By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



237 



From the union of the two parishes described above, a great deal 

 of confusion has continually arisen. The parish of Rowley being in 

 Co. Wilts, has been for civil purposes associated with adjoining 

 Wiltshire parishes. In 1439 " Westwood and Roughley" were re- 

 turned as one tithing (supra p. 118). In 1568 "Trowle and Row- 

 ley" are called one tithing (Muster Roll). In 1569, " Rowley, 

 Trowle and Winfield" go together and provide one tithingman 

 (Subsidy Roll) . In the old Court Rolls of Bradford Manor," Winfield 

 and Rowley." Some lands, again, called Rowley pay rates to Win- 

 field parish, others called Rowley, to Farley parish. Still greater 

 the confusion in matters " spiritual." The old church terriers of 

 Farley show that in 1675 many acres of land lying in and inter- 

 mingled with the lands of other parishes, Westwood, Bradford and 

 Winfield, were nevertheless lands of the parish of, and titheable to, 

 Farley. All these had been undoubtedly part of Rowley parish, 

 added to Farley by the " Annexation," but through uncertainty or 

 neglect, they have been lost to Farley parish. The glebe lands also 

 of the old parish of Rowley have been a fruitful source of difficulty ; 

 even those which belong, without any sort of doubt, to the Rector 

 of Farley, nevertheless lie scattered all over Winfield ; and about 

 sixty years ago, there was an expensive litigation necessary to es- 

 tablish rights. As to the tithes : there are some fields in Winfield, 

 rateable to that parish, but paying tithe to Farley. In some in- 

 stances, one and the same field pays one moiety to one Rector, the 

 other moiety to the other. At the Tithe Commutation in 1838, all 

 these matters were, at great trouble and expense, investigated and 

 settled ; but fresh comers into the parish of Winfield are sometimes 

 not a little puzzled to understand why they are called upon to pay 

 rent-charge in lieu of tithes, not only to their own clergyman, but 

 to the incumbent of another parish in a different diocese. The ex- 

 ample set by Walter Lord Hungerford, K.G., temp. Hen. VI., in 

 uniting and annexing a church in one county and diocese, with a 

 church in a different county and diocese, is one which Patrons, 

 Bishops and Rectors, as they love parochial simplicity and peace, 

 will do wisely — never to follow. 



The following document is therefore presented, not as containing 



