By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 283 



the first glance we should assign the tomb, which is that of a female, 

 with what are described generally as the arms of " Long impaling 

 Berkeley quartering Seymour/'' to about 1540. In both instances 

 the date would be certainly forty or fifty years before Wraxall and 

 Dray cote were held by one and the same person. 



On the supposition that the badge really belongs, in the first 

 instance, at all events, to Wraxall, can we give any account of it ? 

 I think we can — as the following extracts will show. 



In the Shaftesbury Chartulary (Harl. MS. 61), in its account of 

 u Wrokesham 33 (as Wraxall is there designated) as part of the 

 manor of Bradford, the whole of which belonged to that religious 

 house, we have, at fol. 82, the following entries respecting the 

 tenants there : — 



" Willelmtjs Bedel tenet unam hidam pro xx solid, pro omni servicio et 

 dimid. virg. terrae p. servic. de fiedel." 



" Osbeetus Spekling tenet dimid. virgat. pro qua debet sequi hundredu et 

 comit. justic, et summonicones per totu hundredu, et ad comit. testificari." 



These extracts, as we judge from internal evidence, relate to about 

 the year 1250. They show that at that time one William Bedel, 

 who seems to have assumed as a surname that of the office which he 

 held, was possessed of two portions of land, one consisting of 

 one hide, another of half a virgate, the latter being appurtenant to 

 the office of " Bedel » or "Bailiff" of the Hundred of Bradford. 

 There was another small holding of half a virgate possessed by 

 Osbert Sperling, as appurtenant to the office of what is in a sub- 

 sequent survey called that ot " Serjeant" of the Hundred of Bradford. 

 The duties of these functionaries consisted, amongst other things, 

 in carrying out the machinery of the court of the Hundred, and en- 

 forcing its decisions. It is not difficult to see how appropriate a 

 badge of such an office as the bailiff of the Hundred held would be 

 the " fetter-lock." 



In a survey of the manor, of the date 1630, we find the following 

 entries, which mutatis mutandis seem but a translation, with some 

 additional particulars, of the extracts above given from the 

 Shaftesbury Chartulary. In the index to this survey, the office held 

 by Daniel Yerbury, which exactly corresponds with that held some 



