226 



Extracts from the Records of the 



coloris rubri et altera color browne. At the following- Michaelmas 

 Sessions, on a charge of stealing skeins of yarn, a witness deposes : — 



" That about S' James tidd last she brought to one John Benet of Foxley 

 , . . . weav' about viii or ix pounds of yarne of Abb * and warpe to be 

 woven into a piece of cloth the abb being not all of one Spinninge for this exat 

 spunne some and her daughter the rest neither was it all of one couler forr some 

 of the wooll was marked w th redding and some with pitch -mark and she thinketh 

 that the saved John Benet did in weavinge under shoote it." 



The roll for Michaelmas, 1606, contains some confessions of theft 

 which may repay transcription. A deposition taken before Mr. 

 John Cornwall, Mayor of Marlborough, on the 1st of August, 1606, 

 set forth that the witness bought of Joane Wilcocke, the accused, 

 " a silver spoone weying somewhat above iij quarters of an ounce 

 . . . . for twoo shillings and eightpence." Joan Wilcocke 

 herself confesses: — 



" That upon Saterdaie was fortnight last about eight of the clock in the 

 morninge shee beinge in the howse of Mr. Eoger Hitchcock in Marlborough 

 and beinge willed by Mr. Eoger Hitchcock's wife to goe into the Buttrie 

 to fetch beere shee . did take out of the same Buttrie twoo 



Sylver Spoones of Mr. Hitchcock's w ch shee the same daie about twoo of 

 the clock in thafter noone brought upp into the m'kett in Marlebroughe and 

 there solde to one Walter Philippes a cutler and setter of Knyves at the same 

 Phillippes his standinge viz one of the same spoones shee solde for twoo shillings 

 and the other of them for fowerteen pence Shee saieth that on Satterdaie last 

 in the morninge her maister Mr. Whitfeild's dogge brought one other silver 

 spoone of Mr. Hitchcocke to her maisters howse w ch spoone this exaiat took of 

 the dogge and solde the same daie for two shillings and eight pence." 



Then, in connection with a burglary at Corsley, there is a long 

 deposition of Robert Snowe, taken on the 18th July, 1606, before 

 Sir Edward Kent, acting probably in Somersetshire, and re-affirmed 

 on the 22nd September following, before Sir Henry Willoughby, a 

 Wiltshire magistrate. Snowe confesses that : — 



". . . . About Costeley [Corsley'] .... they brake a howse and 

 tooke from thence two wastcotes, a silken scarf e, a gould ringe, a silke apron, a 

 Holland sheete a Tynnyn Salte 



" And beeinge examyned whether hee could tell anythinge of Welshe's Robberye 

 sayth that .... the sayd Bacon confessed .... that hee .... 

 w th two or three others did robbe the sayd Welsh and tolde ho we they smuddered 

 him and his weif before they could gett up into the Chamber to them . . . - • 



* The yarn of a weaver's warp, Halliwell Phillipt, 



