By R. C. A. Prior, Esq., M.B. 



349 



w Wishford Rectory, Salisbury, 



May dlst f 1875. 



Dear Sib, 



I have much pleasure in supplying information about this parish, 

 which is somewhat rich in old customs and traditions. T will enclose with this 

 all the authentic memoranda I have been able to colleot about the seven children 

 of one birth, brought to church in a sieve to be baptized. 



The first is written by Roger Powell, who was curate here for thirty years, 

 1612 — 1642 ; his rector was inducted in 1573, exactly one hundred years after 

 the death of Sir Thomas Bonham, and from him, I suppose, Mr. Powell had the 

 tradition ; the two effigies of Sir Thomas and his wife are still in excellent pre- 

 servation, but only three of the brass figures of the children are remaining, 

 though we can trace the matrices and lead holes of the other six. 



My second memorandum is a note from Aubrey. 



The old schoolmaster who made the third memorandum in 1828 is still living 

 here. 



For my part I am disposed to accept the story as quite true, with one very 

 important modification — to read three instead of seven children : or, if it were 

 possible for a woman to have seven at a birth, I would suppose that four were 

 still-born. This would agree exactly with Aubrey's account, and would be 

 confirmed by the remains of the brasses on the great stone slab, of which three 

 appear of like size, and the latter ones dwindle down much smaller. 



Yours, dear Sir, faithfully, 



Edward Hill." 



" The legend of the seven children of one birth, brought to the Church of 

 Wishford Magna in a sieve. 



I. from the fly-leaf of the oldest Register-book (1558—1640).— 

 ' There is in the bodie of our Church a monument, an ancient monument of 

 stone of the ancestors of the Bonhams and said to be that of Bonham and his 

 wife that had seven children at one birth : the inscription of the tombe is this that 

 follows, word for word : — Hie jacet Thomas Bonham, armiger, quondam patronus 

 istius ecclesise, qui quidem Thomas obiit vicesimonono die Maii,anno Dom: 1473 ; 

 et Editha uxor ejus, quae quidem Editha obiit vicesimo sexto die Aprilis, anno 

 Dom: 1469. Quorum animabus propitietur Deus. Amen. — They were both 

 buried under the great Marble Stone in the middle alley of our church, and the 

 inscription was cutt in brass. Beneath this inscription in the lower end of the 

 same marble stone toward the Choire there were the small statues or images of 

 nine young children set in brass, all w ch I myselfe knew standing there about 

 twentie yeares ; but of late one of them is broken out of the stone by meanes 

 of some violence and negligence of them that wrought in the Church and laid a 

 great quarrie stone uppon the grave of Robert Hillman lately buried. The 

 statues of the said Thomas and Edith Bonham are said to lie in a hollow vaulted 

 arch under the wall on the North side of the Church, and such statues indeed 

 there are. His statue lies next to the doore of the said side and her statue at 

 the feet of his. 



By mee Roger Powell, Curate there 

 Aprill the 10 th Anno Dom: 1640.' 



