A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Bassingburn. Gyronny 

 of t-welve pieces argent 

 and gules. 



wing is of good design with turned balusters and 

 moulded handrail. 



Only one holder of land in JBINGTON 

 MJNOR was recorded in the Domesday Book: this 

 was Richard Engaine who accounted for 4 

 hides.' This estate was held of the Crown in chief for 

 the fourth part of a knight's fee until 1 509, after which 

 date the overlordship lapsed. The 

 manor evidently passed to Rich- 

 ard's grandson Richard, whose 

 son and heir Vital married Alice 

 de Lisors.^ After his death she 

 married as her second husband 

 Humphrey Bassingburn;' the 

 latter held the 4 hides in the reign 

 of Henry II, in right of his wife.* 

 The estate was probably settled 

 on Fulk, second son of Vital 

 Engaine and Alice, who took his 

 mother's maiden name, for in 

 1 191 William de Lisors, Fulk's son, alienated the mill 

 appurtenant to the manor with the consent of his mother 

 Alice, or Adeline, d'Auberville, who confirmed the grant 

 in the same year. 5 William died before 1 1 99, his brother 

 Hugh being his heir,* but Abington was settled on 

 Isabel, William's widow, who married as her second hus- 

 band Ralph Berners,' with reversion probably to Alice, 

 William's mother, who had married as her second hus- 

 band Nicholas Bassingburn son of Humphrey before- 

 mentioned.* Isabel Berners, a widow again by 1227,' 

 was in 1 242 holding Abington of Nicholas Bassingburn,'" 

 and in 1 2 5 3 Humphrey Bassingburn, Nicholas's son, was 

 in possession of the manor." Humphrey joined Simon 

 de Montfort against Henry III, and after Evesham in 

 1 266 his manor of Abington was forfeited to the Crown 

 and granted to Robert de Turbeville.'^ In 1268, how- 

 ever, Humphrey came to an agreement with Robert 

 and regained possession of the manor." He afterwards 

 became entangled in financial difficulties from which 

 he was relieved by the Dowager Queen Eleanor, who 

 in 1273 paid his debts to Elias son of Moses, a Jew of 

 London, taking in exchange certain of his manors. 

 Abington Manor, however, in the hands then of Philip 

 de Horton, a burgess of Northampton, was delivered 

 to Humphrey, who received from the queen 20 pounds 

 besides.''' In 1277 Humphrey settled the manor on his 

 son Humphrey and the latter's wife Mary,'' and, dying 

 shortly afterwards in 1280, was succeeded by his son,'* 

 who followed him to the grave in 1298." The manor 

 then became the right of Mary his widow and was held 

 by John de Lisle, her second husband, in 1 316.'* After 

 Mary's death in 1325 it passed to her son Humphrey 

 Bassingburn, who at the date of his mother's death was 

 in Gascony on the king's service." This Humphrey 

 confirmed to the nuns of St. Mary Delapre in 1328 



an annual pension of half a mark which had been 

 granted to them out of the manor of Abington by 

 William son of Fulk de Lisors and confirmed earlier by 

 Humphrey's father.^" In 1 3 30 he settled the manor on 

 himself and his wife Alice for their lives, with reversion 

 to Giles their eldest son and his issue and with contingent 

 remainder to Hugh and Humphrey their younger sons.^' 

 Giles died during his father's lifetime and a new settle- 

 ment was made in 1344; after the death of Humphrey 

 and Alice the manor was to pass to Alice, Giles's widow, 

 and then to Walter son of Robert de Colevile and to 

 Margaret his wife, daughter of Giles, in tail with 

 contingent remainder to Robert de Colevile and his 

 heirs, thus barring the Bassingburn line out of the 

 entail.-- On Humphrey's death in 1348 Alice his 

 widow continued to hold the manor-' until she died in 

 1357,-'' when it passed to Alice, her daughter-in-law, 

 then the wife of John de Fauconberg. Alice outlived 

 not only her second husband but her daughter Mar- 

 garet and the latter's husband Walter de Colevile, so 

 that on her death in 1368 she was succeeded by her 

 grandchild Robert de Colevile, then only 3 years old. ^5 

 Robert died the following year and the manor passed 

 to Ralph Basset and John Gernoun, descendants of 

 Elizabeth and Alice, sisters of Edmund, Robert's great- 

 grandfather.^* Before, however, Ralph and John could 

 acquire possession, Richard Bassingburn, a cousin of 

 Giles, entered into the premises and brought an action 

 against John Gernoun for disseisin, basing his claim 

 to the manor on the settlement made in 1330, by 

 which if Walter de Colevile and Margaret should die 

 without heirs, the manor was to revert to the right 

 heirs of Giles. The second settlement, however, of 

 1344 was produced and John Gernoun was confirmed 

 in his possession.^' Ralph Basset must have released his 

 right in the manor to John Gernoun, for the latter held 

 it in entirety and alienated it in 1386 to Sir Nicholas 

 Lilling and Isabel his wife and their heirs.-* A renewal 

 of the Bassingburn claim was guarded against by a 

 release made by Robert Bassingburn, probably a son 

 of Richard, in 1389,^' and in 1424 a further renuncia- 

 tion of all right was made by Maud wife of Richard 

 Creek and daughter and heir of Richard Bassingburn.'" 

 Sir Nicholas Lilling died in 1419 and the manor, 

 according to the terms of a settlement made in 141 5, 

 was then held by his widow Mary." After Mary's 

 death the manor passed into the Bernard family; 

 Nicholas and Mary's daughter and heir Elizabeth 

 having married Robert Bernard. Their second son 

 Thomas succeeded his grandmother, the reversion of 

 the manor having been settled on him by Sir Nicholas 

 Lilling in 141 5.'- The manor remained in the Bernard 

 family for nearly 250 years, passing from father to son 

 in the direct line." Baldwin Bernard, who was lord 

 of the manor from 1601 to 1610, married Elizabeth 



■ V.C.H. Northants. i, 356. 

 2 Baker, Northants. i, 9. ' Ibid. 



* Cott. MS.Vesp. E. xxii,fol. 9+. 

 5 Anct. D. (P.R.O.), C. 276; ibid. 

 C. 2002. ' Ibid. C. 3534.. 



' Kot. Cur. Regis (Rec. Com.), ii. 117, 

 267; Feet of F. Northants. 11 Hen. Ill, 

 no. 134. 8 BakeTy Northants. \f g. 



•> Feet of F. Northants. 1 1 Hen. Ill, 

 no. 134. '° £i. o/'fe«, 934, 945. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 37 Hen. Ill, 

 no. 642. 

 '2 Cat. Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), 206. 

 " Hunter, Rotuli Selecti, 172. 

 '* Cal. Close, 1272-9, p. 112. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 5 Edw. I, no. 

 40. 



"> Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. I, no. 10. 



*' Feud. Aids, iv, 1 6 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 26 

 Edw. I (31). '8 feud. Aids, iv, 23. 



" Cal. Close, 1323-7, p. 297. 



2» Chart. R. 2 Edw. Ill, m. 1 5, no. 47. 



" De Banco R. no. 285, m. 285 d; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. 2 Edw. Ill (2nd nos.), 5; 

 Feet of F. Northants. 5 Edw. Ill, no. 91. 



^- Inq. a.q.d. file 266, no. 13; Feet of F. 

 Northants. iS Edw. Ill, no. 286. 



^5 Chan. Inq. p.m. 22 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), 



^■t Ibid. 31 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), 36. 



25 Ibid. 42 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), 9. 

 2* Ibid. 43 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), 25. 



27 Assize R. no. 1480, m. 7; Abbrev, 

 Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 303. 



28 Add. Ch.(B.M,) 21509, 2i5io;C<j/. 

 Pat. 1385-9, p. 139. 



" Chart. R. 13 Ric. II, pt. i,m. 14. 



30 Feet of F. Northants. 2 Hen. VI, no. 

 10. 



3' Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Hen. V, no. 47. 

 This must have been his second wife. 



32 Chan. Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. IV, no. 11. 



33 Ibid. (Ser. 2), i, 8 3 ; ibid, xxii, 8 ; ibid. 

 Ixxxix, 104; FeetofF. Northants. Trin. 30, 

 £Uz. ;Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cclxxi, 176. 



66 



