A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



NORWrCHES MANOR may have had its origin 

 as a member of the royal manor of Brigstock called 

 Slepe.' It was possibly the manor to which the 

 advowson of the church (q.v.) was attached. Gervase 

 son of Richard de Islip, living in 1230,1' was succeeded 

 by his son Adam.'* Lands were held by Hugh son 

 of William de Islip, in 1238,'^ and John and Simon 

 de Islip in 1329.''' Master Simon de Islip, parson 

 of Horncastle in Lincolnshire, possibly a son of John, 

 or at least a member of this family, in 1 348 requested 

 licence to alienate land in mortmain for a chaplain to 

 celebrate daily there for the souls of his father and 

 mother, John and Margaret dc Islip, and William, 

 Thomas, and Richard de Islip, his brothers, and 

 others.'* In 1376 Alice, widow of William de Islip, 

 quit-claimed to John Holt and his wife Alice, and the 

 heirs of the said John Holt, all lands, rents, reversions 

 and services of free men and neifs in the towns of Islip, 

 Lowick, Aldwinkle, Grafton by Cranford, and Wood- 

 ford, formerly belonging to the said William de Islip 

 and Millicent de Islip.'* The lands of Sir John Holt, 

 Kt. (justice of the Common Pleas) were forfeited in 

 1388, but restored to his son John in 1391.'^ John 

 the son died in 1419 and was succeeded by his son 

 Hugh, and he in 1420 by his brother Richard Holt, 

 clerk,'*^ from whom this manor descended in 1451-2 

 to his next heir Simon Norwich." John Norwich, the 

 son of Simon, died in 1504 seised of a manor of Islip 

 held of the Earl of Wiltshire, which he had settled 

 on his wife Katherine ; his 

 son and heir John was aged 

 thirteen.'* John Norwich died 

 in 1557 seised of this manor, 

 and left a son and heir Simon 

 Norwich, aged 19. Margaret, 

 the widow of Simon the grand- 

 father, was still living at 

 Leicester in 1558, and Alice, 

 the widow of her son John, at 

 Brampton." Simon Norwich 

 was dealing with this manor 

 with Brampton, Cotterstock, 



etc., in 1579,^ and in 1594 it was held by Charles 

 Nonvich, and Anne his wife, who then conveyed it 

 as the manor of Islip alias Norwiches Manor to Sir 

 Lewis Mordaunt, Lord Mordaunt," to whom the 

 overlordship already belonged as representative of the 

 heirs of the earls of Wiltshire, and with whose other 

 manor it then descended. 



A member of the family, Ascan Norwich, was 

 holding a messuage or farm and 40 acres of land in 

 Islip at his death there on 20 May 1 630, in socage of 

 the heirs of Katherine Green and was succeeded by 

 his son John.^* 



In the 12th-century Northamptonshire Survey 4 

 sokemen of the king were entered as holding a hide 

 in Islip of the fee of Westminster Abbey.^' This 



Norwich. Party gules 

 and azurf a lion ermine. 



was possibly the land in Islip formerly belonging to 

 Hugh de Morevill for which Robert, son of Hawise 

 of IsHd, claimed quittance before the barons of the 

 Exchequer in II90-I." It was held by Reginald de 

 Waterville in 1284 as 5 virgates of land in Islip, of 

 the abbey of Westminster, which the abbot held of 

 the king in chief.-* The abbey was holding £"] in 

 rent in Sudborough and Islip c. 1291.^^* Their land 

 was possibly that which John de Tolthorp was holding 

 in 1 3 16." 



Water mills in Islip, known in 1624 as Drawater 

 Mills, were the subject of dispute.-* Possibly the 

 mills were those held with Norwyches Manor. 



An inclosure Act for the parish was passed in 1800." 

 Allotments were made {inter alia) for shares in the 

 Low Town Leys and in Lammas ground called the 

 Five Leys Close. The common or open fields were 

 estimated at about 1,320 acres. 



The church of ST. NICHOLAS con- 

 CHURCH sists of chancel 30 ft. by 15 ft. 3 in. with 

 vestry on the north side, clearstoried 

 nave of four bays 42 ft. 4 in. by 15 ft. 4 in., north 

 and south aisles 8 ft. 6 in. wide, south porch, and 

 west tower and spire. The width across nave and 

 aisles is 37 ft., all these measurements being internal. 

 The church is of one period throughout, having 

 been rebuilt in the latter part of the 15th century, 

 and is a very perfect example of a village church of 

 that date, unaltered in plan and little changed by 

 restoration. At the east end of the nave outside is 

 a roof table wider and of higher pitch than that of 

 the present chancel,** which seems to indicate that 

 the body of the church was built on to an earlier 

 chancel, which was afterwards pulled down and the 

 present one erected. The whole structure, however, 

 is uniform in design, and its situation on rising ground 

 above the valley of the Nene makes its spire a pro- 

 minent landmark. 



With the exception of the upper stage of the tower, 

 which is of dressed stone, the whole of the building 

 is of rubble, with flat-pitched leaded roofs and plain 

 parapets. The walls are plastered internally. The 

 building was restored in 1854-55, new roofs being 

 then erected and the nave reseated. 



The chancel is of two bays and has a four-centred 

 east window of five cinquefoiled lights and diagonal 

 angle buttresses. On the south side are two three-light 

 windows and one in the west bay on the north, the 

 east end of the north wall being covered by the 

 vestry," which was built about 1881 on the site of 

 an old vestry which had long disappeared ; the doorway 

 of the old vestry alone remained. At the cast end 

 of the south wall, set within the window splay, to 

 which it also opens, is a piscina recess with fluted 

 bowl, with which is combined a rectangular aumbry 

 in the thickness of the angle of the wall. The chancel 

 arch is of two orders, the outer with a hollow chamfer 



• V.C.II. Ncrlbanli. i, 305A. 



■" Rtl. Iluf. de IVellei. (Cant, and Vurk 

 boc.;, ii, 133, 151,236. 



" Drayton Chart. 83. 



'•Feet of F. Northanti. caici73,file 28, 

 no. 370. 



" Bridgci, //ill. Ncrlbanli. ii, 239. 



'* Cat. Pal. 1348-50, pp. 127-8, 374. 



'» Cal. Cloie, 1 374-7, p. 3''<o. 



"Cfl/. Pal. 1388-92, p. 236. 



'•• .Str Churchficid in Oundlc. 



" Bridgci, Hill. Ntribami. ii, 265. 



John dc Tolthorp rclcaied lands in Wood- 

 foid, ai brother and heir of Gilbert flon 

 of (Gilbert dc Tolthnrp, in 1353 to Sir 

 Richard Chamberlain, Kt. (Clo»c R. 

 27 Ed. Ill, n).8), which poniibly indicate! 

 a connection with John dc Tolthorp in 

 Itlip. 



'" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), xviii, 54. 



'* Ibid, cxii, 1 15. 



" Feet of r. Div. Coi. Trin. 21 Elii. 



" Ibid. Northanti, Trin. 3^ Elii. 



" Chan. In<i. p.m. (.Scr. ii), dxc, I. 



216 



"V.C.II. Northanti. i, 365. 

 " Pipe R. 2 Ric. I, m. 43. Moreville 

 here m.iy be a slip for Waterville. 

 " t'eud. .lids, iv, 12. 

 •" Pope Nub. Tax. 55A. 



•' Feud, .itdfj iv, It). 



" Chan. Proc. fScr. 2), ccclxvi, 37. 



" Priv. St.it. 40 Ceo. Ill, cap 2. 



"■* It extend" downwards along part of 

 the eait walli of the aislci. 



•' rhe veitry ii 9 ft. 6 in. long by 9 ft. 

 wide internally. 



