Lords of the Manor of Etchilhampton. 179 



copies of charters still preserved, in which Patrick and William 

 successive Earls of Salisbury confirm this gift, and one in which 

 Henry III. sanctions it,^ and it is repeatedly alluded to in public 

 records. "Walter of Salisbury however, in alienating this portion 

 of his estate, reserved to himself the rights and privileges 

 belonging to the chief Lord of the fee, and these, as the following 

 extracts will shew, descended to his successors for some centuries. 



Thus in Testa de Nevill (/<?/. 135) under the date of c. 1260 

 (towards the close of the reign of Henry III.,) we have the follow- 

 ing entry : — " William de Malewain holds 1^ Knight's fee in 

 EcHiLHAMPTON, with One bide of land which he holds in the vill 

 of Merton* of the Earl of Salisbury, and he of the King in 

 chief, of his Barony of Cettre (Chittem) by ancient feofi'ment." 

 A few years later in the Hundred RoUs,^ 3 Edward I., (1275), we 

 have the Jurors reporting that " the Earl of Lincoln * in right of 

 his wife holds 1| Knight's fee in Hechilhampton of the King in 

 chief and William Malewyn holds the said fee of the Earl." In the 

 Inquisitiones post mortem for 20 Rich. II., (1397), we have "William 

 de Montacute, Earl of Sarum " registered as having died siezed of 

 " IJ Knight's fee in Hechilhampton" ; and in the same records for 

 2 Henry Y. (1414) " Eileva, wife of William de Montacute, Earl of 

 Sarum " is recorded as having, at her decease, been possessed of 

 the same Manor. 



It must be borne in mind that we have been speaking hitherto 



' New Mon. ri., 338. 



^Thia place is what is now commonly called Maetiw, in the parish of Great 

 Bedwin. It is repeatedly alluded to in the Records. See Test, de Nev. 139, 

 144 ; also Hundred Rolls, ii. 270. The foundations of an old chapel were discovered 

 there a few years ago, and, on some fragments of glass, were the arms of Malwyn, 

 viz., " Per pale sable and argent a cross moline counterchanged," from which it 

 may fairly he inferred that some member of the Malwyn family was, if not the 

 founder of the chapel, at least a benefactor of it. There does not appear any 

 ground for the conjecture in the "Wilts Mag. vi., 274 (where a full account of 

 the remains of this chapel is given), that it was dedicated to St. Martin. 

 The name of the hamlet in old documents spelt Meeton, Meetone, 

 or Meetune, and once Maethoen , See above, p. 9 note. It may be mentioned 

 in passing, that " John Malwayn" held lands at "West Grafton, immediately 

 adjoining Martin, 44 Edw. Ill, See Gent. Mag. (new series) iii., 591. 

 3 Hundred Rolls, ii., 273. 



* Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, married Margaret Longesp^e, eventually 



