By the Ven. Archdeacon Macdonald. 133 



Southhroom is perhaps so called, to distinguish it from a small 

 hamlet in the more Northern part of Wilts, Brome near Swindon. 

 In 2 Henry III. (1217) Godfrey de Clifton and John de Holt, 

 clerk, represented the Bishop here. In 11 Henry III. (a.d. 1226) 

 a Fair was granted, and in 12 Richard II. (a.d. 1388) was con- 

 firmed to the Bishop of Salisbury, to be held at Southbroom ("ad 

 Suth Bram extra villain de Devizes"). It was held on the Green, 

 a portion of the waste of the lord of the manor, of which the Bishop 

 had toll, and which toll is still paid, the fair being held on 20th 

 April and 20th October in each year. 



In 1439 Thomas Norton of this place held under lease from John 

 Fyton, lands in Canyngs episcopi, Stert, Vyse-wyke, and elsewhere 

 in the neighbourhood. 1 About 1498 it became the property of the 

 Drew family, in whose hands it continued for 200 years, to (about) 

 1680. Drew's pond near Devizes still bears their name; which is 

 found in many entries in the registers, and on monuments, in the 

 churches of St. James and St. John. In 1615 was printed a Ser- 

 mon called "Life's Farewell" from Sam. xiv. 14, preached on the 

 death of John Drew, Esq. by George Ferreby, Vicar of Bishop's 

 Cannings. A copy of this is in Magd. Coll. Library, Oxford. 

 Robert, son of this John Drew was M.P. for Devizes 1597 — 1625. 2 



1 Wilts Arch. Magazine, I. 288, No. 46. 

 2 It has been stated in Vol. iii. p. 177 of this Magazine, that in a deed of 

 temp. Henry VII., the first Lessee of Southbroom is called John Trewe; and 

 that this is the oldest form of the name at this place. On this point our Editor 

 has observed to me that he is not acquainted with Trewe as a Wiltshire geuti- 

 litial name: but that Drew was an ancient and abundant name in the Western 

 counties, and, as such, still adheres to three parishes which some have considered, 

 but as he thinks quite erroneously, to have been called after the Druids: viz 

 Drew's Teignton (Co. Devon), Stanton Drew (Co. Som.) and Littleton Drew (Co. 

 Wilts). There were also in North Wilts, Drews of Seagry, temp. Edward III. ; 

 and of Ogbourne St. George so late as 1 .">(>.">. lie thinks (hat in the case of John 

 Trewe, above mentioned, there may have been an accidental error by the clerk 

 who wrote tin- deed, such as often happens either from similarity of sound (as 

 Teni on for Denison, or Tuokett for Duekett), or when a deed is prepared at a 

 ince from the spot. En this oase tin- error seems tn lie immediately corrected 

 in the deed aexl following, by Hie restoration of the proper name Drew, "alias 

 Trewe," :i Buch mi itakes, onoe made, are obliged In be referred to in subsequent 

 documents. The representatives of the Southbroom family repudiate the varia- 

 tion <>!' Trewe. The name of William Ferrebe, clerk, and Lawrence Dreui ,n. 



