A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Provosts of Cotterstock ^ 



Richard Catel, instituted 1340 

 William of Walcote, instituted 1341 

 Robert Hokkle, instituted 1349 

 Robert of Wyntryngham, resigned 1398 

 William Smyth alias of Wyntryngham, insti- 

 tuted 1398 

 Robert of Wyntryngham, reappointed 1401 

 John Bishopestre, instituted 1420 

 William Maydewall, instituted 1420 

 John Grendon, occurs 1432 

 Robert Yerburgh, instituted 1434 

 Richard Hephyll, instituted 1439 

 Thomas Salysbury, instituted 1444. 

 John Sconce alias Burgh, instituted 1447 

 Walter Oudeby, instituted 1467 

 John Deye, instituted 1498 

 Robert Barnard, instituted 15 10 

 Robert Letheley, instituted 1521 

 George Malory, instituted 1528 

 Edward Astwick, instituted 1532 

 Richard King, occurs 1535 

 Edmond Oliver,^ occurs 1536 



42. THE COLLEGE OF FOTHERING- 

 HAY 



Simon de St. Liz, the second earl of North- 

 ampton, founded a Cluniac nunnery at Fother- 

 inghay, but in Stephen's reign it was removed to 

 Delapr^ on the south side of Northampton. The 

 church of Fotheringhay remained appropriated 

 to the abbey of Delapr6 until the beginning of 

 the fifteenth century; the last appointment of a 

 vicar by the Delapre convent occurred in 1388. 



Edmund of Langley, duke of York, was the 

 first to form the idea of a grand collegiate church 

 at Fotheringhay, and, in the lifetime of his father, 

 built a large and magnificent quire at the east 

 end of the old parish church.^ He did not live 

 to accomplish his intention ; but, after his death 

 in 1402, his eldest son (by Isabel of Castile), 

 Edward of York, desired to carry out his father's 

 wishes, and to rebuild the body of the church on 

 a like plan with the quire. For this purpose he 

 appointed trustees, the first two of which were 

 the cardinal bishops of Winchester and Durham. 

 The college was founded in 141 1, 6 acres of 

 land between the castle and the rectory house 

 being allotted for the purpose. This was the 

 site on which the Cluniac nunnery had formerly 

 stood. Edward, however, fell in the vanguard 

 of the fight at Agincourt in 1 41 5. Neither 

 college nor church was yet finished, but his body 

 was brought to Fotheringhay and interred in the 

 church on i December. His will is reproduced 



1 This list is taken from the Lincoln registers cited 

 by Bridges, Hist, of Northants, ii. 439-40. 



^ The last provost must have been appointed after 

 the V.ilorof 1535. 



8 Leland, Itin. (Hearne ed.), i. 5-7 ; Bonney, 

 Fotheringhay ( 1 8 2 1 ), p. 4 1 . 



in the Lincoln registers ; he left his body to be 

 buried in his college of Fotheringhay, in the 

 midst of the quire under a flat piece of marble 

 at the quire steps.* 



This royal college consisted of a master, twelve 

 chaplains or fellows, eight clerks, and thirteen 

 choristers, and was dedicated in honour of the 

 Blessed Virgin and All Saints. The chief duty 

 of the members of the college was to pray for 

 the good estate and for the souls of the king and 

 queen, the Prince of Wales, the duke of York, 

 and all the royal family, as well as for all faithful 

 souls. It was indeed a great chantry, on dignified 

 lines, with a specially-ordered common life for 

 the chantry priests. The endowment charter of 

 Henry IV. granted the college a yearly charge of 

 ^^67 6j. id. from the manors of Newent, Glou- 

 cester, and Kingston, Hertford, belonging to the 

 alien priory of Newent, which was a cell of the 

 abbey of Cormeilles, as well as all the possessions, 

 spiritual and temporal, and all manorial rights 

 that had pertained to that priory and to the alien 

 priory of Avebury, Wiltshire, a cell of St. George 

 Bocherville.^ 



A saving clause as to these two alien priories 

 was inserted in the Act passed at Leicester in 

 April, 1414. In the same year the convent of 

 Delapr6 gave up to the college the church of 

 Fotheringhay in return for a small pension.' 



In the following year (5 August, 141 5) the 

 duke of York obtained letters patent for the 

 further endowment of the college, assigning to 

 it the manors of ' Fasterne,' Old Wootton, 

 Tockenham, Chelworth, Winterbourne, Comp- 

 ton-Bassett, and Sevenhampton, the advowson of 

 the church of Tockenham, the town of ' Wotton 

 Burgus,' and the hundreds of Highworth and 

 Cricklade in Wiltshire ; the manor of Dognton, ' 

 Gloucestershire ; the manor of Anstey in Hert- 

 fordshire, and the advowson of the church ; the 

 manors of Nassi ngton and Yarwell ; and the castle, 

 manor, and town of Fotheringhay, in North- 

 amptonshire ; with the castle, town, and manor 

 of Stamford, the town and soke of Grantham, 

 in Lincolnshire ; and the castle and manor of 

 Conisbrough, ' Braiwell,' Clifton, Hatfield, Fish- 

 lake, and Thorne, in Yorkshire.^ 



Before the duke sailed for France he entered 

 into an explicit indenture with William Harwod, 

 freemason of Fotheringhay, by which the duke 

 was to find stone, timber, scaffolding, lime, and 

 everything necessary to the work, and to pay 

 ;^300 at stated periods. The whole of this in- 

 teresting indenture has been several times printed.' 

 The duke's death at Agincourt (Leland tells us 



* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo, of Repingdon, f. 124. 



6 Pat. 13 Hen. IV. pt. I, m. 14. Cited in full in 

 Nichol, Bibl. Topog. vol. iv. No. 40, pp. 82-7. 



« Fine R. 2 Hen. V. m. 4. 



7 Pat. 3 Hen. V. pt. 2, m. 43. 



8 Both editions of Dugdale, and Nichol, Bibl. 

 Topog. 



170 



