BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



passed to the Crown, and was in the royal hands till 

 1615, when James I sold it to Edmund Dufficld 

 and John Babington of London.** From them it 

 passed a month later to Sir John Lambe." His 

 executors sold it in 1653 to Peter Whalley, twice 

 mayor of Northampton, and Ferdinando Archer, 

 headmaster of the grammar school, 1646-96. It 

 passed from the Whalley family to the Watlcins,** 

 and was sold early in the 19th century to Thomas 

 Butcher and by him to W. ButUn,*^ who sold it to 

 Lord Ovcrstone, whose daughter, Lady Wantage, 

 made it over to the present patron, the Bishop of 

 Peterborough. 



ST. GILES' church is first mentioned about iizo.** 

 It served as the meeting place of the town assembly 

 down to the time of the Act of 1489, possibly, it 

 has been suggested, because it was equally remote 

 from the Castle and the Priory of St. Andrew's.** 



St. Andrew's presented to St. Giles' church down 

 to the Dissolution. From that time the advow- 

 son went with that of St. Sepulchre's until 1833, 

 when the Rev. Edward Watkin sold it to the Simeon 

 trustees, the present patrons. 



Of the eleven newer churches of Northampton, the 

 advowsons of St. Katharine's and St. Andrew's belong 

 to Hyndman's trustees, and that of St. Matthew's, 

 Kingsthorpe, to Pickering Phipps, Esq. ; the other 

 eight are in the gift of the Bishop of Peterborough. 



There were a great number of rehgious 

 GILDS, gilds and fraternities in Northampton on 

 the eve of the Reformation. In the church 

 of All Saints there were the following. The Gild of 

 St. Mary, stated in 1388 to have been founded before 

 1272, supplied three chaplains for the saying of 

 daily masses and other services.** The Gild of St. 

 John Baptist, founded in 1347 for the maintenance 

 of one chaplain, and also, if funds permitted, for con- 

 vivial purposes," was closely connected with the 

 craft gild of the Tailors.** The Corpus Christi 

 Gild, founded 1351, was for the maintenance of one 

 (later three) chaplains and the organisation of a 

 Corpus Christi procession.*' The Gild of the Holy 

 Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded in 

 1392, maintained four chaplains to say mass.** The 

 craft gild of the Weavers came to be connected with 

 this gild.** The Fraternity of the Rood was for 

 the adornment of the Rood beam.'" The Fraternity 

 of St. George found a priest to sing mass in St. 

 George's chapel, and was the owner of St. George's 

 Hall, which later became the property of the cor- 

 poration.'* The Fraternity of St. Katharine appears 

 to have existed for the purpose of assisting the 



burials of those who died of the plague and were 

 buried in St. Katharine's churchyard (between College 

 Lane and Horsemarkct).'* The chaplains of these 

 several fraternities formed the college of All Saints, 

 described in the previous volume." 



In the church of St. Gregory there was the Gild 

 of the Holy Rood in the Wall, founded by the 

 Hastings in 1473 for the maintenance of chaplains to 

 celebrate mass.'* 



In the church of St. Mary there was the Gild of 

 St. Katharine,'* founded in 1347 for the maintenance 

 of one chaplain (later two) to celebrate mass, and to 

 keep the gild Feast on St. Katharine's Day, and 

 attend at the funeral of the gild brethren. 



In the church of St. Giles there were the Gild of 

 St. Clement, in existence by 1469,'* for finding one 

 priest," and the Gild of the Holy Cross, mentioned in 

 a will of the year 1521.'* 



In the church of St. Sepulchre's there was the 

 fraternity of St. Martin, mentioned in a will of the 

 year 1500.'* 



Besides the parish 

 RELIGIOUS HOUSES, churches and chapels of 

 ease there were five con- 

 ventual churches and a hospital chapel within the 

 walls of Northampton in the middle ages as well as 

 several in the suburb. 



The PRIORT OF ST. ANDREW,'"' founded by 

 Simon I c. 1 100 for Cluniac monks, was at first, 

 according to the statement of its prior in 1348, located 

 in a house adjoining the chapel of St. Martin, pro- 

 bably on the present Broad Street.'* Later, at a date 

 to wltich we have no clue, it was translated to the 

 site in the north-west corner of the medieval borough 

 which it occupied till the Reformation, as shown in 

 Speed's map. The estate map of 1632*^ shows that 

 the priory wall ran from St. Andrew's mill along the 

 site of the present St. George's Street to the North- 

 gate, then west along the present Grafton Street to 

 Grafton Square, where the great gate of the priory 

 probably stood, then south along Lower Harding 

 Street, west along Spring Lane to St. Andrew's Road 

 and thence north to St. Andrew's mill.** The priory 

 church stood between Brook Street and Lower Priory 

 Street, and Monks' Pond Street runs across the site 

 of the fish pond. The cemetery lay across Upper 

 Harding Street, Priory Street and Francis Street, 

 where stone coffins were found in 1838, 1852, and 

 1880, some architectural fragments are now in the 

 Northampton Museum.** 



ST. JAMES" ABBET,^ was a house of Austin 

 Canons, founded at the beginning of the 12th cen- 



'• Pat. R. 1 2 Ja». I, pt. 1 5, m. 24. 

 "Col. S. P. Dm. 1611-1618, p. 



174- 



" For the descent see the family tree 

 in Serjeantson, Hisi. oj the Cb. oj St. 

 Gilts, Nortiampt. p. 289. 



•' Whellan, lliit. of Nortbanu (1874), 

 p. 135. 



••Cott. MS. Veap. E. xvii, f. 17 d. 



•• Serjeantion, Hist, of tit Cb. of St. 

 Gilts, fioTtbampt. p. 15. 



" Certif. of Gilds, Chan. No. 383. 



•» Ibid. Chan. no. 381. 



•• Boro. Rec. i, 266, 281. 



•' Cert, of Gilds, Chan. no. 380. 



'• Pat-R. i6Ric. ll,pt. 2, m. 32 j Chan. 

 Inq. a.q.d. i;i, pt. 2 a. 



•• BoTo. Rec. i, 332. 



'" Serjeantson, Hin. of the Ch. of All 

 Saints, Nortbampt. p. 56. 



'^ Ibid. pp. 56-9. 



" Court of Augni. Proc. bdle 27, no. 4. 

 Aug. Off. Bks. vol. 132, no. 173. 



" r.CM. Notthants. ii, 18&-1. 



'*Pat. R. 12 Ed. IV, pt. ii, m. 8. 



"Chan. Inq. p.m. 16 Ric. II, pt. i, 

 103. 



'• Serjeantson. Hist, of tbe Cb. of St. 

 Giles, Northampt. p. 33. 



"' Ibid. p. 36. '• Ibid. p. 33. 



" Cox and Serjeantson, Hut, of tbe Cb. 

 of the Holy Sepulchre, Northampt. p. 238. 



'" V.C.H. Nortbants. ii, 102-8 ; R. M. 

 Serjeantson in Nortbants Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 Tol. xiii. 



•' Cal. Pat. 1348-50, p. 247. This 



S7 



reference seems to have escaped the obser- 

 vation even of Mr. Serjeantson. 



*' Original in Messrs.Markham's offices ; 

 copy in Northampt. Public Library. 



"See plan; Nortbants Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 xiii, 136. 



" See Journal of Brit. Arch. Assoc. 

 viii, 67. They are of the I2th and 13th 

 century, and include an enriched Norman 

 shaft. There are also two tiles, one with 

 arms of Fitzwalter of Daventry (possibly 

 for Sir Thomas Fitzwalter, M.P. for 

 Northampton, d. 1381) and the other 

 with a lion rampant (possibly for Sir 

 John Lyons, sheriff, 1381). 



"V.C.H. Nortbants. ii, 127-30; Ser- 

 jeantson in Nortbants Nat. Hist. Soc, 

 vol. xiii. 



