A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Thomas Webster of Barnewell and Richard Webster 

 were presented from Aldwinkle for failure to give 

 suit at the court and were amerced.^* Bridges states 

 that two houses in the parish of Aldwinkle St. Peter 

 and two in that of Aldwinkle All Saints were held of 

 the honour of Gloucester in 1723.** 



LYVEDEN was partly in the Bassingbourne fee 

 and partly in the Angevin fee of Churchfield, both of 

 which fees were held of the abbot of Peterborough.*' 

 It was divided into Upper and Lower or Great and 

 Little Lyveden. The Angevin portion followed the 

 descent of Churchfield in Oundle (q.v.) and the 

 Bassingbourne that of Benefield (q.v.) until the end 

 of the 14th century when in 1372 we find that Walter 

 de Frampton of Melcombe Regis and Margaret, his 

 wife, conveyed the manors of Churchfield and Lyveden 

 with lands, wood and rent in Pottereslyveden, Over- 

 ly\'eden, Lyveden and Lyveden Daundelyn to Richard 

 de Spredlyngton and Roger de Wymondham, clerks.** 

 Possibly the grantees were acting on behalf of Sir 

 John Holt, justice of the Court of Common Pleas, 

 who was in possession of the manors about this time. 

 He was impeached in the Parliament of 1388 and 

 forfeited his lands. *s His property, however, was 

 restored to his son John Holt in 1390, except the 

 manor of L}'veden which had been granted to Sir 

 John Devereux, knt., and others to whom it was 

 confirmed in 1392 in payment of debts due from the 

 Crown.** Devereux apparently sold to Sir William 

 FitzWalter, who, with his wife, Joan, conveyed the 

 manor in 1401 to Nicholas de Pye.*' Eventually it 

 went back to John Holt, the son, who died seised of 

 rents from the manors of Lyveden and Churchfield 

 in 1419, leaving a son Hugh aged 30 years.** Hugh 

 died in 1420, his heir being his brother Richard Holt, 

 clerk, aged 37 years.*' As early as 1458 the Treshams 

 of Rushton were holding the manor. A messuage 

 and lands in Aldwinkle were held by Sir Thomas 

 Tresham, controller of the king's household, who was 

 beheaded as a Lancastrian in ^ei." This property 

 was granted in 1462 to John Donne, usher of the 

 king's chambers," who in 1465 conveyed it to 

 George, Bishop of Exeter, and other feoffees.** In 

 1480 it was given by the Crown to William Sayer and 

 Margaret his wife for their lives,'' and in 1484 it was 

 granted in tail male to Edward Brampton, esquire of 

 the king's body.** After the accession of Henry VII, 

 however, the manor of Lyveden was restored to John 

 son of Thomas Tresham,** who did homage to the 

 abbot in 1499.** He was succeeded by his son. 

 Sir Thomas Tresham," who with Isabel Tresham, 

 widow, probably his mother, settled the manor in 

 1536.** In 1540 Sir Thomas Tresham had licence 



to impark 120 acres of wood, 250 acres of pasture and 

 50 acres of meadow in Lyveden commonly called 

 Lyveden Park ; the lands abutted on the east on 

 Bareshank Wood and on Whynney Green in Pilton ; 

 on the west on the wood called Sherylappe and 

 Sudborough Green ; on the south on Sir Thomas's 

 own wood called Ladywood and Bradyhawe, and on 

 the north on the highway called Harlowe Ryding." 

 Leland wrote ' he cauUith himself communely 

 Tresham of Lyveden a 2 miles from Undale in 

 Northamptonshire where yet standithe Parte of aun- 

 cient Manor Place and godely Medows about it, and 

 there hath Tresham a 300 Markes by the yere.'*" 



Sir Thomas died in 1547 leaving a son, Thomas, then 

 a minor, who became prior of the order of St. John of 

 Jerusalem in England.*^ He died in 1558 seised of 

 the manor of Ly\'eden and was succeeded by his 

 grandson Thomas, son of John Tresham, then under 

 age,** who was later imprisoned several times for 

 recusancy. The New Building at Lweden was built 

 by him and he laid out the gardens there.*' He 

 settled the manor on his wife Muriel and his son 

 Francis, in 1584, and died in 1605. His son Francis, 

 then aged 38 years,** was implicated in the Gunpowder 

 Plot and died in the Tower within a year of his father, 

 his estates having been forfeited. He left no son, but 

 in 1634, after the deaths of Muriel, widow of Thomas, 

 and Anne, widow of Francis, who had interests in 

 the manors under settlements, the manor of Lyveden 

 and other estates were granted to Sir George Simeon 

 and another,** who in that year conveyed them to 

 Francis' brother. Sir Lewis Tresham, and his wife 

 Mary.** Lewis, who had been created a baronet in 

 161 1,*' died at Lyveden seised of the manor in 1639 

 leaving a son and heir William.** The manor had 

 been settled in 1634 °" ^^^ marriage of William with 

 Frances, daughter of Sir John Gage of Firle in Sussex, 

 on William and his heirs male, with remainder to 

 Toby Tresham and his sons Edward and Thomas. A 

 month before his death, however, Lewis Tresham 

 revoked this settlement for another on William and 

 his heirs. Sir William Tresham died without issue 

 in 1643 leaving as his heirs his sister Mary, the wife 

 of Thomas Lord Brudenell, and the sons of his sisters 

 Elizabeth, Frances, and Katherine, namely, Henry 

 Lord Morley and Mounteaglc, William Lord Stourton, 

 and Sir John Webbe, bart.** None of these heirs, 

 however, appears to have had any interest in Ly\eden, 

 the limitations under the various settlements being 

 to heirs male. Frances, widow of Sir William 

 Tresham, who in 1649 married George Gage, held 

 the manor after Sir William's death and it was 

 sequestered for her and her husband's recusancy.*" 



»> Court Rolli, Gen. Scr. ptf. 194, no. 



49- 



•• Hill. Norlbanti. 11, 210. 



" Pytchlcy, Bk. of Fiei (Northanti. 

 Rec. Soc), 73, 120. 



" Feet of F. Northanti. 46 Edw. Ill, 

 DO. 644. 



» Rolli 0/ Pari. (Rec. Com.), iii, 240A, 

 2410. 



•• lUrl. Ch. 49 D. 54. 



" Feet of F. Northanti. bdlc. 179, file 

 90, no. 14. 



»• Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 lien. V, file 43 ; 

 Eicheq. Inq. p m. bdle. 114, no. 7. 



••Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Hen. V, file 52; 

 the Northanti portion ii illrRible. 



•• Chan. Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. IV, no. 65 ; 



Varioui Coll. iii [Hist. MSS. Com. Hep.), 

 pp. vi, vii. 



•' Fine R. 5 Edw. IV ; Cal. Pal. 1461-7, 

 p. III. 



"Ibid. 431. 



" Ibid. 1476-85, 201. 



»« Ibid. 416. 



" Varioui Coll. iii {Hist. MSS. Com. 

 Rfp.)y pp. vi, vii. 



•• Hriclgd, Hill, oj Northanls. ii, 373. 



•' Ibid. 69. 



•" Feet of F. Div. Coi. Mil. 27 Hen. 

 VIII. 



•• L. &■ P. lien, yill, 1540, no. 831 



(5°)- 



♦" Lrland, llinerary (ed. 1744), vi, 32. 

 " Dridgci, op. cit. ii, 374. 



170 



*• Ch.in. Inq. p.m. bdle. 124, no. 144. 



♦• Varioui Coll. iii (Hut. MSS. Com. 

 Rep.), pp. xlix to Ivii. 



** Wardi and Liv. Inq. p.m. bdle. 294, 

 no. 104. 



" Pat. R. 9 Chai. I, pt. 5, no. 24 ; 

 Recov. R. Eait. 26 Elii. ro. 56. 



«• Feet of F. Northanti. Eait. 9 Cha». I. 



*' G.E.C. Baronetage, i, 56. 



" VVardiand Liv. Inq. p.m. ii,bdle. 66, 

 no. 81. 



"Chan. Inq. p.m. II Miic. 524(5); 



537 (>8). 539 (s). 54° (75)- 



»» Cat. Com. Jor Comp. 2624, 3049 ; 

 S. R. Gardiner, Hist. 0/ Commonwealth, iii, 

 197. 



