214 A Sketch of the Iistory of the 
sub-divisions, the names of which frequently occur in the parish 
registers. These are:—l, Knighton; 2, Stoke; 8, Gerardstone, 
corrupted into Gurston, or Guston; and, 4, Mount Sorrell, corrupted 
into Mousehill or Moulsell. We will take them in order. 
1. The hamlet or manor of Knighton was included in the lands 
given by King Eadwic to the Abbess of Wilton. According to the 
“Testa de Nevill” (c. 1260), Joan de Nevill held half a knight’s fee 
here, under the Abbess of Wilton, in the reign of Henry III. In 
1316 Knighton was in the possession of Laurence de St.Martin. Later 
on we find it, successively, in the hands of the families of Lovell, 
Popham, and Darell, finally passing to the Earl of Pembroke in the 
reign of Henry VIII. In 1822 some of the lands of Knighton 
belonged to one Juhn Alan, or Alwyn, who, in that year founded a 
chantry chapel in the south transept of Broad Chalke Church (still 
called the Knighton-Aisle), for the good of his own soul and the 
souls of his ancestors. The chantry was dedicated, as was also the 
Church, to All Saints. The chantry priest was appointed by the 
vicar. The return made in the year 1553, of the “ Church goods ” 
of this chapel, is as follows :—‘‘ The chapel of Knighton. Delivered 
to Thomas Smythe, gent., wonne cup or challis, by indenture of 5 
ounce, and 2 meane bells. In plate to the King’s use one ounce 
dim.” 
This chantry was continued till the time of the dissolution of 
chantries, in the early part of the reign of Edward VI. The 
property assigned for the maintenance of the chantry priest went 
probably to the St. Loe family, now extinct, several of whose names 
occur in the parish registers between 1578 and 1682. The old 
house at Knighton is still standing, though much altered ; in one 
of the rooms there is a very fine carved oak Jacobean chimney-piece. 
2. Stoke, properly Stoke Verdon, corrupted in the Ordnance Map 
into Stoke Farthing. This manor formerly belonged to the Lords 
de Verdon. In the middle of the thirteenth century it was held by 
Rois (or Rohese) de Verdon, “in socagio de Abbatissa de Wilton,” 
according to the “ Testa de Nevil.” This lady in 1240 founded the 
Monastery of Grace Dieu, in Leicestershire, “to the honour of S. 
Mary and the Holy Trinity”; she afterwards married Theobald de 
