26 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History, 



The Norman conquest effected little in the introduction of new 

 place-names, but it added further suflfixes, in many cases derived 

 from the Norman lords of the soil, such as Wootton Basset, Compton 

 Basset, Shipton Moyne, Easton Grey, Yatton Keynell, Compton 

 Chamberlain, Upton Scudamore, Devi;ges is supjDOsed to have de* 

 rived its name Devisse from a supposed division of the manor betweeij 

 the Crown and the Bishop of Salisbury, but history does not bear 

 out this statement. The first charter was granted by the Empress 

 Matilda about 1136, under the name of " De Divisis,^^ at a time 

 when certainly no division had or could have taken place. It is 

 called in ancient records, Divisis, Divisse, De Vies. Leland calls it 

 The Vies. The true solution appears to be the fact that the castle 

 was built at the exact point of division between the three manors 

 of Rowde, Cannings, and Pottern. Hence the appellations Castrum 

 de Divisis, or ad Divisis, or simply Divis??. 



The above short notes may serve to direct attention to a subject 

 connected with the history of our country which will probably im- 

 part additional interest to the topographical notices of the county 

 and of the places visited. 



%\i Cmiiunt ^atos of Miltsljiu pbtotg. 



By the Eev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A.* 



^SS^\tl. Thomas Fuller, the Church Historian, in one of his works 

 l^ltx iB called " England^s Worthies,^' has preserved short memoirs 

 of the. most remarkable individuals, or those whom he considered 

 to be such, in English history generally. These are arranged under 



• This paper was prepared for, and read at, an Evening Conversarione of the Wiltshire Archso- 

 logical Society, at Bradford-on-Ayon, 9th of August, 1881. 



