ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



BROUGHTON 



view of frankpledge there.' In 1428 Thomas de St. 

 German was holding the fee in Broughton which 

 William had formerly held.^ 



The last under-tenant of the name was Geoffrey St. 

 German (Sengermyn), who died on 22 August 1485. ^ 

 By deed dated 10 April 1465 he had settled the manor 

 on trustees, who on 10 October 1485 enfeoffed of the 

 same Thomas Agard and his wife Margaret, the daugh- 

 ter and heir of Geoffrey, then aged eighteen. ■♦ It was 

 then worth 5 marks, and was not held of the king, but 

 its tenure was unknown. Thomas and Margaret with 

 John Agard in 1497 conveyed the manor, then 

 described as the manor of BROUGHTON SETNT 

 JERMTN to Edmund Grevj-le and others by fine.' 

 On 18 May 1522 George Agard, son and heir of 

 Thomas and Margaret, died seised of the manor, mill, 

 &c., which he had settled on his wife Elizabeth, with 

 remainder to his son John ; he was also seised of a life 

 interest in certain tenements after the death of Christo- 

 pher St. German, with remainder to George's son, 

 Stephen, his heir, aged nine at George's death.' 



St. German. Azure a 



saltire or bettveen fcur 



rings argent. 



Agard. Argent a 

 che'veron engrailed gules 

 betiveen three boars* 

 heads sable. 



Besides George, the heir, Thomas and Margaret 

 had had two other sons, Edward and Nicholas. They 

 subsequently instituted proceedings against Edward 

 Warner,' who married George's widow and executrix 

 Elizabeth. The result is a valuable chapter of family 

 history. The complaint of the brothers Agard begins 

 with the statement that Geoffrey St. German had for- 

 feited his lands by attainder of treason, after fighting 

 at Bosworth Field against Henry VII; but long before 

 his attainder he had granted the manor to one Sir 

 William Tyler. When his daughter and heir Margaret 

 had been married to Thomas Agard, John brother of 

 the said Thomas had redeemed the manor and lands 

 from Sir William Tyler for £400, and conveyed it to 

 the use of Thomas and Margaret and their heirs. 

 Thomas died leaving unpaid of the said ^^400 the sum 

 of ^^83, which John in his will directed should be 

 divided equally between the plaintiffs. George, the 

 son and heir, granted an annuity of ;^4 to Edward, and 

 of 40/. to Nicholas, who delivered the indentures of 

 agreement to Edward Warner, in whom they had 

 special confidence, he being learned in the law. After 

 they had enjoyed the annuities for three years, George 

 died, and Elizabeth with Edward Warner, whom she 

 had then married, refused payment of the annuities. 



Edward stated that Thomas Agard, having neither 

 goods nor lands, but being a wildly disposed young 

 man, came with other evil-disposed persons to Clerken- 

 well by London, where Margaret was by the com- 

 mandment of her father, and in the night time, privately 

 led her away and married her, whereby her father lost 

 the marriage of his only daughter and heir, for whom 

 great sums had been offered by men of great possessions. 



"And the saide Gcffcry perceived grete lightnes and wildenes 

 in the saide Thomas Agard after he had married his saide 

 daughter and accomptyd hir lost and cast away and there- 

 upon fell in gretc sorrow and sadcncs and had smale comfort 

 which was the cause whereupon the saide Geffery rode to 

 Kyng Rychards fcldc and ther by misfortune was slayne 

 and as some persones surmysed by the means of the seid 

 Thomas Agard and others of his affinitye ther being at the 

 seid felde and in grcte malyce with the seyd Geffery Seynt- 

 gcrman for such trobuUs as the seid Geffery had put him to 

 for the marriage of the saide daughter.' 



After the death of her father and birth of her children, 

 Thomas Agard deserted his wife 'reputyd and taken 

 for as good vertuse and as sade a woman as any was 

 within the Shyer of Northampton' who lived in a 

 cottage 'in her lordship of Broughton in as great povertc 

 as a woman might be having such fere possessions so 

 that she l)'ved of almes and helpe of her frends', while 

 Agard in her lifetime sold all her inheritance except the 

 manor of Broughton, where he demised lands to one 

 Henry Packe of Kettering, pledged all the evidences of 

 her inheritance, and then died at Westminster in great 

 debt. His son George, according to Edward Warner, 

 had recovered part of these lands, which were being 

 applied by his widow and her husband to the mainten- 

 ance of his children. The lease referred to appears to 

 have been made to Henry Packe of Kettering by 

 Thomas Agard, his wife Margaret, and son George in 

 return for money advanced to procure the release of 

 Thomas Agard from imprisonment in the Fleet for 

 debt.* Stephen, returned as lord in 1 546,' married 

 Elizabeth, daughter to William Raynsford of Tew in 

 CO. Oxford, widow of Robert Belcher, by whom he had 

 a son Ambrose and two daughters, Jane married to 

 Richard Wycherley of Wycherley, and Elizabeth 

 who married Harold Kinnesman of Broughton, 'Vice- 

 treasurer at armes in the Irish Warrs'.'" At his death in 

 1 562, Stephen Agard was succeeded by his son Am- 

 brose, who in 1588 contributed £25 to the defence of 

 the country against the Spanish invasion." A convey- 

 ance of the manor was made by Ambrose on 20 March 



I 591 to Francis Barnard, Christopher Smyth, and John 

 Doyley, 'all alyed in kindred with him', to the use of 

 Ambrose for life, with remainder to his son and heir 

 Stephen, in order to secure an annuity of ^^20 to any 

 wife he might afterwards marry; after which he married 

 a wife Anne (who also had children by a previous mar- 

 riage).'^ Ambrose's son Stephen conveyed the manor 

 to Sir Augustine NichoUs, justice of the King's Bench,'^ 

 who with his wife Dame Mary sold it in 161 3 to John 

 and Henry Cotton. Henry Cotton, esq., died on 



I I June 1616, when John, his brother, described as of 

 London, gent., was still living at Broughton. The heirs 



' Plac. de Quo IVarr. (Rcc. Com.), 

 520-1. 



' Teud. Aids, iv, 32. 



' Cal. In(j. p.m. Hen. Flly i, i 3. 



* Ibid. 



» FeetofF. Div. Co. Ej«t. i2Hen.VII. 



' Chin. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), xxxix, 29. 



' Ct. of Re<). xi, 205. 



' Eirly Chin. Proc. cccxiiv, 44; ibid, 

 civ, 58; cccxiv, 62; cccxilx, 34. 



"> Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), Ixxv, 40. 

 '" Bridget, Hilt, of Northants. ii, 87. 

 Inscription in Broughton Church. Richard 

 Kynncsman 'King's Auditor' (ibid.) was 

 sequestered and fined ,^179 \os. in 1649: 

 Cal. of Com. for Compounding^ 1897. 



" A^. Isf Q. Northants. i (1884-5), 4*- 

 A George Warner of Broughton was 

 imprisoned in the Gatehouse 'on suspicion 

 of making prophecies': Aets of P.C. 

 '575-7. P- '28. 



" Chan. I'roc. (Ser. 2), cciv, 16. 



'^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), cccxivii, 19; 

 Feet of F. Northants. East. 1 1 Jas. I. 



•59 



