BEDWIN (GREAT), a borough and parish and market-town,
in the hundred
of KINWARDSTONE, county
of WILTS, 5 miles (S.W.
by "W.) from Hunger ford,
23 (N.) from Salisbury,
and 70§ (W. by S.) from
London, containing, with
the tythings of Crofton,
East and West Grafton,
Martin, Stock with Ford,
Wixcombe, Wilton, and
Wolfhall, 1928 inhabitants. This place, supposed by
Dr. Stukeley to be the Leucomagus of Ravennas, derives
its name from the Saxon Beegmjn, or Bedgwyn, expressive
of its situation on an eminence, in a chalky soil-
It was anciently a city of great extent, and the metropolis
of Cissa, one of the three sons of JElla, the Saxon
chieftain, who invaded Britain in 477. Cissa, when
viceroy of Wiltshire and part of Berkshire, is said to
have enlarged and strengthened Chisbury Castle, now
a noble relic of Saxon earthwork, about a mile to the
north-east of the town, in the parish of Little Bedwin.
In 674, a battle was fought here between Wulfhere,
King of Mercia, and ^Escuin, a nobleman in the service
of Saxburga, Queen of Wessex, in which, after a desperate
struggle, the latter was victorious. The soil of
Great Bedwin is good, and the general aspect of the
country luxuriant. The Kennet and Avon canal passes
through the parish, and affords a medium for the conveyance
of excellent coal. The market is on Tuesday;
and fairs are held on April 23rd and July 26th: the
market-house is an ancient building, situated in the
principal street. A portreeve, who is customarily called
mayor, a bailiff, and other officers,'are annually chosen
at the court leet of the lord of the manor. This
borough sent representatives
to all the parliaments
of Edward I., from the
close of whose reign to the
Qth of Henry V. there were
frequent intermissions; but
since then it has constantly
returned two members. The
right of election is vested
in the freeholders and inhabitants
of the ancient
burgage messuages, in number
about ninety-five: the
portreeve is the returning officer, and the influence
of the Marquis of Ailesbury predominates. The living
is a vicarage, within the jurisdiction of the peculiar
court of the Lord Warden of Savernake Forest, rated
in the king's books at £8. 10. 10., endowed with £400
private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £.600 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of the Marquis
of Ailesbury. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, and
the only remaining one of seven which are said to have
anciently existed here, appears to have been erected
at various times, and exhibits good specimens of all
the styles of architecture, from the Norman to the
later English; it is a cruciform structure, with a
lofty embattled tower rising from the intersection, and
contains several ancient memorials, among which is the
figure of a Knight Templar, and the monument of -Sir
John Seymour, father of the Protector Somerset, and of
Lady Jane Seymour, consort of Henry VIII,, who were
born at Wolf Hall, now a farm-house, in this parish.
There is a place of worship for Wesleyan Methodists.
A school is endowed for the instruction of ten boys;
and Sir Andrew Hungerford, in 1694, left an annuity
of £10 for apprenticing poor boys of the borough.
Within the mounds of Chisbury Castle, comprising an
area of fifteen acres, are the remains of an ancient chapel,
now used as a barn. Half a mile to the southwest
are some vestiges of a Roman building, but they
are now scarcely discoverable. A fine tesselated pavement
was preserved here till within the last few years.
Dr. Thomas Willis, a celebrated physician, was born
here in 1621, and died in London, in 1675.