A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Cornwall. Argent a 



lion gules croivned or in 



border sable bexanty. 



involved in confusion ; the claims of the abbey of St. 

 Edmund seems to have been a disputed question from 

 first to last in both places. 



The land of the Count of Mortain had been held in 

 King Edward's time freely by Fredgis; under the count 

 it was held by Ralf. The Abbot of St. Edmund's 

 claimed the soc of 2i virgates of land.' The property 

 of the Count of Mortain passed to his successors, Earls 

 of Cornwall,- and in the 12th- 

 century Survey his Domesday 

 holding in Houghton appears as 

 I hide 3 virgates there, held by 

 'Rocinus' in Mawsley Hundred 

 of their fee of Berkhamsted.^ 

 A reference in 1226 to the 

 demesne of Phihp 'Bosce' in 

 Houghton'' may be a scribal 

 error for 'Rosce'. In 1235 one 

 fee was held here by Hugh 

 'Russell', apparently of Ralph 

 Cheynduit;5 in 1242 one small 

 fee was held by Roger 'Roce' ;* a little later Robert 

 'Roce' gave to the Hospital of Holy Trinity by North- 

 ampton lands in Houghton, including Galtrefurlong;' 

 and in 1284 Stephen Cheynduit was holding 14 vir- 

 gates of the Earl of Cornwall,* then held of him by 

 Hugh de Dunster. At the death of Edmund, Earl of 

 Cornwall, s.p. in 1300, fixed fines at the views of 

 frankpledge in Houghton by Lamport, Thorp, and 

 elsewhere, were held of the barony of Cheynduit of the 

 honor of Berkhamsted, which then came to the king as 

 his cousin and heir;' and in 149 1 lands and rent in 

 Hanging Houghton, evidently part of this property, 

 were returned as held of Prince Arthur, the eldest son 

 of Henry VII.'o 



In 1252 Hugh de Dunster and Alice his wife levied 

 two fines of rents in 'Hengende Hocton', one with 

 Thomas de Addingburne," the other with the same 

 Thomas and John de Freyne (Fraxineto) and Alice his 

 wife;'^ and in 1284 Adam de Grendon was holding 

 14 virgates in Houghton of Hugh de Dunster, who 

 held them of Stephen de Cheynduit. In 1302'^ this pro- 

 perty was held by Peter de Grendon, who owed 2 

 marks rent yearly for the tenements he held of Thomas 

 de Addingburne, John de Freyne, and Alice his wife, 

 under the fine of 1252, to Richard son and heir of 

 Henry de Dunster. ■•* Lettice, the wife of John son of 

 Peter de Grendon, was with her husband John en- 

 feoffed by Henry son of Peter of the manor of Hanging 

 Houghton, and, as the widow of John, recovered seisin 

 against Walter Paries in 1347-8. '5 



Humphrey Belcher, previously mentioned as sole 

 surviving feoffee under the settlement made of Lamport 



by Sir William Trussell in 1475, was returned as hold- 

 ing, at his own death in 1501, 4 messuages 5 virgates 

 of land and 6/. rent in Hanging Houghton held of the 

 most excellent prince [Arthur, eldest son of King 

 Henry VII].'* His son Roger succeeded to this estate, 

 W'hich appears, according to Bridges, quoting Mon- 

 tagu evidences, to have been bought by Sir Edward 

 Montagu," as were also certain lands and rents in 

 Hanging Houghton, formerly held by Sir Thomas 

 Tresham. They had been forfeited by him under the 

 Act of Attainder of 1462, and granted to John Donne,'* 

 who in 1489 had the custody of the lord of Lamport 

 Manor during his minority," and who with his wife 

 Elizabeth received a fresh grant of the Tresham lands 

 on II March 1465.^" Isabel the wife of Sir William 

 Pecche was holding these lands in dower, as widow of 

 Sir Thomas.'' 



The Countess Judith's hide and virgate in Houghton 

 in Mawsley Hundred was held under her by Hugh." 

 In the Northamptonshire Survey it was entered, un- 

 changed in extent, as held of the fee of King David,^' 

 and appeared in 1235 and 1242 as half a fee in Scald- 

 well, Houghton, and Upthorp held by the Hastings of 

 the honor of Huntingdon.-* It must ultimately have 

 been merged in the other holdings. 



The hide and half virgate which the abbey of St. 

 Edmund's held in Houghton in 1086-' remained in the 

 fee of St. Edmund at the date of the Northamptonshire 

 Survey.-' In 1284 Richard Trussell was holding 9 vir- 

 gates in Houghton of the Abbot of St. Edmund's.^' The 

 abbot was at the same date holding 3 virgates in Lam- 

 port of William Trussell, under whom Richard Trussell 

 was holding his fee in Lamport, and in 1 3 1 6 William 

 Trussell was returned as holding Houghton cum Lam- 

 port.-* 



Richard Mountygowe of Hanging Houghton, hus- 

 bandman, alias Richard 'LsiAAe. alias Richard Montagu, 

 yeoman, who appeared in 147 1 in a plea of debt,-' may 

 have been identical with Richard Montagu, the father 

 of Thomas, and grandfather of Sir Edward Montagu, 

 Lord Chief Justice, who is said to have bought Heming- 

 ton, and lived there. ^° Probably he removed thence 

 from Hanging Houghton, where, according to 

 Bridges,^' quoting Montagu evidences, he made a 

 settlement of lands on Edward Montagu and his wife 

 Cecily, daughter of William Lane of Orlingbury, in 

 1512-13. Bridges' further statement that both father 

 and son were buying lands in Hanging Houghton in 

 the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII is borne out 

 by the extent of the lands there with which Sir Edward 

 was dealing before the grant to him of the lands of 

 St. Edmund's in 1 541-2.^- Although Sir Edward was 

 dealing in October 1540 with 'manors' and lands in 



' y.C.H. Northants. i, 324.. 



* G.E.C. ^Peerage, Cornwall. 

 3 y.C.H. Northants. i, 380. 



* Rot. Hug. de Welles (Cant. & York 

 Soc), ii, 137. 



5 5^. o/Ff«, 4.97, 501. 

 ' Ibid. 941. 

 ' Anct. D., C. 2850. 

 8 feud. Aids, iv, 2. 



* Cal.Inq. p.m. iii, 604. 



'» Cal. Inq.p.m. Hen. Vll, ii, 446. 

 " Feet of F. Northants. case 173, 

 file 38, no. 601. 

 '^ Ibid. no. 602. 

 " Feud. Aids, iv, 2. 

 ■•t Abbre-v. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 246. 

 " DeBancoR.Hil.21 Edw. III,m.299. 

 ■^ Cal. Inq. p.n. Hen. VII, ii, 446. 



'^ Hist, of Northants. ii, 117. Lands in 

 Lamport held under a lease from the Earl 

 of Oxford by the Belcher family were after 

 the death of Robert Belcher, who died 

 circa 1546 (Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), 

 Ixxv, pt. ii, no. 11), the subject of Chancery 

 proceedings instituted on behalf of Robert's 

 son and heir Edward, then aged 16, against 

 his uncle William Belcher, in whose 

 custody the said lands then were in succes- 

 sion to Alexander, brother of Robert and 

 William, Alexander having lately died. 

 Robert's widow had married Stephen 

 Agard, and the custody of the lands during 

 the minority of the heir had been be- 

 queathed to Alexander: Chan. Proc. 

 (Ser. 2), ix, 18; xix, 59. 



" Cal. fat. 1461-7, p. III. 



198 



" Bridges, Hist, of Northants. ii, 112. 



-" Cal. Pat. 1461-7, p. 4.31. 



^" Fine R. 5 Edw. IV. 



-- y.C.H. Northants. i, 353. 



" Ibid. 380. 



2+ Bk. of Fees, ^^S, 938. 



« y.C.H. Northants. i, 318. 



26 Ibid. 380. 



-' Feud. Aids, iv, 2. 



^8 Ibid. 21. Lamport held of the Wahull 

 fee, and this property held of St. Edmund's, 

 a possible cause of later complications as 

 to respective rights. 



2» Cal. Pat. 1467-77, p. 256. 



3° Bridges, Hist, of Northants. ii, 400. 



3' Ibid. :i7. 



3- L. andP. Hen. yUI, xvi, g. 678 (56); 

 xvii, g. 63 (220). 



