PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



or fair in any descriptions or accounts of the manor. 

 In the grant to Francis de Court of the manor of 

 Torpel on the forfeiture of Thomas, earl of Kent, it 

 is stated that he and his men, tenants and residents 

 within the manor of Torpel and the lordship of the 

 same, shall be quit of toll throughout the realm during 

 his life as in the time of the earl.' 



In the earliest description of the manor, taken on 

 the death of Ralph Camoys in 1276, there was a 

 capital messuage, perhaps the mansion whose walls 

 can still be seen in Ashton Lawn ; and a water-mill 

 and a fisher^' are also mentioned. The mill, which 

 appears in many subsequent descriptions and accounts, 

 was probably Lolham mill ' on the Welland, and the 

 fishery seems to have been annexed to it.' After 

 1330* until about 1 397 a wind-mill is also said to 

 be appurtenant to the manor ; but at the later date it is 

 said ' to be worth nothing except repairs," and there 

 is no subsequent reference to it. 



The view of frankpledge of this manor belonged, 

 like the rest of the soke of Peterborough, to the 

 abbey until the dissolution,^ though the abbot appears 

 to have been defrauded of his rights after the manor 

 was acquired by the crown.' View of frankpledge 

 was however granted with the manor to the servants 

 of Prince Charles,* and from that date is always men- 

 tioned in the transfers of the property. The court for 

 the manor is still kept by Lord Kesteven at the 

 White Hart Inn, UfFord. 



DOIVNH^LL. — Thh small holding, originally 

 part of the manor of Torpel, is not called a 

 manor until the middle of the i6th century, and 

 after that time is sometimes called the manor of 

 Ufford, sometimes the manor of Downhall. Thur- 

 stan of UfFord, who in 1199 held 28 acres of 

 land in UfFord, was perhaps one of the first tenants 

 of this holding.' About 1300 it was found that 

 Walter, son of Walter of UfFord, held the land in 

 UfFord of the lord of Torpel, which Thomas his 

 ancestor had acquired.'" The description of the 

 manor of Torpel, taken on the death of John Camoys, 

 who sold Torpel to the king, included a messuage at 

 Downhall," the fint mention of the title by which 

 this holding was afterwards known. 



The family of Mortimer, who also held in Helpston, 

 were probably tenants of Downhall in the 14th cen- 

 tury ; they held land in UfFord of both Torpel " and 

 the Southorpe fees " at that time, and they were 

 followed by William Molesworth and William Sleford, 

 who about I 397 held a A fee in UfFord of the earl of 

 Kent, lord of Torpel.'* The manor of Downhall 

 was in the hands of the Molesworths about 1450'* 

 and remained in their possession until 1555 when 

 it was sold to Francis Quarles.'* This Francis was pro- 

 bably the owner of the complete terrier of the manor 

 which exists at UfFord, dated 1566 with F. Q. stamped 



UFFORD 



in gold on the vellum cover. George Quarles is written 

 within in a later hand. George Quarles, son of Francis, 

 died in 1585 holding the ' manor of UfFord, commonly 

 called the manor of Downhall,' and another chief mes- 

 suage in UfFord commonly called 'Da wberies manor.'" 

 He was succeeded by his son Francis, aged eleven. 

 The Quarles family continued to reside in UfFord 

 until the end of the 17th century." The manor was 

 acquired before 1720 by the Trollope family whose 

 representative. Lord Kesteven, is now lord. 



There was also a messuage and land called 

 UPHALL IN UFFORD which was sometimes called 

 the manor of Ufford in the 15th and 1 6th 

 centuries; it was probably held with Downhall by 

 the Mortimers, as John de Mortimer held h a 

 fee in Ufford in 1335," and about 1397 William 

 Molesworth and William Sleford were holding a 

 quarter of this fee.*" No holder is given for the other 

 quarter, but in 1 46 1, in a Peterborough rental, separate 

 payments were made for the fee of Downhall and the 

 land once of Hugh Mortimer, now of Robert Halley 

 in Ufford." In 1480 Egidia, widow of Henry Ridel, 

 petitioned against Robert Halley, the husband of her 

 step-daughter, for the ' manor of Ufford,' part of the 

 estate of her husband," In 1504 Robert Halley died 

 seised of the ' manor of Ufford,' " which is termed, in 

 the inquisition of his son John, a messuage called 

 Uphall in Ufford." John's daughter Anne married 

 John Stidolph and the estate continued in that family 

 for some years.'" Ufford Hall, which was purchased by 

 Mr. M. W. Whitmore from Lord Kesteven in 1902, 

 is traditionally said to be on the site of Uphall. It 

 was bought by Sir John Trollope, great-grandfather of 

 Lord Kesteven, in 1809 of William Leigh Symes, whose 

 father had acquired it in 1792 from George Manners. 

 This house was probably built by the Manners 

 family.'' 



ASHTON, in 1 83 1 a hamlet of Ufford, was after- 

 wards created a separate civil parish. In 1887 it was 

 added to the civil parish of Sainton, of which it now 

 forms a part. All the land of the hamlet, which 

 probably grew up round the house of the Torpel 

 family, was held of the manor of Torpel. Ashton is 

 mentioned in the spurious charter of Wulfhere in 

 664," but not in the genuine royal charters and verj' 

 seldom in the Peterborough records. It is now the 

 property of Lord Kesteven. 



The advowson of the church of 

 ADVOWSON St. Andrew '^ at Ufford, to which 

 St. Mary at Sainton is a chapel of 

 ease, belonged to the lords of the manor of Torpel, 

 and was consequently often presented to by the crown 

 from the 13th century onwards. In 1552 it was 

 granted by Edward V^I to Lord Clynton," who soon 

 aftenvards transferred it to Leonard Irbie, by whom 

 it was sold to John Dryden in 1553.*' The advowson 



1 Pat. I Hen. IV. pt. vi, m. 3. 



^ For history, see Bainton, in which 

 parish its ruins lie. 



'Chan. Inq. p. m. 4 Edw. Ill (ist 

 Nos.), No. 38. 



* Mins. Acct. 27 & 28 Hen. VIII, No. 

 10. 



' Chan. Inq, p. m. 2oRic, II, file 30, 

 No. 36. 



« Cott. Nero, C, vii, i ;o. 



■ Pat. 3 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 20. In 

 this agreement it is stated that the judges 

 considered that Torpel never had been 

 vested in the crown. 



' Pat, 17 Jac. I, pt. i, m. 17. 



' Pipe R. I John, m. 2 d. 



'" Chan. Inq. p. m. 29 Edw. I, No. no. 



" Ibid. 29 Edw. I, No. 31. 



"Inq. a.q. d. file Lx, No. 9; Chan. 

 Inq. p.m. 4. Edw. Ill, No. 38. 



^ Soc. Antiq. No. 38, fol. 158. 



" Chan. Inq. p. m. 20 Ric. II, No. 30. 



's E. Chan. Proc. bdle. 13, No. 2. 



" Feet of F. Northants, Trin. i and 

 2 Ph. and Mary. 



'■ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxii, 60. 



IS Lay Subs. R. V/- 



19 Chan. Inq. p. m. 26 Edw. Ill, 

 No. 54.. 



™ Ibid. 20 Ric. II, No. 30, 



535 



^ Cott. Nero, C vii, 202 </. 



» Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 66, No. 59. 



>* Chan. Inq. p. m. (Ser. 2), x\'ii, 17. 



** Ibid, xxxiii, 32. 



** Chan. Inq. p. m. cclxiv. 175. For 

 the Ridela, Halleys and Stidolphs, lee 

 Wittering. 



^ Doc. penes Lord Kesteven. 



*< Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 22. 



'^ Bacon {Liter Regit) states this church 

 to be under the invocation of the Holy 

 Trinity. 



» Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. vii, m. 14. 



«» Com. Pleas Deeds enrolUd Trn. 

 I Mary, m. i 5. 



