Extracts from the Records of the 



If in comparison with the records of Devonshire 1 and Essex, or 

 of such municipalities as those of Oxford and Liverpool, the rather 

 monotonous entries of Wiltshire sessions business seem trivial and 

 commonplace, an apology for their transcription may be found in 

 the recollection that in the pages of this Magazine a local audience 

 is addressed, who may be not indisposed to endure with good humour 

 a rehearsal of local occurrences and local allusions, devoid of in- 

 terest to the general reader. 



Unfortunately the series of great rolls cannot be said to have a 

 satisfactory starting-point till the early years of the reign of King 

 James the First, so that, as to the quarter sessions of Elizabethan 

 times, it is from the minute books alone that the inquirer can dis- 

 cover for himself which were the places of assembly — who the at- 

 tending magistrates — and what the business transacted. 



II.— Court Towns and Acting Justices. 



The four towns which are at present dignified as the quarterly 

 seats of justice, enjoyed a like distinction during, certainly, the last 

 thirty years of Elizabeth's reign. Salisbury was generally visited 

 at the Christmas, Hilary, or Epiphany Sessions, Warminster at 

 Easter, Devizes at Trinity or Midsummer, and Marlborough at 

 Michaelmas ; but this order of rotation was by no means invariable, 

 nor was there, in this matter, an exclusive monoply. Calne, Chip- 

 penham, Hindon, and Trowbridge, were each of them upon occasion 

 selected as the sessions town, and such departures from the usual 

 routine seem to have occurred most frequently between the years 

 1575 and 1587, during which interval not a single sessions is entered 

 as having been held at Marlborough. Of the magistrates whose 

 names are inscribed as constituting the court a list is appended to 

 these extracts. During thirty years between eighty and ninety 

 names are so recorded, some of which recur, sessions after sessions, 

 with laudable regularity : the list includes the Earls of Pembroke, 

 and Hertford, two Bishops of Salisbury (John Piers and Henry 

 Cotton), Lords Audley and Stourton, and Chief Justice Popham. 



1 It will be apparent that in the present notes the writer has been greatly in- 

 debted to Mr. Hamilton's work on the Devonshire records. 



