ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



ISHAM 



Harper. Argent a lion 



in a border entailed 



table. 



for the parish in that year, and John, Earl of Upper 

 Ossory as lord of the manor' (possibly the manor held 

 ot the Huntingdon fee). By the 

 same Act an allotment was made- 

 to John Harper, esq. The Har- 

 pers had before 1803 acquired 

 the manorial rights of Isham, of 

 which manor Joseph Harper, the 

 successor of his cousin John 

 Harper in the manor of Burton 

 Latimer or Plassy, then levied a 

 fine.^ Thomas Wilfred Harpur^ 

 of Burton Latimer died in 1934, 

 and his son Captain John Latimer 

 Harpur now holds land in Isham, 

 but does not claim manorial rights.'' 



Six small virgates in Isham were entered in the 

 Northampton Survey as held by Geoffrey of the fee of 

 Huntingdon,' though in the Domesday Survey no 

 lands were entered as held in Isham by the Countess 

 Judith. They must have been the origin of the manor 

 of Isham which was afterwards returned with Little 

 Harrowden as a member of Great Harrowden, and was 

 later known as HALDENBY'S MANOR or the 

 MANOR OFHOLDENBr'in Isham and, as previously 

 stated, probably corresponded to Lower Isham or a fee 

 called the Lower Fee. In 1235 half a fee in Clipston 

 and Isham was held of the fee of Huntingdon by 

 Simon 'Major'.* From the Quo Warranto returns in 

 1329-30 it appears that the manor of Great Harrowden 

 with its members Little Harrowden and Isham were 

 given by Robert deMuschamp to Geoffrey deLewknor, 

 from whom this property descended to his son and 

 heir Ralph.^ This Isham manor descended as a member 

 of Great Harrowden (q.v.) until the 15th century. 

 In 141 1 Maud wife of Robert Haldenby granted to 

 John Haldenby her son a rent of half a pound of pepper 

 from the manor of Isham.* William de Haldenby of 

 Isham appears in 1428 as holding lands in Wollaston,' 

 and had evidently succeeded to this Isham manor. The 

 Haldcnbys still held the manor in 1475, when William 

 Haldenby of Isham, gentleman, was cited in a plea of 

 debt to Thomas Pomeroy, prior of Holy Trinity, 



HALDf.NBV. A'zure jive 



cint/fcils set saltireivite 



argent. 



HLTMrRCV. iiule: a cross 

 •with trefoil ends and 

 quarter-pierced argent 

 charged vjitfi ttvelve 

 scallops table. 



London, executor of the will of William Lcmyng, late 

 citizen and grocer of London.'" In 1 546 William 



Haldenby made a conveyance to Richard Humfrey 

 of the manor of Haldenby and advowson of the church 

 of the parish of Isham of the Lower Fee, with a dove- 

 cot, a watermill and lands." Themanor remained in the 

 hands of the Humfreys and was at a later date held 

 by William Humfrey of Barton Segrave; after whose 

 death his son Thomas Humfrey of Swepston (co. 

 Leicester) instituted Chancery proceedings'^ to recover 

 possession of the manor of Isham commonly called 

 Haldenbyes Manor, with one water corn-mill, one 

 fulling-mill, and appurtenances in Isham, and lands 

 elsewhere, all of which had been settled on him, he 

 alleged, about 34 years before by William Humfrey, 

 whose second son he was. That this property was held 

 of the Vaux by the Cecils in succession to the Humfreys 

 may be inferred from one of those letters that Sir 

 Thomas Tresham wrote to his wife at Rushton from 

 his long and close imprisonment for recusancy. On 

 All Saints' Day i 594 he wrote to Lady Tresham'-' of 

 his return to London after a temporary release: 'I 

 alighted in Holborne, and going down Chancery Lane 

 to my lawyer's I met Mr. Frampton, the chief manager 

 of Sir Thomas Cecill's affairs, who begged me to go 

 to his master, Sir Thomas, as having, he declared, been 

 most badly dealt with by the Lord Vaux: for the 

 widow interrupted his master's possession of Isham 

 lands.' William, Lord Vaux of Harrowden, with his 

 wife Mary conveyed the manor of Isham in 1595 to 

 Richard Frampton and John Wyseman,'* to whom in 

 the following year another conveyance of the same was 

 made by Sir Thomas Cecil and his wife Dorothy." 

 This presumably eliminated the overlordship and was 

 followed in 1 599 by a grant of the manor of Isham to 

 Robert Syers by John Wyseman and Margery his wife, 

 and Richard Frampton.'* It was found by inquisition 

 of 1608 that Robert Syers, who had absented himself 

 from church, was possessed for life of the manor and 

 chief messuage in Isham and Little Harrowden in the 

 tenure of several persons, and a grant of two parts of 

 the manor was made on 9 July 1609 to Edward 

 Heselrigge." Robert Syers made a settlement of the 

 manor in i6ioon his son John and daughters .Anne and 

 Frances and died on 10 August 161 8, leaving a son 

 and heir John aged 12.'* It seems 

 then to have been acquired by 

 Sir William Cockayne, who died 

 seised of it in 1627-8, when it was 

 returned as held with 2 water- 

 mills, &c., of the king as of the 

 manor of Holdenby." Sir William 

 was succeeded by his son Charles, 

 who in 1629, with his wife Mary, 

 and Mary Cockayne, widow, Wil- 

 liam Chayne, Matthew Cradock, 

 Thomas Henchman, and James 

 Price, made a conveyance by fine to Sir Hatton Farmer 

 and William .'\llen of the manors of Rushton and of Hol- 

 denby in Isham. ^o Though lands in Isham were held by 

 the Cockaynes with their manor of Rushton as late as the 

 19th century, conveyances of the same being made by 



Cockayne. Argent 

 three cocks gules. 



' Priv. Stat. 18 Geo. Ill, c»p. iq. 



' Feet of F. Northints. Trin. 

 Geo. III. 



' i\stkc. Landed Gentry, ci, 1937. 



♦ Kelly, Directory. 



> y.C.II. Aorthants. i, 381. 



' B*. o/f«j, 495, 501. 



' Op. cit. (Rec. Com.), 535. 



• Add. Ch. 22015. 



' Feud. Aidt, iv, 45. 

 43 "' Cal. Pat. 1467-77, p. 500. 



" Feet of F. Nortlwnts. Hil. 37 

 Hen. VIII. 



" Chan. Proc. (Scr. 2), ccUxv, II, 

 undated. 



" Hist. MSB. Com. Reft. Var. Coll. 

 iii, 82-3. 



'* Feet of F. Northtnts. Trin. 37 Elli. 



'» Ibid. East. 38 Eliz. 



" Ibid. Mich. 41 and 42 Eliz. 



" Pat. R. 5 Jas. I, pt. II. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclxxv, 68. 



"> Bridges, Hilt, of Northantt. ii, 107; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), ccccxniv, 96. 



» Feet of F. Uiv. Co. Hil. 4 Chii. I. 



191 



