POLEBROOK HUNDRED 



OUNDLE 



(1544). He died in 1556 and was buried in St. Mary 

 Aldermary." 



Less attractive were two other natives — the fanatic 

 William Hacket (d. 1591) and his associate or disciple 

 Giles Wigginton (d. c. 1597). The former was expected 

 to inaugurate a new religious era, but as his disciples 

 talked of dethroning the queen, he came under the 

 suspicions of the Government and was ultimately 

 executed at the Cross in Cheapside, London. Wig- 

 ginton's extreme Puritanism brought him into conflict 

 with Whitgift and he was deprived of his vicarage of 

 Sedbergh ; ultimately, however, he was restored. He 

 wrote some theological works. 



Peter Hansted (d. 1645) was born at Oundle and 

 educated at Cambridge, but had the D.D. degree 

 given him at Oxford in 1642. He published various 

 comedies and a poem in praise of tobacco ; also 

 several sermons. He died at Banbury during the siege. 



John Newton (d. 1678), brought up at Oundle but 

 ipringing from a Devonshire family, was educated at 

 Oxford, and distinguished himself as a mathematician 

 and author of school books. He was also a firm 

 royalist and after 1660 received promotion, becoming 

 a canon of Hereford in 1672. 



Richard Resbury was vicar of Oundle during the 

 Commonwealth period,'^ but resigned before 1662 

 and practised physic, preaching, however, in his own 

 house at Oundle. His son Nathaniel was baptised 

 at Oundle in 1643, educated 

 at Cambridge, and being a 

 conformist obtained various 

 benefices, becoming chaplain 

 to William and Mary in 1691. 

 He died at Reading in 171 1. 



The Whitwells were another 

 local family. William Whit- 

 well settled in the house now 

 known as Berrystead about 

 1680. John Whitwell, who 

 took the name of Griffin, was 

 born at Oundle in 1719 and 

 had a distinguished military 

 career, finally becoming field marshal (1796). In 1784 

 he was allowed the title of Lord Howard of Walden 

 (4th baron) in right of his mother, and was created 

 Lord Braybrooke in 1788. He died in 1797. 



Stephen Bramston, a lawyer, resided at Bramston 

 House about 1700. James Yorke Bramston, son of 

 John Bramston, born at Oundle 1763, while studying 

 law with Charles Butler, became a Catholic and ulti- 

 mately a bishop, being Vicar-apostolic of the London 

 district in 1827. He died 1 1 July 1836. 



Wynne Ellis, born at Oundle in 1790, made a 

 fortune in business in London and became famous as a 

 picture collector ; 44 of his pictures are in the 

 National Gallery. He also gave large sums to 

 charities, including ^^50,000 to Simeon's Trustees. 

 He died in 1875. 



Thomas DLx, usher of the school, wrote on land 

 surveying (1799) ; one of his illustrations is a plan of 

 the fields in N.E. Oundle. 



Whitwell of Berry- 

 stead. Azure three grif- 

 fons' heads razed or. 



Miles Joseph Berkeley, F.R.S., born at Biggin in 

 1803, was a distinguished botanist ; he became vicar 

 of Sibbenofi, 1868, and died in 1889." 



Other men of note were connected with Oundle by 

 residence. Robert Wild, a puritan divine, ejected 

 from his benefice in 1662, at last settled in Oundle, 

 where he died in 1679. Dr. Anthony Tuckney, 

 ejected from the mastership of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, after the Restoration, and William 

 Dillingham, similarly ejected from the mastership of 

 Emmanuel, passed some of their later years in Oundle. 

 Dillingham's brother was the conforming vicar. John 

 Noorthouck, author of a History of London, etc., 

 passed the end of his life at Oundle, dying in 1816." 

 Thomas Hayncs, of Oundle, wrote several books on 

 gardening, 181 1-2. 



King Edgar in 972 confirmed to the 

 MANORS monks of Peterborough the ' tun ' called 

 OUNDLE, with all that lies thereto, 

 called the Eight Hundreds, and market and toll, 

 so freely that neither king, bishop, earl nor sheriff 

 may interfere, but only the abbot.*^ This was con- 

 firmed by later kings.^' In 1086 the abbot had 

 6 hides in Oundle. The mill was let for 20s. and 

 250 eels. There were 50 acres of meadow, and woodland 

 of 3 leagues by 2 leagues ; when stocked, worth 20i. 

 The market yielded 25/. The whole was worth 

 5j. in 1066, but in 1086 ;^ii.^' Land in Thurning, 

 Winwick, Luddington and Hemington belonged 

 to this lordship. Some forty years later the abbot 

 held 6 hides in demesne in Oundle.^' Yet another 

 document of the same date states that there were 

 4 hides geldable, out of which 25 men held 20 yard- 

 lands, and rendered 20/., 40 hens, and 200 eggs. 

 The men of the town had 9 ploughs, .-ind ploughed 

 once a week in autumn for the lord ; and other works 

 were done. Tiiere were 15 burgesses, who ren- 

 dered 30'. The market rendered £^ y., and the 

 mill 40/. and 200 eels. The abbot kept the wood in 

 his own hand. The men of the town and 6 ox-herds 

 rendered 5/. chevage. The church pertained to the 

 altar of the abbey .^' 



Richard I gave 40 acres in the manor of Oundle 

 to be free of all exactions.*'* Henry III in 1268 

 granted a yearly fair on the morrow of the Ascension 

 and for fourteen days following at the manor of 

 Oundle ;*i and in 1304 Edward I granted the monks 

 free warren in their demesne lands of Oundle and 

 Biggin.*^ In 1316 the tenants of Oundle and its 

 members were the abbot of Peterborough, the abbot 

 of Crowland (for Elmington), and Hugh de Gorham 

 (for Churchfield, etc.)P 



Burgesses have been mentioned above. An " R., 

 abbot of Burg," Robert of Lindsey (1214-22), con- 

 firmed various liberties to the men of Oundle : they 

 were quit of all tallage, and might marry their 

 daughters as they pleased ; they were, however, to 

 reap three days in the autumn, the abbot providing 

 food for them on one day, and to pay pannage. The 

 abbot reserved all pleas of the portman-mote and all 

 customs belonging to the market. For these liberties 



" Xorltanis. .V. and Q. iv, 49. 



" Cat. S. P. Dom. 1653-4, p. 31. 



" Nortbants. N. and Q. iv, 221. 



'* These notes are chiefly from Diet. 

 Nat. Biog., supplemented \>y the local 

 information in Canon Law's Oundle's 

 Story. 



" Birch, Cartul. Sax. iii, 582. Oundle 

 is called a ' former possession ' by Hugh 

 Candidus (Sparke, Hist. Angl. Script, ii, 



■7)- 

 " Cat. Chart. R. i, 22; li, 142, 485; 



iv, 4, 8, 274, 276, 278 ; Rol. Cart. (Rec. 



Com.), 82. 



" y.C.H. Northants. i, 313. For the 

 Woodland, see ibid. 280. " Ibid. 367. 

 " Liber Niger (Camden Soc. 47), 158. 

 •K Cart. Antiq. x (2). 

 «' Cal. Chart. R. ii, 101. 

 «• Ibid, iii, 43. 

 •> Feud. Aids, iv, 28. 



89 



