WILLYBROOK HUNDRED 



COTTERSTOCK 



cause he granted his lands for a period only to 

 Walter Oudley, the provost of Cotterstock in the 

 reign of Edward IV, as is stated by his descendants 

 in the suit about Cotterstock in the 1 6th century. 

 His son, John Norwich, died in I 504, holding exactly 

 the same lands as Richard Holt and in addition the 

 ' manor of Cotterstock.' ' The possessions of Simon 

 son of John are described in a similar manner. On 

 the death of his son John in 1454 the manor is called 

 Holt's manor. By Charles, grandson of John, some at 

 least of these lands were sold before 1667 to John 

 Norton, who had for some time been a resident in 

 Cotterstock.' By 1659 the Nortons were owners of 

 all the lands which had belonged to the Norwich 

 family,' and, according to local repute, not long after of 

 some also of the Kirkhams' property.* They were an 

 important local family ; in the Commonwealth par- 

 ticularly they were very influential in the affairs of 

 Cotterstock. Though John Norton seems to have 

 supported the Parliamentary party, he did not en- 

 courage any unauthorized sects of Nonconformists ; in 

 1655 he was included in a list of those who 'have 

 all along given the power unto the Beast and have 

 fought with the Lamb, and to this day think they do 

 God service in imprisoning his servants,' and then specific 

 instances are given of his persecution of the Quakers.' 

 But in 1646 John Norton, senior, was described as ' a 

 gentleman of approved fidelity.' ° About 1693 this 

 estate in Cotterstock was sold by Doyley Norton to 

 Daniel Disney, Nathaniel Gould, and William Massey, 

 who immediately conveyed it to Elmes Steward.' 

 The wife of Elmes Steward was a relative of the poet 

 Dryden,who spent a good part of the two last years of 

 his life at Cotterstock Hall, and who shows by his letters 

 at this period his appreciation of the kindness of 

 Mrs. Steward.* Elmes Steward died in 1724, leaving 

 instructions that all his manors and real estate should 

 be sold.' The estate passed through several hands in the 

 1 8th century, and was finally bought at the beginning 

 of the 19th by Jane, wife of the sixteenth earl of 

 Westmorland. She left it to her son, the Hon. Henry 

 Fane, who, dying unmarried, beque.ithed it to his 

 cousin Henry Dundas, third Viscount Melville. The 

 present Viscount Melville is now the owner of this 

 property. 



Cotterstock Hall, a dignified but not a large 

 house, is an attractive specimen of its kind, built of 

 wrought stone with mullioned windows, E-shapcd in 

 plan, with its principal front to the south, and a 

 north-west wing containing the kitchens. The house 

 is of two stories with an attic, the south front having 

 plain gables at either end with ball finials, and a small 

 central scrolled gable on the main wall of the house, 

 standing back from the open balustrade which crowns 

 the two-story central porch. 



On the central gable is the date 1 65 8 with the 

 initials of John Norton, and nothing in the house 

 suggests a much earlier year for its commencement. 



The stage of development represented by its plan is 

 that in which the last traces of the mediaeval hall and 

 screens are giving way to the modern vestibule. The 

 porch leads to a passage with three arches on each 

 side, originally open, with a small hall on the left, 

 from the north-west angle of which the original 

 staircase rises, and a larger room on the right, now a 

 dining-room. The main staircase of the house is a 

 wooden one, in a projecting bay on the north front, 

 opposite the south porch. In the upper rooms is a 

 good deal of panelling of a simple kind and 1 7th 

 century date, but the best features of the house are 

 the Ketton-stone chimney pieces, with moulded 

 cornices of plain renaissance detail, and in some cases 

 a simply-carved central panel. 



The exterior has suffered little from later alterations, 

 the chief being the replacement by sash windows of 

 the original ground story windows at either end of the 

 south front, and the removal of the leaded lights in 

 nearly every other case. The attic in the west gable 

 of the south front is by tradition the room used by 

 Dryden when staying at Cotterstock, and is wainscoted 

 with good early 1 7th-century panelling, not designed 

 for it, but whether set up for the poet's benefit or at 

 a later date is uncertain. 



The house contains some good pictures, especially 

 an unknown portrait of a young man of the time of 

 Charles II, and among its lesser treasures possesses a 

 fine 'blackjack,' dated 1646, with the crown and the 

 initials C.R. There is also a considerable quantity of 

 good 18th-century furniture, chiefly chairs and 

 cabinets. 



The stables and outbuildings lie to the west, and 

 the garden, which retains no appearance of any formal 

 lay out, to the north and east. A fine avenue of elms 

 extends on the south nearly to the River Nene, at a 

 point half a mile above Cotterstock Bridge. 



Cotterstock Hall is an instance less conspicuous than 

 Thorpe Hall of a country house built by a Parliamen- 

 tarian during the Protectorate, and, whether under the 

 Nortons or under the Stewards, who were probably 

 Whigs, was a centre of influence though not of first- 

 rate consequence. Its history since the death of Elmes 

 Steward has not had special political or social signifi- 

 cance till Lady Westmorland bought it. The letters 

 of Dryden, which are full of local colour in reference 

 to his visits there, give it a distinct literary association 

 of much interest.'" 



In 1239 the men of Cotterstock and Glapthorn 

 complained to the king that they were not allowed 

 to pasture in Toteho and the chase of Perio, on 

 which depended the greater part of their sustenance. 

 Henry commanded that they should have pasture 

 in the said places as they had been accustomed 

 to have before the war between King John and 

 his barons." 



The priory of Fineshade from the 1 3th century 

 held land in Cotterstock and Glapthorn." This 



' See note on Norwich inquisitions, 

 above. 



> Chan. Inq. p. m. (scr. 2), dxxit, 162; 

 Lay Subs. R. ^gf. 



8 Feet of F. Northants, Trin. 1659. 



■• Exch. Dep. East. 3 Jas. II, No. 6. 



' Cal. o/S. P. Dom. 1655, p. 64. 



^ Proc. Com. far Compounding^ p. loS8. 



^ Feet of F. Northants, Mich. 4 Wm. 

 and Mary ; Ibid. Trin. 6 Wm. and Mary; 

 Ibid. Hil. 6 Wm. 



^ Mrs. Steward was a daughter of Mrs. 

 Creed, of Oundle, who composed many of 

 the long and elaborate epitaphs which are 

 still to be found in the churches of the 

 district. The daughter was clever like 

 her mother, but in a different sphere of art, 

 for, according to Malonc she painted the 

 hall of her house at Cotterstock in fresco 

 ' in a very masterly style.' Unfortunately 

 for the interest of the countr)'-side, if 

 not of art generally, her work has not 

 been so lucky as her mother's in escaping 



557 



* Time's fell hand/ and nothing of it 

 remains to be seen. 



* Baker, Northantiy ii, 298. 



"^^ See essay on Cotterstock in Ramhlei 

 Roundabout and Poemty by G, J. Dc Wilde, 

 Northampton, 1872, in which some of 

 Drydcn's letters are quoted at length. 



^ Close, 14 Hen. Ill, m. z\ d. The 

 forest of Clive, in which these places were, 

 was enclosed in 1S05, when compensation 

 was given for rights of common. 



w Popt I^icb. Tax. (Rec Com.), p. 55. 



