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at his manner of Snape, in the countye of Yorke, ye 22 of Apryl, 1577, in yo yeare of his age 61, and lyethe buried with his auncestoures at his churehe in his town of Well.

This.tablet, I find by Strype, is part of the monument of Lucy Lady Latimer, and formerly had on it the following inscription and verses:

Here lyeth the Rt. Honourable Lady Lucy, daughter to the Right Noble Henry Earl of Worcester, wife to the late Right Honourable John Nevyle, knt. Lord Latimer. By whom she had issue four daughters, Katharine, Dorothy, Lucy, Elizabeth. She departed this life the 23d of Febr. 1582, in the year of her age, 59.

Such as she is, such surely shall

ye be,
Such as she was, such if ye be, be glad;
Fair in her youth, though fat in age she grew,
Vertuous in both, whose gloss did never fade;
Though long alone she led a widow's life,
Yet never lady liv'd a truer wife.

From Wales she sprang, a branch of Worcester's race,
Graft in a stock of Browne's, her mother's side;
In Court she held a maid of honour's place,

Whilst youth in her, and she in Court did bide:
To John Lord Latymer then she became a wife,
Four daughters had they breathing yet in life.
Earl of Northumberland* took the first to wife,
The next the heir of Baron Burleight chose;
Cornwallis had the third for term of life,

And Sir John Danvers pluckt the youngest rose:
Their father's heirs, them mothers all she saw,
Pray for, or praise her, make your list the law,

As so much has been done by authors every way com. petent, it will naturally occur to your readers why I have been thus brief in noticing dates and inscriptions in St. John's church. The old parsonage-house, I suppose, will not long outlast the church. To preserve both, I have made drawings for my collection. In the yard there is a grave-stone to the memory of Francis de Oliveyra, Knight,

* Named Henry.

Sir Tho. Cecil,

of the order of Christ in Portugal, who abjured his religion, and died here in 1783, aged eighty-one years. There are eight bells in the tower, and room for ten.

The new church, is nearly completed. There is something magnificent in its exterior; the cornice and dentils are well proportioned, and give a good effect to the whole. The inside will be extremely plain, as there are no pillars to the roof. The plan is that of the cross. The pillars, twelve in number, that support the galleries, are of the Doric order; they are on three sides of the church, and extend no farther than the intersections of the cross, forming an area circular opposite the altar. The ceiling is a depressed arch, springing from the four sides, and meeting in a point, which is decorated with a large rose stuccoed. The altar cannot be much decorated, as there is a very large window over where it will be placed. Under the pews there will be vaults, for the prevention of damps, as I was told. There will be many apartments in the church for va◄ rious purposes, of which I cannot speak with certainty. J. P. MALCOLM.

1796, April.

IX. Topographical Description of Witham, in Berkshire.

MR. URBAN,

Oxford, March 27, 1797.

THE following brief notes of a decayed village in Berk

shire are much at the service of

Yours, &c.

your readers.

H. E.

WITHAM, about three miles and a half from Oxford, had formerly a nunnery, which was removed from Abingdon soon after 690. It continued till 780, when it was ruined in the wars between Offa, King of the Mercians, and Kinewulf, King of the West Saxons.

"Oxfordshire, (saith Mr. Warton,*) with some of the adjacent counties, was included in Offa's kingdom; and he is supposed to have kept his court at the fortress or castle of Witham, near Oxford, which he had won from Kinewulf, King of the West Saxons." The fortress (continues Mr.

History of Kiddington, p. 27.

Warton*) probably stood on the site of the present ancient mansion-house of the Earl of Abingdon, built about the reign of Henry the Sixth."

Here, however, I cannot but differ from him: Witham is situated at the foot of the hill which retains its name; and, though Mr. Warton was unable to discover any mounds or trenches on the summit of Witham hill, yet it was in every respect commodious for a Roman Specula, the site of which might afterwards have been occupied by the Saxons.

The fortress, or castle, seems to have been erected by Kinewulf, super montem de Witham, merely for the sake of opposing the incursions of Offa, in whose hands it appears shortly afterwards to have fallen by the chance of war. The words super montem de Witham clearly indicate the site of the fortress to have been, not the spot whereon the Earl of Abingdon's mansion now stands, but near the summit of Witham hill. I have carefully examined the hill. On the summit, near its Eastern declivity, I found many large stones, in some parts regularly disposed; the massive fragments of a desolated fortress.

The present venerable mansion of the Earl of Abingdon, was (as was before observed,) erected about the reign of Henry the Sixth, prior to the relaxation of feudal tenure. Upon the traveller's first approach, he cannot but recall to his memory the fortified dungeons of our ancestors, whose martial tempers, whilst they consulted the magnificence of petty tyranny, seem to have forgot convenience, The embattled tower in the centre is surmounted by two octangular turrets, and the edifice itself surrounded by a moat. The old hall remains in its ancient state ;§ and I must own that, upon my first entrance, I beheld with romantic pleasure the vestiges of former hospitality and munificence. The prowess of our martial ancestors, the celebrated feats, the genius of chivalry, rushed on my imagination.

Ibid. in note.

+ Mr. Warton thinks it was connected with Seckworth, [Secg popð,

the soldier's town,] a desolated adjacent town. Mr. W. was wrong in his assertion (History of Kiddington, p. 27,) that a barn and a pound were the only remains of Seckworth, as it contains five houses. In the Bodleian Valor of 1291, it is called Seweckworth; and the abbot of Abingdon is said to have had a pension of iijs. from its church, (valued at cs.) no remains of which now appear. Great alterations have been lately made in the house and grounds; the moat is now filled up. 1811. E.]

§ In the West window, in a circular shield, are the old arms of England ; nigh which, in three other circular shields, are, a red rose, a fleur-de lis, and 2 portcullis.

The church, in the diocese of Sarum, and archdeaconry of Berks, is small. The boarded roof is supported by three arches of wood. Against the wall, on either side of the nave, is a series of rude grotesque ornaments in stone, resembling heads, with caps similar to those worn by canons regular of the order of St. Austin; which at first led me to conjecture that the church might have been originally built, or perhaps re-built, by the prior and convent of Abingdon,t to whom the manor of Witham appears to have belonged in the Saxon times, as well as at the time of forming the Domesday Survey. Certain it is, a church then existed here.

In the English Chartulary of Godstow nunnery, || among Dr. Rawlinson's MSS. in the Bodleian Library,¶ is "A Chart' made by dyvers juggys against ye p'son of Wyhtham;" wherein it appears that the prior of St. James's, Northampton, received a mandate from Pope Gregory IX. relative to a complaint made by Robert, parson of Witham, that the abbess and convent of Godstow, John Lucy, priest, Roger Wytham, and other clerks and laymen of the dioceses of Lincoln and Salisbury, had wronged him of certain " possessions, tithys, dewteys, and othyr thynges," whereby he was commanded to call the parties before him, and “make a dewe ende bytwene hem." Robert, parson of Witham, stated, that the abbess and convent had for the last six years withheld payment of tithes coming from a croft, called, "Wydehey within the boundes, termys, or markys, of hys churche, of Wyhtham," amounting to xviijs. The abbess and convent replied, they did not believe the said croft to be situated within the bounds of the said parish; and, if it was, they were not bound to pay tithes, " for hyt is nouale that is to sey, a feld yerly tyllyd, or ellys euyry othyr yere:" which being proved, the prior gave sentence in favour of the abbess and convent of Godstow, and the parson of Witham, his successors," and his churche, were put to perpetual silence;" dated 4 id. Feb. 1420.

It is a rectory, in the gift of the Earl of Abingdon, valued in the taxation of 1291 at e s.; out of which the abbot of Abingdon received one mark. It is valued in the Liber Regis, (n. 904,) at 71. 5s. 24d.

+ Though the abbey there was for monks of the Benedictine order. Domesday, 1. fol. 59.

"Ibi, æccl'a 7 molin'. de x sol'." Ibid. f. 59. The mill still remains.

Fol. iii b. and iii a.

No. 1330.

.

Sir Walter occurs parson of Witham 43 Edward IIL The following rectors occur in the Parish Register.

Starkey occurs 1559.

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John Brickendon, D.D. occurs in 1625. He died Dec. 6, 1645, as appears by the following singular entry in the Register: "Johannes Brickendon, S. S. theologiæ d', et hujus loci quondam rector, obiit Decemb. 6o, 1645, Ingepennæ, Atrebatensium deponitur." He was succeeded on the 7th of December by

Anthony Hodges, B.D. who was buried here on Jan. 15, 1685-6;† and on July 12, 1686,

William More, M.A. was presented by James Earl of Abingdon, to whom he was chaplain.‡

Robert Lydall, B.D. fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford, was presented on Aug. 28, 1712. He died Feb. 20, 1741-2, aged sixty-four, and was buried in the chancel on March 2, following. He was succeeded by

William Bertie, D.D. rector of Albury, in the county of Oxford, and uncle to the Earl of Abingdon. He was suc ceeded by

Christopher Robinson, D. D. here as well as at Albury; both of which are in the gift of the Earl of Abingdon. He is now rector, Aug. 12, 1797.

The pulpit of Witham church is of Dutch oak. In lozenges, on the two pannels of the back, in letters inlaid, is

16

EDMVND

GRENE

CHVRCH

14

IESPER

WELLAR

WARDENS

The green pulpit-cloth is dated 1625. The pall (used at funerals) is of fine blue cloth embroidered; on it " E. P.

* Ibid.

[+ We find the following anecdote of Anthony Hodges, in one of Tom "Parson Hodges, of WightHearne's manuscripts, in the Bodleian Library. ham, made a bargain with those he married, that if they did not repent in a Accordingly, year's time, they should present him with a pair of gloves.

one couple that he married did not repent in that time, and therefore, they presented him with a pair of gloves made of the skin of a lamprey, which occasioned these verses:

Has Rectori dant nubentes

Anno post non pœnitentes
Chirothecas nuptiales.

Quis ostendat mihi tales ?"

[+ William Tilly, D.D. fellow of Corpus Christi college, and Montague Earl of Abingdon, occurs Rector of Witham, 1709. are enumerated in Cooke's Preacher's Assistant, vol. II. p. 338.

Chaplain to

His Sermons
He printed

a Speech on Dr. Turner's death, 1714; and a Book of Devotions, dedicated to the Countess of Abingdon.]

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