42 



Saverndjke Forest. 



The four bailys just mentioned, into which the whole was divided, 

 had each its separate head forester, some of whose names are pre- 

 served. The office seems to have descended in certain families, and 

 was attached to some land which they held in right of their office. 

 The West Baily was held for many years by the family of Harden. 

 Hippingscombe Baily, by that of Pipard. Southgrove, by the 

 Malwayns who had land in West Grafton in right of their office. 

 East wick, by the Boncliffes. The principal wardens were the 

 Esturmy family, of Wolf hall , to whom appears to have been granted 

 the King's original demesne of Savernake proper. This was a 

 family of extreme antiquity. The name of Savernake, though, as I 

 have mentioned, ifc occurs in 933, one hundred and fifty years before 

 Domesday Book, still is not found in that record itself in A.D. 1086; 

 but the name of Siurmirt is found there, and as the Richard Sturmid 

 there mentioned appears as holding land at Burbage, Harden, 

 Shalbourne, and (as a King's officer) at Huish in this neighbourhood, 

 and at Cowsfield in South Wilts, which is still called Cowsfield 

 Sturmy; and as certain lands at Cowsfield and Burbage formed 

 part of the perquisites of tbe Warden of Savernake, there can be 

 no doubt that Savernake existed and was included under some other 

 place in the Domesday record, and was held by the Sturmy family. 

 The original grant of Savernake was confirmed to them by King 

 John : who also bestowed upon Thomas Esturmy, his valet (as he 

 is called), being made a knight, as a testimonial of respect upon the 

 occasion, a scarlet robe, with a cloak of fine linen, another robe of 

 green or brown, a saddle and a pair of reins, a cloak against rain, a 

 couch or bed, and a pair of linen sheets. This family did not hold 

 the forest altogether free, for every now and then they paid a fine 

 of 250 marks to the Crown for the privilege. There was a Sir 

 William Esturmy, Speaker of the House of Commons, in the reign 

 of Henry IV., of whom I shall say little, as he encouraged the 

 Commons to seize upon the property of the Church; so that if 

 anybody cares to read more about this member of an earlier Liberation 

 Society, I refer them to Manning's Lives of the Speakers, p. 35. 

 Of another member of the Sturmy family, in 1315, a strange story 

 is recorded, that he and others broke into the park of the Bishop of 



