By the Rev. W. C. Plenderleath. 325 



DiLTON. 



" J., son of "W. D., a soldier, married one E. H., of Dilton, daughter of J. 

 H,, of Dilton Dye-house, who was transported to North America for stealing 

 dye- stuff from Messrs James and Nicholas Codell, of Chapmanslade, some years 

 ago. The said E. D. above, mother of this son J., I buried the 7th of April, 

 1777, as above in Dilton Chapel on the mother's promise of paying me what she 

 owed me, or 6». M. for the fee. The old grandmother of the boy has only paid 

 me one shilling towards her daughter E.'s fee, though they both died in West- 

 bury Leigh, and none of the family of Hs ever buried at Dilton at all : for 

 old 11. H., the dyer, I buried at Westbury in the Churchyard: his widow died 

 at Longleat, and was buried in the church at Horningsham, Corsley, or the 

 new church in the Woodlands, J. H., their son, transported, died in America. 

 R. H., son of J. the transport, I buried in Dilton Chapel, April 1st, 1776, on 

 the promise of the mother paying my fee of 6s. %d., of which she paid me since 

 2». And now the boy J. D. is buried in Dilton Chapel by J. G., my sexton, 

 without my knowledge or privity." 



" Never a D. or H. in the World ever were buried in any of the Churches of 

 this parish, nor none of the Hs. J. H., the transport, in Mr. Wroughton's time 

 crowded an infant into Dilton Chapel unknown to him : and so forsooth every- 

 body of this Grand Folks must do as they please, who are near being kept by 

 the parish. I have threatened J. G., sexton, to prosecute him, but he has 

 promised to see me paid 6s. 8d. from S. D., or H., the boy's uncle." 



'• S. R., widow, aged 103 years, died of a dropsy. Buried March 24th, 1786."* 



We come now to a curious and abortive attempt on the part of a 

 distressed Chancellor of the Exchequer to raise a lucelbun, not only 

 from the lighting of the torch of life, but out of its extinction also. 

 In the year 1783, the national resources having been heavily drained 

 by the war with France, and still further also by the payment of 

 nearly ten millions sterhng to the American loyalists, as an indemnity 

 for their losses during the War of Independence, a stamp duty of 3tf . 

 was imposed upon the entry of every " burial, marriage, birth, and 

 christening/^ the tax to commence on October 1st. Two years later 



•Various interesting extracts from other Wiltshire registers are to be found in Nichols's " CoU 

 lectanea." I append a list of the parishes to which they belong : — 



Vol. vi., p. 227 — Malmesbury. 



,, vii , ,, 72 — CoUingbourn Duels. 

 „ „ 175- Collingboam Kingston. 

 „ „ 180— Burbage. 

 „ „ 188— Tidcorabe. 



„ Tiii., „ 190— Chute. 

 „ „ 301— Market LaTington. 



Vol. T., p. 28— Great Bedwyn. 



„ „ 36 and 361— Little Bedwyn. 



„ „ 39— Easton. 



„ „ 2«n— 8.S. Peter and Paul, Marlborough. 



„ ,, 268— St. Mary, Marlborough. 



„ „ 346— Preshute. 



„ „ 350— Mildenhall. 



„ „ 333 — Ogboume St. Andrew, 



„ „ 358--Ogbourne St. George. 



Portions of the registers of Dumford, Stratton St. Margaret, South Marston, and some other 

 parishes were also privately printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps, about the year 1822. We much want 

 copies of these books in our Devizes Library. 



VOL. XVI. — NO. XLVIU. X 



