208 



Calne. 



been a Borough at that early date, the Burgesses thereof being mentioned as 

 paying Kent to the King ; and it is thence considered at the Record Office in the 

 Tower to bo a prescriptive Borough. 



" I wished to have traced the connection with Ogbourn, in which you Bee, I 

 am deficient. I observe in Brady on Burghs fol. 110, where he notices the first 

 returns extant of Knights, Citizens and Burgesses, to Parliament, namely in 29 

 Edw. L, Calne made no return, the Writ being sent ' Ballivis libertatis Calne et 

 Worthe qui nullum dederunt responsum' ( ( to the Bailiffs of the Liberty of 

 Calne and Worthe, who returned no answer ') : but it appears by the same book, 

 fol. 112, that Calne afterwards returned Burgesses to Parliament in that reign, 

 as well as in the succeeding reigns of Edw. 2nd and 3rd ; and in the Return 

 made 36 Edw. 3, Calne is not described, as in the above recital, the Liberty of 

 Calne and Worthe but the Borough of Calne : ' nomina Burgensium Burghi de 

 Calne/ 



" I fear you will think that I give you more words than matter, but if you 

 cannot collect from the aforegoing sufficient for your purpose, it will afford me 

 much pleasure to be favoured with your further commands. 



"I am, dear Sir, your most faithful and obedient servant 



"Robert Gray. 



" Joseph Jekyll, Esq." 



2. — From Joseph JeJcyll, J2sq. f to Dr. Allsup. 



"Dear Sir, 



My friend Mr. Gray of the Duchy of Cornwall Office has made a 

 laborious but unsuccessful search for the supposed Charter among the records of 

 the Duchy, and the Tower of London. Of course the Oath of the Alnager* is 

 also not to be met with, which probably was set forth in the Charter. 



" Mr. Gray's letter contains so much curious matter that I have the honour of 

 enclosing it to you, and perhaps it may not be unwise to preserve it among the 

 memoranda of the Borough. 



" With my best compliments to Mrs. Allsup and my other friends at Calnej 

 believe me, Dear Sir, with much regard yours most faithfully 



"Joseph Jekyll. 



" Paultons, Romsey, Hants, 

 Sept. 21, 1810." 



No. IV. 



u The Othe taken by the Burgesses there." 2 



" I, A.B., dooe utterlye testify and declare in my conscience. That the Queenes 

 Highnes Elizabeth &c. Is the onelye Supreme Governor of this Realme of Eng- 

 land and of all other her Highnesse dominions and countreys as well in all 

 Spirituall or Eeclesiasticall Causes as Temporall and that uoe Foreyne Prynce, 



• The Alnager, or Aulnager (Fr. Aulne, an ell), was the King's officer whose plaee it was to 

 examine into the assize cloths ; and to collect a subsidy called aulnage. An impression of the 

 seal of the Alnager for "Wilts, 17 Edw. III., is in the Devizes Museum (see Wilts Arch. Mag., 

 iii., 269J. 



3 Written on the last page of the Council Book. 



