WHADDON
The ancient parish of Whaddon forms the north-west corner of the modern parish of Semington into
which it was merged in 1894. (fn. 1) The northern boundary
of both the ancient parish and the modern one is
formed by the River Avon and a tributary stream,
Semington Brook. The Kennet and Avon Canal
formed most of the southern boundary of Whaddon
parish. A minor road links the parish with the neighbouring village of Hilperton and with the main road
from Devizes to Trowbridge (A 361). This minor
road crosses the canal by a brick-built bridge and runs
north through the parish for ¼ mile until it reaches
the hamlet of Whaddon. The road is continued in
an easterly direction by a bridle-path which leads to
Whaddon Grove Farm and then passes out of the parish.
The land in the parish is almost uniformly level with
an average height of about 150 ft. (fn. 2) In 1886 there was
said to be a well in a field opposite the church and
another at Whaddon Grove Farm. (fn. 3) The parish lies
entirely on clay and the land is under grass for pasture.
It seems to have been recognized at least as early as the
17 th century that the land was suitable for cattlefarming. In a Star Chamber action brought in 1622
by William Brouncker, a tenant of Walter Long (see
below—Manor), against Sir Henry Vyner, J.P.,
Brouncker is said to have exercised the trade of
husbandry and 'grasing fat cattle on his own and others
grounds' in Whaddon for 'thirty years past'. The suit
concerned 50 rother-beasts that Brouncker had bought
at Knighton (Rad.). (fn. 4)
A branch line of British Railways (Western Region)
passes north of the River Avon; the nearest station is
Holt Junction, but this may be reached only by crossing the railway line and seeking the foot-bridge over the
river ½ mile north of the hamlet. The ancient parish is
thus very isolated and for most purposes the only approach is by the minor road mentioned above. (fn. 5) A
mill at Whaddon rendered 5s. in 1086: (fn. 6) it descended
with the manor (see below) and was called a watermill in the I 3th century and a fulling-mill in the 16th
and 17th centuries. (fn. 7) The site of the mill was very
probably that now marked on the Ordnance Survey
map at Whaddon Grove Farm. (fn. 8)
Manor
The manor of WHADDON was held in
1086 by Alvric of Melksham and was
assessed as 3 hides. (fn. 9) No record of the
manor has been found between this date and 1242
when Henry of Whaddon was said to hold ½ knight's
fee there. At this time the overlord was the Earl of
Salisbury who held the manor as part of the honour of
Trowbridge. (fn. 10) The overlordship descended with the
honour and merged into the Duchy of Lancaster in
1399. (fn. 11) Henry de Whaddon died in 1254 and was
then said to be holding ½ knight's fee from the Earl of
Salisbury and ½ fee less 1/5 from Humphrey de Scoville. (fn. 12)
The ½ fee retained by de Scoville was no doubt that
which in 1242 he was said to hold in Hilperton, (fn. 13) and
it is possible that the remaining 4/5 fee that Henry de
Whaddon held at his death lay amongst the de Scoville
property in Hilperton. Henry was succeeded by his
son Humphrey (fn. 14) who is almost certainly the person
named in 1267 as holding a whole fee and being of full
age and 'not yet a knight'. (fn. 15) Humphrey died in or
before 1281 (fn. 16) holding ½ knight's fee in Whaddon of
the Earl of Lincoln as of the honour of Trowbridge
and ½ fee from de Scoville which on this occasion is
specifically said to lie in Hilperton. (fn. 17) It is not clear
whether this property remained annexed to Whaddon
since no further mention of it occurs until the 16th
century (see below): nor is it certain how the ultimate
overlordship descended since the de Scoville property
in Hilperton (q.v.) was held both of the honour of
Trowbridge and of the Mortimer family. Humphrey
de Whaddon's son and heir was Michael who came of
age in 1285. (fn. 18) In 1320 Michael was acknowledging a
debt of £200 owed to Alice the relict of John of Holt.
At this time he was still entitled 'lord of Whaddon' (fn. 19)
but by 1342 a descendant of John of Holt, another
John, was lord of the manor, (fn. 20) and it seems likely that
Michael had sold the manor to the Holts in or about
1320. Whaddon remained the property of the Holt
family at least until 1351. (fn. 21) No connexion has been
found between the Holts and the next lord of the
manor, Thomas Gore, who was in possession at least
as early as 1382. (fn. 22) In 1388 Gore conveyed the manor
into the hands of trustees: (fn. 23) ten years later Whaddon
was in the hands of Sir John Roches, who settled the
manor in a marriage trust upon his wife and son. (fn. 24)
Roches died in 1401 but his son Richard, then aged 11,
did not apparently live to receive his inheritance. (fn. 25)
Two daughters of Roches, Joan and Elizabeth, were
coheiresses to the property but Whaddon seems to
have fallen entirely to Elizabeth who married Walter
Beauchamp. (fn. 26) In 1428 Sir Walter Beauchamp, kt.,
was holding in Whaddon lands and tenements, 'lately
of John Holt', for ½ knight's fee. (fn. 27) Walter Beauchamp
died in 1430 and was succeeded by his son and heir
William, then aged 22. (fn. 28) Sir William had married, in
or before 1426, Elizabeth Braybrooke, heiress to the
St. Amand barony, so that William later became Lord
St. Amand jure uxoris. (fn. 29) William died in 1457 holding Whaddon at the reduced assessment of 1/20 knight's
fee; Richard, his son and heir, was aged 4. (fn. 30) Elizabeth
married again before her son came of age and died in
1491 seised, inter alia, of the manor of Whaddon by
service of a whole knight's fee. (fn. 31) Richard Beauchamp,
now Lord St. Amand, succeeded to the estate and died
in 1508 without legitimate issue. The estate then
passed to John Baynton, Richard's cousin and a descendant of Joan, the daughter and coheiress of John
Roches. (fn. 32) It was through this John Baynton that the
Roches estate in Bromham (q.v.) was added to the
Baynton estates there since Elizabeth de St. Amand
and her second husband, Sir Roger Tocotes, kt., had
granted it to Sir Richard Beauchamp in 1476. (fn. 33) John
Baynton died in 1516 and was succeeded by his son
Sir Edward Baynton, kt., (fn. 34) who died in 1544. (fn. 35) The
Whaddon estate passed to his son Andrew who in 1545
entered into a trust agreement with Thomas, Lord
Seymour of Sudeley. (fn. 36) The purpose of this trust is not
clear but its effect was to put Baynton's estates into the
escheator's hands on Seymour's attainder and execution
in 1549. The lands were only returned to Baynton,
on his petition, in 1554. (fn. 37)
In 1555 Whaddon passed to the family of Long
who have retained an interest in the estate from that
time until the present century. Ten years before this
some land in Whaddon had passed to the Long family:
in 1544 William, Lord Stourton, to whom the de
Scoville property in Hilperton (q.v.) had passed, sold
some lands and tenements in Whaddon to Thomas
Long of Trowbridge, 'clothman'. (fn. 38) It seems probable
that these lands were those in the hands of Humphrey
of Whaddon at the end of the 13th century (see above)
and that their connexion with the manor of Whaddon
was thus only temporary. In 1555 Henry Long,
almost certainly a brother of Thomas, (fn. 39) bought the
main part of the manor, including a fulling-mill, from
Andrew Baynton. (fn. 40) Thomas died about 1562 without
heirs and his property passed to his nephew Edward,
third son of his brother Henry; (fn. 41) Edward founded the
line of the family later known as of Rood Ashton. (fn. 42)
Henry Long died in 1558 and bequeathed the manor
to his second son, another Henry. (fn. 43) This Henry died
in 1608 seised of the manor, 4 messuages, a fullingmill, and 500 acres of land in Whaddon, Hilperton,
and other places. (fn. 44) It seems probable that some of
the land in Hilperton had formerly been in Thomas
Long's 'manor' of Whaddon but no record has been
found of any exchange. Henry Long was succeeded
by his first son, a third Henry, who was 47 years old
at his father's death (fn. 45) and died only four years later in
1612. (fn. 46) He was succeeded by his son, a fourth Henry,
who received livery of the property in 1613. (fn. 47) Henry
died in or before 1621 when his brother Walter
suffered a recovery to break the entail on the property; (fn. 48)
in the same year Walter with his mother and stepfather
made a settlement of the manor, possibly to provide for
his mother. (fn. 49) In 1627 Whaddon was conveyed by a
Thomas Long to Walter but the purpose of this
transaction is not clear. (fn. 50) Walter was created a baronet
of Whaddon in 1661 and died in 1672: he was
succeeded by his son and heir, Walter, who died unmarried in 1710. (fn. 51) The second Walter was succeeded
at Whaddon by the second son of his sister Rebecca
who had married Sir Philip Parker of Erwarton
(Suff.). This son, Calthorpe Parker, assumed the name
of Long on succeeding Sir Walter and died in 1729
leaving no male issue. He was succeeded by his
nephew Sir Philip Parker a Morley, bt., who, like
his uncle, assumed the name of Long: he died in 1741
having no male issue. (fn. 52) The estates next passed to
a distant cousin, the Revd. John Long, son of John
Long of Bath. (fn. 53) He died in 1748 without issue and the
estates apparently passed to his nephew, Walter, son of
his brother Thomas, of Melksham and Wraxall. (fn. 54) In
1749 Walter Long suffered a recovery, presumably to
break the entail on the estates which at that time consisted of the manors of Whaddon, 'Melksham', Steeple
Ashton, Poulshot, South Wraxall, Sutton Magna, and
various appurtenances. (fn. 55) Walter Long died in 1807,
aged 95, and thereafter Whaddon followed the descent
of the manor of South Wraxall (q.v.). Between 1911
and 1919 the Whaddon estates were sold (fn. 56) and in 1939
the principal landowners were Messrs. S. D. Tucker &
Sons, farmers of Holt, and Mr. J. S. Rogers. (fn. 57) Court
rolls of the manor from 1545 to 1557 are in the Wiltshire County Record Office.
A manor house, reputed to have been built in the
16th century, once stood on the site of Whaddon Grove
Farm. The house was destroyed by fire in 1835; a
sketch of it may be seen in Dingley's History from
Marble (fn. 58) and there is a Buckler painting in the
library of the Wiltshire Archaeological Society at
Devizes.
Church
The church at Whaddon was never
appropriated. In 1535 the rectory was
valued at £8. 5s. 11d. (fn. 59) In 1704 the glebe
lands comprised 42 acres scattered about the parish.
Part of the tithe amounting to a total of £8. 17s. 8d.
was to be paid by composition by the lord of the manor.
The terrier specifies that the rector shall receive tithe
from lands lying within the parish of Hilperton: (fn. 60) this
no doubt refers to those portions of Whaddon manor
anciently within the bounds of Hilperton (see above—
Manor). A dispute of 1492 about these lands had been
decided by papal verdict for the Rector of Whaddon. (fn. 61)
In 1818 the glebe house was said to be too small for
the accommodation of a family. (fn. 62) In 1854 the living
was annexed to that of Hilperton (q.v.). (fn. 63)
The advowson has followed the descent of the manor
at least since the 14th century (see above—Manor).
The first known patron was John of Holt 'lord of
Whaddon' who presented to the living in 1342. (fn. 64) The
advowson passed with the manor to the Long family
in the 16th century: the 3rd Viscount Long is the
present patron (1950). (fn. 65)
The dedication of the church is not known: it is
referred to locally as ST. MARY THE VIRGIN
although in 1886 the Ordnance Survey gave the name
as St. Michael. (fn. 66) The church consists of a nave, 30 by
14 ft., and a small chancel which is only distinguished
from the nave by a step. Entrance is now by the south
porch: a north door of the 12th century has been
mutilated and blocked up.
The church was built at least as early as the 12th
century and altered in the 14th century. In 1879 the
present chancel was built, the porch reconstructed, and
a bell-cote for two bells rebuilt at the west end: the
whole church was reroofed at this time and covered
with stone slates. The work was carried out at the
instigation of W. P. Long. (fn. 67) On the north side of the
chancel and opening out of it with a wide arch is a
small chapel built in the 19th century as a mausoleum
for the Long family. Below the chapel is a vault
reached by a long flight of wide steps which begin outside the church at the north-west corner. At the east
end of the nave in the south wall there is a blocked
staircase in a projecting turret which presumably gave
access to a rood: it is late-14th-century work. The
exterior walls of the nave have been rendered with
cement and lined in imitation of ashlar; the porch and
the chancel are ashlar with the exception of the east
wall which is rubble. The south doorway is reconstructed 12th-century work and the door itself consists
of two 14th-century oak panels each 2 ft. wide and
held together by eight iron straps.
The mausoleum of the Long family contains an
elaborate white marble monument to Walter Long
(d. 1807) made by T. King of Bath. A marble mural
monument to Kathleen Long (d. 1814) is the work of
Westmacott. Gravestones set in the floor commemorate
Sir Walter Long (d. 1710), Calthorpe Long (d. 1729),
and Richard Long (d. 1825).
There is an inverted post-Reformation scratch dial
on the west side of the porch. (fn. 68) The bowl of a 12th-century font found'many years''before 1894 in Whaddon
churchyard was in that year set up in Hilperton church.
One side of the bowl shows signs of having been burnt. (fn. 69)
The registers begin in 1653 with baptisms and
burials: burials for 1705 (a part), 1706, 1709, 1714
(a part), and 1715 are missing; baptisms and burials
are missing for part of 1743 and all 1744. Marriages
begin in 1661 and part of 1743 is missing. There are
two bells: (i) S.W.L. and D.B.L., 1878; (ii) S.W.L. and
B.W.B.L., 1706. Both bells were re-cast in 1878 by
Llewellins & James when the church was restored. (fn. 70)
In 1553 there were two bells at Whaddon and the
church retained a chalice weighing n oz.; 1½ oz. was
taken for the king. There is now a large chalice 8½ in.
in height and retaining its paten cover of 6½ in.
diameter. The date of the vessel is apparently some
time in the 17th century. There is a tankard-shaped
flagon of plated metal. (fn. 71)
There has never been a Nonconformist place of
worship in Whaddon. There is no school in the
hamlet and no charities have been associated with the
parish.