40 On the History of Chippenham. 
quietly add in their report, “ how much the Sheriff got from 
Nicholas they do not know.” 
These cases show, first, that Chippenham had a permanent 
officer under the title of Bailiff long before the charter of Mary; 
and next, that his power was subject to continual challenge. Per- 
haps it may safely be concluded, that when Queen Mary granted 
a charter with a view of setting the local authority upon a fresh 
footing, it was not before it was wanted. 
THE Boroveu Lanps. ' 
It was of little use to grant a charter to the town and to 
endeavour to set the local authority on a better basis, without pro- 
viding ways and means for strengthening its usefulness and 
dignity. Accordingly, together with the charter came the Borough 
Lands. The history of this donation is curious. It will be seen 
by reference to the dates of the several grants of land above recited, 
that in the reign of Mary no part of the original royal demesne 
remained in the hands of the Crown except the Forest of Chippenham. 
This portion was still available, but it was probably of insufficient 
value. The alternative therefore was to take what was required 
from somebody else. Very conveniently for the purpose, it hap- 
pened that Walter Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury and Farley, 
owner (by descent from the Lord High Treasurer of that name 
temp. Henry VI.) of a large part of Chippenham parish, had, a 
few years before Mary came to the throne, fallen into fatal disgrace 
by calling King Henry VIII. a heretick, and by having conspired 
with one William Byrd, Vicar of Bradford (in Wilts) against the 
kine’s life. The conspiracy (so far as appears) only amounted to 
this; that the reverend gentleman was a dabbler in the strange, 
but then popular, branch of chemistry called Alchymy, and had 
ventured upon some experiments in Lord Hungerford’s house, to 
find out how long this heretick sovereign should live. His Majesty 
not approving that sort of inquiry on the part of his subjects, and 
being no doubt very sensitive of the stigma of heresy, called the 
two alchymists to account more sharply than they had probably 
anticipated; for Lord Hungerford lost his head on Tower Hill, and ~ 
with his head he also took leave of his Manor of Chippenham, 
