168 Swindon and its Neighbourhood—No. 2. 
up a small semi-religious, semi-charitable hospital, not for the sick 
but (like Mr. Sutton’s) for the aged. The Warden or Master was 
to be a priest, under whom were to be two or more brethren, Pres- 
byters, to be dressed in russet gowns with a cross upon them. 
Thirteen poor men of the parish of Wootton, at the least, but more 
according to the state of the funds, were to dine together every day 
on soup and bread; with (should the means permit) beer and a dish 
of meat. All this implies a certain endowment arising out of lands 
or houses." The names of six Priors (as they were called) of this 
hospital are preserved. They were not of the solitary monastic 
order, but secular, married clergy, and two of them were also 
Rectors of Wootton. But it lasted only a century or so. The 
lands that provided the income lay about West Tockenham and 
Quedhampton, near Basset Down, and were given away in the 
reign of Henry LV. to the Priory of Bradenstoke (or Clack Abbey). 
The estates of the Basset family passed to the Despensers. I will 
not trouble you with all their notorious history ; it is sufficient just 
to say that upon their execution in the reign of Edward II. Wootton 
Basset was forfeited to the Crown, and under the Crown it was held 
by various members of the Royal Family one after another, or 
in certain portions by the families of Wroughton, Yorke, and 
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. The arms of some of these were 
formerly in the windows of the old Church at Wootton, but I do 
not know that even these families ever left behind them anything 
else to be remembered by, except those perishable memorials. For it 
is really the fact that over and over again the only information to be 
1JIn “Dr. Hutton’s Collections from the ‘ Vetus Registrum’ of Sarum,” now 
among the Harleian MSS., is a copy of an order by Bishop Walter de la Wyle, 
relating to this foundation :—‘‘ Ordinatio Walteri Sarum Episcopi super Hospitale 
de Wotton Basset fundatum per dominum Philippum Basset et Thomam de 
Gaytune, Rectorem ejusdem Ecclesie Sit unus custos sive Magister, sacerdos. 
Habeat sub se unum vel duos fratres Presbyteros, seu plures, in habitu regulari 
de russeto; et crucem deferant in desuper indumentis sicut Magister et Fratres 
Hospitalis Sarum, et easdem habeant observantias: 13 pauperes ad minus vel 
plures, si facultates Domus suppetant, de Parochii de Wotton diebus singulis in 
dicto Hospitali semel in die refectionem recipiant in pane et potagio sufficienti, 
ac in potu et aliquo ferculo, prout status domius poterit sustinere. Dat. apud 
Sarum 6. Id: Jun; 1266.” 
