A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



LoYD, LnRD OVER- 



8T0S1. Party bend sini- 

 sterivise ermine and argent 

 an eagle ivith t'wo headt 

 %able in a border table 

 bexanty. 



heirs in 1 812, and his share went to his brother 



Thomas, who left the manor by his will in 1832 to 



his sister Mar)' for life, and afterwards to his cousin 



Robert Sacklin Tomlin. Tomlin sold it in 1842 



to Lord Overstone, one of 



the greatest financiers and 



wealthiest Englishmen of the 



19th centurj'. He died in 



1883 leaving an only daughter, 



Harriet Sarah, the wife of 



Baron Wantage, who is now 



lady of the manor of Fothe- 



ringhay.' 



Almost all the liberties which 

 it was possible for a subject 

 to have were attached to 

 the lordship of Fotheringhay, 

 chiefly through its being part 

 of the honour of Huntingdon. 

 Richard I granted to David, 

 earl of Huntingdon, and the 



men holding of the honour that they should have 

 and hold their lands with sac and soc, toll and 

 team, infangenethef and out-fangthef, and all other 

 liberties free and quit of toll, pontage, passage and 

 pedage, stallage, tallage and scutage, suits of shires 

 and hundreds, assizes and superassizes and summons, 

 aids of the sheriffs and Serjeants, of gelds, dane- 

 gelds, and hidages, bloodwite and fyrdwite, fichwite 

 and murdrum, and forest fines and works on 

 castles, walls, bridges, roads, etc' These liberties and 

 others, including view of frankpledge with pillory 

 and tumbrell and the assizes of bread and ale, were 

 claimed specifically as pertaining to the manor of 

 Fotheringhay by John of Brittany in 1330.' He 

 also successfully asserted his right to free warren in 

 all his demesne lands at Fotheringhay by virtue 

 of a grant made to him by Edward II a few 

 years previously.' 



A park is first mentioned in connexion 

 PJRK with Fotheringhay in the reign of Henry III; 

 it is probable by several grants to John, 

 earl of Huntingdon, that he first imparked land there. 

 In 1230 he was given permission to make two deer- 

 leaps in his park of Fotheringhay, and twice in the 

 next few years he was granted does and bucks from 

 Rockingham to stock his park at Fotheringhay.' In 

 the Tudor period there were two parks at Fother- 

 inghay, the little park on the east of the castle and the 

 great park on the north and south.* These two are 

 included in the grant of the castle and manor in 

 1603, but after this date no reference has been found 

 to any park at Fotheringhay, they were probably 

 disparked when the castle was dismantled in the 17th 

 century. The fishings appurtenant to this manor, 

 owing to its situation on the Nene, which bounds it 

 on the south and east, were valuable. They were 

 often in the i6th century leased by the lords, and 

 form a considerable item in the revenue obtained from 

 the manor. John earl of Huntingdon carried on a 

 dispute with the abbot of Ramsey concerning the 

 common of fishery belonging to Fotheringhay,' and 



a several fishery always appears in the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centur)- surve)s of the manor. In the reign 

 ofHenr}- VI and henceforth the fishery was divided 

 into three parts which were accounted for separately. 

 The first was from Oxenforth to Warmington Dam, 

 the second from Warmington to Elton, and the third 

 from the floodgates at Elton to Nassington Moor. 

 All three were about 1461 in the hands of thecollege 

 of Fotheringh.iy, but not permanently, for a deed 

 exists by which Katharine of Aragon leased the 

 fishery from Elton to Nassington to a certain Richard 

 Darnold.'' There was a watermill appurtenant to 

 this manor from the time of Domesday, until at least 

 the end of the 1 6th century. There is now no mill 

 in the parish. 



The custom of free labour in return for land seems 

 to have been kept up in this manor exceptionally 

 late. In 1656 one of the conditions of a lease of 

 land on the manor by Mountjoy earl of Newport to 

 Charles Preston, was that Charles should be ready 

 ' upon two days' warning with a team and two 

 sufficient men to work three days every year during 

 this present lease without wages for the said earl, his 

 heirs and assigns, in ploughing or sowing his grounde 

 or carryage of his coal, wood, or tymber.' ' 



The castle of Fotheringhay was probably 

 CASTLE built by Simon de St. Liz, the first earl 

 of Huntingdon and Northampton of his 

 name. Though from many descriptions it must 

 have been a solid and massive building of great 

 strength, it never appears prominently in the early 

 history of the country. The 13th century is the 

 only time when it pLiyed at all a national part. It 

 is first mentioned in 1 2 1 2 when Earl David was 

 commanded to immediately deliver the castle of 

 Fotheringhay to Simon de Pateshull and Walter de 

 Preston for the king's use.'" Resistance was evi- 

 dently expected and the strength of the castle con- 

 sidered likely to make it effectual, for a few days 

 after this preremptory demand the king commanded 

 the reeves and good men of Northampton to go 

 with horses and arms and the whole ' posse ' of their 

 town to Fotheringhay and there to act as Hugh de 

 Neville should instruct them on the king's behalf. 

 Henry de Braybrook and others were also ordered 

 to assemble themselves with horses and arms at 

 Fotheringhay if Earl David refused to obey the king's 

 behest." The castle was surrendered, for in April, 

 1215, orders were given that Walter de Preston 

 should be allowed firewood for the castle of Fother- 

 inghay and also twigs and timber to fence it.'" The 

 castle was returned to Earl David in June of the same 

 year for a short time, but was again seized into the 

 king's hands, probably in October, l 2 1 6, when orders 

 were given to allow knights who had been assigned 

 land in the king's forests ' to do their will ' in the 

 woods next Earl David's lands and that of others 

 of the king's enemies 'so that the tracks made by 

 them may always appear," Earl David died in 

 1 2 19 and William Marshal the younger, earl of 

 Pembroke, immediately took possession of Fotheringhay 

 Castle, and refused for some time to give it up to 



' The descent from the death of 

 William marquis of Halifax is taken en- 

 tirely from papers in the possession of 

 Lady Wantage. 



' Cart. Antiq. R. p. 19. 



8 Quo IVarr. R. (Rec. Com.), 547. 



< Chart. R. 12 EJw. II, m. 9, No. 30. 



' Close, 14 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 18; 

 ibid. 16 Hen. Ill, m. 18; ibid. 20 

 Hen. Ill, m. 23. 



* Rentals and Surv. J^. 



' Close, 20 Hen. Ill, m. 5 d. 



8 Orlg. Mins.Accts.bdle. 1 1 1 5,No.6 and 

 No. 7 i Misc. Bks,(Aug. Off.), xliii,No. 123. 



' Harl. MS. iii, D. 39. 

 1" Pat. 14 John, m. 4. 

 ^ Close, 14 John, m. 6. 

 " Ibid. 16 John, pt. ii, m. 4. 

 " Pat. 17 John, m. 23 ; Close, 

 John, m. 1. 



