A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



there are several other smaller plantations north of the 

 village of Thornhaugh. Springs rise in the east and 

 west of the parish, one of those in the west appearing, 

 by the names of Sacrewell Lodge and Sacrewell Farm, 

 to have been a holy well. 



The subsoil of the parish is upper lias and inferior 

 oolite, with a good mixed top soil. There are 1,21 3j 

 acres of arable, 97 if of pasture, and 612 of wood. 

 Barley is the chief crop grown. The population is 

 now entirely engaged in agriculture, but several dis- 

 used quarries show that stone was formerly worked. 

 The population of Thornhaugh in 1901 was zoi. 



A road from Wansford to King's Cliffe forms for 

 some distance the southern boundary of the parish 

 and of the soke of Peterborough. Two other roads 

 branching at Wansford towards Stamford and Upping- 

 ham, traverse the parish in a north-westerly direction. 

 There is a Council school for boys and girls, built by 

 the Duke of Bedford. 



The parish was enclosed in 1839 ; the award is in 

 custody of the rector. 



Among the place-names found in this parish are 

 Cross Leys Farm, Nailacre, Blakvvell, Toothill, Kiln 

 Field, the Dagger, and Maiden's Grave cow pasture. 



The village lies to the west of the Stamford road, 

 separated from it by the valley of a small stream, 

 on the west bank of which the church is built. The 

 village street runs east and west up the bank south of 

 the church, and meets a cross-road at the top, along 

 which the rest of the village is built. A little beyond 

 the church, on the south side of the street, is a house 

 which has some mediaeval masonry and a buttress, 

 and at the cross-roads is an early 18th-century house 

 with characteristic doorhead and window details. 

 Below the church is the rectory, on the site of the old 

 manor house, with muUioned windows, partly of the 

 17th century, but mostly modern ; nothing remains 

 of the stone gatehouse mentioned by Bridges. 



A drawing is extant of the former manor house,' 

 dated 1721, entitled 'The old house of the first 

 Russell that was baron of Thornhaugh, now a farm- 

 house belonging to the duke of Bedford.' It shows a 

 two-storey building with mullioned windows, appa- 

 rently the remains of a fine and st.itely mansion. 



The ' vill ' of THORNHJUGH is 



MANORS included in the spurious charter of 

 Wulfhere to the abbey of Peter- 

 borough,' otherwise there is no pre-Conquest mention 

 of the place. In the Domesday Survey it was probably 

 included in the return for Wittering, to which 9 hides 

 are assigned.^ 



The tenant at that date under the abbey was 

 Anschitil de St. Medard,* in whose family Thorn- 

 haugh continued in the male line until the middle of 

 the 15 th century. The St. Medards are still repre- 

 sented, through two heiresses, by the dukes of Bedford, 

 who until a short time ago were lords of the manor. 



The St. Medard holding was one of the largest and 

 most important of the Peterborough fees. In the 



St. Medard. Sable 

 three ban argent and three 

 rings or in the chief. 



reign of Henry I, Anschitil de St. Medard was 

 holding 10 hides and ^ a virgate in Northamptonshire 

 and 3 carucates in Lincoln of the abbey, from which 

 was due the service of six knights.' The fee included 

 lands in Easton, Wittering, 

 Wansford and Etton, as well 

 as Thornhaugh and in Osgodby 

 in Lincolnshire. According to 

 a 1 3th-century Peterborough 

 cartulary, Anschitil was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Richard, who 

 married Mabel Ridel.* This 

 is confirmed by an entry in 

 the Pipe Roll of 1 1 30-1 con- 

 cerning the dower of Mabel, 

 wife of Richard de St. Medard.' 

 Richard was followed by his 

 son Geoffrey and his grandson 

 Peter, whose son Geoffrey was a minor in ward of 

 Abbot Benedict,' and whose fee was confirmed to 

 the monastery by Richard I.' His son Peter was also 

 a minor in ward of Abbot Acharius,'" and left a 

 widow, Alice, and two young sons, Geoffrey and 

 William," who held his lands in 121 2." This 

 Geoffrey or his successor died in 1 280, and was 

 buried at Peterborough. He was certified to hold of 

 the abbot in Northamptonshire, in Thornhaugh and 

 Wansford, the fee of one knight, in Wittering two 

 knights' fees, and in Sibberton and Etton one fee, 

 and he did suit at the court of Castor every three 

 weeks. He was succeeded by Nicholas, a minor, son 

 of his son Geoffrey, who had died before his 

 father." His wife Emma had also died in 1278 

 at Osgodby, and leave was obtained with some 

 difficulty from the abbey to bury her at Stamford 

 according to her desire instead of at Peterborough." 

 Nicholas was succeeded by his son John, who was 

 reported to the crown in i 330 as having been not yet 

 made a knight, though of full age and holding one 

 knight's fee in Thornhaugh.'^ He died in 1354, and 

 was buried at Thornhaugh,'^ and next year the abbot 

 of Peterborough granted to Elizabeth, widow of John, 

 the custody of Nicholas, his son and heir." John, son 

 of Nicholas, died in 1361, seised of half the manor of 

 Thornhaugh, in which there were two water mills and 

 a fulling mill, his heir being his brother Nicholas, 

 aged eighteen.'* The name of the wife of Nicholas was 

 Maud," and he was still in possession in 1396.'° 



About 1422 Thomas de St. Medard did homage to 

 the abbot of Peterborough for four fees in Thorn- 

 haugh, Wansford, Sibberton, and Etton,'' which he 

 was still holding in 1428."' Either this Thomas 

 St. Medard or another Thomas, his successor, with 

 Margaret his wife, was in possession of this manor in 

 1451,'^ and ten years later Thornhaugh was in the 

 hands of William Sapcote, by right of his wife Anne, 

 the daughter and heiress of Thomas de St. Medard." 

 Sir Guy Sapcote, their son," also left a daughter and 

 heiress named Anne, who married first Sir John 



' Add. MS. 32467,^1.242. 



' Birch, Cart, Sax. 22. See Introduc- 

 tion to Soke. 



' f^.C.H. Northants, i, 315a. See also 

 Swapham, fol. 124. 



■* Name often written Semarc or Scy- 

 mark. 



* Cbronicon, 168. 



' Egerton MS. 2733, fol. 125. 

 ' PipeR. 31 Hen. I, m. 9. 



* Egerton MS. 2733, fol. 125. Bene- 

 dict, abbot from 1177 to 1 194. 



9 Cart. Antiq. DD. 17. 



1" Abbot, 1200-10 ; Egerton MS. 

 2733, fol. 125. 



" Assize R. No. 428, m. 125. 



" Red Book ofExch. (Rolls Ser.), 618. 



^^ Cbronicony 4 1 . 



^* Swapham, fol. 161. 



1* Assize R. No. 632, m. 70 d. 



'* Bridges, ii, 594. Bridges quotes 

 from a Peterborough register. 



'^ Cott. Vesp. E.xxi, 102. 



'^ Chan. Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. Ill, 

 No. 64. 



" Feet of F. Northants, 6 Ric. II, 

 No. 57. 



M Cott. Nero, C. vii, fol. 130. 



" Add. MS. 25288. 



*" Exch. K..R. Misc. Bks. iv, 235. 



"' Feet of F. Northants, 30 Hen. VI^ 

 No. 129. 



»• Cott. Nero, C. vii, fol. 202 ; Add. 

 MS. 25288, fol. s. 



^ Ibid. 



