By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson F.S.A. 169 



gleaned about those who lived before us is derived from the brittle 

 record of a bit of coloured glass. And so, what often happens ? 

 The window wants mending, and the glazier, knowing nothing 

 about the rules of heraldry, brings the window back again with the 

 family memorial turned topsy-turvy or inside out ; and by and by 

 comes the inevitable small boy, who shies a stone through it, and 

 away for ever goes the fame of the once potent landlord, squire, 

 knight, earl and all, unless some thoughtful member of an ArchaBO- 

 logical Society had taken the precaution to secure it in his note-book. 



We have not time now to go into all the minutiae of the history 

 of Old Wootton, which would indeed almost require a small volume. 

 And there is the less occasion for it, as a number of very careful 

 papers on the subject have been written by one of our Members, 

 Mr. Parsons, which we hope may pass from their newspaper form 

 into that small volume. I can only deal with a few principal points 

 about the town and neighbourhood. 



As you go along the railway from Wootton towards Chippenham, 

 about two-and-a-half miles from Wootton, you may notice, nestling 

 among trees on a high ground on the left-hand side, a rather 

 picturesque old house. This about a century ago was the home of 

 the Jacob family, now represented by Sir Robert Buxton. But there 

 were two families connected with Wootton whose names stand out 

 prominently above the rest, the Churchills and the Hydes, Earls of 

 Clarendon. Sir Winston Churchill, father of the great Duke of 

 Marlborough, was living at Wootton Basset about the year 1648, 

 and John, the great duke, ought to have been born there, but his 

 father being a Royalist in the Civil Wars of Charles I., and 

 having suffered largely in his fortune from that cause, sought refuge 

 with his wife among her friends in Devonshire ; so to that county 

 the hero of Blenheim belongs. The name of Churchill is familiar 

 at Liddington. Of the Hydes there is more to our purpose. They 

 were originally of Cheshire, but one Lawrenee Hyde, a lawyer, was 

 brought into Wiltshire under the patronage of Sir John Thynne, 

 the builder of Longleat, and settled at Dinton, in South Wilts, 

 afterwards at Purton. His grandson, Edward Hyde the great Lord 

 Chancellor, and another of the family, the Earl of Rochester, made 



