The Grubbe family in Potferne. 265 



too near Edington. Still the two immediate successors of Bishop 

 Ajscough had good reason to take interest in Potterne. The one, 

 Richard Bbauchamp, brother to the Sheriff of Wilts for 1436, 

 held the castle of "The Devizes'^ in 1461; the other, Lionkl 

 WoODViLLE, was brother to the Queen of Edward IV., who as such 

 had enjoyed the castle and demesne of " The Devizes " as her royal 

 dowry. 



It is during this century that we first meet with a name that now 

 for a long series of years has been well known in Potterne ; for 

 Grubbe is the name of a vicar who was probably appointed about 

 1474 or 1475. The episcopal registers for those two years are 

 missing, and I have not been able to find out from other sources the 

 said vicar's Christian name. I may add that the name Grubbe is 

 no doubt a Flemish name ; like others common enough in ttiese 

 parts, such as Kemp, Gouty, Clutterbuck, Derrick j and seems to tell 

 us of the trade in wool and cloth, for success in which we were so 

 much indebted to foreign workmen. By this time we know that 

 " The Devizes " was benefitting by this new branch of industry. 

 And, once more to quote the witty Thomas Fuller, " Happy 

 the yeoman's house into which one of these Dutchmen did 

 enter, bringing industry and wealth along with them. Such as 

 6ame in strangers within their doors soon after went out bridegrooms, 

 and returned sons-in-law, having married the daughters of their 

 landlords who first entertained them. Yea, those yeomen, in whose 

 houses they harboured, soon proceeded gentlemen, gainirg great 

 estates to themselves, arms and worship to their estates.'' — Church 

 History, i., 419. 



No doubt it was to some one or other of these thriving men of 

 business that we owe the last addition to the Tower, the battlemented 

 parapet of which is in the perpendicular style and of the date of about 

 1490 ; and also that singularly interesting old timbered-house, now 

 ordinarily called the " Porch House," of which some time ago a 

 photographic engraving was given in our Magazine (vol. x. 1). As 

 a more detailed notice will appear of this interesting building in the 

 pages of this Magazine, I will only say that the original design of 

 this house looks much as though it were intended for what is some- 



