589 



COPY OF A MS. IN THE POSSESSION OF 

 SIE WALTER GROVE, BARONET, 



TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A COPY OF 



A LAY SUBSIDY, 

 Preserved in Public Record Office. 



Sir Walter Grove has kindly communicated a MS. containing a 

 list of the inhabitants of certain hundreds in Wiltshire, with certain 

 sums of money appended to each name. The date of the MS, 

 nowhere appears on it. A memorandum accompanying it is to the 

 following effect : — 



"Believed to be Ship money Eoll between 1638 and 1644. In 15th 

 Chas. 1st, 1639, a letter was written from the Lords of Council to the 

 respective Sheriffs of Counties to pay in the arrears of Ship money for 

 several years past last day of November, 1639. In 1636 Charles 1st sent his 

 writs for ship money into the inland counties ; the distribution for Wilts 

 and Dorset was : — Wiltshire one ship of 700 tons and 280 men !7000£. 

 Dorsetshire one ship of 500 tons and 240 men 5000£. 



With patience, local knowledge, and especially with access to 

 parish registers, such a document can doubtless be dated to a 

 nicety. Without these qualifications it is easy to arrive at a con- 

 clusion which tallies pretty closely with the dates assigned above. 

 If we take some of the clergy whose names appear in the list: — 

 George Pope was instituted to Donhead St. Mary in 1596, Robert 

 Walker to Chilmark in 1610, William Mervin to Fonthill Gifford 

 in 1611, Thomas Newland to Kingston Deverill in 1616, Luke 

 Sampson to Chicklade in 1617, Thomas Payne to Deverill Long- 

 bridge in 1622, Thomas Aylesbury to Berwick St. Leonard in 1625, 

 William Buckner to Damerham cum Martin in 1630, James 

 Whitney to Donhead St. Andrew in 1631, and John Phipp to 

 Teffont Evias in 1638. Of the " Quality " mentioned, Sir Anthony 

 Ashley Cooper succeeded his father 23rd March, 1631 ; Francis, 

 Lord Cottington, was so created 10th July, 1631 ; William, Lord 

 Stourton, succeeded 7th May, 1633 ; Edward Hyde inherited in 

 Chicklade on the death of his father, Henry Hyde, 29th Sept., 



