HAMFORDSHOE HUNDRED 



HOLCOT 



The land is let for jTj los. yearly, and the income is 

 applied in the distribution of coats when sufficient funds 

 are available. 



The Rev. Palmer Whalley by codicil to his will dated 

 10 September 1 80 1 gave a sura of 3 per cent. Consols, 

 the interest to be distributed in bread. The endow- 

 ment now consists of £\66 13/. 4J. Consols producing 

 £^ 3/. 4^/. yearly in dividends which is applied by the 

 rector and churchwardens in the distribution of bread. 



The charity of Thomas Catesby founded by will 

 about- 1698 is regulated by a Scheme of the Charity 

 Commissioners dated 3 January 1893. The property 

 consists of 12 a. 2 r. 5 p. of land let in allotments and 

 ^93 14J. J J. Consols, the whole producing ;^30 9/. 44'. 

 in 1924. ^i per annum is distributed in bread to the 

 poor and is called the Dole Charity of Thomas Catesby, 

 and the remainder of the income is applied in appren- 

 ticeship premiums. 



HOLCOT 



Holecote (xi-xiv cent.) ; Hulcota (xii cent.) ; Hoche- 

 cota (xiii cent.); Hocott (xviii cent.). 



The parish of Holcot comprises 1,399 acres. The 

 soil is red loam, the subsoil stone. The ground slopes 

 towards the east and south, from about 270 ft. to about 

 300 ft. A branch of the Northampton and Kettering 

 road leads north-westwards through the parish to Hol- 

 cot village, which clusters about the meeting-place of 

 this branch road and roads to Moulton, Brixworth, and 

 Walgrave. The church and a Methodist chapel stand 

 in the village. 



It is the traditional birthplace of the Dominican 

 theologian, Robert Holcot, who died in 1349.' An 

 Indosure Act for this parish was obtained in 1777.^ 



At the time of the Domesday Survey 

 MANORS Hugh held of the Countess Judith i hide 

 and I J virgates of land in //OiCOT" which 

 were worth 20/.^ This overlordship afterwards passed 

 with Countess Judith's holding in Yardlcy Hastings 

 (q.v.). The I 2th-century survey states that I hide and 

 2 small virgates of land in Holcot were of the fee of her 

 successor in that place, David I of Scotland.* The 

 manor was held as the fourth part of a knight's fee.' In 

 1349, when it was extended as worth 20^. a year and 

 said to lie in Wold and Holcot, it formed part of the 

 dower of Agnes, Lady Pembroke;* in 1376 part of that 

 of Anne, Lady Pembroke.' 



The mesne tenants of part of this holding were for a 

 time a family named Vitor. In 1 241 the service due by 

 Simon Vitor for the moiety of the fourth part of a 

 knight's fee in Draughton and 

 Holcot was assigned to Henry de 

 Hastings and his wife Ada,* and 

 in the following year Simon and 

 his partners {participes) held a 

 quarter fee in Holcot.' Simon's 

 successor was his son John,'" and 

 Roger Vitor was one of the 

 tenants of a quarter fee in Wold 

 and Holcot in 1325" and 1349.'- 

 He seems to have died about 

 1366,'-' after which date this 

 family disappears. Geoffrey, son 

 of Philip, who held part of this 

 quarter fee in 1323,''' was probably identical with 

 Geoffrey Garnel, who held it in 1325 with Roger 



PifEWFLL .Abbey. Ar- 

 gent three crescenti gules 

 impaling azure a crozicr 

 in pale or. 



Vitor. Yet another mesne tenant in 1325" was the 

 Abbot of Pipewell, who is mentioned in 1376 as the 

 sole mesne tenant of this quarter fee, for which he 

 paid a rent of 20/. a year,'* its full value by the extent 

 of 1349. At the time of its dissolution, the abbey was 

 receiving a rent of 18/. a year from Holcot." In I 546, 

 lands in Holcot, in the tenure of John Hyll and lately of 

 Pipewell Abbey, were granted to George Rythe and 

 Thomas Grantham of Lincoln's Inn.'* If any manorial 

 rights had belonged to this property they had probably 

 lapsed long before this date. 



The Domesday Survey states that 2 hides and 2 J vir- 

 gates of land in HOLCOT belonged to the manor of 

 Brixworth." In the 12th-century survey this holding is 

 described as 2 J hides and l small virgate of the fee of 

 William de Courcy.^" The overlordship passed with 

 that of Brixworth (q.v.) to the earls of Aumale. The 

 mesne tenancy also coincided with that of Brixworth 

 (q.v.), until it came to Sir James Harrington, knight, 

 who died in 1497, leaving as his heirs ten daughters, of 

 whom .'Uice-' married Ralph Standish of Standish.'^ 

 Probably, therefore, this holding or part of it passed to 

 Thomas Chipsey, grocer of Northampton, who at his 

 death in i 544 w-as said to be seised of a manor of Holcot 

 and certain lands there called Standish Lands and 

 Campion's Lands. The latter may have derived their 

 name from William Campion, who held in Holcot be- 

 tween 1 5 1 5 and 1530, having succeeded his father John 

 son of Thomas Campion.-^ Thomas Chipsey's heirs 

 were his daughters, Agnes wife of Edmund Kaysho and 

 Joan wife of Thomas Knight,^'' but in 1 541 he had con- 

 veyed lands in Holcot, which probably included his 

 reputed manor, and lands and a rent elsewhere to the 

 mayor of Northampton and other trustees to 'provide 

 an honest and sufficient learned master or person to 

 teach grammar within the town of Northampton'. This 

 was the foundation of Northampton CJrammar School.-' 

 The church oi ST. MART AND ALL 

 CHURCH SAINTS stands on the west side of the 

 village and consists of chancel, 27 ft. by 

 15 ft. 6 in.; clerestoried nave, 45 ft. by 14 ft. 2 in.; 

 north and south aisles, 10 ft. 6 in. and 1 2 ft. 8 in. wide 

 respectively; soutli porch; and embattled west tower, 

 II ft. 8 in. square, all these measurements being internal. 

 There is an organ-chamber on the north side of the 

 chancel. 



' Did. Nat. Bing. 



* Priv. Act 17 Gro. Ill, cap. 13. 



» y.C.H. Norihantt. i, 353. 



< Ibid. 382. 



» Bk.of Feei,<)ii;Cal.Cloie, 1237-42, 

 p. 369; 1346-9, p. 581; 1374-7, p. 189; 

 Cat. Inij. p.m. v, p. 231 ; vi, p. 388; iz, p. 

 122. 



' Cat. Cloie, 1346-9, p. 581. 



' Ibid. 1374-7, p. 189. 



' Cal. Close, 1237-42, p. 369. 



' «>. o/F«», 938. 



'» Carlul. ofOseney (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), iv, 

 307. " Cal. Inq. p.m. vi, p. 388. 



" Ibid, ix, p. 122; Cal. Close, 1346-9, 

 p. 581. 



" Cal. Fine R. iv, 344. 



'♦ Cal. In/), p.m. V, p. 234; vi, p. 391. 



" Ibid, vi, p. 391; cf. ibid, ix, p. 122; 

 Cal. Close, 1346-9, p. 581. 



"» Cal. Close, 1374-7, p. 189. 



" falor Eccles. (Rec. Com.), iv, 294. 



'• L. and P. Hen. r/lf, «i (1), p. 243. 



'» rS.n. Northants. i, 306. 



" Ibid, i, 382. 



" Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. I'll, I, 1 178. 



" Bridges, llisl. cf Norlhanis. ii, 81. 



» Early Chan. Proc. 195 (22). 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), Ixxii, 65. 



" y.C.ll. Aorlhanls. i, 235. 



127 



