HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



HARGRAVE 



next held in shares by the daughters of John Mauduit 

 and their descendants, the presenta- 

 ADVOIVSON tion seems to have been made at 

 first by these co-parceners presenting 

 together, and later on by them in turn. The presenta- 

 tion was made in 1 2 19 by Sir Robert Morin and Sir 

 Robert de Legh, and by Thomas Sauvage, each being 

 patron of one-third of the church.' Sir Robert de Legh 

 was first husband of Flandrina daughter of John Mau- 

 duit (see above, p. 13); presumably florin and 

 Sauvage were husbands of her sisters .'\gnes and Amice. 

 After this the presentation seems to have been made 

 alternately by the different owners. Agnes the elder 

 sister presented in the reign of Henry III. Ralf de 

 Karun, second husband of Flandrina, next presented 

 John de Karun, after whose death William de Hole- 

 cote, clerk, was presented by Ralf, cousin and heir of 

 William de Fauconberg, to whom Isabel de Nowers, 

 daughter of Agnes, had sold her part of the advowson. 

 Henry de la Leghe, son of Flandrina by her first hus- 

 band, made the next presentation,^ and the advowson 

 appears to have remained in the hands of the Legh and 

 Wolf representatives of Flandrina, sharing apparently 

 with representatives of the descendants of Agnes, or 

 possibly of the de Preyers to whom Ralf de Fauconberg 

 granted messuages, &c., in Easton Maudit. A grant 

 of an acre of land and of the advowson which John 

 Marreis and his wife Elizabeth made by fine of 24 June 

 1 360 to Sir John de la Lee and his wife Joan' may have 

 related to the latter owners, through a female heir, since 

 it conveyed a warranty against the heirs of Elizabeth. 

 On the same day William Wolf made a similar grant 

 to Sir John de la Lee and Joan his wife,* who with 



Sir Robert de Geddings and his wife Elizabeth (pos- 

 sibly another descendant of Agnes Mauduit) granted 

 to Ivlaster William de la Lee and Richard de Ravenser, 

 provost of the church of St. John of Beverley,' an acre 

 of land and the advowson of the church in Michaelmas 

 term of the same year. On 16 November 1363 the 

 advowson and acre of land were conveyed by Richard 

 de Ravenser, provost of Beverley, to trustees,* by whom 

 they were in 1 367 granted in frank almoign to the 

 abbey of Launds, Robert Wolf of Easton being a wit- 

 ness to the grant.^ Until the Dissolution the advowson 

 and rectory were held by the abbey of Launds. They 

 next appear as the property of the Dean and Chapter 

 of Christ Church, Oxford, by whom the presentation 

 was made in i 562, and until last century were in their 

 hands. The advowson is now held with the manor by 

 the Marquess of Northampton. 



It appears from the parish register 

 CHARITIES that six cow commons were given by 

 the family or the ancestors of the Earl 

 of Sussex, formerly the proprietors of the estate now 

 belonging to the Marquess of Northampton, for the 

 benefit of six poor widows, and that on an inclosure of 

 the parish the grass of the Green Lanes was assigned 

 in lieu of the cow commons. A sum of £2 10/. is paid 

 annually by the Marquess of Northampton in respect of 

 this charity and is distributed equally among five poor 

 widows. 



Distributions of bread to poor women were formerly 

 made from the issues of ^i given by James Preston and 

 a similar sum given in 1736 by Francis Toleson, vicar 

 of Easton Maudit; but these distributions had already 

 ceased by 1830.* 



HARGRAVE 



Hardegrave, Hartgrave (xiv cent.); Hartgras (xvi 

 cent.). 



Hargrave lies north of the road from Higham Ferrers 

 to Kimbolton, at a height of about 200 ft.; and is 

 bounded by Huntingdonshire on the east and Bedford- 

 shire on the south. It has an area of 1,429 acres, of 

 which the greater part is now grass. The soil is Oxford 

 Clay: subsoil chiefly chalky clay. Its population, which 

 in 1801 was 1 58, and 378 in 1871, was 239 in 1931, 

 mainly employed in agriculture, and some shoemaking. 



The village, which is scattered and straggling, lies 

 along a road branching north from the eastern end of 

 the Higham Ferrers road. At its southern end is Top 

 Farm, with the Grove to the west of it, and to the 

 north the school, erected in 1857, and the smithy. 

 A little farther north still lies the church, pleasantly 

 situated among trees, with the rectory to the west of 

 it. The rectory house is a late- 16th-century building of 

 coursed freestone rubble, with middle projecting porch 

 carried up the full height of its two stories and breaking 

 the eaved roof with a coped gable. The house has 

 been much restored and altered, and only one of the 

 original stone mullioned windows' remains at the back, 

 now covered by a modern addition between two end 

 wings which run westward from the main block. The 

 porch doorway has a plain chamfered four-centred 



« tU>t. Hug. de tftlUt (Cant. & York 

 Soc.), i, 1 39. 



> De Banco R. Hil. 34 Edw. I, m. 13. 



' F«t of F. Northants. 34 Edw. Ill, 

 file 81, no. 49Z. 



< Ibid. no. 493. 



> Ibid. no. 495. 

 ' Cat. Cloir, 1360-4, p. 551. 

 ' Cal. Cloie, 1364-8, p. 389. 

 • CAdr. Com. Rrp. 1830, xiiv, 130. 

 It is of two lights with rounded 

 mullion and jambs. 



head,'" and in one of the lower rooms is a good stone 

 fire-place, with four-centred moulded arch. The prin- 

 cipal, or east front is about 60 ft. in length, with red 

 tiled roof, modern wooden dormer windows, and good 

 chimneys with wind-breaks. The end of the north- 

 west wing is of timber and plaster, and there is a modern 

 addition on the north side. 



Churchwardens' accounts depict the changes which 

 have taken place in the aspect of this little village. In 

 1 7 10 sixpence was paid for lopping the willows at the 

 Green, long since vanished; and in 1777 6/. for fencing 

 the Church Spinney, the gates and posts from which 

 were taken to the allotment in Rowley Field in 1802, 

 the year of the inclosure. The Church Spinney, other- 

 wise called Crow Spinney, was on the north side of 

 the 'great moat'. In 1868 the rector added a slip to the 

 churchyard, and the public path down the spinney was 

 by consent diverted to the village street." 



Hargrave Hall, at the south-western angle of the 

 parish, with New England Farm to the east of it, is 

 occupied by Sir Charles Kenneth Murchison, J.P., and 

 the Grange by Francis Isaac Newton. 



There is a Methodist chapel, built in i860. 



Before the Conquest HARGRAFE wis held freely by 

 Ailric. In the Domesday Survey Hargrave was returned 

 in Rothwcll Hundred among the lands of William 



'** On the jamb and sill of the window 

 overthcdoor\t-ayarcthe figures of a sundial; 

 on the jamb are '4* to '10', and on tlie sill 

 *11* and on the head the motto 'Pereunt 



nee imputantur . 

 " Aoriianli. N. & Q. iv, 143. 



IV 



17 



