A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



manor of Strixton of which Sir Henry Broomflete, Lord 

 Vessy, was seised at his death on i6 January 1469, 

 when his daughter and heir Margaret, wife of Sir 

 Lancelot Threlkeld, succeeded him.' 



Strixton manor and other lands in Strixton and 

 WoUaston and elsewhere had before 1 590 been granted 

 to Sir Thomas Cecil. Robert Earl of Essex, with Sir 

 Thomas Cecil and Thomas Crompton, exchanged this 

 and other property for lands in Oxfordshire which on 

 24 January i 590 were by Queen Elizabeth granted at 

 the request of the Earl of Essex to Thomas Crompton 

 and others.-^ The manor ot Strixton having thus re- 

 verted to the Crown again was, on 17 September 1604, 

 as 'lately parcel of the possessions of Sir Thomas 

 Cecill, kt., now Lord Burghley', granted to Sir James 

 Hay and Honor Denny, daughter and heir of Edward 

 Denny of Waltham, co. Essex, and their heirs. ^ The 



in Modern 

 I3IS Ce.ntury 

 M 131 Century, REBUILT 1873 



50 Feet 



20 



3o 



■10 



Plan of Strixton Church 



favourite upon whom King James bestowed Strixton, 

 with other lands and honours showered upon him, did 

 not marry the bride his sovereign was so anxious to 

 secure for him until 6 January 1607.'* Lord Hay, after- 

 wards created Earl of Carlisle, is said to have been a 

 spendthrift 'who left not a house or acre of land to be 

 remembered by'. In 16 10 he conveyed the manor and 

 advowson to Peter Bland, ^ with whom and Susan, wife 

 of the said Peter, he conveyed them to Richard Smyth 

 in 161 3.* In 16 19 Robert Parkhurst, citizen and gold- 

 smith of London, received licence to inclose 260 acres 

 of arable land in Strixton and turn them into pasture.'' 

 He, with Margaret Smyth, widow, was holding the 

 manor and advowson in 1637-8, when they conveyed 

 them to William Streete and John Bourne.* It seems 

 probable that Margaret Smyth was the widow of 

 Richard, that he was a connexion of Philip Smyth, 

 mentioned in 1588, and that this conveyance was in 

 preparation for a transaction with the Wisemans, who 

 held a lease of Strixton property. Sir John Lambe, 

 Chancellor of the diocese of Peterborough and Dean of 

 the Arches (a persecutor of recusants and noncon- 

 formists, against whom petitions in parliament were 

 presented in 1621 and 1624), had prosecuted John 

 Wiseman and his wife Frances in 161 5 for profanation 

 and dilapidation of the church of Strixton, and for 

 marriage within the prohibited degrees. Wiseman 

 stated he was not bound by his lease to repair the church 



but had done so several times, and the court found the 

 charges groundless, Lambe prosecuting merely for the 

 sake of molestation.' In 1642—3 Elizabeth Wiseman 

 was dealing with a moiety of the manor and advowson 

 of Strixton, which she conveyed to William Wise- 

 man.'" In 1647 a conveyance of the whole manor and 

 advowson was made to her by Sir Andrew Jenour, bart., 

 and Margaret his wife, John Gage and Elizabeth his 

 wife, and Richard Binglye and Frances his wife, with 

 warranty against the heirs of Margaret, Elizabeth, 

 and Frances," apparently Wiseman ladies. Ten years 

 later it appears as held by the .Alston family, and a fine 

 was levied of the manor and advowson, by Edward 

 Alston, esq., and Hester his wife, John Alston, esq., and 

 Dorothy his wife, Edward Alston, M.D., and John 

 Wayne, gent., who conveyed them to Sir Thomas 

 Alston in 1656.'^ According to Bridges Sir Edward 

 Alston of East Barnet on his death in 1682 

 bequeathed the manor and advowson to his 

 eldest son William Alston,'^ who presented 

 in 1681 and 1688; and William, dying s. p. 

 in 1690, bequeathed them to his third 

 brother Charles Alston, D.D., Vicar of 

 Northall and Archdeacon of Essex, by 

 whom they were sold to his sister Catherine 

 widow of John Wiseman (who presented 

 in 1707), passing from her to her daughters 

 Hester and Elizabeth Wiseman, '■'who pre- 

 sented to the church in 172 1 and 1723." 

 Before 1753 the presentations show that 

 the advowson, and presumably the manor, 

 was in the hands of John Spencer of Al- 

 thorp, and since that date the Earls Spencer 

 have been lords of the manor and sole landowners.'* 



The church of ^T. JOHN BJPTIST 

 CHURCH consists of chancel, 27 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft. 

 8 in.; nave, 40 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft. 10 in.; 

 and south porch, 7 ft. 6 in. by 6 ft. 10 in., all these 

 measurements being internal: there is a saddle-back 

 bell-turret over the west gable. With the exception of 

 the west wall the whole of the fabric was taken down 

 and rebuilt in 1873," the old materials being re-used 

 where possible and all its architectural features retained. 

 The building'* was of early- 13th-century date {c. 

 1220) throughout and may be still so described though 

 much new masonry has necessarily been introduced. 

 As rebuilt it is faced with dressed stone, but the original 

 walling at the west end is of rubble. The chancel and 

 nave are under separate high-pitched modern tiled roofs 

 with eaved gutters. Internally the walls are of bare 

 stone. 



The chancel has double angle-buttresses of two 

 stages, a string-course at sill level, and east window con- 

 sisting of a triplet of lancets, with a quatrefoil opening 

 within a circle in the gable above. Externally the 

 lancets have individual hood-moulds, but within the 

 whole of the four lights are contained within an arch of 

 two chamfered orders. On either side of and above the 

 upper light externally are sunk circular quatrefoiled 

 panels filling the gable, and the lower panels are 

 repeated inside on either side of the containing arch. 



■ Chan. Inq. p.m. S Edw. IV, no. 37. 



^ Cal. S.P. Dom. 1590-7, p. 6r; Pat. 

 R. 33 Eliz. pt. 6, no. 17. 



3 Pat. R. 2 Jas. I, pt. 29, m. 22; Cal. 

 S.P. 1663-10, p. 149; Feet of F. Nor- 

 thants. East. 4 Jas. I; Mich. 5 Jas I. 



♦ Diet. Nat. Biog. 



5 Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 7 Jas. I. 



* Ibid. East. 10 Jas. I. 



' Pat. R. 16 Jas. I, pt. 8, no. 2. 



8 Feet of F. East. 13 Chas. I. 



■* Cal. S.P. Dom. i6ii-iS,pp. 272, 277. 



■■> Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 1 8 Chas. I ; 

 Recov. R. Hil. 18 Chas. I, ro. 10. 



" Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 23 Chas. I. 



" Ibid. Mich. 1656. 



" Hist, of Northants. ii, 197. 



'I Ibid. 



■s Inst. Bits. (P.R.O.). 



'* Kelly, Directories. 



" Assoc. Arch. Soc. Reports, x\\, p. xjxil. 



^8 Measured drawings of the church 

 (12 plates) by Edward Barr, architect, 

 were published by Parker, Oxford, in 1S49. 



56 



