ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



ISHAM 



when Henry de L'Isle demanded from Henry son of 

 Richard arte Hallepace services for whose performance 

 the latter alleged William son of James of Isham to be 

 responsible;' but in 1307 Robert de Ho and Beatrice 

 his wife, who had apparently succeeded to the mesne 

 lordship, granted to Walter de Langeton, Bishop of 

 Coventry and Lichfield, a knight's fee in Isham with 

 the homage and services of Henry de Isham and his 

 heirs for the tenement he held of them.- The presenta- 

 tion to the church was made in 1307 by Henry de 

 Isham, in 1 3 14 by Henry de L'Isle of Isham, and in 

 13 1 5 by William de L'Isle, lord of Isham, ' while in 

 1 3 16 William de L'Isle was returned as holding 

 Isham,* and in 13 17 William de Isham and Alice his 

 wife settled the manor and advowson upon them- 

 selves and on the right heirs of William,' to hold of the 

 chief lords of the fee, and William de L'Isle presented 

 in 1 341. Other Ishams at this date were described as 

 of Northampton,* or of Pytchley,' and the original 

 Ishams had probably transferred their rights in Isham 

 to a member of the L'Isle family by marriage. Thomas 

 de L'Isle of Isham made a grant in 1336 to William 

 de la Carnell of Earls Barton of the manor of Isham 

 for life,' and in 1341 presentation to the church was 

 made by William de L'Isle, evidently the successor of 

 Thomas, and apparently the last de L'Isle to hold this 

 fee of Isham, since the presentation was in 1349 made 

 by Robert de Wyk, lord of Isham.' Robert de Wyk 

 had died before 1362-3, when John, son of Thomas 

 Caumbery de Bernak, and his wife Elizabeth conveyed 

 the manor of Isham to Katharine, widow of Robert de 

 Wyk of Staunford.'" It appears possible that Katharine 

 had been the widow of William de L'Isle before she 

 married Robert de Wyk, and that Elizabeth was 

 William's daughter. In 1365 the presentation was 

 made by the same John, son of Thomas Bernak." 

 Elizabeth Bernak presented to the church in 1404, 

 and William Bernak in 1437. He was probably the 

 son of Elizabeth, and identical with the William 

 Bernak referred to in the assessment of 1428, which 

 returned that no tax was due from the fee in Isham 

 formerly held by William de L'Isle, because the said 

 fee was divided between Simon Felbrygge [the husband 

 of the widow of Ralf Green], Thomas Green, 

 Thomas Colpepir, William Haldenby, Richard Wynter, 

 William Bernak, and others severally.'^ The chief 

 manor had, however, evidently remained in the hands 

 of the Bernaks, as in 1448 the presentation was made 

 by John Cooke of Isham, who is shown to have been 

 acting as feoffee of William Bernak in Chancery pro- 

 ceedings instituted against him in that capacity by 

 Thomas Bernak of Barnack, kinsman of William,'^ and 

 by Walter Dorant of Clyff and Margaret his wife, 

 daughter of William Bernak.'* William Bernak left 

 two daughters as his co-heirs," and in 1454 John Cooke 

 of Isham delivered one-half of the manor and advow- 

 son to John Dorant, and the other half to Richard 



Armeston.'* John Dorant presented to the church in 

 1465, and Richard Armeston in 1477. Between the 

 two presentations John Dorant or Darraunt, described 

 as of Collej'weston, yeoman, had forfeited his moiety of 

 the manor and advowson to the king by attainder of 

 high treason," and this moiety was on 7 March 1479 

 granted to Guy Walston, one of the Esquires of the 

 King's Body.'' It reverted to the Dorant family, and 

 in I 5 1 5 Ralph Sacheverell and Cecily his wife, daughter 

 and heir of John Dorant, conveyed to Sir Richard 

 Sacheverella moiety of the manor," which had evidently 

 been in his hands as early as 1 502, when Ralph 

 Sacheverell presented to the church. 



The previous presentation, namely that of 1497, was 

 made by John Lowick (or LufTwick) who seems to have 

 been the son by her first husband of Agnes daughter of 

 William Bernak.-" John Lowick's daughter and heir 

 Margaret married Robert Pickering of Isham, the son 

 of Thomas Pickering of Barrow 

 Hall in Kendal. They had a son 

 Thomas who married Margaret 

 daughter and heir of Anthony 

 Shuckborough of Little Harrow- 

 den and is described as nephew 

 and heir of .Anthony Lowick.-' 

 This Thomas it was, apparently, 

 who presented to the church in 

 1554, and who was dealing in 

 I 599 with a moiety of the ad- 

 vowson, which he then conveyed, 

 probably for settlement on his son 

 John, to Thomas Mulshoand Thomas Shuckborough.^^ 

 After bequeathing his mansion house in Isham called 

 the Over Hall to his son John by will, he died seised 

 of a moiety of the manor and of the advowson called 

 the Over Fee on i April 1609, leaving a son and heir 

 Robert aged 40.^^ John Pickering of Isham was the 

 third son of his father Thomas and married Patience 

 Spicer, according to the Visitation pedigree, which 

 gives him a family of four daughters and no sons. In 

 1637 John Pickering and Patience his wife conveyed 

 to trustees all his lands in Isham, including the reversion 

 and remainder of the Over Hall, immediately after the 

 death of Sara Weldon, then wife of Robert Weldon, 

 clerk, and late wife of Thomas Pickering, deceased, 

 father of the said John.^* Two years later the manor 

 appears to have been held by the Ekins family, who 

 were dealing with it between 1639 and 1658. -5 The 

 transactions between John Pickering and John Ekins 

 figure in the accounts of the High Commission Court, 

 before which John Ekins of Isham was summoned in 

 1634 on a charge of irreverent behaviour in church, 

 'causing to be told over upon the communion table 

 and tendering to the use of John Pickering ;^ioo in 

 performance of a bargain for houses and lands ', of 

 sitting with his hat on during divine service, saying in 

 the streets of Isham that a ploughman was as good as 



Pickering. Ermine a 

 Ihn azure crovjned or. 



' Hirl. Chart. 52, C. 7. 

 » Fret of F. Northints. 35 Edw. I, 

 no. 516. 



' Bridges, }}iit. of Sorthanli. ii, 108. 



• h'ruJ. Aidi, iv, I2. 



» Fret of F. Northants. 10 EJw. II, 

 no. 291. 



' Cal. Clue, 1323-7, p. 524. 



^ Assize R. ■ 343, m. 29. And see 

 NortAanti. h'amihet (/^.C.//.), 141. 



• Cal. Clou, 1333-7, p. 691. 



• Bridges, Hill, of Sorihanii. ii, 108. 



'<> Feet of F. Northants. 36 Edw. HI, 



no. 518. 



" For tlic use of the name Cambrey by 

 the Barnacks, sec y.C.H. Northants. ii, 

 465, n. 1 1. 



" t'eud. Aids, iv, 33. 



" E. Chan. l*roc. xxiv, 53. 



'« Ibid. 54. 



'» y.C.U. Nortkanli. ii, 465. The 

 husband of Agnes, the second daughter, is 

 there said to have been Ralph LuH'wick; 

 apparently she remarried Richard Arme- 

 ston : sec below. 



'« Close R. 33Hen. VI, m. 33. 



189 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 18 Edw. IV, no. 8. 



" Cal.PjI. 1476-85. p. 172. 



"> Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 7 

 Hen. VIII. 



'" yniidti'in of Norihanii., edited by 

 Walter C. Metcalfe, p. 43. 



" Ibid. 



" Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 41 and 

 42 t.\\t. 



^' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccviii, 115. 



" Recov. R. East. 14 Ch. I, m. 3. 



'* Feet of F. Northants. Mil. i 5 Chas. I; 

 ibid. Mich. 1654; ibid. Hil. 1658. 



