ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



by marriage to John Cheyney," and after this the 

 Harrowden manor appears to have been absorbed into 

 that of Cogenho (q.v.). 



Another manor in Harrowden called HJRROJF- 

 DENS MJNOR, held in i486 of Nicholas Vaux,^ 

 originated in property which the Harrowden family 

 were holding at an early date in both Harrowdens. In 

 1226-7 2 fine was levied between Simon de Harrow- 

 den and Richard, parson of the church of Harrowden, 

 of land in that parish.' This Simon was probably the 

 Simon son of Adam of Harrowden who quitclaimed to 

 the convent of Sulby the church of Great Harrowden. ■♦ 

 In 1298 Adam son of Simon de Harrowden and his 

 wife Alice received a grant of a messuage and virgate 

 of land in Great Harrowden' from Sir Ralph de 

 Leuknor. The Harrowdens, who frequently appear 

 in public employment in Northamptonshire and else- 

 where in the 14th centur)',* held manors in Great and 

 apparently in Little Harrowden. A canopied brass in 

 Great Harrowden church records the death in 1423 

 of William de Harrowden, who married Margaret 

 (d. 1441), daughter and heir of Sir Giles St. John of 

 Plumpton. Their son William married Margaret, 

 daughter of William Vaux and aunt of Sir Nicholas 

 Vaui, by whom he had two sons, Richard and Thomas.' 

 By his will, dated 28 May 1447, he directed that his 

 body should be buried in the south part of Great Har- 

 rowden church at the feet of William and Margaret 

 Harrowden, his father and mother. He bequeathed to 

 his wife Margaret all his lands and tenements called 

 Homeres Key in London towards the maintenance of 

 his son Thomas, with remainder to Richard Harrow- 

 den, his son and heir.* Both brothers must have died 

 s.p. before their mother, who, on 2 October i486, as 

 Margaret Harrowden, widow, died seised of a manor 

 of Great Harrowden called Harrowdens Manor, held of 

 Nicholas Vaui.' Margaret, who also held the manors 

 of Plumpton and Wold, was 

 succeeded by her daughter Mar- 

 garet Garnon, aged 60,'" who 

 had married as her first husband 

 Henry Skenard, or Skinnerton, 

 by whom she had a daughter 

 Jane.' ' This daughter Jane mar- 

 ried Sir Richard Knightley, and 

 carried to her husband the manor 

 or manors of Great and Little 

 Harrowden, which she settled on 

 her second son Edmund with 

 the manors of Morton Pynkney 

 and Plumpton.'^ Sir Edmund 

 Knightley died on 12 September 1542, seised of these 

 manors. At the death of his brother and heir male. 

 Sir Valentine Knightley, in 1 566 this Harrowden 



Knightley. Quarterly 



ermine and paly or and 



gules. 



GREAT 

 HARROWDEN 



property descended to his son Richard, and was then 

 returned as held of Sir Thomas Griffin,' ' by service 

 unknown, as of his manor of Wardon.'* Apparently the 

 Knightley manors had been formed out of lands 

 belonging to the Cogenhos and Harrowdens held partly 

 of the barony of Wardon and partly of the honor of 

 Huntingdon, and the Wardon overlordship had come 

 to be regarded as applying to the whole. After this date 

 the manor appears to have lost its identity and been 

 absorbed into the Knightley property. 



In 1286—7 Ralph de Leuknor granted a messuage 

 and land in Great Harrowden to John son of Walter 

 de Boketon" (Boughton), who in 1291 made a grant of 

 a rent in Great Harrowden to Richard le Den and 

 Joan his wife.'* This was probably the property granted 

 by Thomas de Boketon in 1 3 24 to Sir John de Harrow- 

 den, parson of Stoke Bruerne, as a yearly rent of 8 marks 

 from a messuage in Great Harrowden with the fourth 

 part of a knight's fee." It may possibly have been 

 included in the messuages, lands, mill, and rent in 

 Great and Little Harrowden, which together with the 

 manor of Finedon were in 1339-40 granted to the 

 same parson and to William de Thorp by Robert 

 Everard of Lubenham, chaplain, and William de la 

 Bruere of Finedon,'* and in 1 341-2 by William de 

 Thorp to Simon Simeon." 



Licence was obtained in 1 33 1 for John, parson of 

 the church of Stoke Bruerne, to enfeoff Thomas Wake 

 of Liddell of land and rent of the yearly value of ;{[20 

 in Great and Little Harrowden, held in chief, for 

 regrant to a house of religious men of any order he 

 pleased, to be founded by him in the town of Great 

 Harrowden; but it was cancelled on 20 June 1336.^° 

 The church of JLL SJINTS consists 

 CHURCH of chancel, 36 ft. 9 in. by 17 ft. 9 in., with 

 vestry on the north side; clerestoried nave, 

 45 ft. by 19 ft. 4 in.; north aisle, 12 ft. 6 in. wide; 

 north porch, and west tower, 1 2 ft. by 11 ft. 4 in., all 

 these measurements being internal. The building had 

 formerly a south aisle, which being very ruinous was 

 taken down early in the i8th century.^' The tower 

 was originally surmounted by a spire." The chancel 

 was very extensively restored in 1845, the north wall 

 and the upper part of the east and south walls being 

 then rebuilt and a new roof erected, and the church 

 was further restored in 1 896. When the south aisle was 

 taken down the new outer wall of the nave was erected 

 on the line of the arcade, which was left standing, the 

 old windows and doorway being inserted between the 

 arches. These windows, which are of three lights with 

 tracery formed by the forking and intersection of the 

 mullions, and the arcade appear to be of late- 1 3th-cen- 

 tury date.^J This indicates a 1 3th-century church with 

 nave and south aisle the same size as at present, but 



' Bridget, i, 347; Feud, /tidi, iv, 41. 



' Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. fll, i, 295. 



' Feet of F. Northants. 11 Hen. Ill, 

 no. 171. ■• Add. Ch. 22000. 



» Hart. Ch. 49 D 29. 



' Cal. CIcie, 1296^-1302, p. 445: 

 Robert de Harrowden, Justice of the 

 Forest this side Trent, 1301 ; ibid. 138 1-5, 

 pp. 291, 415, 497: John Harrowden, 

 knight of the shire for Oxford, 1380, 

 1383; ibid. 656, for Northants. 1388; 

 Cal. Pat. 1358-61, p. 152: John and 

 William de Harrowden, Conun. of Oyer 

 and Terminer to 1358. 



' Bridges, Hiit. of Norikantt. i, 254. 



' Ibid, ii, 102. On 18 August 1471 

 Richard Harrowden, late of Harrowden 



aliat of Easton N«ton, gentleman, received 

 a general pardon; Cal. Pat. 1467-77, 

 p. 271. 



» Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII, i, 295. 



■» Ibid. 



" Baker, Hitt. of Northants. ii, 379, 



" Exch. Inq. p.m., dcciii, 5. 



" The Griffins had obtained the fee of 

 Wardon by marriage with an heiress of the 

 Latimers.who represented Christianc Ledet. 



'* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxliii, 54. 



' * Feet of F. Northants. case 1 7 5, file 5 5, 

 no. 229. 



" Ibid, file 56, no. 290. 



" Add. Ch. 22004. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 13 Edw. Ill, 

 case 177, file 75, no, 185, 



'» Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, ca»e 177, file 76, 

 no. 229. 



" Cal. Pat. 1330-4, p. 179; 1334-8, 

 p. 277. John the parson of Stoke Bruerne 

 appears also as John a la Fountayne, or 

 John atte Welle of Harrowden : Cal. Pat. 

 1317-21, p. 289; 1340-3, p. 488. 



" Bridges, Hist, of Northants. ii, 104. 



^' Ibid, It was standing when Bridges 

 wrote. The date of its demolition is not 

 recorded. 



^1 The wall is almost fiush with the face 

 of the piers, but internally one has been 

 left partly exposed, showing it to be an 

 octagon with hollowed sides and small 

 •hafts on the main faces. The irchet and 

 capitals are moulded. 



183 



