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WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 
‘6 MULTORUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS,”’—Ovid 
Aowwlep alias GAittenham. 
By the Rey. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 
TUDENTS of Wiltshire Topography, turning over the pages 
of the Public or other Records, in search of material for 
parochial history, may have met with “ Wittenham ” or “ Rowley,” 
sometimes “Rowley alias Wittenham” or “ Wittenham alias 
Rowley,” as the name of one of the parishes in the county. They 
will not have found it on any county map; nevertheless, such a 
parish there once was. It had also a church,and an Incumbent and 
churchwardens who duly answered to their names and paid their 
fees at the Bishop of Salisbury’s Visitation. But neither episcopal 
muster-rolls nor county lists, any more than the maps, know any- 
thing now of Rowley adidas Wittenham. 
The reason is, that more than 400 years ago, it was, as a church, 
legally and with consent of all parties, annexed to an adjoining 
church, not in Wilts but in Somerset, viz., that of Farley- Hungerford 
(better known as Farley Castle), in the diocese of Bath and Wells. 
It is owing to this circumstance that the parish of Farley hes, as it 
does, in two counties. 
The annexation of two churches in one and the same county and 
diocese is not an uncommon act: but that of two lying in different 
counties and dioceses is so extremely rare, that it seems to deserve 
a little notice: especially when, as in the present instance, we are 
able to produce the document by which the annexation was legally 
and canonically made. 
The ruins of Farley Castle, about three miles west of Bradford- 
on-Avon, stand on a hill, upon the very eastern verge of the county 
VOL XIII.—NO. XXXIX. R 
