A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



inherited a freehold in Rushden from his mother Eliza- 

 beth, daughter and one of the heirs of John Page of 

 Rushden and Alice his wife; she was married to Thomas 

 Ekins in 1607.' Her younger sister Alice married, 

 before 1625, Francis Gray, afterwards one of the pur- 

 chasers of Rushden Manor. The sisters, or their hus- 

 bands, quarrelled over the freehold; for Francis Gray 

 asserted that 'the said John Page considering that the 

 house wherein y^ said Thomas Eakyns did inhabit, 

 which was not above 2 myles from y* dwelling of the 

 said John Page, was of better strength than the house 

 of the said John Page, and that Thomas Ekyns did keep 

 more persons in his family, did place in the dwelling 

 house of Thomas a chest'. The key of this chest he gave 

 in August 1622 to Francis Gray with some account of 

 the contents; after his sudden death 'a writing purport- 

 ing a feoffment' was missing, and Gray complained that 

 he and his wife were 'like to be done out of their share'. ^ 



John Ekins, the son of Thomas Ekins, in 1633 was 

 prominent in the neighbourhood for his resistance to 

 the payment of ship-money. On 27 March 1637a nag 

 belonging to him was taken by way of distraint and 

 locked up in a stable at Raunds, but it was rescued the 

 very same night. Francis Gray,^ on the other hand, 

 took the unpopular side with a vigour which brought 

 upon him the notice of Parliament. In 1642 it was 

 alleged that he had procured a privy sessions of the 

 peace to be held at Kettering to molest those who were 

 well affected to the Parliament, because they had 

 'thrown down at Isham a cross which had on it a super- 

 stitious engraving which occasioned many gazers there- 

 on'. He was also reported to have 'caused his servants 

 to make great store of bullets to be employed against the 

 well-affected, whom he called round-headed rogues'. 

 A party of soldiers was sent to his house at Welling- 

 borough to arrest him, and a full account of his attempted 

 rescue by 'the common People (who seldom love or 

 hate moderately),' is given in Mercurius Rusticus;* but 

 as the affectionate regard of his poorer neighbours 

 resulted in the death of Captain John Sawyer, it cannot 

 have improved his position with the authorities. He 

 was imprisoned, and though allowed a certain amount 

 of hberty at the end of nine months, was not fully dis- 

 charged until 1645. 



The site of the manor passed on the death of John 

 Ekins to his son Thomas Ekins, who was seised of it in 

 1677. It remained, after his death in that year, for some 

 time in the possession of his family. John Ekins, who 

 was in occupation of it in Bridges' time, was also 

 steward of the manor for the Crown ;5 but Rushden 

 Hall is said to have passed shortly afterwards to Lord 

 George Germaine.* Early in the 19th century it was 

 sold by Thomas Fletcher to Thomas Williams,' but, as 

 the purchaser lived near Dorchester, the Fletchers con- 

 tinued to occupy the house.* John Fletcher was still 

 living there in 1838, but about 1849 the Hall passed 

 into the possession of Mr. F. V. Sartoris,' from whom 

 it passed to Mr. Herbert Sartoris, being subsequently 

 acquired by the Urban District Council. 



One-sixth of a knight's fee in Rushden was held of 



William de Ferrers in 1242 by Henry de Billing,'" who 

 with his wife Wymare had acquired lands here from 

 Sara, daughter of Warin le Falconer in 1222." This 

 Warin may perhaps be identified with Warin the son of 

 Nicholas who acquired a virgate in Rushden in 1 219.'- 

 'The heir of Henry de Billing', who was in possession 

 of a quarter of a knight's fee in Rushden in 1284,'^ 

 was perhaps Cecily the wife of Henry le Sauvage; she, 

 with her husband, quitclaimed two virgates to John 

 Brabazon in I290.''' William Brabazon had a freehold 

 in Rushden in the time of Edward III, assessed at J^ 

 of a fee only, and held at an earlier date by Ralf de 

 Punchardon,'5 of whom there is apparently no other 

 record here. By 1428 it had passed into the hands of 

 John Basset, whose land, though described as -j'^ of a 

 fee, is stated to be that formerly held by William 

 Brabazon,'* but after this date the descent becomes 

 obscure. It is just possible that this holding may be 

 identified with the freehold which belonged at the end 

 of the 1 6th century to John Page and afterwards 

 descended to his daughters Elizabeth, the wife of 

 Thomas Ekins, and Alice, the wife of Francis Gray;" 

 and if so it probably became merged in the property 

 attached to the site of the manor. 



Land in Rushden was given by Warin le Falconer 

 to the hospital of St. James outside Higham (to which 

 no other reference appears to have been found), but 

 part of it was unjustly alienated by William Bunch, the 

 predecessor of John, who was master in 1284.'* 



A mill, rendering 10/., was one of the appurtenances 

 of the manor in 1086." 



The church of ST. MART cor\%\si% of 

 CHURCH chancel, 38 ft. by 16 ft. 6 in., with north 

 and south chapels its full length ; north and 

 south transepts; clerestoried nave of three bays, 54 ft.^" 

 by 19 ft. 6 in.; north aisle, 14 ft. wide; south aisle, 

 II ft. 6 in. wide; north and south porches, and west 

 tower, 14 ft. square, with tall stone spire. All these 

 measurements are internal. The width across nave and 

 aisles is 50 ft. 6 in. and across the transepts 85 ft. 6 in., 

 the north transept projecting beyond the aisle 20 ft., 

 the south transept 14 ft. 6 in.; both transepts are 20 ft. 

 wide. The extreme internal length of the church is 



The building is faced with rubble and has low- 

 pitched leaded roofs throughout. The parapets are of 

 ashlar, those of the transepts and porches plain, but 

 elsewhere battlemented. The walls are plastered in- 

 ternally, except at the west end of the nave and in the 

 south chapel. 



The ground-plan of the church is almost entirely of 

 the later part of the 13th century, but the building 

 underwent various changes in the two following cen- 

 turies, assuming its present aspect about 1500. The 

 nave arcades seem to have been rebuilt about the middle 

 of the 14th century, and the tower and spire are a Httle 

 later, but apparently the tower replaced an earlier one 

 and when it was erected the old nave roof was lowered 

 and a clerestory added. The south porch also dates 

 from the 14th century. The ejdsting clerestory and the 



' Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 353, no. 9. 



^ Ibid. 



3 He was Clerk of the Peace for the 

 county. 



* It has been transcribed, and printed in 

 Norihanis. N. & Q. (n.s.), i, 251. The 

 affair was also described in a letter by Lord 

 Northampton, which has been printed in 

 Warburton's Prince Rupert and the 



Cavaliers^ ii, 84. 



5 Bridges, Northants. ii, 193. 



' Cole, Higham Ferrers (1838), 201. 



' Ibid. 8 Ibid. 



' Northants. N. & Q. (n.s.). 

 '" Bk. of Fees, ii, 933. 

 " Feet of F. Nortliants., file 17, no. 86. 

 '2 Ibid, file 15, no. 35. 

 " FeuJ. Aids, iv, 14. 



^^ Feet of F. Northants., file 56, no. 267. 



*s Feud. Aids, vi, 569. 



"6 Ibid, iv, 46. 



" Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 353, no. 9. 



'8 Assize R. 619, m. 19. 



"9 V.C.H. Northants. i, 336. 



^^ Length on north side 52 ft. 6 in., on 

 south 55 ft., owing to the deflexion of the 

 axis of the tower. 



46 



