186 Notes on Wiltshire Books, 8fc. 



the slenderest connection with the subject of the book, and certainly makes it 

 rather hard to follow the ramifications of the family pedigree. For instance 

 Simon Danvers appears in the Eolls of Parliament in 1316, and at once the 

 author digresses for a considerable space into the reasons for the summoning 

 of that Parliament, and the work that it accomplished, the armour that Simon 

 probably wore, and the probable incidents of his journey north to Berwick. 

 Again, John Danvers is living at Ipswell in the time of Edward III., and we 

 accordingly have a long description of the kind of house in which he probably 

 lived and of the furniture of every room. Again, it seems hardly necessary to 

 describe the Houses of Parliament as they existed in 1420 at considerable 

 length merely because John Danvers was knight of the shire for Oxford in 

 that year. 



The first two hundred pages are taken up with the earlier history of the 

 Oxfordshire family, the Danvers of Tetsworth, Bourton, Ipswell, Colthorpe, 

 Prescote, Culworth, and Waterstock. It is not until well on in the fifteenth 

 century that the family appears to have become at all connected with Wiltshire. 

 Thomas Danvers was M.P. for Downton in 1460. Corston (Gorton in 

 Hilmarton) came to John Danvers circa 1425 P with his wife, Joan Bruley, 

 and circa 1490 John Danvers married Ann Stradling, the heiress of Dauntsey, 

 and the family became Danvers of Dauntsey. 



In describing Dauntsey Church the author gives an interesting explanation 

 of the probable connection of the Danvers with St. Fredismunde, Fremund, or 

 Frethmund, a figure of whom remained in one of the windows in Aubrey's 

 time. Another interesting point is connected with the murder of Henry Long 

 by Sir Charles and Sir Henry Danvers, described in vols. i. and viii. of the 

 Wilts Arch. Mag. A new complexion seems to be put on the affair by the 

 petition from the Domestic State Papers here printed, in which Lady Danvers 

 (the mother of the offenders) describes the insolent and violent behaviour of 

 the Longs as provoking the affray at Corsham, in which Henry Long was 

 shot by Sir H. Danvers in order to save his brother's life. 



The Danvers families of Baynton, Tockenham, and Corsham are dealt with 

 somewhat shortly at the end of the book. Indeed the story of the Wiltshire 

 Danvers throughoiit seems hardly dwelt upon at the same length as that of 

 the Oxfordshire members of the family. 



There are seventeen folding tables of descent, and fourteen illustrations, 

 amongst which are the tombs and brasses of Sir John and Ann Danvers, at 

 Dauntsey, and a portrait of Sir H. Danvers, Earl of Danby. 



The book is excellently printed ; the index at the end is a fairly full one, 

 and the author throughout gives us chapter and verse most religiously for all 

 his statements, in the copious references to authorities at the foot of every 

 page. It may seem invidious to find small faults in such a monument of 

 conscientious labour, but Tockenham should not be described as a hamlet of 

 Lyneham ; " Harn," on p. 401, should surely be " Hartham " ; the Bruley shield 

 as illustrated is Ermine, on a bend or four chevronettes gules — whilst it is 

 described on the next page as Mrmine, on a bend gules three chevronettes or; 

 and our own " Magazine " is always referred to as the " Wilts Archaeological 

 Journal." 



Favourably reviewed in The Genealogist, vol. xi., April, 1895. 



