A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



a manor in Sywell with view of frankpledge and other 

 liberties.' In the Wars of the Roses he took the side of 

 the Yorkists and in September 1450 was murdered near 

 Sywell by an armed band which lay in wait for him 

 behind a hedge on the road along which they knew he 

 would pass to fulfil an engagement with the Duke of 

 York. Isabel his widow demanded satisfaction for his 

 murder and the arrest and punishment of the mur- 

 derers.^ William Tresham was succeeded in the manor 

 by his son Sir Thomas^ who supported the Lancastrians 

 and at the battle of Towton was taken prisoner. In July 

 1 46 1 he was attainted and his estates seized,* rents from 



Sywell: The Church 



the manor of Sywell being granted in 1462 by the king 

 to Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers. In 1464 Tresham 

 was pardoned and three years later his attainder was 

 reversed. In 147 1 Sir Thomas fought at Tewkesbury; 

 for this he was convicted of treason. King Edward 

 promised to pardon Tresham, but the promise was not 

 kept; he was beheaded in 1471.' 

 Sywell Manor remained in the 

 king's hands, for in 1480 it was 

 granted to Margaret wife of 

 William Sayer the king's servant 

 for her life.* Four years later 

 the manor was again granted to 

 Edward Brampton and his heirs 

 for his good service against the 

 rebels.' On the accession of 

 Henry VII in 1485 John Tres- 

 ham son of Sir Thomas success- 

 fully requested that he might be 

 installed in his father's property.* 



Tresham. Party saUire- 



ivise sable and or nvithsix 



trefoils or in the sable. 



Isabel Tresham, a 

 sister of John,' married Henry Vere, who in 1493 died 

 seised of this manor. Henry left four daughters all under 

 age.'" The eldest daughter EUzabeth married Lord 

 Mordaunt; to her descended most of her father's pro- 

 perty but there is no mention of S)'well coming to her," ' 

 and its identity probably became lost after its subdivision 

 amongst the four co-heirs of Henry Vere. 



Some time before her grant to the Priory of St. 

 Andrew, Maud de MundeviUe, on the occasion of her 

 daughter becoming a nun at Elstow, gave to the 

 church there 4| virgates of land in Sywell.'^ This land 

 was held by the nuns of Elstow at the time of the 12th- 

 century Survey.'^ After the Dissolution this small estate 

 became merged in the main manor (q.v.) with which it 

 was granted by the king in 154; to John Mersh.'"' 



In 1 291 a mill in SyweU was held by the Prior of St. 



Andrew's. '5 It presumably followed the descent of the 



manor. There is still an old mill near the eastern 



boundary of the parish on a stream now called Sywell 



Bottom. 



Sywell Wood at a very early 

 date belonged to the monastery 

 of St. Andrew's. In 1204 the 

 priory obtained licence to do 

 what they pleased with their 

 wood of SyweU.'* It is now 

 a well-known covert of the 

 Pytchley Hunt. 



The church of ST. PETER 

 AND ST. PJUL consists of 

 chancel 20 ft. 2 in. by 15 ft. 6 in. 

 with small north 

 CHURCH vestry, nave 35 ft. 

 by I 5 ft. 9 in. with 

 north transeptal chapel at its east 

 end, south aisle 1 2 ft. wide, south 

 porch, and engaged west tower 

 16 ft. by 14 ft., all the measure- 

 ments being internal. The 

 chancel was wholly rebuilt in 

 1862, and in 1870 the north 

 chapel, nave arcade, aisle, clere- 

 story, and porch were almost 

 entirely rebuilt and a new nave roof erected, and how 

 far the new work reproduces the old is now difficult to 

 determine. The tower is open to the nave and aisle on 

 the east and south. 



The development of the plan must remain to some 

 extent an open question, but a single pier of late-i2th- 

 century date, incorporated in the modern arcade about 

 16 ft. from its west end, if in its original position, im- 

 plies the existence at that period of a church with nave, 

 south aisle, and presumably a square-ended chancel. 

 The south doorway is also 12th-century, but was pro- 

 bably re-erected in its present position on the widening 

 oftheaisle. In the 13th century a tower was erected over 

 the west end of the nave, its east wall being carried on an 

 arch springing from a pier built to the north of the then 

 existing arcades and from a respond opposite. About 

 1300 the chancel was rebuilt. The north chapel may 

 have been added later in the 14th century, but it retains 

 no ancient feamres except a tomb recess in the end waU. 

 The vestry dates from 1862. 



The chancel has a high-pitched tiled roof, but all the 

 windows are modern with the exception of one on the 

 north side now opening into the vestry, which is of two 

 lights with forked muUion. The modern three-light east 

 window is of the same t}'pe and probably reproduces 

 the window formerly existing. A piscina and aumbry, the 

 latter in the north wall, have been retained. The chancel 



' Cal. Pat. 1446-52, p. 162. 



^ Pari. R. V, 211-12. 



3 Hist. MSS. Com. Var. Coll. iii, 102. 



■• Diet. Nat. Biog. Ivii, 203. 



5 Ibid. 204. 



* Cal. Pat. 1476-8;, p. 201. 



' Ibid. 416. « Pari. R. vi, 317. 



" Metcalfe, Fisit. Northants. 201. 

 ^0 Exch. Inq. p.m. dclxxiii, 2. 

 ^* Halstead, Succinct Geneal. 301, 



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



" V.C.H. Northants. i, 382. 



■•' L.aniP.//cn.F///,xviii(i),226(38). 



's Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 321. 



'* Pipe R. 6 John, m. 1 1 d. 



134 



