POLEBROOK HUNDRED 



BENEFIELD 



a prisoner with Simon de Montfort, issued a mandate 

 to the knights and others in Benefield Castle, stating 

 that peace having been made between the king and 

 his barons, they were not to go out of the castle nor 

 do any ill in those parts.' It was probably in the 

 following year that, the castle being held for Edward 

 the king's son, the men of the castle plundered the 

 manor of Biggin and crossed the river to Oundle, 

 where and at Ashton they took a number of cattle. 

 The men of Oundle, however, made a counter-attack 

 and recovered many of their beasts.* Not long after 

 this date the castle was probably dismantled. In 

 1298 it is described as an old castle,* and in 1315 the 

 site of the castle only is referred to.^ It continued 

 a ruin and is so described in 1 378.' Lcland about 

 1535 mentions the site as ' the diche and mines of an 

 old castelle.' ' Part of the wall was still standing in 

 Bridges' time (1724), when the inclosure was said to 

 be square, covering about an acre of land. On the 

 north of it was the manor house,* which apparently 

 superseded the castle and is mentioned in 1445. 



A furlong to the west of the village are nine Swallow 

 Holes where the land floods occasionally flow and 

 disappear. Banhaw Wood (the Banho or Danho 

 in the 14th century) was said to be within the metes 

 of Rockingham Forest, and Humphrey de Bassing- 

 bourne obtained licence to inclose 100 acres of its 

 waste.' In 1820 the wood covered nearly 312 acres 

 on the south of the parish. Eastward of this wood 

 are the hamlets of Churchfield and Biggin Hall with 

 ■jl large part of its grounds, the rest of which are still 

 in Oundle. 



An Act of 1820 for the inclosure of certain waste 

 and commonable lands in this parish preserves many 

 place names, such as Northaws, Cobs Hurn, David's 

 Leys, Rimington, Cockmore and Nuthalls Closes.^" 

 Other place names which occur are Ouldwalles and 

 Pottereswaye, a lane near Banhaw Wood, and Fezauntes 

 landes. In 1921 the inhabitants of Benefield num- 

 bered 410. The modern parish of Beanfield I, awns 

 in the Hundred of Corby, which was for some pur- 

 poses considered part of Benefield, though extra 

 parochial in 1831,^ lies about three miles distant 

 from it. It was perhaps part of the King's fee in the 

 Ilth and 12th centuries.^ Henry II granted the 

 Abbey of Pipewell its pasturage and herbage, which 

 the Abbot exchanged in 1356 for the advowson of 

 the church of Geddington.^' Many references to 

 leases or grants of the custody of the launds of 



Pkterborougu Abbey. 

 Gulc! two crossed keys or. 



Benefield and to the capital messuage here are found 

 in public records.** 



Domesday Book accounts only for 

 MANOR three virgates of land in BENEFIELD, 

 which were of the King's fee*^ and were 

 • held in chief by knight's service until the latter part 

 of the l6th century. The service varied from that 

 of one to a quarter of a knight's fee.** 



Wulfhere, King of the Mercians, according to a 

 spurious charter, gave Benefield to the Abbey of 

 Peterborough in 664," but 

 Domesday Book contains no 

 mention of any such fee. A 

 single hide in the Hundred of 

 Stokes that the Survey of the 

 1 2th century ascribes to Bene- 

 field, now a farm south of 

 Rockingham,** was amongst 

 the Peterborough lands at that 

 date.*' The overlordship of 

 the manor remained with 

 Peterborough until the Disso- 

 lution,^' when the manor was 

 held direct of the Crown.^* 



Richard de Engaine was tenant of Benefield at the 

 time of the Domesday Survey (1086)^^ and in the 

 1 2th century it had passed to the Lisurs.^' According 

 to a charter of 1 1 66 R[ichard] de Lisurs describes 

 Richard de Engaine as his grandfather.^ It would 

 appear that Richard de Engaine married more than 

 once and the last of his wives was the widow of 

 Richard Fitz Urse.-* His son, Viel or Vitalis, 

 apparently married the daughter and heir of William 

 de Lisurs?' and had two sons, Richard and Fulk, the 

 former of whom occasionally and the latter regularly 

 used their mother's surname." Fulk de Lisurs, who 

 succeeded to Benefield, was the King's forester in fee 

 and attended the King with his horn hanging from 

 his neck.-* He married Alice or Adelis, sister of 

 WiUiam de Auberville,'' and died before 1185.^ 

 His son, William de Lisurs, married Isabel, daughter 

 of Simon Fitz Simon,** and died without issue in 1194. 

 He left two brothers, Hugh and Fulk,*^ and was 

 succeeded by Hugh,** who died about 1207, leaving 

 two daughters, Alice, who married Nicholas de 

 Bassingbourne, and Eleinor, the v^fe of William de 

 Ayshe.** The manor and castle of Benefield were 

 seized by the Crown for debts owing by Hugh de 

 Lisurs,*^ but were recovered by John de Bassing- 



• Cal. Pat., 1258-66, p. 318. 



• Sparke, Hiit. Angl. Script, iii, 135. 



• Cal, Inq. iii, no. 468. 



» Cott. MS. Vesp. E. Jtxi, fol. 30b. 



• Chan. Inq. p.m. Rich. II, file 4, 

 no. 8. 



' Itinerary (ed. Toulmin-Smith), i, 

 12,13. 



• Bridges, op. cit. ii, 395. 

 'Cat. Pat. 1313-17, p. 453. 



" Private Aft, i Geo. IV, cap. 31. 

 •' Pop. Returns. 



'• V.C.H. Northanu, i, 356a, 365*. 

 '• Cal. Chart. 1226-57, p. 389; 1257- 

 1300, p. 408 ; Cal. Pat. 1354-8, p. 423. 

 "Ibid. 1377-81, pp. 170, 407; 1381- 



85. p- >77; '396-99, P- '9^; '4'3->6 

 p. 232,235, 262. 



" V.C.H. Northanu, i, 356a, 365A. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. Edw. I, file 24 

 no. 15 ; file 84, no. 4 ; Edw. Ill, file 90 



no. 8 ; file 193, no. 15 ; file 208, no. 25 ; 

 Ric. II, file 4, no. 8 ; Hen. IV, file 90, 

 no. 15; (ser. 2), ccx, 90; Chan. Misc. 

 file 12, no. 7, m. 1 ; Chan. Inq. a.q.d. 

 file 208, no. 4 i Fine R. 170, m. 10 ; 

 Pat. R. 8 Eliz. pt. i, m. 27; 33 Eliz. 

 pt. 8, m. 33. 



" V.C.H. Northants,n, \2\, 576. 



'» Ibid, i, 386*. 



" Bridges, Hist. Northants, ii, 395. 



*" Chan. Inq. p.m. (ser. 2), xxxiv, 

 no. 81. 



" Pat. R. 8 Eliz. pt. I, m. 27 ; 32 Eliz. 

 pt. 14, m. 31. 



" V.C.H. Northanu, i, 356a. 



" Ibid. 365*. 



" Red Bk. ofExcheq. (Rolls Ser.) i, 333. 

 The editor suggests from a similar entry 

 in the Liber Niger that R. is a scribal 

 error for Ffulk], but there seems to be no 

 reason why Richard should not have held 



77 



in 1 166 and Fulk his brother should not 

 have succeeded him. 



» Ibid. 



=» Pytchley, Bk. of Fees (Northants 

 Rec. Soc), 76 n. Viel is, however, here 

 stated to be son of William Engaine. 



»' Complete Peerage (New Ed.) v, 72-3 ; 

 cf. Red. Bk. loc. cit. 



" Red. Bk. of Excbeq. (Rolls Ser.) i, 



333- 



" Cat. Amt. D. (P.R.O.) ii, c. 2002; 

 Maitland, Bracton's Note Bk. ii, 251 ; 

 Pytchley's Bk. of Fees, 76 j Wrottesley, 

 Ped.from Plea Rolls, 4, 62. 



•" Complete Peerage, loc. cit. 



" Cat. Anct. D. (P.R.O.) ii, C. 2021. 



"Ibid. C. 2004; Curia Regis R. ii, 

 309. 



" Complete Peerage, loc. cit. 



•* Maitland, Bracton's Note Bk. iii, 4-5. 



•»/?o/. Lilt. Pat. Job. (Rec. Com.), 79*. 



