i i THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ©KIWIS'; 'JiV^ r vj,,- .,'; ' ,v •'-'A. ."'•i-.-fR.i-.fcv W' A- ANNALS OF SWAINSWICK r : •» THE ANNALS OF THE Parish of Swainswick {NEAR THE CITY OF BATH) ABSTRACTS OF THE REGISTER, THE CHURCH ACCOUNTS AND THE OVERSEERS' BOOKS R. E. M. PEACH AUTHOR OF 'rambles ABOUT BATH:' 'HISTORIC HOUSES IN BATH: ' HISTORY OF THE HOSPITAL OF S. JOHN, BATH ;' 'BATH OLD AND NEW;' 'BATH ABBEY CHURCH,' ETC. XonOon SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE & RIVINOTON, Limited ffiatb: CHARLES HALLETT BLADUD LIBRARY, BLADUD BUILDINGS, AND 8 BRIDGE STREET \'t'\0 One Hundred Copies only of this Edition have been printed. of which Fifty have been numbered and signed, for sale. THIS COPY IS NUMBERED! ®eOicatc& bg iPermfssion TO The Rev. JOHN EARLE, M.A. RECTOR OF THE PARISH, PREBENDARY OF WELLS, AND PROFESSOR OF ANGLO-SAXJN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD By his very obedient Servant R. E. M. PEACH 658522 CONTENTS. PAGE Title .... III Dedication ... V Preface .... IX SWAIN.SWICK— Origin and Derivation of Name I The Manor . 6 The Village 10 The Church 12 Incumbents . IS Memorials and Inscriptions in the Church and Churchyard 17 TATWICK ..... 22 Genealogy of the Gunnings in Relation to their Tatwick Possessions 30 WILLIAM PRYNNE . 32 Part II. 47 Part III. S3 Will of Thomas Prynne S8 Will of William Prynne 59 The Register of Swainswick (1557-1627) 62 The Hyde-Clarke Family 74 The Register of Swainswick (1629-1S00) 84 Extracts from Parochial Accounts . 98 Churchwardens' List . «3o Poor Rate Book Accounts 135 Old Paths and Folk Lore 174 Fauna 1 78 Flora 180 Pedigree of the Whittington Family {folded Sheet) Index iSi list of illustrations. Sketch Plan of Road, Brook, etc. Frontispiece Brass and Inscription .... opposite page 14 PREFACE. BOUT ten years ago the late Mrs. Henley Jervis placed in my hands a fair copy, which she had made with no little care, intelligence and industry, of the parochial documents relating to the parish of Swainswiclc, with full permission to use them in any way I might think proper. On carefully going through those jiapers and records, I thought they were very valuable as illustrating the manners, customs, and rural and business habits of this small but very interesting village community, dur- ing a period of nearly three centuries. The records, when brought into juxtaposition with present methods and present circumstances, show with tolerable clearness the great contrast between the past and the present. The "good old times" may be fairly estimated by what, with more or less accuracy, may be called this village diary ; and although, in many respects, the moral and material condition of the community was far superior to that of many neighbour- ing villages, they fall far below the ideal perfection which is sometimes ascribed to them. The Prynnes, the Clarices, the Whittingtons, and the Gunnings kept the affairs of the parish comparatively straight ; but the bulk of the farmers and those into whose hands fell the parochial business, could not sign even their names, and the best of them scarcely possessed the intelligence and the culture which a boy of twelve in the village school could now exhibit. It is not easy to tell how "the lower middle class " in the " good old times " obtained even the small amount X Preface. of rough information which enabled them to get through their business and to perform their parochial duties, for in these records the whole charge to the parish for " skooling " does not amount to ten shillings. The sons of the squires, as we know, could be, and were sent to the Bath Grammar School, and all below them perhaps got a knowledge of the "ABC " at a dame's school. Having, in connection with a previous work, obtained some know- ledge of the parish in relation to W. Piynne and certain historic incidents, I endeavoured, by degrees, to prosecute further researches into the historj' of this " village community," with the intention of combining the results with Mrs. Henley Jervis's previous labours. But, having done all that I could, so far as my individual efforts were concerned, material elements were still wanting, which it was desirable to obtain before proceeding with the work. The descent of the manor, the devolution of the leases, and other details so essential to the elucidation of minute circumstances—especially as regards persons—were wanting. These, with other valuable matter, have been most kindly and fully supplied by Mr. C. L. Shadwell of Oriel College, Oxford. Bath, in the past, naturally exercised much influence over the village communities by which she is surrounded, and it is interesting to trace the inter-relations which subsisted between them. But this is more especially the case socially as regards those villages in which the squire has taken a leading part and become a popular idol —as in the case, for instance, of Sir John Harington and many successors at Kelston, the Hungerfords, Bassetts, Holders, Ralph Allen, etc., at Claverton and Bathampton ; and the family of Bridges at Keynsham. 15ut, during the seventecth century, at least, the remarkable personality of Prynne, and to some extent the prestige he derived from his grand- father,' brought Swainswick into closer and more important relations with Bath than either of those referred to. 1 W. bherston. Preface. xi These relations it has been my ardent desire to make clear ; and, if in this, as in other portions of my labour, my efforts have not been commensurate either with that desire, or the demands of the subject, I shall still indulge the hope that they are not altogether a failure. The activity, the learning, and the zeal displayed by the iletropolitan as well as the various Provincial, Historical, and Archa;ological Societies, seconded b}' the enterprise and ability of private individuals, during the last forty years, have done a vast deal in the promotion of research and the elucidation of obscure and interesting features of local history, more especially in the city and neighbourhood of Bath. In this respect, we owe no little gratitude to antiquaries like the Rev. Professor Earle, Mr. Emanuel Green, the Rev. Y. J. Poynton, to each and all of whom I owe a special acknowledgment for their kind and courteous help in this work. Nor must I omit to mention the kind assistance, so cheer- fully and obligingly rendered me by the Rev. L. Blomekield, Mr. Charles Terry, Mr. C. W. Dymond, Mr. J. D. Bu.sii, Mr. C. C. Gill, Mr. B. H. Watts, and Mr. W. J. Willcox. R. E. M. PEACH. B.\TH, 1890. SWAINSWICK. ©rigin anb Derivation of IRame. [WAINSWICK has been the subject of some speculation as to its origin. The tradition is that it derives its name from the fact that Bladud, after leaving Keynsham, and safely crossing the Avon at Swineford, with his pigs, took up his abode at the village ; and hence its name, Siuains- wick or Sioineswick. Wood,^ the historian of Bath, believed the whole history of Bladud, and relates it, with all its amusing exaggerations and accretions, as if it admitted of no historic doubt. The story, which may have been known for centuries, is mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Warner,^ " in reference to the legend of Bladud and the swine, says it was firmly believed for some centuries, and is attested in the works of almost all our early historians;" but although he quotes Leland ^ and Jones'* in support of this assertion, neither of those authors alludes to the pigs. Leland knew little about the legend except what he got from Geoffrey of Monmouth, and it is very doubtful if it became thoroughly known until Wood amplified the tradition, and invested it with the dignity of historic truth, by according his own unhesitating belief in its veracity and authenticity. Dr. Peirce, so far as we can trace, is the first who ' "Description of Bath," vol. i. 1749. The legend probably has as much truth as the legends of Rome. It is a concrete tradition of the British idea of the connection Ijetween the Sun and Thermal Waters. The Britons dominated as to liath, and, ex]iclle(l by Sa.xons, lingered about it at Walcot and Keyns' Ham, and thus kept alive the tradition embodied in Bladud. Briefly put, this is Professor Sayce's view. 2 " History of Bath," iSoi. ' " Itinerary," vols. 9 and 10. ' Dr. Jones, a Welshman, in 1572, wrote a quaint little book on the Bath Waters, "The Bathes of Bathes Ayde," in which he affirmed his belief in the story of Bladud, and cites a few of the crudest and mo6t ludicrous theories. Since this work was begun a curious manuscript by Jones has fallen into our hands, entitled "Galen's Book of Temperaments, First out of Latin into English, with Annotations in ye epitomi, written by John Jones, M.D., Author of the Baths of B.athes Ayde," 1573, S8 pages. — Annals of Swainsivick. seriously connects the story of the pigs with Bladud and Bath history.^ The legend of Bladud itself is interesting, and some historians, after Wood's time, accepted the story as an accurate account of the found- ing of the ancient British city of Caerbreit, with its fortress Kaerbadus^ at a period contemporaneous with King Solomon. John Wood, the architect by whom modern Bath was designed and built, was a singular admixture of practical abilit}- and genius, combined with a marvellous passion for archaeological extravagances and Pj'thagorean circles, with every other form of astronomical and astrological nonsense derived from the old chroniclers.^ His book on Bath is a strange com- pound of astonishing credulity and most valuable knowledge.