A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Barbara M. Cockayne, spinster, in 1810-11,' and by 

 Elizabeth C. Cockayne, spinster, in 182 1,- Holdenby 

 Manor was probably held before 1660-2 by Robert 

 Guy, who in those years presented to the church. The 

 manor of Holdenby and half the advowson of Upper 

 Isham were in 1686 in the hands of Francis Guy and 

 his wife Elizabeth who conveyed it to Thomas Colthurst 

 and Jonathan Gorstelow Snow.' In 1745 Holdenby's 

 manor was conveyed by James Langley and his wife 

 Anne, Thomas Cannell and his wife Mary, and John 

 Harriss and his wife Elizabeth, to George Timms, 

 clerk,* after which its history becomes obscure. 



The Ramsey Chronicle shows that a manor in Isham 

 was held in Saxon times by Earl Brithnoth, whom the 

 chronicler describes as 'that generous benefactor of the 

 abbey, foremost among his countrymen in honour and 

 wealth, and for his valour in fighting against the foes 

 of his country', and who gave his two manors of Isham 

 and Whiston and a hide in Doddington to the abbey.' 

 Isham was confirmed to the abbey by King Edgar in 

 974* (among the witnesses being Earl Brithnoth) by 

 Edward the Confessor (1052-60),'' and by succeeding 

 kings.* But for a time the grasping sheriff Eustace 

 succeeded in ousting the abbey from its property, which 

 was entered in the Domesday Survey among the lands 

 of Eustace, Sheriff of Huntingdonshire, who held of 

 the king i hide and 2i virgates of land in Isham which 

 it was stated he had occupied by force, wronging the 

 church of Ramsey.'' William II restored this property 

 to the abbey, after an inquiry had been ordered by 

 him,'" of which an account is given in a previous 

 volume." 



A hidage of the knights of the abbey of 1 184-9 gives 

 Niel de Lovetot as tenant of li hides in Isham, for 

 which apparently he owed, in conjunction with Henry 

 de Withenton, who held 3* (or 4) hides in Whiston, 

 the service of one knight.'- Another hidage of about 

 fifty years later, confirming the Northampton Survey, 

 which enters Thomas Pyel as holding i A hides and 

 2i small virgates of the fee of Ramsey,'^ gives Thomas 

 Pyel as tenant of i J hides.'* One Henry Pyel in 1 240 

 levied a fine with Henry son of Henry (probably 

 Henry de Isham) of 2 virgates of land in Isham, '5 and 

 in 1 2 5 3, as Henry Pyel of Isham, received from William 

 de Brampton and Juliana his wife a messuage and half 

 a virgate of land there.'* But the holder of the fee in 

 1243-4 was Thomas Pyel, who paid a fine of half a 

 mark because of the insufficiency of his horse to perform 

 service in Scotland." In 1257, an inquiry was held at 

 the abbot's court at Broughton, at which Thomas Pyel 

 was personally present, to establish the nature of the 

 service due from him for the fee of Pyel of Isham, and 

 it was found that he ought to find a nag equipped to 

 carry the armour of four knights on every journey of 



the said knights made by them in the king's service, 

 i.e. for a possible 40 days in the year.'^ 



The Pyel fee had in 1278 passed to the Carnells or 

 Kernels," and was held by William de la Carnell of 

 Isham vvhocameinto full courtatBroughton in thatyear 

 with a horse worth 10/., a sumpter saddle worth I2^/., 

 a sack worth 6</., and a 'broche', and after offering 

 himself for the service due to the king from him was 

 given a day to return when summoned.-" In 1284 

 William de la Carnell was assessed for I J hides in 

 Isham which he held of the Abbot of Ramsey.-' That 

 the Carnells continued to hold land in Isham is shewn 

 by a reference in 1382 to John Carnell of Isham whose 

 box of muniments and charters John Gunmyll of 

 Tixover had retained:-^ he was possibly identical with 

 the John Carnell who was escheator for the county. 



The abbots of Ramsey were no longer holding in 

 Isham at the Dissolution, and it would seem that they 

 parted with the estate to the Earl of Gloucester about 

 the end of the 1 3th century, as William Pyel was holding 

 a moiety of a fee in Isham of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of 

 Gloucester and Hertford, at his death in 1314,^2 and 

 this half- fee, valued at 30/. yearly, was delivered to 

 Maud the widow of Gilbert in dower.^* Moreover, 

 land in Isham held by John Carnell was included in 1 3 87 

 among the fees held of Hugh, Earl of Stafford, at his 

 death,-'^ and in 1403 among those held of Edmund, 

 Earl of Stafford.-* 



The Pyels still held lands in Isham in 1 398-9,^' when 

 Elizabeth Pyel, daughter and heir of Henry Pyel late 

 burgess of Bristol, made a conveyance of the same to 

 her cousin John Sutton of Bristol. 



The temporalities of the priory of Huntingdon at 

 the Dissolution included the farm of a croft in Isham, 

 i.e. 6/. 4</.^^ A moiet}' of this croft, in the tenure of the 

 rector, was granted to Giles and Gregory Isham in 

 1 546 with half a virgate of land. ^' A rent of 26/. SJ. in 

 Isham was held by the priory of St. Andrew's (North- 

 ampton) at the Dissolution.^" 



The church of ST. PETER consists 

 CHURCH of chancel, 28 ft. 4 in. by 14ft. 4 in.; 

 clerestoried nave of three bays, 39 ft. by 

 13 ft. 10 in.; north and south aisles, 12 ft. wide, north 

 and south porches, and west tower, loft. 6 in. square, 

 all these measurements being internal. The aisles are 

 the full length of the nave, and are continued eastward, 

 covering the chancel about half its length. There is a 

 sanctus bell-cote on the east gable of the nave over the 

 chancel arch. 



The church is built throughout of rubble with 

 ashlar dressings, and, except in the north aisle, has 

 plain parapets and low-pitched leaded roofs: the lead 

 of the north aisle overhangs. 



The two western arches of the nave arcades date 



' Recov. R. Mich. 51 Geo. Ill, ro. 25. 



2 Ibid. Hil. I & 2 Geo. IV, ro. 12. 



3 Feet of F. Northants. Hil. i & 2 

 Jas. II. 



4 Ibid. East. 18 Geo. II. 



5 C/iron. Abb. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), 116. 

 <> Ibid. 181; Cott. MS. Vcsp. 11. f.5; 



Kemble, Codex DipL iii, 104—10; Thorpe, 

 Dip}. JE-v. Sax. 254; Cart. Mon. de Rames. 

 (RoUs Ser.), ii. 56. 



' Cart. Mon. de Rames. (Rolls Ser.), 



". 73- 



' Ibid. 73, 93, 1 36; Chron. Abb. Rames. 

 (Rolls Ser.), 201, 206; Add. Ch. 33651, 

 33654. 33658. 33686, 39264, 39265. 



9 V.C.H. Northants. i, 349. 



I" Chron. Abb. Rames. (RoUs Ser.), 206, 

 nos. 1 78—9 ; Cart. Alon. de Rames. (RoUs 

 Ser.), i, 223-4. 



" l^.C.H. Northants. i, 284. 



'- Cart. Mon. de Rames. (Rolls. Ser.), 

 iii, 49. 



" V.C.H. Northants. i, 282. 



••> Cart. Mon. de Rames. (Rolls Ser.), 

 iii, 211. 



's Feet of F. Northants. 24 Hen. Ill, 

 file 29, no. 393. 



" Ibid, case 173, file 39, no. 638. 



■' Cart. Mon. de Rames. (RoUs Ser.), 

 iii, 55. 



'8 Ibid. 



'9 The name is frequently printed Car\'ell. 



2" Cart. Mon. de Rames. (RoUs Ser.), 

 iii, 55. 



^' Feud. Aids, iv, i . 



" Cal. Pat. 1381-5, p. 109. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, no. 68. 



^* Cal. Close, 1313-18, p. 134. 



^5 Chan. Inq. p.m. 10 Ric. II, no. 38. 



26 Ibid. 4 Hen. IV, no. 4. 



=' Hisi. MSS. Com. Rep. pt. vi, p. 106. 

 Written VyeU but evidently PyeU. 



=8 Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 254. 



^9 Pat. R. 38 Hen. VIII, pt. 10; L. and 

 P. Hen. Fin, xxi (2), g. 476 (66). 



3» Fakr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 313; 

 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (l), 404. 



192 



