WYMERSLEY HUNDRED 



coins have been found, but the 'hill' has no Roman 

 characteristics.' Already in the early 14th century it 

 was caUed Clifford Hill.- The top is said to have been 

 pared off in the 17th century by a lord of the manor 

 who wanted a bowling-green.^ Close by is Clifford Mill 

 on the Nene, now disused. 



The village, with the church at its centre, is grouped 

 round the point where the Northampton-Bedford road 

 is met by that leading to Cogenhoc and Billing. Most 

 of the houses are of the local brown ironstone and are 

 not of great antiquity, the oldest of which the age is 

 known being a cottage adjoining the grounds of Little 

 Houghton House, which bears the almost obliterated 

 date i6i6.'' The proof of age of John Pavely shows 

 that the village was almost completely destroyed by 

 fire in 1333.' In that year the church was polluted, 

 and the Bishop of Lincoln, who came to reconcile it, 

 dined with the lord of Great Houghton manor and 

 confirmed his infant heir.* Opposite the church are 

 the stocks, dating in their present form from 1835, 

 and adjoining the churchyard is the school. A school 

 was founded under the will of William Ward in 1673 

 for 8 boys of this parish and 4 from Great Houghton.' 



Daniel Ward received licence in 161 8 to inclose 

 132 acres in Great and Little Houghton,' and 2,500 

 acres here and in Brafield and Cogenhoe were inclosed 

 in 1827.' 



Ulf son of .'\zor held ij virgates in 

 MANORS [LITTLE] HOUGHTON before the 

 Conquest, with sac and soke. After 1066 

 this was given to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and after his 

 forfeiture claimed by the Countess Judith, who also 

 had I virgatc of land and 5 acres of meadow held by 

 Winemar of the soke of Yardley Hastings."* These 

 lands descended as i knight's fee held of the honor of 

 Huntingdon, together with another knight's fee in 

 Brafield-on-the-Green, being still held of the manor of 

 Earls Barton in the i6th century." 



One William held 3 virgates in Brafield and i\ here 

 in 1086, but there is nothing to connect him with 

 William de Houghton who in the 12th century held 

 3i hides in the two places.'^ William de Houghton 

 held lands in other counties and was chamberlain of 

 Henry L'^ In 11 30 he paid ;^20o in Northampton- 

 shire and Leicestershire for the widow and land of 

 Edward of Salisbury, to the use of his son Payn'* de 

 Houghton, 'le chamberlayne'," who also made a pay- 

 ment.'* Payn presented to the church" and was prob- 

 ably dead by 1 1 55. By his wife Adeliz de Raimes he 

 had a daughter Maud de Houghton, called his heir.'* 



Grimbald. Argent tivo 

 bars azure in a border 

 gulel. 



> F.C.H. Norlhanis. i, 218. 



» Cott. MS. Vcsp. E. xvii, fol. 66. 



' Bridges, loc. cit. 



* This house was built for William 

 Randolphe, bailiff of Lord Zouche, and 

 here was bom Henry Randolphe who emi- 

 grated to Virginia in 1652: rjr inf. Mr. C. 

 Vere Davidge. 



^ Another disastrous fire, in 1780, 

 destroyed eight or ten houses in the village : 

 C. Vere Davidge, quoting I^orthamptt,n 

 Mercury, 



** Cal. Intj. p.m. x, no. 196; Cat. Pal. 

 133+-8, p. 333J Cal. Close, 1333-7, p. 

 714, ibid. 1337-9, p. 36. 



' Bridges, op. cit. 341,375. The school 

 buildings belong to the Smythe estate, but 

 in 1934 were leased to the Board of Mana- 

 gers for 30 years at a rent of one shilling. 



» Pat. l6Ja8. I,p8. 



» Priv. Acts 7 & 8 Geo. IV, c. 34. 



"> y.C.H. tioTihants. 308J, 354^. 



" Pipe R. 9 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc.), 40, 

 JJ Hen. II, 120; Cal. Close, 1237-42, 

 p. 369; Bi. of Fees, 494, 501, 938; Feud. 

 Aids, iv, 6; manorial references below. 



" r.C.H. Norihanis. i, 308, 375*. 



" Farrcr, Honors and Knights^ Fees, ii, 

 308. '* Pipe R. 31 Hen.I.ii. 



'5 Nichols, Leic. ii, 372. The name 

 Caunberleynesdikc occurs in Little 

 Houghton in 1302: Cal. In<j. p.m. iv, 91, 

 p. 57. "■ Pipe R. loc. cit. 



'7 Assize R. 619, m. 13 d, where his 

 date is given as temp. Ric. I. 



'» Cott. MS. Tib. E. v, Plut. jxvii, i, 

 fol. 165 d. ■< Assize R. loc. cit. 



" The manor of 'Hocton Grimbaud' is 

 mentioned in 1284: Feet of F. case 174, 

 file 53, no. 136. 



" Farrer, op. cit. 303; Cott. MS. Vesp. 

 E. xvii, fol. 67. " Harl. Chart. 84 U. i . 



" Cott. MS. loc. cit. 



'* Round, Cal. Docis. France, 336-7. 



LITTLE 

 HOUGHTON 



He had another daughter Emma," not called his heir; 

 and though she shared his inheritance she and her de- 

 scendants held of Maud and her heirs. 



HOUGHTON GRIMBALD.-" Maud married 

 Robert Grimbald, and he (or his father) was called 

 Grimbald de Houghton in about 

 II 55. Robert, like his father, 

 was sewer of the Earl of North- 

 ampton and sheriff before 1 1 5 5 . 

 He, with the consent of Maud, 

 gave to St. Andrew's, North- 

 ampton, a moiety of the church 

 of Little Houghton before 1 168, 

 the probable date of his death 

 being about 1 161.-' Maud, with 

 the consent of her son^- and heir 

 Simon, confirmed the gift to the 

 priory.-^ By 1 176 she had mar- 

 ried her second husband Richard del Peak who then 

 joined her in granting to St. Mary 'de Voto' near Cher- 

 bourg all their land at .\rville at a rent payable at Hough- 

 ton.^* Simon de Houghton and William Grimbald, the 

 son of her first husband-' and afterwards called by Maud 

 her heir,^*were witnesses. By her second husband (who 

 died in iig6)-' Maud had apparently an only child 

 Isabel, who married Hugh de Waterville.^' In one 

 charter, before 11 66, Maud says 'with the consent of 

 Simon my heir and of my other heirs',^' which suggests 

 the division of her inheritance between her sons Simon 

 and William. Simon evidently died without issue and 

 William received Little Houghton. Their mother is 

 last mentioned in 1201 when Anketil le Lou {Lupus) 

 sued her and her sister's husband for 6 virgates of land 

 here. He died and the case ended. ^^ William Grimbald 

 was tenant of the 7 Ryhall fees and half the Lincoln- 

 shire lands of the Houghtons in 1 203-4J' and by 1 2 1 2 

 had succeeded here.^- His son and heir Robert'^ held 

 two fees in these two places and two in Hardwick, 

 Moulton, and Newton in 1235 and 1242. ^^ His son 

 William, a minor in 1265,^' married Mabel sister and 

 later co-heir of John and William de Kirkby and was 

 lord in 1 284, 3* but the same year alienated the manors 

 of Brafield and Little Houghton to John de Kirkby," 

 Bishop of Ely 1286-90, whose brother and heir, 

 William, 3' granted the manor of Little Houghton for 

 life to Henry Spigurnel. Mabel successfully claimed 

 her dower third in both manors in or before 1 302, 

 when, her brothers being dead, she was assigned the 

 reversion of Little Houghton manor as her pou rparty of 

 the Kirkby estates.^' Henry Spigurnel was returned as 



" Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii, fol. 68. 

 -<> Harl. Chart. 86 C. 4. 

 " Farrer, op. cit. ii, 308. 

 " Wrotteslev, Ped. from the Plea R. 

 482. '" Harl. Chart. 86 C. 40. 



>» Cur. Reg. R. i, 307, 465. 

 ^' Farrer, op. cit. ii, 304. 

 " Red Bk. of Exch. 533. 

 " Assize R. 619, m. 13 d. 



» Bk. of Fees, 494, 501, 938 ; Cal. Close, 



'237-42. P- 369- 



" Cal. Intj. Misc. \, 846. 



^^ Feud. Aids, iv, 6. In 1277 Brafield 

 was still recorded as held of 'Grimbald de 

 Houghton': Cal. Inrj. p.m. ii, 222. 



" Feet of F. Northants. 1 3 Edw. I, no. 

 136; ibid. 14 Edw. I, no. 208. 



" Cal. In<j. p.m. ii, 781, p. 476. 



" CjI. Fine R. 1272-1307, pp. 460-3; 

 Abbre-v. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 259, 300; Cal. 

 Close, 1302-7, p. 409; Cal. Inq. p.m. iv, 

 9'.PP-5S. S7- 



267 



