Documents in WSA suggest that the famous Time Lord may have spent time in Malmesbury in the mid 17^th century.

A Dr Qui [the Latin for who] is mentioned several times between 1657 and 1675, and was an important person in the town. He was described as a surgeon in his marriage licence bond, when aged 40 he took a bride aged 26 from Wroughton. In Easter 1673 he signed a letter filed in the Quarter Sessions records as Alderman (Mayor) of Malmesbury.

He was buried in Malmesbury abbey church yard 1675, and his will was proved in the following year. However as fans of the TV series know only too well the Doctor has been re-incarnated at least ten times so evidence of his death may well have been exaggerated.

Alderton deeds saved for Wiltshire
Although most of the archives placed in our care are deposited on loan or outright gift, we do purchase material of particular importance. In August we were alerted to sale of about 150 medieval deeds relating to the estates of the Gore family of Alderton, a small parish in North West Wiltshire. Unfortunately in order to maximise the vendor’s profit they were broken up into many separate lots. Principal archivist Claire Skinner spent a stressful but exciting morning bidding by telephone at an auction taking place in Norfolk, and managed to purchase about half of the lots (95 deeds) which covered the earliest documents. This was achieved by a combination of our own budget and generous contributions from the Friends of the National Libraries, and Wiltshire Family History Society.

Close-up of the earliest Alderton deed purchased in 2009 – reference 3815/1/1
Grant by William Lycame of Alderton (spelt Aldrynton here) to John Bovetoun and Christine his wife, of the rent of a grain of wheat for a tenement, dated 1332. The deed is in Latin, which was the language of the law until 1733.

Many of the deeds have seals attached which illustrate the craftsmanship and vitality of medieval small scale sculpture. A good example is the punning seal of William Gore which has a bull’s head between his initials. To find out more and see if you can help us with identifying a family and church in some photographs dating back to the 1950s please 'read more'...

That such a substantial collection survived for a small parish in NW Wiltshire is due in part to the efforts of Thomas Gore, the antiquarian and contemporary of John Aubrey. He transcribed the deeds in his MS history of the family Syntagma Genealogicum which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. He made provision in his will, proved in 1683, for the family’s ancient seal matrix and the chest of drawers in which the deeds were kept. They passed unmentioned with the title of the manor to his son Thomas.

The deeds are an important source of topographical and place name evidence as well as documenting the links and relationships between local families. The earliest member of the Gore family mentioned is William of Whitley in Melksham, and nine of the deeds relate to property in that parish. Fortunately two deeds from the collection, including the earliest recorded by Thomas Gore, had already been presented to the Archive service in 1958.

Many of the deeds have seals attached which illustrate the craftsmanship and yitality of medieval small scale sculpture. A good example is the punning seal of William Gore which has a bull’s head between his initials. To find out more and discover if you can help identfy the church and family at a wedding c.1950s, please 'read more'...

It was regrettable that a collection kept intact for so many years has now been broken up in this way, and some of the dispersed deeds already have attached themselves like flotsam to the life raft of e-bay. If any of the new owners would care to give a digital copy to Wiltshire and Swindon Archives we would be very grateful!

Help wanted! Can you identify this family and/or this church?

These photographs were found during a house clearance and were recently deposited by Swindon Borough Council but unfortunately there are no details on the backs of the photographs to help identify them. It is therefore going to make it very difficult for researchers to make use of the photographs in the future.

Please let us know if you recognise them! E-mail Claire.skinner@wiltshire.gov.uk