A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



having killed his brother-in-law, Captain Philip Lawson, 

 in a duel, resulted in his indictment being quashed on 

 the ground that he was wrongly entered, he being Earl 

 of Banbury. It was, however, as Charles Knollys, esq. 

 alias Charles, Earl of Banbury, that with his wife Eliza- 

 beth in l6g5 he conveyed the manor of Great Harrow- 

 den by fine to Thomas Watson, esq., and George 

 Watson.' Thomas Watson was the third son of Edward 

 Watson, second Lord Rockingham, by Anne, eldest 

 daughter of Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford, 

 and took the name of Wentworth in 1695 on inheriting 

 the vast estates of his mother. In l6g6 with his wife 

 Alice, daughter of Sir Thomas Proby, bart., he was 

 dealing with the manor of Great Harrowden, and 

 advowsons of Great and Little Harrowden as Thomas 

 Wentworth alias Watson, esq.^ 



His son Thomas was on 28 May 1728 created 

 Baron Wentworth of Malton in Yorkshire, and on 

 19 November 1734 Baron of Harrowden and Viscount 

 Higham of Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire, and 

 Baron of Wath and Earl of Malton in Yorkshire. In 

 1744 he with his mother, Alice Wentworth, widow, 

 made a conveyance of the manor of Great Harrowden 

 to Henry Finch, esq.-^ After the death of his cousin 

 Thomas Watson, third Earl of Rockingham, unmarried, 

 in 1745, he succeeded to the barony of Rockingham, 

 and, the earldom and associated honours becoming 

 extinct, was created Marquess of Rockingham on 14 

 April 1746. He married Mary, daughter of Daniel 

 Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham and 6th Earl of Win- 

 chilsea, and at his death in 1756 was succeeded by their 

 fifth but only surviving son, Charles Watson Went- 

 worth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, the eminent Whig 

 statesman. The second marquess was returned as lord 

 of the manor of Great Harrowden in the Inclosure 

 Act passed for Little Harrowden (q.v.) in 1781, and 

 died s.p. in 1782, when he was buried in York Minster. 



Watson. Argent a 

 che'veron engrailed axitre 

 betiveen three martlets 

 sable tuith three crescents 

 or on the che'veron. 



FlTZWiLLlAM. Loxengy 

 argent and gules. 



His nephew William Wentworth, 2nd Earl Fitz- 

 william, son of his eldest sister Lady Anne Watson 

 Wentworth and of William, ist Earl Fitzwilliam, 

 created Viscount Milton and Earl Fitzwilliam (in 

 England) in 1746, then succeeded him here and in 

 estates valued at ^^40,000 a year, and kept up a princely 

 establishment at Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire. 

 He married Lady Charlotte Ponsonby, youngest daugh- 

 ter of William, Earl of Bessborough. Their son Charles 

 William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, commonly called 



Viscount Milton, was dealing with the manors of Great 

 and Little Harrowden and Withmail Park, with the 

 rectories, tithes, advowsons, free fishing, and free 

 warren, courts leet and baron, mills and dovecots 

 belonging to the same, by recovery in 1807,'' and 

 succeeded his father in 1833 in the earldom as 3rd Earl 

 Fitzwilliam. He had then for the last two years repre- 

 sented Northamptonshire in Parliament, and was lord- 

 lieutenant of the county in 1853. He received the 

 royal authorization to adopt the surname of Wentworth 

 before that of Fitzwilliam in 1856, and died at Went- 

 worth Woodhouse in 1857, when he was succeeded in 

 the earldom by his second son, William Thomas Spen- 

 cer, Viscount Milton. His third son, the Hon. George 

 Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, M.P., of Milton Park, was 

 the lord of the manor and sole landowner of Great 

 Harrowden until his death in 1874, when the manor 

 was held by his trustees until his son George Charles 

 Wentworth-Fitzwilliam of Milton Park (q.v.) suc- 

 ceeded him as lord of the manor and sole landowner in 

 Great Harrowden. In 1895 he sold the Hall to Lord 

 Vaux but retained the manorial rights, which are now 

 in the hands of his grandson William Thomas George 

 Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, esq. 5 



One hide in Harrowden which Algar had held freely 

 before the Conquest was returned in the Domesday 

 Survey among the lands of Guy de Reinbuedcurt as 

 held of him by Norgiot* (who also held a virgate in 

 Wellingborough of the Bishop of Coutances, of which 

 the soc pertained to the bishop's manor of Harrowden). 

 The chief seat of the Reinbuedcurts was the manor of 

 Wardon (q-v.), and the garrison of the castle of Rock- 

 ingham was provided by making it a charge on that 

 barony.'' This service of castle guard was soon com- 

 muted for a payment of 5^. from each knight's fee, and 

 a return of such payments, attributed to c. 1176, or 

 considerably later, enters 5;. from Harrowden, presum- 

 ably from this hide.* Margaret, the daughter and heir 

 of Guy's son Richard, married Robert Foliot, whose son 

 Richard Foliot left an only daughter and heir Margaret. 

 She married Wyschard Ledet, son of Christiane Ledet, 

 and Christiane their only daughter married, as her first 

 husband, Henrj' de Braybrook, as her second, Gerard 

 de Furnival. Under the barony of Wardon, Gerard 

 in 1 2 3 5 was paying for one fee in Cogenho and Harrow- 

 den, d-'c' The latter fee was presumably that which 

 Nicholas de Cogenho held in 1 242 of Christiane Ledet ;■" 

 and the Harrowden portion of it probably corresponded 

 to the hide in Harrowden which Nicholas de Cogenho 

 held in the 12th century of the king's fee." This fee 

 appears nest to have been held by the de Cogenhos 

 with their manor of Cogenho (q.v.) as of the fee of 

 Haversham: for in 1284 William de Cogenho, son 

 and heir of Nicholas,'^ was holding one fourth part of 

 a fee in Great Harrowden of John de Haversham, who 

 held of the king." In 1349 Giles de Cogenho died 

 holding land, rent, and a water-mill at Harrowden, 

 with his manor of Cogenho,''* and his son John, who 

 succeeded him, died in 1361 seised of the reversion of 

 a manor in Harrowden held of Fulk de Birmingham as 

 of the fee of Haversham. '^ His grandson William died 

 without issue and his sister Agnes carried the property 



' Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 6 Wm. Ill; 

 ibid. Mich. 10 Wm. III. 

 ^ Ibid. Mich. 8 Wm. III. 

 3 Ibid. Trin. 17 Geo. II. 

 « Recov. R. Trin. 47 Geo. Ill, ro. 176. 

 5 Kelly, Directory of Northants. (1936). 



*• F.C.H. Northants. i, 343<J. 

 ' Ibid. 295. 



8 Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), 

 p. cclxxxi. 



» Bk. of Fees, ^<)S. 

 '" Ibid. 931. 



" y.C.H. Northants. i, 383. 

 '- Cat. Fine R. 1272-1307, p. 150. 

 '3 Feud. Aids, iv, i. 

 '■' Cal. Inq. f.m. ix, 374. 

 '5 Chan. Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. Ill, pt. 

 no. SS- 



182 



