568 Tropenell Memoranda. 



House and Church at Great Chalfield, p. 4, while Walker in turn 

 relied on certain extracts from the Cartulary which at that time 

 was missing. Corroborative evidence on the point is still to seek, 

 and the Cartulary itself, now that it has been recovered, does not 

 prove helpful. Tropenell asserts (vol, i., pp. 272, 273,) that WiUiam 

 Rous, and those whose estate he had, '' hadde and okepyed the 

 office." On p. 289 he cites releases, &c., which carried the right, 

 but later on (i., pp, 341, 342) gives the text of these documents, 

 which contain no reference to the office. At pp. 310, 311, occur 

 two leases made by Constance, then lady of Great Chal field, of a 

 ^itQ{'placeam) in Trowbridge called " Loggeplace," with the marginal 

 gloss by Tropenell " how Constance graunted parcell of her office 

 of constabilwyke of Trobrigge to ferme." It may be so, but in 

 neither document is the "Loggeplace" so described. On pp. 317, 

 318, we have the petition of William Eous, who invokes his 

 evidences in proof that he holds the manor of the Duchy of 

 Lancaster, and that all his ancestors have been [seised] therein 

 by knight service and [service] of being constable of the castle ; 

 but this is only an earlier assertion and is not in itself proof • 

 while the releases made to Tropenell (i., pp. 397, 398) long after he 

 had been in possession of the manor and had formulated his own 

 claim to the office, though they undoubtedly mention the office, were 

 equally certainly of his own drafting. Whether the finding of a jury 

 in 1348, to which we shall come later on (pp. 581 — 582), furnishes 

 the required proof of the existence of such an office, so held, or 

 whether the service there mentioned, if correctly described, is not 

 rather the germ of Tropenell's ampler notions on the subject, will 

 have to be considered. Meanwhile in the inquisition taken 3 May, 

 1488, after Tropenell's death, it is indeed stated that he died seised 

 in fee of the manor of Great Chaldefeld, held of the king as of the 

 Duchy of Lancaster, as of the honor of Trobrigge, by service of 

 being constable of Trobrige Castle, and this is the first full ac- 

 knowledgment of the tenure so far met with in a public document 

 — but here it is to be observed that the family solicitor, or his 

 equivalent, undoubtedly drew up these returns, for subsequent 

 adoption by the jury, and we may, in this case, be only dealing with 



