ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



LAMPORT 



gave ;f 300 Consols upon trust to apply the income in 

 the distribution of meat to the poor on 24 December. 

 The income of this and the preceding charity is dis- 

 tributed in food by the minister and two trustees 

 appointed by the Parish Council. 



By her will proved 2 March 1900 Miss Ann Caro- 



line Ayres gave ^^40 to the rector, churchwardens, and 

 overseers upon trust to apply the income in the dis- 

 tribution of coals to the poor. The legacy was invested 

 in £,\i Consols, producing ;^i oj. \J. yearly in divi- 

 dends. The several sums of stock are with the Official 

 Trustees of Charitable Funds. 



LAMPORT (with HANGING HOUGHTON) 



Langeport (xicent.); Hangade Houghton, Hoghton 

 by Langeporte, Hengende Hocton (xiii cent.). 



Lamport now contains the chapelry of Faxton, till 

 1935a separate parish, as well as the hamlet of Hanging 

 Houghton, which, though separately rated, forms its 

 southern half. It lies to the west of the high road from 

 Northampton to Market Harborough. This for a con- 

 siderable distance runs parallel with and near to its 

 eastern boundary; and the Northampton and Market 

 Harborough section of the L.M.S. railway runs 

 through the centre of the parish, with a station about 

 half a mile north-west of the village. 



Lamport village. Hall, and Park are near the eastern 

 boundary of the parish, on a hill above the station, com- 

 manding good views over a wooded and hilly country. 

 Lamport Hall, a handsome stone mansion in grounds 

 of about 20 acres, is the property of Gyles Isham, esq., 

 since 1 93 1 by deed of gift from his father. Captain Sir 

 Vere Isham, bart., J. P., principal land-owner. It had 

 a famous library, rich in rare books,' as well as 'books 

 of evidences', diaries, documents, and deeds giving the 

 history of its Isham owners. Most of the books were sold 

 in 189; and divided between the British Museum and 

 the Britwell Court Library. The Britwcll Court books, 

 including the unique 1599 edition of Shakespeare's 

 Venus and Adonis, are now in the Huntington Library, 

 California. The family records have been deposited on 

 loan with the Record Society at Northampton. Sir John, 

 thefirst baronet, setdown 'Remembrances' of his grand- 

 father John, who leaving the neighbourhood at 16, 

 made his fortune in London as a mercer and merchant 

 adventurer, and came back to buy the manor and par- 

 sonage in 1559, as also of his father, the blind squire 

 Thomas.- From these we learn of the manor-house 

 built by John Isham the grandfather in 1568, and of 

 the buttery with the chamber over it, and the 'foresyde 

 of the hair built by himself in 1610 and 161 1: and 

 that John Isham inclosed the Pond Close and Caulcot 

 Closes in 1 570; Hoback, Dinges, Blewbarrows, Redg- 

 was, and Parkes in 1576. Sir Justinian Isham in 1654 

 had the central part of the west front new built by John 

 Webb,' the pupil of Inigo Jones. This comprises the 

 lofty 'Music Room', which contains the original fire- 

 place designed by Webb. The elaborate plaster work 

 on ceiling and frieze, however, dates from 1738 when 

 the room was altered to its present form by the sixth 

 baronet. The staircase was altered in 1830, but the 

 upper part is of Webb's time. In 1732 Francis Smith, 

 of Warwick, the architect of the Georgian block at 

 Stoneleigh Abbey, began to add a wing on each side of 

 Webb's work, reducing the west facade to uniformity, 

 but the north front retained the Elizabethan hall and 

 kitchens until 1 821, when they were rebuilt. This por- 



tion was remodelled in 1862, and although a few early 

 windows lighting a cellar have survived, the interest of 

 the house lies in Webb's work and the Georgian library. 

 There are also some stained glass coats of arms of the 

 1 6th century, brought from the destroyed manor-house 

 of Sir Euseby Isham at Pytchley. In the beautiful 

 grounds is a fine avenue of yews called 'the Eagle walk' 

 from its having once led to a cage of captive eagles. 

 The gardens were laid out in their present form in 1677 

 and there are fine wrought-iron gates made by a local 

 blacksmith in 1700. 



The rectory, east of the church, is a well-designed 

 two-story building, with plain parapetsand slated hipped 

 roof. The stone of which it was built in 1730, and 

 its fine staircase and wainscoting, came from the dis- 

 mantled manor-house of Hanging Houghton.* The 

 rectory and church are at the western end of the park, 

 the Home Farm at its north-eastern. There are good 

 springs and quarries of stone. 



A road branching west from the Northampton road 

 forms the boundary between the hamlet of Hanging 

 Houghton and the rest of the parish: Lamport village 

 is about a quarter of a mile to the north of this road, 

 and the scattered houses of Hanging Houghton on a hill 

 only a short distance south of it. A chapel of some 

 importance once existed at Hanging Houghton, but 

 Bridges says that its ruins were used for the building of 

 a manor-house, which in turn was left deserted in 1665 

 after the Montagu household had been carried off by 

 the plague, which they had fled from London to escape. 

 In 1670 it was sold by the Montagus to the Ishams. 

 Lamport Grange, the residence of Sir Charles Frede- 

 rick, bart., O.B.E., lies near the boundary of Hanging 

 Houghton. There is a school, founded by the Ishams. 

 The Manor Farm is at the western end of the village. 

 Hanging Houghton Lodge in the south of the hamlet. 



In the north of the parish is Bullock Close Spinney: 

 south of Lamport Park the Long Plantation with 

 Boundary Oak to the west of it. Lamport is a parish 

 of hill and dale, but a height of about 400 ft. is fre- 

 quent. The area is 4,605 acres, mainly pasture: the 

 soil red loam and subsoil clay. Population in 193 1 

 was 263. 



Among the lands of Walter the Fleming, 

 MANORS otherwise called Walter de Wahull or 

 Odell (Beds.), there were entered in 

 Domesday Survey 4 hides and i virgatc in LAMPORT 

 held by Fulchcr, a member of the Malsor, or Male- 

 soures, family.' This estate continued to be held of the 

 barony of Wahull until the l6th century. In the 12th- 

 century Northamptonshire Survey 4 hides in Lamport 

 were held by Simon Malsover of the fee of Wahull.* 

 Peter Malsover of Lamport levied a fine of land in 



' An account of the discovery of rare 

 early editions of Elizabethan writers at 

 Lamport in 1867 is given in PJ, & Q, 

 Piortkants. V, 26. 



' Extracts from these are given in the 



Ccntalogiit (rst Scr.), vols ii, iii. 



^ For a full description of the house, 

 with reproductions of Webb's own draw- 

 ings for the work, see an article by J. A. 

 Gotchia^ourna/o/'i?./,£.y/. 24Scpt.i92i. 



♦ Aiscx. Arch. Soc. Rep. xx\x, 91. 



' y.C.U. NorlhMli. i, 340. 



' Ibid, i, 380. For the descent of the 

 barony of Wahull, see y.C.U. Btdi. iii, 

 70-1. 



195 



