242 



By the Rev. Canok Jacksok, M.A., F.S.A. 



«p§HE Narrative of the Murder of William and John Hartgill 

 MM (father and son) of Kilmington in the County of Somerset, 

 byCharles Lord Stourton of Stourton, co. Wilts, in the year 1557, 

 has been printed several times. It is to be found in Strype s 

 Memorials of Queen Mary's reign/ Sir R. C. Hoare's Modern 

 Wiltshire, 2 Phelps's History of co. Somerset, 3 and Bayley's History 

 of the Tower of London.* In all these the narrative is one and the 

 same, being that of Strype who copied it from one of Fox's Manu- 

 scripts, substituting the language of his own day (1721) for that of 

 the document itself. Fox's manuscript (or perhaps an ancient copy 

 of it in two parts) composed soon after the Murder, is in the Library 

 of the British Museum. It has been now disinterred, and is once 

 more presented to the public, (but this time in the original phrase- 

 ology,) in consequence of the recent discovery of several papers 

 coeval with, and illustrative of the story. These consist of :— 



1. Some Original Letters written both by Lord Stourton and 

 W Hartgill, and by others their neighbours and partisans. These 

 letters have been found among the Marquis of Bath's family docu- 

 ments at Longleat, and are now published by his Lordship's kind 

 permission. Being chiefly written before the murder they of course 

 do not mention it, but they contain many curious particulars of the 



* Edit: 1721, vol. iii., p. 367. Edit: Oxford 8vo., 1822, vol. iii., part 1, 



P- 592 - ,*o 

 2 History of Mere, p. 252. 3 Yol. i., part 2, p. 178. 



^ p 454. There is also a summary of the story at p. 87 in the Gentleman's 



Magazine for the year 1790, in which year the public attention was called to 



the case of the murder of his steward by Lawrence, Earl Ferrers. . 



