By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



283 



Chippenham for children of the poorer parishioners : as he exhorts 

 them to set up and promote a Charity School. In all these matters 

 Chippenham, in the year 1711, appears to have been in need of 

 the spur. Mr. Frampton proceeds to apply it, telling them very 

 plainly, "For your interest, you ought to promote these designs, 

 and also let me add for your credit. Ill things have been spoken 

 of you. I wish by such good actions you would shew you deserve 

 it not." 



The Civil Wars. 

 A few notes have also been met with relating to the town during 

 the war between Charles I. and the Parliament. It would seem that 

 upon the breaking out of the war in 1642, the good people of Chip- 

 penham did not give themselves much trouble about the matter, 

 and displayed no special zeal either for the one side or the other. 

 But this indifference did not save them from undergoing the oper- 

 ation of being bled — in the pocket if not in the person; and the 

 Borough accounts show that neitherparty spared them. Accordingly, 

 whether the one or the other army lay near the town, it made no 

 difference, money was called for. Colonel Lunsford, commanding 

 the garrison at Malmesbury for the King, inflicts what he was 

 pleased to call a Fine upon the Corporation of Chippenham of £30, 

 besides 10s. for watching the Foss road. Then followed a rate 

 levied by Sir Edward Hungerford, the commander of the Wilts 

 forces on the side of the Parliament; a second and a third rate for 

 the same, all in one year: and besides this, provisions of bread, hay, 

 malt, &c. Prince Maurice, for the Crown, requires a month's pay 

 and quarters for Colonel Butler's soldiers : Colonel Howard, for 

 maimed men carried through the town. The Marquis of Hertford, 

 for the Crown, levies £200 on the parish. £1200 a iceek is required 

 from the county ; and the constables come to Chippenham for its 

 proportion. John Wilcox is paid for the carriage of a great piece 

 of ordnance to Devizes, 23s. ; John Gale for carrying three barrels 

 of gunpowder, and John Flower for looking after prisoners. Sir 

 William Waller, for the Parliament, levies a rate for buying horses. 

 Colonel Chester presses soldiers. These and similar rates are 

 repeated over and over again during the three years of the war : 



