HAMFORDSHOE HUNDRED mearsashby 



Doddington (q.v.) until the death of Thomas Vaux, 

 who died about 1556.' He was succeeded by his son 

 William, who died in 1595 leaving his estates to his 

 grandson Edward Vaux,- who in 161 2 refused to take 

 the oath of allegiance to James I and forfeited his 

 lands;' but they were restored in the same year.* He 

 died in 1661 and was succeeded by his step-son 

 Nicholas, Earl of Banbury, from whom the manor 

 passed to his son Charles. ^ 



Charles, Earl of Banbury, still held the manor in 

 1683,* but about this time the property again became 

 subdivided, and at the time of the Inclosure Award the 

 two estates thus formed were distinguished by the 

 names of the Court Leet Manor and the Court Baron 

 Manor. In Mears Ashby Manor is to be found the 

 Court Leet Manor of 1779, and its descent appears 

 to have been as follows: between 1683 and 1685 

 Mears Ashby passed from the Earl of Banbury to 

 George, Earl of Northampton, who held it at the latter 

 date.' In 17 19 he held a court leet here to which the 

 townsmen paid 6s. iJ. yearly.' His nephew Spencer, 

 Earl of Northampton, held this manor in 1777' and tht 

 property is owned at the present day by the Marque^^ 

 of Northampton. 



The other moiety of Mears Ashby Manor known as 

 SOUTH HALF remained appurtenant to the honor of 

 Huntingdon.'" This overlordship is last mentioned in 

 141 7." The fJRt known tenant is William Fitz Warin, 

 who in 1285 held one third of .Ashby of the honor 

 of Huntingdon.'- His daughter JuUana married Elias 

 de Assheburn," who as 'chief lord' paid a fine to have 

 the lands of a felon killed while escaping from Mears 

 Ashby church in 1330,'* in which year his son Thomas, 

 as mentioned above, acquired the North Half Manor. 

 In 1369 this estate reappears as 'a moiety of Ashby 

 Manor held of the Earl of Pembroke'. '5 After this date 

 it followed the same descent as Mears Ashby though 

 not immediately losing its identity. It is separately 

 mentioned as South Half Manor in 1417,'* but after 

 that date appears to have become more or less absorbed 

 in the larger manor until the late 17th century, when 

 it appears as the Court Baron Manor, so called in the 

 Inclosure Award. In 1683 it was still the property of 

 the Earl of Banbury, but in 1704 two-thirds of the 

 manor were in the hands of Thomas Davison in right 

 of his wife Elizabeth." Thomas Davison sold his 

 moiety of this manor to Henry Stratford in 17 19,'* 

 from whom by 1777 it had passed to Elizabeth 

 Mercer." Thomas Mercer held as late as 1877 and 

 at the present day Mrs. Kitley holds this moiety of the 

 manor. 



In 1 7 14 Richard Rogers was dealing with the re- 

 maining third of this manor^° and Elizabeth Rogers^' 

 held it in 1770 and 1777.^' 



Early in the 1 9th century this moiety apf>ears to have 

 been transferred to Lewis Loyd, and descended to 



Lady Wantage, on whose death in 1 90 1 the property 

 was sold. 



.\ mill in Mears Ashby is mentioned in 1325 when 

 William de .Assheby died seised of one which he held 

 of the heirs of John de Mares.^' 



The church of ALL SAINTS stands 



CHURCH on high ground in the middle of the village 



and consists of chancel 27 ft. 6 in. by 



14 ft. 3 in., with north vestry and organ-chamber, 



derestoried nave 47 ft. 10 in. by 19 ft. 6 in., north and 



Hn^^A, 



Mears Ashby: The Church and Village 



south aisles 9 ft. 6 in. wide, south porch, and west tower 

 1 1 ft. square, all these measurements being internal. 



The chancel was rebuilt on the old foundations in 

 l858,^'» but the round-headed priest's doorway is 

 apparently an ancient feature and would seem to point 

 to the original chancel having been of late- 1 2th-century 

 date, to which period the south doorway and probably 

 the font belong. A wheel-head cross, of late-ioth- or 

 early-i ith-century date, however, preserved in the 

 church, presumably belongs to the site and if so indicates 

 that there was a cemetery here, and perhaps also a 

 church in pre-Conquest times,^' though the first stone 

 building would no doubt be that erected in the 12th 

 century, consisting only of chancel and nave. The 

 tower is off. 1220, and later in the same period the 

 building seems to have been remodelled, aisles thrown 

 out and the chancel altered. The nave arcades and 

 three pointed windows in the south aisle are c. 1280-90, 

 but the north aisle appears to have been rebuilt about 

 fifty years later, the square-headed windows and the 



' Baker, Norlhanit. i, 32. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. z), cixi, 244. 



' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1611-18, p. 124. 



♦ Pat. R. 10 Jas. I, pt. 15, no. 15. 

 ' Baker, Norihunii. i, 32. 



' Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 35 Chas. 

 II; Recov. R. Trin. 35 Chas. II, ro. 66. 

 ' Recov. R. Hil. 1-2 Jas. II, ro. 23. 



• Bridges, Piorthantt. ii, 136. 



° Act Priv. and Loc. 17 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. 128. 

 '» y.C.H. Norlhantt. ii, 570. 

 " Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Hen. V, no. 39. 

 " Feud. Aidi, iv, 16. 



" Assize R. 632, m. 115. 



■* Ibid. m. 5. 



■s Chan. Inq. p.m. 43 Edw. Ill (pt. i), 

 48. 



'» Ibid. 5 Hen. V, no. 39. 



" Feet of F. Div. Co. Mich. 3 Anne. 



'• Ibid. Northants. Hil. 5 Geo. I; 

 Bridges, Northantt. ii, 136. 



" Acts Priv. and Loc. 17 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. iz8. 



" Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 1 Geo. I. 



" Recov. R. Hil. 10 Geo. Ill, ro. i8<). 



" Acta Priv. and Loc. 17 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. iz8. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 18 Edw. II, no. 57. 



'* The whole of the church was restored 

 at this time, and the vestry built: the 

 architect was William ButtcrAeld. 



" The cross head is of a type, fairly 

 common in the north of England, which 

 apparently originated in the Isle of Man, 

 from where it passed into Yorkshire and 

 Cumberland, spreading later to other dis- 

 tricts: W. C. Collingwood in Torkt. 

 Arch. your, nviii, 322. See also 

 J. Romilly Allen in A line. Arch. Soc. 

 Reporlt, xix, 413. 



131 



