ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



CR.\NSLEY 



Robert Foliot, owner of the Peverel fee) aj hides and 

 I small virgate of the fee of Huntingdon. 



An inquiry held on 24 May 1247 as to homages and 

 knight services held by Robert, advocate of Bethune, 

 when he gave the land of Gajton to Robert de Gisnes 

 mentions a knight's fee in Cransley held by William de 

 Lisle," to whom the services of William de Gorham, in 

 Cransley and Flore, had been conveyed byfinein 1233.* 

 In 1252 Baldwin de Betune sold Gallon (q.v.) to 

 Ingelram, lord of Fienes, with all the homages and 

 services of those who had held of Robert, advocate of 

 Arras, lord of Bethune, or of Baldwin, Count of Gisnes. 

 It was returned at an inquiry held in 1252, as to dues 

 from the lands of Ingelram de Fiennes, that there was 

 due from the fee of Chokes in Cransley I id. for sheriff's 

 aid, watch, view of frankpledge, and aid for the Serjeant, 

 and for castle guard at Northampton 10/.,' the payment 

 for which the service of one knight had been commuted. 

 The heirs of Ingelram de Fiennes were Kolding this fee 

 in Cransley in I284;'' under them Roger de L'Isle;' 

 under Roger, William de Gorham; and under William 

 de Gorham, Hugh son of Simon de Cransley. When 

 in 1 3 16 Thomas Wake was returned as holding this 

 fee,* the intermediate Lisle and Gorham lordships 

 recorded in 1284 seem to have lapsed, as in 1343, at the 

 death of William de Ros of Hamlake, Thomas Wake 

 of Blisworth was returned as holding the fee of him in 

 right of his wife,' the daughter of Hugh de Cransley. 

 William de Ros of Hamlake married Margery, sister 

 and heir of Giles de Badlesmere, another of whose 

 sisters married William Earl of Northampton, a 

 descendant of Maud daughter of Ingelram de Fiennes,* 

 and it was probably to some connexion with the de 

 Fiennes family that William de Ros owed this overlord- 

 ship. At the death of Margery in 1 363, she was holding 

 this fee in dower as of Beauvoir 

 Castle, and it passed from her to 

 her son and heir Thomas dc 

 Ros.' 



Members of the de Cransley 

 family whose heiress married 

 Thomas Wake had been under- 

 tenants of this fee at an early 

 date. Hugh de Cransley in 1 166 

 was holding of Robert de Chokes 

 one knight's fee, then held in 

 dower by the wife of Walter 

 Disel (possibly Hugh's mother).'" He had been suc- 

 ceeded before 1 203 by Peter his son, between whom 

 and Henry de Gorham (his superior lord evidently) 

 a fine of the fee was levied in that year." Hugh de 

 Cransley presented to the church in 1226.'^ A. cer- 

 tain Stephen de Cransley made a grant of lands to St. 

 James's Abbey in Northampton,'! and a Sir Thomas 

 de Cransley was reported in an inquiry as to rebels 

 in 1265 as believed to be dead, after being at the 



Ros. Gulci three 'Water- 

 Uugeti argent. 



battle of Evesham with Sir Simon de Montfort and 

 Sir Henry de Hastings. This Thomas had married 

 Maud de Hardwick, the widow of Sir Bartholomew 

 de Rakelinton, and had no land except of her dower.'* 

 Simon, who presented to the church in 1277,'s and 

 whose son Hugh was holding Cransley in 1284,'* may 

 be assumed to have been lord of the manor. Either 

 Hugh himself or a successor of that name was lord in 

 I3i2,whenagrant was made to Hugh, lord of Cransley, 

 and to .'Vgnes his wife, and to Alice daughter of William 

 de Wyleby, of the reversion of a messuage and land in 

 Cransley which Stephen Elisand Stephen his son held." 

 A fine was levied of the manor and advowson in 1 3 1 2— 

 13 between Hugh, lord of Cransley, and Reynold, parson 

 of the church,'* who, as Master Reynold son of Hugh 

 de Cransley, had received a grant of land from Lyna 

 daughter of Robert le Somenur of Cransley, in 1287.'' 

 Next year Hugh and Agnes received a grant from 

 Geoffrey de Orlingbury of a croft called 'le Madecroft' 

 in Cransley, and tillages at Wolemeresmede and 

 Blyndysw7'ks by the rectory of the church, for their 

 lives.^" 



Cransley. Argent a 



che'veron gules betvieen 



three cranes azure. 



Wake. Or two hart 



gules with three roundels 



gules in the chief. 



In i3i6Thomas Wake had succeeded Hugh. Eliza- 

 beth Cransley, wife of Sir Thomas Wake, had been 

 first married to John son of Roger de Heigham, upon 

 whom, and his heirs by her, her father Hugh de Cransley 

 settled the manor and advowson in 1313-14. They 

 had a son John, who married the daughter of Robert 

 de Thorp, and a daughter Agnes; but this Agnes, and 

 the two children of her brother, being carried off by 

 the plague in 1348-9, together with their mother, at 

 that date remarried to John de Gayton, the manor 

 remained in the hands of Elizabeth, whose husband 

 Sir Thomas Wake had been holding it in her right. ^' 



In 1330 Thomas Wake of Deeping claimed free 

 warren in his demesnes of Blisworth, Cransley, and 

 Helpston under a charter of 1330." 



Thomas Wake with his wife Elizabeth in 1 340 

 settled the Cransley estate upon themselves for their 

 lives, with remainder to .Agnes and Elizabeth {sic), the 

 daughters of Elizabeth by her first marriage, for their 

 lives, with remainder to their son Hugh.^^ Hugh Wake 



' Cal. Jnq. Misc. i, no. 409. He granted 

 4^ knights' fees in Rowsham, Wingrave, 

 Moulshoe (Bucks.), Cransley and Flore to 

 Richard de Hanrede in iz66: Cal. Pat, 

 1258-66, p. 592. 



' Feet of F. Div. Co. 17 Hen. HI 

 no. 48. 



^ Cal. Inq. Alitc. i, no. 149. 



* FeuJ. /lids, iv, 2. 



» Cal. Pal. 1258-66, p. 592. 



' Feud. Aids, iv, 21. 



' Cal. Intj. p.m. viii, 474. 



* G.E.C. Peerage (ist ed.), i, 373. 



* Chan. Inq. p.m. 37 £dw. Ill (1st 



nos.), 62. Beauvoir Castle came to the 

 dc Ros by the marriage of Maud daughter 

 and heir of William dc Albini with Robert 

 grandfather of William dc Ros. Through 

 descent from the kings of Scotland the 

 de Ros could claim descent from Judith, 

 Countess of Huntingdon. 



"> Red Bk. of Exch. i, 3 34. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 4 John, no. 70; 

 Assise R. (Northants. Rcc. Soc.), nos. 141, 



347. 3*7- 

 " Bridges, Hist, of Northants. ii, 91. 

 " Ibid, i, 502. 

 '* Cal. Inf. Misc. i, 833, 843. 



" Bridges, Hist, of Northants. ii, 91. 



■» Feud. Aids, iv, 2. 



■' Anct. D., C. 3396. 



" Feet of F. Northampton, 6 Edw. II, 

 case 175, file 64, no. 137; 24 acres of wood 

 in the manor were excepted for the grant. 



i» Anct. D., C. 3383. 



'<> Ibid. C. 3384. 



" Norihamftonshire Families (f.C.H.), 

 319. 



" Plac. de Quo H'arr. (Rec. Com.), 

 551; Cal. Chart. R. iv, 159. 



" Dc Banco R. Hil. 7 Hen. VI, m. 

 138 d. 



163 



