By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 



279 



religious house. To this day, the scattered hundreds of Damerham — 

 Downton — Elstub and Everley-— are a memorial of the jurisdiction 

 exercised over the several manors comprised in them by their 

 respective lords — the Abbots of Glastonbury — the Bishops of Win- 

 chester — and the Priors of St. Swithin, Winchester. 



Our concern is with the ' Wiltshire possessions of the Abbess of 

 Shaftesbury/ These were neither few nor unimportant. In 

 Domesday Book 1 they are thus enumerated : — Bichenstock 

 (Beechingstoke) — Tisseberie — Duneheve (Donhead) — Bradeford, 

 with Alvestone — Ledentone (Liddington) — Domnitone (Dinton). 

 To which we have to add — Berwick St. Leonard's — Sedghill — and 

 Keevil. 



To attempt an account of each of these parishes is out of the 

 question. Of ' Bradford 5 2 so much has already been said in the 

 pages of our Magazine, that it must waive its claim to any notice 

 in the present instance. Beechingstoke and Liddington, moreover, 

 are at such a distance from our place of meeting, that, as a choice 

 must be made, it will be better to omit them, and give a description 

 of those places which are more or less in this immediate neighbour- 

 hood. The sole exception will be in the case of Keevil, and that 

 for reasons which, in due course, will be explained. 



To give a more connected, and perhaps less wearisome form to 

 my narrative, I will ask you in imagination to accompany me in 

 > a progress ' through these various manors. When we arrive at 

 any of the possessions of the Lady Abbess, I will endeavour to 

 explain to you how they came into the hands of her society, and will 

 add a few notes on the various churches, the principal estates, and 

 the chief families who have been owners of them, from time to time, 

 up to the present century. We shall dwell, as far as may be, on 

 matters that have not been spoken of in Sir E. C. Hoare's work, 

 but which have been gleaned from original records, more par- 

 ticularly from the chartularies of Shaftesbury and Edington, 

 preserved among the Harleian, and Lansdowne manuscripts, in the 

 British Museum. 



1 Wyndham's ' Domesday for Wiltshire,' pp. 145 — 154. 

 2 Wiltshire Archseol. Mag., vol. v. 



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