A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



In 1630 there is mention of a meadow called ' Towne 

 Hulme ' probably part of the common, the tenants 

 of which and those of the King's meadow in Higham 

 Ferrers had to maintain the ditch between them. An 

 Act for inclosing lands in the parish was passed in 

 1808.' 



Boot and shoemaking has been the principal industry 

 in the parish for a long time. There are also iron 

 works. 



IRTHLINGBOROUGH may have 

 MJXORS been included in Edgar's grant of Ketter- 

 ing (q.v.) to the abbot and convent of 

 Peterborough. In 1086 the abbey held there five 

 hides and one virgate.' The survey of the abbey's 

 land made between 112*5 ^"^ nzS states that two 

 hides were in demesne, that 

 three villeins and ten half- 

 villeins held I hide, the priest 

 one virgate and two socmen 

 one bovate and a half, that 

 there were two cottars, and 

 that one hide, less half a vir- 

 gate, lay vacant. Further, the 

 socmen of Irthlingborough 

 were said to hold one hide, 

 one virgate and one bovate 

 and to owe knights' service. 



The Northamptonshire Sur- 

 vey gives the land of the abbey's fee in Irthlingborough 

 as five and a half hides and one small virgate.* A 

 charter of Pope Eugenius III of 1146*" and royal 

 charters of 1189,11 1227I- and 13321^ confirmed 

 their holding in Irthlingborough to the abbot 

 and convent. Abbot Martin de Bee (1135-SS) 

 assigned the profits of Irthlingborough to the work 

 of the sacristy ;!'• Abbot Walter, of Bury St. Edmunds 

 (1233-45), built there a new byre and new stables ;i^ 

 and Abbot Godfrey of Crowland (l 299-1 321) inclosed 

 the right side of the manor with a new stone wall and 

 new gates in front of the hall, the former wall being 

 in ruins.*" Officials of the abbey must have stayed 

 in the hall from time to time, and in 1281 it sheltered 

 the Bishop of Lincoln.*' In 1321-2, there was a capital 

 messuage, and the demesne included 70 acres of arable 

 land, 21 acres of meadow, and pasture of the annual 

 value of 6s. Sd. ; seven free tenants rendered 10/. 6J. 

 a year, twenty-three customary tenants held virgates 

 of land and were bound to do tillage, weeding, 

 reaping and harvesting on 46 acres of the demesne, 

 and to till the remaining 24 acres. Further, for each 

 virgate, they had to supply a man for a day in every 

 week in the year, except at Christmas, Easter, and 

 Whitsuntide, or render \il. for each day's work of one 



Peterborough Abdev. 

 Gules two CTOised krys or. 



The manor continued in the possession of Peter- 

 borough Abbey until the Dissolution.** 



In 1542 the manor of Irthlingborough was granted 

 to the Jean and chapter of Peterborough,^" who are still 

 lords. 



Hugo Candidus states that when Thorold, Abbot 

 of Peterborough (1069-88), distributed land in knights' 

 fees, because he desired defenders against Hereward 

 the Wake, he made two fees in Irthlingborough.-* In 

 1086, however, four knights held there of the abbot 

 five hides, less one virgate." In the middle of the 

 ne.\t century these knights' fees were apparently repre- 

 sented by 3 J hides held by Reginald de la Bataille, and 

 one hide by Simon Basset of the Avenel fee.^^ These 

 holdings were included in the confirmatory charters 

 granted to the abbey by Eugenius IIl,^* Richard I,^^ 

 Henry III,"^ and Edward III.2' 



With regard to the BATAILLE FEE, there appears 

 to have been some doubt whether it was held directly 

 of the abbot of Peterborough or of the Bassingbourne 

 fee, which was held of the abbot.-^ Reginald de la 

 Bataille seems to have been succeeded by William de la 

 Bataille (de Bello), who held land in Irthlingborough 

 in 1179"* and in 1189 he, with Richard del Peak, held 

 3 knights' fees in Irthlingborough and Addington. 

 William de la Bataille in 1214 claimed the advowson of 

 the church of All Saints,'" and in the middle of the 

 13th century Robert de la Bataille held ij knights' fee 

 in Irthlingborough, Addington and Woodford.'* In 

 1 3 16-17 Henry de Drayton conveyed a manor of 

 Irthlingborough to Simon de Drayton probably in 

 settlement.'- Simon held it of the fee of Bataille" 

 and in 1 327 obtained a grant of free warren over his 

 lands there.** In 1353 he conveyed the manor to 

 John Pyel, citizen and mercer of London,'* whose 

 widow Joan, at his desire, founded the college of 

 Irthlingborough in 1388.'* The manor passed to 

 Nicholas Pyel, who did homage to the abbot of 

 Peterborough in 1399." He married Elizabeth 

 Gorge and died in 1402-3. He is said to have had a 

 son John, who was succeeded by Elizabeth, probably 

 his daughter. Elizabeth married Sir William Huddle- 

 ston and on her death the manor passed to her son, 

 Henry Huddleston, who at his death in 1488 be- 

 queathed it to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Thomas 

 Cheyney, but failing heirs of her body it was to be 

 devoted to the salvation of his soul and the souls of 

 his parents and ancestors.'* Sir Thomas Cheyney and 

 others, in 151 1, obtained licence to grant to the dean 

 and chapter of the collegiate church of Irtlilingborough 

 lands of the annual value of £2\?^ These lands 

 probably went towards the endowment of the two 

 additional prebends of the foundation of Lady Chey- 

 ney to which reference is found in 1530.'"' At the dis- 



' Norihanls. N. and Q. (New Ser.) ii, 

 117. 



* y.C.H. Norlhann. i, 314A ; »cc 

 alio Cbron. Petrcb. (Camdrn Soc), i6'>, 



• y.C.II. Norihanls. i, 388*. 

 «' Sparkc, llisl. Corn. Burg. Script. Var. 

 (Hugo Candidui), 78. 



" Cal. Chart. 1327-41, p. 275. 



" Ibid. 1226-57, p. 19. 



" Ibid. 1327-41, p. 275. 



'« Sp.irkc, op. cit,87. 



'» Ibid. 120. 



'• Ibid. i<;4. 



>' Cbron. /•<(«>. (Camden Soc), 85. 



" Sparke, op. cit. 120. 



'• Valor Ecd. (Rcc. Com.\ iv, 279, 

 2S0, 282. 



»» I'at. R. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. 3. 



" Sparkc, op. cit. 61. 



" V.C.II. Norlhanli. i, 317a. 



"Ibid. 388. 



" Sparkc, op. cit. 78. 



" Cal. Chart. 1327-41, 275. 



" Ibid. 1226-57, H). 



■' Ibid. 1327-41, 275. 



•• Pytchlcy, Hk. of Fees (Nortlianli 

 Rcc. Soc), 73-5. 



•• Pipe Roll Soc. XXV, p. 65. 



208 



" Rot. de Oblatis et Fin. (Rcc Com.), 



535- 



" Pytchlcy, op. cit. 74. 



" Feet of F. Edw. II, ca«e 176, file 68, 

 no. 323. 



" Pytchlcy, op. cit. 75. 



" Cal. Chart. 1327-41, p. 13 ; Plae. de 



uo Ware. (Rcc. Com.), 543. 



"' Bridges, llist. Northants, ii, 235. 



'" r.i.'.ll. Northants, ii, 179. 



" Ibid. cf. Woodford. 



"" K.trly Chan. Proc. bdlc. 587, no. 40 j 

 Col. Inq. Hen. VII. i, 297. 



" I., and P. Hen. I'll 1,1, 1724. 



*" \'iRitalion of l.ongland. 



