A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



her first husband, Thomas de la Launde. Margaret, 

 marrj'ing Sir Thomas Berkeley of Wymondham, left a 

 son and heir Maurice, whose son and heir John died 

 s.p.; his share then passed to his sister Elizabeth, who 

 married Robert Pakenham, Clerk of the Green Cloth.' 

 Robert died on 30 August 1552, and Elizabeth in the 

 same year settled the manor on her son Robert Paken- 

 ham, and afterwards married Robert Lyvesey, of Toot- 

 ing Bee, Surrey. Her son Robert Pakenham succeeded 

 her at her death on 24 October 1573.^ 



The Devenish share which had been acquired by 

 Anthony Pelham was in 1577 conveyed by his son 

 Herbert Pelham' to Thomas Morgan,* who with his 

 wife Mary was dealing with two-ninths of the manor 

 in I 578.5 Jt seems possible that some additional portion 

 of the manor had passed into Saunders hands as early 

 as 1560, and before 1578 this also had passed to 

 Thomas Morgan. 



The ninth acquired by Joseph Saunders from 

 Edward Bullen had passed at the death of Joseph's son 

 Mark in i 563, before his second birthday, to Joseph's 

 daughter Anne, then married to Philip Hanard, by 

 whom it was conveyed to Sir Edward Saunders,* Chief 

 Baron of the Exchequer, in i 566.' Joseph Saunders 

 evidently belonged to the family from which Sir 

 Christopher Hatton's mother came.^ Sir Edward died 

 on 1 2 November 1 575, when his heir was his daughter 

 Mary, wife of Thomas Morgan.' Thomas was the son 

 of Francis Morgan, judge of the King's Bench in Queen 

 Mary's reign, from whom he inherited a moiety of 

 Newbold, and brother of Anthony Morgan of Hey- 

 ford (q.v.). His father-in-law. Sir Edward Saunders, 

 was apparently a brother of Francis Saunders of Wel- 

 ford who married as his first wife Elizabeth, daughter 

 of George Carew, by whom he had two sons, Edward 

 Saunders of Brixworth, and Francis. William (his son 

 by his second wife, Eleanor Chaloner), who succeeded 

 him at \Velford,'° also married a Morgan. The manor 

 was the subject of various transactions between these 

 families in the ensuing years, and in 1583 six ninths of 

 the manor were in the hands of Edward Saunders," of 

 Brixworth. They were conveyed by him to Richard 

 Purefey,'^ who was returned with Francis Nicolls at 

 a court baron for Orlingbury Hundred held on 4 April 

 1586, as owing suit of court for their joint purchase of 

 Faiton Manor from Thomas Morgan.'-' But in 1587 

 the Privy Council wrote that Richard Purefey of 

 Faxton had received great sums of money from one 

 John Byrd of London for purchasing the manor of 

 Faxton, and undertaken to pay a rent-charge of ^100 

 out of the manor to the said John Byrd, whom he now 

 required to transfer his interest in the same to a stranger, 

 and Thomas Morgan was ordered to make no convey- 

 ance of his interest in the manor to a stranger until the 

 matter had been settled in the Star Chamber,'-* and 

 apparently the sale to Francis Nicolls was not then 

 completed. In 1586 a fresh conveyance of six ninths 

 of the manor was made by William Saunders to Richard 



' Maddison, Lines. Pedigrees (Harl. 

 Soc), i, 12S. 



^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), clxvi, 15. 

 3 risit. of Sussex (Harl. Soc), 21. 



* Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 19 Eliz. 

 5 Ibid. Div. Co. Hil. 20 Eliz. 



* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), clxxxii, 32. 

 ' Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), cclxi, 115. 



* A'. (^ Q. Northants. vi, 14.3. Sir 

 Edward conveyed his half of the manor of 

 Newbold to Francis Saunders of the 

 Middle Temple, esq., and Thomas Hatton. 



Purefey,'5 and the whole manor had in 1 596 come into 

 the possession of Thomas Morgan and his wife Mary.'* 



On 1 2 January 1 599 Thomas Morgan made a settle- 

 ment of the manors of Heyford, Faxton, and half of 

 Newbold on his wife Mary and on Anthony Morgan 

 - of Aynho, his brother and heir apparent, upon the 

 occasion of the marriage of Anthony Morgan of Llan- 

 fihangel alias Michael's Church, co. Monmouth (after- 

 wards of Church Over, co. Warwick) with Brigit, 

 daughter of the first said Anthony, with contingent 

 remainders in default of issue male to Francis Morgan 

 of Kingsthorpe; to Nicholas, brother of the said Francis; 

 to Thomas Morgan, citizen and grocer of London, son 

 and heir of John Morgan; to Francis, eldest son of 

 Augustine Crisp of Buskton, and to Ann wife of Francis 

 Lovett.'7 He died 5 September 1603, his wife Mary 

 surviving him. His heir, his brother Anthony of 

 Aynho, was aged fifty and more, and with Mary 

 Morgan, widow, and other members of the family 

 he conveyed the whole manor by fine to Augustine 

 Nicolls in 1606.'^ 



Sir Augustine died at Kendal while judge of assize 

 on 3 August 1616, in his 58th year." He was succeeded 

 at Faxton by his nephew Francis 

 Nicolls of Hardwick, son and heir 

 of Francis Nicolls of the same, 

 Governor of Tilbury Fort.^" 

 Francis was of the Middle Tem- 

 ple, M.P. for the county, and 

 sherilf, and was created a baronet 

 in 1 64 1. He married Mary, 

 daughter of Edward Bagshawe. 

 Sir Francis NicoUs died on 4 

 March 1642, and was buried at 

 Hardwick, being succeeded there 

 and at Faxton by his son Sir Edward, who under 

 the Commonwealth appears to have enjoyed the high 

 regard of the local Puritans,^' being appointed to the 

 Northamptonshire Committee 1644, and sheriff of 

 the county 1657-8." Francis Morgan was holding 

 the manor in 1661, presumably for purposes of con- 

 veyance or settlement. ^3 Sir Edward Nicolls died 

 28 February 1683, and was buried at Faxton. His heir 

 was Sir Edward Nicolls, 3rd baronet, his only son (by 

 his second wife Jane, eighth daughter of Sir Peter Soame, 

 bart.),^-* who died s.p. in 1717, when Faxton passed to 

 his two sisters, Susanna, wife of Sir John Danvers, and 

 Jane, first married to John Raynsford, and then to . . . 

 Kernsey.''' Lady Danvers and Mrs. Kemsey were hold- 

 ing the manor when Bridges wrote; and it next passed 

 into the hands of the Raynsfords, the descendants of 

 Jane by her first husband. At the passing of the 

 Inclosure Act in 1744-5, John NicoUs Raynsford of 

 Brixworth was lord of the manor, and as such seised 

 of 1,135 acres in the Netherfield, Middlefield, and 

 Upperfield, 'in Faxton within the parish of Lamport' 

 then inclosed.^* It remained in the hands of the Rayns- 

 fords of Brixworth (q.v.) until Nicolls Raynsford in 



'" G.E.C. Baronetage, ii, 114; Chan. 

 Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclxxvii, 66. 



-' a. Cal. of Com. for Compounding, 1 054, 

 2923. 



-' G.E.C. Baronetage, ii, 1 14. 



-5 Recov. R. Hil. 13 Chas. II, ro. 131. 



^'* G.E.C. Baronetage, ii, 1 14. By his 

 first wife, Judith, daughter of Sir Roland 

 St. John, K..B., Sir Edward had had seven 

 daughters. 



25 Bridges, Hist, of Northants. ii, 95. 



" Priv. Stat. 18 Geo. II, cap. 27. 



Nicolls. Sable three 

 broad-arroiu heads or. 



9 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), clxxxii, 32. 

 '" Bridges, Hist, of Northants. i, 593. 

 " Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 25 & 

 26 Eliz. 

 '2 Ibid. 



■3 Exch. Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. Ixxxiv, 25. 

 ■■• Acts ofP.C, 15S6-7, p. 330. 

 ■5 Feet of F. Northants. East. 28 Eliz. 

 '<■ Ibid. Trin. 38 Eliz. 

 '7 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cclxxxi, 84. 

 *8 Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 3 Jas. I. 

 " Bridges, Hist, of Northants. ii, 95. 



170 



