A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



descent of Lancaster's other land in the parish, ulti- 

 mately becoming included in the duchy. A return of 

 1 316 show's that half RJUNDS was held by the Earl 

 of Lancaster and the remainder by the king since the 

 death of the Earl of Gloucester;" and it will be seen 

 that various manors were held of the duchy and of the 

 honor of Gloucester. 



Lancaster. Giths three 



leopards or ivith a label 



of France. 



Clare. Or three 

 che'verons gules. 



On 28 November 161 8 the customary tenants agreed 

 with King James I for £1,640, to be paid in two 

 moieties, to hold and enjoy their estates with liberty of 

 inclosing and exchanging; their fines being fixed at one 

 year's ancient rent. The reeve, who was chosen yearly 

 to collect the rents, had 'certain doles of meadow and 

 some leyes worth per annum ^^4', allowed to him by 

 custom, and the inhabitants also collected and paid to 

 him £\ c,s. ()\ii.~ The Crown is still lord of the manor. 



William Peverel held yi hides and \ virgate of soc- 

 land in Raunds in 1086 which followed the descent 

 of Higham Ferrers (q.v.).' Of this land half a fee was 

 held of Earl Ferrers in 1242 by Gilbert de Segrave and 

 an eighth of a fee by Henry de Raunds,"* who held a 

 quarter of a fee here of the honor of Gloucester.' The 

 whole of the Raunds's property passed in the i 5th cen- 

 tury to the Gage family, from whom it became known as 

 GAGE'S MANOR. The earliest known member of 

 the Raunds family is Herlewin, who accounted for 3 

 marks fine for the forest in 1 176,* and occurs as late as 



Raunds. Axure a bend 



argent ivith three "voided 



loxenges gules thereon. 



Gage. Party saltireivise 



azure and argent a saltire 



gules. 



1205.' Henry de Raunds, already mentioned, seems to 

 have been succeeded by Geoffrey, who acquired further 

 land in the parish in 1 248 from Simon de Nevill and 

 Sara his wife.* Richard de Raunds held the fourth part 



of a fee in Raunds of the Earl of Lancaster in 1284,' 

 but was succeeded before 1296 by Saer,'" probably his 

 son, who married before 1 3 1 o Joan widow of Richard 

 Chamberlain of Cotes." His heir was another Richard 

 de Raunds, who held the property in 1346,'^ and was 

 succeeded by Thomas de Raunds, whose daughter and 

 heir Margaret married John Tawyer.'^ Their son John 

 Tawyer died in 1475, leaving as his heir his daughter 

 Margaret, the wife of John Gage,''' whose son Henry 

 Gage married Margaret, daughter and heir of Richard 

 Boyville, and was succeeded by his son George. He 

 died 2 June 1558, leaving a widow Cecily and several 

 children; his heir -was his son Henry, then aged 18^ 

 years. '5 Cecily's sister, Margaret Wolstan, had married 

 during the reign of Edward VI Thomas Burbanck, who 

 on account of his marriage was deprived of his prebend 

 in the time of Queen Mary. About the beginning of 

 Elizabeth's reign he began 'a chargeable and tedious 

 sewte continewing in lawe above seaven yeares' con- 

 cerning it. During the last part of this period Robert 

 Gage, Cecily's third son, acted for the Burbancks, for 

 whom Henry in the meantime had provided out of his 

 inheritance; and, when the case was at last decided in 

 Burbanck's favour, he bought Gage's Manor from 

 Henry for ^^440, and settled one moiety on himself and 

 his wife Margaret and the other moiety on Cecily, with 

 reversion of both to Robert.'* Henry quitclaimed his 

 interest to his brother in 1 568, on condition that 

 Robert should pay j^6o towards the marriage portion of 

 their sister Elizabeth." Cecily died in 1577, and the 

 Burbancks then leased to Robert their portion of the 

 manor, together with property in Geddington and in 

 Briiworth, from which ^8 14J. iJ. was to be paid 

 yearly towards the maintenance of a free grammar 

 school in Great Blencow, Cumberland.'* Thomas Bur- 

 banck died about 1581, and after the death of his 

 widow, in i 590, William Fosbrook sued Robert Gage 

 for the rent, Margaret having apparently made a will 

 in his favour, which Gage declared to have been ob- 

 tained by undue influence. Gage seems to have been 

 successful, and the manor was held in 1608 either by 

 him or his son and namesake." It passed before 1622 to 

 John the son of Henry Gage, who with his wife Jane 

 dealt with it in that year.-" On 17 July 1624 John Gage 

 obtained a grant of the office of Receiver of the honor of 

 Higham Ferrers.-' He died before 165 1, and his son 

 John-- sold the manor in 1661 to Sir John Langham, 

 bart.^^ It has passed in the Langham family to Sir 

 H. C. A. Langham, bart., the present owner. 



In 1 242 Gilbert de Segrave was holding half a fee 

 in RJUNDS of the Earl of Ferrers,^* but his connexion 

 with it appears to have been temporary,^^ and Jt is pro- 

 bably the same half fee that was held of the Earl of 

 Lancaster by Ella de Audley, the daughter of William 

 Longespee and widow of James de Audley.-* It de- 

 scended to her son Hugh, whose son Sir James de 

 Audley was the tenant in 1296.^' Sir James married 



' Feud. Aids, iv, 29. 



2 Duchy of Lane. Pari. Surv. No. 58. 



3 V.C.H. Northants. i, 337a. 

 ^ Bk. of Fees, ii, 933. 



s Ibid. 94.5. This quarter fee was held 

 in 1428 by Thomas Raunds of 'the lord of 

 Yelden', i.e. Edmund Hampden to whom 

 Sir John Trailly had sold Yelden about 

 1400 {F.C.H. Beds, iii, 177): Feud. Aids, 

 iv, 45. 



' Fife R. 22 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc.), 51. 



' Cur. Reg. R. iii, 307. 



' Feet of F. Northants., file 36, no. 571. 



9 Feud. Aids, iv, 13. 



'o Cal. Inq. p.m. iii, 423. 



■' De Banco R. no. 183, m. 81 d. 



'^ Feud. Aids, iv, 445. 



" Metcalfe, Visitations of Northants. 



'■' Ibid. Visitation of 1 564 ; she is called 

 Anne in the Visitation of 161 8. 



■5 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxiv, 13. 



" Ct. of Req. bdle. 1 14, no. 34. 



" Ibid.; Feet of F. Northants. East. 

 10 Eliz. '8 Ct. of Req. loc. cit. 



■9 FeetofF. Northants. Trin. 6 Jas. I. 



" Ibid. Trin. 19 Jas. I. 



2' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1603-25, p. 304. 



2» Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 1651; 

 Recov. R. Hil. 1651, m. 35. 



" Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 12-13 

 Chas. II. 



" .Si. o/f«j, 933. 



25 The half fee in Middle Cotes (q.v.) 

 which was held by his grand-daughter 

 Maud in 13 14 was held of the honor of 

 Gloucester, so cannot be identical with 

 this. 



^'' Feud. Aids, iv, 14. 



-7 Cal. Inq. p.m. iii, p. 296, 



30 



