Calstone is a former

tithing A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...

and manor in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England, lying southeast of

Calne Calne () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, southwestern England,OS Explorer Map 156, Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey A2 edition (2007). at the northwestern extremity of the North Wessex Downs h ...

and adjacent to

Calstone Wellington Calstone Wellington is a small village and former parish in Wiltshire, England, about south-east of Calne and now part of the civil parish of Calne Without. The village has a 15th-century church. Geography Anciently, there was a distinction b ...

. The area was almost certainly part of the large Calne estate held by the king in the 10th century or earlier. By 1066, three estates had been granted away: one which became Calstone manor, another which became Calstone Wellington manor, and a third which was later called Blunt's. The

Domesday Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

survey in 1086 recorded three landholdings at ''Calestone'', with altogether 62 households and four mills. The remainder, later called the 'black land' of Calstone, was kept by the Crown until 1194 when it was granted to a new owner and became the manor and parish of Blackland. Calstone village was divided between Calne and Calstone Wellington parishes. A church had been built at Calstone by 1301, presumably on the Blunt's estate; from 1600 the ecclesiastical parish was called Calstone Wellington, and the village later took this name also. Since at least 1889, the name Calstone has not been used for the settlement on Ordnance Survey maps. The

Wiltshire Victoria County History The Wiltshire Victoria County History, properly called The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire but commonly referred to as VCH Wiltshire, is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Wiltshire in England. It forms part of the overall Vic ...

lists the landowners, including the

Barons Zouche Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...

from the early 14th century to the 1550s, and from 1572 Sir Lionel Duckett (1511–1587). He was a wealthy London merchant,

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

in 1572–1573, who supported early voyages to Africa which paved the way for the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in later centuries. His son

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

and seven other Duckett descendants were returned as MP for the

rotten borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...

of Calne, the small number of electors being under the influence of the lord of the manor. In 1763, Thomas Duckett sold much land, including Calstone, to

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first ...

(from 1784

Marquess of Lansdowne Marquess of Lansdowne is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1784, and held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. The first Marquess served as Prime Minister of Great Britain. Origins This branch of the Fitzmaurice famil ...

and Viscount Calne and Calston). These lands remained part of the family's

Bowood Bowood is a Grade I listed Georgian era, Georgian English country houses, country house in Wiltshire, England, that has been owned for more than 250 years by the Fitzmaurice family. The house, with interiors by Robert Adam, stands in extensive g ...

landholdings until 1954, when the Marquesses began to sell off farms, while retaining some property in the area. An estate later called Calstone Wylye was detached from Calstone manor in the 12th century, and reunited with Calstone when it was bought by Stephen Duckett in 1585. In the 19th century, Calstone Wellington was recognised as civil parish, while Calstone remained a tithing of Calne. In 1890, both Calstone Wellington and Calstone were absorbed into the newly created Calne Without parish. For the history of the church and its parish, see

References

External links

Calstone Wellington website
with social history, old photographs etc. {{Commons category-inline Calne Without Geography of Wiltshire