HUXLOE HUNDRED 



DEN FORD 



Clare. Or three cheve- 

 ront gules. 



place there from which the rent should be taken. 

 Probably Adeliza his grandmother was then still 

 ahve. The manor* was apparently held of the honour 

 of Clare in 1242,* while in 1262 Richard, Earl of 

 Gloucester, died seised of 

 the overlordship there.' The 

 manor was afterwards held of 

 the Gloucester Fee in North- 

 amptonshire,* to which it still 

 belongs. 



The first tenant in demesne 

 of whom record has been 

 found was Frumbold Denford, 

 who in the 12th century survey 

 appears as holding half a hide 

 of land in Cotton of the 

 fee of Denford.* In charters 



of the same century, Walter son of Gilbert Denford 

 appears'" and he was succeeded by his son Gilbert 

 and grandson Walter, the latter of whom was living 

 in 1219." Shortly afterwards the manor was divided, 

 but the fact that the number of knights' fees in Den- 

 ford varies in different inquisitions on the Gloucester 

 lands makes its history difficult to trace. Probably, 

 however, the manor was held as one knight's fee and 

 the later moieties each as half a knight's fee.*^ 



In 1242 Walter Denford held half a fee of the 

 honour of Clare and was probably the mesne lord of the 

 other half fee.''' He was succeeded by Gilbert 

 Denford, whose heir was holding in 1262'* and may 

 possibly have been Joan the wife of William Sharde- 

 low, who was certainly the heiress of lands in Den- 

 ford at this time.'* She and her husband granted 

 lands in 1263 to Richard Trailly of Woodford'* and 

 in 1284 William Trailly is said to have held the town- 

 ship of Denford of the Earl of Gloucester." In 1285 

 the lands that had formerly been held by Walter and 

 Gilbert Denford had passed to William Trailly and 

 John de Tolthorp.'* It seems fairly clear that John 

 de Tolthorp held the half fee which Walter Denford 

 held in 1242, since in or before 1326 his widow Maud 

 died seised of a moiety of the manor of Denford, which 

 was held as half a knight's fee." Her heir was her 

 son Gilbert^" and his sons Gilbert and John both 

 seem to have succeeded him.^' John in 1353 quit- 

 claimed all his right in the manor to Sir Richard 

 Chamberlain,*' who also obtained the third part, 

 which Ehzabeth, the wife of Ralph Beauchamp, held 



in dower.-' In 1373 John Chamberlain and his 

 wife Kathcrine, who seems to have had some right 

 in the manor, quitclaimed it to Sir Richard Cham- 

 berlain,'-' on whose death his son and heir Richard 

 assigned the manor to his mother Joan in dower.^* 

 She died seised in 1410 and it passed to her grandson, 

 another Richard Chamberlain,-* who granted it to 

 certain feoffees." In 1432 these feoffees granted it 

 to John Gryffyn and William Aldwinkle, who were 

 in seisin at the time of the death of Richard in 1439,^* 

 and of his son, a fourth Richard, in 1440.^' Aldwinkle 

 died before 1472, when his heir Thomas Lenton gave 

 a release of the manor to a fifth Richard Chamber- 

 lain.'* Another Richard, probably his son, died in 

 1496, leaving the manor in trust to be divided amongst 

 his three sons, with remainder to his daughter Anne." 

 The next tenant, however, who appears is John 

 Audlett, of Abingdon, Berks, who died seised of the 

 manor in 1537.'^ His heirs were first said to be his 

 cousins Ralph Edmunds and Margaret, wife of Ralph 

 Tomson.^ Edmunds sold his moiety to Katherine, 

 the widow of Audlett,'* and the Tom sons granted 

 their moiety to her for life in satisfaction of her 

 dower.'* Later, William Boiler, the true heir of 

 Audlett, appeared and sold the manor to Katherine 

 Audlett and her nephew Thomas Reade and his wife 

 Anne.'* After BoUer's death, 

 his daughter and heir Margaret 

 and her husband, William 

 Sergeant, tried to recover the 

 manor." An agreement, how- 

 ever, was reached in 1544 with 

 the Reades,'* whose descend- 

 ants retained possession of the 

 manor.'* In 1661 Corapton 

 Reade was created a baronet,'"' 

 but in the early years of the 

 l8th century the manor was 

 sold by Sir Thomas Reade to 



Joseph Diston,*' who in 1719 resold it to Jeremiah 

 Sambrooke.*^ It afterwards passed to John Freeman, 

 who sold the manor in 1764 to Leonard Burton.*' 

 The trustees of Thomas Burton owned the manor in 

 1874,'** and Mr. Thomas Freeman and Mr. George 

 Keeble, J. P., are the chief landowners at the present 

 day. 



The other half fee in Denford seems to have been 

 in the hands of Matthew the Butler in 1242,''* but 



Reade. Gules a salrire 

 betzoeen Jour sheaves or. 



' Farrer Honors and Knigbls' Fees, ii, 

 210-1 1. • Book of Fees, ii, 937. 



' Bridges, Hist, of Noribanls. ii, 231, 

 cit. Chan. Inq. p.m. 47 Hen. III. no. 

 34. The list of the Earl's Northampton- 

 ihire tees now appears to be lost. 



• Chan. Inq. p.m. i Hen. V, no. 

 Exch. Dep. by Com. Northants. 

 II Jas. I, no. 15. 



• y.C.H. Northanu. I, 377a. 

 '» Harl. Chart. 4S B. 25 and 26. 

 " Ibid. 50 A. 41. 

 " Chan. Inq. p.m. 47 Hen. 



no. 34; ibid. 46 Edw. Ill (ist nos.) 

 no. 62 ; 18 Ric. II, no. 43 ; 22 Ric. II, 

 no. 46 ; 38 and 39 Hen. VI, no. 59 ; 

 Bk. of Fees, ii, 937 ; Feud. Aids, iv, 12, 49. 



'• Bk. of Fees, ii, 937. 



'♦ Chan. Inq. p.m. 47 Hen. Ill, no. 

 34 ; Chron. Petrob. (Camden Soc.) 113. 



" Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 41; 

 Hen. HI. 



■• Ibid. Trin. 47 Hen. III. 



33 i 

 Hil. 



Ill, 



*' Feud. Aids, iv, 12. It seems possible 

 that William Trailly was the second hus- 

 band of Joan Shardelow ; cf. Feet of F. 

 Northants. East. 18 Edw. I. 



'* Chron. Petrob. 113. 



*• Cnl. Inq. vi, no. 621. 



»» Plac. de Banco. Trin. 2 Edw. Ill, 

 m. 72d. 



" Cal. Close, 1349-54, P- 616. " Ibid. 



" Feet of F. Northants, Trin. 27 

 Edw. III. 



" Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 46 

 Edw. III. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. I Hen. V, no. 33. 



" Ibid. 



" Ibid. 17 Hen. VI, no. 31. " Ibid. 



" Ibid. iS Hen. VI. no. 45 ; Early Chan. 

 Proc, bdlc. 18, no. 18. His heir was his 

 cousin William Rokeby, but he does not 

 seem to have obtained seisin. 



w Close R. 1 1 Edw. IV, m. 5. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), xi, 4. 



•» Ibid. Ixxxii, 75. •• Ibid. 



•* Feet of F. Northants, East. 29 

 Hen. VIII. 



" Star Chamber Proc. Hen. VIII, 

 bdle. 17, no. 196. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), Ixii, 30 j 

 Feet of F. Northants, Trin. 30 Hen. VIII. 



" Star Chamber Proc. Hen. VIII, 

 bdle. 17, no. 196. 



»' Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 36 

 Hen. VIII. 



" Feet of F. Northants. East. 30 Eliz. ; 

 Mich. 13 Chas. I; Trin. 34 Chas. II; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), ccxc, 125 ; 

 Exch. Dep. by Com. Northants. Hil. 

 12 Jas. I, no. 15 ; Pat. R. 13 Jas. I, pt. 18; 

 Recov. R. Trin. 31 Chas. II, ro. 30. 



*" G.E.C. Baronetage, iii, p. 172. 



" Bridges, op. cit. ii, 321. 



*' Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 5 Geo. I. 



♦> Ibid. East. 4 Geo. III. 



** Whellan, Hist, of Northants. 1874,751. 



" Feet of F. Northants. East. 26 

 Hen. III. 



