By the Rev. Canon J.-B. Jackson. 335 
name from having once belonged to the Priory of Abury, near 
Marlborough. 
4. The next Ashton named in old documents, but now wholly un- 
known, was Saucern’s Asuton. We find the names of Henry le 
Saucere, Sybil Saucere and others. This is simply a corruption of 
the name Saleey, from the old Latin “De Salceto.” Saleetum is 
Latin for a willow-bed. There do happen to be, below, and winding 
round the “ Abury ” just named, some celebrated willow-beds, well 
known and often resorted to, about the month of October, by Mr. 
Long’s friends, for certain fowl that abound there. This may have 
been the salcetwm which gave the name to Saucere’s Ashton, but the 
family name of Salcey seems preferable. A Robert de Saleeto, of 
Bishop’s Lavington, occurs in 1333: and a Peter de Salceto is, with 
a Rector of Trowbridge, witness to one of the charters of Lacock 
Abbey. 
5,6. Mippie Asuron, and Hurpcorn’s Aston, are likewise 
names found in old documents relating to the Manor of Ashton. 
In 1255 William Blowet held two carucates of land in Hurdescote’s 
Ashton, of the Abbess of Romsey. But nothing is known about 
them now as any part of Steeple Ashton parish. 
7. The last is SutpEn, SupEn, or East Asuton. About this there 
is no doubt. It is now called East-town. Why called Sulden, I 
don’t know. Sui, in Saxon, is a plough, and Dene is a valley ; but 
it is more likely to have been some old family name. There was a 
- family of Martyn, of East-town, whose pedigree is preserved from 
1596. It supplied Steeple Ashton with a Vicar, and Chippenham, 
to which I believe it migrated, with two or three bailiffs or mayors. 
These are all the Ashtons: but the original manor included Henton, 
Littleton, and Semington. At Henton is a place called Cold-harbour, 
‘of which there are no less than 150 in different parts of England. 
The meaning of the name has been much disputed. Harbour is 
probably only a corruption of the Saxon Herr-burg, a station. If 
cold may be supposed to mean cool; then the whole, “ cool-retreat,” 
may perhaps have been merely a favourite name in former days, for 
for villas and country houses, something like the “ Mount Pleasant” 
and “ Belle View ” of our own day. . 
