A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Great Addington and lands in Great and Little Ad- 

 dington to William Bedell and William Ward, and 

 the heirs of William Ward.^* 



The manor next appears in the hands of Christopher 

 Curteys and his wife Dorothy, by whom it was con- 

 veyed in 1618 to William Bletsoe and Robert Sander- 

 son.^^ Thomas Bletsoe of Addington, who appears 

 in a list of ' friends ' in 1655,'" was presumably holding 

 the manor, which by 1668 was in the hands of three 

 generations of Thomas Bletsoes, grandfather, father, 

 and son, and by them with Thomas Gerrard, was 

 conveyed to Samuel Whitby of London, with the 

 chief messuage or manor house of Great Addington,** 

 and lands. The Bletsoes seem to have held under a 

 settlement or mortgage, for in 1664 the manor with a 

 water mill, a windmill, a dovecot, and lands in Great 

 and Little Addington and Woodford was held by 

 Thomas Andrews, who made a conveyance of it to 

 John Clarke and Henry Hemington,** and in 1678, 

 Thomas Andrew and his wife Ann conveyed the manors 

 of Great Harleston and Great Addington to John 

 Clendon and Thomas Bletsoe. ^^ After this, the manor 

 remained in the Andrews family, by whom it was 

 held with the manor of Harleston (q.v.). Both manors 

 were entailed by John Andrews by will of 22 July, 

 1736, and in 1794 Robert Andrews the elder, son of 

 John Andrews, and Robert Andrews the younger, 

 conveyed them to James Kindersley and John Russel.*' 

 No manorial rights are mentioned in the inclosure 

 Act of 1803, when Robert Andrews was one of the 

 owners and proprietors of the open and common 

 fields,*' and no manorial rights are now in existence. 

 Addington Manor is occupied by Lt.-Col. Malcolm 

 Romer, O.B.E. Mr. S. E. R. Lane and Mr. G. H. 

 Capron, J. P., are the chief landowners. 



A second manor in Great Addington originated in 

 ij hides in Addington held in 1086 by William's 

 trusted minister Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances and 

 under him by Hugh. The land had risen in value 

 from 10;. in 1066 to 40/. at the date of the Domesday 

 Survey (1086),** a rapid recovery after the devastation 

 of the land at the Conquest or before. The Bishop 

 forfeited his lands on account of his rebellion 

 against WiUiam Rufus in 1088. Before the time of 

 the Northamptonshire Survey (c. 1 1 25), the Bishop's 

 fee had passed to Aubrey de Vere or the Chamberlain, 

 but whether the grant had been made to him or his 

 father Aubrey is uncertain.** It was there entered 

 as ' 2 hides of the King's fee,'** the 2 hides being made 

 up of the Domesday ij hides and an additional half 

 hide of the Bishop's land at Drayton in Lowick, 

 which properties continued to be held together. 

 The manor pissed to Robert, younger son ot Aubrey 

 the Chamberlain,*' who was holding Addington in 



n66. He married twice, his first wife being Margaret 

 Wake, presumably daughter of Geoffrey Wake and 

 sister of Hugh Wake; with her he received a charter 

 from Baldwin Wake (Wac)** granting to him ' with 

 Margaret my aunt' (auita mea),** the vill of Thrapston. 

 The charter is undated, but must have been made 

 after 1 168 when Hugh Wake, father of Baldwin the 

 grantor, was alive and would have been holding 

 Thrapston. By his first wife he had at least one son 

 William. His second wife was Maud, daughter of 

 Robert de Furnell. By an undated charter, Robert 

 de Furnell granted to ' Robert son of Aubrey de 

 Twiwell with Maud my daughter in free marriage ' 

 certain lands in Cranford.** These lands were later 

 confirmed by John, son of Maud, daughter of Robert 

 de Furnell, ' to Robert de Ver ' as lands which Robert 

 de Furnell gave ' to my mother in free marriage.'** 

 Evidently John was a son of Maud by a former hus- 

 band. By his second marriage, Robert de Vere had 

 a son Henry, known as Henry son of Robert, who is 

 said to have been brought up by his kinsman William 

 de Mandeville, Earl of Essex and Albemarle, son of 

 Roesia de Vere, and to have commanded with re- 

 putation at Gysors.** He was probably the judge 

 of this name of the end of the 12th century. He is 

 said to have died about 1 193-4, and was succeeded 

 by Walter, his son. This Walter, as Walter son of 

 Henry son of Robert, by an undated charter of the early 

 years of the 13th century, gave to William ' patrunculo 

 meo,' or uncle on his father's side, all his land in Twy- 

 well for the service of half a knight and in Addington 

 for the service of a quarter of a knight's fee which 

 Robert his grandfather held on the day he died, 

 to be held of Walter and his heirs.*' Walter married 

 Lucy, daughter of Gilbert Basset of Weldon. He 

 had apparently two brothers, William and Geoffrey, 

 and died in 1210-11. This branch of the family, 

 which took the name of ' de 

 Drayton,' continued to be the 

 overlords of the Veres' holding 

 in Addington. Its descent 

 is given under Drayton in 

 Lowick (q.v.). 



William, the elder son of 

 Robert de Vere, lived on till 

 the early part of the 13th 

 century. Under the name of 

 WiUiam son of Robert son of 

 Aubrey, he endowed the Hos- 

 pital of St. John Baptist of 

 Northampton with lands in 

 Slipton and Twywell.** His 

 passed to Thomas de 



D E Vere. Quarterly 

 gules and or with a moUt 

 argent tn the quarter. 



lands in Thrapston 



Vere, perhaps his son, 



who died in 1204 and was succeeded by his brother 



•« Feet of F. Northants. East. 

 «' Ibid. Mich. 16 JaJ. I. 



5 jas. I. 



" Cal. S.P. IJom. 1655-6, p. 64. 



•» Cloic R. 20 Cha». II, pt. 11 ; Feet of 

 F. Northants. Mich. 20 Chas. II; 

 Recov. R. Mich. 20 Chas. II, ro. 125. 



'* Feet of F. Northants. Mil. 15 and 16 

 Chas. II. 



•* Ibid. Div. COS. Mil. 29, 30 Chas, II. 



•* Close R. 34 Geo. Ill, pt. 21, m. 7 ; 

 Recov. R. Mil. 34 Geo. Ill, ro. 292. 



" Priv. Stat. 43 Geo. Ill, cap. 108. 



«• y.C.H. Northantt. i, 311. 



•• Ibid. 360. 



•• Ibid. 389J. 



" Dugdalc, Mon. Angl. ii, 603. As 



Robert son of Aubrey the chamberlain of 

 the King, he made an agreement with the 

 Abbot of 'I'horncy as to tithes in Adding- 

 ton and elsewhere, by which agreement 

 his father Aubrey had been bound. 

 Drayton Ch. no. 1. This Robert must 

 not be confused with his uncle Robert 

 de Vere, who was in frequent attendance 

 at the Courts of Henry I and Stephen. 



"This important charter is in the 

 collection of the late Mr. Stopford- 

 Sackville at Drayton House. A series of 

 photographs of this collection lias kindly 

 been lent by Miss Joan Wake, hon. sec. 

 of the Northants Rec. Soc. It is no. 10 

 of this collection. This collection will 



hereafter be referred to as Drayton 

 Charters. Henry, a hitherto unrecorded 

 abbot of Bourne, was a witness to this 

 charter. 



" The word is clearly ' auita,' but it is 

 probably a mistake of the scribe for 

 'amita.* 



•* Drayton Ch. 104. 



•' Ibid. 76. 



*• He was witness to two of William dc 

 Mandevillc's charters c. 1176-81. Round, 

 Cal. Doc. France, 243; Pipe Roll Soc. 31 

 Hen. 11 (1185), p. 51. 



" Dr.iyton Ch. i. The charier is wit- 

 nessed by Richard and Simon Basset. 



•' Ibid. 2, 40, 93. 



156 



