A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



present aspect, the gatehouse stringcourse being 

 continued to the angle of the building. The north 

 wall of the chapel has been so much repaired that the 

 positions of any windows or other features which it 

 may have contained cannot now be traced. High in 

 the south wall is a reconstructed two-light window, 

 and another at the west end of the north wall beyond 

 the chapel, with two single-light windows below on 

 the ground floor. The position of the eastern wall 

 of the west range can be traced, but no portion of 

 the structure itself remains.^' A fragment of walling 

 containing a 15th-century doorway forms the inner 

 dividing wall of a cow-shed to the north-west of the 

 college buildings.^ 



The names of Newland, St. Botolph's Street and 

 Botolph End survived from the 14th and 15th cen- 

 turies^ to the l8th,2* and the town records of 1488 

 mention ' Le Shoprowe,'^ where more than 160 years 

 earlier the eight butchers' stalls, valued at 100;. and the 

 eight shops leased to the linen merchants for 48/., 

 probably stood.^* Shops and stalls situated in the 

 market place of Higham Ferrers were leased to the 

 mayor by Richard III in 1485, when the King under- 

 took to provide flags or sedges for their roofing from 

 his meadow called ' le Middell Wroo.'^ The ap- 

 pointment of an examiner of leather about seventy 

 years later*' shows the burgesses already engaged in 

 one of their two chief trades of the present day,'i the 

 other the manufacture of boots and shoes, well estab- 

 lished by the middle of the last century'^ and now 

 employing a still larger proportion of the working 

 population.^ In the reign of Elizabeth a meadow, 

 known as the Tradesmen's or Craftsmen's meadow, 

 was let by the reeve of the manor to the poor crafts- 

 men of Higham Ferrers for [j 8j. dd. a year,^ a rent 

 which before the middle of the following century had 

 been increased to £zi.^ 



The London Midland and Scottish Railway has 

 two stations in the parish, one in the town, the 

 terminus of the Higham Ferrers branch, the other, 

 called Irthlingborough, a mile to the north on the 

 Northampton and Peterborough branch. 



Amongst the many other place names of the town 

 and parish which have vanished from present-day 

 maps are Britwinescote of the 13th, the ' litill,' 

 ' mydill ' and ' grete Wroo,' ' Chapcllhyll, ' Thwert- 

 lond ' of the 15th, the ' neastcs pasture,' ' St. Edeses- 

 waie,' ' Northbury close ' of the l6th, ' Every yearcs 

 land,' 'Gunsticks,' ' Hancrosse field,' ' Buric close,' 

 ' le Gore ' by ' Skinners close,' ' Buscot,'^ ' Flcxland ' 

 of the 17th century, whilst ' W'armanshill ' survives 

 from 1649 as Warmonds Hill in the south-west of the 

 town. 



In 1556 the men of Higham Ferrers were especially 



commended for their loyalty displayed in the late 

 rebellion.^' 



Higham Ferrers has gained renown as the birth- 

 place Oi Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury 

 from 1414 to 1443, who was born about the year 

 1362^ and probably educated at the grammar school 

 under Henry Barton. Of his benefactions to his 



Chicheley. Or a 



cheveron benveen three 

 citujfoils guUs. 



RuDD. Azure a lion 

 argent and a quarter or. 



native town a full account has been given in an 

 earlier volume with details of his family^ which was 

 of considerable importance in the parish from the 14th 

 to the 17th century.''* 



Less general but perhaps more personal interest 

 is attached to the best known member of another 

 old and well-reputed family of this town, Captain 

 Thomas Rudd, a distinguished engineer and mathe- 

 matician, whose memorial tablet in the parish church 

 describes him as the sixth of that name by descent 

 since his ancestors came to Higham Ferrers to dwell.*^ 

 It was perhaps on account of his loyalty to Charles I, 

 whose chief engineer he became in i640,''2 that his 

 election as mayor that year was strongly opposed by 

 some of his fellow burgesses'*' and in the days of 

 the Commonwealth he was sequestered and heavily 

 fined.'*' Later in the 17th century Bunyan is said 

 to have been accustomed to preach in a small Bap- 

 tist chapel afterwards used as a coal house.** The 

 town has now both Baptist and Wesle)an chapels. 

 Higham Ferrers Castle was one of the 

 CASTLE baronial castles built shortly after the 

 Conquest, probably by one of the two 

 Peverels. Little is known of its history apart from its 

 connexion with a series of distinguished owners 

 whose succession followed that of the manor (q.v.). 

 It is referred to in 1298 and 1327** as the capital 

 messuage and passed as the castle in the grant to 

 Aylmer de \'alcnce in 1322.*' Payments for castle 

 guard were made as late as 1694.*' It stood north 

 of the parish church. Leland describes it as ' now 

 of late clenc fallen and taken down,'*' and in 1610 

 John Norden found it 'altogether ruinate.'*" The three 



'• Buclc'i view ihowt the lower part of 

 three window* in what wai then an 

 incloiing wall on thii tide. 



•♦ Poiiibly belonging to a dovehouie 

 ihown in Buck's view in this position. 



»//i«. MSS. Com. Rfp. xii, App. 9, 



PP- 5T,33- 



•♦ Bridges, loc. cif. 

 " Ibid. 



"V.C.II. Norihanli. a, 326. 

 •' Census 1921. 



" Pari. Surv. (Duchy of Lane.) 55. 

 " Ibid. 54. P.Trl. Surv. Norlhants. 33. 

 '• ' The BuBcotts ' was one of the open 

 fields of Higham I*"crrers inclosed in 1800. 

 •' Pat. R. 2 and 3 Phil, and M. pt. 8, m. 



17- 



'• Dean Hook, L$vet of the Archbishops 

 of Canterbury, i, 129. 



" y.C.H. Northanls. ii, 177-79, 218-19. 



" Ihst. MSS. Com. Rep. xii, App. 9, 



PP- 53'>-3' i P"'- R- * ""d 3 ''•''I- '"J M. 

 pt. 8, m. 27 ; Northanls. N. and Q. 

 i, 142. 



266 



" Cole, Hist, of Higham Ferrers, 

 58-60 i D. N. B. 



" Cal. S. P. Dom. 1640-41, pp. Ii6, 

 329. 



" S. P. Dom. Chas. I, ccccUx, 38. 



" Cal. Com. for Comp. i, 88 j ii, 1534, 



" Cole, op. cit. 94. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. Edw. I, file 81 ; 

 Edw. Ill, file 6, m. 24. 



" Pat. R. k; Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 23. 



" Ibid. 7 Will, and M. pt. 3, m. 2. 



*• /(in. V, 94. 



'" A Delineation of Norihamplonshiri : 

 ' the foundations and ruyns doe declare 

 that it halh bin a place of some accompt.' 



