590 Copy of a MS. in the possession of Sir Walter Grove, Baronet, 



1634; Lord Marlborough inherited from Matthew Ley in Teffont 

 apparently in 1636; Sir James Thynne was knighted (Shaw's 

 Knights, vol. ii., p. 206) 23rd June, 1639 ; Henry Ludlow, esquire, 

 died seised of the manor of Kingston Deverell, 13th October, 1639, 

 and was succeeded by his son, Edward Ludlow, esquire, whose 

 name appears in our list ; while Sir Henry Ludlow, of Maiden 

 Bradley, who also appears, is stated to have been buried 1st Nov., 

 1643. Possession of Chadenwich was given (according to Hoare, 

 Hundred of Mere, p. 30,) by William Awbrey to John Coventry in 



1640, and it is John Coventry who figures in our list. To return to 

 the clergy, Christopher Ford was instituted to Compton Chamber- 

 lain in 1634, his successor in 1645. If these data, taken from 

 readily accessible books of reference, are reasonably correct, the 

 date of our document is narrowed to the interval 1640 to 1643. 



Or we can try to settle the date in another way, namely, by 

 comparison of our document with a dated return of certain of the 

 inhabitants of the same district. Practically every name in this 

 dated return, which we are told definitely was made 2nd November, 



1641, is to be found, with very many others in addition, in Sir 

 Walter Grove's MS., but occasionally there is change. Thus in 

 the lists for West Knoyle the Michael Preston of the one has 

 become the " Widdow Preston " of the other ; John Watts of 

 Kingston Deverell appears in 1641 ; in Sir Walter's MS. we find 

 " Edith Watts " but no John ; and we are tempted to suppose that 

 Michael and John had died and that it was their widows who are now 

 assessed. If some statements made by Mr. J. J. Hammond {Wilts 

 Notes and Queries, vol. iv., pp. 342 — 3) in a tentative account of the 

 Hyde family proved to be correct, the question would be as good 

 as settled by a comparison of the lists for the tything of Hatch. 

 In the return of 1641 "Eobert Hyde Esq." is assessed upon 10/. by 

 the year in land in Hatch, In Sir Walter Grove's MS. the list of 

 names for Hatch is headed by " Anne Hyde vidua," and the name 

 of Eobert Hyde does not appear in it at all. Now Mr. Hammond 

 tells us that Eobert Hyde of Hatch married a wife, Anne Castillon, 

 that he had a lease of the rectory of Buckland Newton, Co. Dorset, 

 that according to a pedigree of the Castillon Family he died in 



