THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 



"MULTOEUM MANIBUS GBANDE LEVATT7E ONUS," — Ovid. 



By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 



{Read at the General Meeting of the Society there, September "ith, 1869.) 



JIU^HEN the "Wiltshire Archaeological Society met at Chippen- 

 ham in September, 1855, I read a Paper on the " Ancient 

 History of the Town," which was afterwards printed in the 

 Society's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 19. It contained, in a condensed 

 form, (as the occasion required,) an outline of all the information 

 I had been able to obtain upon the subject. To the material points 

 I have little to add ; but a few notices and memoranda of old 

 localities and customs have been since met with from time to time, 

 which may perhaps be interesting, especially to those who are 

 more immediately connected or acquainted with Chippenham. 



To begin with the building in which we are now assembled, the 

 New Town Hall. This (as is well known here) is modern. It 

 was erected some years ago, at the private expense of the late 

 Joseph Neeld, Esq., of Grittleton, M.P. for this Borough. His 

 coat of arms, carved in stone, was subsequently placed, at the 

 expense of the Corporation of Chippenham, at the top of the 

 front, outside. 



But inside, over the entrance door of this, the principal room, 

 are two other coats of arms, which are intended to perpetuate the 

 gratitude of Chippenham towards former benefactors long since 

 passed away. 



The armorial bearings on these two shields, though used con- 

 jointly, for some centuries, as the arms of the Borough of Chip- 

 penham, were originally those of two distinct families. On one 



VOL. XII. — NO. XXXVI. u 



