182 The Rise and Fall of Steeple Ashton as a Market Toivn. 



evidence in favour of this supposition is that Steeple Ashton has 

 been for untold years, and is to this day, the place where the court 

 of the hundred actually is held, and where the same kind of minor 

 offences as used to be tried in the old sheriffs turn or king's leat 

 are now dealt with by the magistrates in petty sessions. 



In process of time the " Staple," or stone pillar, erected in the 

 middle of the village to mark the place where men might congregate 

 for the purpose of transacting business was developed into the 

 " market cross." In the case of the parish we are considering this 

 development took place. For in the thirteenth century, in deeds 

 of Edw. I. and II., we find it called Ashton Forum, meaning Market, 

 or Staple, Ashton, the place where a settled mart was held. And 

 it is certain, for the original document is lodged in the Eecord 

 Ofi&ce, that the right to hold a market on "Wednesday in every 

 week at Ashton in the county of Wiltshire was granted by charter 

 of the 10th of May in the 23rd year of King Edward III. (A.D. 

 1349), to Isabella Chonnoys, or de Chameys, Abbess of Romsey, 

 and to her heirs and successors for ever ; and that by the same 

 charter permission was given to hold a fair during three days, to 

 commence annually on the day next before the Nativity of the 

 Virgin Mary, and to end the day next after the said Nativity for 

 ever. 



In order to explain the connection of the Abbess of Romsey with 

 the parish, it will be necessary to carry our minds back some 

 hundreds of years. Ashton was probably owned by the Kings of 

 Wessex, who immediately succeeded Alfred, for in A.D. 959 it 

 certainly formed part of the possessions of Edgar, the Peaceable, 

 the great-grandson of Alfred the Great. 



This Edgar, says Canon Jackson, was a very liberal founder and 

 promoter of monastic houses, and he gave the manors of Ashton 

 and Edington towards the endowment of the Nunnery of St. Mary, 

 at Romsey, in Hants. Romsey Abbey Church was partly built by 

 money from Ashton Manor. 



Unfortunately the register book, or cartulary, and most of the 

 records of the abbey are missing ; but the cartulary of Edington is 

 in the British Museum, and it contains a copy of King Edgar's 



