110 



Passages in the History of Downton. 



Hoare's Wiltshire. It is taken from the Government publication 

 of the " Parliamentary Writs." The period covered by the list 

 was one when surnames were not fixed, and it is possible that what 

 appears as a surname in many instances expresses the trade of the 

 burgess or his immediate forefathers. Thus, Greoffrey Eotarius is 

 called in another place Greoffrey le Wheler, " rotarius," being the 

 latin name for a wheelwright. " Taylor " and " Cissor " are in 

 another case interchangeable, and it may be suggested that Henry 

 " le Drapier " was really a cloth- worker ; Eobert le "Wry ere, a 

 basket-maker ; and Nicholas " le Mareshal," a farrier. Concerning 

 the representation of small boroughs such as Downton must have 

 been, it may be useful to give a quotation from that ancient 

 document, " Modus Tenendi Parliament um," which represented the 

 custom at the above period : — 

 " Concerning the Burgesses. 



"It used and ought to be commanded to the bailiffs and good men of boroughs 

 that they should elect two fit, honourable, and experienced burgesses from among 

 themselves, and for them to come and be present at the Parliament .... 

 but the two burgesses used not to receive for their expenses more than ten 

 shillings for one da} r , and sometimes not more than half a mark, and this used 

 to be taxed by the court according to the greatness and power of the borough and 

 according to the greatness and power of the person sent." 1 



It is to be regretted that, so far, it has not been found possible 

 to trace the effect upon Downton of such calamities as the " Black 

 Death," or such political events as the Labourers' revolt in the time 

 of Richard II. The following entry may have some connection 

 with the latter, though Downton is not mentioned in it : — 



" 1 Richard II. Westminster. Commission in pursuance of the recent 

 ordinance of Parliament, of oyer and terminer to ' certain people' in respect of the 

 tenants of the Abbess of Shaftesbury at Bradford, Ludyngton, Donhevede 

 (DonheadP) and Donyton (DoningtonP) Co. Wilts, who at the instigation of 

 certain counsellors, maintainers and abettors, have long refused the customs and 

 service due for their tenures, and have in divers assemblies confederated and 

 bound themselves by oath to resist and daily congregate to do further mischief — 

 with power to imprison those who are indicted." 2 



This rising was not confined to one locality, but is alluded to in 



1 Trans, by Sir T. Duffus Hardy, 1846. 

 2 Patent Rolls. 



