A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



aged 19,' who with his wife Mary in 1641 sold the 

 manor, with a water-mill called 'keep miU' and a wind- 

 mill, to Henry Spencer, Earl of Northampton.- Ac- 

 cording to later bills against Mary Willoughby and her 

 sons' this transaction was merely an arrangement 

 whereby the estates of Philip might escape his credi- 

 tors and sequestration by Parliament, but the subse- 

 quent history of the manor suggests an actual sale, as 

 certainly from the early 1 8th century it has been held 

 by the Earls of Northampton.'' 



Willoughby. Or two 



bars gules ivith three 



ivater-bougets argent on 



the bars. 



Fairfax. Argent three 



gimel bars gules luitk a 



lion sable over all. 



The part of Grendon which came to Isabel wife of 

 Hugh Fairfax in 1376 was held by her descendants 

 until the lythcentury. William Fairfax, son of William 

 the great-grandson of Isabel Fairfax, ^ died in 1498 

 seised of the manor of Grendon, worth 20 marks, which 

 in 1 49 1 he had settled on himself and Agnes his wife 

 and their heirs. It was held of the Earl of Kent as of 

 his manor of Yardley Hastings by fealty and 6<j'. yearly 

 rent.* From William son of WiUiam and Agnes Fair- 

 fax it passed to his daughter Margaret the wife of Miles 

 Worseley, who died in 1516 leaving a son John, aged 7.'' 

 Margaret then married Robert Brudenell of Deeping- 

 Gate.* Her son John Worseley married Mary daughter 

 of Richard Bosome of Baroughby, Lines., and was suc- 

 ceeded in 1545' by his son Francis who died without 

 issue. ■" His heir was his brother Richard" who died in 

 1607 seised of the manor jointly with his wife Mary 

 daughter of John Harrington.'^ On the death of their 

 son John in 1626 leaving a son Richard, aged i, part 

 of the manor was still held by Mary Harrington as 

 dower and part had been settled on John's wife 

 Abigail.'-' From this date its history is obscure, but it 

 appears to have passed to Henry Clifton and his wife 

 Anne and Gilbert Wigmore and his wife Sabina, who 

 made settlements concerning it in 1648,''' 165 3, '^ and 

 1655.'* William Wigmore had an interest in it in 

 17 19," at about which time it was said to belong to 

 the Earl of Northampton,'' whose descendant the 

 present Marquess is lord of the manor to-day. 



In 1492 Roger Salisbury, who succeeded John 

 Mortimer at Horton (q.v.), died seised of the manor 

 of OFER GRENDON, held of William Fairfax by 

 fealty," and was succeeded by his son William Salis- 



bury, who in 1499 '^'^ ^ daughter Mary aged 15.^° 

 She married Lord Parre of Horton^' and after his 

 death gave the manor of Grendon to Sir Thomas 

 Tresham.^^ He, who had been created Grand Prior 

 of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem by Queen Mary, 

 was succeeded in 1559 by his grandson Thomas,^' 

 who conveyed his right in the manor to Lewis, Lord 

 Mordaunt and others in 1587.^'' It was probably 

 acquired later by the Earl of Northampton. 



the church of ST. MART THE 

 CHURCH FIRGIN consists of chancel, 41 ft. by 

 18 ft. 6 in.; clerestoried nave of four bays, 

 56 ft. 3 in. by 14 ft.; north aisle, 12 ft. 3 in. wide; 

 south aisle, 13 ft. 3 ins. wide; south porch, and west 

 tower, 14 ft. by 13 ft., all these measurements being in- 

 ternal. The width across nave and aisles is 44 it. 6 in. 



The tower is faced with alternate courses of finely 

 dressed limestone and ironstone, but elsewhere the 

 walhng is of limestone rubble with ironstone dressings. 

 There are battlemented parapets to the nave and south 

 aisle and a straight parapet to the north aisle. The 

 chancel and nave roofs are covered with slates^^ and the 

 porch with red tiles: all the roofs are modern. Except 

 in the tower the walls are plastered internally. 



There was a partial restoration of the building in 

 1 848, when the chancel was re-roofed, and in 1 899 the 

 church was re-seated, the north wall of the north aisle 

 underpinned and in part rebuilt, the old material 

 being re-used, and other work of repair carried out. 



The two western pillars and arches of the nave 

 arcades are all that remains of an aisled church of 1 2th- 

 century date, the nave of which was of three bays. The 

 arches are semicircular and of a single square order, 

 springing from cylindrical pillars with scaUopped 

 capitals and circular chamfered bases on square cham- 

 fered plinths, and at the west end from scalloped im- 

 posts. The capitals vary in design, and in the imposts 

 and the second pillar from the west on the north side 

 the scalloping is plain; in the other three capitals it is 

 enriched, in two cases with small nail-heads, and nail- 

 head ornament also occurs in the hood-moulds of the 

 arches of the south arcade.-* The circular abacus of 

 the south-west pillar has an indented moulding round 

 its upper member. 



Early in the 13th century the church seems to have 

 been reconstructed at its east end and the aisles widened. 

 The walling of the present south aisle including the 

 south doorway, and of the western portion of the north 

 aisle, is substantially of this date, together with the 

 porch, and a window and doorway on the north side; 

 but the two eastern bays of the nave arcades and the 

 chancel were rebuilt c. 1 360-80, and in the 1 5th cen- 

 tury the tower and clerestory were erected, and several 

 new windows inserted. 



The 13th-century south doorway has a round arch 

 of two orders with hood-mould. The outer order is 

 moulded, on nook-shafts which have moulded capitals 



^ Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclxxxvi, 99. 



2 Feet of F. Northants. Trin. 17 

 Chas. I. 



3 Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 439, no. 4; 

 bdle. 466, no. 44. 



■• Bridges, i, 357. 



5 Wrottesley, op. cit. 339. 



<> Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. FH, il, no. 78. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxx, 49 (2). 



* Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 468, no. i ; 

 W. C. Metcalfe, op. cit. 56, 170, 205. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixxii, 54. 

 The manor was held of Peter Compton, esq. 



'" W. C. Metcalfe, op. cit. 56, 205. 

 " Ibid. 



luiu. 



'- Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclxv, 

 W. C. Metcalfe, op. cit. 26, 205. 



^3 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxxx, 



'* Feet of F. Northants. Mich. 

 Chas. I. 



'5 Ibid. Div. Co. East. 1653. 

 other property named here is that 

 which John Worsley was dealing in i 

 ibid. Hil. 15 Jas. I. 



'^ Ibid. Northants. East. 1655. 



" Ibid. East. 5 Geo. I. 



'8 Bridges, op. cit. i, 357. 

 " Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. FII, i, no. 796. 

 123; He had also 200 acres in Grendon held by 



the Earl of Kent. 

 175. " Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixxviii, 38. 



24 2' G.E.C. Pt-crd^tr (ist ed.), vi, 191. 



-- Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxxiv, 144, 

 The " Ibid. 



with 2* Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 29 Eliz. 



618: *5 In Bridges' time, c. 1720, the chancel 



was leaded. 



2^ The arches of the north arcade are 

 without hood-moulds. 



250 



