To two (one of whom was likewise included in the preceding eleven) that they were paupers. To four, that the titles to their burgages were deficient, which depended on several queftions of fact; thus,-To the first of thefe, that a piece of ground, making part of the burgage, had been taken from it, and was not affigned to the voter; To the fecond, that it never belonged to a family from whom the title was derived; To the third, that it never was held by the perfon to whofe name it was referred in an entry on the rent-roll; to the fourth, fituate in the main-trench, or bed of the canal, that the burgage meant to be described in the roll was not this burgage, but one in a fimilar situation, purchased by the late Lord Feverfham, which gave a vote for the fitting members: These difputed facts occafioned much argument, and employed much time, but the decifions upon them, from their nature, do not fall within the scheme of these Reports; for which reason I only give a fummary state of them. A canal communicating with the river Avon. To To another of the seventeen the objection was, that the burgage belonged to the trustees of the late Lord Feverfham, having been purchased by him; this depended on a matter of law. The objection to the eleven was treated in the argument as one, and they were all claffed together, although their circumstances were in some respects different: Five of these burgages went by the name of Farr's, having been formerly fold to Sir Charles Duncombe by one Farr. The description of them in the several deeds to the voters, was in the form following, which is that of the grant to Thomas Wornell, viz. "All that antient burgage, confifting of a house and garden behind the fame, fituate on the north-fide of Downton-street, in the county of Wilts, now or late in the tenure or occupation of James Hill, yeoman, formerly Farr's." The other four were held by different occupiers, whose names, with the fituations, were inferted in the deeds. The The Court-book of the borough was referred to, in order to prove the title to these burgages: In an entry of the 10th of April, 1706, there is a prefentment of the descent of five burgages and a half from Nicholas Farr to Roger Farr, the rent five fhillings and fix-pence: On the 21ft of April, 1708, is a prefentment of the alienation, by R. Farr to Sir Charles Duncombe, of thefe five burgages and a half; the entry in the quit-rent-roll, to which they were applied, is thus: "For that which was Farr's 5s. 6d." Farr's at prefent confifts of five houses, with gardens adjoining to them, three are fituated on the north-fide, of the street, and two on the fouth * A furveyor called on the part of : *Thefe burgages are mentioned in Mr. Douglas's cafe of Downton, vol. 1. p. 220. which has given me occafion to do that which, perhaps, will happen. but once, to correct a mistake (a trivial one) in that book: It is there faid, that these tenements confift of land, without divifions; So of Legg's farm hereafter mentioned: The nature of the question then agitated did not make it neceffary to attend to this minuteness of defcription, and the mistake might perhaps be in the evidence, not in the author, the the fitting members*, who made a furvey of the borough in 1745, by Lord Feversham's directions, in order to afcertain his burgages, produced the plan he then made, the names and defcriptions of which he took from a rent-roll kept by his lordfhip's fteward; his plan defcribes them in two articles, thofe on the north-fide in one, and the burgage-rent three fhillings and fix-pence; and thofe on the southfide in another, and the burgage-rent two fhillings: He made three divifions of this laft, because it was then intended to make three tenements of them in future. It had always confifted of five feparate tenements in the memory of the oldest perfon living. The trustees of Mr. Duncombe had granted five burgages out of Farr's, for which five perfons tendered their votes: No evidence was produced on either fide, on the subject of the half-burgage included in these tenements. Four burgages had been granted by the trustees out of fome meadow land that went by the name of the White Horse; * But not for this purpose. the the defcription of the premises in the deeds, under which the voters claimed, was the fame in all the four, viz. “All that antient burgage, fituate or being within the borough of Downton, in the county of Wilts, part of the land belonging to the White Horse." The entry in the quitrent-roll for this land is thus, "G. Eyre, for part of that land belonging to the White Horse,-19s. 6d." which is the rent of nineteen burgages and a half; whatever the antient divifions may have been, it has not now fo many. On the fide of the fitting members it was denied, that there were any divifions at all, and this point occafioned some dispute in evidence, which however did not alter the line of argument on the principal queftion. Mr. Bell, a furveyor, called on the part of the petitioners, who had known Downton about four years, and had furveyed Mr. Shafto's property there, faid, there appeared plain traces of fourteen divifions in this land by large bound-ftones, called there Meer-ftones, which were placed 20, 40, and 50 yards afunder, and feemed very antient; and that |