ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



HARDWICK 



HARDWICK 



Herdewic (xi cent.); Herdewike (xiii cent.). 



Hardwick, about 3 miles north-west of Welling- 

 borough station, is bounded north and east by the 

 Harrowdens. It lies generally high, the little village 

 being situated in a hollow on the brow of a hill. 



The old manor-house, now used as a farm, stands to 

 the south-east of the church and is a picturesque gabled 

 building of stone with slated roofs. The oldest part of 

 the house appears to be of 14th-century date, a two- 

 light traceried window on the north side being of this 

 period, but the building was altered and largely rebuilt 

 in the latter half of the i6th century by Thomas 

 Nicolls, whose arms are over the front entrance. The 

 house then assumed more or less its present appearance, 

 with muUioned bay windo\\-s, but it was again restored 

 and enlarged in 1775. In one of the rooms is a painted 

 oak overmantel of three compartments divided by Ionic 

 pilasters and bearing the arms of Thomas Nicolls. 



At the north-eastern end of the village is Hardwick 

 House, built by the rector in 1868, when the old 

 rectory was in ruins. 



The children attend school at Little Harrowden, but 

 a school building with teacher's residence attached was 

 erected by the Thornton family, lords of the manor, 

 in 1870. 



When Bridges wrote the parish had been inclosed 

 for about a hundred years. There were then two woods, 

 and he gives the names of two springs, IVIarjwell and 

 Dunswell. It held 16 families. The population, which 

 was 68 in 1801, was 121 in 1931. The poll-books show 

 that there were 3 freeholders in 1705, and none in 

 1 83 1. 



The area of the parish is 1,269 acres, and its soil of 

 a mixed fertile character: its subsoil clay. The chief 

 crops grown are cereals. 



One hide in HARDIVICK was re- 

 MjINOR turned in the Domesday Survey among the 

 lands the Countess Judith held in Hamford- 

 shoe Hundred, and had been held with sac and soc 

 before the Conquest by Ulf. It was held, with another 

 hide in Hardwick in Orlingbury Hundred, under the 

 Countess by .'Uan.' In the I2th century these 2 hides 

 formed the 9 small virgates returned in the Hundred of 

 Hamfordshoe, held of the fee of King David,- and the 

 overlordship of the whole descended with the honor of 

 Huntingdon to Henry de Hastings and his wife Ada,' 

 being recorded separately as in Domesday, i.e. as a 

 quarter of a fee in Hardwick held by the Seymours, and 

 under them by the Barrys, with a half fee held by the 

 Grimbauds and under them by the Seymours;'' but also 

 together as one fee held by the Seymours of the Grim- 

 bauds, under the de Hastings who held in chief.' In 

 1236 half a fee in Hardwick was returned among the 

 fees held of the earldom of Huntingdon by Simon 

 Minor.' 



Like Diddington (Hunts.)' Hardwick descended 

 from Alan 'the sewer' to the Grimbalds or Grim- 



\^ 



bauds. About 1095 the Grimbald who held 

 Moulton in io86 gave the church of that vill to St. 

 Andrew's Priory, Northampton.* The churches of 

 Little Houghton and Hardwick were bestowed on the 

 priory by Robert Grimbaud and Maud his wife, 

 c. 1 1 30, and this grant was confirmed when a fresh 

 grant of Moulton church to the 

 priory was made by Robert Grim- 

 baud of Houghton, William his 

 son and Robert the son of William 

 then confirming the grant, and also 

 earlier grants of the churches of 

 Brafield, Hardwick, and Hough- 

 ton.' In 1197 William Grimbald 

 granted to Henry de Seymour half 

 a knight's fee in Hardwick,'" evi- 

 dently the half fee the Seymours Grimbaud. Argemnvo 

 later kept in their own hands, and *"" '"'"''' '"f, " *"'''''"' 

 Robert Grimbaud in 1 242 was ^'' "' 



holding4 knights' fees in Houghton, Hardwick, Brafield, 

 Newton, and Moulton of the honor of Hunting- 

 don." He had been succeeded in 1284 by William 

 Grimbaud, then holding a whole fee in Hardwick of 

 John de Hastings, with Henry de Seymour as under- 

 tenant.'^ The half fee conveyed in 1 196— 7 was held 

 in 1 3 1 2 by John de Seymour,'-" evidently under Robert 

 Grimbaud, in whose hands it was returned in I32 5,''' 

 being held by the heirs of Robert Grimbaud in i 348." 

 The manor was returned in 1329— 30 as held by John 

 de Seymour of Robert Grimbaud, of the Hastings' 

 pourparty of the honor of Huntingdon, "and as held of 

 the Countess of Pembroke as of the fee of Grimbaud in 

 1362," but no further reference to Grimbaud mesne 

 tenants occurs. 



The Seymours held under the Grimbauds until the 

 second half of the 14th century, but in 1267 their 

 tenure was interrupted for a time by the grant of the 

 manor to Geoffrey Goscelyn by the king, it having 

 been forfeited by Henry de Seymour. In an extent of 

 the manor then made it was returned that Henry de 

 Seymour had 5^ virgates in demesne of 26 acres, each 

 acre being worth 8^/. per annum; i\ similar virgates in 

 villeinage, worth 17^. id. each; and a windmill worth 

 20s. The manor was extended at £18.'* By 1275 the 

 manor was again in the hands of Henry de Seymour, 

 who was claiming view of frankpledge, and in 1284 he 

 held a whole fee in Hardwick." In 1 3 1 3 half a knight's 

 fee in Hardwick held by John de Seymour, and a 

 quarter fee (which was probably now known as 

 B^RRrS MJNOR) held by .Mice Barry, evidently by 

 grant of the Seymours, were included among fees held 

 of John de Hastings." In 132; halfafeein Hardwick 

 was returned among the Hastings' fees under the lord- 

 shipof RobertGrimbaud.thequarterfee bcingthenhcld 

 by John Barrj'.^' In i 329-30 John de Seymour's claim 

 to view of frankpledge and other liberties in his manor 

 of Hardwick was objected to on the ground that he 



' y.C.H. SoTihanls. i, 354. 



' Ibid. 3820. 



' Cal. Cloie, 1237-41, p. 369; Feud. 

 Aidi, iv, 2; Cal. Close, 1374-7, p. 189. 



' Cal. Inij. p.m., v, 412; vi, 612; ix, 

 118, pp. 22 ind 23; Cal. Clote, 1346-9, 

 p. 582. 



» Feud. Aidi, iv, 2. 



» Bk. of Feet, $01. 



' y.C.II. Hunli. ii, 269. 



' Uugdalc, Alon. v, 185. 



" Ibid. 186. 



■o Fcit of F. Div. Co. 8 Ric. I, no. 46. 

 " Cal. Cloie, 1237-42, p. 369; Bk. of 

 Feel, 934. 

 " Feud. Aidi, iv, 2. 

 " Cal. In(f. p.m. v, 4 1 2. 

 '* Ibid, vi, 612 (p. 391). 



■> Chan. In<]. p.m. 22 Edw. Ill (ist 

 no».), 47. 



"■ Cal. hi), p.m. viii, 278. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, 

 no. 44. 



'" Cal. Inij. Mile. 1219-1307, no. 327. 



'« Feud. Aidi, iv, 2. 



'<> Cal. Inj. p.m. V, 4 1 2. 



" Ibid. vi. 612. 



175 



