HIGHAM FERRERS HUxVDRED 



The rectory and advowson of Chelveston followed 

 the descent of Higham Ferrers (q-v.); they remained 

 in the possession of the Crown until 

 ADVOWSON 1603, when the rectory was granted by 

 Queen Elizabeth to Christopher Free- 

 man.' Henry Freeman conveyed it in 161 5 to Nicholas 

 Atkins,^ whose family remained in possession of it for 

 nearly a hundred years. Nicholas Atkins and Elizabeth 

 his wife dealt with it by fine in 1619, and in 1652 

 Augustine Atkins obtained a quitclaim from John At- 

 kins the younger and Elizabeth his wife and Nicholas 

 Atkins and Mary his wife.^ John .'Atkins was vouchee 

 in a recovery concerning the rectory and tithes in 

 1688,* and he and his wife Elizabeth conveyed them 

 to Thomas Roberts in 1705.' After this date the pro- 

 perty seems once more to have followed the descent of 

 Higham Ferrers, and within the next twenty years the 

 livings were united. The living is still a chapelry 

 attached to the vicarage of Higham Ferrers. 



Thomas Neale, by his will dated 

 CHARITIES 5 January 176;, gave ^20 to the 

 minister and churchwardens, the in- 

 come to be applied for the benefit of the poor on 

 Christmas Day. The income, amounting to 12/., is 

 distributed in bread. 



EASTON 

 MAUDIT 



James Sawyer and his son Thomas in their lifetime 

 erected almshouses at Chelveston and the former by his 

 will proved at London 30 April 1703 devised property 

 for their upkeep and support of the inmates. The 

 Charity is regulated by a Scheme of the Charity Com- 

 missioners dated 12 May 191 1. The trustees are six 

 in number, two appointed by the Parish Council of 

 Chelveston-cum-Caldecott, two by the Urban District 

 Council of Raunds, and two co-optative trustees. The 

 property consists of two almshouses and a building 

 formerly used as almshouses, 14 a. i r. 10 p. of land 

 called 'Hospital Close', and i a. i r. called 'Captains 

 Close' in Chelveston. The gross income is ^^24 1 2x. per 

 annum, which is applied in the upkeep of the property 

 and in grants to the two alms-people, one of whom 

 must have been a resident of Chelveston and the other 

 of the parish of Raunds for not less than three years. 



The Sawyer almshouses, on the Stanwick road, have 

 been restored and modernized. The building is of 

 rubble, with tiled roof, and bears a tablet inscribed 

 'This House was erected by James Sawyer, gent., and 

 Thomas Sawyer his son, and Ten Pounds per annum 

 by them therewith given for the use of four poor 

 widows for ever towards their maintenance, Anno 

 Domini 1708'. 



EASTON MAUDIT 



Estone, Eston (xi cent.); Eston Mauduyt (liv cent.). 



This small but delightful parish, bounded on the 

 cast by Bozeat, north by Grendon, and 

 west by Yardley Hastings, lies on the bor- 

 ders of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, 

 and west of the road between Welling- 

 borough and Olney. The whole parish, 

 which contains an area of 1,800 acres, and 

 extends from north to south about 2 miles, 

 from east to west about i, is owned, with 

 the exception of the rectorial lands, by the 

 Marquess of Northampton. 



The population, which was only 192 in 

 i87i,had in 1931 sunk to 129. Butthere 

 are indications that Easton Maudit once 

 housed a considerably larger number of 

 inhabitants. It is said that there were once 



number of weavers' shops here,* and 



mentioned in various conveyances, formed part. Bridges 

 writes of a very large wood between Easton and Yardley, 



Bridges wrote that in his day the parish had 

 been considerably depopulated since it had 

 been inclosed by Sir Christopher Yelverton 

 in the time of Charles I.^ 



The village is about 2 j miles south-east 

 from Castle .'^shby and Earl's Barton station 

 on the Northampton and Peterborough 

 branch of the L. M.S. railway. Atits north- 

 ern extremity is the church of St. Peter 

 and St. Paul, with the vicarage south- west 

 and the school south-cast of it. 



A group of fine trees near the church 

 marks the spot where the handsome manor- 

 house which was at one time the seat 

 of the Earls of Sussex formerly stood. 

 Adjoining the house was a walled park, 

 and beyond it a larger inclosure surrounded by a stone 

 wall; of this inclosure the wood called Hornwood, 



---^^: 



Easton Maudit: The Church 



in the west of the lordship, divided between the Earls 

 of Northampton and Sussex, and of a small coppice of 



' Pit. 44 ElU. pt. «iii j 4 Ju. I, pt. »ii. 

 ' Feet of F. Northants. East. 13 Jas. I. 

 » Ibid. Mich. 1652. 



Rccov. R. Easter 4 Jas. II, m. 161. 

 Feet of F. Northants Mich. 4 Anne. 

 Whellan, //;«. of Norihanii. 



Hill, of Northanti. ii, 163. 



II 



