BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



desolation and ruin, half of it almost desolate and 

 destroyed.''* Conditions were presumably made 

 worse by the fire of 1 516, which, according to Henry 

 Lee, consumed the greatest part of the town.** In 

 1533, Leland noted that all the old houses in North- 

 ampton were built of stone, but the now houses of 

 wood. In 1535 an Act of Parliament empowered the 

 mayor and burgesses, in view of the great ruin and 

 decay of the town, to take into their hands any houses 

 which the tenants and landlords both failed to 

 repair, and rebuild them themselves. If the mayor 

 and burgesses failed to do so, anyone who pleased 

 might rebuild the houses and so acquire possession 

 of them and the land on which they stood.^*" Again, 

 in 1622, the mayor, in sending up to the Privy Council 

 the corporation's contribution to the fund in aid of 

 the palatinate, explained that the decay of the town 

 prevented the general contribution from being good.** 

 Some of these complaints may be common form ; 

 but the maps of Northampton before the fire of 1675 

 show large vacant spaces within the walls, especially 

 in the S.E. quarter of the town.*' There seems no 

 reason to doubt that houses fell into ruin and were 

 not rebuilt, and that the open spaces shown in Noble 

 and Buthn's map of 1746 represent some of the ' ruin 

 and desolation ' described in 1484. The terrier of 

 1586 describes a large number of closes and orchards 

 within the walls, and Northampton was long after 

 that date noted for its cherries. 



The returns of 1274-5 suggest that one cause of 

 this ' decay ' may have been the exodus of burghers 

 who settled outside the borough boundaries to escape 

 the burden of tallages and the like. From an early 

 date there are references to houses in the suburbs, 

 outside the walls,** though the Portsoken of the 

 Il8g charter is probably a clerical error. To the 

 north and east, where the town fields extended to the 

 parishes of Kingsthorpe, Abington and Weston, 

 there were houses outside the North Gate along the 

 Market Harborough road round the churches of St. 

 Bartholomew and St. Lawrence ;*' whilst outside the 

 east gate St. Edmund's End grew up round St. 

 Edmund's church,*" and Gobion's homestead is 

 described as l)Tng in the suburb in John's reign," 

 though it rendered an annual rent to the preposiiuram 

 vilU.^ South of the town, between the walls and 

 the river, grew up the south quarter, still containing 

 many waste places in 1430 which the mayor and cham- 

 berlain leased to sixteen different tenants in that 

 year.** Here later was the important house of the 



Fermors or Farmers. Besides these suburbs, within 

 the liberties but outside the wall, there were from a 

 very early date important suburbs outside the 

 liberties. Round the abbey of St. James,^ founded 

 about HOC on the west side of the river, grew up St. 

 James' End, in the parishes of Duston and DalUngton. 

 The earliest reference to the name that has been 

 traced is in 1 358,** but a 13th century cartulary of 

 the abbey which mentions various streets by name 

 shows that it was then of considerable extent.*' 

 South of the river, in Hardingstone parish, Cotton 

 End" or St. Leonard's End, grew up along the London 

 road round St. Leonard's Hospital and chapel.** In 

 1618, by the charter of James I to the town, St. James' 

 End, Cotton End and West Cotton were included 

 within the liberties, but this extension seems only to 

 ha\e lasted a few years, and these suburbs passed back 

 to the county until 1901.** 



On 20 September, 1675, a fire broke out in St. 

 l\'Iary's Street, near the castle, which, driven by a 

 strong west wind across to St. Giles' Street and Dern- 

 gate, destroyed more than half the town in 24 hours. 

 Corn ricks and makings in the Horsemarket, thatched 

 roofs and wooden houses everywhere, oil and tallow 

 in College Lane and timber stacked in the market 

 place for building the new County Sessions House, all 

 fed the blaze. The 15th century market cross, the 

 great part of All Saints' Church with the town records 

 stored in it, and some 600 houses were destroyed. 

 The town hall escaped, though the staircase in front 

 of it was burnt, but most of the buildings round the 

 market square perished. Only one house in the 

 Drapery survived, and Dr. Danvers' house on Market 

 Hill, which, like the Hesilrige Mansion in Marefair, 

 now the Ladies' Club, is still standing.*" The trades- 

 men of the town had just restocked their shops at 

 Stourbridge Fair, and the general loss of property 

 was estimated at ^150,000. In this emergency both 

 town and county acted with promptitude. The 

 town Recorder, the Earl of Northampton, sent in 

 supplies at once ; a meeting at the town hall ' princi- 

 pally managed by him,' led to the opening of a sub- 

 scription list and the setting up of a committee ; and 

 by his help an .^ct was got through Parhament before 

 the close of the session for the rebuilding of the town. 

 By this Act*^ a special court of record was constituted 

 to sit at the guildhall and determine all disputes 

 between neighbours, landlords, tenants and occupiers 

 as to boundaries and titles, with power to alter the 

 lay-out of the town if it should seem necessary, and 



«> BoTo. Rec. i, 9S. 



«• Lee, CoU. p. 93. 



" Stat. 27 Heniy VIII, cap. i. 



«• Cal. S. P. Dom. 1619-23, p. 397. 



*' See especially the map of 1633 show- 

 ing the property once St. .Andrew's, a 

 copy of which is in the Public Library, 

 Northampt. 



•• Feet of F. Hen. III. 172/17, 19, 22, 



"Anct D. (P.R.O.) C. 5147- 



"Ibid. B. 2473. 



" Feet of F. i John, no. 2. 



•» Cat. Inq. ii, 78. 



•• Northampt. Corp. Deeds, Press C. 48. 



" V.C.H. Nortbanu. ii, 127-30. 



•• Cal. Pal. 1358-61, p. 36. {In suburbio 

 it Northampton vocato U Siint James- 

 tni.) 



•' Cott. MS. Brit. Mus. Tib. E v, fo. 16 

 (e.g. Harper Street, St. James' Street). 



•' Northampt. Corp. Deeds, C. iq, 28, 

 show burgesses holding land in Cotes 

 and Coten Without. 



" V.C.H. Norlbanis. ii, 159-60. 



" For charter (original at Northampton) 

 KcRoro.Rec. i, 126-7. Borough constables 

 were appointed for Cotton End and St. 

 James' End in 1618 and 1619, and no 

 later. (Ibid, ii, 140). The county magis- 

 trates had jurisdiction in Cotton End in 

 1630. Quarter Sessions Records of Co. of 

 Northampt. i, 9, 60. For St. James' End 

 (1657) see p. 214. No explanation of 

 this cancellation of the grant has been 

 found. Possibly it is to be associated with 

 the disgrace (1620-21) of Sir Henry 

 Yelverton, Attorney-General and Re- 

 corder of the town, at whose instance 

 James says the charter was granted. The 

 chief charge against 'Velverton was that he 

 bad inserted clauses in the charter to the 



31 



city of London which the King had not 

 authorised. The record of his trial before 

 the Star Chamber throws no light on the 

 Northampton charter (Star Chamber 

 Proc. J. I. Bdle. 30, File 5). I owe this 

 reference to the kindness of Miss W. Taff s. 

 It should also be noted that the Privy 

 Council memorandum of new clauses 

 in the charter granted to the town 

 of Northampton (Letters and Papers 

 Domestic, James I, vol. civ, no. 83) 

 contains no reference to St. James' End 

 or Cotton. It is possible that the 

 fate of London's attempt to increase 

 her liberties surreptitiously caused 

 Northampton to drop her acquisitions 

 quietly. 



" There arc also groined arches remain- 

 ing in the cellars of some houses in College 

 Street. 



" 27 Chat. IL 



