A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Mears in i860, and the tenor of 1634 by Thomas 

 Norris of Stamford. The priest's bell is by T. 

 Mears, 1817. 



The first book of the registers contains baptisms, 

 marriages, and burials, from 1557 to 165 J ; the 

 second marriages and burials from 1653 to 1715, and 

 baptisms from 1653 to 1714; the third baptisms 

 and burials from I 71 5 to 1802, and marriages from 

 1740 to 1802 ; and the fourth baptisms and burials 

 from 1803 to 181 2. 



Mountjoy earl of Newport by 



CfJJRITIES his deed of 6 March, 1664, granted 



a yearly rent-charge of jC^o from 



lands in this parish for the poor. The official 



trustees hold a sum of j^2,474 os. id. consols, arising 

 from the investment of other benefactions and surplus 

 income, and the proceeds are applicable for the 

 general benefit of the poor under the trusts of a deed, 

 dated 5 February, 1824. 



Robert Roane by will of 10 May, 1672, left 40/. 

 per annum charged on the rectory of Oundle, which, 

 after deduction of expenses, is distributed every two 

 years among the poor. 



Thomas Belsey's charity consists of the dividends of 

 j{^loo consols held by the official trustees, which are 

 applied to the support of the Sunday School. 



^627 4J. 5a'. consols are held by the official 

 trustees of charitable funds for Fotheringhay school.' 



GLAPTHORN 



Glapthorp (xiv cent., rare). 



The parish of Glapthorn, though a separate civil 

 district, is ecclesiastically attached to Cotterstock. The 

 history of the two places is ver)' closely connected, 

 every estate in one stretches into the other, so that it 

 is difficult sometimes to tell under which parish to 

 give their history. The civil parish of Glapthorn is 

 now more than double the size of Cotterstock, 

 covering about 1,480 acres, with a population in 

 I go I of 244. It is bounded on the east by the 

 River Nene, and its general surface rises gradually from 

 below 100 ft. above the ordnance datum to about 

 200 ft. above at the west of the village. The subsoil 

 is various, the village itself being on great oolite with 

 a little alluvium near the river. Both north and 

 south is a narrow belt of cornbrash and beyond that 

 Oxford clay. The upper soil is principally clay ; 

 841 acres are arable, 362^ pasture, and 77 woodland. 

 Wheat, barley and beans are the chief crops. Limestone 

 has been worked a little in this parish for road and 

 building purposes, but the population is now entirely 

 engaged in agriculture. 



The main road is that leading north from Oundle to 

 Southwick, which forms for a short distance the eastern 

 boundary of the parish. This is crossed just east of 

 the village of Glapthorn by a road running from 

 Benefield to Cotterstock. 



Glapthorn was enclosed in 1 8 1 5 with Cotter- 

 stock and the award is in Cotterstock church. Among 

 the field names found in this parish are Carvilestybbing, 

 Grymslande, and Storkewellsik. 



The village of Glapthorn is divided into two parts 

 called Upper and Lower Glapthorn. Upper Glap- 

 thorn is built in one street on the road from Benefield 

 to Cotterstock. This is much the smaller half of the 

 village, the chief buildings being the church school, on 

 the south side of the road, and the ancient manor- 

 house, now used as a farm-house. Between these two 

 a road branches off in a south-easterly direction, join- 

 ing the road from Oundle to Southwick some distance 

 south of the spot where it is crossed by the Benefield 

 to Cotterstock road. Along this loop road, Lower 

 Glapthorn is built. The most conspicuous feature of 

 this part of the village is the church. 



The vill of GLAPTHORN is included 

 MJKOR in the spurious charter of Wulf here to the 

 abbey of Peterborough, dated 664.' It 

 is not mentioned in Domesday nor in the description 

 of the possessions of Peterborough in the time of 

 Henry I. In the 12th-century survey of Northamp- 

 tonshire, Geoffi-ey de Normanville was holding one 

 hide and a half. Ridel and Hugh half a hide and one 

 virgate, and Fulk de Lisurs three-quarters of a hide.' 

 Nothing is said of any connexion with Peterborough. 

 In 1 185 the land of Alice, who was wife of Fulk de 

 Lisurs, in Glapthorn, was worth 100/. and there 

 were on it 2 ploughs, 6 cows, i bull, 30 pigs and 

 40 sheep.' In the reign of Henry III, Nicholas de 

 Bassingburne, who had married Alice, widow of Fulk 

 de Lisurs, and whose father Humphrey had married 

 Alice, daughter and heir of William de Lisurs, was 

 holding half a fee in Glapthorn of the honour of 

 Peterborough.' There seems to have been some 

 trouble between Peterborough and the holders of 

 this Bassingburne fee ; Walter de St. Edmund, abbot 

 of Peterborough between 1233 and 1246, succeeded 

 in obtaining an acknowledgement from Nicholas de 

 Bassingburne, that he held four fees of the abbey of 

 Peterborough ; of this Glapthorn formed a part.' It 

 seems likely also that the Bassingburnes held at least 

 part of the land of Geoffrey de Normanville as well as 

 that of Fulk de Lisurs, for there is no history of any 

 considerable estate in Glapthorn except theirs, and 

 three-quarters of a hide alone would have been a small 

 holding. About 1285 Humphrey de Bassingburne 

 granted the manor of Glapthorn to Gilbert de Clare, 

 earl of Gloucester, and gave up all rights there to him.' 

 Gilbert settled it on his daughter Joan, who married 

 as her first husband Duncan earl of Fife, by whom 

 she had a son, Duncan. Her second husband was 

 Gervase Avenel, who, with his wife and stepson, took 

 part with the Scots against Edward II, with the result 

 that their manor of Glapthorn and other lands were 

 seized by the king and granted to Hugh le Despenser 

 the younger in 1 3 1 7.' The manor returned later to 

 the heir of Gilbert de Clare, Hugh de Audley, earl of 

 Gloucester, who had married Margaret, second daughter 

 of Gilbert. He in 1344 settled it with Ralph de 



^ For account of this endowment see 

 article on Schools in this volume. 



• Birch, Carl. Sax. No. 22. 



» y. C.H. Northana, i, ^iia. 



^ Rot. Dominahus, etc. (ed. Grimaldi 

 Stacey), p. 13. 



' Soc. Antiq. No. 60, fol. 253. For 

 Bassingburne pedigree see Baker, Nortb- 

 anftf i, 9 ; Soc. Antiq. No. 38; Genealogiit 

 (new ser.), vii, 245, x, 88, 



* Swapham, fol. 118. 



576 



7 Feet of F. Northants, 13 Edw. I, 

 No. 170 ; Soc. Antiq. No. 38, fol. 

 218. 



» Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. 3 ; 11 Edw. II, 

 pt. i, m. 31. 



