36 On the History of Chippenham. 
Pewsham is extraparochial, a privilege which is perhaps a relic 
of that golden age, (before alluded to) when, being royal demesne, 
taxes and assessments were unknown within the manor. 
The Wardenship of Chippenham Forest was attached to the 
office of Constable of Devizes Castle. 
The portions of the parish thus far described as having been 
granted to Laymen, lay on its southern, south-western, and western 
sides. We now come to the district on the north-west, east, and 
south-east, granted to Religious Houses, consisting of the principal 
estates at ALLINGTON, Monkton, and STANLEY. 
1. ALLINeTON. 
This was given by King Stephen to the alien Nunnery of 
Martigny, in the upper valley of the Rhone; and by the Prioress 
and Nuns of that house, it was transferred in the reign of Edward 
I., to the Priory of Monkton Farley, near Bath. The monks held 
it in their own hands, and had a farming establishment there. 
There is an account of their farming stock when they were deprived 
of it. Wheat was then 5s. a quarter, barley 2s., oats 1s. 4d., and 
their oxen were valued at 6s. 8d. a piece. 
Allington was granted at the dissolution of monasteries, in 
August 1537, to Sir Edward Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp, after- 
wards the Protector Duke of Somerset. In 1623 it was the 
residence of Sir Gilbert Prynne, of a Bristol family, who, with 
his Lady, was buried in Chippenham church. In the house which 
he occupied, now a large barn, fire-places and windows may still be 
observed. Algernon Duke of Somerset, who died without heirs 
male in 1749, was succeeded in one of his titles (the Earldom of 
Egremont,) and in some of his estates by Sir Charles Wyndham. 
In this way Allington came to the Wyndhams, Earls of Egremont, 
from whom it was purchased in 1844 by Mr. Neeld. 
2. Monxron, N.E. of Chippenham, beyond the Avon. 
This portion of the royal manor was given by Matilda the 
Empress (mother of Henry II.,) to the Priory of Monkton Farley. 
There does not appear to have been any house on the estate for the 
residence of a religious society, though they cultivated the lands 
