342 



A Sketch of the Parish of Yatesbury, 



In A.D. 1366, towards the close of the long reign of Edward III., 

 some of the land was held hy Baldewin Frevill, who received it in 

 recompense for military service to Gilbert. " 49 Edw. III. Balde- 

 winus Frevill, miles, ten : terras in Yatesbury de Gilberto de per 

 servic : mil : "* 



In Henry IV., A.D. 1410, John Preston held "as of the Castle 

 of Devizes." 



In Henry the Sixth's reign, A.D. 1432, the family of Ernie came 

 into possession, and held for above three hundred years, during 

 which period they were also patrons of the living. They were also 

 lords of the manors of Bishops Cannings, Bourton, Conock, and 

 Etchilhampton. Not a few of the members of this powerful family 

 served as High Sheriffs of Wiltshire, represented their county in 

 Parliament, and were otherwise distinguished. 2 



To the Ernie family succeeded, as lords of the manor, the still 

 more powerful family of Hungerford : and by his will, A.D. 1764, 

 George Hungerford, Esq., L.L.D., of Studley House, near Calne, 

 bequeathed his manor farm of Yatesbury to his second wife and 

 widow, Elizabeth (Pollen), who died 1748. 3 Their monument is in 

 the Church : indeed this was one of the last — if not the very last — 

 burial place of that family. The funeral of Lady, or Madame or Dame 

 Hungerford — as she was better known to the people — still remains 

 in the recollection of some of the oldest inhabitants, when in October, 

 1816, with much parade and procession of horses, the body of that 

 lady was brought from Bath by torch-light, and buried in a vault 

 within the Church, where already several other vaults of the same 

 family existed. 



About A.D. 1848 the estate was sold by Sir Richard Hungerford 



1 Magazine, vol. xii., p. 24. 



2 The Ernie family sprung originally from Ernele, an estate near Chichester, 

 in Sussex. They flourished there as early as the thirteenth century. In 4 

 Edward III. one of this family represented the county of Sussex in Parliament. 

 In the reign of Henry VIII. another of the same family rose to great distinction 

 in the profession of the law. Appointed successively to the offices of Solicitor 

 and Attorney-General, he was raised at last to the Chief Justice of the Common 

 Pleas, 1519, and received the honour of knighthood. {Magazine, vol. xi., p. 191.) 



3 Canon Jackson's Aubrey, p. 46, note. 



