A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The village cross dates from c. 1 300, and has an 

 octagonal base raised on four steps, with a crocketed 

 gablct flanked by pinnacles on each face, the finials of 

 the gablets and pinnacles ending below an embattled 

 cornice. Above is a plain octagonal plinth, from 

 which springs a tapering octagonal shaft, now headless. 



The following place names occur : Lauemannes, 

 Luentifote, Guegir Roods, Haircrofts, Comgreve, and 

 the Huskay. 



ClAPHAWS MJNOR.—Wuiniere, 

 MANORS by his charter of 664, is said to have 

 granted the village of Helpston to the 

 abbey of Peterborough,' but the Ingulph chronicle 

 speaks of it as part of the property of St. Pega's monas- 

 tery which was alienated from it in 1048 by the wrong- 

 ful claim of one Hugolinus the 'treasurer,' perhaps 

 the minister of that name of Edward the Confessor.' 

 The same authority tells also of one Sir Helpo,' 

 from whom the village would doubtless have been 

 named, but Helpo's town is absent alike from 

 the charter of Edgar to Peterborough, Domesday 

 Book, and the 12th-century survey of Northamp- 

 tonshire. Between 1 125 and 1128 Payne of Help- 

 ston was the holder of one third part of a fee,* 

 and at a somewhat later time Roger son of Payne 

 held this same amount in Helpston of the abbot 

 of Peterborough.' This holding, described as a 

 fourth part of a fee, was confirmed to the abbey 

 by the charters of Richard I and Henry III as held 

 by Roger of Helpston.' In 1 243 John son of 

 Roger was holding this land, and he was still living 

 ten years later.' About 1 300 Roger of Higham did 

 homage to the abbot for lands in Helpston,* for which, 

 in 1 309, his son John obtained a grant of free warren.' 

 About 1 3 16 Elizabeth the widow of John of Higham, 

 holding the manor for life as the inheritance of her 

 son, married Thomas Wake of Deeping, who appears 

 as her representative in transactions connected with it.'° 

 After her death, and the death of her elder son John, 

 Thomas of Higham, perhaps a younger son, granted 

 the manor about 1350 to Robert of Thorpe," who 

 was succeeded by his nephew, William." About 1383 

 William of Thorpe transferred the manor to John 

 Tyndale," a member of the family who held the 

 forestership of Cliff Bailliwick in fee, and it was held 

 by his descendants until 1544," when Thomas Tyn- 

 dale and Ann his wife enfeoffed Thomas Taylor of 

 it." Joan, only child and heiress of Thomas Taylor, 

 was married to Daniel Clapham,'' proctor in the 



Clatham. Argent a 

 htnJ azure •wicb six 

 Jleun-de-lii or thereon. 



court of Arches, at some time in the reign of 

 Henry V'lllor Edward VI," and the manor descended 

 to their son, Thomas Clapham, who, according to the 

 representation of one John Fridaye, a mason, who was 

 party in a suit against him, was a formidable oppo- 

 nent of a ' poore man,' being a ' gentleman of great 

 lyvynge, friendship, and allegiannce in the countie.' " 

 It was presumably this Thomas Clapham who, in 

 1572, sold the manor to William Fitzwilliam," 

 with whose descendants it has remained, being de- 

 scribed on some occasions as 

 the ' manor of Clappum,' or as 

 ' Clapham's manor.' " 



There was evidently some 

 confusion in the reign of Eliza- 

 beth between the boundaries 

 of this manor and that of the 

 Queen's manor of Torpel in 

 UfFord. In 1597 the court of 

 Torpel fined the jurors of the 

 court of Clapham's manor in 

 Helpston for ' wrongfully plac- 

 ing ' a stone on certain ground 

 ' within the perambulation of 



Torpel manor, where they have no right of com- 

 mon.' " An investigation had also taken place a few 

 years previously to discover whether land in the 

 occupation of Robert Styles belonged to the manor 

 of Torpel or that of Helpston." 



ffOODHALL. — There was a second holding in 

 Helpston, sometimes called the manor of Woodhall. In 

 1 146 the fee of Eylsi in Helpston was confirmed to the 

 abbey of Peterborough by a papal grant." In 1203-4 

 Roger son of Elias, described further in a deed of 

 1 226 as son of Elias of Helpston," w.ts a landholder," 

 but in what manner or to what extent is not 

 determined. In 1252-3 Avice, the widow of 

 Walran de la Woodhall, appears holding land in 

 Helpston ; this is the first intimation of the name 

 afterwards given to the manor." In the reign of 

 Richard I, Waleran of Helpston, son of Ralph, 

 was represented by Robert de Mortimer in a suit 

 against Geoffrey of Southorpe." Ralph de Mor- 

 timer, probably grandson of Waleran de Mor- 

 timer," with John Kingsthorp, was holding an 

 eighth of a fee in Helpston and UfFord of the 

 manor of Southorpe in the middle of the 14th cen- 

 tury ."^ In 1386 this land was conveyed by a Richard 

 of Balderton and Ann his wife to Hugh of Sulgrave." 



> Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 22. See intro- 

 duction to Soke. 



^ Fulman, Scriptorti, p. 62. 



" Ibid. p. 113. 



■* Cbronicon, p. 171. 



4 Cott. Vcsp. E. xxii, fol. 99* et scq. 



6 Cart. Antiq. DD 17 ; Chart R. 

 II Hen. II, pt. i, m. 19. 



'According to Bridges (ii, p. 514) a 

 John of Helpston was holding in 1296. 



' Cott. Vesp. E. xxii, p. 46. The in- 

 scription on the tomb of this Roger can 

 still be seen in the church of Helpston. 



» Chart R, 3 Edw. II, m. 8, No. 24. 

 In a suit about 1297 (De Banco, 25 

 Edw. I, Hil. m. i) Roger of Higham 

 states that John of Helpston, brother and 

 heir of William of Helpston, enfeoffed 

 him with the advowson of the church of 

 Helpston, a messuage and some land 

 there ; the transfer of the manor may 

 have taken place at the same time. In 

 1316 Alice widow of John of Helpston 

 was still holding one third of the manor in 



dower (Feet of F. Northants, 9 Edw. II, 

 No. 233). 



" Cott. Vesp. E. xxii, fol. no ; Chart. 

 R, 4 Edw. Ill, m. 41, No. 103. 



" Feet of F. Northants, 23 Edw. Ill, 

 Nos. 365, 366. 



" Soc. Antiq. MS. No. 38, fol. 1 10. 



" William of Thorpe granted the 

 manor to trustees (Feet of F. Northants, 

 7 Ric. II, No. 13) who enfeoffed John 

 Tyndale (Close, 20 Ric. II, pt. i, m. I2 i/.). 



n Chan. Inq. p. m. 3 Hen. V, No. 7 ; 

 Ibid. 5 Hen. VI, No. 31. 



" Feet of F. Northants, Trin. 36 

 Hen. VIII, No. 31. 



'* Metcalfe, fisit. of Northants, p. 13. 



" Diet. Kat. Bio^. 



18 Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), Bdlc. 46, No. 7. 



1' Feet of F. Northants, East. 14 Elii. 



*> Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccLxixiii, 

 113. 



21 Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), Bdle. 195, No. 85, 

 P.R.O. 



2a E«ch. Dep. Hil. 35 Eliz. No. 12. 



496 



™ Sparkc, 5cn^nir«, p. 78. 



»< Anct. Deeds, B. 4228. 



^ Feet of F. Northants, 5 John, No. 176. 



"6 Ibid. 37 Hen. Ill, No. 622. 



W In a plea of 6 Ric. I (Abbrev. Plac. 

 Rec. Com. p. 9) Robert de Mortimer ap- 

 pears in place of his father. In 8 Ric. I 

 Waleran son of Ralph appears as plaintiff 

 in the same suit (Pipe R. 8 Ric. I, m 9). 

 In I John the plaintiff is called Waleran 

 of Helpston {Cur. Reg. R. Rec. Com. ii, 

 193). Robert was therfore possibly the 

 son of Waleran. 



^'' Chan. Inq. p.m. 19 Edw. II, No. 39; 

 Inq. a.q.d. file Ix, No. 9. See UlTord. 



2' Soc. Antiq. MS. No. 38, fol. 150*, 

 • 58. 



"» Feet of F. Northants, 10 Ric. II, 

 No. 95. This portion is here described as 

 a moiety of the manor of Helpston, called 

 Westhall, the only time this place-name 

 occurs. It might possibly be a mistake 

 for Woodhall. 



