By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 31 



great Norman Record called Domesday Book in the year 1086 by 

 order of William the Conqueror. Our neighbours, Calne, Chip- 

 penham, Marlborough, and all the rest, duly appear there, but no 

 Devizes. Absence at the roll-call of Domesday Book is a most 

 unfortunate circumstance for those who are very sensitive upon the 

 subject, and who are bent upon carrying the pedigree of their town 

 back to a period prior to the Conquest. This however is not 

 absolutely an insurmountable difficulty : for there are towns in 

 England which certainly were in existence at and long before the 

 Conquest, yet are not mentioned by name in that Record. In 

 Yorkshire there is a town, larger than Devizes, known to have 

 been a Roman Military Station, named regularly in the Roman 

 Itineraries, yet it does not appear in Domesday Book ; whilst a 

 poor little straggling hamlet only one mile from that town is men- 

 tioned there. The explanation in such cases is this. In Saxon 

 days that which is now the small hamlet happened to be the chief 

 manorial residence, or by some other ancient privilege, the head of 

 the Barony. The Barony included a large district; and in it the 

 Town. So that the hamlet enjoys the dignity of being registered, 

 whilst the rest of the places included within the Barony are passed 

 over in silence. That may have been the case here ; and so far 

 there is a gleam of hope for the desponding. But gleams are 

 treacherous, and we shall presently come to a reason that appears 

 very conclusive, why it is next to impossible that the name of 

 Devizes could have been found in Domesday Book. 



But (as already observed) it is found very soon after Domesday 

 Book. In 1100, Henry I. ascended the throne; and during his 

 reign, say about 1110, your authentic history begins. That gives 

 at all events a respectable antiquity of 750 years. As to the Saxon 

 castle of Alfred, the Roman fortress before that, and the British 

 camp before that, these things may have been ; but it is easier to 

 believe in their existence than to prove it. But your descent from 

 Roger, Bishop of Sarum, in the reign of Henry I., • admits of no 

 doubt or contradiction whatsoever; and as his story, though 

 familiar to many, may be less known to some who are present, it 

 shall be recapitulated as briefly as possible. 



