A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



demesne lands at Castor.' In 1291 the pnfits of 

 the manor and court with stock and a dovecote 

 amounted to £1^ us. 6J.' The abbey court at 

 Castor appears to have been more important than a 

 mere manorial court. Many outlying lands of the 

 abbey owed suit at this court,' and important de- 

 clarations and transfers of land often took place there.' 

 It has been suggested that the hundred court for Nassa- 

 burgh, formerly and subsequently held at Langdike, 

 was during the 13th and 14th centuries transferred 

 to Castor, but there is no positive evidence that this 

 was the case. 



When Abbot Godfrey died about 1 3 2 1 the Castor 

 property included a manor-house, with garden and 

 dovecote, woodland, and a several fishery in the 

 Nene. Court-baron was held every three weeks.' 



Upon the surrender of Peterborough to the crown 

 in 1537 Castor manor was granted in 1541 by 

 Henry VIII to the dean and chapter of the newly- 

 founded bishopric of Peterborough.^ The fee ferm 

 rents of Castor, reserved under this grant, were sold 

 in 1 674-5 to Sir Edward de Carterett by Lord Hawley 

 and other trustees appointed by Act of Parliament 

 for carrying out such sales.' 



In the time of the Commonwealth the manor of 

 Castor, with the ' site of the said manor commonly 

 called Berrysteed,' with all courts-baron or other 

 courts, and fishing, fowling, hawking and hunting 

 rights, let by the dean and chapter to Robert 

 Wingfield in the reign of Philip and Mary for ninety- 

 nine years, was sold by the Commissioners for Sale of 

 Bishops' Lands to Thomas Matthew and Thomas 

 Allen, citizens and grocers of London."* 



Castor remained with the dean and chapter, to 

 whom it was restored in 1660, until under the Act 

 of 1836 it passed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 

 who still hold as ex-officio lords of the manor.' 



THOROLD'S MANOR.— It is stated in Domes- 

 day Book that five knights held 3 hides of the abbot 

 of Peterborough in Castor.'" No names are re- 

 corded, but within fifty years one Thorold was 

 holding here to the extent of rather more than 

 2 hides," thus being clearly the largest of 

 the landholders. He was probably the father 

 of Richard and Geoffrey (of Castor), between whom 

 a partition of the fee occurred in the time of 

 Abbot Martin, 1133-55, when 'Richard being the 

 elder and a priest,' took by arrangement the church of 

 Castor and one-third of the land," and this portion is 

 the i fee which is mentioned in the charters of 

 Richard I and Henry III," and which is referred to in 

 the history of the advowson of Castor. The descen- 

 dants of Geoffrey continued to hold the rest of the land. 

 His son was Thorold," who was succeeded by one or 

 more Thorolds," for the number and relationship is 

 uncertain, and in 1242 William son of Thorold was 

 in possession.'" In his time Geoffrey Illing, Ralph 

 Buveton, Henry Segrave, and Robert 'the butler' 

 were holders of the remainder of the three Domesday 



hides, the last-mentioned holding his sixth part of a 

 fee from Eulbert de Dover, whose overlord was the 

 abbot of Peterborough. In 1348 John Eston," a 

 kinsman of Beatrice de Butler, held this portion from 

 Robert Marmion, who had succeeded Fulbert de 

 Dover, and by 141 5 he or his successor of the 

 same name was also holding the land which had 

 belonged to Thorold of Castor," but which that 

 family had previously ceased to own. Henry, son 

 of William, had been succeeded in turn by his sons 

 John '" and Nicholas, whose son William in the middle 

 of the 14th century is the last recorded holder of 

 that family." 



In 1460 the Thorold, Segrave, and Butler fees 

 were in the hands of Sir Guy Wolston, of whom it is 

 known that he was the holder of important offices 

 under the crown and was a large landowner," but 

 between whom and the Eston family no association has 

 been established. Some thirty years later these fees, 

 now described as the 'manor ' of Castor, were settled, 

 in default of male issue, on Audrey, daughter of 

 Sir Guy Wolston," and in i 508 she and her husband, 

 Thomas Empson, were holding this manor, which, 

 finally crystallizing into the 'manor of Castor, 

 otherwise called the manor of Butler's and Thorold's,' 

 was granted by them in 151 5 to Richard Fitzwilliam 

 and others.^' In 1534 William Fitzwilliam died 

 holding this manor, which is described in the same 

 terms as during the Empson tenure," and it has 

 continued with the Fitzwilliam family to the present 

 day. 



BELSIZE (Belasis xiii cent. ; Belseys xvi cent.). — 

 The farm of Belsize, belonging to the Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners, dates from very early times, and 

 is sometimes called a manor in the records. In 12 14 

 Abbot Robert of Lindsey built houses at a place 

 called Belsize, and planted hedges and drained 

 the land around it. For this action Richard de 

 Waterville, a knight, and other free men of Castor 

 and Marholm brought an assize of novel disseisin 

 against the abbot, but were satisfied by gifts and other 

 advantages. The abbot also acquired various small 

 portions of land in Marholm, Woodcroft, Milton, and 

 Paston, and annexed them to Belsize, which was re- 

 quired to find bread and beer for eight monks 

 newly added to the convent. Afterwards the eight 

 monks were provided for with the rest of the com- 

 munity, and Belsize was assigned to the cook of the 

 convent for 8 marks.'' Later the farm was in the 

 hands of the cellarer, who had common at Tanholt in 

 Eye for the beasts of his manor of Belsize.'" In the 

 15th century Belsize must have been a small village ; 

 the tenants there to the number of a hundred made 

 insurrection against the abbot, ' throwing in hedges 

 and ditches, returning with Bagpipes, and great jollity 

 for what they had done.' " At the dissolution all the 

 premises which belonged to the monastery of Peter- 

 borough there were granted to the dean and chapter 

 of the newly erected see." In 1650 all ' that farm or 



' Chnrt. R. 22 Edw. I, No. 87. 



2 Pop, Nich. Tax. (Rcc. Com.), 53. 



^ Swaphani, fol. 36. 



< Ibid. 



■'• Lansd. MS. 993, fol. 65. 



<■ Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 1+-17. 



7 Pat. 26 Chas. II, pt. iv. 



8 Close, 1650, pt. xxxiii, No. 30. 



'> London Gaztitt, i Aug. 185:, No, 

 1969. 

 J» y, C. H. Norihanti, i, 314*. 



^^ Chronuon^ T72. 



" Egerton, MS. 2733, fol. 128. 



" Cart. Ant. DD. 17 ; Chart. R. 

 Hen. Ill, pt. i, ni. 19. 



^^ Cott. Vesp. E. xxii, 99/>. 



'^ Cart. Antiq. DD. 17; Chart. R. 

 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 19. 



'« Soc. Antiq. MS. No. 60, fol. 251. 



W Ibid. No. 38, fol. 165A. 



i» Add. MS. 25288. 



" Cott. Vesp. E. xxii, 78. 



474 



2" Soc. Antlq. MS. No. 38, fol. 159. 

 ^' Cott. Nero, vii, zozb. 

 ^-i Feet of F. Northants, 7 Hen. VII 

 and 24 Hen. VII. 

 ■■» Ibid. Mich. 7 Hen. VIII. 

 *• Chan. Inq. p. m. (Ser. 2), Ivii, 3. 

 ^ Sparkc, Scriptores, 112. 

 " Soc. Antiq. No. 60, fol. 185*. 

 ^' Gunton. 55. 

 28 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 14-17. 



