drawing of this coat is so minute that some of the quarterings cannot be distinguished, and the painting itself is now destroyed. Besides those which are represented in the woodcut above, it included Tropnell, Bower, (a cross pattée), and Seymour, (a pair of wings conjoined), and other intermediate quarterings brought in by heiresses, probably Besill and Rogers. At the corners were the crests of Hall, Seymour, (a phoenix), and another, a lion rampant. Over the larger shield upon the edge of the frame, was a smaller one of THYNNE: viz, Quarterly, 1 and 4, barry of ten or and sable (Boteville); 2 and 3, argent a lion rampant. There can be no doubt that this painted shield referred to the last owner John Hall, who died 1711: whose mother was a Seymour and whose wife was a Thynne, as will be seen in the pedigree below. He probably embellished or finished the house, which we are inclined to consider must have been built by his grandfather, of the same name.

FAMILY OF HALL OF BRADFORD.

It is not likely that there was any connection between the two families of this name at Salisbury and Bradford. The arms used by the former, "Argent, on a chevron between three columbines azure, a mullet of six points," being wholly different from those of Hall of Bradford, "Sable, 3 poleaxes argent." Hall of Bradford was of considerable antiquity. The name is often met with in very early deeds, as "De Aulâ" or "De la Sale" (salle being French for hall). William de Aulâ de Bradford is often mentioned amongst other Wiltshire gentlemen, as a witness to documents of the reign of Edward I. (1273-1307). The family certainly belonged to the class of wealthy gentry, though the name does not occur in the list of Sheriffs of the county, until in the person of the last of the race, in 1670. They married into families of wealth and quality, as will be seen by the following extract from their pedigree, which

only refers to the elder branch, successively owners of the Bradford house, and is taken principally from the Visitation Book of 1565.

NICHOLAS HALL, living 39 H. VI. = MARGARET, d. and coh. of William

Besyll, of Bradford.

ALICE, d. of William Bower, of Wilton.

ELIZABETH, d. of Christopher Tropnell,
of Chalfield.

1 The late Mr. Beckford in his gorgeous, and rather ostentatious, display of heraldry upon the frieze of St. Michael's gallery at Fonthill, in illustration of his own descent from Mervyn and Seymour, introduced several of the alliances made by Hall of Bradford. See Gent. Mag., 1822, part 2, p. 203-318. That of Thomas Hall and Elizabeth Mervyn his wife was, Hall: impaling 1 and 4. Mervyn. 2. Greene. 3. Latimer. See Nichols's Fonthill, p. 35.

2 His shield was also at Fonthill. Hall: and, on an escocheon of pretence Rogers, argent, a chevron between 3 bucks trippant sable, attired or, quartering Besill. (See woodcut page 268).

3 Also at Fonthill. Hall, impaling Brune, Azure, a cross cercelee or, quartering Rokele, lozengy ermine and gules.

4 Also at Fonthill, Hall impaling Seymour; viz., 1. The Royal Augmentation, or, semee of fleursde-lis azure, on a pile gules the 3 lions of England. 2. Gules two wings conjoined in lure or.

This pedigree includes, it will be observed, two or three heiresses by whom accessions of property were made. The first, Alice Atford, brought in the lands of two families, Atford and Langridge. Margaret Besill (a coheiress) contributed a moiety of lands, temp. Henry VI. The next heiress was that of the ancient family of Rogers of Bradford, the founder of which, Anthony Rogers, serjeant at law in 1478, had married the other coheiress of Besill. The Rogers family lived in the house called in later times Methuen House, at the top of Peput Street; in which Aubrey saw "many old escutcheons."1 Dorothy the heiress of Rogers accordingly brought to the Halls not only her own patrimony, (part of which lay at Holt), but the other moiety also of the Besill estate. Rogers of Cannington was a junior branch of this family.

There is a fine old barn still standing at the west side of Bradford, well known for its Early English roof, framed from the ground so as to be independent of the walls. Aubrey's passing observation, that in 1670 it had upon the point of one of the gables a hand holding a battleaxe, (the crest of Hall), warrants the supposition that it was built by one of this family.

Sir Thomas Hall, last but one in the pedigree given above, married Katharine2 daughter of Sir Edward Seymour, (of the elder house), who died 1659, by Dorothy Killigrew. Sir Thomas was a royalist, temp. Charles I.: one of the Wiltshire gentlemen who were obliged to compound for their estates. He was fined £660.

John Hall of Bradford (the last male of the family) added to his father's large estates, the Storridge Pastures, part of the Brooke House estate near Westbury, which he purchased in 1665 of Sir Edward Hungerford of Farley Castle. He was also probably the purchaser of Great Chalfield manor, as he presented to the rectory in 1678. His wife was Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Thomas Thynne, (who

1 The arms of Rogers (argent, a chevron between 3 bucks sable) are still to be seen in the top of the east window of Bradford church. The piece of glass is very small and has been turned upside down by the glazier.

2 In the History of Mere (p. 134) Lady Hall is called Anne Seymour, widow of Dr. Stourton. Edmondson and others contradict this.

died 1670), and sister of Thomas Thynne, Esq., (Tom of Ten Thousand) who was murdered by Count Koningsmark in the streets of London, in February 1682. The monument to Mr. Thynne in Westminster Abbey was erected by Mr. John Hall his brother-inlaw and executor.

John Hall at his death in 1711 left one daughter Elizabeth,1 who became the wife of Thomas Baynton Esq. of Chalfield, second son of Sir Edward Baynton of Bromham. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Baynton was Rachel Baynton, who appears to have been unmarried at the time of her grandfather John Hall's death. By his will dated 10th September, 1708, he devised all his lands in Wilts, Somerset, and elsewhere, to Denzill Qnslow, Esq., Edward Lisle, Esq., Francis Goddard, Esq., and Robert Eyre, Esq., trustees; upon trust after the marriage of Rachel daughter of Thomas Baynton, then of Bradford, Wilts, (the testator's granddaughter), for the said Rachel Baynton during her life: after her death to her heirs male successively: remainder to Edward Seymour, son of Sir Edward Seymour, Bart., for his life: remainder to his heirs male: remainder to William Pearce grandson of the testator's sister, Mrs. Coward. By a codicil dated February 1710, he preferred the said William Pearce and his heirs male, before Edward Seymour and his heirs male.

Mr. Hall also by his will charged his farm called Paxcroft farm in Steeple Ashton, lately purchased from Matthew Burges, (now the property of Walter Long, Esq.), with a clear sum of £40 per annum, for the maintenance of four poor men in the almshouse he had lately erected in Bradford.

Attached to the south side of the nave of Bradford church is a small chapel known by the name of "The Kingston Aisle," which is kept in repair by the owner of Kingston House. What may be concealed under the seats or boarded floor of this chapel the writer cannot say, but he has not been able to discover in any visible part of Bradford church the slightest trace of monument, device, inscription, or other memorial whatsoever to the Hall family. On a wooden screen which parted this chapel from the South Aisle there was a few years ago, the Coat of Hall.

1 See the following Pedigree, page 275.

THE DUKES OF KINGSTON.

Rachel Baynton, granddaughter and by the death of her only brother Henry Baynton, sole heiress, of John Hall, married the Hon. Wm. Pierrepoint, only son and heir of Evelyn Pierrepoint then Marquis of Dorchester, afterwards first Duke of Kingston. Mr. Wm. Pierrepoint died in 1713 at the age of 21, during his father's lifetime. Rachel his wife died in 1722. The first Duke of Kingston (her father-in-law) died in 1726, and was succeeded by his grandson Evelyn, (only son of Wm. Pierrepoint and Rachel Baynton,) the second and last Duke of Kingston, who died 1773. This nobleman, as representative of the Halls, had large estates in Bradford and the neighbouring parishes: viz., Great Chalfield manor and advowson, the constableship of Trowbridge, the manor of Trowbridge, Monkton near Broughton Giffard, Storridge Pastures in Brooke, the manors and lordships of Bradford, Great Trowle, Little Trowle, Leigh and Woolley, Paxcroft farm in the parish of Steeple Ashton; with lands, &c., in Atford, Hilperton, Trowbridge, Studley, Staverton, Westbury, Melksham, Holt, Steeple Ashton, North Bradley, and Winkfield.

The name of Evelyn was adopted as a christian name in the Duke of Kingston's family from the Evelyns of West Deane, in the Hundred of Alderbury in South Wilts. Robert Pierrepoint (who died about 1670), Father of the second Earl of Kingston, had married Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Sir John Evelyn of that place, and obtained the estate.

The second and last Duke of Kingston, in making his selection of a partner for life, either had never read or had forgotten, or at all events took no manner of heed to, that celebrated sentence on female character, which the great historian of Greece enunciates by the mouth of Pericles: viz., that her reputation is the best, with which fewest tongues are busy amongst the other sex, either for praise or blame. For he fixed his choice on one with whom during a great part of the last century all tongues were busy; not all indeed for blame, but certainly not all for praise. The lady rejoiced in a plurality of names, being known first as Elizabeth Chudleigh,