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H-s 'OLD BRECKNOCK CHIPS." A Column of Antiquarian Chit-Chat relating to the County of Brecknock. NOTES, QUEBIES, AND BEPLIES, on Subjects inter¬ esting to Breconshire, mast be addressed EDITOB, Brecon County Times, Brecon. Beal names and addresses mast be given in confidence, and MSS. mast be written legibly, on one side of the paper only. JANUAEY 28th, 1887. NOTES. RECORDS OF CHRIST COLLEGE, BRECKNOCK.—I have a pamphlet by me, entitled as follows :— Records of the College of Christ Church in Brecon. London : Joseph Masters, Aldersgate street. Dated Campsea Ashe, Woodbridge, December, 1846. [Rev. John Pratt, author ] The Records are prefaced as follows :— The Record of this Collegiate Church has no claim to originality. The account of its gradual decline from its pristine state, by the mal-appropriation of its funds, has been deduced from every source that was available for the purpose and in a great measure from Jones' History of Breconshire And with regard to its present state (1846 , the facts here mentioned have been collected from persons living in the town and neighbourhood of Brecon, and also from an accurate survey this year, taken on the spot. The documents recited, and the information given, may to a certain extent be liable to inaccuracies ; yet, in placing this Record in print, if some of the state¬ ments therein made should be able to be proved erroneous, or should come before those who may have it in their power to remedy the evil '• complained o/," or in anyway tend to correct one of the grossest cases of Church Spoilation ever heard of, the end for which the following pages are written will be fully answered. Then succeeds a short sketch of the origin of the Foundation with copy of charter in the Latin tongue from Dugdale's Monasticon. We further gather that the College posses¬ sions got in the hands of two persons (Typper and Dawe) and of course a suit at law in the Exchequer followed on behalf of the Preben¬ daries, and by a decree in the Court of Exchequer (5th William and Mary, 1693) the rights of the Prebendaries were re-estab¬ lished. The rev. Author strongly animad¬ verts on the shameful neglected state of the Foundation in his time : the church and all the buildings were in the most dilapidated condition, although the Foundation was amply endowed. He says : It appears that prayers were read and a sermon preached till about the year 1839 ; and the cause of the suspension of Divine service was, that the roof was considered too insecure to allow the usual duty to be performed with safety. The prebendaries used to reside in their turns, for a 6hort time, in the memory of many persons living in Brecon ; but none have kept residence for the last 20 years The school, however, was kept up till 1845 ; but from the inefficiency of the schoolmaster (who nominally held the office of lecturer as well) it dwindled away to a very few boys, and now there is none at all—neither school, service, or lecture. Mr Pratt gives the value of the Prebends in the Collegiate Church of Christ in Brecknock and their Reserved Rents as follows :— Reserved Rents, £387 2s. Pensions to the Lec¬ turer, £31 18s. 4d. To the Schoolmaster, £21 9s. lOd. He further adds :— The income of the College it is impossible to accurately estimate, but it is very considerable, and perhaps might amount to about £10,000 per annum. Was the Rev. John Pratt a connection of the Camden family ? Jabco II. PAINES CASTLE.—Although this place is in Radnorshire and therefore strictly not entitled to notice in this column, yet as the clump of trees on the lofty eminence near its site is a prominent object of vision on a clear day from the Criig and other heights near Brecon, and its locality a frequent subject of enquiry by visitors and sometimes also by Breconians, some notice of the place may not be unwelcome. Camden states that it derived its name from Paganus or Paine, a Norman who built the Castle. In the Welsh annals it is called indiscriminately Elvael Castle, and Paines Castle in Elvel. About the end of the 12th century it formed part of the possessions of William de Breos, Lord of Abergavenny. In return for some outrage committed by that worthy on Trehearn Vechan, Gwenwynwyn, Prince of Powis, a friend of the latter, marched a body of troops into Radnorshire and laid seige to the Castle. But De Breos receiving succour, Gwenwyn¬ wyn was defeated in a general engagement with the loss of 3000 of his men. Little now remains of the Castle except some fragments of its foundations. Its early history is involved in obscurity. M. A PREBENDARY OF THE COL¬ LEGIATE CHURCH OF BRECON.—We take the following from Bye-Gones, a well- known Welsh antiquarian column :— There is an old will at Somerset House (41 Wood 1611), of David Roberts, Clerke of :*t. Mary's, Abchurch, London, who left some bequests to St. Andrew's by the Wardrobe, London, where he was Rector, 1591—1608; and also to the church of Danvrothen (Llanvrothen ?), Merioneth, where he was born, a chalice. He was prebendary of Trallong in the Collegiate Church of Brecon, and also had dispensation from Archbishop to hold St. Andrew's Wardrobe and the Rectory of Chedington, Bucks (Diocese of Lincoln), 24 Dec , 1595. Who or of what family was he—and is the chalice now at Llanvrothen ? QUERIES. HUGH THOMAS'S MANUSCRIPTS.— Hugh Thomas, the Breconshire Herald, composed several geneaological tables, and left them in manuscript. You have, Mr Editor, in your work on Breconshire, quoted from his " Notes towards a History of Brecon," and perhaps you or someone else can tell us what his other M.SS contained ? Q. THE AUBREY FAMILY.—I am told there was a family named Aubrey fixed at Bourshall, Buckinghamshire, and that in Lipscombe's History of the County particulars will be found. Can anyone say whether the Buckinghamshire Aubreys were related to the Breconshire Aubreys ? Q.