Extracts from the Records of the 



Trinity, 18th Elizabeth: — 



[Translation.] " Tippling-house. — Bail for Nicholas Harris of Westbury 

 Lighe, viz., Robert Cogswell, of the same place, yeoman, and Thomas Saunders, 

 of Westbury-under-the-plain (JVestbury subtus le playne), clothier : each of the 

 sureties in 66s. 8d., and the principal in £5, under condition of keeping good rule 

 in his house according, &c." 



Trinity, 19th Elizabeth:— 



" Md that pees be made against Mathew Webb of Kingswall Shewmaker for 

 that he kepith an Alehouse whoute lycens by the credible reporte of Mr. Spenser 

 forman of the Grand Jury." 



Easter, 21st Elizabeth : — 



" It is ordered that Robert Spenser of Horningsham shal be disharged for 

 keping any farther Alehouse unles he can bring some of his neighbors to speake 

 for him, wch be of honest fame, to S r John Thynne." 



At the Trinity Sessions, 25th Elizabeth, occurs an entry that : — 



" It is ordered by all the whole courte at the assize holden at Sar. xxij° die 

 Augusti anno xxv t0 E. Regine that Will m Askew shalbe from hence deposed and 

 put downe for [i.e from] keping any alehouse or Tipling from henceforth." 



A similar sentence from the court of quarter sessions overtook 

 Robert Randell, Fisherton, not long afterwards, and William Sparks 

 was suspended " until such time as he bring a certificate from the 

 Aldermen of Malmesbury of his good behaviour/' These dignitaries 

 were clearly the recognized guarantors of respectability within their 

 municipality, for at a later date : — 



" It is ordered that no Justice shall graunt any licence for selling ale in the 

 towne of Malmesbury unles the pties be comended under the hands of the Alder- 

 men Burgesses and Fermors of the said towne or the most part of them." 



In the last year of the sixteenth century the condition of the 

 common victualling-house licence is stated to have been that the 

 keeper should " performe all such articles as are set downe in a 

 booke latlie sett forth by the Councell.'" What these articles were 

 may be gathered from a perusal of the transactions of the Michaelmas 

 Sessions in that same year, aniong which are entered eight clauses 

 expressly referred to at subsequent sessions as those which had been 

 issued by Royal mandate. 



