SPELHOE HUNDRED 



BOUGHTON 



a tablet inscribed 'Ano. Dom. 1639, t.h., a.h.' A 

 monument was erected in Boughton parish in 1764 in 

 memory of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devon- 

 shire, in the form of a masonry obelisk. The inscription 

 which it originally bore has been removed.' The old 

 ruined church of St. John the Baptist stands about a 

 mile east of the village on the green where the fair 

 was held since at least the middle of the 14th century. 

 This famous green is most picturesque in appearance, 

 with an undulating surface caused partly by extensive 

 quarrying, the remains of several old pits being found 

 in the neighbourhood. The sandy ground is riddled 

 with rabbit holes. The keeper of Moulton Park used 

 to claim free warren in Boughton fields, a right which 

 was stoutly resisted by the inhabitants. Thos. .Aylmer, 

 the bailiff of Boughton in I 53 1, used to keep grey- 

 hounds and ferrets in his house and 'wold never rydde 

 between Northampton and Buckton but that he wold 

 have his cross-bowe hangyng at his sadle bowe with 

 hym, to the intent to kyll conyes by the waye'. Even 

 the chantry priest. Sir John Chene, in the reign of 

 Richard III was accused at his own chantry door of 

 hunting in the warren; and the rabbits invaded the 

 churchyard itself, making the place so dangerous that 

 the inhabitants were afraid to go to mass for fear of 

 breaking their necks. It was said that the bones dug up 

 by the conies would fill a scuttle and 'that a man can 

 go skantly in a corner of yt but he shall fynde it full of 

 dead mennes bones, a thing most pyt}ous to be seen'. 

 One of the parishioners stated that a 'great number of 

 conyes have so underminded the church yarde of 

 Bouckton that it wold abhorre any Crystiane manys 

 harte in the world to see it'.- 



The parish is well watered with springs, one of 

 which, known as St. John the Baptist's Spring, rises 

 in the old churchyard on the green. A branch of the 

 River Nene flows on the north through Boughton 

 Park, while a larger branch of the river forms the 

 western boundary and is crossed several times in its 

 course through the parish by the L.M.S. railway. A 

 road connecting the village with Church and Chapel 

 Brampton descends from 343 ft. to 221 ft., where it 

 crosses the line at Boughton level crossing, the lowest 

 lying ground in the parish being situated here. The mill 

 stands almost a quarter of a mile farther upstream. The 

 highest ground is found to the north and north-east of 

 the parish where an altitude of 4 1 8 ft. is reached. There 

 is a Methodist chapel in the village. 



The parish has been inclosed under an act passed in 

 1756.5 



William the Conqueror bestowed most of 



MANOR the land in BOUGHTON upon his niece, 



the Countess Judith, and the ovcrlordship 



remained vested in the holders of the honor of Hunting- 



' Aitoc. Arch. Soc. Reforii, xxiii, 163. 

 The duke, when a young man, read with 

 one of the incumbents of Boughton and 

 for this reason the monument was erected. 

 The occupier of the farm on which it 

 stands had so much trouble from persons 

 trespassing to read the inscription that 

 he caused it to be erased. 



' From deeds in Kingsthorpe church- 

 chest cited by Mr. Glover in Kingi- 

 thorpiana. 



' Lot. and Priv. Acts, 29 Geo. II, 

 cap. 9. 



* y.C.H. Norlhanlt. i, 355. 



> Ibid, i, 381. 



« Ibid, i, 351. 



' Ret. <U Ohlatit el Fin. (Rcc. Com.), 



400. 



' Assize R. 3 Edw. Ill, m. 48 d. 

 » Feet of F. Northants. 12 Edw. I, 

 no. 1 12. 

 '° De Banco R. 363, m. 53. 



" »U</. y4/</j, iv, 23. 



n AssireR. 3 Edw. III. m. 48 d. 



■> PUc. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 534. 



'< Cat. 0/ ?apal Lrlters, ii, 536. The 

 estate is here referred to as i tot. pension 

 in the church of Boughton but as there is 

 no other record of the Abbey possessing 

 a pension in the church and as the yearly 

 value of the land sold to the de Boughtons 

 was iiOf., it is safe to conclude that the 

 two are identical. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 13 Edw. Ill, 



don of which the descent is traced under Yardley 

 Hastings (q.v.). 



One of the under-tenants of the countess in 1086 

 was the Norman abbey of St. Wandrille who held 

 3 hides less half a virgatc, bestowed upon them by the 

 countess;* by the 12th century this estate had increased 

 to 3 hides and 3 small virgates,^ probably by the addi- 

 tion of 3 virgates held of the countess at the Domesday 

 Survey by 4 socmen.* It was worth r 10/. in 1207, and 

 was appropriated by John for the time being with the 

 lands of other Norman holders,' but was regained by 

 the abbey, whose abbot WiUiam de Nutricilla, in the 

 reign of Edward I, conveyed it to John de Boughton,* 

 who already owned land in Boughton by inheritance.' 

 From John it passed to his son, another John;'" and to 

 the latter's son Thomas," ' against whom and his mother 

 Juliana, William, Abbot of St. Wandrille, brought an 

 action in 1330 claiming that as the estate had belonged 

 to the abbey by virtue of the Prebend of Uphaven, in 

 the diocese of Salisbury, and that as the consent of the 

 dean and chapter had not been obtained, the alienation 

 of the manor by William de Nutricilla was not valid. 

 The abbot, however, failed to prosecute and judgement 

 was given for Thomas, '-who in the same year success- 

 fully claimed view of frankpledge in his manor of Bough- 

 ton, on prescription; he was sheriff" for Northants. 

 in 1331, 1334, and 1343. In 1337 the abbey of St. 

 Wandrille was absolved by the Pope from the penalty 

 it had incurred by selling the Boughton estate without 

 licence from the bishop, and the tenure of the Boughton 

 family was thus rendered more secure.'* Three years 

 afterwards, however. Sir Thomas de Boughton and 

 Joan his wife sold the reversion of the manor to Henry 

 Green of Isham, junior," in whose family it remained 

 for many years." Henry Green was knighted in 1354 

 and in 1361 was appointed chief justice of the King's 

 Bench, from which he was removed in 1365;" he died 

 in 1 369 and was succeeded in his 

 Boughton estates by Thomas, his 

 son by his first wife; Drayton, 

 which he had acquired from Sir 

 John Drayton, brother of his 

 second wife Catherine, being set- 

 tled on Henry his son by her.'* 

 Sir Thomas, who died in 1391,"' 

 was succeeded by his son another 

 Sir Thomas, Sheriff of Northants. 

 in 1417, in which year he died.^" 

 His widow Mary died in 1433,^' 

 when their son, another Sir Thomas, came into posses- 

 sion of the whole manor. -^ The manor passed from him 

 to his son, grandson, and great-grandson, all of whom 

 were called Thomas,^^ but the sixth and last Thomas 

 died in 1506, without male heirs, when his property 



no. 195. 



"' Malstead {Succinct Cenealogiel, 152) 

 wrongly surmised that Henry Green was 

 the son of Sir Thomas de Boughton and 

 changed his name to Green of Boughton on 

 account of his attachment to the green 

 belonging to the village. 



" Diet. Mat. Biog. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 43 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, 

 no. 48. 



'« Ibid. I 5 Rich. II, pt. I, no. 24. 



" Ibid. 5 Hen. V, no. 39. 



'• Ibid. 12 Hen. VI, no. 20. 



" Fine R. Northants. 12 Hen. VI, m. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 2 Edw. IV, no. 4; 

 Halstead, Succinct Genealogies, 169. 



Green. Azure three 



bucks or. 



77 



