Recent Volumes

70  The Account Books and Papers of Everard and Ann Arundell of Ashcombe and Salisbury, 1745–1798, ed. Barry Williamson, 2017

The material selected from the archives of the Arundell family of Wardour Castle printed here provides a detailed picture of the domestic and social life of James Everard and Ann Arundell in the second half of the 18th century. The couple ran two homes: one in The Close of Salisbury cathedral, which became so closely associated with the family that it is known today as Arundells; the other built by them at Ashcombe on the edge of Cranborne Chase, which was sold in 1815 and demolished soon after, leaving only part which became in the mid 20th century the home of the photographer Cecil Beaton. The extremely detailed accounts for its construction, decoration and furnishing are an important source for historians of domestic house and home in the 18th century.

Running their homes was very much a joint effort by Everard and Ann. They both kept the accounts and Ann calculated the running totals of expenditure and income. She brought much of the wealth to the family from her estates in Wiltshire, Somerset and Dorset, and there is a strong impression of a marriage of equals. Everard was a Catholic and Ann a Protestant, which adds another dimension to the interest in their lives. The accounts reveal much about family relationships and lifestyle; they are a particularly rich source for trades and services in Salisbury. But they also describe the responsibilities that came with their prominent social position, in the charitable gifts they made to many worthy causes, be it regular contributions for teaching in local villages or one-off payments to alleviate distress and misfortune.

71 Letters of Henry Hoare of Stourhead, 1760–81, ed. Dudley Dodd, 2018

The letters, from Henry Hoare to his son-in-law, Lord Bruce, wife and children attest his devotion and generosity towards the family. They contain nuggets about the garden and house at Stourhead and permit glimpses of Henry the banker and businessman in his wranglings with the Sardinian envoy and Duke of Northumberland. Soppiness seeps into the later letters, cut by quips and quotations. Henry’s respect for Lord Bruce throbs unremittingly and was merited by the character of that dull, upright-living, courtier to George III. The letters are accompanied by brief biographies and a gazetteer of the people and places met along the way.

72  Braydon Forest and the Forest Law, ed. Douglas Crowley, 2019

In medieval England a forest was a tract of land subject not only to the ordinary laws of the realm but also to special forest laws and officers. The forest laws were drawn up, and the tracts of land were chosen, in the early Middle Ages and arbitrarily by the kings. As a forest such a tract of land may or may not have included much woodland. Braydon was one of nine Wiltshire forests.

This volume shows how the boundaries of Braydon forest were defined in the early 13th century, from when the forest was at its greatest extent, and how the forest was made smaller in the early 14th century, from when it consisted mainly of the woodland at Chelworth owned by the Crown itself and from when thirteen surrounding woods were called purlieus. There are explanations of what, under the forest law, was lawful and unlawful in the forest and the purlieus, and of how the forest law was enforced by means of eyre courts, general inquests, swanimotes, and justice seats. The parts played by the warden, ranger, verderers, regarders, foresters, and agistors are also described.

To impose the forest law on a tract of land was not to remove the existing rights of men to feed their farm animals in common in its woodland, and until the 17th century the men of many villages in and around Braydon forest fed their animals freely throughout the forest and its purlieus which, under the forest law, all lay open to each other. Defined as an area subject to special forest laws and officers Braydon forest ceased to exist on 9 November 1627, when the king leased his land with permission to fell his trees and to kill or ignore the deer.

The Crown and each owner of a purlieu wished to fence their land against that of the other owners, to convert it to closes, and to use it as farmland. The volume traces and explains the legal processes necessary to eliminate the feeding rights of the men of about 25 villages, to compensate the men losing their rights, and to satisfy that wish. In most cases the process involved allotments of land in compensation, either by agreement, legal decree, or later by inclosure award. Gradually a landscape of extensive and unfenced woodland was replaced by one of closes and new farmsteads.

73  The Parish Registers of Thomas Crockford, 1561–1633, ed. John Chandler, 2020

Thomas Crockford (1580-1634) came to Wiltshire in 1603 as schoolmaster at Stockton, and from 1613 until his death was vicar of Fisherton Delamere. For much of this time he assisted his neighbours the rectors of Wylye and Stockton, and began new registers for each of these three adjacent chalkland parishes in the Wylye valley of south Wiltshire. He assiduously collected and copied information from earlier registers and then continued them, for each parish, until shortly before his death. In doing this he was following an instruction of 1598, as many clergy did at the time, but what makes his registers unusual, if not unique, is the manner in which he set about his task.

Crockford, unlike most of his parishioners, was proficient in Latin, and into his registers he wrote not only the basic details of baptisms, marriages and burials, but also relationships, occupations, causes of death, fortunes and misfortunes, and thumbnail character sketches of everyone who crossed his path at altar, font or graveyard – and all in Latin. In addition, by enquiring of families and elderly parishioners, he tried to discover details of those whom he had recorded from before his time.

When writing about the local gentry, fellow clergy, and leading members of society he was generally deferential and complimentary, to the extent that some of his more expansive efforts read as if they were funeral orations; but when it came to the less exalted members of his congregation he was briefer and more candid, knowing that they could not read his comments.

This remarkable mirror of rural society in the early 17th century is not a new discovery, but it is now published for the first time in translation and in its entirety. The work of translation has been undertaken by Christopher Newbury and Steven Hobbs, with additions by John Chandler, who has edited the volume and contributed an introduction and detailed indexes.

74  The Farming Diaries of Thomas Pinniger, 1813–1847, ed. Alan Wadsworth, 2021

From 1813 until his death in 1847, Thomas Pinniger kept a detailed daily account of the sheep and corn husbandry he practised fi rst at Little Bedwyn Farm to 1825, and then as the owner of Beckhampton Farm in Avebury parish from 1829. These periods were separated by a stay on Sambourne Farm in Chippenham, when he was more an observer than an active farmer. These ‘Farming Memorandums’, as Pinniger described them, provide a fascinating and detailed record of the challenges that he faced throughout his long career. Farming practices and developments, prices of corn and livestock, and the weather were all recorded in detail. It is clear that they were not just kept for the sake of posterity, but as a body of knowledge and experience on which he could draw. His relations with his labourers and neighbours, not always cordial, add to the wealth of the content of the diaries.

Having moved to Beckhampton, Pinniger bought the eponymouslynamed established coaching inn in the village. Stables were constructed for both the farm and the inn, with the latter specifi cally for race horses. The fortunes of the inn faltered with the coming of the railway in the early 1840s. As well as the obvious subject matter, Pinniger also noted the births, marriages and deaths of relatives, friends and acquaintances, revealing the social milieu in which he lived. Dates of funerals and of funeral services were also often provided, the latter rarely recorded in this period. He also provided a fi rst hand account of the unrest of the Swing Riots of 1830, which he viewed as a serious threat.

The years 1823 to 1838 have been transcribed, but the whole span is covered in the introduction.

In keeping such meticulous daily records over so long a period, Thomas Pinniger stands as the principal representative of the class of yeoman farmers, from early to mid 19th-century Wiltshire.