ORLINGBURY HUNDRED 



PYTCHLEY 



made a grant to John de Chanceux and his wife Mar- 

 garet of land and of the mill in Pytchley,' the mending 

 of the mill-pond being in 1240 the subject of another 

 agreement between him and the abbey ;^ and in May 

 1237 Ralph was engaged in a 

 suit against the Prior of Launds, 

 John de Chanceux, and Ralph 

 Taylehaste concerning customs 

 and services which he demanded 

 of them for his free tenement in 

 Weldon and Pytchley. ^ This 

 Ralph, who was seated at Wel- 

 don, was succeeded by his son, 

 another Ralph, who had livery 

 of his father's lands in 1 2 sy-S," f//"""',"^ "If,""', "^ 

 and whose son Richard Basset ' Zrl'r'LbfXLnl. " 

 claimed view of frankpledge in 



Pytchley in 1275,' and died in 1276, seised of this 

 manor.* His son Ralph in 1284 was holding 5 J 

 hides in Pytchley of the Abbot of Peterborough.' 

 In 1284 Ralph Basset of Weldon received a quit 

 claim from Hugh Ridel, lord of Wittering, for any 

 right the said Hugh might have in the manors of 

 Weldon, Weston, and Pytchley by descent from 

 Richard Basset and Geoffrey Ridel his son and heir, or 

 from Hugh Ridel and Richard his son and heir.* 

 Pytchley then foUowed the descent of Weldon (q.v.)' 

 until 1408, when, on the death of Richard Basset, the 

 property was divided benveen his cousins, Weldon 

 passing to John Knyvet and Pytchley to Sir Thomas 

 Aylesbury, who died in 141 8 seised of a manor of 

 Pytchley, composed of the manor of Pytchley called 

 Engavnes (q.v.) and of this manor, then called BAS- 

 SETS and later on known as STAFFORDS.'" Bassets, 

 held by him of the abbey of Peterborough, had been 

 granted by him in 1416-17 to Sir Thomas Chaworth, 

 the husband of his daughter Isabel," but was assigned 

 for life to his widow Katharine.'- Katharine, who had 

 inherited the Engayne manor as the daughter of 

 Lawrence de Pabenham, died on 17 July 1436, leaving 

 as her heir her son Laurence Cheyne, aged 40. '^ In 

 1459 Sir Thomas Chaworth died seised of a moiety of 

 this manor, held by him of the Abbot of Peterborough 

 for life, after the death of his wife Isabel, as of the 

 inheritance of William Chaworth, her son and heir.'^ 

 The other moiety of the manor appears to have re- 

 mained in the hands of Sir Thomas Aylesbury's other 

 daughter and co-heir Eleanor, who married Humphrey 

 Stafford. The attainder and execution of Humphrey 

 Stafford was followed by the grant on 6 October 1487 

 of the manor of Bassets to Sir John Guldeford." This 

 manor, apparently including the Chaworth moiety, 

 subsequently passed to Robert Isham, of whose manor 



of Staffords his brother Giles held property in Pytchley 

 in 1 5 ;9,'* and descended with the manor of Engaynes. 



The manor of ENGArNES, DENGATNES, or 

 GETNES, though originally so much smaller in size, 

 has an interest of its own that Bassets cannot rival, by 

 reason of its connexion with the hunt that has made 

 Pytchley famous the world over. This connexion has 

 already been dealt with in two previous volumes, an 

 account of the Enga)'nes, and of the Pytchley and Lax- 

 ton tenure, or wolf-hound serjeanty," being given in 

 the articles on the 'Domesday Survey'"' and on 'Sport', 

 while in the latter article there is also given the history 

 of the hunt which in later days had its head-quarters 

 there." 



The first tenant recorded is the Saxon Alwin the 

 huntsman, who held 2 hides in Pytchley under Edward 

 the Confessor. He had been succeeded by William 

 Engayne, who held 2 hides in Pytchley of the king. 

 When the Northampton Survey was taken, 3 hides 

 I virgate were held by Richard Engayne,^" the Peter- 

 borough manor being dimin- 

 ished by an equivalent amount, 

 and that it was from the Peter- 

 borough manor it was taken is 

 clear from the fact that Engaynes 

 was held eventually partly of the 

 king by great serjeanty, and 

 partly of the abbey of Peter- 

 borough. In 1 2 10-12 Richard 

 Engayne was holding Pytchley 

 and Laxton by service of hunting 

 the wolf.^' This was the portion 

 of the Engayne manor which 

 was held of the king in chief; the other portion of 

 it was confirmed to the abbey of Peterborough in 

 1227^- and 1332,-5 as the fee of one knight in Pytch- 

 ley, Thorpe, and Hargrave. Vital Engayne, brother 

 of Richard, died in 1249, when he was returned as 

 holding lands in Laxton and Pytchley by serjeanty 

 of hunting the wolf at the king's command in 3 J 

 counties. He was succeeded by his son Henry,-* who 

 at his death in 1 27 1 held his lands in Laxton of 

 the king in chief by the said serjeanty, and his lands 

 in Pytchley, worth ;^io, by similar service.-' John 

 Engayne succeeded his brother Henry at Pytchley, 

 where he claimed view of frankpledge, &c., in 1275,^* 

 and was returned as holding 20 librates of land in chief 

 by the above serjeanty in 1284.-' In the same year 

 Millicent de Monhaut complained that he and others 

 had entered her park at Harringworth, cut her trees, 

 stretched nets and caught a tame cat {catum domest'i- 

 cuni). John replied that his serjeanty entitled him to 

 chase vermin in the parks both of the king and of other 



xO&v viS Crv. frScrv 



EscAVNE. Gules cruiily 

 and a fesse dancctly or. 



' Sloane Ch. xxxi, 4., 43; Feet of F. 

 Northants. case 172, Ble 21, no. 194. 



' Reg. Robt. Swaffham, fol. 207»'. 



' Cloit R. 1234-7, p. 534. John de 

 Chanceux died seised of 1 virgate in 

 Pytchley held of the fee of Ralph Basset 

 of Weldon in 1249: Chan. Inq. p.m. 33 

 Hen. Ill, no. 77. Taylehastes, viz. Wil- 

 liam, Sara daughter of William, John, and 

 Robert, were dealing with messuages or 

 lands in Pytchley in 1202-3, '" 1-19, and 

 in 1232 : Feet of F. Northants. 4 John, 

 no. 105; ibid. 3 Hen. Ill, no. 43; ibid. 

 16 Hen. Ill, no. 288. 



* Dugdale, Bar. of Engl, i, 378. 

 » Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 1 2. 



* Cat. Intf. p.m. ii, no. 192. 

 ' Feud. Aidi, iv, I . 



' De Banco R. no. 60, Mich. 1 3 Edw. I, 

 m. 97. Lands in Pytchley passed from the 

 Bassets of Drayton to the Draytons : e.g. 

 Alan Basset gave to Walter de Drayton 

 and Lucy his wife, 'daughter of Richard 

 Basset my brother', and their heirs, all his 

 lands and tenements in Pytchley: Book of 

 Deeds belonging to Ishams of Lamport, 

 p. 15. 



' Cat. Pal. 1281-92, p. 498; Feud. 

 Aidi, iv, 22 j Plac. de Quo IVarr. (Rec. 

 Com.), 531; Chan. In<). p.m. 8 RIc. II, 

 no. 9. 



"> Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Hen. V, no. 35. 



" Ibid. 



" Add. Ch. 22388. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 15 Hen. VI, no. 50. 



'< Ibid. 37 Hen. VI, no. 25. 



" Cal.Pal. 1485-94, p. 151; ibid. 257. 



"> Bridges, lint, of Northanis. ii, 124. 



" For a discussion of this, see also 

 Round, fling's Serjeants^ 293-8. 



" r.C.II. Northann. i, 29+ j ii, 368-9. 



>« Ibid. 356-68. The Pytchley Hounds. 



"> Ibid, i, 383. 



'■ RedBk. ofExch. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 533. 

 The name is written 'Witteslcg*', ob- 

 viously a misreading of W for P. 



" Cal. Chan. R. 1226-57, p. 19. 



" Ibid. 1327-41, p. 275. Cf. Hen. of 

 Pytcheley't Bk. of Feet (Northants. Rec. 

 Soc), I 30-2. 



'* Cal. Inq. p.m. i, no. 166. 



" Ibid. no. S09. 



»' Rot. Ilund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 1 2. 



" Cal. Inrj. p.m. iii, no. 418. 



IV 



209 



