WILLYBROOK HUNDRED 



LUTTON 



FiENNES. Azure three 

 lions or. 



heiress to the Fiennes.' In I 571 Gregory Fiennes, 

 Lord Dacre, sold this half of the manor to Robert 

 Loftus of Lutton/ who was already possessed of the 

 other moiety. The latter had been granted by 

 Henry VIII, on the dissolu- 

 tion of Tattershall College, to 

 Charles, duke of Suffolk ; ' 

 from him it may have passed 

 to Thomas Glenham and Amy 

 his wife, who in I 561 obtained 

 licence to alienate the manor 

 of Lutton to Robert Loftus.* 

 This family had lived in Lutton 

 since at least the latter part of 

 Henry VIII's reign.' Robert 

 died at Lutton in I 572, leaving 

 his two manors there to John 



his son and heir,° who was succeeded by a son 

 John in 1615.' The manor subsequently passed into 

 the possession of the Watsons of Rockingham, who 

 owned it until the beginning of the 19th century. 

 Mr. Fitzwilliam of Milton is 

 now lord of the manor.* 



Half a hide of land was held 

 in Lutton at Domesday by the 

 abbot of Ramsey.' This was 

 probably the 9 virgates of land 

 which Leoric, abbot of Peter- 

 borough, exchanged with Alf- 

 wyn, abbot of Ramsey, for 

 land at Marholm, an ex- 

 change which was confirmed 

 by Edward the Confessor.'" 

 This land appears in the 1 2th 

 century survey of Northamp- 

 tonshire as belonging to Ram- 

 sey," and was perhaps that land of ' Ludinthune ' 

 in which all right was released to Rainald, abbot of 

 Ramsey, between 1 1 14 and 1 1 19, by Drew of Hast- 

 ings and Leofw}'n, brother of Colgrin of Grantham, 

 his under-tenant.'^ Between 1 1 14 and 1 1 30 the same 

 abbot granted to ' Herveus Monachus ' all the land he 

 had in ' Ludingtone ' and Gidding beyond that which 

 belonged to Henr)' the archdeacon." In two undated 

 hidages of Ramsey Abbey, William le Moyne, perhaps 

 a descendant of Henry, is stated to hold two and a half 

 fees of Ramsey in ' Lodingtone.' '* Beyond these refer- 

 ences, in several of which the identity is doubtful, no 

 history has been found for the land of Ramsey in 

 Lutton. No land there is included in the survey of 

 the abbey's possessions in 1535. 



The advovvson of Lutton followed 

 ADVOfVSON the descent of the manor until the 

 grant of it by Rose de Dovere to her 

 daughter Loretta and her husband when the advowson 

 was specially excepted.'^ It passed with Chilham to 

 Rose's other daughter Isabel, who married first David 

 Strabolgia, earl of Athole, by whom she had a son John, 

 earl of Athole, and secondly, Alexander Balliol, who 

 did homage for land in Lutton to Peterborough in 

 1275 and presented to the church.'* John, earl of 



Loftus. Sable a 



cbenjron engrailed ermine 

 betvjeen three trejoili ar- 

 gent. 



Athole, was executed for treason in I 306, and his land 

 in consequence escheated to the king, and Chilham 

 with its appurtenances, among which was the advow- 

 son of Lutton, was granted by Edward II in 1 3 1 1 to 

 Bartholomew de Badlesmere and Margaret his wife." 

 The advowson descended to Giles de Badlesmere, and 

 on his death as the advowson of the ' church of Lud- 

 yngton upon Bromeswold ' was delivered to his widow 

 Elizabeth,'* who subsequently married Hugh le Des- 

 penser. After his death it apparently descended to 

 Roger, earl of March, son of Elizabeth, third sister 

 and co-heir of Giles,'' for the earls of March and their 

 descendants, the House of York, presented to the church 

 until the right was merged in the crown by the acces- 

 sion to the throne of Edward IV.*" 



In 1447 the church of Lutton had been united with 

 that of Washingley in Huntingdon, and the fabric of 

 the latter is said to have been applied to the repair of 

 Lutton." In 1552 Edward VI granted the advow- 

 son of Lutton to Edward Lord Clinton," but it 

 appears later to have again come into the hands of 

 the crown, for it was given by Elizabeth about 1602 to 

 Sir Edward Watson," whose family also acquired the 

 manor. From this date the advowson follows the 

 descent of the manor, the present patron being 

 Mr. G. W. Fitzwilliam of Milton House. 



The church is dedicated in honour of 

 CHURCH St. Peter," and stands on the north side 

 of a triangular space at the junction of 

 three roads, round which the village is built. 



No part of the existing building, which has a chan- 

 cel, nave with aisles and south porch, and west tower, 

 seems to be older than c. 1220, but two fragments of 

 1 2th-century detail are built into the chancel arch and 

 the east end of the south aisle, and in the north wall 

 of the tower is part of a cross-slab with interlaced 

 ornament which appears to be of Saxon date. 



The chancel and north arcade of the nave are about 

 contemporary with each other, c. 1220, while the 

 south arcade belongs to the end of the same century, 

 and the aisle walls are probably of the same date as 

 their respective arcades. The embattled tower is an 

 addition of the 15 th century. The parapets elsewhere 

 are plain, and the roofs are of low pitch leaded. 



The chancel has an east window of three lancets 

 with three quatrefoiled circles over, the tracery being 

 modern (1883), and in the north wall are a modern 

 doorway and two-light square-headed window, and at 

 the north-west angle a I 3th-centur7 low side window, 

 being a small lancet with a flat inner head and sill. 

 At the east end of the south wall is a square-headed 

 window blocked on the inside by a mural monument, 

 and about the middle of the wall is a widely splayed 

 lancet with a moulded rear arch and small engaged 

 shafts in the jambs, having capitals ornamented with 

 nailhead. West of it is a window of four lights, the 

 two west lights being of the 13th century with a tre- 

 foiled circle over them, while the other two lights have 

 been added at a later date, and are larger with coaner 

 detail, and have a quatrefoiled circle over them. 

 Above the two circles is a cusped spherical triangle. 



1 G. E. C. Peerage, iii, 3. 

 ' Cal. of F. Northanu, East. 14 Eliz. 

 » Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt. xi, m. 39. 

 * Pat. 3 Eliz. pt. viii, m. j6. 

 5 Lay Subs. R. J§§. 

 ' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxk, 131. 

 ■ Ibid, ccclvii, 6. 



8 Com. Pleas Rec. R. Mich. 26 Geo. Ill, 

 rot. 8. ' y. C. H. Norihants, i, 51S*. 



J» Cart. Ram. (Rolls Ser.), i, 191. 

 " r. C. H. Norihants, i, 387*. 

 " Cart. Ram. (Rolls Ser.), i, 131. 

 " Ibid, ii, 260. 

 '■• Ibid, i, 267 ; iii, 210. 

 " Cott. Vesp. E. xxii, 35. 

 " Chronicon.P. 23 ; Harl. 6,951, fol. 12; 

 G. E. C. Peerage, I, 181, 406. 

 ^'' Pat, 5 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 16. 



la Close, 13 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, tn. 28. 



" G. E. C. Peerage, i, 215. 



*• Bridges, ii, 464. 



1 Epis. Reg. Line. Chedworth Mem. 

 I I o 1/ ; Fenian J N. an J Q. iv, 1 5 3. 



»> Pat. 6 Edw. VI, pt. vii. 



" Ibid. 44 Eliz. pt. xxT. 



** See Northants Will. Bk. A 74, also 

 Bk. B. 19. 



74 



