PART I.

Apart from interest in Deddington's manorial rights the town has been singularly free from the protection or over-shadowing of any royal or noble house. It produced, however, many good specimens of the classes called 'the backbone of England'—yeomen, traders and professional men. It had, too, distinguished men, and of these without doubt the greatest born here was Sir Thomas Pope.

'He rose to a position of great wealth and influence under Henry the eighth and his successors', remarks Mr. Griggs in 'Highways and Byways in Oxford and the Cotswolds', and he goes on to quote Aubrey who mentions that 'he could have rode in his owne lands from Coggs (by Witney) to Banbury about 18 miles.' A clear and authoritative account of his rise and origin is given briefly by the Rev. E. Marshall in his 'Notes' as follows :—

'The family to which he (Thomas Pope) belonged was settled in Kent in the reign of Edward III, where it held a respectable position. A branch of it is found soon after this in Deddington, where John and Margaret Pope were living in 1401. William Pope of Deddington, who was probably a lineal descendant of these, was the father of Sir Thomas Pope. He possessed land in Deddington, and died in 1523, leaving his estate to his wife for her widowhood, with remainder to his son Thomas, who was a minor of about the age of fourteen, and for whom he otherwise made provision by his will. Every care appears to have been taken of his education. He was sent to the school at Banbury and to Eton College. He then became a member of Gray's Inn, and in due time an eminent lawyer. He held several important offices under the Crown, and was made by the King, Treasurer of the Court of Augmentations, under which came the administration of the revenues arising from the dissolution of the monasteries. He obtained, as Thomas Pope, of Dodyngton, Esq., the following grant of arms in 1535 : "Party per pale or and azure, on a chevron between three gryphons' heads erased four fleur-de-lis all countercharged," and was knighted the following year. He was the founder of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1555. The custody of the lady (afterwards Queen) Elizabeth at Hatfield was entrusted to him for the four last years of Mary's life. His death took place at his house at Clerk-enwell on January 29, 1558-9, in the fiftieth year of his age. He was buried at St. Stephen's, Walbrook, in the vault where his wife Margaret and his daughter Alice had previously been buried......

But in 1567 the bodies of Sir Thomas Pope and his wife were removed to the Chapel of Trinity College and re-interred, where a large tomb, with recumbent figures of himself and his third wife Elizabeth, was placed with this inscription :—

"Hic jacent corpora Thome Pope militis Fundatoris hujus Collegii Trinitatis et domine Elizabethe et Margarite Uxoris ejus ; qui quidem Thome obit XXIX die Januarii MDLVIII."

"Quod Tacitum Velis Nemini Dixeris," which admirable motto Mr. Marshall translates thus :—"What e'er you wish untold, to no one tell."

Beautifully sculptured in alabaster, the woodwork so elaborately carved by Grinling Gibbons (1691) is cut away to reveal it. Oil paintings of himself in ermine bordered robes, and his wife (Lady Elizabeth Paulet) in a rich dress with velvet sleeves and head-dress sewn with pearls, hang over the mantel in the Commons room. Sir Thomas is also the subject of a stone bust in a niche of the outside wall. Quite recently Trinity College has gladly paid the sum of three hundred pounds for a drawing of their founder taken from life.

'The Visitation of the County of Oxford' 1574 records that John and Margaret Pope were commemorated on a window of Deddington Church, with their two children. Simply the names and dates, without any coat of arms, that being conferred on their eminent descendant.   This is the entry :—

"John (Pope) et Margreata uxor ejus & Gaverell (Gabriel) and Anne his children wch Margret died the last of August MCCCI William Pope and Julian and Margret his wiffes wch W dessessed the XXVth of Marche Mdxxiii." 'W' of course stands for William.

The poet Alexander Pope described himself as descended from a family in Oxfordshire, the head of which was the Earl of Downe. As the first Earl of Downe was Sir William Pope, nephew of the founder of Trinity College, this brings the poet into the line of Deddington ancestry. Lord Downe, too, in 1618, built Wroxton Abbey, the seat of the Norths, into whose family the lease was carried by his grand-daughter and heiress, the house still remain-ng the property of Trinity College. The last Prior of Wroxton had subscribed to the Royal Supremacy and in this manner the Estate had passed into the hands of Sir Thomas Pope. The Lee-Dillons also have a place in the Pope descent as sketched by Mr. Marshall.

Treasurer of the Court of Augmentation is the high office stressed on Sir Thomas Pope's memorial inscription, and when it is remembered his duty was to go into facts and accounts bearing on the dissolution of religious establishments with income of less than £200 yearly, it was matter for congratulation, doubtless, that the head investigator was of such good repute. The Priory of Bicester, not having the required income, was dissolved by an earlier Act of Henry VIII passed in 1536. 'In the following year,' states Mr. Marshall, 'the manor of Deddington, "late of the monastery of Bicester", was granted by the king to Sir Thomas Pope. In 1545 this was again in the possession of the king, having been re-purchased by him of Sir Thomas Pope. It was subsequently conveyed by him to the Cathedral of Christ Church, as "the manor of Deddington, late of Sir Thomas Pope, in the king's hand by purchase."

The Oxfordshire Archaeological Society's report for 1930, quotes from the 'Surrender and Pension list of November 17th, 1539 (Dissolution of Religious Houses with less annual income than £200) that 'Juliana Pope (alias Deddington), Benedictine nun of Godstowe' had a pension of £6.13.4. assigned to her, and she was still on the pension list in 1556.

Sir William Scroggs, the other great lawyer of Deddington, has left a less fragrant memory. A short biographical account is given of him in Marshall's 'Notes.'

'In 1623, there was born at Deddington, of parents belonging to the town, one who rose to a high place, but of whom Bishop Burnet observes, in the History of his own Time, that he was "a man more valued for a good readiness in speaking well, than either for learning in his profession, or for any moral virtue." Sir William Scroggs, who became Chief-Justice in 1678, was first at Oriel and Pembroke Colleges, and took his degree as M.A., and afterwards became an officer in the King's Services. He was originally intended for holy orders, but he entered upon the study of the law as a member of Gray's Inn, and at length obtained the post just mentioned. While he was at the head of the King's Bench, the trials of the supposed conspirators in the Popish Plot took place. In the first year's trials at which he presided, to use again an expression of Bishop Burnet, "he set himself, even with indecent earnestness, to get the prisoners to be always cast." But in the second year when the queen's interests were at stake, at the trial of Wakeman and the three priests, "he summed up very favourably for the prisoners, contrary to his former practice." In 1680 he was impeached by the Commons for high treason ; but the matters alleged against him were only misdemeanours, and the impeachment was rejected...The following year, however, he was dismissed from his high office ; after which he retired to his estate at Weald

Hall, near Brentwood, in Essex, where he died in 1683......The

family of Scroggs (written 1879) is represented in Deddington by Mr. John Scroggs, of the Horsefair.'

A painting of Sir William Scroggs is in the National Portrait Gallery of London.

The Oxfordshire Gazetteer (1852) says of Scroggs—'his father was a tradesman in the town and is by some said to have been a butcher.' It quotes Dean Swift's verdict of Scroggs, which was severe :—"I have read somewhere of an Eastern king who put a judge to death for an iniquitous sentence, and ordered his hide to be stuffed into a cushion, and placed upon the tribunal for the son to sit on, who was preferred to the father's office. I fancy such a memorial might not have been useless to a son of Sir William Scroggs, and both he and his successors would often wriggle in their seats as long as the cushion lasted."

Lawyers seemed to have flourished in the place, several practising at one time as evidenced by the directories. In 1791-2 under heading 'Attorneys' are John Appletree, Samuel Churchill and Thomas Fidkin. Hants Directory for 1846 gives the names of John Churchill, Samuel Field, William Henry Hitchcock and John Francis Lamb. In 1852 all these are still in business with the exception of J. F. Lamb and the addition of C. Duffell Faulkner and one Kinch, taken into partnership by W. H. Hitchcock.

Coroner Churchill lived in New Street at Ilbury House ; lawyers otherwise lived by preference, when they could, at the Hermitage, Market Square, which was of course very central. Mr. Samuel Field, clerk to the magistrates of North Wootton Hundred, is still remembered by Mr. Thomas Smith (of Messrs. Stockton, Sons and Fortescue whose offices are opposite) as a very legal figure issuing in dignified manner from its doorway. Lawyer Kinch resided first in the Manor Farm (since rebuilt) and afterwards at the Hermitage, where Lawyer Coggins lived later. Mr. C. Duffell Faulkner, Solicitor, dwelt first at 'Gegg's Hook' by Deddington cross roads, and then removed to Hudson's Lane, named it is true after the Hudson who gave the church clock, but ever famous for Faulkner's residence and museum at 'the Priory' which he rebuilt.

As antiquarian and collector he earns respectful comment from contemporary writers. The museum of local curiosities which he collected—pre-historic and of every period—were on show in the roomy upper part of the house to which admission was free, Mr. Faulkner having no other object but to interest others in his valuable hobby. At his death the collection was dispersed to various London museums, but some fine fossils—notably a huge ammonite—gargoyles and other relics, still adorn the little garden and grotto opposite his old house, which also contains inside and out, various small sculptures, from angels to grotesques, evidence of his ruling passion.

Law is early linked with education in Deddington by the proposal of Sir Thomas Pope to establish a School. Marshall quotes an agreement with Trinity College, dated 1555, relating to the intended foundation of a free Grammar School, stating that "The said president, fellowes and schollers, shall yerely for evermore give and pay unto one hable person, well and sufficiently lerned and instructed in gramer and humanitie, which shall be Schole Master of and at a frescole, to be called Jhesus Scole, of the foundation of the said Sir Thomas Pope, to be erected at Dedington in the said countie of Oxon, and to teach children gramer and humanitie there frely, for his yerely salarye and wages XX marks, of good and lawfull money ; and to one other hable and lerned person in gramer to be Usher within the said frescole yerely viij of good and lawfull money, to teache children likewise ther frely."

But before giving prominence to any teacher who was appointed in consequence of Sir Thomas Pope's admirable plan, space must be afforded to the name of one previously in office. "The Countie of Oxford Certificate" drawn up by Edward the sixth's (1547-1553) Commissioners, in the following extract pays a warm tribute to a school-master who must surely have been known to Pope and perhaps inspired him to give such a man and his pupils better opportunities.

"Deddington Ducastus Lancastrie. "The late Guild of the Trynytie in the Parishe Church of Dadyngton. Houseling people 300. William Burton, Incumbent there, hath for his salary, the tenth deducted £6, (The clere yerely valewe) £7.18s.10d., over and above all charges.

A scole there, the said William burton, Scolemaster.

The Towne of Dadyngton is parcell of the Duchie of Lancastre. The said William Burton ys a good scole master and Bryngyth up yough very well in learnyng."

From the Parish register of the period we learn that "on February 15th, 1672, the School-house was made in the church for Edward Kempster to teach theire."

In 1654, Edward Kempster was appointed "Registrar of the Parish," and Parish clerk in 1658. According to his memorial on the outside of the south wall of the church, which is rapidly decaying and much obliterated, the date of death in 1675, but the register contains the entry of his burial in the summer of 1676.

The inscription can be only partially deciphered. In 1879 the Rev. E. Marshall found it 'much worn' and naturally as years go by it can be read less and less. Mr. Henry Stilgoe deciphers it thus :—

"Near to this (stone ?) Lyes ye body of Edward Kempster who dyed July ye 29 1675

............Kempster

Dyed Octob......

17    1724 Margery Kempster (wh ?)o Dyed Sept ye 13

......8 aged 69

years."

The tablet is surmounted by a Cherub's head, and decorated with conventional foliage and flowers. The weather has caused the stone to flake off. E. Kempster's intelligent and conscientious annotations and entries in the registers add greatly to their value.

It is good to know that these two early school-masters—Burton and Kempster—were already upholding what has become a fine tradition. Few personal memories, however, survive of a succession of useful men, till the respected name of Thomas Alexander Manchip is reached. As the tablet placed in the chancel of the parish church 'in affectionate and grateful appreciation' sets forth, he was for 37 years headmaster of Deddington and for 34 years choirmaster. He died March 9th, 1911, aged 68. To Mr. Manchip's historical notes on Deddington this narrative is greatly indebted. And we may well rejoice that in Mr. John Harmsworth the children have a schoolmaster who has their welfare truly at heart.

Going back just over 200 years in our educational history an extract from the Magna Britannia, 1730, quoted by the Rev. E. Marshall, shows it proceeding then on a very small scale. There was at the time "A School for 16 boys and as many girls who are taught to read and say their Catechism at a penny a week per head, at the expense of a private gentleman."

'But more than this was required', writes Mr. Marshall. The Deddington National School Society was established on July 26th, 1814, and in October a School with 40 boys from Deddington and the neighbouring villages was opened with Mr. Thomas Osborne for its master, and a school for 40 girls with Miss Lucy Lee as mistress......'

Mr. William Cartwright conveyed the present site of 3 roods in 1853, and the Schools were opened in the beginning of 1854. But according to the 'North Oxfordshire Monthly Times,' published in Deddington, dated Dec. 4th, 1855, education here was soon in difficulty. For a letter printed therein laments that "a little over twelve months, after being in full operation under excellent teachers, first the boys School was closed ! And in June last year the girls' School shut up also !"

In this 'altered state of Church matters', an appeal is made to former subscribers to remedy 'such a deplorable state of things.' However in the issue of March 4th, 1856, a Deed (deposited in the Church Chest) is detailed, being one designed to correct what the previous writer describes 'as the gross mis-application of the Feoffee Charities' with special reference to 'the deplorable closing of Deddington Schools.'

If lawyers loomed largest, hard on them in importance followed the physicians and barber-surgeons, some of whom were of high repute. The first mention of a Deddington surgeon is found in the Oxford Marriage Bonds :—

'William Griffin, surgeon, 27 March 1677.'

Samuel Belchier, whose rather florid memorial in the Lady Chapel of the parish church records his death on December 9th, 1688, issued a trading token. It is described by Mr. W. Boyne (Marshall's Notes) as being one of four tradesmen's tokens circulating in Deddington, patents for them being authorized owing to the great scarcity of copper money.   Those issuing them may safely be reckoned as notable business people. They were as follows :—

(1) Obverse : Samuel Belchier. 1688 ; centre : The Apothe-

caries' Arms.

Reverse : In.Dedington ; centre : His half peny. S.B.B.

(2) Obv. : John Elkington ; centre : A flying horse. Rev. : In Dedington.1667 ; centre : His half peny.

(3) Obv. : Ann. Makepace. In ; centre : An eagle and child. Rev : Dadington. Mercer ; centre : A.M. (farthing).

(4) Obv. : Thomas.Nutt.of ; centre : T.N.

Rev. : Dadington.Mercer ; centre : 1553. (farthing).

All except Ann Makepace, Mercer, state the date, but the period of Nutt's coin is earlier than Belchier's and Elkington's, being that of Queen Mary's Accession. The Nutt family vault is also in the Lady Chapel.

Another Belchier commemorated near by Samuel is the wife of Thomas Belchier, who died in 1718. John Appletree of Deddington, Apothecary, belonged to a notable family here. And a medical member of the Lane family, whose coat of arms and crest are sculptured on the outer south wall of the church has, inscribed on the flat stone of his grave immediately beneath, this tribute to one who was doubtless a noble follower of a noble profession :—

"Sacred To the Memory of John Lane Who was both a Skilful Surgeon and a benevolent man who died 1736 Aged 68.

Our Saviour Jesus Christ both abolished death and brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel."

The John and Francis Lane of Clifton mentioned in a Deed of Sale (1635) of land in Southampton, were this good doctor's ancestors.

Barbers remain—there are two barber's poles in Deddington, but the significance of their twisted pattern, meaning blood and bandages, has passed. One of the last of that old school of apothecaries, who combined a certain exercise of surgery with dispensing, was Mr. J. H. Smith who 80 years ago advertised himself by a neat professional card with ornamented edge. It runs :—

'J. H. Smith, (Son of the late George Smith, Surgeon) Chemist and Druggist, Deddington. Physicians' prescriptions carefully dispensed. Bleeding, Teeth extracted, and Cupping.'

Cupping was the application of glass cups from which the air had been exhausted to a scarified part of the skin, thus drawing blood. Some people submitted themselves to this operation periodically. Mr. J. H. Smith was a great-uncle of Miss Smith, Hon. Sec. to the Deddington Women's Institute.

The decline in church-going is too marked today for the shrinkage in congregations to be ascribed to a change from compulsion to convention. Yet that description would have been a fairly accurate one for half a century previous to the Great War. In pre-reformation days laymen had to produce proofs of observance of religious duties or go before the Bishop's Bench. And later attendance at divine worship was expected of everyone, and good behaviour too of juveniles or a rap from the beadle's staff. Conviction alone now is our compelling power.

But every now and then in every age, preachers of eloquence and magnetism fill big buildings. Such attractions caused a gallery to be added to Deddington parish church. Wing's Supplement to Marshall's Deddington tells us all about it.

'It was in 1822......Vicar Faulkner died and was succeeded

by the Rev. Richard Greaves ; the present writer (born in 1810) well recollects the Rev. John Faulkner in the reading desk facing north with a clerk's seat below and a pulpit above, the whole forming a regular three-decker.'

'Mr. Greaves soon made a great name by preaching the opinions called Evangelical, so that Deddington church was filled Sunday after Sunday with people who admired Calvinistic doctrine, from all the surrounding villages, but the celebrity of Mr. Greaves was eclipsed by that of the curate he engaged, the Rev. John Hughes, who had previously been at Foleshill near Coventry. Though Deddington is 17 miles from Oxford, undergraduates would occasionally come on Sunday mornings to hear Greaves or Hughes.

The son and biographer of the latter states that the newly-made Cardinal, John Henry Newman, was among those excur-sionizing undergrads at least once. Mr. Hughes had the misfortune to be left a widower with six young children, the eldest under nine years, while he was curate of Deddington, where we believe he effected many useful reforms. Shortly after his crushing bereavement he became Incumbent of Aberystwyth and Vicar of Llanbadarn Fawr, and eventually Archdeacon of Cardigan, and he died in 1860, to the last an attached member and servant of the National Church. Not so his superior, the Rev. Richard Greaves, who soon after he resigned Deddington forsook the Church wherein he had been baptized and ordained, and joined those who are said to hold Unitarian doctrine.'

In was during his vicariate that William Hudson's clock was added to the church.

Horse-box pews were provocative of naps, and the three-decker combined pulpit, reading desk and clerk's stall had on one occasion that has been handed down, somewhat the same influence —intensified by a too prolonged visit between services to the Red Lion. A certain vicar whose failings were those of an age, happily past, slept so soundly in his desk that the congregation departed.

"They're all gone," said the clerk, finally rousing him.

"All gone ?" said the sleepy parson, "well, fill 'em up again I"

*

PART II.

What's in a name ? Often a great deal of history, a clue to the occupation or residence of the first head of a family to be known by it. But the nearer to this source of information, that is the longer ago, the more indifferent were people as to the spelling of it. After the Norman names of those barons, on whom or their descendants kings bestowed territorial possessions, the earliest our history records are quite humble-sounding trade names, though fantastically abbreviated. We were under the jurisdiction of the Prior of Burcestre (Bicester), a gift of one-third of Deddington Manor made by Gilbert Bassett in 1272, giving the right to try felons, and the assize of bread and beer.

The following note from the Latin Rolls (kept at the Record Office, Chancery Lane, London) dated Michaelmas, A.D. 1424, in the reign of Henry VI, begins thus :—

The jury say that Thomas Skynne (Skinner) holds ten acres of land in Dadyngton which formerly belonged to Thomas Drap (Draper)......'

The names of the jury are Thomas Yereman, Will Wyghthull, Will Hokard (Awkward), John Somerton.

Mr. H. E. Stilgoe, who supplied the extracts from the Latin Rolls where quoted, remarks on the prevalence of the names Thomas, William and John in those times. One can match this with almost as great a popularity for the name Samuel in the beginning of the 19th and latter end of the 18th centuries. Some names in the early records are illegible, others have to be elucidated. Such are 'Herreyes' for 'Harris' and 'Yremonghere' for 'Ironmonger.'

John Billing, Gent., December 1st, 1547, is another early entry under heading 'Dadington Manor and Rectory, Oxfordshire.' To him was granted 'the scite of the Castle, Dadington, for 21 years at 50s.' A near relative, perhaps son of the wool merchant William Byllyng who died in 1533. Copied from the Visitation of Oxford A.D,1574 is the description of an 'Askochen' (escutcheon) in Mr. Byllyng's house. The spelling of the surname is a blend of both, but the date puts it at considerable distance from the first Byllyng's death. He was probably content with the emblem of a bill through the body of a ling which the Red Lion Inn once bore upon its door.

The first of the Harris family spelt 'Herreyes' had plenty of his name to follow, and later members were distinguished. Mr. H. E. Stilgoe remarks :—

The names of William Bindon Blood and John Hyde Harris in the 1846 Directory call for particular notice. The former reminds one of the distinguished General of that name, and of the Liverpool family of Blood.

'John Hyde Harris lived in the Market Square, Deddington. Carved upon the stone mantel-piece in a room of his house will be found the Harris family coat of arms, three hedgehogs, as on the monument upon the south wall of the church. He was the grandson of John Harris and Mary his wife, daughter of Nathaniel Stilgoe of Deddington. John Hyde Harris died 24th July, 1886, at Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand, aged 60 years. He was a bar-rister-at-law and held an official position there.' His house now belongs to Mr. H. Wells.   It used to be called the Grange.

In the Roll of Quit Rents for June 1710 is a Thomas Makepeace (surely a descendant of Ann Makepeace, Mercer, who issued a money token) living in 'a house called the Bell.' There are no Billings or Makepeaces now, and a name much more recently important, long associated with the place has also disappeared from the neighbourhood.

This is 'Appultree,' 'Appletree', later 'Apletree'. A lease from the Dean and Canons of the free royal chapel of St. George, Windsor, brings in the famous name of Pope together with that of 'Appultree,' so spelt when first we meet it. It reads—'to Thomas Pope of Dadyngton in the county of Oxon., gentleman, and Thomas Appultree of Dadyngton of the Rectory of Dadyngton, presentation excepted, for 20 years, rent thirty-two pounds and a pension to the Vicar of 25 marks. To have the usual livery of 6/8. Signed by Thomas Pope and mark of Thomas Appultree. 20 June 1528. Seal.'

'Livery' here would mean 'delivered' in a legal sense. The Vicar's 'marks' were coins worth 13/4 each, but possessing far greater spending power then than a present-day equivalent would.

The connection of both Pope and Appultree families with the Rectory is interesting, for the great Sir Thomas Pope is reputed to have been born at the 'Rectorial Farmhouse', which of course could well have been occupied by his father, William Pope, irrespective of the rectorial rights. Apletree's too, were evidently associated with that house, though their home for generations was 'the Green' (Poplars).

A lease in the Court Rolls immediately after that to which Thomas Appultree set his mark, is one from an Adderbury man (John Bustard) 'of lands in Dadyngton recently purchased by him of Thomas Pope, and also his moiety of the Parsonage, tythe and demesne lands of the Parsonage and also of the domination or lordship of the Dean and Chapter of Windsor, and a tenement of the Dean and Chapter's called Leaden Porch, for 21 years, rent £11 and to pay the usual pension to the Vicar. Signed by John Edmunds, 20 December, 1534.'

The same Court Rolls record in 1615 '24 papers in the suit between the Dean and Canons of Windsor v. Thomas Appletree and others concerning the rectory, castle and Park of Dadington. They are 'Appletrees' too, in 1661, when Thomas Appletree, father and son, lease Leaden Porch from the Windsor Manor. But the family name is 'Apletree' when Nathaniel Apletree as steward to the Dean and Chapter, puts his signature on June 14th 1710, as having examined particulars and accounts in the Survey of Windsor Manor in 'Dadington'.

William Wing in his 'Supplement' writes 'at this period (beginning of 19th century) the Apletree family continued to reside in Deddington as they had done for many generations—we find one of them alluded to in a sneering entry in the North Aston Register of Marriages "as a very great man in Deddington." At the same time one Richard Apletree created a rent charge of 6s. & 8d. yearly on two acres of meadowland towards the maintenance of the north aisle of the Church.' In 1618 William Apletree formed a body of trustees for the public charities, one result of which was the erection and endowment of Almshouses.

The last representative of the family here was the Miss Apletree who married Simpson, the last farmer of the Castle House. She was humorously called 'the last of the appletrees.'

THE STILGOE FAMILY.

The opportunity of studying a family that in one branch has been 'under observation', so to say, in our parish as landowners and cultivators of the land for just over four hundred years is most interestingly afforded by the Stilgoes. Mr. Henry Edward Stilgoe, C.B.E., F.S.A., besides drawing information from the many documents in his possession has delved deep into historical records, and the result is a close acquaintance with a yeoman stock, which reaching out in divers directions touches national life at various points.

For the purpose of this narrative Mr. Stilgoe has very kindly allowed access to his notes from which the following brief account is summarised.

The surname is an early one of origin unknown, but names ending in 'oe' are said to be of Danish origin. Tracing back to the first mentions of it found obtainable, a John Stillego in the County of Worcester was one of the inquisitors at a post mortem on 11th April 1280. In Patent Roll 4 Edw.III (1330-1) Johanne Stilligo is termed Chamberlain to Queen Isabella (Queen of Edw. II.) and granted the custody of the Castle and gaol of Eye in Suffolk, and in the 6th year of Edward Ill's reign he receives a pardon for the escape of a prisoner, signed by the king at York.

In 1332-6 there is an agreement concerning land in the neighbourhood of Brentford, Ealing and Isleworth in names of John Stillego and Agatha his wife. And six years later in the Patent Rolls, 12 Edw.III, Agatha Stilligo is granted '4 1/2d per day during the time the King is in foreign parts, she being too infirm to accompany him.'

There is documentary evidence that the family—or a branch of it—has been resident at Deddington since the year 1531, and its members have been copyholders under the Deddington Manors, also freeholders there since the 16th century and probably earlier.

In the report of the Oxfordshire Archaeological Society for 1930, the Rev. H. Salter contributes an article on a Visitation recorded in a volume at Lincoln Cathedral dated 1540, two years before Deddington was removed from that diocese by Henry VIII's foundation of the bishopric of Oxford. He quotes various interesting extracts and the following headed 'Deddington deanery ; in the church there,' is translated from the Latin.

'James Brooke has frequented and still frequents the company of the wife of Richard Perkins, in spite of many monitions from his neighbours. He denied the charge and on 11 October (1540) at Chippingnorton produced Thomas Brown and Richard Stilgoo, with whom he took oath and purged himself. The judge warned him,' etc.

Thus bringing from yet another source a Stilgoe into our history.

Documentary evidence again proves that there were Stilgoes in London and in Shropshire in the 16th century. But the London Stilgoes were those linked with Deddington—unexpectedly, for their interests were those of the sea and ships. Humphrey Stilgo, (son of the Humphrey who took up his freedom as a Cloth-worker in 1567), was a shipbuilder of New Gravel Lane, Stepney, and his son, Jeremy, was captain of "the good ship Rebecca." Jeremy Stilgoe had a son Zachary, who was captain of the "Ruby" (in the East India Company's service), and the name of Zachary, or Zachariah, in conjunction with Stilgoe, rings familiarly in Deddington ears, for it is deeply associated, through several bearers of it, with local history.

Mr. H. E. Stilgoe remarks that the troublous times of the 16th and 17th centuries, what with Civil War and Plague, wrought havoc in the lives of people. Many emigrated and records are difficult to trace. However in 1635 two Deddington names occur. One Ann Waterman, connected with this place, is in a list of emigrants to Virginia by the ship "Safety," August 1635. And Anthony Stilgoe also sails from the Port of London to Virginia, (July 24th, 1635) on the "Assurance." Richard the brother of this Anthony Stilgoe it is who is the connecting link between those Londoners, seafarers and shipbuilders, and the Deddington family whose interests were so essentially of the land, for in the year 1616 he was apprenticed to Humphrey Stilgoe, citizen and clothworker of London. He was a son of Thomas Stilgoe of "Dadington" who died in 1615, and Thomas's father was Anthony Stilgoe, described as a 'husbandman,' whose Will, made in 1606, is so characteristic of the yeoman of his day that the copy of it in the appendix will be found interesting reading.

The Deddington Parish Registers not commencing until the year 1631, earlier information from that source is unobtainable. The burial of a Zachary Stilgoe is recorded there in 1669, and that of his wife Mary in 1651. He left property here to his son Hugh, and directly from that line the present family of Stilgoes are descended. From the list of Quit Rents given at a Presentment of the Court Baron held on June 14th, 1710, the Zachary Stilgoe of that day appears to have been the principal leaseholder, having the

Parsonage House and Garden and

The Vicarage Garden £10.

The Great Fishurie £24.

(held jointly with Nathaniel Parsons).

The Castle £10.

And 'Zackariah Stilgoe' is quoted in the same as paying the nominal sum of 6d. 'for a Freehold house called Stony House'.

He was a Malster.

Another Zachariah farmed at Blakesley, and subsequently at Maidford, building Maidford Grange. He died in 1831 and is buried with his wife in Deddington Church. Their son—the first to be christened 'Zachariah Walden'—died in 1823, aged only 25 ; he is also with the Zachariah Walden Stilgoe (1829-1878) of the Grounds, Adderbury, commemorated near by in the Parish Church.

Apropos of these Zachariahs there is an interesting relic in the possession of the family, which shows the name was prized. It is a brass tobacco box, engraved on one side with the Stilgoe family Coat of Arms, the initials 'Z.S.' one letter on either side of the Crest, and the date 1668. On the other side of the box is engraved the legend, This box is bequeathed to him whose name is Zach : Stilgoe for ever.'

The Coat of Arms (Fox Davies' "Armorial Families") is— Argent, a chevron gules, cottised gules, between three falchions (or cutlasses), proper.

Crest—a dexter arm bare, tied with a ribbon gules, holding a falchion, proper. Motto, Male mori quam foedari."

The Zakariah who died in 1831 had a son, Nathaniel Stilgoe. Nathaniel lived in Deddington, during the latter part of his life in the house in Council Street now owned by Mr. W. J. French. He died there in 1867. A picture of him with his servant Thomas Hayward, photographed from a sepia drawing by Joseph Wilkins of Deddington, shows him on horseback, with Deddington Church tower in the distance. Nathaniel Stilgoe is depicted in the typical dress of the period, which would be blue coat with gilt buttons, chamois leather colour waistcoat, silk hat, etc.

Henry, brother of this Nathaniel, had Plummer's Furse, Evenley, a farm of 499 acres, but left there in 1830, and went to Adderbury Grounds where he died. This farm is now occupied by Mr. Hugh William Stilgoe, J.P., brother to Mr. Henry Edward Stilgoe. It has been continuously in the occupation of the family since 1830.