82 Diary of Thomas Smith, Esq. 



Corporation Books. 

 The Corporation Booka and Records begin with the year 1631. 



Corporation Mace. 

 This is a very large silver mace having on it the date 1758, and 

 having on the top under the bows of the crown, the Royal Arms, 

 as they were before the union with Ireland. 



giatg of C|oma5 <§mi% C^., 



OF SHAW HOUSE. 



^ITH the kind permission of Peter Audley Lovell, Esq., of 

 Cole Park, Malmesbury, the Editors of the Wiltshire 

 Magazine have much pleasure in presenting to their members, 

 extracts from the Diary of Thomas Smith, Esq., of Shaw House, 

 Melksham, extending over the space of nearly two years. 



It commences February 28th, 1721, and concludes with the end 

 of the year 1722. The writer died 2l8t July, 1723. 



Where the entries are merely records of his daily occupations 

 about home, or a repetition of the notes of the day preceding, it 

 has not been deemed necessary to repeat such very ordinary cir- 

 cumstances, but whenever and as often as the name of a person or 

 place occurs, the Editors believing that some degree of interest may 

 be felt, even in apparent trifles, have then scrupulously printed the 

 exact words of the original document. After the lapse of nearly a 

 century and a half, there can be no objection to the publication 

 itself, as setting forth the incidents of a private country gentleman's 

 every day life in association with the ancestors of some whose 

 names are still found in the immediate locality. Whether it be 

 curiosity, or a praiseworthy inclination to learn the state of society 

 once existing in one's own immediate neighbourhood, certain it is, 

 that these autobiographic notes, not written for the purpose of 

 publication, must ever be regarded as faithful records ; and con- 

 sequently the history collected from them valuable, as well as inter- 



