A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



to him a messuage, garden, and 3 acres of land in 

 Great Addington.** At the Dissolution the profits 

 from the chantry, of which Robert Aleyn was incum- 

 bent, were £(>?^ The manor of Sywell, belonging 

 to St. Andrew's Priory, exclusive of the payment 

 to this chantry, was granted to John Mershe in 1543.*' 



The chantry and its endowment were granted 

 to John, Lord Mordaunt, by George Brown in 

 '547)** ^nd continued to be held by the Mor- 

 daunts,*' as the manor of the chantry of Great 

 Addington. 



There are no charities in this parish. 



LITTLE ADDINGTON 



Edintone (xi cent.) ; Adington Watervill or Parva 

 (xiv. cent.). 



The smaller of the Addingtons differs little in its 

 main features from Great Addington {q.v.), which 

 lies to the north of it. The height varies from about 

 300 ft. to about 150 ft. above ordnance datum. 



LiTTLi: Addington Church : West Tower Doorway 



the ground near the River Ncnc being liable to floods. 

 The area is 1,134 acres of land and 9 of water. The 

 population was 280 in 1921. 



The village, triangular in shape, is about 3^ 

 miles north of Higham Ferrers, and | mile south- 

 west from Ringstead and Addington Station. The 

 Church of St. Mary lies at its southern end, and is 

 noteworthy for the beauty of its tower. 



To the east of the church is the Manor Farm, the 

 home, during many generations, of the Sanderson 

 family. South of it is St. Mary's vicarage, built in 

 1859, but the vicar resides now at Great Addington. 

 To the south-west of the church is a two-story thatched 



house, now used as a Working Men's Institute, 

 dated 1712, and a pair of houses on the north side 

 of the village green, also of two stories, with thatched 

 roof, is dated 1715. In both cases the windows 

 have been modernised. Two farms have good stone 

 barns of late 17th or early l8th century date, with 

 thatched roofs and coped end gables, and there 

 is a rectangular dove-house west of the green, 

 with panel inscribed ' R. L. 1739,' and red 

 pantiled roof. Another dove-house, to the south- 

 east of the church, with thatched roof and 

 lantern, is now in a state of dilapidation. The 

 public elementary school, built in 1873 for 66 

 children, also lies to the south of the church, and 

 near by is the smithy. A Wesleyan chapel was 

 built in 1844. Little Addington Lodge stands 

 by itself in the west of the parish. 



We have a glimpse of 17th-century village life 

 in a dispute in 1620 over the inclosing, by 

 Richard and Edward Beeby,* of ways by which 

 access was obtained to the common well, the 

 washing block on the common ground, where it 

 was used by all the inhabitants, and the cattle 

 troughs there. 



The history of the two Adding- 

 MANORS tons before the Conquest is given 

 under Great Addington (q.v.). 

 The abbot of Peterborough held 3 hides in 

 inTLE ADDINGTON, which were held by 

 Hugh his tenant in 1086.^ In the Northampton- 

 shire Survey of the time of Henry I Hugh's fee 

 with another half hide had passed to Richard son 

 of Hugh.8 They later went to the Lisurs, and 

 Richard son of Hugh may have been a Lisurs. 

 Possibly it was his grand-daughter, daughter of 

 William Lisurs, who married Viel de Engaine.* 

 Their son Fulk took his mother's name, and from 

 him this mesne lordship passed with Bencfield 

 (q.v.) to the Lisurs and Bassingbournes. 

 According to Pytchley's Survey of Peterborough 

 Fees, there were four fees in Addington which were 

 held under Peterborough of the Lisurs and Bassing- 

 bournes, namely, those of Daundelyn, Waterville, 

 the abbot of Sulby, and the Earl of Gloucester.^ These 

 fees were partly in Great and partly in Little Adding- 

 ton, but mostly in the latter, and so it is more con- 

 venient to take them here. 



The Daundelyn fee passed with Cranford St. 

 Andrew (q.v.). A part of it went to the liarnacks,* 

 of Irthlingborough (q.v.), and from them to Sulby 

 Abbey. 



The Waterville fee went willi the Watervilles' 



"CW. Pal. Hen. VII, ii, p. zi6. 

 •• Valor Ecd. fRcc. Com.), iv, 312. 

 •' L. and F. Hen. VIII, xviii, (i) g. 216 

 (38)- 



" Com. Pleat. DecJi Enr. Eait. 1 

 "Edw. VI. 



•• Chan, 

 id., r.4. 

 ' Chan. 



In 



q. p.m. 



Proc. (Scr. 2), vol. 

 cccxtIx, no. 9. 



• V.C.II. Nortbanti. i, 317a. 



• Ibid. 388.^ 



(.Scr. ii) cccix, joo \ 

 bdlc. 



• Pytchlcy, lik. of Fm (North.Tnti 

 Rcc. Soc), 76 «. 



» Ibid. 75. 



' Feet of F. Ilcn. Ill, catc 173, file 40, 

 no. 658. 



160 



