By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 



207 



No. III. 



Copies of Two Original Letters inserted in the Council Book. 



1. — Mr. Gray to Joseph Jelcyll, Esq. 



" Duchy of Cornwall Office, 

 " Deab Sie, Somerset Place, 20 Sept. 1810. 



" By a very ancient document in this Office shewing the Knight's Pees 

 and Advowsons within the Honor of Wallingford upon an Inquisition taken 29 

 Edw. I. (1300) — but more clearly by the Parliamentary Survey of Wallingford 

 taken in 1652 and deposited in the Auditor's Office, Exchequer, I find Ogbourn 

 or Ockborne, Co. Wilts, to be a Member of the late Honor, now Manor, of 

 Wallingford, and as such it of course was formerly parcel of the Duchy of Corn- 

 wall. The Honor and Castle of Wallingford is in Berks, with the Members 

 thereof in divers other counties, being included in the Duchy Charter of 17th 

 March 11 Edw. 3. I thus notice the documents that they may be again readily 

 referred to, if necessary. 



" The Honor and Castle of Wallingford, with the Members thereof, were dis- 

 annexed from the Duchy by an Act of Parliament passed 31st and 32nd Hen, 

 8th, in exchange for othei possessions ever since enjoyed by the Dukes of Corn- 

 wall, which Act explains the connexion you allude to, betwixt Ogbourn, Walling- 

 ford, and Ewelme : for it recites Wallingford to be commodious for the King on 

 account of its vicinity to his Majesty's Manor of Ewelme or Newelme in Oxford- 

 shire, and enacts that Ewelme shall thenceforth be deemed to be an Honor, and 

 Wallingford & Manor, making also the latter to be thereafter parcel and Member 

 of the Honor of Ewelme. 



" The Revenues of the Duchy with those of the Principality of Wales and 

 the Earldom of Chester, being insufficient for supporting the rank of the Heir 

 Apparent to the Crown of England, an augmentation thereof used formerly to be 

 made by grants of other lands and possessions belonging to the Crown, and by a 

 charter or grant of this nature, dated 11th October, 17th James I. (1619) the 

 Honor of Ewelme, together with the Castle and Manor of Wallingford, and 

 various other possessions, were conveyed to Prince Charles, then Duke of Corn- 

 wall, to hold to him and his heirs Kings of England, thereby making the whole 

 revertible again to the Crown. Thus we trace a renewed connection of Ogbourn 

 with the property of the Prince of Wales ; but the Arms of the Corporation of 

 Calne, a castle with three feathers, must be of earlier origin and might have 

 been adopted when the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, was Lord of the 

 Castle and Honor of Wallingford. 



" The Survey of 1652 gives the names of places paying small yearly fines 

 certain at Ockborne Court, viz., Ockbourne, 6d. Winterbourne 7^d., Haslebury, 

 2*., Walcott [? Wilcote, J, E. J] 1*. 6d., Draycot and Chesleden Is. Id., Manton 

 6o?., Cockelbrowe 6d. } and Radborowe 2*., total 9*. 2c?|. yearly, but there is no 

 mention of Calne. 



" On the main object of your enquiry, the Charter of the Borough of Calne, I 

 am unable to make any discovery. There certainly is no trace of one in the 

 Duchy Office, nor in the Tower of London, According to Doomsday Book (see 

 Mr. Penruddock Wyndham's Wiltshire from Domesday) Calne appears to have 



