208 



By the Rev. W. H. Jones, M.A., F.S.A., 



Canon and Prebendary of Salisbury. 



ROWBRIDGE is, in respect of population, the largest town 

 in Wiltshire. Its history has never yet been fully written, 

 and yet few towns have fairer claims to our notice, both on account 

 of the old and interesting associations that are connected with it, as 

 well as from the important position it has now assumed for some 

 years as one of the principal seats of the woollen manufacture in the 

 West of England. 



Some years ago a brief sketch of its history, comprised in thirty 

 pages, was attempted by Mr. James Bodman. His little book, 

 written in 1814, -has this value at all events, that as a connecting 

 link between the present and the past it enables us to identify one 

 or two points of interest, all traces of which have now disappeared. 

 Otherwise it is a very superficial work, and of little worth. At best 

 he is not over complimentary to his fellow-townsmen. He tells us 

 that " though Trowbridge was renowned for trade, it could not in his 

 time boast of first-rate professional gentlemen for such generally 

 resided in more genteel towns or cities : 33 and that of those who in 

 his time inhabited Trowbridge, there were " few rich but what had 

 come from poor, and few poor but what had sprung from rich an- 

 cestors/'' 



The following pages are offered as a contribution towards the 

 history of Trowbridge, and may be regarded as two or three of 

 the introductory chapters, dealing only with its annals in early days. 

 Already two papers bearing more or less on the same subject — one 

 on " Terumber's Chantry at Trowbridge/'' and the other on u . Lord 

 Clarendon and his Trowbridge ancestry 33 — have appeared in this 

 Magazine. 1 The complete history of this town however can never 

 be given, unless a detailed account can be written on the rise and 



1 ( 



1 Wilts Arch. Mag., ix., 282, x., 240. 



