
By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 245 
circumstances, be reduced to poverty. Accommodation has been 
provided for eight men, to whom it is proposed to allow a few shillings 
weekly “toward theyr fyndynge.” Already some five alms-men 
have been admitted to this privilege, and when funds are forth- 
coming the number will be increased. May many worthy repre- 
. sentatives of their worthy townsmen, the Terumbers and the 
Yerburys, be raised up to carry out this good work. And may a 
greater permanency be its lot than was granted to the foundation 
of the open-hearted and open-handed merchant of the 15th century. 
It will not perhaps be deemed wholly irrelevant to the subject 
of this paper, if we mention that, besides the Chantry founded by 
Terumber, there was a religious Guild, which is called in the 
records “The Brotherhood of Corpus Christi,” within the parish 
church of Trowbridge. A full account of such Guilds, and in 
particular of three which formerly existed in Devizes, will be found 
in the Wiltshire Magazine.! The one at Trowbridge, as far as we 
can ascertain, does not appear to have been connected with any 
particular trade, but to have been one of those guilds so common 
in the 15th and following centuries, formed for the purposes of 
mutual help and association in religious exercises, and so giving a 
sanctity to the business and occupation of every day life. Some 
now-a-days are too apt to brand, as mere superstition, old customs 
which rebuke that spirit which, in ‘‘ their haste be rich,” too often 
tempts men to forget, that, toil and succeed how they may, there is 
. One only to whom all blessing is due. 
The entries respecting this Guild are as follows? :— 
Trowbritge, The rentes of the 
Landes gyven tothe} tenentes at will followinge, viz., of John 
BROTHERHOOD OF] Ellis for one tenemente with a garden 
Corpus Curistr, and a pocke of pasture, contein. by 
within the Parish] estimac. 1 acr., and 4 othre lytle pockes 
¢ a a 
Chirche of Trow-| of pasture, contein. in all by estimac. 3 ae 
bridge. acr. xlvi’. viii‘.; of Roger Lenthall for 
one tenemente in Portesse with a garden Whereof 
viii’., and for 4 shambles in the Market 
Place viii®.; in all at the festes of the 
yere most usual to be paid. 
1 Wilts. Arch. Mag. iv. 160, 
? Booke of Survey of Chauntreys, No. 58, Certificate No. 46. 
