202 



The Ayliffes of Grittenliam. 



Certain acts were alleged for which Mrs. Horner might have prose- 

 cuted him : but she was unwilling to proceed to such extremities, 

 and was content with dismissing him. 1 



Mr. Henry Fox nevertheless permitted him to continue steward 

 of his Grittenham and other estates in North Wilts : and also ob- 

 tained for him some small offices as Commissioner of Musters and 

 Deputy Receiver in South Wales: and so late as 1757 writes to 

 him in language indicating friendly confidence. The unfortunate 

 man was, however, all the time greatly embarrassed, and continued 

 to have recourse to bad methods for extricating himself. 



Mrs. Strangways Horner died in the latter part of the year 1757. 



More than a year after her death AylifTe produced certain docu- 

 ments signed by Mrs. Horner, by which some time before her death 

 she had charged her Melbury estate with the payment of £8000 to 

 AylifTe ; besides the lease of a farm to him for three lives, as a pro- 

 vision for his wife and son. Lord Ilchester, then owner of Melbury, 

 had never heard a word from her on the subject. AylifTe accounted 

 for this by saying that she had pledged him not to mention it until 

 after her death, to save any possible personal dissatisfaction towards 

 herself on the part of the Ilchesters. Mr. Fox, however, persuaded 

 AylifTe to drop that claim, and to accept in lieu of it another lease 

 from himself for three lives, of a farm called Eushley, at the small 

 reserved rent of £35 a year. This was in November, 1758. AylifTe 

 then borrowed £1700 from a Mr. Clewer, mortgaging to him the 

 Rushley lease as the security for the loan : but to make the security 

 appear stronger he had a copy of Mr. Fox's lease drawn out, in 

 which he put down the amount of rent reserved to Mr. Fox as five 



1 Mrs. Strangways was unfortunate in her stewards. Ayliffe's predecessor had 

 been one Mr. Adam Tuck, a professional who lived at Langle y, near Chippenham : 

 who was also steward of Lord Cornbury's estate near Wootton Basset : and Town 

 Clerk to the corporation of that place. From that office he was dismissed for 

 bribery, and on his departure disappeared also the charter and corporation books : 

 the former of which was discovered in 1850 by Meiler Owen, Esq., of Denbigh- 

 shire, in a box of papers belonging to a Captain Tuck. This Mr. Adam Tuck 

 was doubtless the same person who was concerned in the imprisonment of the 

 Sheriff of Wilts, in 1741, as mentioned in the Wilts Arch. Magazine, vol. iii., 

 p. 228. 



