WYMERSLEY HUNDRED 



GRENDON 



GRENDON 



Grendon (xi cent.); Crcnden (xiii cent.); Gryndon 

 (xiv cent.); Greendon (xvii cent.). 



The parish and village of Grendon is seated on high 

 ground commanding a view over a fine vale of pasture- 

 land, li miles south-east from the Castle Ashby and 

 Earls Barton Station. The soil is of a mixed character 

 on a subsoil of limestone. The chief crops are cereals 

 and there is much grassland used for grazing. The 

 parish lies chiefly at a height of about 200 ft. Its area 

 is 1,727 acres. The common lands were inclosed by 

 an award of 1781.' 



The population in 1931 was 414. 



The Hall, formerly the manor-house, is on the north 

 side of the village, near Nether End, on the road to 

 Wollaston. It is a 17th-century two-story house 

 greatly altered in the 1 8th century, when the principal 

 or east front, which has slightly projecting end wings, 

 was rebuilt in Corby and Ketton stone. It is a simple 

 but very pleasing design, with square-headed windows, 

 drafted quoins, wooden modillion cornice, and slated 

 hipped roofs. The windows have architraves and 

 heavily barred sashes painted white, and the square- 

 headed doorway has a circular hood supported on 

 brackets. The 18th-century facing is continued along 

 the shorter south front, but the longer north front re- 

 mains substantially unaltered- and retains its muUioned 

 windows. There is a partly panelled open staircase and 

 two of the bedrooms contain tapestry. To the north- 

 east of the house are the stables and dovecote, the latter 

 a rectangular limestone structure with gables east and 

 west, and square wooden cupola, apparently of 17th- 

 century date.' 



At Nether End the socket-stone of an ancient cross 

 lies by the roadside, and there is a second in a field 

 adjoining.* 



In 1806, the Countess Judith held in 

 MANOR GRENDON 3 hides and i virgate, including 

 3 mills, as a member of Yardley Hastings. She 

 also held a virgate of socland pertaining to Castle Ashby 

 which descended with that fee (q.v.). 5 From the 12th 

 century, when 7 hides less i virgate in Yardley and 

 Grendon were part of the fee of King David,^ this 

 holding continued under the honor of Huntingdon. 

 According to a later pleading, John, Earl of Hunting- 

 don, gave the manor of Grendon to Baldwin de Paun- 

 ton.' James de Paunton, who held the manor in 1255,' 

 was accused of exacting excessive services from his 

 tenants in 1260.' Haifa knight's fee was held by his 



Harrington. Sable 

 frclly argent. 



son Philip of John de Hastings in 1284.'° Maud 

 daughter of Philip married John de Harrington of 

 Harrington, Lines., and in 1287 Philip granted them 

 6s. rent from Grendon with the 

 remainder of the manor after the 

 death of Isabel widow of James de 

 Paunton." John de Harrington 

 was holding this fee in 1 3 1 3 '- and 

 in 1 3 1 6 was named lord of Gren- 

 don and Cotes.'' His son Richard 

 died before his father in 1325 

 seised of a little manor {maneret- 

 lum) in Grendon held of John de 

 Hastings by service of 6J. yearly. 

 This included a messuage with a 

 ditch and garden, 80 acres of arable in demesne, and 

 a mill, and passed to his son John, aged 18.'* In 1329 

 this John de Harrington, later styled 'chivaler', proved 

 his claim to view of frankpledge in the manor by 

 descent from Baldwin de Paunton." He died in 1376 

 having been seised jointly with Elizabeth his first 

 wife and leaving as heirs his daughters .^my wife 

 of John Carnell, and Isabel wife of Hugh Fairfax.'* 

 He had a third daughter Alice, aged one, of whose 

 inheritance John Carnell had custody." She was prob- 

 ably daughter of Isabel his second wife'* and does not 

 appear to have had any share of Grendon. The 

 property of her two sisters became two separate manors 

 in the i 5th century. 



The CarneO inheritance may have passed to William 

 son of Amy Carnell,"' but it appears to have been held 

 for a period by Sir Thomas Brownflete, who in 1403 

 received a grant of free warren in his demesne lands in 

 Grendon.^" Some time early in that century it was held 

 by John Mortimer, esq., on whose behalf there was a 

 commission of inquiry about housebreaking and assault 

 at Grendon in 1413.^' Agnes daughter of John Mor- 

 timer by his first wife married Baldwin Willoughby 

 after 1458,^- and her son John inherited the manor of 

 Grendon.^' At the end of the century Baldwin and 

 John Willoughby had to defend their rights in Grendon 

 against William and John Holdenby, the husbands of 

 Eleanor and Joan the half-sisters of Agnes Willoughby. -■♦ 

 These were finally secured to John Willoughby and his 

 son Richard in 1514.^* The latter's son Edward died 

 in 1 558,-* and his son Robert died seised of it in 161 5, 

 leaving as heir his brother Richard aged 60.^' On the 

 death of Richard in 162 1 it passed to his son Philip, 



' Rccov. R. East. 21 Geo. Ill.ro. 169. 



* The 18th-century wooden cornice, 

 however, is continued its full length. 



' NDrlkanll. A'. &f Q. N.s. vi, 119, 

 where it is figured. It measures externally 

 26 ft. 4 in. by 18 ft. and the height to the 

 eaves is about 16 ft. The roof timbers arc 

 original. There are about 560 nesting 

 places. 



* Markham, Stcne Crosses of Northants, 

 (1901}, 57 : both stones are rude and of no 

 architectural importance. 



' y.C.H. Sorihants. i, 351*. 



» Ibid. 353 A. 



' flat, de Quo H^'arr. (Rec. Com.), 559 j 

 Bridges, i, 356. For this family see Farrer, 

 Honors and Knights' Fees, ii, 3 14. 



* Assize R. 619, m. 32. 

 Ibid. 616, m. 6d. 



■» Feud. Aids, iv, 6. 



" Feet of F. case 175, file 55, no. 238. 

 Isabel de Paunton had view of frankpledge 

 in Grendon : Ilund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 8. 



'* Cat. Inq. p.m. v, no. 412, p. 235. 



*J Feud. Aids, iv, 26 : Knights of Ed- 

 nvard I (Flarl. Soc. Ixxxi, 1929), p. 188. 



'* Chan. Inq. p.m. £dw. II, file 90, no. 

 10. 



'» Plac. de Quo ffarr. (Rec. Com.), 559. 

 The prior of the Hospital of St. John of 

 Jerusalem in England had view of frank- 

 pledge from his own tenants in Grendon 

 and elsewhere (ibid. 532). Land had been 

 given to the Hospitallers by William son 

 of Reynold de Grendon : Cat. And. D. 

 A. 8966. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 51 Edw. Ill, no. 

 18A; Cat. Fine, viii, 399, 402. 



" Ibid, ix, 26. 



" She had dower in his lands in Lines. 



and Notts.: Chan. Inq. p.m. 51 Edw. Ill, 

 no. 18 a. 



"> G. V/ronci\ey, Pedigrees from the Plea 

 Rolls, 339. Maud daughter of a William 

 de la Carnaill married Robert de Holdenby: 

 Cal. Inq. p.m. xi, no. 287. 



" Cal. Chart, v, 421. 



" Cal. Pat. 1413-16, p. 115. 



" y.C.ll. Bucks, iv, 469. 



^^ Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 179, no. 5. 



^* Ibid, bdles. 97, no. 80 j 179, no. 5. 

 Eleanor and Joan were daughters of John 

 Mortimer by Anne daughter of George 

 Longueville. 



" Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 5 Hen. VIII. 



^^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Scr. 2), cxviii, 9. 

 There is no inquisition for Northants. 



" W. C. Metcalfe, f-'isitation of 

 Morthants. 157; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), 

 cccxiviii, 147. 



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