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John Aubrey died before was able to research and publish the notes he made during his journey
around Wiltshire. Some two hundred years later John Jackson undertook this task, and below
is his corrections and updated information.
1. Berwick is a generic name. In Domesday Book, a berewick
(Berg-wick, manerii vicus is a hamlet severed from the body of a manor.
(Thus, a charter of the Confessor’s speaks of “Kingston, with its berewics Raffley and
Byri.”) Basset is a family name. This Berewick was part of the estate
of Adam de Port, forfeited on his being accused of the death of K. Hen. II. (Dugdale).
King John gave it to Alan Basset. K. Hen. III. added the lands of one
John de Cambon a Norman. The Manor was held of the Crown by the annual
render of a mew-hawk. The heiress of the Bassets, widow of Roger Bigod,
Earl Marshal, brought it in second marriage, to Hugh Despencer by whom temp.
Edw. II. it was forfeited. Patrick de Chaworth is also mentioned as an
owner (Edw. I.) of lands appurtenant to his Barony of Kempsford. The Abbot
of Stanley near Chippenham also had an estate. In 1. Edw. III. he complains to
Parliament that Hugh Despencer had taken it, as well as the Rectory, from him by force.
This included Richardston and Langedene: out of which the Abbot paid
a pension to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital at Bristol. John Stratton was Bailiff
under the Abbey. In 1400, Sir John Roche of Bromham was a proprietor.
In 1559, Thomas Goddard. In modern times John Nalder:
and in 1859, Lord Holland and Mr. Stratton. The Marquis of Lansdowne is
Lay impropriator.
Berwick Basset is seven miles S.W. of Swindon. It is a chapelry of Calne, the Vicar
of Calne, patron. The old church, (St. Nicholas), of the Eleventh century, had on the
S. side a tower framework cased with weather boarding. It has recently been restored
by subscription and was re-opened Oct. 28 1857. A stained glass window was
erected in memory of Mrs Hawkins of Avebury who left £200 towards the restoration,
and £200 to the Poor. There is a curious old house near the Church.
Round an old gravestone is also this; “IT HATH PLEASED GOD TO TAKE TO
HIS MERCYE HENRYE HOLMAN AND WAS BURYED THE XX DAY OF OCTOBER, AN. DO. 1599.”
* This book is no longer covered by copyright regulations. The Society is happy for information from the book
to be copied, although ask that an acknowledgement to the Society is placed with the reproduction.
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