SPELHOE HUNDRED 



ABINGTON 



daughter of John Fullwood,' and after his death she 

 married Sir Edmund Hampden, one of the five knights 

 imprisoned for having refused the loan in 1627, who 

 died from the effects of his imprisonment and was 



Bernard. Argenlabcar 

 rampant sable. 



Thursby. Argent a che- 



veron bettjueen three lions 



sable. 



buried at Abington.^ Baldwin's son John married as 

 his second wife, in 1649, Elizabeth widow of Thomas 

 Nash and daughter of William Shakespeare's favourite 

 daughter Susannah Hall.^ After her death in 1669 

 the manor was sold to William Thursby of the Middle 

 Temple, London, for £1 3,7 Jo.* The manor remained 

 the property of the Thursby family for nearly 200 

 years:' for when in 1736 Richard Thursby, a nephew 

 of the original purchaser, died without issue, and the 

 direct line of the Thursby family had become extinct, 

 the next of kin, John Harvey, son of Robert Harvey 

 and Mary, a niece of William Thursby, upon whom 

 the estate devolved according to the terms of William 

 Thursby's will made in 1700, took the name and arms 

 of Thursby by royal licence.* The manor was pur- 

 chased of the Thursby family in 1841 by Mr. Lewis 

 Loyd. His son, Samuel Jones Loyd, who was head of 

 the bank of Jones, Loyd & Co. and was a prominent 

 financial authority, was created Baron Overstone in 

 1850. On the death of Lord Overstone in 1883^ this 

 manor, with his other wide estates, was inherited by his 

 only daughter, Harriet Sarah, whose husband, Robert 

 James Lindsay, was created Baron Wantage of Lockinge 

 in 1885. On the death of Lady Wantage in 1920 her 

 estate was dispersed and sold piecemeal. 



There was a mill attached to the manor at 

 MILLS Domesday which was worth 20/.:* it was 

 alienated in 1191 by William de Lisors to 

 Peter son of Adam of Northampton, with licence for 

 Peter to convey it to a religious house;' Peter presented 

 it to the Hospital of the Holy Trinity or St. David at 

 Kingsthorpc'" and it was confirmed to the hospital by 

 Ralph Berners and Isabel his wife in 1200." Hugh de 

 Lisors, at the request of Henry son of Peter, also con- 

 firmed the grant in the reign of Henry II I'^ and so did 

 Humphrey Bassingburn in 1253, subject to the pay- 

 ment of 40/. and an annual rent of I pound of pepper." 

 The mill-pond adjoined the manor of Great Houghton, 

 and was confirmed to the hospital by Geoffrey de 

 Pavilly in 1 206.'* Two mills, both known as Abington 



' Feet of F. Northants. Trin. i Jas. 1 ; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), cccxix, 202. 



' FromBk. of Deeds belonging to Ishams 

 of Lamport. 



' Did. Sat. Biog. i Feet of F. Northanti. 

 East. 1657; ibid. Trin. 20 Chai. II; ibid. 

 Hil. 2t and 22 Chas. II. 



♦ Bridges, Aortbantt. i, 400. 



' Recov. R. Trin. 10 Geo. II, m. 128; 

 Feet of F. Northanls. Hil. 17 Ceo. II j 

 ibid. East. 36 Ceo. III. 



' Burke, Landed Gentry, 9th ed. 



Mills, were leased by the hospital in 142 3 to John Man, 

 John Egle, and John Hamme, all bakers of Northamp- 

 ton, for an annual rent of 1 2 quarters of wheat and 

 6s. id.: the grantees were not to cut any willows, but 

 might cut off 'stoccvTiges and shredynges' as often as 

 they pleased.'' In 1535 these mills were valued at 

 66/. iJ. and an annual rent of 2/. was paid to John 

 Bernard and 3/. to John Robins.'* At the Dissolution 

 the mills became the propert}' of the Crown, but a lease 

 bearing date 1534 by which the hospital granted them 

 to Henry Freeman and Henry Nevill for 32 years was 

 allowed to run on, and in 1558 the reversion was 

 granted to the hospital of the Savoy," who entered into 

 possession after the expiration of the leaseat Michaelmas 

 1 566. Nevertheless, William Freeman and John Nevill, 

 descendants of the original grantees, acquired possession 

 of some deeds relating to the mills and refused to give 

 them up.'' The mill came into the possession of the 

 Thursbys, who held it at the beginning of the 1 8th 

 century under the Duchy of Cornwall at a rent of ^^4." 

 At the present day it is included in the parish of 

 Weston Favell. 



The church of 57^. PETER AND ST. 

 CHURCH PAUL stands within Abington Park im- 

 mediately to the south-east of the hall and 

 consists of chancel 38 ft. 2 in. by 16 ft. 2 in., with north 

 and south chapels covering it for about half its length 

 (the former used as an organ-chamber and vestry), nave 

 36 ft. 3 in. long by 44 ft. wide, south porch, and west 

 tower 10 ft. 6 in. square: all these measurements being 

 internal. The chapels represent extensions eastward of 

 former aisles, and the great width of the nave is due to 

 the removal of the arcades and the covering of the whole 

 space west of the chancel by a single-span roof. 



Bridges, c. 1720, described the church as consisting 

 ofa 'body, north and south ile and chancel leaded',-" and 

 old illustrations show three clerestory windows on the 

 south side and low-pitched leaded roofs to both nave 

 and aisle. The building fell into decay, and in 1823, 

 when a start was made to repair it, the fabric suffered 

 so severely in a storm that the whole of the nave and 

 portions of the east end were taken down and rebuilt 

 in the style of the day, the arcades being then removed. 



The earliest parts of the building are the lower part 

 of the tower and the south doorway, which are of late- 

 I2th-century date. But with the exception of the tower 

 so little ancient work remains in silu that it is difficult 

 to trace the development of the plan with certainty. It 

 seems likely, however, that the late- 12th-century church 

 consisted of an aisleless nave, west tower, and short 

 rectangular chancel. The chancel seems to have been 

 rebuilt and extended in the 13th century, a single 

 lancet, now blocked and covered by the eastern end 

 of the chapel, remaining in the north wall. Aisles may 

 have first been added at the same time, but the evidence 

 as to the destroyed arcades is conflicting.^' A good deal 

 of alteration was done in the 15th century, the tower 

 being heightened, a clerestory added, and new windows 



' C.E.C. Complete Peerage (ist ed.), vi, 

 '59- 



• r.C.H.Nortiants.\,is6. 



« Anct. D. (P.R.O.), C. 276. 



'» Ibid. C. 2002. 



" Rot. Cur. Reg. (Rec. Com.), ii. 117, 

 267. 



" Anct. D. (P.R.O.), C. 3534; ibid. 

 C. 2004. 



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

 no. 642. 



'♦ Anct. D. (P.R.O.), C. 2019. 



" Ibid. 3510. 



'» Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 322. 



" Pat. R. 3 4: 4 Ph. and M. pt. 12. 



" Chan. Proc.(Ser. 2), bdle. l62,no. 70. 



" Baker, A'orMjB/j. i, 7. 



^° Iliit. of Sorlhants. i, 402. 



^' They arc said to have been Perpen- 

 dicular; but Baker states that the arches 

 had 'deep plain mouldings supported by 

 cylindrical pillars with octagonal capitals': 

 Hist, of Norihants. 1,14. 



67 



