WILLYBROOK HUNDRED 



FOTHERINGHAY 



Balliol. Gules 

 voided scutcheon argent. 



was a native of that place, Walter of Fotheringhay, 

 who was made first master of Balliol College at Oxford, 

 which she and her husband jointly endowed.' She 

 held Fotheringay for her life of the king of Scotland 

 by the service of one sore 

 sparrow hawk, and, her sons 

 Hugh and Alexander having 

 predeceased her, she was suc- 

 ceeded in 1 290 by her ) oungest 

 son John, the first king of 

 Scotlandof her family.* When 

 war broke out between Ed- 

 ward I and Balliol in 1294 all 

 his lands in England were 

 seized.' King Edward granted 

 Fotheringhay to his nephew 

 John of Brittany, earl of Rich- 

 mond, who in 1 33 1 obtained leave to grant the 

 castle and manor for life to his niece Mary de 

 St. Pol, countess of Pembroke, widow of Aymer de 

 Valence.^ She, like Devorguilla, lived at Fothering- 

 hay, and devoted her vast wealth to acts of piety and 

 munificence. Pembroke College at Cambridge was 

 founded by her in memory of her husband. 



In 1337 the reversion of the castle of Fotheringhay 

 was granted to William de Bohun, who was created 

 earl of Northampton.* He, however, died before the 

 countess of Pembroke; the reversion was then granted 

 by Edward III to Robert of Ashton, treasurer of the 

 king and other subordinate ministers.* This arrange- 

 ment never took effect, for on 

 the death of Mary in 1377 

 Edward III immediately gave 

 the castle and manor of Fothe- 

 ringhay to his son Edmund 

 Langley, earl of Cambridge, 

 and Isabella his wife. The 

 gift was ratified the same year 

 by Edward's successor, Richard 

 II, who also created his uncle 

 duke of York in 1385.' Ed- 

 mund was succeeded in 1402 

 by his son Edward, who first 

 began the magnificent college 

 at Fotheringhay, finished by 

 his descendants ; though the 

 project is said by Leland to 



have originated with his father." Edward was 

 killed in 141 5 at Agincourt. His brother Richard, 

 earl of Cambridge, had been executed for treason 

 just before the expedition started from England, 

 and Edward is said to have felt that his own 

 loyalty was suspect, and ' dcsirid of King Henry to 

 have the forewarde of the Batel, and had it where 

 be much hete and thronggid being a fatte man, 

 he was smoulderid to death, and afterward brought 

 to Foderingey and there honourably buried in the 

 bodie of the quire.' ^ Richard son of the late Earl of 



Edmund or Langley. 

 Old France quartered luilh 

 England •with the difference 

 of a label argent zuith three 

 roundels gules on each point. 



Cambridge, then a minor of three years old, was his 

 heir. One third of Fotheringhay was held by 

 Philippa duchess of York, widow of Edward, in dower 

 until about 1432.'" Richard duke of York, through 

 his mother Anne Mortimer, had a stronger hereditary 

 right to the crown than Henry VI, and after leading 

 a party against Henry's rule for a long period, he 

 finally asserted his right by birth to the throne. War, 

 which had broken out earlier between the rival 

 factions, was renewed on this definite issue and the 

 duke in 1460 was killed in the first engagement at 

 Wakefield." His widow. Cicely, spent much of her 

 long widowhood at Fotheringhay, which was granted 

 to her by her son Edward IV in the first year of his 

 reign. '^ Here her youngest son, afterwards Richard III, 

 had been born, and here her husband and his third 

 son Edward, who had been slain with him, were re- 

 moved from their first burial-place at Pontefract. 



In 1469 Cicely surrendered to the king all her 

 estate in Fotheringhay in return for other lands," and 

 for the rest of this reign and the two following, 

 Fotheringhay remained in the hands of the crown. 

 Henry VII in 1497 granted the castle and manor as 

 dower to his wife Elizabeth, not however as repre- 

 sentative of the house of York, for during the next 

 year he resumed all grants which had been made to 

 Edmund Langley, duke of York, though with no 

 prejudice to the recent grant for life to the queen." 

 Henry V^III in 1509 granted to his betrothed wife. 

 Princess Katharine of Aragon, the castle and manor of 

 Fotheringhay." After her death they formed part of 

 the dower of Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katharine 

 Howard, and Katharine Parr in succession.'* Fother- 

 inghay then remained in the hands of the crown 

 until the accession to the English throne of James I, 

 the son of Mary queen of Scotland, when it was 

 granted to Edward Blount and James Earth and the 

 heirs and assigns of Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, 

 earl of Devon." The earl left no legitimate issue, but 

 his property passed by a special arrangement to Mount- 

 joy, his eldest son by Lady Penelope Rich, created 

 Earl of Newport by Charles I. He sold it in 1663 

 to Sir George Savile, afterwards first marquis of 

 Halifax, the celebrated ' Trimmer.' '* On his death 

 in 1695 Fotheringhay descended to his son William, 

 and from him to his three daughters, Anne who 

 married the Earl of Ailesbury, and Dorothy and Mary, 

 respectively the wives of the Earl of Burlington and 

 the Earl of Thanet." Daniel earl of Nottingham and 

 other trustees for the three co-heiresses sold Fother- 

 inghay in February, 1725, to Hewer Edgeley Hewer, 

 adopted son and heir of William Hewer. He died 

 without heirs, leaving the estates to his wife, from whom 

 they passed to members of the BLickborne and 

 Cockerell families, with whom the Hewers were 

 connected. In 1806 the manor was sold by Samuel 

 Pepys Cockerell, Charles Cockerell, and others to 

 William and Thomas Belsey. William died without 



> Pat. 13 Edw. 1, m. 3 ; Hist. MSS. 

 Com. Report iv, pp. 442-6, 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 18 Edw. I, No. 28. 



' Fine R. 23 Edw. I, m. 3. 



* Pat. 34 Edw. I, m. 1 ; ibid. 

 5 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. I. There is some 

 mystery about the manner of the death 

 of Aymer de Valence, and Mary is spoken 

 of by Gray as * Sad Chatillon on her bridal 

 morn who wept her bleeding love,' but 

 there was really nearly two years be- 

 tween their marriage and the carl's 



death. (G. E. C. Complete Peerage, vi, 

 207). 



' Chart. R. 1 1 Edw. Ill, m. 24, No. 49. 



' Orig. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 346. 



? Chan. Inq. p.m. 51 Edw. Ill, No. 28 ; 

 Orig. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 351 ; Pat. i 

 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 4. 



* Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Hen. IV, No. 36 ; 

 Pat. 3 Hen. V, pt. ii, m. 43. 



' Leland, Itin. (ed. Hearnc 1744), i, 6. 



•" Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Hen. V, No. 45 ; 

 ibid. 10 Hen. V, No. 45. 



'' Engl.Chron.eA. Davies(Cafn.Soc.),I07. 



" Pat. I Edw. IV, pt. iv, m. I. 



" Ibid. 9 E.lw. IV, pt. i, m. 19. 



" Ibid. 10 Hen. VII, m. 21 ; Pari. R. 

 (Rec. Com.), vi, 460. 



" Pat. I Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 8. 



" L.andP.Hen.rni,iv,si; ibid- xvi, 

 240 ; ibid. XX, pt. i, 82. 



" Pat. I Jas. I, pt. XX. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (scr. 2), cccvi, 146 ; 

 Feet of F. Northants, East. I ? Chas. II. 



" G. E. C. Complete Peerage, W, tjr. 



