The will of Robert Casswell

In the name of god Amen, I Robert Casswell of Yeatsbury
being poor in bodie but of good memorie I thank ye Lord for
it do make my last will and testament this fifth day of April
1626. in forme & manner following. First I give & bequeath
my soule into the hands of god my creator doubting that by the
soule merite of ye deathe & doctrine of Jesus Christ my Saviour
to save my **** ****** * my soule saved this day of our
Lord. Item I comitt my bodie to ye earth to be buried -
ye Church or Churchyard of Yeatsburie at the discretion of
my executors.
Item I give to ye poore of Yeatsburie 5 pounds
* **** to be given at ye discretion of my executors
Item I give and bequeath to my five children * to pay
Robert Casswell , * Thomas Casswell, Marrian Casswell
Marie Casswell & Alice Casswell *** ** ****
five pounds a peece.
Item I give & bequeath to my son Richard my wheat field
Item I give and bequeath to my son John ye Captayne
ye mare which I lent him and all other things heretofore.

The rest of my goods and chattels not given nor bequeathed
my debts and obligations payed to my Advocatts dispenses.
I give & bequeath to my beloved wife Marie whome
I make my sole executor of this my last will
And I do nominate and appointe my beloved friends **
"Pike?' Tomas **** ye senior to be the
executors of this my last will & Testament to be
to their powers to ***** my wife in **** this my will
to be truely ***** In witness wherof I said
Rob my hand to this ***** deed of my last will this
day & yeare first above written

Signed witnessed & delivered
in ye prescence of we Peter Riley ye mark of Robert Casswell

Robert Ritch

Ye mark of Michael Casswell

This will shows the first spelling of the name with twos's, and reinforces the connection between the Canadian/American & Wiltshire Casswells.

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Record found in the Wiltshire Record Office. Calne Hundred WRC.

Entry in Thomas Arnold of Yatesbury will 1610 bequeathed to Robert Casswell the elder of Yeatesburye 40s.


Estreats of fines made before John Beale in the market sessions held at Calne
12 Mar 1607.
Of Robert Caswell of Yatesbury, John Matthews of Cawson*(Duchy of Lancaster) & the inhabitants of Whitley & Besbrooke, severally for not appearing with their weights & measures for examination with the standards. 3/4 each.3/4 = 3 shillings & 4 pence. 12 pence = 1 shilling . 20 shillings = 1 pound.

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I am placing this record with Robert as there is no actual connection to Henrie Castell, but it is an early record of a Caswell, so the odds are good that they are indeed related.

North Wiltshire Musters of Henry VIII
Henrie Castell - archer
X of April XXX yr of Henry VIII (1539)
Tything of Crudwell
The whole tything hath in redyness i horses, and ij harnes with other small wepyns.

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The History of Wiltshire, Edited by R.B. Pugh; (some volumes are published by Oxford University Press Amen House, London 1957- other volumes are published by the University of London Institute of Historical Research)

RE: CRESSWELL, PAGE 400 -The decline and disposal of the forests From the reign of Edward III onward the forest laws and institutions languished. Savernake was granted away to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester : he held it from 1415 until his death in 1447, when it reverted to the Crown.
In 1477 Edward IV complained to the Warden of Savernake that 'the game in the said forest by many riotous and evil disposed persons of late hunting therein is greatly diminished', and threatened the offenders with 'grievous and sharp p[punishment'. Henry VII made similar complaints at the beginning of his reign' the forest officers replied that local landowners and the armed followers openly defied their authority and threatened 'daily.to murder and slay' them. The last forest eyres held in Wiltshire 1487- 91 showed that the gentry had hunted the deer at the pleasure.

After the death of Henry VIII the forests were again neglected. During the minority of Edward VI the Lord Protector Somerset secured for himself grants in fee simple of the forests of Savernake, Barydon, and Chute, of which Savernake only was restored to the Seymour family (of Jane Seymour, wife of Henry VIII fame) after his execution for treason in 1552. His successor, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, obtained a grant of Braydon Forest in fee tail, which he in turn forfeited in the next year.

After a long period of neglect, James I attempted to revive the forest system and enforce the forest laws. In 1607 the Attorney-General took proceedings in the star Chamber against the foresters, underkeepers, regarders and agister of 'Pewsham and Blackmore' Forests for waste of game and timber, and for assault on Sir Henry Baynton, 'deputy justice in eyre in the Forest of Pewsham'. In the previous year Sir Henry himself and his servants had appeared in the Star Chamber accused of taking deer and timber, removing boundaries and illegally enclosing a park in the same forest.
Others were prosecuted in the Star Chamber for taking deer and rabbits in the forests of Braydon and Chute.

In 1607 and again in 1612 royal commissions were issued to Otho Nicholson and others [here there is a footnote reference to Rob.Cresswell -"The commissioners in 1607 were Sir Edw. Greville, Otho Nicholson, and John Warner: E178/4577/30; and in 1612 Otho Nicholson, John Hall, Hen. Long, and Rob. Cresswell: ibid., m.19]-'to measure, perambulate and describe all our forests, parks and chases in Wiltshire, so that they may be delimit d by the ancient metes and bounds. by the sworn evidence of respectable men of the county'. Inquiry was to be made as to all assets, wastes, and preprestures 'and other lands and tenements of our soil within the aforesaid forests';
who were the tenants and occupiers, what title they had,the value of the land, whether it was arable pasture, or wood, and what rent was paid.
Tenants of such lands claimed for the Crown as forest wastes found their titles challenged after a long period of undisturbed enjoyment. They were compelled, in some cases on pain of sequestration, to compound by paying large fines and annual rents thereafter.

From 1618 onwards, however, the Stuarts began to sell outright their rights in the Wiltshire forests, which had become through neglect' very chargeable and without profit or pleasure'. They were disafforested,the woods sold, and the forest wastes leased, in many cases to disgruntled occupiers who had hitherto regarded the land as their own. By 1624 the disafforestment of Chippenham and Melksham had been completed. In 1627 arrangement were made for the sale of Selwood Forest, and the disafforestment of Braydon was begun about the same time. In 1639 Charles I disafforested 'all that part of the Forest of Chute in Wiltshire, and Wakeswood in Hampshire',and granted the wastes and coppices to three gentlemen in fee farm. By the Restoration Clarendon Park was all that remained of the Forest of Clarendon; the park wall had been broken down and the enclosed woods hadd windled to 60 acres.
When Charles II in 1664 disparked it and granted it to the Duke of Albermarle, he alienated the last remnant of the royal forests of Wiltshire.


VOLUME 4; page 413
"By 1618 the king had decided to sell his forest rights outright; in September the Archbishop of Canterbury and others were authorized to 'deforest' the Forests of 'Chippenham and Blackmore'. In March of the following year Sir John Ernley, John Pym, 'Receiver General...in Wiltshire', William Storkman and Robert Cresswell, Surveyor-General of the king' s woods south of Trent, were instructed to lease the lands on the former forest wastes and to sell the woods...."]