4 The Nomina Villarum for Wiltshire. 



The "Nomina Yillarum " for Wilts has already appeared in 

 print in the Parliamentary Writs, (Vol. ii., div. iii., p. 346) under the 

 editorial care of Sir Francis Palgrave, but that work is incon- 

 veniently cumbrous in its bulk, and is certainly not generally 

 accessible. The document was also printed in a volume issued by 

 Sir R. C. Hoare, entitled " Repertorium Wiltunense." Only a 

 limited number of copies were printed, and it is known but to few. 

 There is no copy of the work in the British Museum. This is the 

 first time therefore that the document will be made generally 

 known. Every care has been taken to secure a correct text ; and 

 it is hoped that the illustrative notes, which are now added, may 

 be of use to students of Wiltshire topography. 



The chief value of the Nomina Villarum consists in this, that 

 we find in it direct evidence of the persons who held the smaller 

 subdivisions of the great tenancies at a particular time. For the 

 long period of a hundred years after the Conquest there is a blank 

 in our national records. We have, after that time, the Inqui- 

 sitiones post Mortem, but as in these documents the proper scope 

 was the investigation of tenures in capite, the information they 

 afibrd concerning persons holding by mesne tenure was not a neces- 

 sary part of the enquiry made by the escheator, and conse- 

 quently the Nomina Villarum disclose the names of many land- 

 holders of whom no other record remains. As Mr. Hunter well 

 remarks, " When no evidence is to be gathered from the Testa 

 de Nevil, or the Hundred Rolls, this information is not only diffi- 

 cult to be arrived at, but can only be attained at all in an indirect 

 manner. One fixed period of this kind is of great importance, 

 inasmuch as a single name is an indication of the line in which 

 the lordship is passing, and may often be the means of guiding 

 an enquirer to a series of lords both before and after the date of 

 the record itself: and the determining in whom the possession lay, 

 is one of the chief points in the history of the rural parishes of 

 England." i 



Incidentally this document throws light both on the meaning of 

 the names of many of the places in Wilts, and also, when com- 

 ' Quoted in Parliamentary Writs, Vol. ii., part 3, p. 4. 



