HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



STANWICK 



Stanwige (xi-xvi cent.); Stanwicke. 



The parish of Stanwick, containing about 2,023 

 acres, between the River Nene and the Bedfordshire 

 border, in 1935 became part of Raunds. The village 

 stands on a slight hill overlooking the Nene, about a 

 mile and a half from Higham Ferrers station. Bridges 

 mentions a spring called the Holywell, which rose to 

 the south-east of the church of St. Lawrence, and a 

 stream, in the manor-house land, known as Finswell, 

 which ran for a distance of about 1 2 poles above ground 

 and then disappeared. Stanwick House, occupied by 

 Mr. James Adams, stands on rising ground west of the 

 church and has a fine view of the country-side. The 

 solar with a chapel, built here by Robert de Lyndesey, 

 Abbot of Peterborough (1219-22), is said to have been 

 taken down when the house was rebuilt in 1 7 14.' 



The rectory, however, has been more prominent in 

 history than the manor-house. In the time of Queen 

 Mary Richard Gill was deprived on 22 May l 554 and 

 his successor, John Smythe, on 19 January following.' 

 William Dolben, who was buried here on 19 September 

 163 1, was so beloved by his parishioners that they 

 ploughed and sowed the glebe at their own expense 

 during his illness, so that his widow might have the 

 profit from the crops. The rector left two daughters 

 and three sons, of whom the eldest, John, was born at 

 Stanwick on 20 March 1625. John Dolben was at 

 Christ Church on the outbreak of the Civil War, but 

 at once took arms for the king, serving as ensign at 

 Marston Moor. He was seriously wounded in the 

 defence of York, but afterwards joined the garrison at 

 Oxford, where, after the surrender of the city in 1646, 

 he resumed his work, taking his M.A. degree in the 

 following year and being elected to a fellowship, of 

 which he was subsequently deprived by the parliamen- 

 tary visitors. In 1660 he was made Canon of Christ 

 Church, in 1662 Dean of Westminster, and in 1666 

 Bishop of Rochester, where he remained until his ap- 

 pointment in 1682 as Archbishop of York.' 



The rectory house was rebuilt, at a cost of ^^i, 000, 

 by Peter Needham, a distinguished classical scholar, 

 who was appointed rector in 17 17 and died here in 

 1 73 1.* His successor was Denison Cumberland, whose 

 son, Richard Cumberland the dramatist, has left in his 

 memoirs an account of his youth at Stanwick, where he 

 projected a universal history and wrote a play upon 

 Caractacus in the Greek manner. An income which 

 secured him leisure to develop his literary activities was 

 assured to him by his appointment as private secretary 

 to Lord Halifax, an office which seems to have been 

 almost a sinecure. Denison Cumberland had enlisted in 

 the neighbourhood two full companies for a regiment 

 raised by Halifax in 1745; ^"<^ Halifax recognized this 

 service, together with the rector's support of the Whigs 

 in the contested election at Northampton in 1748, by 

 providing for his son. The elder Cumberland himself 

 left Stanwick in 1757, on his appointment to Fulham.' 



It was an old custom in Stanwick to allow the young 

 people to jangle the church bells on Shrove Tuesday, 

 but this practice seems to have been discontinued about 

 1880. 



The soil varies considerably; the subsoil is chiefly 

 Great Oolite, with a deposit of Cornbrash in the eastern 

 part of the parish, but a belt of alluvium and Upper Lias 

 clay follows the course of the River Nene. The chief 

 crops are wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas, and potatoes. 

 The common lands were inclosed in 1834.* 



The manor oiSTANICICK formed part 

 MANOR of the fee of Peterborough Abbey in 1086, 

 when it was assessed at i hide and I virgate.' 

 It was held of them by Ascelin de Waterville in the 

 reign of Henry I,' but his son Hugh granted it to the 

 abbey, with the exception of 2 virgates held of him by 

 Assur and Gunfrey and another virgate which Ascelin 

 had given in marriage with his two daughters. Geoffrey 

 the brother, and Ascelin the heir apparent, of Hugh 

 gave their consent to the grant.' Henry de Stanewig 

 held 5 virgates at Stanwick in 1 1 87, and in 1 195 Adam, 

 .Abbot of Peterborough, granted that Henry and his 

 heirs should hold all the land of him for a yearly rent of 

 30/."' 



In 1224 Joyce of Chelveston claimed the right of 

 common in Stanwick 'because the men of the same 

 Abbot common in Joyce's land at Chelveston, and so 

 it was done after the conquest of England'. . . . The 

 abbot, however, replied that he claimed no common 

 with the men of Chelveston, nor had it; and this he 

 offered to prove by battle or by putting himself on the 

 assize." 



The men of the .A.bbot of Peterborough in Stanwick 

 were released from attendance at the Hundred Court at 

 Higham Ferrers by William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby.'' 



At the Dissolution the manor was granted to the 

 dean and chapter of Peterborough Cathedral." It seems, 

 however, to have remained or returned to the Crown, 

 for Queen Elizabeth granted more than one lease of it;'* 

 and a moiety seems to have been sold in fee to Lewis 

 NichoUs in i^S^.^^ He, with Francis and Austin 

 Nicholls, conveyed it in the following year to Robert 

 Ekynsand John Atkyns.'* In May 1609 James Igranted 

 the whole manor to George Salter and John Williams," 

 from whom it presumably passed to John Saunderson 

 and Cecily his wife, John Coxe and William Tawyer, 

 who conveyed it to Nicholas Atkyns and John his son in 

 1622.'* John Atkyns and Frances his wife levied a fine 

 concerning the manor in 165 1," probably in connexion 

 with the marriage of their son John to Elizabeth, 

 daughter and heir of Richard Willis,-" as the young 

 couple, together with Riciiard Willis and his wife 

 Prudence, were also parties to the fine. 



John Atkyns died on 17 January 1669, having had 

 seven sons and five daughters, of whom six sons and 

 three daughters survived him." His son John with his 

 wife Agnes sold the manor to the Ekins family in 1 67 1 .'* 



' Bridget, Nort/ijnti. ii, 195. 

 ' Koriianis. A'. & Q. i, 11$. 



• Diet. Nal. Biog. 



• Ibid, 

 s Ibid. 



' 45 Will. IV, cap. 8 J. 

 ' y.C.H. Sarikanii. i, 314. 



• Ibid. 377. 



• Cott. MS. Clcop. C. ii. 



fol. 24, 



no. cxliii. 

 ■° Ibid. fol. 14. 

 ■■ Braclan't Note-Book {ei. MtitUnd), 



97'- 

 '' Reg. Rob. de Swaffham, cciii, ».d. 



" L. 6f P. lien, nil, ivi. g. 1126 (io)i 



XI, pt. ii, 1066. 



'* Pat. 2 Kliz. pt. liii; 38 Eliz. pt. vii. 



" Rccov. R. Hil. 27 Elii. m. 13. 



'« Feet of F. Northantf. Hil. 22 Eli«. 



" I'al. 7 Jas. I, pt. «vi. 



'" Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 19 Jis. 1. 



" Feet of F. V>\\. to. Trin. 1651. 



'o M.I. In Sunwick Church. 



" Ibid. 



" Bridges, Norikanti. ii, 195 j Feet cf F. 

 Northants. East. 23 Chas. II. 



51 



