HIGHAM FERRERS HUNDRED 



STRIXTON 



forest of Salcey, and that their dogs never were lawed, 

 they were granted freedom from such lawing of dogs.' 

 There is no mention of Strixton in the 

 MjINORS Domesday Survey, but it was probably in- 

 cluded, mainly, in the 2 hides and 3 vir- 

 gates held by Winemar in Higham Hundred.^ One 

 portion of the vill formed a part of the two fees of 

 Wollaston held in about 1236 by Robert son of Ralph 

 from Robert dc Newburgh and descended with the 

 Chokes fee in Wollaston (q.v.).' Another portion, 

 which became the manor of STRIXTON and to which 

 the advowson was appurtenant, was in the 1 2th century 

 held with Easton Maudit by Michael de Hamslapc,-' 

 and was subsequently held of the fee of Mauduit. This 

 was presumably held by Sir Ralf Ridel, who presented 

 to the church in 1230,* and later by Thomas Golafre 

 who was returned in 1265 as an adherent of the rebel 

 Sir John Fitz John and as having lands in Strixton 

 worth ^10, which the Earl of Warwick (overlord of the 

 Mauduit fee) had seized.* These lands he had re- 

 covered before 1 274, when he presented to the church.' 

 Shortly after this date the manor must have passed, 

 as did one part of Easton Maudit (q-v.), to Ralf 

 Fauconberg, as he conveyed lands in Strixton to Henry 

 de Preyers,* who in 1284 was holding a quarter fee in 

 Strixton of the Earl of Warwick,' and subsequent 

 presentations to the church were made by him and 

 other members of the Preyers family. 



Henry de Preyers, with Thomas de Verdun, clerk, 

 granted a rent of 20/. per annum out of the manor of 

 Strixton to the priory of Spinney (co. Cambridge), in 

 1319,'° but before 1324 he had been succeeded in the 

 manor by Thomas de Preyers of Strixton, who on 2 1 

 June 1324 (with John in the 

 Willows of Fynedon) owed ^^i 20 

 to the executors of Thomas de 

 Verdun," and between whom 

 and the Bishop of Coventry and 

 Lichfield a fine was levied of the 

 manor in I 328-9.'^ The unrest 

 which culminated in the Peasants' 

 Rising is possibly reflected in the 

 issue, on 24 November 1380, of 

 a commission of oyer el terminer 

 on information that the bondmen 

 and bond tenants of Thomas de 

 Preyers in his manor of Strixton had withdrawn the ser- 

 vices due to him and assembled and confederated to- 

 gether by oathtoresist him." Thomas had been followed 

 by Richard de Preyers, who died before 1402, when the 

 fees of which Thomas Earl of Warwick was seised at his 

 death included Strixton, held by the heir of Richard.'* 

 This was his daughter Alice wife of Baldwin de 

 Drayton," who with her husband had in 1391 granted 

 tenements in Strixton and Grcndon to Elizabeth Beau- 



Preyers. Guilt 

 scallops or. 



three 



LovETT. Argen: three 

 luolnjes passant sable. 



champ,'* and next year conveyed the manor and advow- 

 son to John Billyng and others," probably for the 

 marriage settlement of their son John and his wife 

 Margaret. Lady Margaret Trussel, probably the re- 

 married widow of Baldwin de Drayton, was in 1428 

 holding three parts of a fee in Easton Maudit (q.v.) 

 and Strixton which John Wolf and Henry de Preyers 

 had formerly held of the fee of William Mauduit." 

 This property descended in the Drayton family," and in 

 1465 William Drayton died seised of a chief messuage 

 in Strixton and the advowson of the parish church of 

 St. Romwald of Strixton to the same belonging which 

 he held of Richard Earl of Warwick.^" His son Richard 

 died seised of the same on 20 July 1479, holding under 

 Richard Duke of Gloucester (the 

 husband of Anne of Warwick), 

 and his heir was his sister Anne, 

 wife of Thomas Lovett.-' By 

 this marriage the manor was con- 

 veyed to the Lovetts of Astwell, 

 and on 14 December 1543 

 Thomas Lovett died seised of 

 the manor, which he had settled 

 on Joan Bur)', widow, after- 

 wards his wife, who survived 

 him.^- He was succeeded by his 

 grandson Thomas (son of his son 



Thomas) who was holding this manor in i 563.^^ Jane, 

 the only child of Thomas Lovett, married John Shirley, 

 and as Jane Shirley, widow, was dealing with the manor 

 and advowson in 1 572, -■• in which year a moiety of the 

 manor was conveyed to Paul Stretely by Griffin Birck- 

 mere and others. ^^ "YYit manor and advowson were in 

 I 58 1 conveyed by George Shirley, son and heir of Jane, 

 then remarried to William Grey, to Paul Stretely, 

 who granted to George Shirley a rent of £\ 3 6s. iJ. 

 from the same to begin after the deaths of Thomas 

 Lovett, esq. and Jane Grey, wife of William Grey, the 

 mother of George.^* Thomas Lovett died in i 586 and 

 was succeeded by his grandson George Shirley-' (created 

 a baronet in 161 1) who was dealing with the manor in 

 1588,^' shortly after which the manor and advowson 

 were conveyed to Sir Horace Pallavicini by Paul and 

 Christopher Stretely and Philip Smyth and his wife 

 Martha," with the manor of TIRRELLS. This last 

 was evidently the manor of Strixton which George 

 Tirrell conveyed in i 559 to Paul Darell.^" The trans- 

 action recorded in 1336, when William dc Brampton 

 and Reynold de Eston, vicars of Wollaston and Easton, 

 recovered seisin from William de Newenham of a 

 free tenement in Wollaston and Strixton held of the 

 manor of Strixton, may have referred to this property." 

 Richard Newenham, chaplain, was holding a manor of 

 Strixton in 1 395-6,^- and this docs not appear to have 

 been the de Preyers manor. It was possibly also the 



' Cal. Pat. 1158-66, p. 250. 

 ' l^.C.H. Northantt. i, 341a. 

 ' Bk. of Fees, 603; Feud. AiJs, iv, 45, 



445- 



< r.C.H. Northatits. i, 376*. 



' Bridges, Norihanis. ii, 198. He hid 

 probably married one of the co-heirs of 

 John Mauduit; see above, p. 12. 



» Cal. of Inj. Misc. i.iiS. 



' Bridges, loc. cit. 



• Harl. Ch. 49 I, 18. 



• FeuJ. Aids, iv, 14. In the sime year 

 he was fined for not having taken up 

 knighthood although holding land worth 

 ^20: Assize R. 619, m. 64 d. 



'<> Harl. Ch. 57 C. 26. 



" Cal. Close, 1323-7, p. 200. Cf. ibid. 

 56.. 



" Feet of F. Northants. case 176, file 

 72, no. I f. 



'1 Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 578. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 2 Hen. IV, no. 58. 



" Harl. MS. 6606, f. 115. 



" Add. Ch. 740. Elizabeth Beauchamp 

 presented to the church in 1 392 and 1407. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 15 Ric. U, 

 file 88, no. 137. 



" Feud. Aids, iv, 45. 



'^ For pedigree see Bridges, op. cit. ii, 

 197. 



ss 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Edw. IV, no. 7. 



" Ibid. 19 Edw. IV, no. 44. 



*^ Exch. Inq. p.m. dcciii, 2. 



" Rccov. R. Hil. 6 Eliz. ro. 402. 



" Feet of F. Northants. East. 14 Eliz.; 

 Feet of F. Div. co. Trin. 14 Eliz. 



" Ibid. Northants. East. 14 Eliz. 



»» Ibid. Mich. 23 & 24 Eliz. 



" Baker, Hist, of Northants. i, 732. 



"• Rccov. R. \fich. 30 Eliz. ro. 84. 



" Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 31 Elii. 



'" Ibid. Mich. 1 & 2 Eliz. 



" Assize R. 1400, m. 102. 



» Feet of F. Northants. 19 Ric. II, 

 file 89, no. 168. 



