Well this has answered one of my questions. From the census I was having trouble understanding why an ag lab could suddenly become a Landholder, I found it puzzling and all was answered <<To start with the townsfolk who form the Warden & Freemen: there are four ‘grades’ which in order of seniority, are ‘commoner’, ‘landholder’, ‘assistant burgess’ and ‘capital burgess’. To become a commoner one has to be a married man and a householder, living within the boundaries of Malmesbury as currently defined, and either a son or son-in-law of a commoner. On admission a commoner elects to have his name entered on what can only be described as ‘waiting lists’ of the six ‘hundreds’ – Taylors, Fishers, Glovers, Coxfoot, David’s Loynes & Thornhill. Why these subsidiary organisations are called ‘hundreds’, what their original purpose was and why they have these names has yet to be explained. Between them, the six hundreds now have 31 members, called landholders. Vacancies in the membership of each hundred are filled from the appropriate waiting list, by seniority, so all commoners, provided they live long enough, will eventually become landholders.. >> On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 4:21 AM, Josephine Jeremiah <jojeremiah@dsl.pipex.com> wrote: > On Wed, 01 Dec 2010 19:35:52 -0000, Eliz Hanebury <elizhgene@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> But mostly I am interested in the Commoners and Burgesses of the town, > > Hi Eliz, > > You may already have done this, but if you haven't you may find it useful. > > If you go to Google Books and put  "Malmesbury""Commoners" in the search > you will find references. > > For example: > > The History of the Town of Malmesbury, and its Ancient Abbey (1805) by > John Marks Moffatt  -- page 127 is a full page view. > > If you put "Malmesbury""Burgesses" in the search you will also find full > page view references. > > For example: > > The Jurist, Volume 11, Part 1  (1848) -- page 22 second column > > Josephine > > -- > Josephine Jeremiah > www.ianandjo.dsl.pipex.com > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-WILTSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >