By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 



41 



name where the good King* Josiah was slain (II. Kings, xxiii., 27). 

 The object of this discourse was to rouse the slumbering loyalty of 

 Westbury. How far it was successful may be questionable. Ac- 

 cording to moderu ideas, a ponderous discourse filling fifty-two 

 pages of close small print, requiring, if properly delivered, at least 

 three hours of attention, instead of rousing the slumbering loyalty 

 of a congregation would be more likely to have a different effect and 

 send them to keep company with their loyalty. 1 



I will now say a few words about one or two of the principal old 

 families and their places of residence within the parish. 



Beook House, or Hall. 



The most important of the old families who owned large estates 

 here seems to have been the Pavely family, of Brook House. They 

 were here for about two hundred and fifty years, from Henry I. to 

 Edward III., and during all that time their estate passed through 

 successive Walters and Reginalds from father to son. The name 

 does not seem to have made much figure in the general history of 

 England at that period : and what is known about them is just what 

 is in most cases known about ancient families from deeds relating 

 to property that happen not to have been destroyed. They were 

 sheriffs, commissioners for the Crown in county business, such as 

 levies of militia, perambulations of Royal forests, and the like. 

 One was a judge, another a prior of the Order of St. John of 

 Jerusalem : some appear to have been Religious men, as in the south 

 transept of the Church, where they had a chantry chapel, there are, 

 or once were, in a niche in the wall, monumental stones with crosses 

 carved upon them. The devices and arms of Pavely are found 

 upon neighbouring Churches, implying contributious towards those 

 buildings. One of the old documents from which we glean their 



1 The full title of this dreary discourse was " Hadadbihmon, Sive Threnodia 

 Anglicana ob Regicidium : A Sermon on David's Humiliation for Cutting off 

 the Royal Robe, and Detestation of Cutting off the Royal Head of the Loed's 

 Anointed. Preached Jan. 30, 1660 ; Being a Solemn Fast for the Horrid 

 Murther of King Chaeles I. of glorious memory. At Westbtjby, in the 

 County of Wilts. By John Pakadise, Preacher of the Word there." 



