HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



The Feoffee Estate has been held in trust from the 

 time of King Henry VIII and is regulated by a scheme 



of the Charit)' Commissioners dated 

 CHARITIES 10 May 191 2. The trustees are 8 



in number, 5 being appointed by the 

 parish council and 3 are co-opted. The property 

 originally consisted of 36 acres of land at Irchester, 

 I acre in Knuston Great Meadow, a house and black- 

 smith's shop and 12 cottages in Irchester. The house 

 and shop and cottages and about i J acres of land have 

 been sold and the proceeds, together with accumula- 

 tions of income, invested with the Official Trustees. 



NEWTON 

 BROMSWOLD 



The gross income amounts to about ;^i 1 2, and the net 

 income is applied in aid of the Local Nursing Fund. 



Thomas Jenison by his will dated in 168 1 gave an 

 annuity of ^^5 4/. charged upon his right to tithe hay 

 and grain of the village of Knuston to be paid to the 

 churchwardens and distributed in bread to the poor 

 weekly. This charge is paid by the owner of the Knuston 

 estate and is applied in the weekly distribution of bread. 



Samuel Sharwood Charity was founded by indenture 

 dated 17 June 1858. The income oi {j 8/. 2J. yearly 

 is distributed in sums of 5/. amongst the deserving poor 

 by two trustees appointed by the parish council. 



NEWTON BROMSWOLD 



Niwetone (li cent.); Neweton (xii cent.); Nywetona 

 (xiii cent.); Newenton beside Heghham Fereres (xiv 

 cent.) ; Newnton (xvi cent.) ; Newton Bromswold alias 

 Newton next Higham Parke (xvii cent.). 



The parish of Newton Bromswold lies on the borders 

 of Bedfordshire with Chelveston cum Caldecott on 

 the north and Higham Park on the west and south. 

 It covers an area of 828 acres. The altitude of the parish 

 is about 300 ft., the upper soil clay, the subsoil Oxford 

 Clay with streaks of Cornbrash on the east and west. 



The common and waste lands of Newton Bromswold 

 were inclosed in 1800.' In 193 1 the population con- 

 sisted of 7 1 persons. The village, which is small and 

 contains few buildings besides the church, rectory, and 

 school, is situated in the east of the parish, 4^ miles 

 south-east of Higham Ferrers station. 



The name Bromswold seems to refer to the 'Brunes- 

 wald', a large area of woodland on the borders of 

 Huntingdonshire and Northamptonshire, in which 

 Hereward and his men took refuge at the beginning of 

 his rising against the Normans.^ 



Two hides less half a virgate which Azor 

 MANOR had formerly held in NEfVTON, were in 

 1086 held of the bishop of Coutances by 

 William, his steward.' This estate descended with the 

 manor of Cotes Bidun (q.v.)^ to John de Gatesden, who 

 with Richard Croxton was holding of the heirs of 

 Baldwin Wake half a fee in Newton in 1284.* Gates- 

 den's representative, Richard Chamberlain, in 1428 

 held half a fee in Cotes and Newton 'of the fee of John 

 Bidon'.* 



As early as 1166 Richard de Neuton and 'another 

 Richard of the same vill' were holding a fee in Newton 

 of John de Bidun,' and other members of the family 

 occur in connexion with the advowson (q.v.) until 

 the end of the 13th century, but in 1346 John Druell 

 was in possession.' On the death of a later John 

 Druell' in 1496 the manor descended to his younger 

 brother Richard." Richard died in 1525 leaving New- 

 ton to his wife Grace, after whose death it was to be 

 sold and the proceeds devoted to the maintenance of a 

 chantry in the Fraternity of the Gild of Jesus in Baldock." 

 This was possibly done when lands in Newton Broms- 



Priv. and Loc. 40 Ceo. Ill, 



« Act» 

 cap. 36. 



' Plact-Namtt of Sorthanlt. (Engl. 

 Pl.-N. Soc.), 193. 



' y.C.H. fiorikanlt. i, 311J. Another 

 virgate, also held by William, was assessed 

 under Bedfordshire: y.C.H. Bedi. i. 225a. 



♦ fi;t. o/»«, 495, 932. 



* Feud. Aidt^ iv, 14. Cf. Cat. Inq. p.m. 

 li, no. 439. ' Feud. Aidi, iv, 45. 



' RedBk.oJExck. 332. 



» Feud. Aidi, iv, 445. 



' He was the son of William Druell: 

 V.C.U. Hern, iii, 223. 

 '° Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), li, 53. 

 ■■ Ibid. ilvi. 123. 

 " Bridges, Norihanli. ii, 326. 

 *' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxv, 42. 

 '■• Recov. R. Mich. 15 Chas. I, m. 88. 

 ' ' Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 1 7 Chas. I. 

 '« Ibid. Trin. 19 Chas. I. 

 " Ibid. Trin. 13 Chas. II. 



wold were sold by his elder daughter and, ultimately, 

 sole heir Anne'^ and her husband Robert Warner to 

 Thomas Brooke, who held them at his death in i 5 58.'^ 

 Half the manor was in the hands 

 of Francis Negus in i639,''' and 

 ( } the other) half was confirmed 

 to him in 1644 by William Negus 

 and his wife Jane, whose inheri- 

 tance it evidently was." Francis 

 Negus and his wife Susan sold the 

 manor of Drewell's in 1644 to 

 Needham Langhorne,'* who set- 

 tled it on William Langhorne in 

 1661." Fourteen years later a Driell. Quarterly ar- 

 moiety of the manor was owned ^"" ""/ f' Ti ' 

 by 1 homas Wileman and his wife quarter. 



Anne.'* Edward Disborough, 



and Edward Cromwell Disborough made a settlement 

 of a third of the manor in 1811." Later in the 19th 

 century Newton Bromswold came into the possession 

 of Frederick Urban Sartoris of Rushden Hall in whose 

 family it still remains. 



The church of ST. PETER consists of 

 CHURCH chancel, 25 ft. 9 in. by 16 ft.; clerestoried 

 nave of two bays, 31 ft. by 15 ft. 2 in.; 

 north aisle, 10 ft. wide; south porch, and west tower 

 7 ft. 3 in. by 7 ft. 9 in. surmounted by a spire, all these 

 measurements being internal. There is also a vestry at 

 the west end against the north side of the tower. 



The church appears to be a 14th-century rebuilding 

 of a 1 3th-ccntury fabric, little or nothing of which 

 remains architecturally, but the south wall of the nave 

 was reconstructed, the porch and clerestory added, and 

 new windows inserted in the aisle in the i 5th centur)-. 

 The lower part of the tower may belong to the early 

 structure but has been much restored, and the tower 

 generally is contemporary with the 14th-century chan- 

 cel. The four-centred arches of the nave arcade may 

 have been built at the same time as the south wall, but 

 the piers and responds have capitals of distinctly 14th- 

 century character, and the north doorway is of the 

 same period. The vestry appears to be a 17th-century 

 addition,'" but has been modernized. The church 



'» Ibid. Hil. 26-7 Chas. II. 



'» Recov. R. Mich. 52 Ceo. Ill, ro. 157. 



" The flat ogee head of the doorway 

 from the aisle belongs to a type common ia 

 the 17th century. The vestry was de- 

 scribed as 'roofless and in a sad state of 

 neglect' in 1849 {Cht, Arch. N'ltm, 174) 

 and so remained in 1877 {Alloc. Arch. Sot. 

 Keporti^ xiv, p. xli). As restored it has two 

 modem windows on the west and a door- 

 way on the north side. 



27 



