The Ogbournes of Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire, England
Princess Anne awards Wootton Bassett Royal title
For family tree buffs there are full transcripts of marriages between 1700-1799 in Wootton Bassett on
For many years Wootton Bassett was a parliamentary borough and elected two Members of Parliament(MPs) to the House of Commons from 1447 until 1832, when the rotten borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.
It is ironical that when the distinguished American Professor William Fielding Ogburn was Visiting Professor at Nuffield College, Oxford (1952-1953), he made great efforts to trace Ogb**rn*s in the UK, and wrote to many parish priest in the Thames Valley area, asking if there were Ogb**rn*s in the church register, but the records of these enquiries kindly copied to us by his son Fielding Ogburn show that his father drew a near complete blank. Had he written to the parish of Wootton Bassett he would have felt he was getting somewhere, though we knew nothing about the history of our name at that time.
The Ogbournes of Wootton Bassett appear regularly in early records of the town, but relatively few daring Ogbourne exploits have been found.
Wootton Bassett was struck by ‘The Plague’, also known as ‘The Black Death‘ for 16 weeks from 25th April 1645 though no mention of burials of Ogbournes was found in that period.
In July of 1803 the Mayor, Mr Hollister displayed a poster making an impassioned plea for volunteers to join a militia to resist a feared attack by Napoleon Bonaparte. “If it succeeded all true Britons would be sacrificed to French Ambition, such as plunder, massacre, debauchery and other diabolical mischief” it read. Thomas Ogbourne answered the call and demonstrated his willingness to distinguish himself by volunteering. A plaque is displayed in the Town Hall to attest to this, pictured here
References to the church in early records go back as far as 1200, and in 1264 Phillip Bassett asked leave of the Pope to build his own chapel at Vastern “in consequence of his being at a distance from the church in Wodeton” In the centuries prior to the 17th the name crops up in official records in the Kingsbridge hundred, a small area of Wiltshire of which Wootton Bassett was the principal town. Other examples include:
- 28 Nov 1277 William de Ockeburn was a juror in the case of John the Miller, accused of stealing corn
- 27 March 1280 Nicholas de Okeburn was aquitted with others under suspicion of larceny after being held in Marleburg [Marlborough]gaol
- 1306 Henry de Okeburn is included in names of jurors of the hundred of Kyngbrugg, Wyltes
For more information visit the Royal Wootton Bassett Town Council website
The picture you have last top of page show celebrations after the election of Murray and Walsh as MPs to represent Wootton Bassett in 1808. It is said to portray a march to Swindon, at that time a smaller place than Wootton Bassett. The museum has a copy of the print and there are other copies in the town (probably about 5). (The references about abolition of slavery is less understood). The print is interesting in its strange perspective with all houses on one side. There some other features – the church tower is incorrect, the tower should be at the left hand end. The town hall has a small bell on its roof which is correct as in the mid 1700s it was a school. The pond is also shown which was used to duck scolds and was filled in nearly 200 years ago. Finally the lady at bottom left of the picture with a basket of apples is said to be Peggy Lawrence the last scold to be ducked. The original ducking stool is now in the museum. The museum has a lot of information about Walsh, one of the MPs, as two relatives have visited the museum to see the print and tell his story.