216 



§n m ^w^hSnmx CFjavtet relating to tt^t 

 ^atislj oi cStoditon, in Milk 



By the Rev. "W. H. Jones, M.A., F.S.A., 



Vicar of Bradford on A-von. 



^MHERE is in the Chartulary of St. Swithin, Winchester, a 

 llj^ f copy of an ancient Charter relating to Stockton, which, as 

 the history of that parish is now being printed in the " Wiltshire 

 Magazine," will, it is hoped, be an acceptable addition to its early 

 annals. It will also have an additional interest from the fact, 

 that it was in great part from information derived from the late 

 much esteemed Rector of Stockton, the Rev. T. Miles, that the 

 compiler of the present paper was indebted for its interpretation. 

 In company with him, but a few months before his decease, the 

 ■writer drove or walked over a large portion of the boundary-line 

 of the parish, and with his local knowledge and ready help 

 succeeded in identifying many of the places mentioned in the 

 Charter. 



The Charter is found at Jol. 86 of the Codex Wintoniensis 

 (Add. MS. 15350 in Brit. Mus.), and has been printed by Kemble 

 in the Cod. Dipl. (No. 1078), and by Thorpe, in his Diplomatarium 

 Anglicum (p. 148). The grant, which is itself an ancient one of 

 the date A.D. 901, carries back the history of Stockton to the days 

 of Alfred the Great. In that king's days it had belonged to a 

 certain noble named Wulfhere, and to his wife, but subsequently 

 for some act of disloyalty or treachery, was forfeited to the Crown.^ 



*The words of the charter are as follows, — " Ista . . .tellus primitus fuit 

 praepeditus a quodam duce, nomine "Wulfhera, et ejus uxore, quando ille 

 utrumque et suum doniinum regem ^Ifredum et patriam ultra jusjurandum 

 quam regi et suis omnibus optimatibus juraverat sine lieentia dereliquit: tunc 

 etiam, cum omnium judicio sapientium Gewisorum et Mercensium, potestatem 

 et hfereditatem dereliquit agroriim : nunc vero in calce hujus syngraphaj legunti- 

 bus et audientibus omnibus patet quia omnibus illis antiquis libris, si quis 

 habeat, sit proscriptum, et nU ultra prsevaleant in modico vel in magno." 



