Martin Wiltshire used two parish registers to gather references to the Wiltshire family in the Calne area. We know that at one point our ancestors lived at Hazeland, which is between Studley and Bremhill. Bremhill would have been the closest parish church and the one where the memorial to William Wiltshire and Martha Marshman rests. So it was not surprising to find references to Wiltshires in the register of St. Martin's church, Bremhill (or Brimhill which means "Bramble Hill"). The first reference is to a Henry Wilsheire who was buried in 1591.

The second register used, which has the first mention of a Wiltshire (the burial of Elisabett Wylshere) in 1538, is that of the parish of Calne St. Mary. The number of similar spellings in different registers would suggest there had been Wiltshires in the area for some time.

From the entries in these registers, Martin produced a hypothetical early Wiltshire family tree - one that has a number of gaps, which we hope may be filled in time, and a number of assumptions, which seem to be perfectly reasonable but for which no supporting evidence has yet been found. This early detail has not been included in the database, but will be as and when corroborative evidence emerges. For the moment, the first direct ancestor that can be substantiated - and the earliest Wiltshire included in the database - is Thomas Wiltshire, the father of Isaac Wiltshire, who was christened on 4th January 1684 in Studley.

With Isaac we also have the start of a fairly consistent spelling of the name Wiltshire. Although Isaac's own christening is recorded in the register with the spelling Willshere, his children's christenings and further records almost all show the spelling Wiltshire. We do not know exactly where Isaac lived, although it was probably in or near Studley. Neither do we have any information on his wife. We do know though that Isaac had four sons and two daughters and that we are descended through his second son William (christened 21^st January 1711 ).

William Wiltshire married Frances Barnett in March 1731 and of the children we have so far been able to identify, only one, named George, was a boy. The prospects for the Wiltshire line, then, may have seemed a little precarious at this point. However, George and the following few generations were to change that and to ensure that the name Wiltshire was here to stay! George married Mary Angel in Calne in 1761 and the next twenty five years were to see no less than eleven young Wiltshire children christened by them at St. Martin's church in Bremhill, including seven boys. One of those boys, the eldest of the eleven children, named William, was to improve on his father's performance; William became the proud father of no less than seventeen children, including twelve sons. It must be said, however, that William required two wives to achieve this remarkable score! William's first wife, Elizabeth Tanner, whom he married in 1790, died in 1800, after bringing six children into the world; two years later, in October 1802, William married his second wife, Martha Marshman, who appears to have been a quite remarkable woman. She was 23 when she married William and took over the mat

ernal responsibility for the five surviving children from his first marriage; eleven of her own were to follow. Prior to their marriage, William had been a member of the Established Church and had baptised his first six children at St.Martin's Bremhill. But Martha, clearly, was of a different persuasion, and she and William joined the Old Baptist Chapel in Chippenham and were baptised there in the river. It is recorded that "each Sabbath, they would trudge into Chippenham to worship at the Old Baptist Chapel" - a round-trip of about ten miles, passing several other churches on the way. The same source goes on to record "With the growing family the journey became increasingly difficult and Martha plucked up the courage to ask Lord Landsdowne, the local land owner for a piece of land on which to build a Chapel. He agreed to lease a plot for 99 years at a ground rent of one shilling per year." There followed several years of hard work for a small group of volunteers, led by Martha and William, and finally, in 1814, the result of their labours - the Little Zoar Strict Baptist Chapel in Studley - was opened for worship. A memorial to William and Martha, in the churchyrd of St.Martin's, Bremhill, confirms their role as founders of Little Zoar Chapel. The Wiltshire family remained intimately associated with the Chapel for the next 150 years, several of Martha and William's descendants being recorded as having been responsible for the management of the Chapel.

Martin Wiltshire is descended from Martha and William's son George, who married Tryphena Cole. See Martin's website for more on this branch of the family. Martha and William's eldest son, Henry, established a butcher's business in the village. Henry married Martha Ball of Trowbridge and they produced four daughters before Martha died tragically at the age of 30. The eldest of those daughters, Anne, and her sister Martha were both destined to bear the children of my great grandfather Jenkin Davies, but that story is covered elsewhere. Suffice it to say here that young Martha Wiltshire was my great grandmother. Two years after the death of his first wife, Henry remarried and he and his second wife Ann Daniels produced seven children together. One of those children, Henry, was the great grandfather of fellow-researcher Richard Wiltshire, who has shared his research with me and who also has his own website.