done at the castle. 5 Edward III. John de Paulsholte [meaning Paul's wood now Poulshot] 30 acres at Chitmarsh, by half a knight's fee. [A petition is on record from this tenant, complaining in respect of 32 acres in Melksham forest which, as part of the bailiwick of Devizes Castle he held of Madame the Queen; for that William of Harden, having obtained a royal commission empowering him to let out the King's wastes in these parts, had disposed of the petitioner's land as waste, although it had previously been disafforested. Rotuli Parl. i. 476.] 7th Edward III. William de Maundeville, houses and lands at Edington. 23 Edward III. Henry de Willington, Asserton near Berwick. 2 Henry IV. John Roches, Knt., messuages and lands at Yatesbury. 6 Henry V. John Lavington, one capital messuage called Lavington place, and other messuages. 9 Henry V. Ancareta daughter and heiress of Gilbert Talbot, Knt., half the manor of Broughton. 13 Henry VI. John Earl of Arundel, half the manor of Bulkingdon.

Under the head of town of Rowde, occurs, "Richard de Benacre and Juliana his sister hold three virgatas of land at Rowde, by sergeanty, viz., for finding a soldier equipped with haubergeon, sword, and lance; to serve in the castle in time of war, for 40 days at his own charges."

Henry le Oiselur [Falconer] deceased, held one hide [Q. four virgatas ?] at Rowde, by sergeanty, viz., by attending with his birds, on the King, if in these parts at Michaelmas; or, in the absence of the King, on the lord of Devizes. The jury also present, that Roger son and heir of Henry aforesaid, being a minor, is, with his lands, in the custody of that lord.

Touching the state of the Borough, we learn among other

1 Ankaret, Baroness Talbot and Strange of Blackmere, who died in 1421 at the age of four years, was the only daughter and heiress

of Gilbert fifth Baron Talbot, by Beatrix natural daughter of John King of Portugal. Sharpe's Peerage.

things. That the Crown held the Borough of ancient royal demesne: as also the advowsons of two chapels:-That the King's revenue therein derived from the rents of assize, [the assize was that of bread and beer] the herbage and pannage of two parks and two gardens, the rent of a little park and of the market, and the profits of the court, amounted to £29 2s. 4d.: otherwise specified in another return, thus, "Assize of bread and beer £9 11s., Market tolls £16, perquisites of the Court 100 shillings, two bedells 20 shillings." The Borough claimed to have the return of writs: the Burgesses pleaded causes to distraint; and the King had a gallows here, [furcas]. Fossa et Furca, meaning ditch and gallows, was a typical term constantly used to indicate a jurisdiction of death and ordeal. It has been suggested that the pond at Hillworth, still called "Gallows-ditch" points out the ancient place of execution, when that power was attached to the King's court in the Borough of Devizes. Sir Edward Coke the eminent lawyer of Elizabeth and James I.'s time, says, III. Institute, 58. "Fossa is taken away, but Furca remaineth." In proof whereof it may be added, that the Chamberlain's accounts for the Borough of Devizes contains an entry for the "mending of the cucking stool and the gallows" as recently as 1596. Still later, viz., in 1611, King James's charter to Salisbury directs the citizens to erect a gallows for murder and felony, unless they preferred resorting to that which already stood at Fisherton. Hatcher's Salisbury. The privilege of Furca as an appendage to their courts was even granted occasionally to lords of manors, together with tumbril, ducking stool, hue and cry, &c., &c. The reason of all this is found in the fact that whenever a city, borough, or manor possessed its own Court-leet, it was totally exempt from the "Sheriffs tourn" that is to say, from the jurisdiction of the County or Hundred in which it lay.

The Jury further report touching Devizes, that the Burgesses have a privilege granted by the King's predecessors,

that no market should be held [or levied] within seven miles [leucas] of the town: that nevertheless, Richard de Rockley held one at Steeple Lavington on the day preceding that at Devizes, to the great detriment of the latter. The King's revenue was also encroached upon by Earl Warwick and Philip Bassett late Constables of the castle, who had established certain stalls in the Borough market, at a reduced rent. John de Haverings, another Constable of the castle, had caused to be made, by the precept of the reigning King, a certain Fishpond [vivarium]: but whether to be placed to the credit of the King,' the Jury know not; as the King has had no inspectors of the castle since the time of Philip Bassett. [Q. Does not this memorandum suggest the date of the formation of Drew's Pond ?]

One of the privileges above claimed by the Burgesses is the "return of writs." Sixty years later, we meet with the following lamentation on this head. "To our lord the King and his council: The good people of the town of Devizes pray that it may please him of his grace to allow them to hold their aforesaid town according to antient usage, that is to say, as they were accustomed to hold it in the time of the good King Edward: For that they are now empoverished and destroyed by farmers and strangers, who make execution upon them by bailiffs unknown to them, and in matters where the people of Devizes ought to elect their own bailiffs. Moreover they have a manifest claim to the return of writs, now intercepted by the farmers, to their great damage. On all which accounts, they earnestly solicit the recovery of their usages and customs as enjoyed in former times." Response. "Let this petition be presented in Chancery; and to the intent that justice be done them, let them there shew in what form they have hitherto held the town." Rotuli Parl. 4th Edward III. [By "farmers" is to be understood, not agriculturists,

1 Such may be the meaning of this obscure passage.

G

but contractors for the taxes in Hundreds and Wapentakes.] We now go on with the history of the Governors.

JOHN DE HAVERINGS AND RALPH DE SANDWICH

Are names which occur very near the commencement of Edward I.'s reign. Sandwich, evidently a man of mark, is mentioned as an officer in the Exchequer, and as one of the witnesses present when Alexander King of Scotland did homage to Edward of England, at Westminster, 6th Edw. I.

10th Edward I. Ralph de Sandwich is commanded to convert the meadows in Devizes Park into pasture land for the support of the King's deer and other animals. This procedure gave rise in the ensuing reign to a remonstrance from Thomas de Yutflete parson of the church of Devizes, who complained that he thereby lost the tythe of the meadow-hay. In reply, John de Foxley, John Walewyn [altered to John Blewit] and William de Harden were ordered to hold an inquest on the subject and report to the King. The inquest was accordingly taken at Devizes in 1316 before eighteen jurymen, whose testimony favoured the parson's former right, and estimated the claim at twenty-two shillings per annum. [It may here be remarked, once for all, that a mass of medieval archives relating to the Devizes Churches, illustrative also of the family history of the Borough, the transfer of property, and the disposition of charitable donations during those early times has been so fully analysed and arranged by Mr. Edward Kite in his History of "The Churches of Devizes" in the Wilts Magazine, Vol. ii., that, in place of mutilating that essay by the process of taking extracts, the reader is referred to its pages.]

JOHN DE EWELESHAM OR EVESHAM 1284.

In the famous Ship-money cause, of Charles I. against John Hampden in 1637, Mr. St. John arguing, in the defendant's behalf, that it had ever been the duty of the Crown to pro

vision the defences of the realm, and that by the statute 14 Edward III. cap. 13, the people might not even be compelled to sell against their will, cited a case occurring at Devizes during the wardenship of John de Evesham. "That the statute" says he "in this particular was not the introduction of a new law, is cleared by the case Trin. 16 Edw. I. Rot. 93 Wilts in a little Roll, and in a great Roll of the same year Rot. 19 when in Trin., by John Eversham against John Flavel, because he had taken his corn stock. The defendant says, he was Constable of the King's castle of the Devizes, and having it in the King's precept that he should provision the castle with live and dead stock, he took an inquest to know where he might best have these provisions to the least damage to the country. The jury fixing on the plaintiff, he went to his house, and offered to purchase for the King's use: but the plaintiff refused to sell, and they departed from his house: the issue joined, and found against the defendant: 100 marks damages given the plaintiff, and adjudged." State Trials. [abbreviated.] Flavel had in the first instance been fined 20 marks for contumacy in refusing to sell: so that the judgment cited by Mr. St. John was a reversal of the former sentence.

MATTHEW FITZ-JOHN 1286.

He bore the title of lord of Stokenham in Devon; and did homage not only for Devizes but for the manors of Erlestoke and Hakleston [Q. Haxton near Netheravon]. The annals of this family furnish us with a glimpse of the early history of the seat at Erlestoke. Matthew Fitz-Herbert, Justiceitinerant in Wilts and other Southern counties in the reign. of Henry III. resided at Erlestoke, towards the rebuilding of which, the King gave him ten oaks out of Chippenham forest. Rot. Claus. i. 443. The son who succeeded him in his Wiltshire estates was termed Herbert Fitz-Matthew, who died without issue, when they descended to a brother Peter, and then to a nephew John, to whom Dugdale gives a son,