Introduction

This is a document in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre (WSHC), reference: 970/2. Its title is 'Survey. Leaseholders and Copyholders at Sutton Benger and Draycot Cerne, Wilts', and the WSHC Catalogue refers to it as 'c. 1820'.

Rather than a 'Survey' it is a summary of a collection of leases; the summary was made in the 1800s, and the leases themselves, which are not in chronological order, date back to the 1700s. The date of the first lease on Page 1 is 1744, with one lease dated 1738 on Page 6; later leases suggest that the document actually dates from the late 1820s. The document has been updated regularly up to at least 1833, and one pencil note was done in or after 1865.

The document was possibly created / maintained by a solicitor, and was probably not associated with a map of the estate. Contractual information is generally quite detailed. For Lifehold leases there are details of subsidiary lives, and when the leaseholders died.

Although the title refers to Draycot Cerne, there are only two Draycot leases; there are over 40 for Sutton Benger.

Draycot Cerne

Neither of the records for Draycot Cerne are dated.

The first record is a lease from George Chivers to Ann Maynard of a ‘Toft where a Messuage formerly stood with a Garden & Orchard containing 1 Acre (more or less)’. 'A 'Toft' was another word for a Homestead, including the land; or simply the land, or the plot of land, for a building. A ‘Messuage’ is another name for a house, with its outbuildings and land.

The second record shows a lease of a ‘Messuage, and Close of Meadow 3 quarters of an Acre’ from Edward Giddings to Edward C Giddings; possibly a father to a son.

Sutton Benger

Several of the older records for Sutton Benger are annotated as ‘house burnt down’ (or similar); these are references to the ‘Great Fire of Sutton Benger, 1802’. We know from the contemporary reports that the Pearce (or Pierce) house was one of the ones which was destroyed; this 1828 lease presumably refers to a replacement house that had been built on the same site, where 40/42 High Street is today. John Pearce’s house was registered as a Protestant (probably Methodist) Meeting House in 1837.

The leases show that Thomas Hayward had a Messuage, workshop, etc in a field ‘now called by the name of the Rack Close’; the original lease had been dated 1803 but was updated in 1828. This is the property that used to be near the current 60 High Street, which was formerly occupied by William Fry. (See the 1730 Survey).