PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



grange commonly called Bclsize farm ' in the parish of 

 Castor which had been let for eighty years from 1563 

 to Thomas Rolfe, was sold by the Commissioners for 

 the Sale of Bishops' Lands to John Robinson and 

 Edward Carr. This sale was rescinded at the Re- 

 storation, and Bclsize returned to the dean and 

 chapter of Peterborough, from whom it passed to the 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners under the Act of 1836. 



JlLSiyORTH (Egelswith x cent., Eglesworde 

 xi cent., Eylleswurthe xiii cent.). — In 94.8 Edred 

 the king conferred upon a faithful servant Elsinus, 

 land and tenements in the district of Ailsworth, 

 the boundaries of which are specified as being 

 the River Nene, an ancient dylve, and Sutton,' 

 then an ancient highway as far as ' the field of 

 Marmaduke ; ' so on as far as' UfFord and Help- 

 ston, with Upton and Castor,' while the ancient dyke 

 leads back from Castor to the river.' In another 

 ancient record regarding the land in Ailsworth 

 appears one of the curious incidents of mediaeval 

 necromancy, for it relates how the land was held by a 

 widow and her son, and how this woman having 

 practiced magic in the accepted manner by balefully 

 sticking pins into an eliigy of one Elsi, she was 

 taken and drowned for her crime at London Bridge, 

 and her son became an outlaw. The land thus com- 

 ing into the king's hands was granted to Elsi — as 

 solatium perhaps — and subsequently was sold by 

 Wulstan Uccea, his son, to Athelvvold, bishop of Win- 

 chester, who, in his turn, sold it to the monastery of 

 Peterborough.' 



At the time of Domesday the monastery had a 

 fairly large amount of land in Ailsworth, there being 

 two entries — one relative to the holding of the abbot 

 and convent, which was six hides with two mills, and 

 the other to that of three knights of Peterborough, 

 which was three hides.'' 



Although mentioned in Domesday as the place 

 where the abbey held so large an amount of land, 

 Ailsworth had as early as the reign of Henry I disap- 

 peared from the record of the abbey fees. In the 

 parish of Castor, however, are the manors of Sutton 

 and Upton adjacent to Ailsworth which, though not 

 recorded in Domesday Book, figure in the list of fees 

 of Henry I as containing respectively three hides and 

 three virgates. Castor itself also, which had three 

 hides at the time of Domesday, has in the later 

 record more than 4^ hides, as well as 3 virgates of 

 land belonging to the church.' It seems probable 

 therefore that Sutton and Upton were included in 

 the assessment of Ailsworth in 1086. 



The abbey's portion of Ailsworth from this date 

 until the dissolution was included in the manor of 

 Castor. In 154-I the dean and chapter of Peter- 

 borough received from the crown the possessions of 

 the monastery of Peterborough in Ailsworth." In 

 1650 the Commissioners for the sale of Bishops' 

 Lands sold to Margaret \'ennc of Middlesex, a widow, 



CASTOR 



land and cottages at Ailsworth, which had been let 

 to Robert Wingficld in the rci;,'n of Philip and 

 Mary for ninety-nine years.' Ackvvorth was recovered 

 by the dean and chapter in 1660, and passed from 

 them to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners under the 

 Act of 1836. Nearly the whole of the present civil 

 parish of Ailsworth is owned by the Ecclesiastical 

 Commissioners. 



The land held at the time of Domesday by 

 three knights of Pcterborougii, appears to liave been 

 parcel of more important holdings. In a record of 

 not later date than 1253 part of Ailsworth is stated 

 to be of the fee of Torpel,'" and this part the carl 

 of Kent was holding in 1396," when it was described 

 as having been once the fee cf Ralph Camoys, 

 who succeeded the Torpcl family in their manor 

 of that name. This probably is the half-manor 

 which in 1543 was granted to Sir Robert Wingficld, 

 and which in reality consisted of sundry tenements 

 only." Gilbert son of William and Robert of Paston, 

 also held land in another part of Ailsworth in the 

 13th century," and in 1396 the holding of the former 

 was in the hands of John Eston, while the latter was 

 owned by some other John whose family name cannot 

 be ascert.iined." These are probably the tenements 

 which always appear included with the manor of 

 Castor, and may possibly compose the manor of Min- 

 skipp in Castor and Ailsworth which appears in a list 

 of the property held by William Fitzwllliam about 

 1620." No family of any importance lived continuously 

 in Ailsworth. There is a record of one interesting 

 tenant, Hugh, son of Henry Longchamp, nephew of 

 William, bishop of Ely, one of the great chancellors 

 of Richard I, who held land of the Waterville family 

 in Ailsworth.'^ 



MILTON (Meleton, xi cent.) was included in 

 the spurious charter of Wulthere to Peterborough 

 Abbey." In 1086 there were two hides in Milton of 

 the fee of the abbey held by Roger." At the 

 beginning of the 1 2th. century Thorold held this fee," 

 and in I 146 Pope Eugenius confirmed the fee of 

 Roger of Milton to the abbot of Peterborough." 

 Richard I confirmed fees held by Robert son of 

 Roger of Milton to the abbey, together with the 

 chapel of Milton adjacent to the church of Castor, 

 and the mill of the same.^' In 1243 GeofFrev son of 

 Robert of Milton was holding i^ fees in Milton of 

 the abbey." 



Early in the 14th century Joan, the widow of a 

 certain William Charles, died holding the manor of 

 Milton, for which suit was due to the abbot of 

 Peterborough at his hundred-court of Langdyke, and 

 also at his court of Torpel." Her son was Sir 

 Edward Charles, to whom in 1304 a grant of free 

 warren was made for this manor and also for a 

 market each Tuesday and a yearly three-day fair at 

 Whitsuntide." In 1325-6 Henry of Milton, nephew 

 of Sir Geoffrey of Milton, released to Sir Edward 



1 On the south-west. 



» North. 



^ On the cast, 



* The Nene hcnds here to complete 

 the eastern boundary. 



* Soc. Antiq. MS. No. 60, fol. 49.''. 

 " V.C.H. Narthann, i, 313a, 314*. 



7 A 13th-century inq. (Soc. Antiq. 

 No. 60, fol. 183) clearly includes part of 

 Ailsworth with Castor. 



' P.it. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 14-17. 



9 Close, 1650, pt. XXV, No. 25. 



>» Egerton MS. 2733, fol. 148. 



" Cott. MS. Nero, C. vii, fol. 130. 



" Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. xvi ; Chan. 

 Inq. p.m. (ser. 2), cclxxiv, 47. 



18 Egerton MS. 2733, fol. 148. 



" Cott. MS. Nero, C. vii, fol. i 30. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (ser. 2), ccclxxxiii, 

 113. 



" Swapham, fols. 90, 215. 



'" Birch, Carl. Sax. No. 22. 



^ V. C. H. Norihanti, i, 3 1 4A. 



'9 Cbrontiottf 171. 



475 



•• Sparke, Scripnrtt, 81. 



" Cart. Antiq. DD. No. 17; also Chart. 

 R. II Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 19, and Pat. 

 10 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 19. These are tiiC 

 only known occasions on which this 

 chapel is mentioned. Swapham, fol. 216, 



** Soc. Antiq, MS. No. 60, fol. 251 ; 

 Swapham, fol. 35. 



'^ Chan. Inq. p.m. 33 Edw. I, No. 54. 



" Ch.irt. R. 33 Edw. I, No. 98 ; ibiJ. 

 m. 5, No. 28. 



