THE FORESTS OF WILTS 323 



In 1217, John Marshall, the keeper of the Melksham and 

 Chippenham forest, was superseded by Richard de Samford, 

 but the former was appointed constable of Devizes Castle, and 

 the profits assigned for the upkeep of the castle. In 1219 

 Philip de Albiny was appointed by the Crown forest keeper 

 and also constable of the castle. At the time of the general 

 order as to cablish, after the great storm of 1222, the two 

 appointments were also in the same hands. It was but very 

 rarely that forest appointments were in clerical hands, but in 

 1225 the Crown nominated the Bishop of Salisbury to this 

 forest keepership at pleasure. 



The men of Melksham obtained certain pasture rights in the 

 forest in 1229, when Richard de Gray was keeper and con- 

 stable of Devizes. Chippenham and Melksham, though under 

 the same rule, and probably united without any break of forest 

 jurisdiction, were evidently regarded as two great wards of the 

 same forest. There were several royal orders in Henry III.'s 

 reign for so many oaks out of Chippenham and so many out of 

 Melksham, made simultaneously, and addressed to the keeper 

 of the two. 



Forest pleas for Melksham and Pewsham were held at 

 Devizes on 3ist August, 1490. The officials present were : 

 Sir Richard Beauchamp, keeper of the forest ; Thomas Long, 

 Esq., lieutenant; Walter Wrothesley, ranger; John, George 

 and Thomas Barbour, foresters ; Thomas Unwin and John 

 Blake, esquires, verderers ; thirteen regarders, five of whom are 

 styled esquires ; five woodwards, and the reeves and four-men 

 of each of the five townships of Chippenham, Studley, Stanley, 

 Melksham, and Stroud. A place is left in the schedule for 

 agisters, but the return is nulli. There were also present a grand 

 jury of seventeen, headed by William Bouchier, sen., Esq., 

 and twenty-five jurymen from each of the hundreds of Chip- 

 penham and Melksham. Of the five woodwards, one was 

 appointed by and represented the interests of the abbot of 

 Stanley, another the abbess of Lacock, and a third Cecilia, 

 Duchess of York. It was declared that the keeper was entitled 

 to an oak from each baily ; the lieutenant and ranger to an oak 

 each ; the forester and verderers to a roer each ; the company 

 of regarders to a roer and a buck between them ; Richard 

 Curson, the justices' deputy, to six oaks and a male deer called 



