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President's Address. 



moreover other almshouses have been erected by public subscription 

 for the benefit of clothiers and others — benefactors who follow in the 

 footsteps of their open-handed and generous townsmen. Beside the 

 charity above named, there was a religious guild, which was called 

 "the brotherhood of Corpus Christi/' formed, I believe, for the 

 purpose of mutual help and association in religious exercises, and 

 not in any way connected with trade. Leland, in his quaint 

 way, says, "the Church of Throughbridge is lightsum and 

 fair," " One Molines is parson there, a man well learnid." This 

 learned parson was one Thomas Moleyns, who was appointed 

 Rector of Trowbridge in the year 1528, and seems to have resigned 

 about the year 1541. Let us not forget that the poet Crabbe 

 was Rector here from 1814 to 1832. A monument by Bayly 

 covers his remains in the chancel of this church. We hope in our 

 excursion to-morrow to take in North Bradley. North Bradley is 

 mentioned in Domesday Book. The owner was Walter Gifford, 

 ancestor to the Earls of Buckingham, much of whose land came 

 afterwards to Greyville or Greynville of Southwick, in that parish. 

 The Longs of Draycot had the principal manor at one time, until it 

 came to the Earl of Mornington, by maternal descent. In the fine 

 church of Bradley is much that will interest the herald and anti- 

 quary. The manor of Southwick, and the advowson of the chapel 

 at Southwick Court, appear to have passed about A.D. 1341, to the 

 heiress of Greynville or Greyville, and to Humphrey Stafford, 

 father of John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Arch- 

 bishop's half-brother, Humphrey Stafford, of the " Silver-hand," left 

 an heiress, Alice Stafford, who married Sir Edmund Cheney, and 

 this brought the manor into the family. Afterwards by an heiress 

 of the Cheneys, it came to Sir John Willoughby, of Broke, c. 1430. 

 In 1483, Southwick was given by King Richard III. to his favorite, 

 Edward Ratcliffe, but must have been restored to the Brokes, for in 

 the year 1520 it was sold by Robert Willoughby, Lord Broke, to 

 Sir David Owen, a supposed son of Owen Tudor. Part of these 

 lands was sold by Henry Owen, to Sir Woolstan Dixie, Lord Mayor 

 of London, who by will 1592 devized his lands here (worth £42 per 

 annum) to Christ's Hospital ; another portion through various 



