HAMFORDSHOE HUNDRED 



SYWELL 



SYWELL 



Sywelle (li cent.); Sj-well (xii-ss cent.). 



Sywell parish covers about 2,170 acres, largely grass 

 and woodland. Two small streams flow through the 

 parish, one of which, Sywell Bottom, forms the boun- 

 dary between Sywell and Mears Ashby. The land rises 

 on the north, the highest point, 440 ft., being in Sywell 

 Wood in the north-cast comer of the parish. The boun- 

 daries on the west, north, and east are all on high ground 

 and inclose a shallow valley in which the village of 

 Sywell is situated. The main road connects the villages 

 of Mears Ashby, Sywell, and Holcot, and joins the road 

 from Northampton to Kettering at the western boun- 

 dary of the parish. The soil is partly stiff loam and 

 partly red clay; the subsoil is chiefly ironstone. The 

 chief crops are cereals and turnips, and the population, 

 which numbered 185 in 193 1, is engaged chiefly in 

 agriculture. 



The village is built on both sides of the road from 

 Mears .'^shby a little south of the point where it joins a 

 side road from Overstone. At the north end of the 

 village is a market cross, of which the shaft and base are 

 ancient and formerly stood at the south-east end of the 

 village.' The school was built in 1861, in which year 

 the entire village was rebuilt by the late Lady Over- 

 stone. Sywell Hall, the residence of Brig.-Gen. H. E. 

 Stockdale, stands on the north side of the village and is a 

 picturesque early- i7th<entury gabled building of three 

 stories with muUioned windows; the gables are sur- 

 mounted by pyramidal finials. The walling is local 

 sandstone and there is a porch on the north side the full 

 height of the building in which is a panel with the 

 Wilmer arms and crest. ^ All the chimneys are modern, 

 and a gable at the east end of the north front has been 

 taken down. 



At the time of the Domesday Survey the 

 MANORS Count of Mortain held 4 hides in SYIVEIL 

 formerly belonging to Osmund son of 

 Leuric. Two hides of this land were then in demesne. ' 

 The estates of the count were forfeited by his son 

 William in 1 106.^ They appear to have been granted 

 to Niel de Mundeville, whose daughter Maud wife of 

 Roland of Avranches' in 1141 granted the manor of 

 Sywell and all her land there, except \\ virgates,* to the 

 Priory of St. Andrew, Northampton.' This deed was 

 confirmed 8 years later by William of Avranches and his 

 son Simon.' Simon, Earl of Northampton, son of the 

 founder of the priory, confirmed the gift," and when the 

 12th-century Survey was made themonksofNorthamp- 

 ton held these 4 hides in Sywell.'" In 1291 the priory 

 property here was worth £\\ 10/. 6ij'." and in 1535 

 Ci\}'' In 1538 Francis, Prior of St. Andrew's, sur- 



WiLMER. GuUiachev 



eron vair betvjeen three 



eaglet or. 



' MiT^ihitnt Cr&tiet of NorfAantt. 109. 



' The esquire's helmet indicitcs that 

 the house was built before 1617, in which 

 year William Wilmer was knighted: 

 AoriAanii. N. & Q. (n.s.) v, 1-5. 



' r.C.H.Nori/,jr,ii.i,jii. 



* Ibid. 288. 



' yfrcAaeologia^ xxxi, 232. 

 ' This she had given to the church of 

 Eistow. See below. 



' Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii, fol. 199. 



• Ibid. 200. 



' y.C.H. Norlkanls. ii, 102. 

 ■0 Ibid, i, 386. 



" Po^ AVcA. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 54. 

 " yahr Ecclei. iv, 313 (Rec. Com.). 

 '1 Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 29 Hen. VIII. 



'* L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. 



■s Ibid, iviii (1), 226 (38). 



" Feet of F. Northants. East. 20 Eliz. 



" Did. Nat. Biog. xx\%, 308. 



'» Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 3 Jas. I. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccix, 166. 



" Par. rcg. of Sywell cited by Foster 

 and Green, Hitt. of IVilmer Famiiy, 57. 



*' Cal. of Com. for Compounding, ii, 1462. 



^* Par. rcg. of Sywell cited by Foster 

 and Green, Hill, of ffilmer Family, 68. 



" Ibid., p. 69. 



" Ibid,, ch. 7. 



^s Sywell Hall and part of the parish was 

 bought by Mr. Loyd in 1849, and the 

 remainder of the parish was acquired by 

 him and Lord Overstone at various dates: 



rendered the manor to Henry VIII" and in the same 

 year the monastery was dissolved.'* 



In 1 543 the manor of Sywell was granted by 

 Henry VIII to John Mersh, a sewer of the chamber," 

 from whom it passed in 1578 to 

 Anthony Jenkynson,'* the great 

 traveller, who had married his 

 daughter Judith Mersh." In 

 1 606 the manor was alienated b\' 

 Anthony Jenkynson to Robert 

 Wilmer,'* who was succeeded in 

 1613 by his son William Wilmer," 

 afterwards knighted. Sir William, 

 who was a Royalist, had to com- 

 pound for his estate; he died in 

 1646-° leaving a grandson Wil- 

 liam, a minor. ^' William Wilmer 

 came of age in 1654-' and died six years later. His son 

 William was in 1706 succeeded in turn by his son and 

 namesake.-^ William Wilmer died in 1744 and his son 

 Rennet died in the same year. Although he was a minor 

 he made a will by which he left to his aunt Dinah Wilmer 

 all his estate. After her death Sywell Manor passed to 

 another branch of the same family who were still holding 

 in 1 79 1. Between this date and 18 06 Sywell Manor was 

 alienated to Samuel Pell,-* from whose successor Edwin 

 Pell the property was acquired by Lewis Loyd, father of 

 Lord Overstone. ^5 After the death of Lady Wantage, 

 only daughter of Lord Overstone, the estate was sold, 

 and no manorial rights are exercised at the present day. 



At the Domesday Survey the Countess Judith claimed 

 the soc of I J virgates of land in Sywell; from this pro- 

 bably originated a second STirELL MANOR. Very 

 little has been found concerning the ovcrlordship. In 

 1377 the Earl of Pembroke, who held part of the honor 

 of Huntingdon-* was overlord in Syw-ell.^' There is no 

 further trace of this honor, and in 1447-8 and again in 

 1493 this manor was held of the Prior of St. Andrews,^* 

 who held the principal manor. 



Henry Wardedieu in 1286 held land in the parish,^' 

 and in 1 347 John Wardedieu the grandson of Henry^° 

 enfeofl^ed his son John, who had married Margaret 

 Latymer, of Sywell Manor. ^' In 1377 Sir Edward 

 Dalyngrigge and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John 

 Wardedieu^- held this manor. ^' John Dalyngrigge-"* 

 their son held in 1394-5^* but died without issue. ■•* 



Between 1394-5 and 1440 this manor passed to the 

 Tresham family though the method of acquisition has 

 not been ascertained ; in the latter year William Tresham 

 was granted free warren in his lands and woods in 

 Sywell;-" eight years later Henry VI confirmed to him 

 404. 



" See Vardley Hastings. 



(Rec. Com.), 



ex inf. Mr. J. A. Dixon. 



" See Vardley Hastings. 



" Rot. Orig. Abhre-u. 

 ii, 350. 



" Cal. Pat. 1446-52, p. 162; Exch. Inf. 

 p.m. (Ser. 2), dclxxiii, 2. 



" Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 14 

 Edw. I. 



>» Sutiex Arch. Coll. ix, 283. 



J' Cott. Ch. xivi, 38. 



» Suiiex Arch. Coll. 'n,z%i. 



" Rot. Orig. Ahbrrv. (Rec. Com.), 

 ii, 350. 



" Suiiex Areh. Coll. iii, 93. 



" Close 18 Ric. II, m. 22 d. 



»<• Suuex Arch. Coll. ix, 283. 



" Cal. Chan. R. vi, 30. 



133 



