HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



BOZEAT 



Bosiete (li cent.); Bosehate, Bosezate, Bosyate, Bose- 

 gate (xiii cent.); Bosizatt (xvi-rvii cent.). 



Bozeat is on the borders of Bedfordshire and Buck- 

 inghamshire, a stone at Shirewood about 2 miles south- 

 east of the village marking the boundary between the 

 three counties. The London road from Welling- 

 borough to Olney runs through the parish from north 

 to south. The village lies mainly along two roads 

 branching east from the London road, the lower one 

 being called the High Street. 



St. Mary's Church, with the vicarage to the west of 

 it, lies at the eastern side of the village. To the south 

 of it, across the road, are Manor Farm and Church 

 Farm, the Independent Methodist chapel built in 1 892, 

 and the Baptist chapel built in 1844. There is a ceme- 

 tery of about an acre formed in 1903, with a mortuary 

 chapel. A public elementary school was built in 1873, 

 and enlarged in 1892. A working men's club founded 

 in 1894 has a club house, built in 1897; and an obelisk 

 of Weldon stone was erected in 1920 to the memory 

 of 39 men of the parish who fell in the Great War. 

 There are disused brickworks north-west of the village; 

 and about a quarter of a mile to the south of the vil- 

 lage, down the London road, are Bozeat mill and 

 windmill, the last surviving post mill in the county. 



The parish lies mostly at a height of about 300 ft., 

 and while the surface is level in some districts, in the 

 north it is hilly. It has an area of 2,605 acres. The soil 

 is a stiff loam; the subsoil limestone. The chief crops 

 grown are cereals. Shoemaking employs a considerable 

 number of hands. Some Bozeat tradesmen's tokens of 

 the 17th century are known.' The population in 193 1 

 was 1,157. 



In Bozeat, 2 hides less i virgate were 

 MjINORS the propertj- of Waltheof Earl of Hunting- 

 don before the Conquest, and were held 

 by his wife the Countess Judith in the Domesday Sur- 

 vey.^ The overlordship of this manor, later known as 

 the manor of L/1TIMERS, descended with the earl- 

 dom and honor of Huntingdon as Yardley Hastings 

 (q.v.). 



Under Earl Waltheof this property was held by 

 Stric. In 1086 Lanzelin was the Countess Judith's 

 tenant, the pre-Conquest value of 40/. remaining un- 

 altered. The family of de Moreville were undertenants 

 of this fee in the 12th century, and an inquiry held in 

 the reign of King John^ showed that Richard de More- 

 ville (Constable of the King of Scotland and father of 

 Helen de Moreville) had been seised of the land of 

 Whissendine (Rutland) and Bozeat, and later had been 

 disseised on account of the war between Henry II and 

 King William of Scotland. To Earl David's counter- 

 claim that King Henry had granted the land to his 

 brother King William, who had then granted it to 

 himself to hold in demesne, Helen de Moreville ob- 

 jected that it was only the service rendered for the land 



' N. (^ Q. Norlhanll. 1886-7, P- ^02 



' V.C.H. Sarihanit. i, 353a. 



^ Akbm. Viae, (Rcc. Com.), 79. 



« Ibid. 80. 



' Pipe R. 1 3 John, m. i 3. 



' Cal. Fine /?. 1272-1 307, p. 48. 



• Chin. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. II, no. 56. 



• Cai. /ny. Atitc. ii (i 307-49), p. 92. 

 "• Cal. Inq, f.m., vii, no. 689, p. 477. 



which had been granted to him by the King of Scot- 

 land. Alan de Galway, the son of Helen de Moreville, 

 married Margaret, the daughter of Earl David, and 

 received a grant of 2 fees in Whissendine and Bozeat to 

 hold of him by homage and service.* Alan de Galway 

 and his mother appear in 1 2 1 3 as owing 600 marks 

 and 6 palfreys for the foregoing inquiry.' A fee in 

 Bozeat appears in 1 242 as held of Henry de Hastings 

 by John Hansard.* The Hansards were still in posses- 

 sion of this fee in 1275,' when it was ordered that the 

 manor of Bozeat, held in chief by Gilbert Hansard, 

 should be taken into the king's hands, as he had 

 alienated it without licence. Probably he had sold it to 

 one of the Mowbrays, as in 1 3 1 2 a fee held by John 

 Mowbray in Bozeat was included among the fees held 



Hansard. SaiU 

 mcUts argent. 



three 



Latimer. Guiet a cross 

 paty or. 



■' Ibid. ix,no. 1 18, pp. 12 

 1346-9, p. 582. 



" Hund. R. (Rcc. Com.), ii, 10. The 

 entry is confused : Rf^bt. Twryge in Bospage 

 et ffilh. heret de eadem,, but obviously 

 Robert Tweng and possibly a son whose 

 death left this fee to Robert's daughter 

 Lucy are alluded to. 



" Cal. Pat. 1281-92, p. 196. 



■« Cal. Chse, 1288-96, p. 344. 



at his death by John de Hastings.' The declaration in 

 1 3 1 8 that there never were any lands in Bozeat of 

 ancient demesne' may indicate that the Hastings over- 

 lordship had been called in question. William Latimer 

 at his death in 1336 held the manor of Bozeat of John 

 de Mowbray by service of one knight's fee.'" At the 

 death of Laurence de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, in 

 1 348, one fee was held of him by John de Mowbray in 

 Bozeat, and another by William Latimer" (son of the 

 last-named William). After this date the Mowbray 

 mesnelordshipis not again recorded. The other fee came 

 to the La timers through theTwengs and the Bruces, and 

 was also for a time returned as held in chief by them. 

 Robert de Tweng appears to have claimed view of frank- 

 pledge in Bozeat in 1275.'^ On 15 October 1285 the 

 custody of the manor of Bozeat, during minority of 

 the heir of Robert de Tweng, was granted to Roger de 

 Fricurt, king's yeoman, '^ and in February 1294 the 

 manor of Bozeat was in the king's hands by reason of 

 the minority of Lucy daughter and heir of Robert de 

 Tweng, tenant in chief '■• Lucy had inherited property 

 in the north as grand-daughter and heir of Marmaduke 

 de Tweng and of Lucy sister and co-heir of Peter de 

 Bruce." In 131 1 Lucy de Tweng and William Lati- 

 mer her husband made a settlement of the manors of 

 Danby, co. York, and of Bozeat, both of the inheritance 

 of Lucy,'* to William Latimer to hold for life, with 

 remainder to William their son. '^ In 1 3 1 6 Bozeat was 

 assessed with Easton [.MauditJ and with half Strixton, 



3 i Cal. C/cjf, 



" Kirkhy's Inq. (Surtees Soc.), 307. 



'» Feet of F. Uiv. Co. Hil. 4 Edw. II, 

 case 285, file 28, no. 41. Lucy was 

 divorced in 1315: Dugdale, Bar. ii, 37 j 

 Archbj). Greenjield's Reg. (Surtees Soc.), i, 

 126. 



" Cal. Chart. R. iii, 159; Chart R. 4 

 Edw. II, m. 12, no. 46. 



