In Staffordton the Tythe of if any. For every back door wch opens into ye Church Yard (heretofore granted upon sufferance to some neighbouring Inhabitants) Sixpence per AnnTM. The Tythes of an Hamlet wthin the s Parish called Staffordton are paid by an Ancient Composition or Custome the Demeasnes.) thereupon viz.-As for the Demeasnes, the Greater Tythes thereof are not paid to the Rectors of Trowbridge, and for the lesser Tythes the Customary payment to the said Rector is One Pound Thirteen shillings and Fower pence per annTM, to be paid at 4 payments Quarterly. For the tenements at the Rate of Thirteen shillings and Fower pence per anTM. Out of every Halfe Yard Land, and out of every Mundays hold (which is ye 4th part of a yard land) Six shillings and eight pence p' anTM. All which are to be paid at 4 payments Quarterly. There are of these twenty and fower half yard Lands, and 3 Mundays hold, so ye totall yearly summe payable for these is Seaventeen pounds. The Mylls. Portion of Tythes in Ashton Parish. For the Mills at Staffordton by a stated Composition Nine Shillings per annm to be paid at Easter. By said Composition or Custome, the Herbage or Feeding of ye Chappell yard at Staffordton belongs to the Rectors of Trowbridge. The Bounds of it are to be made good by the owners of the Demeasnes, and others whose lands bound upon ye sd Chappell yard. On the North West side of Ashton Common (called Hawegrove) there are six Grounds commonly knowne by the names of Polebarne Grounds and Singers Grounds, now in the possession of Joseph Holton, James Singer, and Eleanor Singer, Wid, or their assigns, and on the South West Side of the sd Comon Eight Grounds more commonly call'd Footpath Grounds, Blackball Grounds, and Arnolds Meades, now in the possession of the said Joseph Holton William Slade, Robert Beach Sen', Harry Wallis, and William Yerbury, or their Assigns, all which lands are situate in the parish of Ashton, but by a certain Custom or Prescription the Tythes of them have always (beyond any known memory to the Contrary) beene paid to yo Rectors of Trowbridge who have alwaies paid to ye Vicar of Ashton in lieu of ye sd Portion of Tythes y yearly Rent of Fower Shillings. Now this Portion of Tythes so paid to the Rectors of Trowbridge being lately questioned and challenged by y Vicar of Ashton, the Rector of Trowbridge made it The expression "Mondaies-thing," which is evidently the same as a "Mondays-hold" occurs frequently in the Court Rolls of Castle Combe. See Scrope's Castle Combe, pp. 335, 336. In the same book (p. 146) also we read of Monday-men, the tenants of such holdings. There can be little doubt that the expressions we so frequently meet with in the Shaftesbury Chartulary, in reference to small holdings at Holt and elsewhere in this neigbourhood, and also in the Glastonbury Register (just brought to light by Canon Jackson) of tenements held by the obligation of personal service to the lord every Monday, "qualibet die Luna," are the real explanation of this term, appear to ye said Bp of this Diocese and to ye gd Vicar of Ro: HAWKINS, Rector of Trowbridge. The following list of Rectors of Trowbridge has been compiled for the most part from Sir Thomas Phillips' edition of the Wilts Institutions. In one or two instances omissions have been supplied from other sources. A.D. PATRON. INCUMBENT. 1229 ELA, Countess of Salisbury. PETER. Among the witnesses to 1 John de Warren, Earl of Surrey, married Alice Lacy, who was divorced from her first husband, Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster; and in right of his wife presented to the living of Trowbridge. A.D. PATRON. INCUMBENT. 1347 The King, for the heirs of RICHARD DE LA HYDE. JOHN DE WARREN, Earl of Surrey. 1347 Joan de Barr, Countess of Philip Pypard de Cleve. This 1376 JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of HUGH HALL (or) ATTE HALL; 1441 Feoffees of the Duchy of JOHN CARYTER (=Carter?); re Lancaster. 1443 The same. signed 1443. THOMAS JANYNS (=Jennings ?). 1 Joan de Barr was the daughter of Henry, Earl of Barr, and granddaughter of Henry III. by his daughter Eleanor. She was the first wife of John de Warren, Earl of Surrey. Her husband was divorced from her, and excommunicated by the Bishop of Chichester for his conjugal infidelity, in 1317. It would appear that after his death she claimed, but without success, to exercise the right, which belonged to him through his second marriage, of presenting to the living of Trowbridge. 2 Among the first acts of Edward III. was the granting, in reversion, the Castle and Manor of Trowbridge to William, Earl of Salisbury, which “John Earl of Surrey and Joan his wife held for the term of their lives." Subsequently however Alice Lacy, then the wife of Ebulo le Strange, obtained a restitution of the Manor, which had originally belonged to her, and it afterwards descended to her first husband's representatives. 3 The appointment of this Rector is implied in the subsequent entry concerning his suecessor. The Bishop's registers are wanting from 1366 to 1375. A.D. PATRON. INCUMBENT. 1456 The King, in right of the JOHN ARUNDEL; resigned 1458. Duchy of Lancaster. 1458 The same. ......? 1492 The same. 1528 The same. ......? 1561 EDWARD SEYMOUR, Baron Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford. Prebendary of Axford in the cathedral at Salisbury 8 Feb., 1456. JOHN KYBOW. JOHN STOKYS (Stokes); men tioned in the Terumber deed, He seems to supra, p. 226. have resigned in 1492. JOHN THOMAS. THOMAS MOLEYNS; alluded to by Leland as a "man well lernid." W. Mag., i., 151. Died Nov. 1558, buried at Trowbridge. The Register of the same year, for December, records the burial of John Rundell, "a Priest." JOHN LANGLOND (deprived? 1561) THOMAS WEBBE1; died June, 1595, buried at Trowbridge. 1595 Edward, Earl of Hertford. JOHN PELLING2; Rector of Bath, 1607-1620. See his monumental inscription in Rawlinson's Antiq. of Bath Abbey, p. 237. Much concerning the Pelling family will be found in Nichols' Topog. et Genealog. See also Dingley's History from Marble (Camden Society), plate xvii. 1 During Thomas Webbe's incumbency we meet with these entries in the burial registers : "1584. Mistris Joane Longe, Widow, a woman of greate devocione." "1587. Mr. Richard Dynes, Mynister and Preacher." 2 Early in his incumbency we have this entry in the marriage registers, "1597. April 3. Mr. Henry Hide and Mistris Marie Langeforde married." The son by this marriage was Edward Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, whose daughter, Ann Hyde, became the wife of James, Duke of York (afterwards James II.), and the mother of Queen Mary and Queen Anne. A.D. INCUMBENT. PATRON. 1622 William, Earl of Hertford. 1664 Charles, Baron Seymour of Trowbridge. THOMAS PELLING1; inducted Nov. ROBERT HAWKINS B.D.; instituted 1672 Lady Elizabeth Seymour ROBERT KEYLWAY.3 and others. 1 Amongst the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum (No. 4115, fol. 4) is one entitled, "A prophecy of St. Thomas the Martyr found in the study of one Mr. Pelling late Rector of Trowbridge in the county of Wilts in a very ancient MS." 2 In the time of this Rector (1669) Bishop Seth Ward instituted an enquiry as to the "Conventicles in Sarum Diocese." The extracts from the MS. (Lambeth Library, No. 639), containing the information relating to Trowbridge, are as follows: In the year 1676, during this Rector's time, Bishop Seth Ward undertook an enquiry as to the "Popish Recusants" in this diocese. The result is contained in a MS. in the Lambeth Library (No. 639). The report concerning Trowbridge, which is of some interest as showing the population just 200 years ago, is as follows:: |