150 



"Early Heraldry in Boyton Church, Wilts'' 



Alice, the wife of the said Thomas, was certified at this time to he 

 of the age of twenty-eight years. 1 The age of her hushand would 

 be about thirty-five. Thus the said Thomas came into the possession 

 of the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury, in addition to those of 

 Lancaster, Leicester, and Derby, inherited from his father. 2 



The parish of Boyton was included in the property of the earldom 

 of Salisbury, and we find at a very early period after the Conquest 

 that this estate was subinfeuded to the Giffards, who were already 

 tenants in capiie, of the adjoining parish of Sherrington/'' 3 



It was, therefore most natural that the Giffards of Boyton should 

 insert in a window of their parish Church the arms of their superior 

 lord, to whom they were closely and devotedly attached by feudal 

 and social ties, and the preservation of this Plantaganet coat in 

 painted glass is a much more precious historical link and token than 

 a mere repetition of the Giffard arms would have been. 



A.D. 1317. On the Monday before Ascension Day, Alice, wife 

 of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, at Caneford, in Dorsetshire, was 

 violently taken away by a certain knight of the family of John, Earl 

 of Warren, there being many in the conspiracy; and (as was said) 

 by the King's consent she was carried in triumph, and in contempt 

 of the Earl, her husband, to the Earl of Warren's Castle of Reigate. 

 In their passages among the hedges and woods between Haulton 

 and Farnham, those that conveyed her saw several banners and 

 streamers (the priests and people being then in a solemn procession 

 round the fields) , upon which they were struck with a sudden terror ; 

 thinking that the Earl or some of his retinue were come to rescue 

 the lady, and revenge the affront, they left her and fled away ; but 

 when sensible of their mistake, they returned, and with them a 

 person of a very mean stature, lame, and crook-backed, called Richard 

 de St. Martin, who, with wonderful impudence, challenged the 

 countess thus miserably insnared for his wife, openly alleging his 



1 Bishop Kennett, sub an. 1310, Par. Ant., vol. i., pp. 515-6. 



2 Cf. Chronicon Walteri De Hemingburgh, sub ann. 1311, p. 285. In note 1 

 Chester, instead of Derby, is said to be one of the five earldoms. Eng. Hist. 

 Soc., London, 1849. 



3 Family of Giffard, of Boyton, by Eev. A. Fane ; Wilts Mag., vol. ii., p. 101. 



