A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Cromwell. Or a chief 

 gules and a bend avure 

 over all. 



to have been lowly born and to have raised himself to 

 wealth. He is also thought to have begun the house 

 at CoUywcston, continued by his more illustrious suc- 

 cessors. Sir William was careful to secure his title 

 and obtained a release of all right from John Merbury, 

 whose wife was heiress of another branch of the 

 Hothams.' Before his death he appears to have 

 granted the manor to feoffees for the use of his wife. 

 These trustees, among whom were Thomas Sutton, 

 then of Milton, and William, bishop of Lincoln, sold 

 the manor about 144 1 to Humphrey earl of Straf- 

 ford, Ralph Lord Cromwell and many others.' The 

 real mover in this sale appears to have been Ralph, 

 Lord Cromwell, who lived and died at Collyweston, 

 and did much towards the 

 building of the beautiful house 

 finished by Margaret duchess 

 of Richmond. He, in com- 

 pany with those who acted with 

 him in 1441, obt-iined a re- 

 lease of right from Thomas Egle 

 and his wife, possible claimants 

 of the manor on the Hauvill 

 side.' Ralph held the trea- 

 surership of England and vari- 

 ous other offices under the 

 crown in the reign of Henry VL 

 He founded a college at Tat- 

 tershall, and left orders that he should be buried 

 there. He died in 1455 without children, leaving 

 as his executors Sir John Fortescue, William bishop 

 of Winchester, and John Portington.* The history 

 of Coll}weston for the next few years is some- 

 what obscure. Sir John Fortescue, probably in his 

 position as trustee, obtained in 1455 a release of 

 all right in the manor from Edmund Skerne, a 

 distant kinsman of the Hothams.' In 1459 Henry VI 

 granted to Anne duchess of Buckingham the manor 

 of Collyweston, which pertained to the crown by 

 reason of the attainder of Richard earl of War- 

 wick." Anne was the widow of the Humphrey 

 earl of Stafford and duke of Buckingham who 

 acted with Ralph Lord Cromwell in the trans- 

 action with regard to this manor. How the manor 

 came into the hands of Richard earl of War- 

 wick is quite unknown. After the accession of 

 Edward IV he recovered possession of the manor and 

 it descended from him to his daughter, who married 

 George duke of Clarence, and so to the ill-fated young 

 earl of Warwick.' It seems possible that during the 

 time of Henry's madness and the confusion of the 

 latter years of his reign, Collyweston was wrested 

 from Sir John Fortescue, a prominent member of the 

 court party, and obtained by the Earl of Warwick, then 

 one of the most powerful of the Yorkist adherents. 



After the execution of George duke of Clarence, 

 Collyweston, nominally as the inheritance of his son, 

 passed into the hands of the crown, and except for 

 short periods remained so for more than a century. 

 The first tenant in the new conditions was Margaret 



countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII, who 

 granted the manor to her for life in the second year 

 of his reign.* She frequently resided at Collyweston 

 and did much for the improvement of the house and 

 grounds. A few years after her death in i 509 the 

 manor was granted by Henry VIII to his natural son, 

 the young duke of Richmond, who on several 

 occasions lodged there for short periods.' In February 

 1536 an Act was passed in Parliament assuring the 

 manor of Collyweston to Queen Anne Boleyn, but as 

 she was executed in May of the same year the Act 

 never took effect.'" In the latter part of his reign 

 Henry VIII several times visited Collyweston. Privy 

 Councils were held there on three occasions in I 54 1." 



Edward VI granted the manor to his sister Eliza- 

 beth as part of her maintenance." After her accession 

 to the crown she kept the manor in her own hands 

 and like her fither stayed at Collyweston occasionally 

 and held a Privy Council there in 1566." 



James I, in the last year of his reign, expressed his 

 intention of granting Collyweston in fee to Patrick 

 Mawle, one of his grooms of the bedchamber, in con- 

 sideration of faithful service." His wishes were 

 carried out by his son immediately after his death." 

 By Patrick Mawle Collyweston was sold a few years 

 later to Sir Robert Heath, the Attorney-General.'" Sir 

 Robert took a prominent part in the events of the 

 great Rebellion, and though his loyalty was at one 

 time doubted by the Royalists, he was charged as a 

 delinquent in 1645 and his estates sequestrated.'' 

 They were recovered however in 1647 by his sons 

 Edward and John, who in 1650 sold the manor of 

 Collyweston to Moses and Peter Tryon.'* Moses was 

 probably the son of Peter Tryon, a Dutch merchant, 

 who in the reign of Elizabeth fled to England from 



House in Village, Collyweston. 



1 FeetofF.Northants, 5 Hen.V.No. 27; 

 10 Hen. VI, No. 62 ; Cott. Chart, iv, 55. 



2 Ibid. Chan. Inq. p.m. 14 Hen. VI, 

 No. 12. 



3 Close, 19 Hen. VI, m. 39 ; De Banc. 

 R. No. 723, m. 474. 



■* Dugdale, Baronage, ii, 45. 



» Close, 34 Hen. VI, m. 22. 



' Pat. 38 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 25. 



' Ibid. 18 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 21. 



Bridges (11,435) mentions a fine levied 

 in 10 Hen. VI of this manor by William 

 carl of Warwick. This fine cannot now 

 b« traced, and as there was no William 

 earl of Warwick at that date, there 

 seems to have been some confusion about 

 it. 8 Pat. 2 Hen. VII, pt. i. 



9 L. and P. Hen. Fill, iv, pt. i, p. 

 692 ; ibid, viii, p. 56. 

 i» Ibid. X, p. 87. 



II Ibid, xjci, 507, 510, 590. 



" Pat. 4 Edw. VI, pt. iii. 



" Cal. ofS. P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 277. 



I-" Ibid. 1623-5, P- S°9- 



" Pat. I Chas. I, pt. iii, m. 22, pt. xi, 

 m. 30. 



" Cal. ofS. P. Dom. 1629-31, p. 489. 



'? Dkt. Nat. Biog. 



^ Proc. Com. for Compounding, p. 1471 ; 

 Feet of F. Norlhants, East. 1650. 



