SPELHOE HUNDRED 



GREAT BILLING 



dying without issue a few years later the manor re- 

 verted to the Crown, to which it remained attached 

 for about 50 years. The site and demesne lands were 

 demised to various persons from time to time, Thomas 

 King and Richard Fisher receiving a 21-years' lease in 

 1545,' the latter receiving a further grant from Eliza- 

 beth at an annual rent of ^^7 1 3/. 4^.- In 1 566 Charles 

 Howard, Lord Effingham, obtained a lease of 2 1 years in 

 reversion at the same annual rent,^ but in I 577 Thomas 

 Tallis, the musician, who had served the queen and her 

 ancestors for almost 40 years, and William Byrd, his 

 more famous pupil, petitioned the queen for a lease of 

 Crown lands in reversion for 2 1 }ears, of the yearly 

 value of /[40, and among the lands granted, in answer 

 to their request, were the site and demesne lands of 

 BiUing.* In 1588 the manor and the reversion of the 

 site were sold to Alexander King and Thomas Crump- 

 ton' with licence to alienate them to John Freeman of 

 Ecton, who acquired possession in 1 590.* The re- 

 versionary interest in the site of the manor, which had 

 changed hands many times between 1577 and 1596, 

 was the cause of a dispute in the latter year between 

 John Freeman and Anthony Jenkinson, decided in 

 favour of Freeman,' who died seised of the manor in 

 161 5. By his will, dated 25 February 16 14, he left 

 /^2,ooo to be invested in land for the endowment of 

 two fellowships in Clare Hall, Cambridge, worth £,z6 

 each p.a., and eight scholarships of j^6 each, to which 

 his kinsmen were to be first preferred and, failing such, 

 scholars born in Northants. and Lincoln. On his death 

 the manor, which was then worth ;^l 2 p.a., was in- 

 herited by his grand-daughter Katharine the wife of Sir 

 Edward Gorges, bart.,' afterwards Baron Dundalk, who 

 about 1628 sold Billing to Sir Barnaby O'Brien, a 

 descendant of the Kings of Thomond.' He became 

 Earl of Thomond in 1639 on the death of his brother 

 without male issue and in 1645 was created Marquess 

 of Billing, but the patent never came into force.'" The 

 manor remained in the family for several generations," 

 but a descendant, George Earl of Egremont, sold it in 

 1776 to a son of William Duke of Devonshire, Lord 

 John Cavendish,'^ after whose death, in 1796, Billing 

 was sold to Robert Czry Elwes of Roxby, Lincoln, by 

 Lord John's brother. Lord Frederick Cavendish in 

 1 799. ' ^ From that date the manor remained in the Elwes 

 family until the property was sold in 1930. 



Many by-laws and regulations were drawn up at the 

 courts of the manor held during the i6th century. At 

 one of these in i 5 5 1 it was ordered that no man was to 

 keep more than 30 sheep or 5 cows to a virgate,'^ and 

 rules as to stubble and pasture were strictly enforced. 

 The extravagant cutting of furze and gorse caused an 

 order forbidding the further gathering for two years. 

 No man was to put a mare and foal above the age of a 



■ L. and P. Hen. nil, x% (i), p. 422. 



' Aug. Off. Panic, for Lcasn, Mix. Cos. 

 R. 14, f. 31. 



' Aug. Otf. Partic. for Leases in Rever- 

 sion, I 577, bdle. 12. 



■• Ibid. ; Drci. Sal. Sing., Byrd. 



» Pat. R. 30 Elia. pt. 8, m.'24. 



» Ibid. 32 Eliz.pt. 5, m. 28. 



' Chan. Proc. Eliz. F. f. 3, no. 45. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccxlix, 157; 

 Bridges, NortAan/t. i, 408 i Northants, 

 N. and Q., i, 46. Katharine was daughter 

 and heir of Margaret Osborne, the wife of 

 Sir Robert Osborne, bt., and only daughter 

 and heir of John Freeman. 



' Baker, Norikanti. i, 20. 

 "> C.E.C. Pttrage {2nd ed.), ii, 177. 



" Feet of F. Northants 

 Recov. R. East. 26 Chas. II, 20 

 Northants. i, 406. 



" Whcllan, AVMan/j. 223. 



" G.E.C. Petragt\ Burlcc, Commoners, 



ii, 463- 



'•• Ct. R. (P.R.O.), portf. 195, no. 78. 



" Ibid, portf. 195, no. 79. 



" Ibid, portf. 194, no. 55. 



" y.C.H. Northants. i, 355. 



" Cott. MS. Tib. E. V, fols. loi, 102. 



"> Chan. Inq. p.m. 18 Edw. II, no. 63; 

 ibid. 23 Edw. Ill (pt. i), no. 24; Baker, 

 Northants. i, 18. 



" Cott. MS. Tib. E. V, fol. 118. 



" Ibid. fols. 117, 118. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 24 Hen. HI, 



month in the common fields, unless both were tethered; 

 and the needs of the tenants were duly recorded and 

 industrial implements supplied to them.'* In 1562 it 

 was laid down that for each sheepfold there were to be 

 8i yards of land and that each husbandman was to sow 

 yearly, for every yard of land, i peck of f)eas.'* 



The Barry family were great benefactors to the re- 

 b'gious houses in Northampton and the mill which was 

 attached to the manor at the Domesday Survey, then 

 worth 20/.," was bestowed in the 1 2th century upon 

 St. James's Abbey by Simon son of Ralph Barry for a 

 yearly rent of 3 marks and a payment of 70 marks to- 

 wards the expenses of his pilgrimage to Rome." The 

 abbey continued to hold the mill until the Dissolution, 

 after which it descended with the manor." The abbey 

 subsequently received a virgate of land from Robert, 

 parson of Billing and brother of Simon." In the next 

 century Ralph, Simon's son, lord of the manor, bestowed 

 upon the abbey all the land that William Lovel held, 

 and Robert son of Alexander, another member of the 

 family, gave them land in a field called Depedalehul.^' 

 In 1 24 1 Peter, Ralph's brother, granted the abbey 16/. 

 rent in Billing-- and in 1 274 the abbot was said to have 

 built a fulling-mill at Billing, by which great loss was 

 caused to the king and the town of Northampton.^^ The 

 value of the abbey's possessions in Billing was £2 16/. in 

 i29i,-'*but they were returned as worth only 17/. in 

 1535-5 and were absorbed in the Crown lands at the 

 surrender of St. James's Abbey in 1538.^* The mill was 

 afterwards leased for varying periods and one of the 

 lessees, Thomas Nicolls, complained in the reign of 

 Edward VI that a stream of water was diverted from the 

 main river to the great harm of the mill by George 

 Fisher, bailifl^ of Arthur Longueville.^' In 1551 it was 

 laid down by the court of the manor that 'the myller 

 there shall serve the tenants before forreners and make 

 them of their greyne good meyle and use them with 

 reasonable toU'.-* In 1 568 the mill was granted to 

 Thomas son of Thomas Nicolls and to John Smith for a 

 term of 2 1 years at a yearly rent of ;^3 8/. 4^/.-' 



The Barry family were benefactors to St. Andrew's 

 Priory also, for Simon son of Ralph bestowed a virgate 

 upon it, formerly held by Simon Mason. 5° A charter 

 confirming this gift bySimon'sson Ralph^'wasinspiected 

 in 1 3 16, when the bailiff of the hundred exacted suit 

 from the tenement.^- In 1 291 the priory's possessions in 

 Billing were estimated at £\^^ and in 1443 it received 

 16/. as rent of the tenement.^* In 1535 the priory's 

 estate in Great Billing was worth 7/. o\J.,^^ and it was 

 merged in the Crown lands on the surrender of the 

 monastery in 1538.'* 



In 1223 Alexander son of Ralph Barry bestowed upon 

 Sulby Abbey i pound of wax for providing lights in the 

 dormitory of the brothers,-" to be taken every Michaelmas 



Mich. 1651 ; no. 383. 



0, 3 ; Bridges, " Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii. 1 3. 



" Po/ie Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 55. 



'5 P'alor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv. 319. 



" f.C.H. Northants. ii, 129. 



" Aug. Off. Proc. 33/38. 



" Ct. R. (P.R.O.), portf. 195, no. 78. 



" Aug. Off. Enrol, of Leases, 19 Elix. 

 no. 28, no. 18. 



» Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii, fol. 61. 



" Ibid., fol. 62. 



" Ibid. 62 d. 



» Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 55. 



'* Mins. Accts. bdle. 1,108, no. 21. 



" AVer Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 313, 



>» L. and P. Hen. rill, xiii, 151. 



" Add. Ch. 21537. 



71 



