71 



Collections for a pistotg of jJeagtg. 



By the Eev. H. K. Anketell (Vicar.) 



|gJ*p,HIS is a small village, six miles north-east of Chippenham, 

 and five miles south of Malmesbury, It is divided into 

 Upper (or Over) Seagry and Lower Seagry. Lower Seagry is 

 that part which adjoins the Church, towards the eastern side of the 

 parish : Upper is towards the west, and joins Draycote. It is in the 

 hundred and deanery of South Malmesbury, union of Chippenham, 

 diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Population, about one hundred 

 and forty-nine; acreage, one thousand and thirty-three. Pastures 

 by the side of the river Avon, one hundred and forty-nine acres. The 

 present landowners are, Earl Cowley (including late the Earl of 

 fladnor's and Lady Holland's) Mr. Bayliffe and Mrs. Sevier. 



The name has been, as is usual, variously spelled in old records, 

 viz. : — Segry, Segree, Segrey, Seagrey, Seagree, Segerie, Segre, 

 Segreth, Seagre. " Vulgo Segary," says John Aubrey, meaning 

 that in his day it was pronounced (as it often is still) as if spelled 

 Segry. The derivation of the word is rather perplexing. There is, 

 in the Department of Maire et Loire, in France, a place called 

 Segre ; but French names not being likely to be found for places in 

 North Wilts (except as family names, like Delamere, Tregoz, St. 

 Quintin, &c, appended to the old Saxon names, Leigh, Lydiard, 

 Stanton, &c.) another origin has been suggested more akin to the 

 names of neighbouring villages. The Saxon termination ey , or ea, 

 means tvater, and as Dauntsey is Daunt's-water (from some old 

 Saxon owner), so Seagry may have been Seager's-w T ater (Seager is 

 still a family name in the neighbourhood) : but as there is no record 

 of any such ancient proprietor, we must fall back upon the Saxon 

 word " sceg" a sedge : in which case the name would signify, very 

 appropriately, sedgeivatsr, the Avon being full of sedge here. 



In a grant of King Edgar's, A.D. 956,' of the then great manor 



1 See Mr. J. Y. Akerman's paper on the possessions of Malmesbury Abbey, 

 in " Archaeologia," vol. xxxvii., p. 267, 



