HUXLOE HUNDRED 



WARKTON 



Bury St. Edmunds 

 AliDKV. Azure ibrrf 

 crotvus each surrounding 

 a pair of crossed arroivs 

 all or. 



Before the Conqiicu lf'.-IRKTO.\' was 

 M.^NOR the property of i'Elgifu, wife of Earl 

 iElfgjr and mother of Karl Morcar. It 

 was given to the abbey of Bury St. Edmund by Queen 

 Maud, wife of the Conqueror,* and continued to be 

 held with other possessions of .Elfgar which the abbey 

 acquired in Scaldwell, Boughton and East Earndon.* 

 In the Domosday Survey it was 

 entered in Navisland hundred 

 among the lands of St. Ed- 

 mund, held by tiie abbot him- 

 self of the king, and it had 

 risen in value from £y to £S. 

 There were 3 J hides there, a 

 mill and woodlands 3 furlongs 

 in length and 2 in breadth.' 

 In the 12th century North- 

 amptonshire Survey 4 hides 

 in Warkton were entered in 

 Northnavisland as held of the 

 fee of St. Edmund.* At the 

 end of the 12th century the 



abbot of St. Edmundsbury conveyed the manor to 

 Ernald de Herlaw, who in 1 201 reconveved it to 

 Samson abbot of St. Edmundsbury for 60 marks, 

 giving an undertaking to burn the charter made to 

 liim by the abbot.' 



The soke of Warkton comprised the lands of the 

 abbot of St. Edmundsbury in the district, perhaps 

 those which had been held by ^^Llfgar. It was divided 

 into the In-Soke and the Foreign-Soke. The In-Soke 

 included Warkton, Boughton and Geddington, and 

 the Forcign-Soke Scaldwell, Houghton next Scaldwell 

 (Hanging Houghton), Lamport, Kilmarsh and Maid- 

 well, Clipston, Braybrook, Ugthorp, East Farndon 

 and .Arthingworth.* All the tenants owed suit at the 

 abbot's court of Warkton, but the tenants of the 

 In-Soke paid a rent and had many services to perform, 

 particularly when the abbot visited the manor. 

 The tenants of the Foreign Soke mostly paid a rent 

 for all services.* The abbot had his hall here as 

 early as the 12th century, at which his steward lived, 

 and here the abbot had a miraculous preservation from 

 lire in Ii86.>» 



In the early part of the 13th century a dispute arose 

 between the abbot of Peterborough and the abbot of 

 St. Edmundsbury regarding the manor of Warkton, 

 wliich the former claimed to be within his seven hun- 

 dreds. It was agreed that the bailiff of the seven 

 hundreds should have supervision of the view of 

 frankpledge and St. Edmundsbury should pay a marl: 

 yearly for quittance of all claims by Peterborough. '^ 

 There were courts and halimotes at Warkton. The 

 native tenants had to pay the usual fines for marrying 

 their daughters or for their sons frequenting the schools 

 and also for Icyrwite. The abbot of St. Edmundsbury 



was quit of reg.ird of the forest by charter of II71, 

 confirmed at later dates. '^ There seems to have been 

 a flourishing community of tradesmen in the 13th 

 century at Warkton. We have mention of William 

 the Carpenter, who paid a capon for his shop ; 

 Richard de Pit for two salt pans, three capons ; 

 Richard the Smith for his smithy, two capons ; 

 Robert le Iremongcr izd; Richard at the Bridge over 

 the Ise, 61/. ; and John Confort who held a messuage 

 near the Cross." 



Warkton was included in a list of manors appro- 

 priated to the cellarers of the abbey for which cus- 

 todians were appointed in 1215.'* 



In 1284 the abbot of St. Edmund held Warkton in 

 pure alms of the king in chief,*' and in 1 291 he received 

 from it the considerable sum of ^^22 15J. 5{(^.** The 

 abbot was having difhculties with his tenants about 

 rights of common and other matters early in the 

 14th century, and possibly as a result of these disputes 

 he leased the manor, excepting the advowson of the 

 church and view of frankpledge, in 1312 to the homage 

 of the court of Warkton for 12 years at a rent of 

 £&o a year.*'" The abbot obtained a grant of free 

 warren in 1330*' and proved his claim to view of 

 frankpledge and weyf in the Manor** from time 

 immemorial. 



In 1414 William Cratefeld, abbot of St. Edmunds- 

 bury, leased the manor for ten years to Thomas, Earl 

 of Dorchester, at a rent of ^25 a year,andin 1417 the 

 Earl, who had been created Duke of Exeter, wrote 

 complaining that the abbot had arrested his farmer 

 of the lands for arrears of rent due from him.'* 



The abbey of Bury St. Edmunds continued to hold 

 the manor until the Dissolution, when in 1535 it 

 was in lease to Thomas Lane for a rent of ^^32. 

 On 20 March 1541, the manor and advowson of the 

 rectory of Warkton, together with its soke, as part of 

 the late possessions of the abbey, with all the lands of 

 the abbey in Warkton, were granted for life to Sir 

 Edward Montagu, Chief Justice of the King's Bench,"* 

 to whom on surrender of this patent a fresh grant was 

 made in fee on l8 March 1542.^* Lands in Warkton 

 were granted with tlie manors of Holwell, Brlxworth, 

 Lamport, Hanging Houghton, etc., by Robert 

 Burdon of Hanging Houghton and his wife Joan, and 

 Robert Burdon, junior, to Sir Edward Montagu in 

 1541.21^ 



The manor seems to have been settled on Ellen 

 the third wife of Sir Edward Montagu, Lord Chief 

 Justice, who in 1557 leased it to her son Edward.^"" 

 It descended to Sir Walter Montagu, kt., younger son 

 of Sir Edward Montagu and grandson of the Lord 

 Chief Justice, who in 1604 settled it on his second 

 wife Ann. He died without issue in 1616, his wife 

 Ann surviving him, and his heir being his brother, 

 Sir Edward Montagu,^^ created Lord Montagu of 



• Memorials of S. Edmund's Abbey (Rolls 

 Ser.),Ui, 4. 



• V.C.II. fforibanti. i, 285, 318. 

 •Ibid, i, 318. • Ibid. 389A. 



' Bucclcuch MSS. Warkton Bk. pp. 1,4. 



• Ibid. 21 et scq. In one list ' Lulcham,' 

 poisibly Lolham in Maxcy parish, is 

 added. A dispute as to reliefs payable in 

 the soke arose in 164S ; Excheq. Dcponi. 

 Trin. 24 Chas. I, no. 1. 



• Ibid. 21. 



" Ibid. 5, 7 ; Mem. of St. Edmund't 

 Abb. (Rolls Scr.), i, 268 j ii, 125 ; iii, 22. 



" Bucclcuch MSS. Warkton Bk. 8 ; Reg. 

 Robt. Swaffham, cxlv, 5d. ; cf. Lansd. 

 MS. 1029, 21 lb. 



" Bucclcuch MSS. op. cit. 34 ; Chart. 

 R. 17 John, m. 7; Cal. Close, 1227-31, p. 41; 

 1247-51, p. 281. " Ibid. 42. 



'« Chart. R. 17 John, m. 7. 



'' Feud. Aids, iv, 12. 



" Po/ie Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 54*. 



"•Bucdeuch MSS. Warkton Bk. 

 pp. 6, 10. 



" Chart. R. 4 Edw. Ill, ni. 18, no. 43; 

 Cal. Chart. 1327-41, p. 189. 



" Plac. de Quo ll'arr. (Rcc. Com.), 

 560. 



'» Bucdeuch MSS. Warkton Bk. p. 33. 



•0 L. and P. Ilcn. VIII, xvi, g. C78 (56) ; 

 Pat. R. 32 Hen. VIII, pt. 6, m. 5. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvii, g. 220 

 (63); Pat. R. 33Hen. VIII,pt. 7. 



»!• Com. Pleas, D. Enr. Mich. 32 Hen. 

 VIII, m. 7d. 



"b U,st. MSS. Com. Rep. (Lord Montagu 

 of Beaulieu), 6. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), ccclxv, 



'54- 



