sale of the volume entitled ‘ British and Roman Antiquities of North Wilts.’
“Of the Magazine, one number was published in December last, and the second number of this year would, it was hoped, be issued before this time, but unforseen delays have occurred. It is the sixty-ninth number, being the concluding part of the twenty-third volume, and will very shortly be in the hands of Members. Both numbers, we confidently believe, are not behind their predecessors in local interest and value.
“The Museum and Library have been enriched by many additions, both in the Archeological and Natural History Departments—thanks to the kindness of several contributors, among whum we are especially indebted to Lord Heytesbury for the gift of an interesting collection of skulls and bones obtained from Bowles’ barrow, and to the Rev. H. C. Tomkins for some very valuable fossil specimens from the Portland beds at Swindon.
«The Committee desires to conelude this report by once more thanking all who had helped to further the work of the Society, whether by contributing to the pages of the Magazine or by donations
Thursday, August 4th. 27
to the Library and Museum. At the same time they cordially com- mend to all Wiltshiremen continual watchfulness that no relies of ancient times may be wantonly or carelessly destroyed ; and they would earnestly urge their Members to renewed activity in the several branches of Natural History, which tbey desire to point out as an important part of the work of the Society, but to which too little attention has hitherto been devoted, and which in some of its departments has scarcely been entered upon as regards the County of Wilts. Indeed, both in Archeology and Natural History there is yet a large field lying open for investigation, but a very small portion of which has yet been explored.”
Mr. Mepticorrt also referred to the absence of Mr. A. C. Smith, his colleague, which was caused by ill-bealth. They all regretted the absence of Mr. Smith, who had attended every Meeting of which he (Mr. Medlicott) was aware.
Mr. Pontine moved the adoption of the report, expressing his regret at Mr. Smith’s absence. This was seconded by Mr. Bztt, and agreed to.
The election of Officers was then proceeded with. Tur BisHop mentioned that in a letter which Mr. A. C. Smith had sent, that gentleman had said that it would be desirable to get another Mem- ber to act in his place as Hon. Secretary. The question now was whether they should accept Mr. Smith’s resignation. Mr. H. E. Mepiicorr said individually he would very much hope that nobody would accede to Mr. Smith’s suggestion. Of course the time must come when the Society would have to elect another gentleman, and it might be as well to look ahead to the election of a young arche- ologist to the office, but the work entailed a great deal of time, and he did not think he (the speaker) could carry out the whole of the business. The Editorship of the Society’s Magazine went with the post of Secretary, and this was a task of no mean importance. The Rev. E. H. Gopparp proposed that Mr. Smith and Mr. Medlicott be re-elected Secretaries, and that Mr. Smith be asked to continue his services. This was unanimously agreed to, as were the re-election of Mr. Henry Cunnington and Mr. Fisher as Curators on the motion of Mr. Bex, seconded by the Rev. C. V. Gopparp, and
28 The Thirty-Hourth General Meeting.
the whole of the Local Secretaries, with the exception of Dr. Highmore (Bradford-on-Aven), who resigned on leaving the county, In regard to the latter, the vacancy was not filled, but the election was left to the General Committee, which met in October and appointed Dr. Melville Thompson. Mr. Hart and Mr, Clark were re-elected auditors, on the motion of Mr. Pontina, seconded by Mr. BEtt.
Tue Bisnop read a letter from the Rev. E. Wyld, of Mere, calling attention to some discoveries that had been made at the old castle at Mere, and asking for advice as to how he should proceed with the excavations, upon which GxrNneraL Pirr-Rivers consented to visit Mere, in order to give Mr. Wyld the required advice.
Tue BisHor said, in speaking on behalf of this Society, at the Meeting of the Archeological Institute, he was led to ask some explanation how it was in so many years they had not been able to carry out the object for which they were founded. These Meetings were times of refreshing the Societies, but they were times also of visitation, and they ought to stir up the Members to make up their minds as to what they were going todo. He wanted that day to put before the Members of the Society present and through them those who were absent this question :—Whether they ought not to begin at once to form a methodical plan for collecting materials from every parish in the county so that the Mayazine should not only represent the private tastes and interests of Members—however eminent they might be— but should cover the whole of the ground ? He wanted to know if anyone could give some idea of what had been done and what remained to be done; or whether it might be possible to appoint a Committee to draw up a report of what had been done and with regard to what yet remained, and to construct a methodical plan of putting into pigeon holes—as it were—the in- formation that the future historian might want. Certain books had been published upon certain matters, but it was a question whether these might not be enlarged upon. At any rate a great deal re- mained to be done with regard to monumental remains, for, as illustrating the history of art, these must be very valuable. He merely indicated now in a rough manner what he thought ought to
Thursday, August 4th. 29
be done, and he hoped they would appoint a Committee to consider his suggestions.
A short diseussion ensued, and Tug Bisuor proposed ‘‘ That a small Committee be appointed to draw up an account (1) of what has been already done by the Society and others in the county towards fulfilling the main object for which the Society was formed in 1853, viz., the completion of a County History of Wilts; (2) of what remains to be done which is of pressing and immediate im- portance ; (3) to draw up a methodical scheme for collecting material for a county history and to consult with the Lincoln Architectural Association as to the plan adopted by them.” His Lordship suggested that the Committee should consist of the two Honorary Secretaries of the Wiltshire Archwological Society, the Rev. Canon Jackson, Mr. Nightingale, Mr. Ponting, and the Rev. E. H. Goddard.
This was unanimously agreed to.
Mr. Bett called attention to the condition of Stonehenge, and the remarks that had been made about it on the previous day by General Pitt-Rivers ; and he recommended that a Committee of the Wiltshire Archzological Society be formed to confer with similar Committees formed by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Royal Archeological Institute, to decide what steps might be taken with regard to the preservation of Stonehenge.
Eventually, after a short discussion, Mr. Bell’s suggestion was put into the form of a resolution and carried unanimously, the names of the gentlemen elected as the Committee being Mr. H. E. Medlicott and Mr. Bell.
The proceedings then terminated.
At 11, a.m., the Architectural Section met in the Council House, when the Rev. Precentor VENABLES, President of the Architectural Section, gave an opening address. At its conclusion the cordial thanks of the Meeting were unanimously accorded him, and then the Members proceeded to inspect St. Thomas’s Church, where Mr. A. Woop read a paper ; the Poultry Cross, which was described by Arcnpgacon Lear; the Hall of John Hall, which was restored by
80 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
Pugin; and Audley House, which has quite lately been con- verted into a Church House, and carefully fitted for that purpose. In the afternoon a large party drove to Britford Church, where the Vicar, the Rev. A. P. Morrss, read a paper, and where the famous Saxon arches caused much discussion. Then through Longford Park, and in front of the Castle, to Downton Church, where the Rey. A. D. Hit described the building and read a paper; and then to the Moot House, where tea had been hospitably provided by Mr. Squarey ; and lastly to the curious earthworks hard by, known as the “ Moot ”; where Tus Presipent (General Pitt-Rivers) led the way and pointed out the principal features of the spot, and the conclusions to which he had arrived that it was of Saxon origin, and in all probability the residence of a feudal chief. After some further observations by Mr. Squarzy and the Rev. A. D. Hut, Lorp Percy, in the name of the visitors, thanked Mr, Squarey for his hospitality, and the party drove back to Salisbury through Trafalgar Park, by permission of Lord Nelson.
In the evening a Conversazione was held at the Blackmore Museum, when Dr. Brackmore pointed out the principal contents of that unique collection, and Lorp Percy expressed the extreme admiration of the archxologists, and their sense of the value of the Museum and of the kindness of their reception there.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5ra.
This day was occupied in an excursion by rail to Bradford-on-Avon and some other interesting spots in its neighbourhood, whither the party proceeded by special train. The great tithe barn, dating from the fourteenth century, was first visited; then the bridge with its chapel, to which the date of the fifteenth century was generally attributed ; next Kingston House, where Mr. Suvum read a paper describing this fine specimen of a superior dwelling-house of a bygone age; and then the little Saxon “ ecclesiola” of St. Lawrence, which our lamented friend, Canon Jones, took such pains to preserve, and upon which Mr. E. C. Barren read a descriptive paper. It appeared to be the unanimous opinion of all present that the founder of this little Church was, as has been generally believed
Saturday, August 61h. 3k
in Wiltshire, no other than Bishop Aldhelm. A visit to the parish Church concluded the round of Bradford. After luncheon the party proceeded by road to see the old Manor House of South Wraxhall, which was first described by Mr. E. Greeny, and then a paper was read upon it by Mr. Pontina. Next they drove to the charming
old Manor House of Great Chalfield, on which the Rev. E. Kinaston yead a paper, and where the owner, Mr. G. P Futusr, hospitably provided tea; then they drove back to Trowbridge, and returned by special train to Salisbury.
In the evening the Architectural Section met at 8, p.m., at the Council House, when papers were read by Mr. C. E. Pontine, on “Edington Church”; by the Rev. J. A. Benyerr, on “The Architect of Salisbury Cathedral” ; and by Mr. J. A. Gorcu, on “Longford Castle and Longleat.” Meanwhile, in the Historical Section, the Rev. Prepenpary Scarru read a paper on “ Britain a Province of the Roman Empire”; and the Rev. J. Hirst a paper entitled “Thoughts on the past influence of Reigning Women.”
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6ru.
To-day an excursion was planned for Wardour, Tisbury, and Wilton. The party went by train to Tisbury Station, where carriages awaited their arrival, and took them first to the very picturesque ruins of old Wardour Castle. Here Precentor VENABLES gave some account of the place and its history, and then they went on through the park to modern Wardour House, where they were most hospitably and kindly received by Lorp and Lapy ARUNDELL. After due inspection of the many objects of interest which the house contained, and after fitting acknowledgment, through Precen- ToR VENABLES, of the courtesy shown by the noble owners, the Members next drove to Tisbury Church. Here the Vicar, the Rev. F. G. Hurcutnson, introduced them to the most noteworthy points of interest, and then Mr. Micxterawaite remarked on certain peculiarities in the building, and expressed an earnest hope, which was echoed by all present, that what remained might be preserved. The next halt was at Place House, where the old manor house and barn were visited; and then by train to Wilton. Here luncheon
32 The Thirty-Fourth General Meeting.
occupied the first attention of the archeologists, and then they visited the Church, where the Rector, Canon OLivigr, read a paper on the chief features of the building, and other speakers made remarks on the Italian style of architecture generally, and on the examples which the late Lord Herbert had followed when he built this beautiful specimen of Italian art. Wilton House was next visited, by invitation of Lord Pembroke, and to all who had never seen them an introduction to the sculpture gallery, the pictures and other art treasures accumulated here, was a great treat. The party was also refreshed with tea in the gardens, after the hospitality for which Wilton House has for ages been celebrated, and after a cordial vote of thanks had been offered, on the part of the Members, by the Rev. Str Tatsor Baker, they drove to Bemerton, once the abode of holy George Herbert, and thence to Salisbury.
In the evening the Historical Section met at the Council House, under the Presidency of the Dean or Satispury; when a paper was read by the Rev. Dr. Cox, on “ Lichfield Minster and City in the fifteenth Century ” ; and another by Mr. J. S. Upat, on “ Dorset Seventeenth Century Tokens.”
On Sunday the Members generally attended the Cathedral ser- vices, at which the Bishop of Salisbury was the preacher in the morning, and the Rev. Canon Creighton in the afternoon.
MONDAY, AUGUST 8ru.
The excursion to-day was to Boyton House, Scratchbury Camp, Warminster, and Heytesbury. The Members first proceeded by special train to Codford, and thence to Boyton, where the Rector, the Rey. R. Z. Waker, conducted them over his Church. They then visited Boyton Manor House, hard by, some time the residence of the late Duke of Albany, and here Gzengrat Buair Rev very kindly led the way. Next they drove to the large British camp at Scratchbury, where they were fortunate in the guidance of the Rev. Presenpary Scartu. After luncheon at Warminster they drove to Heytesbury Church, where the Vicar, Rv. J.Swayne, favoured them with a paper describing its principal features ; and then to Knook Church, where
Tuesday, August 9th. 33
Mr. Micxreruwarte pointed out the fragments of a very early sun-dial, which he attributed to pre-Norman times. Lastly to Heytesbury House, where the fine collection, of pictures, notably the Murillos brought from Spain by the late Lord Heytesbury, were much admired. By the kind attention of the noble owner tea was served to the visitors; and then, after a due expression of thanks to Lord Heytesbury, the party returned to Salisbury by rail.
‘This evening the concluding Meeting was held in the Council House, and was mainly occupied in recording special votes of thanks to those who had been instrumental in preparing for and assisting at this eminently successful gathering, First, to the Mayor and Corporation, for their kind and hospitable welcome ; then to the Bishop of Salisbury, President of the Wiltshire Archzo- logical and Natural History Society ; then to the Dean and Chapter, for the countenance and assistance they had rendered ; next to General Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers, who had so ably presided over the Meeting; and then to the readers of the several papers, and to the hospitable entertainers of the Members; and last, but by no means least, to the indefatigable efforts on their behalf, of the Rev. Sir Talbot Baker, Bart., Mr. W. M. Hammick, and Mr, H. W. Crickmay, who had made such satisfactory arrangements.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 91x.
Strictly speaking, the Meeting was now concluded ; but another day’s excursion was provided, to enable the Members to take ad- vantage of the liberal invitation of the President, General Pitt- Rivers, to visit Rushmore. Accordingly a large party drove by Bokerly Dyke, whose course was pointed out by, Mr. Squarzy ; through Cranborne Chase, to the Farnham Museum, where the fine collection of antiquities from the British barrows of Woodcuts and Rotherley Wood was duly inspected and admired. Then they drove to Rushmore, where they were most hospitably entertained at luncheon by General Pitt-Rivers, and afterwards conducted by him to Rotherley Wood, where the site of the British village was ex~ amined. Lorp Percy then thanked the President for his hospitality and for the archzological treat which the Museum and its contents, VOL, XXIV.—NO. LXX, D
34 Opening Address to the Section of Architecture
as well as the excavated barrows and British village, had afforded them; and then they drove to Ferne, where Sir Thomas Grove kindly offered tea, and so to Tisbury Station, whence they returned by rail to Salisbury.
Nor were some of the archeologists yet satiated with antiquities, for, at the conclusion of the Meeting at Salisbury, a select party, composed partly of Members of the Institute and partly of Members of the Wiltshire Archzological Society, by previous arrangement, made an expedition to Brittany, and crossing over from Southampton to Cherbourg arrived at Coutance on Friday, August 12th, and spent the day in visiting the Cathedral and other Churches of that city. Next day they went to Mont St. Michel : and the subsequent days were devoted to Vannes, Locmariaquer, and some of the islands’ of the Morbihan, and in visiting the many lines of stones, the in- numerable dolmens and stone circles for which that district is famous; finishing the expedition at Quimper. Throughout they were most kindly received by the French archzologists, who spared no pains to make the visit of their English confréres both pleasant and instructive.
Opening Address to the Section of Architecture at the Salishurpy AMeeting.
By the Rev. Precentor VENABLES.
JT has always seemed to me that as it has been the habit of oo &{ the Presidents of the Historical and Antiquarian Sections in their respective addresses, to give a sketch of the history and antiquities of the place where the Meeting is held, with a mention
1 Delivered at Salisbury, August 4th, 1887, and printed in the Journal of the Royal Archzological Institute, 1887, vol. xliv., p. 224, :
at the Salisbury Meeting. 85
of any past discoveries or recent investigations bearing on the subject in its general aspect, so the President of the Architectural Section will fulfil his task most adequately if he offers a rapid survey of the architecture of the district—ecclesiastical, domestic, and military, and also makes mention of the chief architectural events of the past year bearing on the science in its archwological aspect. Both these objects I will endeavour, however imperfectly, to fulfil.
Pre-historic architecture, illustrated so magnificently in the county of Wilts in the mysterious circles of Avebury and Stonehenge, and the standing stones, cromlechs, and cistvaens which stud its downs, as well as in the camps and villages which so abundantly crown the hill crests, belongs to the Section of Antiquities and does not enter into our present purpose. Architecture, properly so called, begins for us with the so-called Anglo-Saxon era; a convenient and in- telligible, if not strictly correct term. Of this era the county of Wilts has several examples to show, one of which is certainly un- surpassed in value by any building of its age in England. I mean, of course, the old Church at Bradford-on-Avon, rescued from its desecration and restored to its sacred purpose by one whose premature death has inflicted an irreparable loss upon the archeology of Wilt- shire generally, and of Salisbury in particular, never more acutely felt than at our present gathering, the late Canon Rich Jones. In this little building, which, in the words of one who, though happily he is still alive and likely to live for many years, and is not so very far from us, is, unhappily not with us—Professor Freeman—is “ probably the most ancient unaltered Church in England,” we may safely recognize the Church erected by St. Aldhelm at the beginning of the eighth century and mentioned by William of Malmesbury as standing in his day, as it still stands in our day, at the Broad Ford over the Avon; “est ad hunc diem in eo loco ecclesiola quam ad nomen beatissimi Laurentii (Aldhelmus) fecisse predicatur.” All qualified judges who see it will agree that there is only one period at which a building so remarkable both in its outline and in its detail could have been erected in England, and that the period named _ by Malmesbury. There are other examples of the same rude pre- Norman style in the remarkable Church of Britford and at North
D2
36 Opening Address to the Section of Architecture
Burcombe, and though less certainly at Manningford Braose, where the east end is semi-circular instead of square, as is usual in English Churches anterior to the Norman Conquest, and Avebury. As far as I know no instance of the characteristic Anglo-Saxon towers, such as those at Earls Barton, Barton-on-Humber, Barnack, and in the city of Lincoln, occurs in Wiltshire.
We hardly need to be reminded how intimate is the connection ‘between the medieval Churches and the geological formation of the district to which they belong. The nature of the local building- material rules the architecture. There is an exception to the law where, as in parts of Lincolnshire and the adjacent low-lying district, water carriage was easy and inexpensive. Here we find an abun- dance of noble Churches, excellent in their stone work and unstinting in the richness of their design in a country which does not produce building stone of any description, the whole being brought on rafts or in bays from the quarries of Barnack and Ketton. But where there was no such facility of transport the builders were entirely dependent on local material, and the character of the Churches both. in form and detail is governed by it. The reason why we find round towers so common in Suffolk and Norfolk is that they could be-constructed of flint alone which was abundant, and had no angles to be strengthened with quoins of stone, which was rare. The same causes led to the invention of the elaborate patterns of black flint set in tracery of white stone which are so beautiful a feature in the East Anglian Churches. The variety of light and shade produced elsewhere by deeply-cut mouldings and recessed panels, when stone was scarce and thin and had to be used economically, was ingeniously given by contrasted colours in the same plane. The thatched roofs speak of a swampy district where slates were not and tiles were dear, while sedge and reeds might be had for cutting. A want of stone and abundance of pebbles has also given us the boulder-built Churches of the Sussex seaboard, while the wooden bell-turrets and shingled spires of the same county may be traced to the wide-spreading forests which covered its surface until the iron works which once had their seat there had consumed them all, and thus, fuel ceasing, put themselves out, The unmanageable
—
at the Salisbury Meeting. 87
texture of the Cornish granite is answerable for the coarseness of the ecclesiastical architecture of that county, while the fatal softness of the red sandstone of Cheshire and Staffordshire has led to an indulgence in an excess of ornamentation which has proved only too transient,
If now we turn to Wiltshire we find the same law dictating the character of the Churches. Wherever, as in the northern part and -in some districts of the south-west, good stone is abundant, and as the masonry of Salisbury Cathedral testifies, no county in England supplies better, the Churches are usually large, lofty, and carefully designed, much pains being taken in the ashlar of the walls and in the exterior generally, on which a good deal of ornament is often bestowed. Where, on the contrary, as in the southern and eastern districts, the only building material is chalk, clunch, and flints, with just enough green sandstone for windows and doorways and dressings, the Churches are diminutive and homely, with low square steeples, or wooden belfrys. These materials are often arranged in chequers of stone and flint, producing a very pleasing effect. Many of these smaller Churches possess features of considerable interest, more especially those which have escaped the hand of the restorer, which has, alas! been very busy in Wiltshire. On those on which that hand has been laid lightly, guided by the true principle of all restoration, viz., to preserve and maintain and never to destroy, ‘Norman doorways and chancel arches are by no means unfrequent and are sometimes richly ornamented, while a considerable amount of good Early English work is to be found, often plain and simple, but always pleasing. These smaller and humbler Churches often get passed over, but they will almost always reward a visit. Even when their architectural features are of the plainest there is usually something in their shape and colouring and position, and the way in which they group with the cottages which are scattered about them and the trees out of which their little belfrys peer, on which the memory dwells with more satisfaction than on many a more stately edifice.
It is observable that, while in some large parts of England the cruci- form plan is hardly found at all, Churches of this form are somewhat
38 Opening Address to the Section of Architecture
frequent in Wiltshire. Some of these are on rather a large scale and of considerable dignity, such as Edington, Amesbury, Westbury, ‘Tisbury, Heytesbury, Downton, Bishopston, All Cannings, Bishops Cannings, and Great Bedwyn, and several more, while others are small and unpretending. The nave at least is commonly provided with aisles, but the noble Church of Potterne, one of the finest in the county, has none, and the Churches of Winterbourne Stoke and Britford are also aisleless). The Church of Bratton may be men- tioned as a perfect specimen of an aisleless cruciform Church with a central tower on the smallest scale. A singular line of cruciform Churches runs along the Vale of Chalk, where Bishopston, Broad Chalk, Bower Chalk, Alvediston, and Berwick St. John, in suc- cession, exhibit the same plan. A central tower is essential to the completeness of the outline of a cruciform Church. This is seldom wanting in the Wilts cross Churches, and in some, as at Chilmark, and Bishops Cannings, which is crowned with a stone spire, at Potterne, Westbury, Cricklade St. Sampson’s, and others, it is of considerable dignity. Corsham Church had till recently a central tower, but when it was restored by the late Mr. Street he pulled it down and built a new tower and spire in a different position; we may suppose that there were sufficient reasons for that treatment. While speaking of towers it should be mentioned that two Churches near the north-east border, Purton and Wanborough, both cruciform in plan, present the unusual feature of two steeples, a square tower at the west end of the nave and aspire in the centre. This arrange- ment, it will be remembered, is also found at Wimborne Minster, the western tower being the later belfry of the parochial nave, that at the intersection the early lantern of the Collegiate Church. The western steeples at Purton and Wanborough are also later additions for the reception of a peal of bells, for which the existing central spire was inadequate.
Stone spires, though by no means numerous, are not very un- common. Passing over that of Salisbury Cathedral, confessedly without a rival in England, and for the union of simple majesty and exquisite grace almost without a rival in the world, these spires do not generally take the first rank for height or beauty. There are,
EE —— a
at the Salisbury Meeting. 39
however, good examples at Chilmark, Bishops Cannings, Trowbridge, and Lacock. There is a nice specimen of a small stone spire at Little Bedwyn. Pack-saddle roofs, an unusual form in England, are found at North and South Wraxall, at Holt, and at Winsley. A bell turret crowned with a spirelet of much elegance is rather frequent in the north-west corner of the county, as at Acton Turvill, Sutton Benger, Corsley, Corston, Biddeford, and Great Chaldfield. The small wooden turrets of the south-east have been already referred to. They are often very picturesque. Stone groined roofs, though
far from being common, are less uncommon in Wiltshire than in
other parts of England. The Norman chancels of St. John’s and
' St. Mary’s at Devizes have good vaults of that date. Early English
and Decoroted vaulting is found at the beautiful Churches of Bishops Cannings, Urchfont, Steeple Ashton, Bishopston, Marlborough Sts Peter’s, and the south transept of Bromham, The nave of Steeple Ashton is groined in wood, the ribs springing from stone shafts.! At Knoyle and Edington there are curious plaster ceilings of late date which deserve notice.
Taking a general survey of the county we find Norman work very abundant, though not usually of a very high order. The humble village Churches frequently contain a door or a window ora chancel arch of that period. Great Durnford is a typical example, and the fabrics of a large number evidently belong to this period. We have examples within a short distance of Salisbury. Berwick St. James preserves its Norman doorway, while there are doorways and other remains of Norman work, as in the Churches of Winter- bourne Stoke, Stapleford, South Newton, and Little Langford, all wery near together. The tower of Netheravon is very Early Norman.
_ 1Mr. Ponting tells me that the nave and aisles of Steeple Ashton were originally groined in stone, as the chancel is now. This is shewn by the existing flying buttresses, and various indications inside the Church. The stone vault was probably destroyed by the fall of the spire in the latter part of the seven- teenth century. This catastrophe is thus described by Aubrey: ‘On 25th July, 1670, there was a rupture of the steeple of Steeple Ashton, by lightning. The steeple was 93 feet high, above the tower, which was much about that height, The stones fell and broke part of the church, but never hurt the Font.”
40 Opening Address to the Section of Architecture
The west doorway is unusually lofty having originally opened into a western porch, now destroyed. Upavon has a square Norman tower, and a triple chancel arch late in the style. The most con- spicuous Norman building in Wiltshire is the fragment of the Abbey Church of Malmesbury. Much of it, however, is late in this style and belongs rather to the Transition period. Its doorways are well known. The outer south door, with its interlaced bands and series of scriptural medallions, is unsurpassed for richness of decoration by any door in England, We have fine examples of late Norman in the groined chancels of the two Churches at Devizes, the work of the warlike Bishop Roger, the greatest builder of his day. The Churches at Corsham, Preshute, and several others, preserve their Norman arcades, and at Melksham, amid many alterations, we have enough left to make out the original cruciform Norman Church.
Passing to Early English, in the unrivalled Cathedral under the shadow of which we are meeting, we have the most perfect example of the style on its grandest scale to be found in England. As is natural, its influence spread, and we find village Churches displaying the same purity of design, harmony of proportions, and dignified simplicity of outline, of which the mother Church set the example. Potterne, which may very probably be ascribed to Bishop Poore, the founder of the Cathedral, may not improperly be called Salisbury in miniature. The simple plan of this noble Church, cruciform without aisles, has come down without any alterations except the addition of a fourteenth century south porch. Broad Hinton is another example of an Early English nave and chancel, and the north wall of the chancel at Enford, with a blank arcade, with an octagonal sacristy connected with the Church by a short narrow passage, may be ascribed to Bishop Poore’s influences. Bishops Cannings, though with later alterations which mar its unity, is also a beautiful example in the style, which we find also in great ex- cellence in the chancel of Great Bedwyn, at Collingbourne Kingston, Boyton, Purton, Downton, Amesbury (a very stately example) and many other places.
The fourteenth century seems to have been less prolific in Church building in Wiltshire than elsewhere. There is, it is true, no want
at the Salisbury Meeting, ~ 41
of Decorated architecture in windows, doors, and in portions of Churches, but there are fewer entire Churches in this style than in the midland counties. The chancel of Downton is a good example of early Decorated. We have rich Flamboyant work in the transepts of Great Bedwyn, and in those of Lacock; also in the chancel and transepts of the very interesting Church of Bishopston, especially the south transept with its very curious external cloister. The chancel at Wroughton is also a very charming example of flowing Decorated, with very good tracery and mouldings. At Boyton the Decorated work is earlier in date, and very good.
The transition from Decorated to Perpendicular is exemplified in the very remarkable Church of Edington, now being very carefully restored by Mr. Ponting. This is one of the most important buildings we possess for the history of English architecture, in which we trace the beginnings of the new style—the special growth of English soil—and watch the curves of the tracery stiffening into rectilinear uniformity. Perpendicular not improbably had its rise in the Abbey of Gloucester. We find the earliest dated instance of its employment in the south transept of the Abbey Church now the Cathedral, soon after which it appears in the re-modelling of Winchester Cathedral, commenced by Bishop Edington, and though less fully developed in the noble Collegiate Church founded by him in his native village as a thank-offering for his elevation to the episcopate, whieh is deservedly one of the chief glories of Wiltshire. The first stone of this Church was laid in 1352, and it was dedicated in 1361; dates of some importance in the origin of the Perpendicular style.
It would occupy too much of your time to dwell on the Perpen- dicular work in this county. As everywhere else there is hardly a Church which does not exhibit large or small traces of the great wave of rebuilding and alteration which passed over the country as the Gothic style was losing its life and freedom, and preparing to give way to the newly-introduced classical revival. The stately Church of Mere, with its noble west tower, may be mentioned as one of the best in South Wilts. Westbury deserves notice as an example of a Church originally Norman re-cast in Perpendicular,
42 Opening Address to the Section of Architecture
much in the way Wykeham treated Winchester Cathedral. The nave is very stately, and the aisles shew a not very usual feature in the transverse stone arches with inter-penetrating mouldings, which cross them from north to south. The masonry throughout is of great excellence. While at. Westbury we have an adapted building, and at Mere a mixed building, at Trowbridge we have an example of a Perpendicular Church raised from the ground, as one design without any admixture of earlier style, by the munificence of the inhabitants, chiefly rich clothiers, in 1475. It is a typical Church of its date, with a western tower, groined within, supporting a lofty stone spire, north and south porches, and a very beautiful open timber roof, the whole deserving Leland’s description as “lightsome and fair.” The font is lofty, carved with the emblems of the crucifixion. Steeple Ashton, built between 1480 and 1500, by the clothiers, is also a very noble Perpendicular Church exhibiting well- finished masonry of the highest order of excellence. The clerestory is lofty, the arcades tall and imposing, the windows large aud good, Both the chancel and the nave are groined; the former in stone, the latter in wood, 8, Thomas’ of Salisbury, though late and rather coarse, is a very good example of a rich Perpendicular town Church. With its light arcades, very wide aisles, and low timber ceilings, it supplies a model the designers of our town Churches might do well to follow. I would except the clerestoried chancel, which is of somewhat excessive length for modern requirements. Perpendicular work of peculiar richness is to be found in the north- east angle of the county, sometimes in the fabrics of the Churches, sometimes in appended chapels and chantries. The nave of Lacock is a sumptuous building, and the Lady Chapel deserves notice for its fan-traceried roof and general richness of character. The Baynton Chapel at Bromham is also a very gorgeous example of late Gothic, with a richly panelled ceiling. We have a similar specimen in the magnificent Beauchamp Chapel, at St. John’s, Devizes. In the same district a rich canopied niche crowning the apex of a gable is by no means unfrequent; we have good examples at Lacock and St. John’s, Devizes. The chancel and tower of Calne, re-built after the fall of the older tower in 1645, is a very interesting
at the Salisbury Meeting. 43
specimen of the survival of the Gothic style, of which we have such conspicuous examples at Oxford and Cambridge.
The monastic remains of Wiltshire are scanty. The great religious foundations of Wilton, Amesbury, and others have entirely passed away, leaving few if any fragments of their once extensive buildings. At Malmesbury a large portion of the nave is still standing, and a vaulted crypt over which may have been the Abbot’s house, and some other relics are built up in an Elizabethan house, At Bradenstoke, the refectory, a beautiful example of early Decorated work, is preserved, with its vaulted under-croft, prior’s house, and domestic offices. The remains of Monkton Farleigh are of early English date, but are very insignificant. The most important and best preserved monastic building in the county is the Nunnery at Lacock, founded by Ela of Salisbury, in memory of her husband, William Longsword. It is too little known for it is one of the best ex- isting examples of conventual arrangement, substantially unchanged. The cloister, with its three beautifully vaulted alleys of good Perpen- dicular design, is surrounded with the usual monastic buildings, on a small scale, but of excellent character. Of the Church on the south side only the north wall remains. Opening out of the east walk we have in succession the sacristy, the chapter house, the slype, and the calefactory or day room, all of early English date, with the Perpendicular dormitory above. The refectory occupies the north side, standing on a vaulted undercroft, with the kitchen at the lower end. The whole building is of the greatest interest, and it is to be regretted that it lies too far away for us to visit it on this occasion.
If the remains of monastic architecture in Wilts are but scanty, the remains of military architecture are scantier still. The great castles of the county which have played so important a part in English history have completely vanished, leaving only their high mounds and earthworks with some fragments of walls and vaults to testify to their former existence. I may mention Old Sarum, Devizes, Marlborough, Castle Combe, and Ludgershall. The only eastle of which the walls still stand is Wardour, hexagonal in plan, a good example of early Perpendicular, when the military castle was passing into the nobleman’s residence.
44 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.
In domestic architecture few counties are so rich as Wiltshire. In the northern part of the county nearly every parish can shew specimens of the fifteenth and sixteenth century small manor house, with long low gabled front, two-storied porch, hall and solar, lighted by stone-mullioned windows. ‘There also several examples of the larger and more stately mansions, especially those of South Wraxall, with a good deal of later adaptation. I may also mention Great Chaldfield and the Duke’s House, at Bradford, all of which we are to inspect, Norrington, Charlton, Corsham, Littlecot, and many more. The still larger and more magnificent houses of Wiiton, Longleat, and Longford, and others, have few rivals in any part of England. The town houses of Salisbury, the Audley Mansion now the Church House, the Hall of John Halle, and others, more or less mutilated, are excellent illustrations of the domestic life of our civic forefathers.
Naturally the examples of later architecture are more abundant, but earlier examples are not wanting. The fourteenth century houses at Stanton St. Quentin; Place Farm, Tisbury ; Woodlands, Mere; and the Barton Farm, at Bradford, with its noble barn, deserve the most careful examination.
The Church Heraldry of ANorth Wiltshive,
By ArrHur ScHOMBERG.
(Continued from Vol. xxiii., p. 313.
HUNDRED OF SWANBOROUGH. WOODBOROUGH. North Aisle. 830. I.—Or, three cinquefoils sable, impaling, argent, a fess erenely, between six fleurs-de-lys barwise, gules.
By Arthur Schomberg. 45
Sophia, wife of William Dyke, ob. 1804; William Dyke, ob. 1815; Hannah, his widow, ob. 1853, wt. 85.
831. II.—Dykxn (380) impaling, paly of six or and sable, three crescents gules.
~ Jerome Dyke, ob. 1782. On Flat Stone in Chancel.
332, III.—A crescent between three conies sejant; impaling, a chevron charged with a crescent, in chief two martlets, Wick. M.I.
Dorothy Coningsby, ob. 1699, M.I.
Over Chancel Arch. 833, IV.—Royal arms (27).
Altar Tomb, South-East of Churchyard. 834. V.—On either side—1. A lion rampant crowned, in chief’ three martlets. : 335. VI.—On either side—2. a chevron engrailed ermine be- tween three roundels, each charged with a trefoil slipt. 336. VIL.—On either end.—3. A demi-lion rampant indented per pale, holding a rose tree eradicated.
John Walker (hereditary Chief Usher of the Court of Exchequer), ob. 1758; Colebrook, his son, ob. 1757.
NORTH NEWNTON.
Chancel. 837. I.—A greyhound’s head erased, collared. Francis Wroughton, ob. 1738. 338. II.—1l. Argent, three battering rams, barwise, in pale, Bertiz; impaling, or, an escocheon within an orb of mullets or.
CHAMBERLAINE. Supporters :—dexter, a friar habited, with crutch and rosary; sinister, a savage, wreathed about the head and loins,
46 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.
. 839. ITI.—2. Quarterly, 1 and 4, sable, on a fess argent three lion’s heads erased gules between as many anchors or; 2 and 3, per pale gules and azure, a cross-crosslet or, on a shield of pretence, CuaMBERLaInE (338). M.I.
340. IV.—8. Wrovucuton (826), impaling, Bertie (338). M.I.
The Right Honourable Catherine, Countess Dowager of Abingdon, ob. 1741, zt. 83. She had three husbands :—1, Viscount Wenman; 2, Earl of Abingdon; 3, Francis Wroughton.
- 841, V.—A brass plate. Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, a chevron between three stags trippant sable. 2 and 3. Quarterly sable and argent, in the first and fourth quarters three mullets of the second ; over all, an escocheon gules thereon a portcullis, ensigned with an imperial crown or. Crest. A stag trippant sable, chained and gorged crenely or. Lux mea Christus,
Francis Newman Rogers, ob, 1859.
Over Tower Arch. _ 842, VI.—Royal arms (44).
RUSHALL. Nave, South Wail,
* 348. I.—A piece of sculpture with two panels, let into the wall, on one W.P., on the other Pinckney (301).
344, []—Princxney (301). Crest. Out of a coronet a griffin’s head erased.
George Henry Pinckney, ob. 1883.
Hatchment on North Wail.
845, III.—Argent, a fess azure between three mullets gules, the badge of Ulster. Crest. A cubit arm erect, vested sable, charged with two mullets in fess or, slashed argent, cuffed ermine, in dexter hand an arrow proper, Honor fidei merces, Poorz,
By Arthur Schomberg. 47
North Chapel. 846. IV.—Poorr, with crest ; without badge of Ulster and motto (345), impaling, Metuuen, without the eagle (265). Edward Poore, ob. 1788.
On Floor of West End of Nave, behind the Font. 347. V.—Pincxney (301).
Over Chancel Arch, — 848. VI.—Royal arms (44). Over Outside Window of North Chapel. . 849. VII.—Pooxs with crest (346).
UPAVON.
Chancel.
350, I.—Gurrarp (300). Crest. A cubit arm erect, vested, in dexter hand a pair of attires, Deus adjutor meus.
Francis Giffard, ob. 1827; Charlotte, his wife, ob. 1831.
: North Aisle. 351. II.—Or, a cross patty.
Thomas Alexander, .ob. 1863; Elizabeth, his sister, ob. 1868; John, their brother, ob. 1870.
STANTON BERNARD.
Chancel,
; Painted Glass in East Window.
852. I.—Quarterly, 1 and 4, gules, a bend vaire. 2 and 3, _ argent, on a fess azure, three wolf’s heads erased or, in chief a lion passant gules, an annulet for difference; impaling, argent, on a fess sable three crosses bottony fitchy of the field between as many lion’s heads erased gules. Crest. An heraldic tiger, passant on a tilting spear, or, an annulet for difference. Carpe diem.
Henry Crowther, ob. 1850; and Jane, his wife, ob, 1867.
48 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.
North Wail.
853. II.—Argent, on a fess gules three fleurs-de-lys of the field between as many saltires couped sable (284) ; impaling, per fess or and argent, a lion rampant gules. Powzt, M.I. Crest. An ostrich couped below the neck argent,
Michael Smith, ob. 1720. Nave.
854, III.—1. Argent, three boar’s heads erased and erect sable, a mullet for difference; impaling, azure, a crescent argent between three fleurs-de-lys or, in chief as many tusks proper. Unwine. M.I.
2. No. 1 without the impalement, the mullet charged with a crescent. MT.
Thomas Booth, ob. 1635, M.I.
BEECHINGSTOKE. A Hatchment.
355. Sable, three bars argent, Brereton ; impaling, argent, a chevron engrailed per pale gules and sable, in dexter chief a torteau, in sinister chief a pellet. M.I.
ALTON BERNERS. Chancel.
East Wail. 856. I.—Argent, two bars sable! (222). John Brereton, ob. 1811; Mary, his wife, ob. 1821; Charles, their son, ob. 1803. Painted Glass in North Window.
3857. II.—Or, a cross fleuretty sable; impaling, argent, on a
* This coat is repeated on an apparently broken tombstone, without an inscrip- tion, on the west wall outside the Church.
By Arthur Schomberg. 49
mount vert a tower sable, on a chief or three stork’s heads erased gules. Smiru. Crest. A goat’s head erased argent, horned or,
W. Lamplugh, ob. 1727.
A Flat Stone on Floor.
358. III.—On a fess a chaplet between three billets, a crescent for difference. M.I.
Francis Skull, ob. 1735. M.I. WILCOT. Chancel. A stone Aliar-Tomb, with low Canopy, let into North Wall, dated 1574,
359.—Three bear’s heads erased, with crescent for difference, This repeated on either side of the canopy.
‘a John Berwick, ob. 1574; his daughter, Anne Wroughton, ob. 1610; her husband, Thomas Wroughton, Kt., ob. 1597.
OARE.
MARDEN.
North Wali of Nave.
860. I.—Crest. A bull’s head between two wings displayed. In Deo mea spes.
Elizabeth Susanna Neate, ob. 1840; Stephen Richmond Neate, her husband, ob. 1874; Stephana Frances, their daughter, ob. 1843.
Over Chancel Arch. 861. II.—Royal arms (27).
HEWISH.
EASTERTON.
VOL, XXIV.—NO. LXX, E
50 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire, MANNINGFORD BRUCE.
On a carved and painted wooden reredos are the symbols of the Four Evangelists and Agnus Dei.
North Wall of Chancel.
362. Quarterly. 1. Nicaonas (175). 2. Gules, a chevron between three escallop shells or. 8. Gules (M.I. azure), three roaches in pale naiant argent (M.I. or) Rocuz (187). 4. Or, on a chevron between three ravens sable two lions passant of the field ; impaling, per fess or and azure, a chevron gules between three mullets counterchanged, a canton of Enetanp. Lane.
Mary Nicholas, ob. 1686; helped to save the life of Charles ITI. after the battle of Worcester; * that the memory of this extraordinary ‘service might be continued to posterity the family was dignified with the addition of this signall badge of honour: the armes of England in a canton.”
MANNINGFORD ABBOTS, North Wall of Chancel.
863. I,—Azure, a cinquefoil ermine, a crescent for difference ; impaling, quarterly, 1 and 4, azure, on a chevron or (?) three fleurs- de-lys between as many boar’s heads erased, Luprorp. 2. Gules, three lion’s jambs erased, Newpicare. 8. Vair, a fess gules. Crest. Out of a coronet three ostrich feathers. Fide sed cui vide.
Francis Bickley Astley, ob. 1856.
364, II.—Crest. Qut of a coronet sable three ostrich feathers, Francis William Astley, ob. 1848.
865. III.—Astiuy (363) without the crescent. Mary Dorothea Astley, ob, 1844.
MANNINGFORD BOHUN.
By Arthur Schomberg. 51
HUNDRED OF BRADFORD. BRADFORD. Hoty Teiniry. North Wall of Chancel.
866. I.—A large monument with life-size statue in costume of William ITI, Or, a fess checky argent and azure, a bordure ermine, impaling, sable, a lion passant guardant or between three esquire’s helmets argent, garnished of the second. Compton. Crest. A royal crown proper.
Charles Steward, ob. 1698.
- 867. II.—Azure, a lion rampant argent, langued gules, in chief, three escallop shells of the second.
Daniel Clutterbuck, ob. 1786.
868. III.—Yernrsury (55) ; impaling, Bae (319). Crest. A lion’s head erased.
Francis Yerbury, ob. 1778; Mary, his wife, ob. 1775; Francis their son, ob. 1752-3; Richard, their son, ob. 1772 ; John William, their son, ob. 1824; Hester, his wife, ob. 1842, et. 82.
869. IV.—Quarterly, 1 and 4, Crurrerpuck (367). 2 and 3. Or, a cross quarterly counterchanged gules and sable, in the dexter chief an eagle displayed of the third, Wuss; impaling, per bend ermine and erminois, a lion rampantor, Epwarps.? Crest. A buck sejant.
Daniel Clutterbuck, ob. 1821; Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 1826.
370. V.— Azure, three garbs or, on a chief argent a boar’s head couped sable, langued and tusked proper; impaling, CLuTrERBUCK (367). Crest. A hart’s head erased.
1Qn the floor is an inscription to Charles Steward, with the same armorial bearings as above. For a description of this monument and an account of the Steward family vide “ Herald and Genealogist,” vol. ii., part vii. The Compton arms here given are those of the Marquess of Northampton ; the Comptons of Hartpury, to whom these Comptons belonged, bear argent, a fess nebuly gules, on a chief of the second a helmet between two lion’s heads erased or (320). The erest is also incorrect, and should be, @ stag proper, gorged with a collar checky argent and azure.
2 This quartering and impalement are taken from the Wilts Arch. Magazine, vol. v., p. 236, as the monument is too high up to enable one to give an accurate blazon.
EB 2
52 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.
Mawbey Tugwell, ob. 1815; Penelope, his wife, ob. 1861, xt. 80.
371. VI.—Tuewett (370) ; impaling, per fess sable and argent, in chief a royal crown or, in base a lion passant of the first. Jones.
Humphrey Tugwell, ob. 1775; Fitz-Daniel, his son, ob. 1747 ; Thomas, his son, ob. 1769; William, his son, ob. 1774; Elizabeth, the wife of Humphrey, ob, 1810, xt. 90.
372. WII.—Quarterly, 1 and 4, Tucwett (370). 2 and 3, Haywarp (279) ; impaling, quarterly, 1 and 4 Crurrersuck (367) ; 2 and 38, Wezs (369). Crest. Tu@we.t (370).
George Hayward Tugwell, ob. 1839; Sarah, his wife, — 1853.
South Wall of Chancel.
878. VIII.—A large white marble monument, with grey marble sarcophagus. 1.—Quarterly, 1 and 4, Meruuen (346). 2 and 3. Argent, two bars engrailed azure between nine martlets gules. Moore. Impaling, quarterly, 1 and 4, SeLrz (92). 2 and 3, Lucas (62). M.I. 2.—Mernuven (346) ; ona shield of pretence, Moors, Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. v. p. 238.
Anthony Methuen, ob. 1717; Gertrude, his wife, ob. 1699; Thomas, their son, ob. 1737; Ann, the wife of Thomas, ob. 1733.
874. IX.—A 6érass plate. Gules, three stirrups leathered in pale or.
Roger Deverell, buried 1546; Richard Deverell, buried 1627 ; Widow Deverell, buried 1629; John Deverell, buried 1726.
On Floor of Chancel. 875. X.—Comprton (366), without lion, a crescent for difference. Dennis Compton, Jun., “ Dame Mary Stuard’s brother,” ob. 1714. 376. XI.—Turesuer (117) ; impaling,! crusily, a lion rampant between two flaunches. Lona. Crest. A demi-hart rampant between two boughs slipt. John Thresher, ob. 1741; Ellin, his wife, ob. 1753.
377. XII.—A brass, thereon the figure of a woman2 Sable, a
1 The flaunches here are not ermine, but erusily. 2 Vide Kite’s Monumental Brasses of Wilts, p. 77.
By Arthur Schomberg. 53
lion passant argent, on a chief of the second three cross crosslets of the field. Lone of Monkton. This coat is repeated four times. Anne, wife of Gyfford Long, ob. 1601. 378. XIII.—Turesuer (117) ; impaling, Lone,' (276). Crest. (376). Dyonisia Thresher, ob. 1692 ; Edward, her husband, ob. 1725.
On tiles on the communion steps are depicted the symbols of the Evangelists, emblems of the Passion, Sc.; and on the reredos are eight shields containing emblems of the Passion, and two pieces of sculpture, viz., the pelican in piety and the Agnus Dei.
Wooden Shields under Roof of Chancel.
879. XIV.—Azure, an episcopal staff in pale, ensigned with a cross patty, surmounted with a pall, charged with four crosses patty fitchy. See of Canrersury.
380. XV.—A chevron and a canton gules, on the latter a cross- crosslet fitchy.
381. XVI.—A cross potent between four crosses. JERUSALEM. ' Symbol of the Five Precious Wounds and other sacred symbols.
North Aisle. Hatchment.
382, XVII.—Quarterly.—I. Azure, crusily a lion rampant argent. Surapnet (?). II. and III. Quarterly, 1 and 4, argent, a bend or. 2. Azure, a saltire, or. 3. Azure, on a saltire or two bars gules. IV. Gules, a fess ermine between three nag’s heads erased or; over all on an escocheon a bomb fired. Crest. Out of a coronet or a plume of ostrich feathers. Ratio ultima regum.
383. XVIII.—Argent, a chevron gules between three boar’s heads erased and erect sable, issuing out of each a cross crosslet fitchy of the second (117) ; impaling, Lone of Whaddon (80).
Edward Thresher, ob. 1725; John, his son, ob, 1741.
384, XIX.—Timsrett (72) ; impaling, sable, a fess ermine between three bells. Bett. Crest. A lion’s head erased.
1 The flaunches here are not ermine, but crusily.
54 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.
Charles Timbrell, ob. 1821; Ann, his wife, ob. 1831; Ann, their daughter, ob. 1806.
385. XX.'—Or, a chevron between in chief three bees volant and in base as many torteaux gules; on a shield of pretence, or, on a chevron between three demi-lions rampant gules as many cross- crosslets argent, Stevens. Crest. A bull’s head erased.
Ann Bailward, ob. 1788; Samuel, her son, ob. 1800; Henry Methuen, his son, ob. 1812; Mary Anne, his daughter, ob. 1825 ; Anne Maria, his wife, ob. 1837.
386. XXI.—A demi-virgin, proper, full-faced, crowned with an Eastern crown. Mercers’ Co. (vide Wilts Arch. Mag., vol. xxiii., p. 204, note). Crest, A nag’s head (looking to the sinister) couped.
William Baily, ob. 1712.
387. XXII.—Sable, a mullet argent, on a chief or a fleur-de-lys gules.
Susannah Rogers, ob. 1755.
South Aisle. |
388. XXIII.~A bomb fired, inscribed with a capital S in Gothic character. Ratio ultima regum.
Henry Shrapnel, ob. 1688; Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 1676 ; Zachariah Shrapnel, ob. 1723; Zachariah Shrapnel, ob. 1761; Ann Shrapnel, ob. 1787: Zachariah Shrapnel, ob. 1796; Lydia, his wife, ob. 1797; Elizabeth Warren, their daughter, ob. 1796; Joseph Shrapnel, ob, 1821; Henry Scrope Shrapnel, ob, 1849, xt. 80; Esther, his wife, ob. 1852.
- 389. XXIV.—Deverewt (374).
Amelia Deverell, ob. 1846; John, her husband, ob. 1876.
390. XXV.—A wolf rampant, collared and chained, in chief three crosses patty fitechy. Crest. A goat’s head erased.
Thomas Bush, ob. 1809; Mary, his wife, ob. 1824,
391. XXVI.—RogErs (387). Crest. A fleur-de-lys gules.
John Rogers, ob. 1754.
) Near this at one time was a hatchment with the above arms. Wilts Arch. Magy,., v., 235.
By Arthur Schomberg. 55
892. XXVIL—A white marble monument, a woman sitling iu mournful attitude, wnderneath is the parable of the Good Samaritan, carved im relief. TimBRELL (72) ; the second and third quarters and the escallops are kere or, and not argent. Crest, A kon’s head erased quarterly gules and or.
Thomas Timbrell, ob, 1815 ; zt. 83; Elizabeth, his wife, ob. 1805.
393, XXVIII.—Deverstt (374).
John Deverel., ob. 1785; Mary, his wife, ob. 1802; William Morford, their son, ob. 1787 ; John, their son, ob. 1829; Mary, his wife, ob. 1837.
394. XXIX.—A white marble monument, a woman mourning over an urn, on which is a medallion portrait of aman ; tn angeb pointing apwards. Azure, two bars between three pheons or. Crest. Two arms embowed, vested azure, cuffed or, holding in the hands proper a pheon of the last.
Francis Smith, ob. 1791.
395. XXX.—A chevron gules between three hurts. Crest. A lion’s head erased, piereed through the mouth with an arrow,
John Baskerville, ob. 1837.
396. XXXJ.—Baskervitte (395) ; impaling, Wess (3869). Crest. A falcon’s head erased at the neck, pierced through the beak with an arrow.
John Baskerville, ob. 1800; Hester, his wife, ob. 1819; Joseph, their son, ob. 1812.
397. XXXII.—Tvuawett (370) ; impaling, sable, a stag at gaze _ within a bordure quarterly ermine and erminois. Jonegs. Crest, Tuewett (370).
Thomas Tugwell, ob. 1833.
898. XXXIII,—Or, a bend gules,
Edward Cottle, ob. 1718; Ann, his wife, ob. 1728; Edward, their son, ob. 1727; Richard, their son, ob, 1736; Mary, his wife, ob, 1773; Edward, their son, ob. 1758,
56 The Church Heraldry of North Wiltshire.
Hatchment in North Aisle. .
899. XXIV.—Jonss (371); impaling, Lone of Rood Ashton (42). M.I. Crest. Out of a coronet or ademi-lion sable. Wilts Arch. Mag., V., 238.
400. XXXV.—On a Wooden Screen, once separating South Aisle From the Body of the Church: sable, three battle-axes or. Hatt. Wilts Arch. Mag., v. 218.
Curist Cuurcu.
In several painted windows are shields containing symbols of the Four Evangelists and emblems of the Passion, Sc. ; the former are also contained in four quatrefoils above the Communion Table; over the Door of South Porch is a shield containing a cross patonce.
Painted glass in a Window in South Aisle. 401. Gules, three garbs within a bordure or. Thomas Stanton, Archdeacon of Wilts, and Canon of Sarum, ob. 1875; Agnes, his wife, ob, 1884.
GREAT CHALDFIELD. 402. I—1. On a carved Stone Chancel Screen; gules, a fess engrailed ermine between three griffin’s heads erased argent TROPNELL ; impaling, five fusils conjoined in fess gules. PERCY.
408. II.—2. Tropnett; impaling, azure, three lions rampant ermine, armed and langued gules. Rous, of Imber.
404, Il1—8. TRopne.t. 405. IV.—4. Tropnett ; impaling, Lupow (9). 406. V.—5. Tropneti; impaling, azure, three roaches in pale naiant argent within a bordure or. Rocue. TROPNELL is painted twice on the Roof of a South Chapel.
SOUTH WRAXALL. On Tiles on Floor of Chancel are the symbols of the Four
Evangelists. South Chapel.
Arms and crest of Lone of Rood Ashton (42) ; four marshal’s fetterlocks ; repeated in painted glass in two Windows,
By Arthur Schomberg. 57
407. I.—Lone of Rood Ashton (42); impaling the same. Henry Long, ob. 1686; Ann, his wife, ob. 1705 ; John, their grandson, ob. 1712.
408. IL—A large monument with Corinthian pillars and urn ; Lone of Rood Ashton (42) ; impaling, argent, on a pale gules three pears or. ABBOTT.
Thomas Long, ob. 1759, wt. 80; Mary, his wife, ob. 1733.
409. III.—Az altar-tomb, adorned with fetterlocks, recumbent thereon a female figure hitherto unidentified ; an angel holding a shield containing Lone (42) ; impaling, on a chevron between ten crosses patty, six and four, three roses (plates?) BERKELEY, quartering, Seymour (5). Supporters: two lions passant guardant helmeted, a neckcloth invected hanging from the helmets; on the dexter lion SEyMovur ; on the sinister, Lone of Rood Ashton,
On Floor.
410. IV.—Lone of Rood Ashton (42), Mary Long, ob. 1776,
411. V.—Crusily fitchy a lion rampant,
John Long, B.D., ob. 1748-9,
412, VI.—lLone (411). Crest. Out of a coronet a lion’s head erased.
Walter Long, ob. 1731, xt. 84,
North Aisle, 418, VII.—Sable, a chevron argent.
Richard Grant, ob. 1715; Margaret, his wife, ob. 1715; John, their son. ob. 1744; Joseph Webb, ob. 1750; Ann, his wife, ob. 1751.
Outside, over the Door of South Chapel.
414. WVIII—A marshal’s fetterlock, R. A° Di 1566,L. A stag’s head caboshed. Poruam.
58
The Wiltshire Comyounders.
(Communicated by Mz. Jamzs WaYLEN.) (Continued from Vol. xxiii., p. 346.)
ICHARD DAVY, of East Winterslow, otherwise of Sarum, gentleman. Was in arms against the Parliament, serving’ in Lord Hertford’s regiment as captain of a troop of horse. In pursuance of the vote of the House of 4th October, he rendered himself to the Wilts Committee, 27th November, 1645, and took both the Negative Oath and the National Covenant in London. He is seised in fee to him and his heirs of and in the moiety of Winterslow Farm, worth formerly £60 per annum—coppices and underwood there £10 per annum. He is possessed of a term having thirty-four years to run of houses in Sarum held by demise of the Dean and Chapter, worth per annum £19 more than the reserved rent of one pound. He hath no personal estate. Fine, at a tenth, £170.
Siz Francis Dowsz, of Wallop. This name properly belongs to Hampshire, where he paid a fine of £570; but part of his estate lying in Wiltshire he was, at his own request, reported by Humphrey Ditton, John Rede, and Robert Good, to the following effect, 28th November, 1645, Though an old man at the commencement of hostilities, he consorted with that impetuous cavalier, the Lord Grandison ; and as soon as Bristol was in the King’s hands he left his house at Wallop in the charge of a menial servant and resided near that city. Touching his estate in this county, he was possessed of a lease for life in a farm at Collingbourn Ducis, held of the Marquis of Hertford at a reserved rent of £20—more than which it was worth per annum £150. “ Another thing called the Broyl of Collingbourn,” worth £40 a year more than the reserved rent of £20, paid to the Earl of Pembroke. He had already paid £150 as personal fine for this county. [The thing called “The Broyl” meant Bruelli, or woods, of Collingbourn. There are also the
The Wiltshire Compounders. 59
* Broyl of Bedwyn” and “ Broyl Farm,” terms still in use.]
Sir Francis EnGuEFIELD, of Fasterne, near Wootton- Bassett, Bart., whose father was made a baronet by James I., in 1612, and himself knighted during his father’s lifetime, was returned asa “ recusant,’’ or papist, but in the character of “ delinquent,” or royalist, no fine appears against his name; though his brother William pays a rather heavy sum. It may be presumed, therefore, that Sir Francis kept himself out of active service. No doubt he shared in some way in the sufferings of his party. In November, 1642, his team of horses being discovered at Lambeth were seized to mount some of Sir Arthur Hazelrig’s troopers. In 1646 he sent his wife and daughters and six servants beyond the seas. His great-uncle, Sir Francis, of Queen Mary’s Court, was regarded (says Dr. Thomas Fuller) by all good Catholics as a benefactor-general to our nation, inasmuch as, with the assistance of William Allen, he obtained in 1576, of Pope Gregory XXX., thirteen indulgences for the English and the well- wishers of their conversion; whereof the first was this: “ that whosoever should carry about with him certain consecrated beads, fast on Wednesday, forbear one meal on Sunday, pray for the Holy Father the Pope, the peace of the Church, and chiefly for the reconciling of England, Scotland, and Ireland to the Church of Rome, should have a hundred years pardon; but should the fast be observed with bread and water, then a thousand years pardon.” Church History, I1., 512. To explain the motive of this Act of Indulgence it should be observed that it was obtained after Sir Francis’s expatriation by Queen Elizabeth, who on the pretence of high treason had confiscated the vast possessions in Berkshire which the Englefields had held for more than seven hundred years. The sturdy old knight ended his days at Valladolid, in Spain, and was buried in the English college there, towards the erection of which” he had lavishly contributed. He married Katharine, daughter of Sir Thomas Fettiplace, of Compton-Beauchamp, but dying without issue, the line was continued by his brother, John Englefield, lord of Wootton Bassett, father of Sir Francis, mentioned above as the first baronet. The title became extinct in the person of Sir Henry Charles Englefield, the seventh baronet, who died in 1822.
60 The Wiltshire Compounders.
Epwarp Enix, of Etchilhampton, Esq. Ernlé, a manor near Chichester, in Sussex, gave its name to a family which flourished there before the reign of Edward I.; one member of which repre- sented that county in Parliament 4 Edw. III. Sir John Ernlé, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Henry the Eighth’s time, was the second son of John Ernlé, of Ernlé, and Agnes, daughter and heir of Simon Best, which Simon Best held the manor of Etchilhampton through his wife, the daughter and heir of John Malwyn, Esq., of Etchilhampton. From the Chief Justice descended Sir John Ernlé, Kt., Chancellor of the Exchequer to Charles II., and also Walter Ernlé, of Etchilhampton, who in 1660 was created a baronet. It is Edward, the father of this last-mentioned member of the family, who now comes under our notice as a “ delinquent” seeking to make his peace with the victorious Parliament.
Edward Ernlé’s offence is—that he was a commissioner for seques- trations acting in the King’s behalf in the county of Wilts. He rendered himself before December, 1645. His estate per annum is worth £200, for which his fine at a tenth is £400; dated 12th July, 1647. While his case was pending, the following statement was forwarded to Goldsmith’s Hall from Devizes :—
“To the Committee in London.
‘¢ RIGHT HONOURABLE, whereas we are directed and required by your Honouns to certify the condition and malignancy of Edward Ernlé of Echilhampton in this county, We thus certify—First, as touching his delinquency, He was a com- missioner for the King in the commission for sequestration ; and being a justice of the peace, appeared at the assizes of Sarum about two years since, but when the charge was given he immediately departed thence.—Touching his estate in lands, he hath at Erchfont the moiety of a farm for three lives, worth about £200 a year, out of which he pays £49 to the Marquis of Hertford. At Echil- hampton he hath £100 per annum land of inheritance, of which there is £16 per annum quit rents and rents of assize. He hath fourscore pounds per annum out *of Pryor’s Court in Cleevely parish in Berks at £4 13s. 4d. rent, holden of the dean and chapter of Westminster by lease for fourteen years to come. As to his personal estate, he hath eight cows, six oxen, five young beasts, and about four- score sheep.—And for other personal estate, we know not of any. Dated at the committee for Wilts sitting at the Devizes 19 Nov. 1645, by Thomas Goddard, John Goddard, Robert Brown, William Jesse, and Edward Martyn.”
Another certificate adds that he resides at Etchilhampton, and by reason of the times is much indebted and behindhand. In his own
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 61
petition Mr. Ernlé urges in extenuation that being in the commission of the peace near unto the Devizes where the King’s forces have long time prevailed, he hath yet done many good offices to the members and friends of the Parliament, nor did he assist the adverse party with his person by bearing arms, nor with his purse except ~ under compulsion; nor did he act in the commission of array; but when put in that commission (of which Mr. Robert Long was chief) he did so for the good of his neighbours and countrymen, as no doubt they will testify. But now being willing to embrace the offer of the Parliament which extends to the first of December next, he desires to compound, praying consideration of his much burdened estate. 6th November, 1645.
_ Edward Ernlé’s attachment to the Royalist party was enhanced by the circumstance of his marriage with a member of the Romanist family of St. Lowe, of Knighton, in Wilts. By this lady he left two sons, Sir Walter, his heir, the first baronet, who also lived at Etchilhampton, and whose granddaughter, Elizabeth, carried the estate to Henry Drax, ancestor of the late Mrs. Sawbridge Erle- Drax, of Charborough Park, Dorset. His second son was Michael Ernlé, of Brimslade, whose descendant, the Rev. Sir Edward Ernlé, Rector of Avington, in Berks, and the seventh baronet, was the last male heir of the family. Sir Edward died in 1787.
Joun Esrcourt, Esq., fourth son of Edmund Estcourt, of Newnton. He adhered unto the forces raised against the Parliament, &e. Petitioned July, 1650, and saith that he is not yet sequestered. He is possessed of a personal estate valued at £50 10s.—thus: a small flock of sheep £24; a couple of horses, £11; books, £5; debts owing to him, £10 10s. Fine, £8 8s. 4d., paid 16th July, 1650. He was brother, it is conjectured, to Sir Giles Estcourt, who _ is also styled “of Newnton.” Obiaining a baronetcy himself, he © became father of Sir William Estcourt, who was killed at the Globe Tavern by Henry St. John about 1684; and as he died unmarried, the baronetcy expired.
Ropert Eyre, of West Chalfield, Esq. Had acted in King Charles’s commission to press men and to raise money for his army, viz., for the weekly assessment of £1200 made in May, 1643, He
62 The Wiltshire Compounders.
submitted to the Parliament in April, 1645, when he took the two oaths, and paid £100 for his personal estate, and other sums on account, for his real estate, to the Wilts Committee. These gentle- men, wishing to screen him as much as possible, reported to the London Committee as follows. He declares that when acting as commissioner it was by reason of his being under the forces of the King. He suffered considerably by the proximity of his property to Great or East Chalfield when occupied as a garrison, and especially when it was besieged, his own house being next unto it. [‘* Next” must be here understood as nearest, for the two mansions were a quarter-of-a-mile asunder.] Since his submission he hath taken the National Covenant, and hath been obedient to all orders of the Parliament. As for his real estate in this county, as we are credibly informed, it was worth in time of peace £190 per annum. Signed 2nd October, 1646, by Robert Browne, Edward Martyn, and Thomas Goddard. [Certificate of his having taken the covenant subjoined. ]
He is seised in the manor of West Chalfield, remainder to six sons in succession, then to his brother Henry ; annual value thereof £160; tithes of a free chapel there, £10; lands at Atford, £20 ; lands at Melksham and Bradford, £20. Having already compounded for his personal estate, his fine, at a tenth, is £420. 11th December, 1648.
John Eyre, of Wedhampton, returned as knight of the shire in Elizabeth’s Parliament of 1563, considerably increased his estate by marriage with a co-heiress of the family of Payne, of Motcombe, in Dorset. His son, of the same name, was yet more fortunate in his espousals ; he had married Anne, the eldest daughter of Thomas Tropenell, of Great Chalfield, when the singular and untimely death of her brother in the chase made her co-heiress of that opulent house. It is related of this brother that he had put a dog-couple over his head, and leaping a hedge was caught by a bough and strangled. In the division of the property thereupon occurring the estate of Great Chalfield was assigned to the wife of John Eyre, who at once made it the family seat. ‘‘ The mansion,” observes Mr. Matcham, “reared in the time of the Plantagenets, still
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 63
remains, and exhibits perhaps the earliest, most beautiful, and most perfect example of our domestic architecture, unmixed with monastic or castellated buildings, which this or the neighbouring counties furnish. . . . I rejoice to add that this rare and precious gem is still duly estimated by its possessor, and I trust will long continue to give the same pleasure and interest to future visitors as it afforded to the writer of this narrative.” Hundred of Frustfield. This house was for a short period during the war occupied by a Parlia- mentary garrison, probably with a view to check the marauding action of Boville’s troopers who quartered in Lacock Abbey.
John Eyre’s grandson, Sir William Eyre, was settled at Neston Park, near Corsham, and was Member for Westbury in the Protector Richard’s Parliament in 1658. His son, Colonel William Eyre, Governor of Devizes, married Anne, daughter of Charles Dauntesey, of Baynton, widow of John Danvers, of Corsham, and was grand- father to Jane Eyre, the heiress of Neston, who married Sir John Hanham, of Wimbourn, Bart.
We now return to Robert Eyre, the Royalist, who compounded for his estate in 1648, He was half-brother to Sir William Eyre, of Neston aforesaid, and was seated at Little or West Chalfield, adjoining his father’s larger domain of Great or East Chalfield. His mansion of Little Chalfield was in like manner illustrated by Mr. Matcham’s descriptive pen. This was in 1834; but since that date entire spoliation has swept over the scene, and the ancient fabric has become replaced by a group of modern farm buildings.
- Mizpmay Fans, second Earl of Westmoreland. This nobleman’s connexion with Wiltshire arose out of the following marriages. The Lady Grace, one of the two daughters of Sir Henry Sharington, of Lacock, married Sir Anthony Mildmay, of Apethorpe, North- amptonshire, whose daughter, Mary, married Francis Fane, the first Earl of Westmoreland. Two of the children of the first Earl were Mildmay, the second Earl, who resided at Apethorpe, and Sir Francis Fane, of Aston, in Yorkshire, of whom presently. Both brothers took up arms for the King at an early period of the struggle. Mildmay marched with his retainers to join Charles’s standard at Newark, 1642, and his portrait (engraved by Williamson)
64 The Wiltshire Compounders.
is ornamented with a map of the route adopted by his troop on that occasion. The armour which the Earl wore is also preserved at Apethorpe. Notwithstanding this early demonstration, the Earl appears, from some cause not distinctly recorded, to have speedily become disgusted with the Royal party. As early as June, 1643, he had either been taken prisoner or had voluntarily come within the personal influence of that portion of the House of Peers who still sat at Westminster, for during that month a vote of the Commons urges the Lords to impose the restraint of prison on the Earls of Westmoreland, Berkshire, and three others; and a few months later the Journals of the upper House furnish the following unexpected statement :—‘ The Lords have received a petition from the Earl of Westmoreland so full of expressions of good affection to the Commonwealth that they are all satisfied and do incline that his sequestration be taken off.” 18th February. His business was thereupon referred to the committee sitting at Goldsmiths’ Hall, who decreed his fine at £1000, in addition to £2000 already paid ; ratified by the Commons in September, 1644, a very early period to compound, for the contest was still undecided. The majority of the Royalists’ fines were not declared till two or three years later, for the simple reason that they were not yet reduced to a petitioning mood. Lord Westmoreland’s Wiltshire estates were the manor of Seend and Bowden Park, and Woodrew, near Bremhill, The Earl was a patron of arts and literature. In 1645 (this was during the war) he presented his poems, English and Latin, entitled Otia Sacra, a quarto volume, adorned with plates, to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. See a panegyric to him by the poet Cleveland.
Sir Francis Fang, of Aston, in Yorkshire, third son of Francis, first Earl of Westmoreland. Little if anything is to be gathered from the general histories respecting the action taken by this knight at the breaking out of hostilities. All we know distinctly is that, like his brother, he found early reason to be dissatisfied with the way in which the King’s eause was upheld. Writing to Sir Edward Hungerford, of Farley Castle, in October, 1645, he says :— “T have not meddled in the King’s affairs these seventeen months, nor truly will I again fight in this quarrel.” At the moment of
Communicated by Ur. James Waylen. 65
writing this he was at Lacock, visiting Lady Stapylton, on his way out of Devonshire towards Yorkshire, protected by a pass from Sir Thomas Fairfax. The family prejudices were, no doubt, in favour of royalism rather than of the Parliament’s cause, for Sir Francis had been knighted at the coronation of King Charles, who enter- tained at the commencement of the war so high an opinion of his attachment as to entrust him with the government of Doncaster Castle, and afterwards with that of Lincoln Castle. How long he held these posts is not stated; he appears to have laid down his arms in the spring of 1644; his first petition to Goldsmiths’ Hall to be admitted to compound is dated 29th December, 1645, and his signing the Covenant, in the presence of William Barton, minister of John Zachary’s, is dated 7th May, 1646. His petition ** Sheweth—that whereas power and authority is committed unto this honourable committee to receive petitions from such as, having taken arms ov the King’s party, do dona fide desire to come in and submit themselves, the petitioner, who hath unadvisedly served in that kind, to take up arms on the King’s party, and desires unfeignedly to come in and submit to the Parliament, doth humbly beseech this honourable committee to admit him to make composition and hereafter to remain in the grace, favour, and protection of Parliament, &c.”
Sir Francis’s estates were dispersed in Yorkshire, Huntingdon- shire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, and “the Savoy near London.” In Wiltshire he is seised of a freehold during two lives of and in the rectory of Melksham and the manor of Cannounhold, held of the Dean and Chapter of Sarum, worth before the troubles £100 per annum. Another freehold during one life of certain lands and tenements in the forest of Blackmore, worth before the troubles £50 per annum. In mitigation of his fine he declares that his debts amount to £2550, besides interest thereon for two years. Moreover, his personal estate, to the value of near £5000, has all been seized and sold for the use of the State. He further prays for abatement in consideration of his having, previous to his marriage with the Lady Darcy, and before any act of delinquency on his part, handed over to the following feoffees, Sir William Armyn, William West, and John West, £400 a year levied on lands in Yorkshire, parcel of VOL, XXIY,—NO. LXX, F
66 The Wiltshire Compounders.
that lady’s jointure by a former husband, for her maintenance and to be at her own dispose. [This lady was Elizabeth, daughter of William West, of Tirbeck, Co. York, and widow of John, Lord Darcey. She died in 1649.] Sir Francis’s fine does not appear to have been fully declared till May, 1652, when he was adjudged to pay £1206 and to settle £160 per annum on some ministry, not specified. His case possesses more than ordinary interest owing to the survival of an almost unbroken series of letters passing from him to his Wiltshire agent, Mr. Thomas Michell, of Bewley Court, near Lacock, who, with his father, Mr. Edward Michell, had long been in the service of the Fane family. They extend over the whole period of the Commonwealth, that is from 1639 till the Restoration of Charles II., and are far too numerous to be recited. The few here following must be accepted as samples of the whole. The originals came into the possession of Mr. John Strange, of - Devizes, and subsequently of Streatley, near Reading, through his maternal descent from the Michells, of Bewley Court. Mr. Strange - died in 1884. One of the bundles is docketed thus :—“ All these are letters I received from the right hon. Sir Francis Fane, except a ticket I had from Captain Hutcheson for corn he sent for to Chalfield, and an acquittance I had of Mr. Jesse for £50 paid at Malmesbury.” We trace in them Sir Francis’s contests with the sequestrators, and his private advice to Mr. Michell how to deal with them, sundry negociations with his Wiltshire neighbours, Ashe, Yerbury, Chappel, Norborne, Hungerford, and others; we discover Mr. Ashe’s great power in the county, as one of the Gold- smiths’ Hall dictators; domestic details also crop up from time to time; and Mr. Michell is cautioned, when he sends gold coin, to conceal it in the pannel of his man’s saddle ;—until at last, Sir Francis, having survived the unquiet times, is able to tell his tried friend that the King hath pricked his son, Francis, for a knight at the approaching coronation; but withal, that the expenses attending that affair will make the prompt remittance of his gathered rents more urgent than ever.
“To my kind friends Mr. Edward and Mr. Thomas Michell at Seend and Melksham in Wiltshire,
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 67
“Tattsall, 24 Nov. 1644, “Me. Micnetu. I perceive by W. Fuller you do wonder much you do not hear from me. Truly, the obstructions in the passage hath been the cause. I do very well approve of what you have done in my business, and desire the con- tinuance of your care init. I hope one day I may have opportunity to requite it. If the gentleman that received £20 of you want more, I pray furnish him if you can, although I had rather (and so I pray tell him) that he would uso some means to get some of Mr. Vaughan, which I presume he may effect by Mr. Haughton’s means that lives at Ludlow and deals for me in those parts. Ihave not heard of Mr. Vaughan these two years. It may be my sister Cope can tell him some news of him. I pray, whatever you do, keep a reserve for me; for I hope skortly to come to see my good aunt Stapylton, to whom I pray my service. So with my love to you both, I ever rest, your assured loving friend, “FB. Fane.”
J. Warde, another legal adviser of the Vanes, to Thomas Micheli, of Lacock.
“ Mereworth, 14 May, 1645. ‘*Mr. Micnztt. My lord commands me to return you this answer to yours of 27 April. That for the profits from 1 March 1643 to the 14 Sep. 1644, they -will come within the sequestration, and therefore are not to be avoided. But you are to follow these directions punctually. First, use all the art you can and all the friends you have (with good words or otherwise) to delay and put off the payment of any more money. When that is done, then endeavour to compound with them for the arrears due in that time, at as low a rate and as long days for - payment as youcan. And at that composition be sure and remember to charge home to them all taxes, contributions, chief-rents, and all other issues which you paid out of the estate in that time, which they are to allow; and then compound for the remainder. You may also demand a fifth part for my lady, according to the ordinance ; and so the composition will yet come lower. This was granted in other counties where my lord’s estate was sequestered, and therefore no reason it should be denied in Wiltshire. I received a full answer from you to my last letter, which gives good satisfaction. I pray for peace, and am, your loving friend, “J. WaRDE.”
“To my kind friend Mr. Thomas Michell at Melksham.
“ Ashton, near Bristol, 23 June, 1645.
Mr. Micuetyt. You may perceive by the contents of the enclosed what my servant's errand to you is; but you must, according to your promise, make the fifty pounds fourscore, aud as much of it in gold as youcan. You would do well that the business be carried very private, not acquainting any of your ser- vants with it, for a man knoweth not whom to trust in thisage. And you need not acquaint the Governor of Lacock with this letter until you have dispatched my servant to me again; and then let him know it was only written to save you harmless against the Parliament Committees who have sequestered my estate in
F2
68 The Wiltshire Compounders.
those parts and commanded you not to pay me any rent; and I doubt not but the Colonel will give you leave to keep the letter for your discharge if they should take you prisoner for paying me. Truly I was forced to send this speedily to you, for the money I builded upon from Mr. Sadler fails me, by reason of his reves [bailiffs P] being taken prisoner yesterday to Bristol, and J cannot well go any further until I have what I expect from you. And let as much of it be in gold as you can, and make it up strong in the pannel of my man’s saddle, and send some country fellow with him as far as Bath next market day. So with my love and service to my good old aunt, my love to your father and mother, brothers and sisters, and to the whole generation of you, I rest, your affectionate friend,
‘oR. Fane.
“P.S.—I received the letters safe from my sister Cope, aud have given the honest man that brought them a shilling to drink. The other three I leave you to pay, and set upon my next account.”
The Governor of Lacock here referred to is Colonel Jordan Boville, who with a troop of horse has lately come to occupy the Abbey in the King’s name ; but who, in the ensuing autumn, will have to surrender it to Sir Thomas Fairfax, simultaneously with the fall of Devizes Castle. The alternate demands for rent made by the rival forces, frequently resulting in double payment, drove many tenants besides faithful Mr. Michell to exasperation, and appears to have extorted from him « momentary expression of anger even to- wards the house of Fane. His superior endeavours to mollify him as follows :—-
“ For my kind friend Mr. Thomas Michell near Melksham.
*¢ Ashton near Bristol, 28 June, 1645.
“Mr. MicHett. I am sorry you should take it so unkindly the letter I wrote to Colonel Boville to compel you to pay me what you owed me for my parsonage of Melksham and other rents. Truly necessity hath no law, especially in these unhappy times that I have lost almost all I have elsewhere in England. I do acknowledge to have received from Colonel Boville £25 10s., which I think will be enough for your discharge until you and I reckon. You complain of the hardness of your bargain, considering the times, and you threaten to cast it up into my hands if you have not your own rate. You know well enough I cannot get another tenant in these times, else you would not do it ; and I had as lief you had a good bargain of me as another. Therefore I am contented you should hold it this year for £70; and the unusual taxes and payments I am contented to allow out of it, which is according to your own desire. For my parsonage of Seend, I am contented to comply with your father’s desires and to let him have
are,
Communicated by Mr, James Waylen. 69
it this next year, paying the rent for both places to the Dean and Chapter of Sarum. And for the taxes of that place, I am contented to allow him out of my rents elsewhere. So with my love to you both, I rest, in haste, your affectionate friend,
“FF, Fane.”
“ For my noble friend Sir Edward Hungerford, Knight of the Bath, at Farley Castle.
*‘ Tacock, 10 October, 1645.
Str. Having been in Devonshire this summer with my sister of Bath, I am now by favour of Sir Thomas Fairfax’s pass, upon my return into the north to my wife. Had you been at Corsham I would not have failed to have kissed your hands; but Mr. Ayliffe told me you were at Farley. So I desire your excuse, being in some haste. Sir, I am sequestered here and everywhere else. If you can fayour my wife for the allowance of her fifth part for the maintenance of her and her children, you will do an act of charity. I have not meddled in the King’s affairs these seventeen months, nor truly will I again fight in this quarrel, but I do not love to be starved to death because I will not digest oaths contrary to my conscience, a good conscience being the only thing now left us in these miserable times. God in his mercy send better, and us better—which is the prayer of your affectionate servant,
‘“R, Fane.
“ My service to your lady. I hope to see you at London this spring.”
“ For Mr. Thomas Michell in Melksham parish. “ London, 12 May, 1646.
“Me. Micuett. I am come up to Town about making my composition, but as yet have not perfected it, but hope I shall do shortly, and then you shall hear of me. In the interim I should have been glad to hear you had got my wife her fifth part, for we want monies exceedingly. I pray, what you can get, let William Fuller receive betwixt this and Midsummer, for about that time will be my second payment to the Committee at Goldsmiths’ Hall. Thus with my kind love to you and your wife, with many thanks since I was last with you, I rest, your aftectionate friend,
“FR Fane.
The subsequent letters make no mention of sequestration, but refer generally to the action of his tenants. Some of them in Blakemore Forest get him into trouble with the Earl of Anglesea , the lord of the fee, by cutting down the timber and defying him to prevent it. Then there are protracted dealings with Mr. Ashe about the sale to him of Melksham Parsonage and Seend Park, the ricketty condition of Church property at that crisis giving Mr. Ashe occasion to offer inadequate prices, which Mr. Michell stoutly resists, and
70 The Wiltshire Compounders.
observes when writing to his superior :—“ For my part I do stead- fastly believe that tithes will be paid till Doomsday.” Says Sir Francis :— Let Mr. Ashe or whom else have what opinion they please of you for their own ends; I cannot but have a good one ; for I, and my mother before me, have found nothing but honesty by you. If this world hold [that is, if the present state of things continue], a man shall not be able to live by these great ones, unless a man will sell them at their own rates what they have a mind to. And this spirit possesses them all over the kingdom . . . . My. Ashe talks high about his keeping courts at Melksham and receiving the chief rents. [I am given to understand that] he having the fee, my lease is of no validity, and that before seven years I shall repent following your advice. I hope, before that time, that such Naboths will repent them of this and their other sins.” In 1651 Cromwell’s army, in its march northwards, gives Sir Francis trouble in Yorkshire, five of his horses being pressed into the service; and if he ever recovers them, they must needs be lamed. As our troops, says he, are gone into Scotland “ to pick sallats at Christmas,” most of the horses with their riders will come short home, But here our extracts must come to a close.
Sir Francis Fane was the lineal ancestor of the modern Earls of Westmoreland, the elder brother’s family dying out in 1762. It was Sir Francis’s descendant, the tenth Earl, who executed the celebrated runaway match with Miss Child, the banker’s daughter. When not far distant from Gretna Green, the fugitives, in a four-horse chaise, were on the point of being overtaken by the pursuing father, who was still better horsed, when Lord Westmoreland, taking aim from his carriage window, shot one of Mr. Child’s leaders dead. The rest of the team was thereby thrown into confusion, and the lovers won the race; but Mr. Child’s fortune was made to descend to his daughter’s daughter, the Lady Jersey, long known as the empress of English fashionable society.
Joun Fisuer, of Chute, gent., petitioned in April, 1646, ad- mitting that he had been in arms against the Parliament for the space of three weeks, during all which time he was under the power of the King’s army. Since August, 1643, he has lived peaceably
ee
ee ee a
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 71
at his own house, and has taken the National Covenant and the late oath—had never acted as a sequestrator for the King, was never a member of the Commons’ House—nor a popish recusant, nor popishly affected—was never a councillor or advocate-at-law, nor attorney, nor proctor, nor other officer whatsoever towards the law common or civil, or in any office belonging to the State or in the Commonwealth. THe is seised in possession of and in messuages and lands in the parish of Chute, annual value £3 10s., for which his fine at a tenth is £7; a freehold during three lives of other lands and tenements there, £15, for which his fine is £22 10s.; another freehold there, £1 10s., for which his fine is £2 5s.; personal estate, £140, for which his fine is £14; altoyether, £45 15s. He is in- debted to Mr. Hancock, of Salisbury, £66; to Thomas Hollis, £66 ; and to William Chapman, of Newton, near Newbury, £34; no abatement allowed in consequence.
Wituiam Fisuer, of Liddington, gent. At the commencement of the war he consented to act as receiver of contributions for the royal army ; but in May, 1645, surrendered to Colonel Devereux, at Malmesbury, compounded for his personal estate by paying £40 to the Wilts Committee, and took both the oaths. His receipt, signed by Thomas Goddard, Edward Stokes, Edmund Martyn, and William Jesse, professed to purge him from delinquency and from sequestration of goods and estate, but he had yet to learn that the local committees could not thus liberate real estate. He is seised in fee tail of lands in Liddington, yearly value £60 ; a similar estate in reversion after twenty years, £70; two other estates there, including the mansion house, £160. His personal estate is worth £150. Fine, at a tenth, £235. October, 1649.
THomas Gawen, of Norrington, Esq. No class suffered so severely as the Roman Catholics; for though King Charles was disposed to assuage the violence of the tempest with which the policy of Elizabeth and James had assailed them, this circumstance only aggravated the indignation which overtook them as soon as the Parliament was triumphant. The Gawens of Wiltshire, for example, having been a wealthy family from the Saxon period down
_ to the close of the sixteenth century, became in the next age all but
72 The Wiltshire Compounders.
extinct. Pursued as a “ popish recusant,’” Thomas Gawen of Queen Elizabeth’s time who was, by an inquisition taken in the forty-third year of her reign fined no less a sum than £1380 for non-attendances at his parish Church, and in a further sum of £120 for failing to make his submission in the required form. In fact, the Queen, or her successor, just took two-thirds of his property. As he lived to be an adherent to the Crown during the Civil War, his estates at Norrington, Baverstock, and elsewhere, were sequestered 31st July, 1647, and publicly sold at Drury House in 1653; the ostensible purchaser being Mr. Walter Barnes, of Shaftesbury, who in reality only acted as trustee for his friends, Thomas Gawen and his son, William. But as all secret trusts to the prejudice of the State in favour of popish recusants were declared void, the sequestration was not finally withdrawn till 1657, down to which period £166 had, by order from the Exchequer been yearly charged upon the tenants and occupiers of two-thirds of the estate. On the removal of the sequestration, Jane Barnes, who held as widow of the aforesaid Walter Barnes, was discharged from all further liabilities to the State, and allowed to retain possession. The elder Gawen had in the meantime deceased.
Notwithstanding that it would appear from all this that whoever had a hold upon the estates the Gawens had none, yet in the fol- lowing year William, the surviving son, covenanted with Wadham Wyndham, Esq., for the sale of Norrington, Trowe, Hurdcott, and other lands, for £9000, and Mr. Wyndham paid him £300 as deposit. Mrs. Jane Barnes agreeing to join in the conveyance on receiving for her share £1600, said to be due from Gawen to her late husband as the balance of the account between them. But before the settling day arrived, Mrs. Barnes re-married and changed her mind. In concert with her second husband, John Barnes, she now claimed all the estates purchased at Drury House as their absolute property , and made a pretended sale thereof to one Taylor, a brother of hers. Mr. Wyndham promptly filed his bill in the Court of Exchequer that same Michelmas term, 1658, and after some litigation was declared the legal purchaser, and proper assurances of the same were then made to him. It is to be inferred that William Gawen also
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 73
obtained his due; but the fact is that, as a name of eminence in the county, Gawen disappears from that time forward. Mr. Wyndham, a descendant of the above, writing in 1746, speaks of “ Henry Gawen” as tenant of part of Norrington. Sir Richard Colt Hoare says the last of the race was father to Mrs. Roberts, who was living at South Newton as recently as 1800. Aubrey asserts that the family had held Norrington four hundred and fifty years—that John Thynne, of Henry the Highth’s time, the editor of Chaucer, makes Gawyn sister’s son to Prince Arthur, and that the antiquity of the family is further attested by a mound called Gawen’s barrow, on South Down, near Broad-Chalk.
A petition of Thomas Gawen, dated 12th February, 1651, declares that “ Your petitioner having formerly frequented the public exercise of God’s worship according to the laws and customs of this Church and land, hath of late years been enforced by reason of great age and infirmities, to keep his chamber, if not his bed ; whereupon the sub-committee of Wilts and Somerset, in which counties your petitioner’s small estate lies, have sequestered two-thirds thereof, though never so rightly informed of his innocency.” The case was ordered to be taken into consideration; but the old gentleman appears to have gained nothing by the appeal.
Sir Joun Gtanvitte, of Broad Hinton, Kt. This eminent person was for a long time in co-operation with the patriots ; and we learn from Lloyd’s Loyal Sufferers that in 1626 he had suffered imprisonment on shipboard for having spoken his mind too freely in respect of certain royal prerogatives. But when the dispute with the Crown came at length to a “ passage of arms,” Sir John, like so many other lawyers, shrank from the unprofessional ordeal, and sealed his own condemnation by taking part in what came to be termed ‘the Illegal Assizes” at Salisbury and Exeter in 1644, For this, he, together with the judges who had acted with him, viz., Sir Robert Heath, and Sir Robert Foster, were impeached of high treason in the name of the Commons of England, and Glanville, kneeling at the bar of the House, was committed to the Tower. The above judges, though notoriously baffled at Salisbury, had found a more compliant jury farther west, where Captain Robert Turpin,
74 The Wiltshire Compounders.
an officer in the service of the Parliament, was actually brought to the bar as a felon and hanged by Sir John Berkeley, the Governor of Exeter. Glanville being now in prison, a petition was presented to the Lords by the daughters of Captain Turpin, praying that they might have some means for their maintenance allowed them out of the estate of the said Sergeant Glanville, which, it is to be presumed, was granted.
Sir John urgently petitioned that his estates should not be se- questered till his trial, which the Lords seemed willing to grant, but the Commons rejected the appeal. After lying nearly three years in confinement, he was allowed to go to Bath for his health’s sake, first depositing heavy bail for his appearing, and taking the Covenant; but he appears never to have been brought to trial on the original count; and his pardon, which is dated 7th August, 1645, fixes his total fine at £2320.—Lords’ Journals, x., 422. Of his estates in Wilts, Devon, and Cornwall, those of Wilts were the following :—the demesnes of the manor of Broad Hinton, worth per annum £320; old rents there, £20; the farm or demesne of the manor of Highway, £124; old rents of said manor, £10; the meadow and marsh of Cleavancy, £20; old rents, £10; the farm of Escot, adias Earlscourt, £160; the rectory or parsonage of Broad Hinton, by lease for two lives, £40; Barbury Down Farm, by lease for one life, that of Mr. Richard Goddard, aged about 60, £200; messuage and lands at Little Hinton, holden by copy of court-roll for three lives, £40.
Although the principal seat of the Glanvilles was Kilworthy, near Tavistock, the old lawyer appears to have retained a strong preference for his Wiltshire home; for after the wars he continued to live at Broad Hinton, though only the gate-house had survived the ruin which he himself brought upon the mansion. This cir- cumstance we learn from the following passage in Sir John Evelyn’s diary, dated 4th July, 1654:—“‘ We went to another uncle and relative of my wife’s, viz., Sir John Glanville, the famous lawyer, formerly Speaker of the House of Commons. His seat is at Broad Hinton, where he now liveth but in the gate-house, his very fair dwelling-house having been burnt by his own hands to prevent the
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 75
rebels making a garrison of it. Here my cousin, William Glanville, his eldest son, shewed me such a lock for a door that for its filing and rare contrivances was a masterpiece, yet made by a country blacksmith.”
Sir John survived the Restoration one year, and died and was buried at Broad Hinton in 1661, where his widow Winifred erected a monument to his memory. He was succeeded by his son John, a barrister, who married a daughter of Sir Edmund Fortescue, of Fallowpit, and who, like his father, also retired to Broad Hinton and died there. To Francis, another son, who bore arms for the King and fell at Bridgwater, a long Latin epitaph in the parish Church there bears testimony. Through the marriage in 1635 of his daughter, Margaret, with Francis Baskerville, of Rickardston, Sir John has subsequently been represented by the families of Baskerville and Baskerville-Mynors, of Rockley House and Winter- bourn Bassett.
Touching the personal character of this knight in his domestic relations, Bishop Burnet supplies the following chivalrous illus- tration. The elder Glanville, having a fair estate in land, designed in accordance with the practice of the age to settle it on his eldest son, Francis ; but the young man following a vicious course of life, induced the father to alter his will in favour of his more promising second son (the future Sergeant). The effect of this blow on the elder son was for some time a deep melancholy, resulting eventually in a change of life so meritorious and pronounced as left no doubt on his brother’s mind that the reformation would prove permanent. Acting under the impulse thus engendered, Sergeant Glanville gathered sundry of his friends, including his disinherited brother, to a feast ; and after several courses had been served a covered dish was placed before the brother and declared to be for his own par- ticular use. The removal of the cover displayed to the astonished company a heap of parchments and title deeds, which the Sergeant then explained by observing that in thus restoring to his elder brother the patrimonial estates, he was only doing that which their father would have himself desired, could he have anticipated the happy change which they all witnessed.
76 The Wiltshire Compounders.
John Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, tells us that when an elder son was disinherited the general belief was that, sooner or later, ill-luck would overtake the favoured son. A canny lawyer like Sir John Glanville was not, perhaps, very likely to resign his wealth in deference to a popular superstition ; but constantly recog- nising, as he must have done in his professional practice, the sup- posed inherent claims of first-born children, he would have stood in something like a false position had he retained the family estates after his brother’s reformation.
This elder brother, Francis, thus restored, married Elizabeth, daughter of William Crymes (of Devonshire ?), whose granddaughter carried the estates into the family of Manaton, of Tavistock. Neither did the descendants of Sir John himself long maintain the family name and honours; for soon after 1700 the Wiltshire estates were sold to Thomas Bennet, Esq., of Salthrop, M.P. for Marl- borough, and passed in succession through his daughter, Mrs. Pye Bennet, then again to a daughter, the wife of Thomas Calley, of Burderop, lastly to his son, John James Calley, who in 1839 sold them to John Parkinson, of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, who, it was discovered at his death (as stated in the Devizes Gazette, 4th March | 1858) had purchased and held them in trust for the Duke of Wellington, in whose descendants it is presumed they are now vested.
Ricoarp Gopparp, of Swindon, Esq. The papers respecting his fine contain sundry affidavits, made by himself and others, and corroborated by the Wilts Committee sitting at Devizes, to the following general effect. It was without his knowledge that Mr. Goddard, at the commencement of the war, was by His Majesty nominated with others in commission to uphold the Royal forces in the county of Wilts. He was naturally averse to occupy so in- vidious a position; but the earnest solicitations of his neighbours, who looked upon him as a person capable of moderating by his councils the severity of the times, induced him to sit once in the said commission at Marlborough. His efforts were so far successful as to occasion the removal of levies to the amount of £10,000 im- posed by the Kiny on the north part of Wilts; and when subse- quently nominated to a similar commission in fellowship with Robert
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 77
Long, Esq., and others, he utterly refused it, as Mr. Arthur Violet, of Swindon, was ready to prove. On the submission of the county to the Parliament’s sway, he at once waited on the committee at Malmesbury, foreswore all adherence to the Royal party, took the National Covenant and the Negative Oath, and paid a fine which he hoped would purge his delinquency and save his estate from sequestration. But this final deliverance could only be effected in London, where he lost much time in waiting about at the doors of committee rooms. At last he got his petition and his “ particular ti received in August, 1647, and two years later learnt that his fine amounted to £413. A lengthy testimonial in his favour, describing his good offices towards his neighbours and his journeying twice to Oxford in their behalf, asserting moreover that he had never borne arms or acted in any respect contrary to the Parliament’s proceedings, closes thus :—‘ We, whose names are subscribed, being sworn before the committee sitting at the Devizes, do attest the abovesaid premises touching Richard Goddard, Esq., to be true. John Sadler, William Yorke, John Fisher, Giles Aldworth, Peter Keeblewhite, William Lawrence. A true copy examined by me, John Strange, clerk to the Wilts Committee.”
Mr. Goddard had an estate in fee simple of lands in Wroughton and Swindon of the yearly value of £276 18s. 4d., and in old rents there, £3 lls. 8d., but he claimed allowance in respect of the following encumbrances (with what success does not appear) :—
George Fettiplace, of Lincoln’s Inn, trustee for the compounder’s deceased father, Thomas Goddard, maketh oath that Richard has to
“pay £500 apiece to his two brothers, Oliver and Edward, at the
age of 22, the amounts being still due. William Alford, of Pirton, claims a debt of £200, besides interest, charged on said lands by deed of compounder’s father. Lucy Stephens, of Steventon, Berks, wife of Edward Stephens, claims an annuity of £16, chargeable on the same lands. Anne Sichell, wife of John Sichell, of Swindon, makes a similar demand for £20 per annum,
Richard Goddard’s will, dated 29th April, 1650, makes bequest, inter alia, of land and tenements, now worth about £12 per annum, to the poor of Swindon ; which remained undiscovered by the parish
78 The Wiltshire Compounders.
till 1780, when Richard Goddard, his grandson, paid up the arrears.
Ricuarp Gopparp, of New Sarum counsellor-at-law. At the commencement of the war this gentleman raised a troop of horse in Hampshire for the King, but was taken prisoner by Sir William Waller at the garrison of Christchurch, near the close of the year 1644, after which he laid down his arms and resided at Sarum. His great offence lay in his taking part in the commission of oyer and terminer presented at Sarum, the affair commonly referred to as “the Illegal Assizes.” To purge himself as far as possible, Mr. Goddard took the Negative Oath in 1645 and the National Covenant in 1646, in the presence of William Barton, minister.
He is seised of a term of ninety-nine years, if he live so long, in a farm called Birchenwood, at Bramshaw, worth £40 per annum. He possesses lands and tenements at Eling and Minshed, in Hants, worth £40 per annum. He enjoys £300 a year in right of his wife, Hester, relict of Robert Mason, of Hants, less by annuities of £15 to each of the five children of the said Robert Mason, making in all £75. And in case Lady Anne Beauchamp survive Robert Nicholas, of All Cannings, then during her life he enjoys £400 a year from lands there. He is £2000 in debt, he has twelve children to support ; and his personal estate, worth £5000 before the wars, is all gone. His fine was £862 10s., being estimated at a third, “he being a counsellor-at-law.” Dated 12th December, 1646. The contingent benefit mentioned above as derivable from the All Cannings farm, turned out to be a complicated question, drawing from the Devizes Committee a long certificate which may well be spared the reader.
Str TuEeopaLtp Gorass, of Ashley, Kt. He went and sat with the Junto at Oxford as M.P. for Cirencester; but he declares that he was purposely absent from the sitting which voted the Parliament at Westminster traitorous. In May, 1644, when Massey took Malmesbury, he freely surrendered himself and was sent up prisoner to London, where he has ever since remained ; therefore believes he ought to be adjudged to pay only a tenth, having surrendered before the last day of October, 1644, the time limited for coming in. He hath taken both the oaths. So long as he sat in the Parliament at
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 79
Westminster he was ever a favourer of their proceedings, but when Wiltshire was overrun by the King’s forces he was compelled to go to Oxford, from which he took the first opportunity of escaping, and reaching the quarters of the Parliament. The fine was at first calculated at £960, on the supposition that his estate was inheritance, as coming from his father; but if Sir Theobald could make it appear that he held but for life, then £230 was to be deducted. This estimate was “at a third,” but the sum eventually paid was £209, or a tenth.
Sir Ricuarp Gurney, the Lord Mayor of London in 1642, whose attachment to Royalty induced him so seriously to cripple the Parliament’s action at that crisis. His heavy fine of £5000 was not levied to any great extent on Jands in Wilts, though he had some possessions here, amongst others, Titherton manor or farm, worth £100 a year, and other lands let to Vincent and Thomas Smith at £200. It also appeared that he had recently purchased East or Great Chalfield, the seat of Sir William Eyre, for he com- plains in petition that he had lost at least £2000 there by the cutting down of his woods and injury done to the house (no doubt referring to the siege of that place. See above, under the article Robert Eyre).
Benevict Hatt, Esq., a recusant (Romanist). The same person, presumably, as described in Dring’s List as “ Bendish Hall,” whose children paid through their trustee, Edward Perkins, £266 13s. 4d. In the House of Commons, 2nd August, 1648, it is ordered, on the petition of Colonel Nicholas Devereux, of Malmesbury, that the
wife and daughter of Benedict Hall, with their solicitor, have leave to come to London to attend the business of his delinquency, not- withstanding the ordinance prohibiting papists and delinquents from abiding in Town.
Sir Tuomas Hatt, of Bradford, Kt., accepted in December, 1643, the office (with others) of commissioner to press men in Wilts for the King’s service. He declares that he was compelled so to act by written menaces from the King and from the Earl of Forth. That his neighbours also believed he might mitigate the oppression of free quarters by accepting a prominent position ; and with this end
80 The Wiltshire Compounders.
in view he executed his office with all possible lenity, as would be sufficiently attested. That his influence was considerable may be inferred from the fact that the Wilts Committee thought it necessary to send a troop of horse to Bradford, who carried him to Malmesbury, where £160 was demanded as the penalty of his delinquency. Not having the ready money he remained in custody for a short time till the payment of £100 liberated him; but it was not till the spring of 1647 that he addressed himself for composition to the London Committees.
He is seised to him and his heirs of a manor in Bradford, the old rents whereof are £18 2s. Tne demesnes and woods and water mill there were valued before the troubles at £120 per annum. A like estate in the manor of Trowle, old rents, £20 9s.2d. A like estate of houses and tenements in Bath, £37 11s.9d. He craves allowance in respect of £60 for two annuities payable to his brothers, John and William, by the will of their father, John Hall, deceased in 1680; also of £300, payable to his sister Anne, on the day of her marriage; also of £40, the unpaid remainder of a like portion to his sister Dorothy. Also of £4 5s.4d., reserved rent to the Marquis of Winchester for the manor lands and mill in Bradford aforesaid. Also of £1 18s. 8d. yearly paid to the Crown for tenths for the said lands and tenements in Bradford and Bath. He is indebted upon several bonds above £800. Fine, at a sixth, £660. Dated Ist May, 1649.
Hucu Harz, Lorp Corzratns, of Longford Castle. Statement by the Committee of Lords and Commons for the advance of moneys for the army. Forasmuch as the Lord Coleraine hath given security to stand to and perform the order of this Committee touching the assessment of his five-and-twentieth part, not exceeding £2000, it is now ordered that the sequestration made of his lands, debts, and estates be taken off, and his rents and debts paid to him without interruption, except the rents due Lady Day last, which his lordship is content shall be received by this committee in part of his com- position for his twenty-fifths. Signed by Martin Dallison, clerk to the said committee, 21st May, 1644.
The twenty-fifth was the levy made on those who were not
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 8I
unfriendly to the Parliament. The above, therefore, is not the case of a Royalist compounder; but as a sufferer in respect of a very interesting property, Lord Coleraine seems to claim notice. It was in 1641, only a year before the war broke out, that he had purchased the Longford demesne from Edward, the second Lord Gorges, with a covenant that it was free from incumbrance; but so far was this instrument from representing the facts of the case that in a short space of time after his purchase Lord Coleraine had expended £18,000 in suits of law to secure his title, and ultimately Richard, Lord Gorges, voluntarily paid off £2000 of incumbrances, to redeem his own and his father’s honour, and also executed a new conveyance. In 1644, when he had been in possession only three years, Lord Coleraine was called upon to surrender his beautiful house into the King’s hands, to be used as a garrison. Being very partial to his purchase, and anxious, if possible, to prevent by his presence any wanton injury, he took up his abode at a small house in the neigh- bouring village of Britford, where he long remained the desponding eyewitness of spoliation which he was utterly powerless to check. He saw his vines and other fruit trees torn from the walls, the stables and offices set on fire or levelled to make way for lines of fortification, leaden pipes and cisterns displaced, stone bridges broken, and trees felled; till, unable any longer to endure the sight, he petitioned the King for leave to quit the West of England. After the surrender of the castle to Cromwell in 1645, and the levelling of the outworks, there still remained a fear that the fabric itself might be condemned, in order to prevent its future use as a military post; but by the intercession of Lord Kimbolton, whose sister was the wife of Lord Coleraine, this crowning catastrophe was averted. On re-visiting the spot in 1650 Lord Coleraine found little remaining but the bare walls, dirt, and desolation. But though his losses by the war were estimated at £40,000, he instantly set about the work of restoration, and had in great part recovered the original design when his death occurred, in 1667; his son, Henry, Lord Coleraine, still further carrying forward the father’s intentions. Henry Hawkins, of Chippenham, yeoman. Declares that he was never sequestered nor even questioned for any delinquency ; VOL. XXIV.—NO. LXX, @
82 The Wiltshire Compounders.
neither did he engage at all in the latter war (that of 1646). But doubting he might be liable to sequestration, and taking notice of the favour intended by the late vote to such as shall discover them- selves, he petitioned here (in London) 4th May, 1649. On his property, consisting of houses and lands at Chippenham and Hardenhuish, a fine of £30 was thereupon levied. As for his personal estate in wool, yarn, and cloth, this was already dissipated.
Humpurey Hencuman, of Sarum, D.D. (afterwards Bishop).
His delinquency lay in his deserting his habitation and repairing to Oxford, where he was at the time of its surrender to Sir Thomas Fairfax. He is seised of a freehold for life in right of his wife, who is seised thereof for her life as a jointeress from John Lowe, her first husband, of and in certain lands and tenements in Dorset and Wilts, annual value before the troubles, £100. He is seised of a freehold for two lives in being, of the prebend or parsonage of the Southport of Grantham, in Lincolnshire, for which he pays £30 reserved rent to the prebendary, more than which it is worth £180 per annum. This account of Grantham he subsequently corrects by saying that the lease originally made to John Penruddocke and Robert Cruys, was by them demised to the compounder and John Ryves, to render annually £100 to Elizabeth Curle, late wife of Walter, Bishop of Winchester, then to William Curle, their son and heir, then to Ellen, the compounder’s late wife. Fine, £200. - Henchman, or more properly Henxman, was the appellation of the pages of honour attendant at the feast-days of the Order of the Garter. Hinxman is the name of a family seated at Little Durnford, near Amesbury. Died, 8th August, 1779, the Rev. Humphrey Henchman, Prebendary of Salisbury and Rector of Barford St. Martin, and of Great Cheverill.
Barron Hixron, Esq., a recusant (Romanist). The property which this gentleman held at Berwick St. John, Donhead St. Mary, and Donhead St. Andrew, was seized in 1645 as the estate of Sir ‘William Smith, of Durham, but discharged in the following year on a certificate from Durham that Smith was no delinquent.
Ratru, Lorp Hopton, of Stratton, of Evercreech, and of Witham Friary. This nobleman’s estate lay in Somersetshire, but he also
Communicated by Mr, James Waylen. 83
held the rectory of Tilshead, in Wiltshire; and when the troubles arose, appears to have resisted a claim for rent issuing thereout due to William Mewe. Hopton’s father and grandfather having in 1600 acknowledged a statute-merchant of £600 to William Mewe, granted a rent-charge out of the rectory for ninety-nine years, dependent on three lives; but on Mewe’s death in 1642 Lord Hopton stopped payment to the son and heir, William Mewe, who, owing to his daily attendance on the Assembly of Divines was unable to prosecute his claim, till by order of Parliament he re- covered it; although the Wilts Committee had in the meantime let the impropriation for £160 to William Crabb and John Randell. The Mewe family, it may be inferred, were Parliamentarian ; Richard Mewe was a lieutenant of horse in Fairfax’s army; commission gyvanted by the Rump Parliament in 1659.
' Another property which Lord Hopton owned in this county was Fitzurse Farm, at Kington Langley, near Chippenham, with its old moated house on the summit of a rising ground, long the abode of the ancient family of the Fitzurses, one of whom is known in English history as among the murderers of Thomas 4 Becket. Near this house stood a chapel dedicated to St. Peter, which in 1670 was converted into a private dwelling-house, though not a trace of it is now discoverable. The revel of the village was kept on the Sunday following St. Peter’s Day (29th June), on which occasions a temporary officer called “‘ the Peter-man ” used to be appointed, bearing the office, it may be presumed, of master of the sports. A
-new Church was raised here in 1855, The estate of Fitzurse was, during the Protectorate, sold by the Hopton family to Mr. Bampfield Sydenham, from whom it has descended to the children of the late Mr. Sydenham Bailey. (Canon Jackson.)
Tuomas Howarp, Baron Howarp or CHARLTON, AND EARL OF Brrxsuire. The breaking out of hostilities must have been emi- nently distasteful to this nobleman. He was considerably advanced ‘in life, his family was very numerous, and his domestic affairs were disordered; but neutrality was out of the question, as he was bound to the King’s interest by a variety of ties, personal and official, Though long past the age of military service, yet on the mere
G2
84 The Wiltshire Compounders.
suspicion that he was about to take prominent action against the Parliament, he was captured in Oxfordshire as early as the summer of 1642 and sent to the Tower. The first document, therefore, to be cited in his case is the following appeal to the House of Lords, dated from the Tower, 5th September, 1642 :—
“The humble petition of Thomas, Earl of Berkshire ;—That your lordships will be pleased to admit him into your presence and give him leave to speak for himself. Or, if by occasion of your important affairs, your lordships cannot be at leisure to hear him, his humble desire is that your lordships will be pleased to permit him for his health’s sake to remain at his house near St. James’, upon promise of his honour or upon bail or any other security your lordships shall think fit, to appear whensoever your lordships shall command. And he shall ever pray, &c.
“ BERKSHIRE.”
On the 14th he was brought to the House, where, kneeling at bar, he reiterated his request. On being charged with having entered Oxfordshire with intent to put in execution the King’s commission of array, he protested as in the sight of Heaven, that it had all along been his fixed resolution to have nothing to do with that commission, regarding it as injurious to the King; and that the meeting at Watlington with Lord Waineman, Mr. Whitelock, and others, was only to concert measures for guarding their respective habitations from plunder; and he further declared that there were no arms in his house. On which the Lords agreed to release him from the Tower and allow him to remain at his Town house, if he would undertake to appear whensoever summoned, at six hours’ notice —to which arrangement he assented, with expression of thanks. In the spring of 1643 he obtained a pass to go into the country with ten servants and his coach and horses, on passing his word of honour to the Speaker of the House of Lords that he would not go to Oxford, but only to his own house. And he appears to have duly returned to London, for it is certain he was a prisoner there when, in the following spring, his mansion at Charlton fell into the hands of a party of Parliamentarians stationed at Malmesbury, who plundered it, in March, 1644. Such, at least, was the affirmation of his Countess, who was probably resident here at the time, for she forwarded a petition, 27th March, praying the Lords to allow
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 85
the Earl to repair into Wiltshire. The prayer was granted on the former proviso of avoiding Oxford and promising on his honour to return upon twenty days’ warning. Perhaps the King forcibly prevented his return to captivity, for about the time of the treaty of Truro, in 1645, his lordship again. fell into his enemies’ hands, who surprised him at or near Lord Hopton’s head-quarters. Two of his Charlton: servants, Anthony Porter and Robert Almon, made oath that he had quitted the said head-quarters on the day before the rendition of Truro, but this was all they could allege in miti- gation. Of course his estates were all this while under sequestration, nor could he get a hearing as a compounder till after the King’s death. His town. mansion at St. James’s meanwhile was occupied as barracks for Fairfax’s men.
Lord Clarendon invariably speaks of the Earl- of Berkshire-in terms of contempt. Possibly the Howard may have irritated the Hyde by references to his own tardy conversion to royalism, for their mutual hostility appears to-have been nursed at the council- board, an arena on which Clarendon eventually showed himself to be facile princeps. As such he had little patience with obstructors of his policy. Of the Earl of Berkshire’s personal attachment to. the King’s cause there could be no question ; but the historian always labours to prove him a bungler.
The Earl of Berkshire’s petition to. compound, dated 14th April, 1649, set forth that he being a sworn servant in ordinary to his late Majesty, did upon the command of his said Majesty attend his _ person in the duty of his place, aceording to his oath, during the late troubles, both at Oxford and other places, whilst they were holden in garrison against the Parliament. He is comprised within the articles of Truro. During such attendance he did adhere unto and assist the King and his forces; but neither did he hold any command nor bear arms; nevertheless his estate being sequestered for his said delinquency, he humbly prays to be admitted toa moderate composition according to the particular hereunto annexed. And he shall pray, &e. His fine was at first fixed at £972 14s., to which £320 was afterwards added, as respecting three mortgaged estates whose condition conld not then be estimated, viz., Kingsbury
86 The Wiltshire Compounders.
manor in Somerset; West Pennard, in Somerset ; and Ewelme, in Oxfordshire.
He is seised of a freehold for the term of his life, remainder to his Countess, of the manor of Charlton, near Malmesbury, with its rights, members, and appurtenances; the rectory of Charlton, and certain lands heretofore parcel of the purlieus of Braden Forest, but now enclosed; other parks and hereditaments at Charlton, Broken- borough, and Hankerton, altogether worth per annum £725 11s.74d., with old rents, £27 11ls. 8d. He is seised of a like estate with the like remainders, limitations, and uses (save only the jointure of his lady), of and in the manors or lordships of Hankerton, Broken- borough, and Brinkworth, with the rectory of Hankerton, worth £502 14s., with quit rents and improved rents there, £81 17s. 3d. He is seised of a freehold for the term of his life of an annuity of £50 issuing out of the rents, fines, and profits of Wallingford Castle, and out of Ewelme, in Oxfordshire. He is possessed of a term having twenty years to run of land and house at St. James’, in Westminster, holden by demise of Michael Poultney, Esq., 22nd March, 1 Car., worth £40 per annum over and above the reserved rent of £10. This house hath been much ruined and defaced by soldiers, and is now full of them. He is seised of an estate for life, remainder to his Countess, remainder to his right heirs, of the messuage and park of Ewelme (but charged with a debt of £1700 to Robert Bickers), worth £200 a year more than the rent reserved to the Crown of £60, He has the custody of the late King’s house and garden at Ewelme, in Oxfordshire, and the office of surveyor of the woods there, and the stewardship of Wallingford Castle, altogether valued at £10 12s. 11d. per annum.
Against this he claims allowance of fee-farm rents in Wiltshire to the Crown, £10 38.1d.; also £250 a year to his son, Charles, Lord Andover, and £250 a year to his daughter-in-law, the Lady Andover, which she now enjoys, having discharged her sequestration ; also of the debt to Bickers aforesaid of £1700 for which Ewelme is mortgaged for ninety-nine years, with a re-demise for the whole term except a month unto the said Earl, rendering £300 a year to Bickers, and the Earl discharging the fee-farm rent of £60 to the
| |
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen, 87
Crown; which rent being unpaid the executors of Bickers have made their re-entry and avoided the re-demise, and the whole principal debt of £1700 remains unpaid. The manor of Kingsbury, in Somerset, yielding £20 in old rents, is mortgaged to Frances, daughter of Sir John Weld, in consideration of £3000 debt and interest, but no part being paid the mortgagee is in possession by order of the Committee of Lords and Commons for Sequestrations, The manor of West Pennard, in Somerset, worth in old rents £20 a year, is mortgaged to Dudley, Lord North, in trust for the Lady Dacre, in consideration of £5000 debt and interest, which being wholly unpaid the mortgagee is here also in possession. The castle of Newark and lands at Newark, Stoke, and Avesham, in Notts, worth annually £240, are mortgaged to Lady Katharine Gargrave, in consideration of £2060, but no part thereof being paid the mortgagees are in possession. His five water corn-mills and two fulling mills, at Newark, yielding £90 per annum, are mortgaged to Sir Edward Powell for £500, which being unpaid Sir Edward Powell hath entered. The customs of Carlyle, yielding annually [a blank] ave mortgaged to Sir Theobald Gorges in consideration of £2000 with proviso to be void on payment, but no part is paid and the said customs are now of no value. He formerly held a lease from the Crown of the post-fines at a rent of £2272 8s., then of much greater value than this rent, but now, having been long out of possession and the Court of Wards being down, he knows not
what it yields, but he desires a reserved liberty to compound for the
same when its value shall be ascertained. He had also a pension from the Crown of £1000 a year out of the Tin farm, but has received nothing these many years. He is indebted to several
‘persons at least £20,000, and his tenants have paid for the Par-
liament’s service fully £3300 to re-imburse which will take at least three years. (He had formerly received £200 a year for keeping
the King’s mares and foals, but this form of emolument, having ‘shared in the ruin of his royal master, eould not now be scored against him.)
A letter from Sir Thomas Fairfax was put in, acknowledging
that the Earl’s house at St. James’s had sustained so much damage
88 The Wiltshire Compounders.
that it was to be feared he could raise nothing on it, to aid in settling his fine, and therefore begging that consideration be shewn him on that account. But on the other hand, and greatly aggravating his case, a long declaration was at the same time made by his brother, Edward, Lord Howard, of Escrick, that standing engaged as he did for sundry debts of the Earl, there had been made over to him by deed, before the war, the whole of the Earl’s personal estate in the two houses at Ewelme and Westminster, a fact admitted by the Earl’s wife and eldest son. The House thereupon made an order against either of the two houses being despoiled; a caution of no efficacy, for Fairfax’s soldiers, as above shewn, got possession of the London house, and the mansion of Ewelme fared no better; the contents were scattered among the neighbourhood or found their way to London for sale; leaving to Lord Escrick no other remedy than a renewed order from the House to prosecute the plunderers when he could lay hold of them.
Cuaries, Lorp Howarp or CuHartTron, Viscount ANDOVER. Eldest son of the above. The Lords’ Journals contain several documents relating to this nobleman ; the following will be sufficient to represent his case. In 1645, having obtained from the King license to retire into Holland, he writes from Oxford soliciting from Lord Essex a pass, to convey his servants and horses with him, and on his way to spend a few days at Charlton, in Wilts. The request was refused, but the next year he made a more successful attempt to leave the country ; and the following letter written by him soon after the King’s death will carry on his narrative :—
To Viscount Rochfort, or whomsoever is Speaker of the Lords. * Dover Castle, 10 July, 1649.
“My Lorp. I was yesterday the 10th of this month cast in by a tempest at Broadstreet in the Isle of Thanet, and there apprehended by the country and carried to Margate; from whence as I hear, they acquainted the deputy lieutenants of Kent with my seizure; and whilst we expected their orders, Major Carter from Sandwich sent a troop of horse for me, who brought me to Colonel Rich’s quarters at Walmar, and ke immediately sent me to Dover Castle. At first so many various conjectures were made of my being in those parts, that finding myself both discovered and apprehended too, I thought lt every way best neither to deny my person nor my intention, which was, at any rate or hazard, to have gone te my master the Prince (since your lordships were pleased
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen. 89
to remand my pass) to pay to him those domestic duties that by my oath I am bound todo. Therefore seeing I ought to be neither examined nor heard before any but the Lords in Parliament, thither I appeal, protesting against any other judicature. My lord, your lordship’s most humble servant,
“ HowarD oF CHARLTON.”
Further contumacy being unavailing, he petitions, 19th July, 1649, admitting that he adhered unto and assisted the forces raised against the Parliament ; but he affirms that about the year 1646 he left the King’s party and withdrew himself into parts beyond the sea where he still continued. His servants, John Stacey and William Williams, making oath that he was a resident in Exeter within three months before the treaty for the rendition thereof, he is in a position to claim the benefit of the articles of Exeter. As to his estate; by virtue of a conveyance made to him by his father, the Earl of Berkshire, in 1640, he is seised of a freehold for life, re- mainder to the Lady Dorothy, his wife, and heirs, remainder in fee to the Earl of Berkshire, of and in a moiety of the manor of Hankerton, with lands there and at Charlton and Brokenborough, worth £250 perannum. Fine, £375’; dated 25th September, 1649.
The Earl of Berkshire died at a very advanced age, some time after the Restoration, but not before he had received gratifying marks of the royal favour. On the 12th of April, 1662, a grant — was made to him of £8000, being £5000 for himself and £3000 for his daughter, the Lady Elizabeth Dryden ; to be paid at the rate of £1000 a year by the Receiver for Yorkshire ; but on the discovery that the Yorkshire revenue was mostly settled on the Queen, the liability was transferred to Somerset and Dorset. Eventually, “ on account of the great extremity of the Earl’s affairs,” it was assigned upon the Receiver-General of rents. As a further solatium a con- firmation was soon after made to him and to his son, Sir Robert Howard, of the Green-Wax fines in the Exchequer for thirty-one years, at £577 rent, and of the Post-fines in the Common Pleas for forty-eight years, at £2276 rent. The personal history of the other members of the Earl’s numerous family constitutes a copious chapter in the annals of that period, but in the matter of sequestration there is not much more to say about them. Sir Robert, the sixth son,
90 The Wiltshire Compounders.
above mentioned, who resided at Fasterne, near Wootton Bassett, is credited with a fine of £942, and all of them suffered more or less under the Commonwealth. After the Restoration Sir Robert was made Auditor of the Exchequer, and the King utilised his oratorical powers in the House in suppressing opposition to his money demands. He and his brother, Edward, the fifth son, figured as wits and minor poets in the court of Charles II., to which we may presume they were stimulated by the matrimonial alliance of their sister, Elizabeth, with John Dryden. Edward was the author of a long poem on the war, in ten books, entitled Caroloiades. Philip, the seventh son, attended the court of the Princess of Orange till the Restoration, when he became a colonel in the army.
AntHony Huncerrorp, of Black Bourton, Esq., Member for Malmesbury. Deserting his place at Westminster, he sat in King Charles’s Oxford Parliament, Sir John Danvers succeeding him in the Long Parliament. Sir Edward Poole told them that Colonel Fetti- place had assured him that Mr. Hungerford would have been carried to Oxford by force had he not gone voluntarily. _ The fact was, his estate lay near Oxford and would have been liable to plunder otherwise. Before long he manceuvred to be captured and sent to London, where, after lying for some time in the Tower, he compounded. The fine declared was, at a tenth, £10138, at a third, £2532—uncertain which of these two sums was levied. Nor is it clear how they could both represent the same principal. The final adjustments were in many eases eminently capricious. Mr. Hungerford, it is believed, eventually paid £1500, through Lord North’s intercession.
Tuomas Honr, of Longstreet, in the parish of Enford, gentleman. His delinquency lay in bearing arms against the Parliament. He surrendered himself and took the oaths in October, 1645, but did not petition in London till two years later, when he acknowledged having been in arms, but after awhile “saw his error” and came and submitted himself unto Lieutenant-General Cromwell, at which time also he took the National and Negative Oaths, and prepared to exhibit his “ particular,” but his estate was claimed by his mother.
“To all officers and soldiers in the Parliament's service. _ “These are to require you to permit the bearer thereof, Thomas Hunt, major,
Communicated by Mr. James Waylen, 91
with his four servants, five horses, and his arms, with his baggage, being two portmanteaus with his own goods, to pass to Hermitage, in the county of Dorset, without any let or molestation, and there quietly to abide, not doing anything prejudicial to the State. Given under my hand this 7th of October, 1645.
“OLiveR CROMWELL.”
* By the Dorset Committee, sitting at Wareham, 29th October, 1645.
“We do certify that Thomas Hunt of Longstreet in the parish of Enford, Wilts, having been in arms against the Parliament, came voluntarily this day into this garrison and submitted himself to the mercy of the Parliament, by taking the Negative Oath and the National Covenant.
‘“* AnTHONY ASHLEY CooPER, ‘‘Rospert Burner, 6‘ Francis CHETTELL.”
It was in October, 1645, that Cromwell reduced Winchester Castle, Basing House, and Longford Castle. The date of the above (hitherto unpublished) manumissive, granted by the Lieutenant- General, suggests at first sight that Mr. Hunt may have formed part of the garrison of Winchester Castle, which surrendered on the 6th of October, the very day before the signing of Oliver’s pass ; and it so happens that one of the articles of surrender on that occasion permitted the officers to carry away with them their horses, arms, and proper goods. But it may be asked, “ Is this supposition consistent with the language of his petition, ‘ seeing his error,’ &e., as the cause of laying down his arms?” And if such could hardly be the utterance of one who was a mere prisoner of war, then we must conclude that his surrender had been a personal and indepen- dent act. This is noteworthy as viewed in contrast with the hostility
which he afterwards manifested against Oliver’s Government, in-
ducing him to join in what is known as the Penruddocke rising of 1654. But his business with the sequestrators must first be noticed. He is seised of a farm at Box, called Wormwoods, worth per annum £40; a farm at Longstreet, £60 ; houses and tenements at Wootton Basset and at Westbury, £3 6s.8d. He craves allowance for a
-rent-charge of £60 payable annually to his mother (Alice Butler, -of Newton, in Dorset), being her jointure. Fine, £310; but,
allowing for the jointure, then £220. This is the house which in 1778 gave birth to the celebrated
92 The Wilishire Compounders.
political reformer, Henry Hunt, of Chisenbury, Esq. In his own memoirs, published while he was a prisoner in Ilchester gaol, he correctly describes the part which his ancestor had taken in the Penruddocke affair, including his remarkable escape from that same prison in female disguise, all of which is amply ratified by Thurloe’s papers; but he ignores his ancestor’s previous action in the Civil War, and he is clearly at fault in the matter of sequestration, His narrative is to the following effect:—that Colonel Thomas Hunt, after escaping from Ilchester Gaol and finding his way to Holland, suffered the confiscation of his entire estate; and though returning at the