156 



Abridgement of the History of the 



heiress of Colonel Charles Long of Grittleton, only brother of Sir 

 James Long, Bart, of Draycote, by whom he had an only daughter, 

 Emma-Phipps, married in 1821, to George Poulett Thomson, 

 Esquire (who thereupon took the name and arms of Scrope in lieu 

 of Thomson by royal license) the present proprietor of Castle 

 Combe. It may be mentioned that Mr. Poulett Scrope was already 

 of Wiltshire blood, through his mother, who was daughter of 

 Dr. Jacob of the Close, Salisbury, father to the present John 

 Henry Jacob, Esquire, of that place. Moreover, by his grand- 

 mother, coheiress of the Poulett s of Gotehurst, co. Somerset, he 

 claims direct descent from Sir Amias Poulett, of Hinton St. George, 

 in that county, a privy councillor of Queen Elizabeth, and the 

 proprietor of large estates in Wiltshire ; as also from Poulett Duke 

 of Bolton, Lord of Edington and Erlestoke, in this county. It is 

 perhaps, worthy of remark, that this Bolton family, having (as 

 already mentioned) derived their principal estates from the Scropes 

 of Bolton, bore the name of Scrope in conjunction with that of 

 Poulett for several generations. And it may be noted as a further 

 coincidence that the first Earl of Wiltshire was a Scrope, Sir 

 William (created a.d. 1397), the last a Poulett, the present 

 Marquis of Winchester (created a.d. 1550). 



Having thus traced the descent of the manor and estate of Castle 

 Combe down to its present owner, it may be remarked upon as a 

 rare instance of the long-continued possession of an estate by a 

 single family, the successive owners having inherited it by direct 

 descent in the male line from the year 1372 to the present day 

 (a period of nearly five centuries) through only eleven genera- 

 tions, being an average of nearly 44 years to each. 



The Church of Castle Combe was dedicated to St. Andrew. It 

 is situated near the centre of the lower town, between the old 

 market-place and the manor-house, and its handsome tower crowned 

 by four pinnacles and an elegant spire over the staircase turret, 

 appears to great advantage from every side, backed by the wooded 

 hills among which the village lies embosomed. The tower was 

 built in the first half of the fifteenth century, as appears from con- 

 temporary records, chiefly at the cost of the then wealthy clothiers 

 of the place, but partly from funds bequeathed by Sir John Fastolf 



