HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



IRCHESTER 



Thomas Brudenell, Sir Robert's elder son, sold the 

 manor in two moieties.' Thomas Page, junior, who 

 acquired one moiet)', was succeeded by John Page who 

 owned the other also in I 591." No more is heard of 

 the manor, but a considerable estate in Knuston, com- 

 prising the North Hall with 4 virgates of land, the 

 Borough Farm, and certain closes, was acquired by 

 William Payne and descended at his death in 1624 to 

 his niece Sybil, wife of Sir Christopher Yelverton,' and 

 presumably passed with Podington (Beds.) to the family 

 ofOrlebar.* 



One hide and I J virgates in Knuston which belonged 

 to William Peverel's manor at the Survey descended 

 with Higham Ferrers (q.v.),* the last mention of its 

 overlordship occurring in i 5 3 1 when Knuston was held 

 of the king by knight service as of his Castle of Higham 

 Ferrers,* after which it was probably absorbed into the 

 manor of Irchester. 



When the open fields and commons of Knuston were 

 inclosed in 1769, allotments were made in the first 

 place to the King as lord of the manor of Irchester, 

 and the patron and vicar of the parish church, and 

 afterwards to eleven other landowners, some of whom 

 seem from their names, such as Bletsoe and Mason, to 

 have belonged to families long resident in the neigh- 

 bourhood.' The present owner of the hamlet and of 

 Knuston Hall is Charles .\rthur Kersey Green, esq. 



CHESTER-ON-THE- WATER 



Cestre, Parva Cestre (xiii cent.) ; Chestrebethewatre, 

 Littlechestre by the Watre (xiv cent.). 



The first mention of the overlordship o{ LITTLE 

 CHESTER occurs in 1236 when it was appurtenant 

 to the manor of Higham Ferrers.' From that year until 

 1428 it was held of the lords of Higham Ferrers,' after 

 which their overlordship appears to have lapsed. A 

 mesne lordship here belonged to Brian de Lisle in 

 1232,'° and to Walter de Lisle from that year until 

 1253." At the close of the century and until 1327 this 

 was held by William de Echingham,'^ who had married 

 the eventual co-heir of Brian de Lisle." 



The early tenants of Little Chester belonged to the 

 family of de Nowers. Emery de Nowers held of the 

 de Lisle mesne lords in 1232 and 1253.''' William de 

 Nowers held J|j of a fee of Edmund the king's brother" 

 in 1284.'* From his son Emery Little Chester de- 

 cended in 1308 to his son John," who was seised until 

 his death in 1327. He was succeeded by his son of the 

 same name," who with his wife Maud sold the con- 

 tingent reversion of the manor to the king in 1369." 

 They died without issue, and John of Gaunt who had 



Nowers. Argent t^vo 

 ban gulei rvi/A three ere- 

 scents gules in the chief. 



entered on the estate was sued in 1 398 by John Stokes, 

 nephew and heir of one of the trustees of John de 

 Nowers. Though judgement was given in favour of 

 the duke,-° the fortieth part of a knight's fee in Little 

 Chester which had formerly belonged to Maud de 

 Nowers was held by Thomas 

 Stokes in 1428.-' Thomas Stokes 

 granted it to Thomas Singilton 

 and his wife Agnes in 1429.^^ In 

 1466 it was owned by Henry 

 Petit and his wife .Agnes; in 1494 

 by William Hampden and his 

 wife .Audrey, in both years being 

 the inheritance of the wife.^^ 

 William Coope had bought it in 

 1494 and, with his wife Joan, 

 sold it in 1 5 1 1 to Thomas and 

 William Wigston and others;-* 

 and the next year licence was granted to William 

 Wigston of Leicester, junior, and Thomas Wigston, 

 clerk, to found a perpetual chantry of two chaplains in 

 the collegiate church of Newark, Leicester. ^^ The 

 manor of Little Chester was amongst the temporalities 

 of the Newark college in 1535 and remained in the 

 Crown until in 1616 James I sold it to John Godbould 

 and Thomas Ekins.-* Thomas held alone in 1 63 3,^' and 

 in 1705 the manor was sold by Susan Ekins, widow, 

 and a later Thomas Ekins to John Ekins,-' possibly the 

 deputy steward of Higham Ferrers Manor of that name 

 twenty years before.^' In the early part of the i8th 

 century Captain Thomas Ekins was lord of the manor of 

 Little Chester,^" and it passed from Timothy Stone- 

 house Vigor and his wife Charlotte Oliver to Francis 

 Dickins (see advowson) in 1798.^' 



A mill on the land of William Peverel in 1086 was 

 then claimed by the king. 3- In 1 2 8 2 Edmund the king's 

 brother bought of Henry le Scot of Abbots Leigh^^ the 

 'Dickford Mulnes', possibly the two water-mills in Ir- 

 chester of which he died seised in I298.-''* There was 

 one mill on the Vaux manor in 1595.^5 Knuston had 

 two mills at the Survey,^* Little Chester three in 1 309. '' 

 Dovecotes are mentioned amongst the appurtenances of 

 all three manors from the 14th to the 17th century.'* 

 The fishing of the River Nene which belonged, at least 

 in part, to Little Chester in 1327 and 1566,'' in the 

 reign of Charles I was found to be within the manor 

 of Irchester and to extend from Ditchford Mills to 

 Wellingborough Bridge.*" 



Free warren in his demesne lands of Knuston and 

 Irchester was granted to William de Ferrers in 1248, 

 in his demesne lands of Irchester to William Lovel in 



' Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. »nd East. 33 

 Hen. VIII. 



' Misc. Bks. (Duchy of Lane), 117, foL 

 137*. 



> Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. z], dclv, 94; 

 ccccvii, 104. 



♦ See r.C.H. Beds, ili, 82. 



» y.C.H. tiorihanit. i, 336*; Bk. of 

 Fees, i. 602; Chan. In<|. p.m. £dw. Ill, 

 file 6, m. 24. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. z), lii, 64. 



' Act Priv. and Loc. 9 Ceo. Ill, c. 73. 



• Bh. of Fees, i, 602. 



' Ibid, ii, 933; FeuJ. AiJs, iv, 14, 46; 

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

 q. d., file 1 17, no. 16. 



'" Feet of F. Div. Co., file 9, no. 94. 



" Ibid. Northints., file 38, no. 616. 



'* Chan. Inq. p.m. Edw. I, file 81 ; Edw, 

 II, file 10, no. 7i Edw. Ill, file 4, no. 4. 



" Suss. Arch. Coll. xxx, 145. 



" Feet of F. Div. Co., file 9, no. 94; 

 Northants., file 38, no. 616. 



'S Edmund was probably guardian of the 

 Lisle heir. 



" Chan. Inq. pm. Edw. I, file 81. 



■' Ibid. Edw. II, file 10, no. 7. 



" Feud. Aids, V, 29; Chan. Inq. p.m. 

 Edw. Ill, file 4, no. 4. 



" Feet of F. Div. Co., file 48, no. 693 ; 

 Cal. Pat. 1367-70, p. 242. 



" De Banco R. 551, m. 341. 



" Feud. Aids, iv, 46. 



" Cal. Close, 1429-35, p. 32. 



" Feet of F. Div. Co., file 74, no. 38; 

 Northants., file 97, no. 35. 



" Ibid. Hil. 2 Hen. VIII. 



'> Nichols, Leic. i, pt. 2, App. xviii, 1 12. 



»» A'j/or Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 170. 

 Pat. 14 Jas. I, pt. 21, no. 6. 



" Feet of F. Northants, Mich. 9 Chat. I. 



'• Ibid. Hil. 3 Anne. 



" Ct. R. (Duchy of Lane), bdle. 105, 

 no. 1505. 



'<" Bridges, A'orMan/j. ii, 181-2. 



" Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 38 Ceo. 

 III. 



" y.C.II. Northants, i, 336*. 



" Coram Rege R. 67, m. 26 d. 



» Chan. Inq. p.m. Edw. I, file 8t. 



" Feel of F. Northants. Trin. 37 Eli*. 



'« r.C.H. Northants. i, 3 36A, 3484. 



^^ Chan, Inq. p.m. Edw, II, file 10, no, 7. 



>• Ibid. Edw. Ill, file 4, no. 4 ; ibid. (Ser. 

 2), lii, 64; Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 

 8 Elii,, Trin, 37 Elii, 



'V Chan, Inq, p,m, Edw, III, file 4, no. 

 4; Fret of F. Northants. Mich. 8 Elis. 



'•o Rentals & Surv. (Duchy of Lane), 

 bdle. 8, no. 4. 



23 



