POLEBROOK HUNDRED 



assigns 62 hides each to Polebrook, Navisford, Huxloe and Willybrook 

 hundreds,^ as if an older district of 250 hideg had been divided into four. 

 The five hundreds of Oundle were later reduced to three by the inclusion of 

 the Naveslunds in Huxloe. 



These three hundreds of Polebrook, Navisford, and Huxloe remained 

 in the possession of the abbey till the Dissolution.^ In 1291 the annual value 

 of the hundreds of Polebrook and Huxloe was £s-^^ ^ ^^^^ °^ compositions for 

 sheriffs' aids, apparently of the 14th century, gives the total yearly receipts for 

 the hundreds of Polebrook and Navisford. In addition there was in Irthling- 

 borough a knight's fee of Avenel held in moieties by Walkeline de Arderne 

 and Robert Basset, whose tenants followed the hundreds and yearly made 

 fine for frank-pledge ; the vill of Barton also followed the hundreds, and the 

 bailiff entered to make view of frank-pledge and took a fine from the men ; 

 also in Sudbury the free tenants and the ' capitales franciplegii ' followed the 

 two great hundreds yearly. ^"^ A rental for the hundreds of Polebrook and 

 Navisford for 1408 has been preserved.!^ In 1462 the king made the monks 

 a grant of felons' goods, etc., in the abbey's hundreds of Polebrook, Huxloe, 

 Navisford and Nassaburgh.'- About 1535 the issues of the hundreds of 

 Polebrook and Navisford were estimated at £1^ los. 9^.^^ 



After the Dissolution the hundreds of Polebrook, Navisford and Huxloe 

 were in 1541 granted as jointure to Queen Catherine Howard, 1* reverting to 

 the Crown a year later on her execution. In i 544 the new queen, Katherine 

 Parr, received the hundreds of Polebrook and Navisford, together with the 

 castle of Fotheringhay,!^ and she retained them till her death in i 548. Robert 

 Tyrwhitt had been made steward of the hundreds in 1543.1® The hundreds 

 remained in the Crown until in 161 1 James I sold them to John Eldred and 

 William Whitmore,i^ who two years later sold to Sir Edward Montagu, after- 

 wards Lord Montagu of Boughton,i^ and thus they descended regularly to 

 the Dukes of Montagu and from them to the Dukes of Buccleuch.^" A writ of 

 * Quo Warranto ' was issued against Sir Edward Montagu regarding his rights 

 in the three hundreds, which were eventually allowed him. 



While Queen Katherine Parr held the lordship it appears that the hundreds 

 of Polebrook and Navisford were put to farm for ^^14 is. i.^d. yearly ; a 

 court was held for the hundred of Polebrook in i 546, at which loj. was received, 

 as follows: Barnwell 22^/., Benefield i6<2'., Armston ^d., Luddington 6*2'., 

 Thurning 14^'., Polebrook 6J., Warmington 12^., Winwick lod'., Oundle 

 2s. 2J., Ashton 4d'.2<' The court of the Duke of Buccleuch for the liberty and 

 hundred of Polebrook used to be held at Oundle in October.^i 



* V.C.H. Northants, i, 259. * Bh. of Fee:, pt. ii, p. 936 ; Feud. Aids, iv. 28. 



10 Pope Nic. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 55- "* W. T. Mellows, Swaffham's Reg. 



" Con. MS. Nero C vii, f. 213. >« Cnl. Pat. I461-7, p. 191. 1» Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 279. 



"Z.. fln</P. Hen. VIII, xvi, p. 716. iMbid. xix (i), p. 82. " Ibid, xviii (i), p. 545. 



" Pat. R. 9 Jas. I, pt. 6. " Buccleuch Coll. Series Chron. p. 386 ; Bridges, Hiit. of Northants, ii, 392. 



** See the account of Boughton in Weekley. ^ Mins. Accts. Henry VIII, 2661. 



" Whelan, Northants, 711. 



69 



