A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



appointed in the church of St. Andrew at Cotterstock, 

 with twelve brethren or chaplains secular or religious.' 

 In 1338 the manor was confirmed to the provost and 

 chaplains, and they were granted at the same time 

 free warren in all their demesne lands at Cotterstock, 

 and permission to make a park.' 



The manor, or at least a considerable part of it, 

 remained in the hands of thiscollcge for over a century, 

 nominally for two centuries. The college however 

 gradually lost much of its original character. By the 

 statutes of the foundation the provost was to be elected by 

 the chaplains, but from 1398 onwards he was instead 

 presented by members of the Holt family and their 

 successors, the Norwiches, by virtue of a grant in 

 1384 by John Knyvet to John Holt, * of the ad- 

 vowson of the provostry of Cotterstock, with the 

 services of the provost and chaplains and the 

 patronage and all other rights which he or his 

 heirs might claim in the said advowson or the 

 possessions of the said prior and chaplains.' These 

 premises, John Knyvet stated, had been granted 

 in 1357^ by John son of Roger Giffard, relation and 

 heir of John GifFard, founder of the college, to 

 Richard Kynvet, father of John. By the middle of 

 the 1 6th century the chaplains of the college had dis- 

 appeared, only the provost remained as incumbent of 

 the church with the college for his parsonage, and 

 the manor was in the hand of Simon Norwich. 

 Exactly how and where the manor was wrested from 

 the GifFard foundation by the Norwich family is not 

 very clear. There was much 

 litigation concerning it in the 

 1 6th century, and Simon Nor- 

 wich, the representative at that 

 time of the family, affirmed 

 that his grandfather Simon held 

 the manor in demesne as of fee 

 in the reign of Edward IV.* 

 Of this there is no absolute 

 proof, but by 1537 the 'col- 

 lege' consisted only of the 

 provost, from whom, perhaps 

 by collusion with Simon Nor- 

 wich, all right to the manor of Cotterstock was 

 recovered by John Cray. Simon made a forcible 

 entry into the manor ; John Cray formally com- 

 plained and brought a suit in Chancery against 

 Simon. Judgement was given in Simon's favour 

 and he further secured his title against John Cray 

 in 1 541.* Thus the matter rested for a time, 

 though the Court of Augmentations was on the 

 track of Simon, until in the first year of Edward VI's 

 reign the possessions the chantry ought to have 



Norwich. Tarty gules 

 and azure a lion ermine. 



Kirkham, already a small landholder in Cotterstock.' 

 He naturally challenged the title of the Norwiches, and 

 brought a suit in the Star Chamber against John son 

 of Simon Norwich.' The pleadings in this suit 

 throw no more light on what really happened with 

 regard to the manor. It was brought to an end for 

 a time by the death of Sir Robert in 1558, but it 

 was revived in Chancery by his son William. Finally 

 he and Simon, son of John Norwich, came to a 

 compromise by arbitration. The actual award has 

 not been found, but the lands appear to have been 

 divided, and from this point the two manors of Holts, 

 or Holts and Cotterstock, and of Cotterstock, or the 

 provost's manor, are clearly distinguished." The latter 

 belonged to the Kirkham family of Fineshade and 

 remained in their possession until the beginning of the 

 1 8 th century.' Viscount Melville is now lord of the 

 manor. 



HOLTS MANOR.— TYiCK is no early history of 

 this estate ; it may have been a portion of the Torpel 

 fee which became separated from the manor, or some of 

 the land in Cotterstock held by Richard FitzHugh in the 

 1 2th century, who, according to a theory of a Peter- 

 borough scribe in the 14th century, was Richard, son 

 of Hugh de Waterville, who held land in Cotter- 

 stock of the fee of the abbot of Peterborough.'" 

 There is however no real evidence to connect Holt's 

 manor with any one of the several small estates which 

 appear in Cotterstock in the 13th and 14th centuries. 



The Holts first appear to have some connexion 

 with Cotterstock in the reign of Edward III. About 

 1368 John Holt appears as a 

 party in a suit relating to a 

 messuage and 35 acres of land 

 there." In 1384 John Knyvet 

 granted to John Holt the ad- 

 vowson of the provostry of 

 Cotterstock," etc., and on the 

 death of Hugh Holt in 1420 

 a messuage and land in Cot- 

 terstock is mentioned as well 

 as the advowson." His brother 

 Richard in 1428-9 held three 

 messuages, one carucate, three 

 virgates and 10 acres of land 

 with three cottages in Cotterstock and one cottage 

 in Glapthorn." It seems possible that the Holts, 

 presuming on their right of patronage, acquired these 

 lands from the college in much the same way, 

 but less obstrusively, as their descendants finally 

 obtained the whole endowment. The heir of 

 Richard Holt was his cousin Simon Norwich, who, 

 according to an inquiry taken on his death in 1468, 



Holt. Argent a bend 

 table ivith three Jieurs tie 

 lit argent thereon. 



had were granted for a consideration to Sir Robert held no lands in Northamptonshire," probably be- 



1 Pat. 11 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 39. 



'^ Chart R. 12 Edw. Ill, m. 10, No. 15. 



* Close, 8 Ric. II, m. 24.1/. 



* John Norwich, the son of the Simon 

 temp, Edward IV, on his death in 1 504, 

 is said to have been seised in demesne as 

 of fee of the manor and advowson of 

 Cotterstock and other specified lands in 

 Cotterstock which had appeared before in 

 the Holt inquisitions (Chan. Inq. p.m. 

 (ser. 2), rviii, 54.). His son Simon, who 

 was undoubtedly in possession of the 

 provost's manor, is said to have had 

 exactly the same possessions (ibid. Ixxxix, 

 99). But in the inquisition on John 

 son of Simon, who died in 1557 in the 

 midst of the litigation about Cotterstock, 

 another 'manor in Cottinstock, formerly 



belonging to the chantry of Cottinstock,* 

 is said to have been held by his grandfather 

 John Norwich in the time of Edward IV 

 (ibid, cxii, 1 1 5). Themanorwhichappeared 

 with the advowson in the former inquisi- 

 tions is now for the first time called 

 Holt's manor, Inq. p.m. in the i6th 

 century are not very trustworthy in detail, 

 and it seems most likely from the other 

 evidences that the 'manor of Cotterstock* 

 in the first two inquisitions was the 

 provost's manor, and the three messuages, 

 etc., the estate afterwards known as Holt's 

 manor. 



« Star Chamb. Proc. Hen. VHI, vol. 

 xvi, 317; Feet of F. Northants, Mich. 

 33 Hen. VIII ; Chant. Cert. 36, No. 35; 

 Leland (ed. Hearne), iv, 49. 



^ L. and P, Hen. VIII, iv, pt. ii, p. 2, 

 168. 



^ Ibid, xiv, pt. i, p. 172 ; Proc. Ct. of 

 Aug. bdle. 19, No. 21 ; Pat. I Edw. VI, 

 pt. vi ; Star Chamb. Proc. Edw. VI, 

 bdle. vi, No. 96. 



8 Chan. Proc. (ser. 2), bdle, 106, No. 

 42 5 Close, 6 Eliz. pt. xvii, m. 34 ; ibid. 

 pt. XV, m. 32 ; Pat. 7 Eliz. pt. viii. 



* Chan. Inq. p. m. (ser. 2), cclxxx, 76 ; 

 Feet of F. Northants, East. 23 Chas. I. 

 '» Soc. Antiq. MS. No. 38, fol. 161. 

 " DeBanc. R. No. 429, m. lifid. 

 1^ See above. 



" Chan. Inq. p. m. g Hen. VI, No. 

 103. 

 " Ibid. 30 Hen. VI, No. 13. 

 " Ibid. 9-10 Edw. IV, No. 40. 



