A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 





o wnom Keginaia ae i C!p Mp "nP i 



ille, the successor of Vb ''<^' <^' </ 



i, granted the manor \^ yc^»T2^ 



-holm for life ' except ^**'^A<^^ 



branch of the same family, held in Longthorpe near 

 Peterborough, in Overton (Orton) Watervillc in 

 Huntingdonshire, and elsewhere. William de VVater- 

 ville, abbot of Peterborough, was a member of this 

 house. 



By 1 189 Ascelin had been succeeded by Hugh,' 

 who married Is.ibella, daughter of Richard de Pec' 

 Hugh brought a suit against Abbot Andrew' of 

 Peterborough for the stewardship of the abbey which 

 ended in a compromise by which Hugh for twelve 

 marks of silver agreed not to assert his claim during 

 Abbot Andrew's life.* In 1255 Richard son of 

 Hugh, whose lands in Northamptonshire were con- 

 fiscated in I2l6* for refusing to comply with the 

 king's demand for service in the absence of the abbot 

 of Peterborough,* obtained a 

 grant of free warren in his 

 demesne lands at Marholra.' 

 By I 241 he was dead, leaving 

 a widow Alice, afterwards 

 married to Richard de Bar- 

 nack, to whom Reginald de 

 Watervil 

 Richard, 

 of Marholi 



the Park and the wood called 

 Luadril." In 1261 Reginald 

 and Strangia his wife ex- 

 changed with Roger de la 

 Hide and Sarah his wife, 



the manor of Marholm, except the advowson of the 

 church, for the manor of Sudborough for the lives of 

 Roger and Sarah.' By 1284 the manor was again in 

 the hands of Reginald, who settled it on himself and 

 his wife Isabella and the heirs of their bodies, with 

 reversion to the heirs of Reginald if he died without 

 an heir by Isabella.'" In 1287 'Lord Reginald de 

 Watervile ' died, and ' w.as buried in the church of 

 Burg.' The manor was given for life to his widow, 

 who shortly afterwards married Edmund Gasthelyn," 

 and on her death it was divided between the three 

 daughters and heiresses of Reginald, Joan, Elizabeth, 

 and Margery, who married respectively Robert de 

 Veer, Robert de Wykham, and Henry de Titchmarsh. 

 Robert the son of Robert de Veer sold his share of 

 the manor to Richard de la Pole ; the son of Robert 

 de Wykham disposed of his to Simon de Drayton, who 

 enfeoffed Robert of Thorpe ; and John de Titchmarsh, 

 son of Margery, the third daughter, enfeoffed with his 

 share William of Thorpe, either the brother or nephew 

 of Robert." The de la Pole share was also acquired 

 by William of Thorpe,'^ and in I 384 the whole manor 

 was in his possession." At his death in I 39 1 he left 

 to John Wittelbury, his kinsman, Longthorp, Milton, 

 and Marholm, provided the said John should bear his 

 arms and maintain two chantry priests, one at Mar- 

 holm and the other at Thorp and Milton.'^ From 



Waterville. GuUt 

 povjdered 'with cronlcti 

 jitchy argent a fette dan- 

 cetty argent. 



this date the descent of the manor follows that of 

 Milton in Castor, and the owner of Milton House is 

 still the lord of the manor. In 1522 Sir Willi.im 

 Fitzwilliam obtained confirmation of Henry Ill's 

 grant of free warren in Marholm." 



The advowson of the church of 

 ADrOlf'SON Marholm has always belonged to the 

 lords of the manor. 



There was a chantry called St. Guthlac's chantry in 

 Marholm church, founded by Sir William of Thorpe 

 and Dame Anne his wife. It is mentioned in his will, 

 dated 1391." In 1397 James de Roos and others 

 who acted as trustees for Sir William obtained leave to 

 grant a messuage and land called the Hermitage Place 

 of St. Guthlac in Marholm to the chaplain of the 

 chantry lately founded there, the messuage being held 

 of the abbot of Peterborough by the service of one 

 red flower." In 1549 the chantry was served by 

 Roger Aspden, ' meanly learned and having no other 

 living ' ; it was in the parish church, and houseled 

 persons to the number of 140." 



The church of our Lady*" stands a 



CHURCH short distance to the south-west of 

 the village, and consists of chancel, 

 nave with aisles and south porch, and west tower. 



The tower and chancel are faced with ashlar, and 

 the nave is of rubble masonry with ashlar dressings. 

 The nave and chancel roofs are of flat pitch, leaded, 

 with stone parapets, that of the chancel being em- 

 battled, and the aisle roofs are covered with Collyweston 

 slates. 



The tower is the oldest part of the church, c. 1 1 80- 

 90, and measures 10 ft. 9 in. from north to south by 

 1 1 ft. 9 in. from e.ast to west inside." The nave, 

 32 ft. 6 in. by 18 ft. 6 in., with the chancel arch, 

 dates from c. 1240, and shows no remains of any 

 work contemporary with or earlier than the tower. 

 The chancel, 36 ft. by 20 ft., is on a scale altogether 

 too large for the rest of the church, having been re- 

 built about 1 530 by Sir William Fitzwilliam. The 

 aisles of the nave were burnt and their outer walls 

 pulled down, apparently at some time in the 1 6th cen- 

 tury, the arcades being blocked and windows from 

 the destroyed aisles built into the blocking. This 

 arrangement continued till 1868, when the blocking 

 was removed and the aisles rebuilt. At the same 

 time the south porch, which seems to have been of 

 Elizabethan date, was pulled down and a new one 

 was built." 



The chancel has a large east window of five cinque- 

 foiled lights with tracery under a four-centred head, 

 two four-light windows on the north, and two on the 

 south, of similar design and detail. Between the 

 windows on the south side is a small doorway with a 

 four-centred head, over which on the outside is a 

 large painted 18th-century sundial. The chancel 

 arch has clustered responds with moulded capitals and 



» Cart. Antiq. DD. 17. 



^ Fed. from the Plea Rolls (Ed. Wrot- 

 tesley), 482. 



' Abbot from 1 1 94-99- 



< Abbrev. PUc. (Rcc. Coin.), 3. 



' Close, 18 John, m. 5. 



« Swapham, fol. 269. 



- Chart. R. 19 Hen. Ill, m. 5. 



8 Feet of F. Northants, 25 Hen. HI, 

 No. 460. 



» Ibid. 45 Hen. Ill, No. 742. 

 >» Ibid. 12 Edw. I, No. 105. 

 " Cbronieon, 142, 149. 



'■^ Soc. Antiq. MS. No. 38, fol. idob ; 

 Cott. Vesp. E. xxii, it 2. 



'^ Feet of F. Northants, 29 Edw. Ill, 

 No. 414. 



" Feet of F. Div. co. 7 Ric. II, 

 No. 13. 



'^ Northants N. and Q. iv, I4t. 



>« Pat. 13 Hen. VIII, pt. il. 



'" Northants, No. 2, iv, 141. 



^ Chan. Inq. p.m. 20 Ric. II, No. 73. 



" Chant. Cert. 35, No. 32. 



2» Richard Lytili (1516) left his body to 

 be buried in the churchyard of our Lady 



500 



of Marholm. Northants Wills, Bk. A, 

 fol, 316. See also Bk. B, fol. 102. 



^ Its east wall is some 5 inches thinner 

 than the other three, a feature which 

 generally points to the inclusion of the 

 west wall of an earlier nave in the cast 

 wall of an added tower, but in this case 

 there seems no evidence that the thinner 

 wall is of a different date to the rest. 



** A good description of the church 

 before the alterations of 1S6S is given in 

 Sweeting's Parish Churches in and around 

 Peterborough, 5-8, 



