439 



THE SOCIETY'S MSS. 



In the second volume of the Magazine (p. 393), the Secretary 

 acknowledges the gift to the Society, by Miss Hughes, of Brock 

 Street, Bath, of "Seventy curious ancient documents," and adds 

 " of these deeds some notes and extracts will be given in a future 

 number." 



Some of these charters cannot now be identified with certainty. 

 Of the seventy documents in the Society's possession, which it is 

 presumed, constituted Miss Hughes' gift, fourteen relate to land 

 acquired and sold by the Bonham family, and the residue, now to 

 be described, refer to the estate in "Wiltshire of the family of 

 Westley. Although imperfect, it is a particularly valuable set, since 

 the successive tenants appear none of them to have held in chief, 

 and, as mesne tenants, make no figure in such classes of the 

 Public Becords as have been catalogued or described. 



Whitecliff. 



It is mentioned by Hoare in his account of the parish of Brixton 

 Deverell that " Whiteclift," locally called "Whitley," (—in the ac- 

 companying map it appears as " White Cleve Farm ") is a " separate 

 manor and tithing in the Hundred of Heytesbury," containing 

 about three hundred acres. 



Brixton Deverell was an ancient possession of the alien abbey 

 of Bee, and now forms part, with other such possessions, of the 

 endowment of King's College, Cambridge. Whitecliffe remained 

 distinct, gave name to its owners and was in course of time trans- 

 mitted from them, with other small and scattered holdings which 

 they had acquired, to families of other names. Thus in our set 

 we find at least three imperfect series of charters, relating to three 

 main groups of land — in and about the Deverells, in and about 

 Steeple Ashton and in and about Amesbury, and meet with the 

 names of Whitclive, Lyveden, and Westley, as those of successive 

 owners of the whole, and with yet other names of former possessors 

 of the individual parts. 

 VOL. XXXVI. — NO. CXIII. 2 G 



