A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



made this claim for the whole of the manor whereas he 

 held one half, only for life, by grant of one John Barry, 

 and only one half in fee. His reply was that he did 

 hold certain tenements for life only in Hardwick by 

 grant of John Barry, but that he made no claim to view 

 of frankpledge in them; he did, however, prove that he 

 had his own complete manor by right of inheritance, 

 held of Robert Grimbaud of Laurence de Hastings as 

 of the honor of Huntingdon." John de Seymour died 

 in 1340, his wife Maud surviving him, and was suc- 

 ceeded by his son John.- Besides the manor he held a 

 messuage, 120 acres of land in demesne, i acre i rood 

 of meadow, and 3 3/. \d. rent of free and bond tenants 

 and cottars, evidently the quarter fee or Barry's Manor. 

 John de Seymour his son apparently fell a victim to the 

 Black Death in 1349, in which year an inquisition was 

 taken as to tenements he held in Hardwick and Irtling- 

 borough of the manor of Grafton.^ Another, taken on 

 27 May 1350,'' records the action he took as regards 

 his two manors in Hardwick. It states that being sick 

 to death, but of good and sane memory, he gave the 

 manor of Hardwick which he had by ancient right and 

 inheritance to William de Seymour and Elizabeth 

 Chartres (sister of John) — presumably in trust for his 

 young son — and being carried to the door of the said 

 manor, he delivered seisin thereof to William and 

 Elizabeth, and was carried thence to his manor in the 

 said vill late of Peter Barry. He also gave to the same 

 William and Elizabeth a large grange and a large gar- 

 den, late of the said Peter, and 2 carucates of land, and 

 being carried from one manor to the other said: 'Take 

 this grange and garden by way of seisin'; and so he died 

 seised of that chief messuage late of the said Peter, and 

 of a virgate of land in Hardwick excepted from the said 

 grange and garden. In the inquisition neither date of 

 death nor heir were recorded, but it seems that he left 

 a son and heir John, then aged 13. Proof of the age of 

 this John was taken at Brixworth on 24 March 1358, 

 when it was stated that he had been born on 6 January 

 1338, and baptized, according to the evidence of 

 John Barry, one of the witnesses, in the church of the 

 vill, his name being entered in the missal of the church 

 because he was the eldest son of his father. ^ On 24 

 October 1358 it was returned that John de Seymour 

 had held a messuage and 2 virgates of land of the heir 

 of Laurence de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, when he 

 died of the pestilence now past, and that his son and 

 heir John was now of full age. The king had taken 

 the profits since the death of John by his escheators.* 

 Sir John de Seymour, in 1361, settled the manors of 

 Hardwick and Grafton on himself and his wife 

 Agnes.'' He died s.p. the following year and was suc- 

 ceeded by his brother Thomas,* who, as Thomas 

 Seymour of Hardwicke, occurs as late as 1386.' The 

 Seymour line then seems to have ended in female heirs, 

 as Walter and William St. German, clerks, who had 

 obtained licence to purchase Barry's manor in 1396, 

 were sued in 1402 for disseisin of a certain freehold in 



Green. Azure three 

 harts tripping or. 



Seymours Hardwick by Andrew Brown, Catherine his 

 wife, and Isabel Seymour."* 



The manor subsequently passed into the hands of the 

 Greens of Green's Norton, apparently through marriage 

 witha Seymour heiress." Afterthe death of Sir Thomas 

 Green, in 1391, 8 messuages and 4 virgates of land in 

 Hardwick came to his son Thomas and are noted as 

 held of others than the King.'^ 

 Sir Thomas Green, son of Sir 

 Thomas Green, settled his manor 

 of Hardwick on his wife Philippa, 

 daughter of Robert de Ferrars, 

 lord of Chartley, and on his son 

 Thomas, and died on 14 Decem- 

 ber 1420, Thomas who succeeded 

 him being then 1 8 years of age.'^ 

 Apparently the Greens of Green's 

 Norton alienated the manor to 

 Sir Henry Green of Drayton, on 

 whose death in 1469 it was assigned by his daughter 

 and heir Constance and her husband John Stafford to 

 Margaret, the widow of Sir Henry, for life.'* It then 

 followed the descent of Drayton (q.v.), being held, c. 

 I 5 1 5, in thirds by the co-heirs of Sir Henry, daughters 

 of Sir Henry Vere. One third was therefore held by 

 John, Lord Mordaunt, the husband of Henry Vere's 

 eldest daughter Elizabeth, and in 1548 he acquired 

 from George Brown, son of Ann, the second daughter, 

 and her husband Humphrey Brown, lands in Hard- 

 wick, probably representing a second third of the 

 estate." But a grant of a third of the manor made to 

 him next year by the third daughter Audrey and her 

 husband John Browne and their son George'* seems 

 to have been ineffective, possibly because they had 

 already mortgaged it in 1 5 30 to Sir Humphrey Browne, 

 serjeant-at-law, the uncle of John." In 1561 Sir 

 Humphrey Browne was dealing with a third of the 

 manor.'* This third, which descended from Audrey 

 Vere and her husband John Browne to their grandson 

 Wistan Browne [of Rookewoods Hall in Essex],'' was 

 sold by him on 7 May 1567 to Thomas Nicolls.'"' 



Thomas Nicolls granted to his father, William 

 Nicolls, a lease of the manor for 21 years after his 

 death, and died on 29 June 1568, his father surviving 

 him. He left a son and heir Francis, aged i 5, and three 

 other sons, Augustine, Lewis, and William.^' Francis, 

 who at the death of his grandfather, William Nicolls, 

 at the age of 96 on 8 September 1576, was aged 19, 

 married Anne Seymour, daughter of David Seymour, 

 and was Governor of Tilbury Fort. He sold to Francis 

 Gill 3 closes of meadow and a little willow grove in 

 Hardwick, and the Neates' Pasture (120 acres) and 

 More Close or Morescole (130 acres) adjoining, all 

 held of the king in chief by knight service.^^ The manor 

 had still been held in thirds in 1586, when Sir Lewis 

 Mordaunt, Lord Mordaunt, made a conveyance by 

 fine of one third to George Monoux,^^ b^t J^ the 

 following year the manor was held by him and Eliza- 



^ The. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 

 530-1. 



^ Ca\. Inq. p.m. viii, 278. 



3 Ibid, ix, 329. ♦ Ibid. 583. 



5 Ibid. X, 454. Other witnesses included 

 various members of the family 'de Hard- 

 wicke'. ^ Ibid. X, 4 1 5. 



' Feet of F. Northants. 35 Edw. Ill, 

 no. 501. 



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

 no. 44. 



' Cal. Close, 1385-9, p. 145. 



'0 Bridges, op. cit. ii, 99. 



" V.C.H. Northants. iii, 209. 



'^ Cal. Close, 1389-92, p. 391. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Hen. V, no. 39. 



■•t Cal. Pal. 1467-77, pp. 158-9. 



'5 Com. Pleas, Deeds Enr. East i Edw. 

 VI, m. 6d. 



■<■ Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 2 Edw. 

 VI. 



■' Ibid. Mich. 22 Hen. VIII; L. and P. 

 Hen. nil, iv, 6709 (i). 



'8 Pat. R. 3 Eliz. pt. 8; Feet of F. Div. 



176 



Co. Hil. 4 Eliz. 



'» Essex risit. (Harl. Soc), i, 167. 



^° Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), clxxxii, 30; 

 Pat. R. 9 Eliz. pt. 4; Recov. R. Mich. 

 9 & 10 Eliz. ro. 809; Feet of F. Northants. 

 Mich. 9 & 10 Eliz. 



■^' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2). clxi, 1 17, 



^- Ibid, cccxvi, 36. 



" Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 28 Eliz. 

 George Monoux had married Elizabeth, 

 daughter of John, Lord Mordaunt : Essex 

 Vistt. (Harl. Soc), i, 166. 



