Subordinate to the Barony of Castle Combe. 265 



for license to release these three Manors of Sterte, Heytesbury, 

 and Colerne, to Robert de Stanford and Richard de Broke. 1 And 

 from this period Sterte, of course, disappears from the Rolls of the 

 Courts of Castle Combe. 



3. Wili. — The present Parish of Wily, on the river of that 

 name above Wilton, comprised anciently as many at least as three 

 manors. One of them was no doubt, as Sir R. Hoare believed, the 

 Wilgi of Domesday, which at the period of that survey was held 

 by the Abbey Church of Wilton, and has descended, with other of 

 her ecclesiastical domains, to the Earls of Pembroke. The two 

 other manors of the name of Wili, formed a part of the fee of 

 Hunfridus de Insula, and were possessed, as part of the Barony of 

 Castle Combe, by Earl Reginald de Dunstanville, temp. Henry I., 

 as appears from an early copy of two grants, preserved at Castle 

 Combe, conceding in fee-farm to John de Wili, and Agatha, 

 his wife, the town of Wili (Totam villain Wili) for a rent of 

 eight pounds of silver yearly, and five marks of silver in hand, 

 and also a hide of land in Wili, which Aylward, father of John, 

 held of Earl Reginald, with a messuage upon it, for service of the 

 fifth part of a knight's fee. 2 Another deed witnesses that on the 

 decease of John de Wili, his son, Thomas de Wili, received a further 

 grant and confirmation of the same manor and lands from Walter 

 de Dunstanville, then Baron of Castle Combe, for the sum of 

 "twelve silver marks and one palfrey, by way of relief." 3 By a 

 fourth charter, Walter de Dunstanville, son of the first Walter, 

 quitclaimed the same estate to Nicholas de Wili, for payment of 



i Abbrev. Rot. orig. 8 Edward III. 



2 The witnesses to these early deeds are worth recording — viz., Hugh de 

 Dunstanville (probably brother of the Earl, who is believed to have been a son 

 of A.deliza de Insula, widow of Reginald de Dunstanville, by King Henry I.), 

 William de Cargit, Joel Malus Nepos, William Despenser, Pagan Capellanus, 

 Simon Pincerna, Gervase of Wilton, Roger Clericus de Wilton, William Cocus 

 Comitis, William St. Clare, Radulphus his son, and many others. 



3 The witnesses to this somewhat later deed are Engcram de Pratellis, Alanus 

 Be lett, K< ramus de Tracy, Robertas de Sertana, Willielmus lilius Comitis, 

 k:. m-dus de Wili, Oervasiua de Wilton, Willieknus Clericus, Robert de Lanicot, 

 Alarms filius Ricardi. 



