The Bohun family at Trowbridge. 215 
of the manor, about which I need not trouble you, it descended to 
no less a personage than John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the 
friend and protector of Wiclif. His son, Henry of Bolingbroke, 
succeeded to it, and when he became King Henry IV., the Duchy 
of Lancaster, to which the manor of Trowbridge then belonged, 
was merged in the crown. 
It is very remarkable that by the marriage of Henry of Boling- 
broke, afterwards King Henry IV., with Mary de Bohun daughter 
of Humphrey de Bohun, tenth Earl of Hereford, the manor and the 
estates at Trowbridge, which were severed as early as the commence- 
ment of the twelfth century, were again held by one and the same 
person—in this case King Henry IV. 
The Manor remained in the crown as part of the Duchy of Lancaster 
for some 136 years. It was then granted in 1536 by King Henry 
VIII. to Edward Seymour, afterwards the Protector Somerset. On 
his attainder in 1552, it reverted to the Crown for a time, but was 
soon afterwards granted to his son Edward Seymour, created Earl 
of Hertford and Baron Beauchamp in 1559. It descended through 
the Seymour family, one of whom was created Baron Seymour 
of Trowbridge. In 1748 it came to Algernon, seventh Duke 
of Somerset and fifth Baron Seymour of Trowbridge. He died 
without male issue in 1750, and his barony became extinct. His 
sister Frances married John, first Duke of Rutland, and carried the 
manor into that noble family. In the year 1809, it became by 
purchase the possession of Thomas Timbrell, Esq., the patronage 
of the rectory being then severed from it and retained by the Duke 
of Rutland. The present Lord of the Manor is W. Stancomb, Esq., 
of Blount’s Court, Potterne, who purchased it in June, 1851, from 
the representatives of Mr. Timbrell. 
But we must now return to the Bouun family, who seem to have 
been the principal owners of property here. They obtained it 
_ through the marriage of Humphrey de Bohun (surnamed the 
Great) with Matilda, daughter of Edward of Salisbury. Amongst 
the endowments of Monkton Farleigh, which was founded by them, 
were “ ten shillings from the church of Trowbridge, and the tithes of 
the lordship of Staverton.” It was most probably this nobleman that 
