238 A Sketch of the History of Hill Deverill. 



Salisbury, is not mentioned in connection with them. Yet perhaps 

 there is a trace of the name in Kingston Deverill, for in a lease 

 granted by Henry Ooker, 1732 (in the possession of the Marquis of j 

 Bath) occur the words : — " three acres of arable land lying in the 

 field called AvereWs Cleeve, under ye way called ye milking-path." 

 This view, that it is a corruption of D'Evereux, is opposed to then 

 popular view which rests on Hoare and Daniell ; but supposing, 

 as it does, that the names of three places are derived from a person it 

 who does not seem connected with them, it certainly requires more 

 evidence to support it. 



2. — History of the Church. 



The earliest date we have for the Church is 1154. No Church is I 

 mentioned in Domesday as existing here, but Churches are not often I 

 mentioned in Domesday, for the precept that directed the survey 

 required no return to be made of Churches. Three Churches in the ] 

 valley are mentioned incidentally : " Eisi, qui tenuit tempore 

 Edwardi Regis, non potuit ab ecclesia separari," an entry which] 

 refers to Longbridge Deverill. There is a similar entry with regard I 

 to Monkton ; and land is mentioned as belonging to the Church at 

 Brixton. There is another entry " Edgar, presbyter, tenet dimidiam ] 

 hidam in Devrel," but this cannot be identified. But inasmuch as ; 

 there are clear traces of inhabitants on the rising ground to the east,] 

 and distinct remains of a British village to the west of the Churchy! 

 in a field which, until the modern road was made, joined the ( 

 churchyard, and in which sherds of rough British pottery may b©J 

 turned up with a walking-stick ; and as there are traces of other | 

 British settlements along the river to the south, we may conclude 

 that the Church was built on what was the sacred burial-ground 

 of the British settlement. About 1154, then, Elyas Griff arc! J 

 granted the Church at Hill Deverill, founded in the fee of I 

 Walter, son of Osmund, his knight, to the collegiate Church ail 

 Heytesbury (Hegtredsbury) . There it formed one of the four Pre- j 

 bendal stalls until the Act in 1839 abolishing certain Prebendaries : 

 the house of the prebendary is, perhaps, that on the west side of - 

 Heytesbury Churchyard. 



