THE 



WILTS HIRE MAGA ZINE. 



" MULTOEUM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUR ONUS," — Ovid 



ofokg aim Mittfitjmm. 



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



TUDENTS of Wiltshire Topography, turning over the pages 

 of the Public or other Records, in search of material for 

 parochial history, may have met with " Wittenham " or " Rowley/' 

 sometimes " Rowley alias Wittenham " or cc Wittenham alias 

 Rowley/"* as the name of one of the parishes in the county. They 

 will not have found it on any county map ; nevertheless, such a 

 parish there once was. It had also a church, and an Incumbent and 

 churchwardens who duly answered to their names and paid their 

 fees at the Bishop of Salisbury's Visitation. But neither episcopal 

 muster-rolls nor county lists, any more than the maps, know any- 

 thing now of Rowley alias Wittenham. 



The reason is, that more than 400 years ago, it was, as a church, 

 legally and with consent of all parties, annexed to an adjoining 

 church, not in Wilts but in Somerset, viz., that of Farley- Hungerford 

 (better known as Farley Castle), in the diocese of Bath and Wells. 

 It is owing to this circumstance that the parish of Farley lies, as it 

 does, in two counties. 



The annexation of two churches in one and the same county and 

 diocese is not an uncommon act : but that of two lying in different 

 counties and dioceses is so extremely rare, that it seems to deserve 

 a little notice : especially when, as in the present instance, we are 

 able to produce the document by which the annexation was legally 

 and canonically made. 



The ruins of Farley Castle, about three miles west of Bradford- 

 on- Avon, stand on a hill, upon the very eastern verge of fche county 



VOL XIII. — NO. XXXIX. K 



