BOROUGH OF HIGHAM FERRERS 



Henry VII to Sir Charles Somerset, afterwards Lord 

 Herbert and Earl of Worcester,"* in i486,' and in- 

 cluded by him in a settlement of ISH-'* Ten years 

 later he left them to his son George' who in 1553 

 joined liis grandson William third Earl of Worcester 

 in obtaining licence to alienate them to Gilbert 

 Pykering and others.'' 



A payment of one mark to F.lias the doorkeeper 

 for the carriage of summonses in the years 1166-67 



AAAA 

 AATLA 



a/wi 



Vuny 



LovEL of Tichmersh. 

 Barry tvavy or and 

 gtdes. 



S o M I R s E T. France 

 quartered zutth England 

 i« a border goboiiy argrnt 

 and azure. 



and 1169-70* had developed at the close of the cen- 

 tury into the serjeanty of Ascelin and Andrew of 

 Higham who then held three virgates of land, valued 

 at lis., for the service of carrying the writs of the 

 honour of Higham. In 1235-36 their successor 

 Nicholas the Serjeant collected scutage from the fee 

 of Earl Ferrers in Northamptonshire.' Four acres 

 'in every yeareland called Serjeants peece,' which 

 belonged to the manor of Higham in 1 691 were 

 probably once part of this fee.' 



The land in Higham Ferrers which formed part of 

 the endowment of the college' was included in the 

 grant of the advowson (q.v.) to Robert Dacres but 

 the college house itself remained in the Crown until 

 1564 when Elizabeth granted to John Smith and 

 FJchard Dufiield the site of the college with all 

 buildings, etc., within the site and the orchard or 

 close called SafTron Yard containing 2\ acres. The 

 bells and all lead of the gutters and windows were 

 reserved to the Queen.' 



A mill, rendering las. on William Peverel's manor 

 in 1086,*" was possibly the mill of Dichford, for 

 which as the third of a knight's fee scutage was paid 

 in 1235-36I' and was on the site of the mill in which 

 Simon de Cotes held the twenty-fifth part of a knight's 

 fee of Prince Edmund,'^ who at his death in 1298 

 was seised of three watermills in Higham Ferrers.'' 

 The mill or mills of Dichford and the ' mill by Higham ' 

 of the 14th and 15th centuries" had been replaced 

 before 1505 by three watermills under one roof 

 called Dichford mills and three others also under 



one roof called Higham mills.'"' The ' Higham and 

 Dichford mills ' were an appurtenance of the royal 

 manor of Higham Ferrers when it was settled in 

 trust for the Queen in 1672.'° 



A fishery which belonged to the three watermills of 

 1298 was called thirty years later a fishery in the 

 Nene. In the reign of Charles I the fishing of Stan- 

 wick Mcer in the None was one of the appurtenances 

 of the manor." Free warren, granted to William 

 de Ferrers in 1248"* and enjoyed by his successors," 

 was amongst the libenies for which Henry Earl of 

 Lancaster was called upon to produce his warrant 

 in 1329. At the same time he had to make good his 

 claim to use gallows, pillory and tumbrel and hold 

 the assize of bread and ale as his predecessors had 

 done.-" 



Courts, leet and baron, pleas and perquisites of 

 court and view of frank-pledge are amongst the 

 appurtenances of the manor of Higham Ferrers 

 recorded from the 13th to the latter part of the 17th 

 century.-' 



As early as 1086 Higham was an 

 BOROUGH important town with its market 

 valued at 20/. a year.'^^ It thus re- 

 mained until the middle of the 13th century, when 

 William de Ferrers fifth Earl of Derby took an 

 interest in developing its prosperity. We are told 

 that when crossing St. Neots Bridge he had a fall 

 from his litter in which he usually travelled, being a 

 sufferer from gout.-' It may be possible that he was on 

 his way to or from Higham Ferrers, where he seems 

 to have resided occasionally, and in which he had a 

 special interest. In 1248 he acquired the right of 

 free warren over his lands there, and in 1250 he ob- 

 tained a grant of a fair there on the vigil, day and 

 morrow of the feast of St. Botolph (17 June).^^ On 

 the feast of St. Gregory (12 March) 1251 the earl 

 manumitted 92 of his villein tenants of Higham 

 Ferrers^^ and enfranchised their offspring {sequeles) 

 lands, tenements and chattels, granting that their 

 lands in future should be held in free burgage.^* 

 Thus Higham became a free borough. This charter, 

 which was confirmed by Henry HI in the same year, 

 is interesting and unusual in giving the names of 

 those who became the first burgesses and were pro- 

 moted from a servile status to the freedom of bur- 

 gesses. 



This charter had disappeared from the borough 

 archives when in 1556 Philip and Mary bestowed 

 another on the town, and in their preamble spoke of 

 its loss through lack of safe custody or by ill chance. 

 All former liberties were confirmed and Higham 

 Ferrers was declared a free borough which with 

 mayor, seven aldermen and thirteen chief burgesses 



•• Complete Peerage (New Ed.), viii, 200. 

 ' Cat. Pal. 1485-1494, p. 100. 



• Feet of F. Div. Cos. East. 5 Hen. VIII, 

 no. 4. 



• Coll. Top. et Gen. v, 305. 



• Pat. R. 7 Edw. VI, pt. 6, mm. 8, 9 ; 

 Feet of F. Div. Cos. Mich, i Mary ; 

 Recov. R. Trin. 7 Edw. VI, ro. 516. 

 In the two latter documents these lands 

 are called a manor. 



^ Ptpe Roll, 13 Hen. II, p. 114; 15 

 Hen. II, p. 73 (Pipe R. Soc). 



• Book of Fees, i, 9, 495. 

 ' Add. Chart. 13593. 



• V.C.H. Nertbanu. ii, 177-179. 



»P.it. R. 6 Ellz. pt. 7, no. II. 



'» y.C.n. Northann. i, 336A. 



" Ilk. oj Fees, i, 495. 



** Feud. Aids, iv, 14. 



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



'« Ct. R. (Duchy of Lane.) bdle. 10;, 

 no. 1496, m. 6; Pat. R. 3 Hen. V, 

 pt. 2, m. 36. 



"Misc. Bks. (Duchy of Lane.) 21, 



fol. 157. 



'« Pat. R. 24 Chas. II, pt. 9. 

 " Rent, and Surv. (Duchy of Lane.) 

 bdlc. 8, no. 4. 



" Cat. Chart. 1226-1257, p. 332. 

 " Pat. R. 31 Chas. II, pt. 3, no. 13. 



269 



'» Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 

 580. 



" Cal. Inq. Edw. I, iii, no. 423 ; 

 Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.) 580 ; 

 Pari. Surv. Northants. 5 ; Pat. R. 

 31 Chas. II, pt. 3, no. 13 ; 7 Will, and M. 

 pt. 3, no. 2. 



" y.C.H. Northants. i, 337. 



" Matth. Paris, Chron. Mag. (Rolls 

 Ser.) V, 431-2. 



" Cal. Chart. 1226-1257, pp. 332, 350. 



'^ That they were of servile tenure is 

 shown by the use of the word sequeles, 

 which is not used in the case of freemen, 



" Chart. R. 36 lien. Ill, m. 25. 



