CHAPTER II 



ANCESTRY 



Jefferies is, and has long been, a common Wiltshire 

 name, spelt also Jeffries, Jeffreys, Jefferis, Jefferie, Jef- 

 fereye, Jeffery, Jefferyes, Jeffreyes, Jeafries, Jefferes. 

 They were farmers, coopers, and the like at Wootton 

 Bassett, Clevancy, Chippenham, Marlborough, in the 

 seventeenth century. In the parishes of Chisledon and 

 Draycot Foliatt they rank with the Webbs, Garlicks, 

 Crippses, Lookers, Nashes, Woolfords, Chowleses, Pontings, 

 and Jeroms for abundance and persistency. Sprinkled 

 over the corn-land and meadow between Draycot and 

 Swindon there were several families of the name, yeomen 

 and labourers, who intermarried with Reeveses, Harveys, 

 Garlicks, Jeroms, Birds, Brookses, Chowleses, Nashes, 

 and Bucklands, of the neighbouring parishes, and had 

 many children, who became farmers, labourers, paupers, 

 wanderers to other parts, vagrom men and ancestors 

 of we know not what scholar, merchant, beauty, slum- 

 dweller. The records of them are to be found in the 

 parish register of Chisledon and of Holyrood, Old Swindon, 

 though at Chisledon there is a gap between 1669 and 1712. 

 Fine quintessential history, brief as the local speech, these 

 records make. An old, strange man is found dead in a 

 field in February, ' probably,' it is added, ' due to the 

 severity of the weather and his advanced age.' A base- 

 bom chUd is found dead and deserted by its ' unnatural 

 mother ' under a hayrick. The poor are described, thus 

 briefly, as ' ancient woman ' or ' young girl.' One who 



2.3 



