A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Chambers. Gules a 



che'uercn betiveen three 



cinqfoils or. 



1 37 1, when the manor passed to their daughter Eliza- 

 beth," who by 1376 was the wife of William de 

 Addebury^ and afterwards married Roger Chambers, 

 to whom she brought the manor. ^ From Roger it 

 passed to Thomas Cham bers, who 

 was holding in I428'* and who 

 was succeeded by William, at 

 whose death in 1494,^ the manor 

 was worth ^^30. William was 

 succeeded by his brother John, 

 who in 1498 accused Thomas 

 Parnell, late vicar of Spratton, of 

 taking 12 hares, 480 rabbits, 6 

 pheasants, 100 tench, 300 roach, 

 and 100 bream from his warren 

 and pond, to the value of ,^20; 

 but Thomas in his defence alleged 

 that he took only 2 tench and 6 roach, and that John 

 had given him permission to fish in his pond and deliver 

 the fish he took to Sir John Harrington.* At John's 

 death, without heirs of his body in 1506, the manor 

 was divided into moieties between Henry Maxe, son 

 of his elder sister Jane, and Elizabeth his younger sister, 

 wife of Richard Inguersby.'' The one moiety, known 

 as Maxe's Manor, passed to Edmund Maxe, of whom 

 it was purchased by Laurence Manley of Northampton, 

 mercer. He died in 1557, when the moiety of the 

 manor was said to be worth £^ per annum and was left 

 to Francis and Robert, the sons of his eldest son Edward 

 who was Mayor of Northampton in 1575.* In spite 

 of their settlement the moiety appears to have been 

 obtained by Laurence, the eldest son of Edward, who 

 died holding it in 1601, leaving a son and heir Lau- 

 rence,' who with his wife Sarah and his son Laurence 

 and the latter's wife Mary were in possession in 1652, 

 after which date it probably became merged in the 

 manor of Downhalls (q.v.), with which it was then 

 held,"'as there is no subsequent mention of it. The other 

 moiety belonging in 1 506 to the Inguersbys passed to 

 Thomas, evidently a son of Richard, who died seised 

 of the manor called Chambers, jointly with Henry 

 Maxe, in 1526, when it was inherited by his son 

 Richard," at whose death in 1 530 his brother George, 

 then aged 10, came into possession. It remained in this 

 family for many years, '^ and between 1582 and 161 3 

 was in the possession of Thomas Inguersby,'^ by whom 

 it was doubtless sold to Robert Owen of Llanassaph, 

 Flint, as he by his will''' proved in 1661 left it and all 

 his estates in Northamptonshire to his wife Frances. 

 She married as her second husband Mostyn and was 

 again a widow in 1693, in which year she united with 

 her daughter Elizabeth, the heir of Robert Owen and 

 then wife of William Fitzherbert of Swynnerton, Staf- 



fordshire, and of Norbury, Derby., to sell the moiety to 

 Edward Chapman, '^ after which date its history cannot 

 be traced. 



Another manor in Spratton which was held of the 

 honor of Peverel appears for the first time in the 1 6th 

 century, in the possession of the Downhall family of 

 Geddington from whom it had acquired the name of 

 the MANOR OF DOirNHJLL. In 1 547 it was sold 

 by Thomas Downhall and Margaret his wife and by 

 Richard Downhall and Mary his wife to Laurence 

 Manley,'* the owner of Maxe's moiety, and the patron 

 of the church, and was said at his death in i 5 57 to be 

 worth £■} 3/. 4<2'. a year.'^ It was settled on his grand- 

 children Francis and Robert, who were in possession 

 of the manor in 161 1,'* and later in the same year, 

 Francis having died, his son Robert alienated the manor 

 to Laurence Manley" his cousin. By 1658 it was in the 

 hands of John Manley, a member of the same family, 

 who conveyed it that year to Arthur Goodday.^" 

 William Goodday held it in 1695 and 1706,^' and it 

 passed with the greater part of the rectory to his grand- 

 daughter Ann Walker,^^ whose daughter Anne brought 

 it in marriage to the Beet family,'^ whose representa- 

 tive Henry Beet with Elizabeth his wife was in posses- 

 sion in 1826,-'* after which date the manorial rights 

 appear to have fallen into abeyance. 



Another manor in Spratton amounting to i hide was 

 held of the Countess Judith at Domesday and remained 

 attached to the BaUiol fee of the honor of Huntingdon. 

 As under-tenant in 1086 stood Rohais,''^ who was suc- 

 ceeded in the greater part of her lands by a family who 

 presumably took their name of Roys from her. Robert 

 son of Robert, who held § of half a fee here in 1 242,^* 

 had acquired lands here in 1227 and 1239^' which 

 passed to his son Roger Roys-* and to his grandson 

 William, who was living in 1 284-' and at whose death 

 c. 1308 the custody of his lands and of his son Roger, 

 then a minor, was granted to Herbert de Borhunte.^" 

 Roger Roys came of age in 1317^' and in 1330 had 

 view of frankpledge in his manor. 3- In 1 346 his son 

 Robert was still lord of this manor,^^ but by 1428 this 

 estate had been obtained by Thomas Chambers,^* lord 

 of Ardern's Manor in Spratton into which it became 

 absorbed. 



A small portion of the lands held by Rohais in 1086 

 was in the possession ofWalterFitzTheobaldin 1242,^5 

 as \ of half a fee, and came in course of descent to John 

 FitzTheobald, the owner in 1346,^* but there is no 

 further mention of this part of the fee. 



One virgate and i bovate of land in Spratton were 

 held in 1086 of Robert de Buci,^' from whom the over- 

 lordship passed to the Bassets of Weldon.^* The under- 

 tenant at Domesday was Ralph ; and the estate formed 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. 46 Edw. Ill (ist 

 nos.), no. 57. 



2 Feet of F. Div. Co. 50 Edw. Ill, no. 

 140. 



3 De Banco R. Trin. 13 Rich. II, m. 

 139 d. 



* Feud. Aids, iv, 37. 



5 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ix, 60. 



'' De Banco R. 946, m. 337. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xx, 15. 



* Ibid, cxii, 127; Chan. Proc. Eliz. G. g. 

 1 1, no. 43. 



^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cclxx, 118; 

 Feet of F. Northants. East. 8 Jas. I. 



■o Ibid. Mich. 1652. 



" Excheq. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), dcxc, 5. 



*^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), lii, 69; ibid. 

 (Ser. 2), Ixiv, 176. 



'3 Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 24 & 25 

 Eliz.; ibid. Mich. 9 Jas. I; ibid. Trin. 

 II Jas. I; ibid. Mich. 13 Jas. I. 



■t P.C.C. 135 Mav. 



'5 MS. Bk. penes Mr. B. T. Fitzher- 

 bert of Swynnerton ; Feet of F. Northants. 

 Hil. 4 & 5 Will, and M. 



"> Ibid. East, i Edw. VI. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxii, 127. 



'* Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 9 Jas. I. 



■« Ibid. Mich. 9 Jas. I. 



-" Ibid. Trin. 1658; Recov. R. Trin. 

 1658, m. 132. 



2' Ibid. East. 7 Will, and M. m. 166; 

 Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 5 Anne. 



22 Harl. Soc. Puhl. xiv, 663. 



" Recov. R. Hil. 33 Geo. Ill, m. 333. 



2* Feet of F. Northants. East. 7 Geo. IV. 



25 y.C.H. Northants. i, 354. 



2' Bk. of Fees, 938. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 1 1 Hen. Ill, no. 

 147; ibid. 24 Hen. Ill, no. 398. 



28 Anct. Deeds (P.R.O.), A. 8869, A. 

 6077. 



^'> Feud. Aids, iv, 15. 



5" Cat. Pal. 1307-13, p. 52. 



3' Chan. Inq. p.m. II Edw. II, no. 53. 



32 Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 558. 



33 Comput. Walter Paries, cited by 

 Bridges, Northants. i, 464. 



^* Feud. Aids, iv, 37. 

 35 Bi. of Fees, g-iS. 

 3* Comput. Walter Paries, cited 

 Bridges, Northants. i, 464. 

 3' F.C.H. Northants. i, 336. 

 38 Ibid, i, 381. 



by 



102 



