A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



rent amounting to £^o 5/. annually is distributed by 

 3 trustees to the poor in loaves of bread. 



Church or Town Estate. This charity comprises an 

 allotment of about 19 acres of land and 4 cottages. The 

 land and cottages are let and the rent is received by the 

 churchwardens and applied towards church expenses. 



William Underwood in about 1799 bequeathed 

 ^100 for providing bread for the poor. The endow- 



ment now consists of ^^184 5^. lOi/. Consols producing 

 an income of ^^4 J2s. ^J. which is distributed by 3 

 trustees to the poor in loaves of bread. 



Miss Frances Montgomery by will proved 25 

 September 1888 gave ^^50 to the rector to be applied 

 annually in the purchase of coal to be distributed 

 amongst the poor inhabitants; the income amounts to 



Ci ss. sj. 



PIDDINGTON WITH HACKLETON 



Pidentone (xi cent.); Pedinton (xii cent.); Pyding- 

 ton (xiii cent.). Hachelintone (xi cent.); Hakelington 

 (xii cent.); Haclynton (xiv cent.). 



The parish of Piddington lies 5J miles south-east by 

 south from Northampton near the road to Newport 

 Pagnell which passes through Hackleton village to the 

 north-east. It has a station on the Northampton and 

 Bedford branch of the L.M.S. railway. There are 

 1,693 acres in Piddington and 1,086 in Hackleton, and 

 the soil is marl and clay on a subsoil of limestone rock. 

 The chief crops are wheat, of a very good milling 

 quality, and oats and beans with pasture land, while to 

 the south are numerous copses of Salcey Forest. The 

 average height is 300 ft., rising gradually to about 

 400 ft. in the forest. A stream flowing towards Preston 

 Deanery divided the civil parishes of Piddington and 

 Hackleton before the amalgamation of the parishes in 

 1935, when the new civil parish of Hackleton was 

 formed out of the hamlet of Hackleton and the old 

 parishes of Piddington, Horton, and Preston Deanery.' 

 A stone quarry near the village of Piddington is no 

 longer worked, but was used for lime-burning till 

 1924 or 1925. At the end of the 19th century there 

 was a shoe factory at Piddington, now an engineering 

 shop for repairing agricultural machinery, and another 

 at Hackleton, now the village hall. Football boots are 

 still made by two men in Piddington for Messrs. Man- 

 field & Sons of Northampton. Until recently there were 

 many makers of pillow lace. 



In 1086, Gilbert de Blossevill held i 

 MANORS hide and 3 virgates in PIDDINGTON 

 of the Countess Judith, which before the 

 Conquest had been held by two of Burred's freemen, 

 and it was claimed by the Bishop of Coutances and 

 Winemar de Hanslope.- In the 12th century this was 

 described as li hides i virgate of King David's fee,^ 

 and in 1235 as i knight's fee held of the honor of 

 Huntingdon.* 



The mesne lordship was attached to the manor of 

 Harrold (Beds.) and passed from the family of de 

 Blossevill to that of Morin and later to that of Grey 

 of Ruthin. 5 In 1284 the Master of the Hospital of St. 

 John of Northampton held here I knight's fee of Ralph 

 Morin* and in 13 16 was named with the Prior of St. 

 Andrew's, Northampton, as lord of the vill of Pidding- 



' County of Northampton Review Or- 

 der, 1935. 2 ^.C.//. AVM^jn/j. i, 355a. 



3 Ibid. 375*. * Bk. of Fees, 501. 



5 Cf. Farrer, ii, 327-9, 34.S, 34.9; 

 ^.C.H. Beds, iii, 65. 



^ Feud, j^ids, iv, 7. In 1299 the hos- 

 pital acquired land and rent in Piddington 

 and elsewhere from William de Brampton: 

 Inq. a.q.d. xxix, 10. 



' Feud. Aids, iv, 26. The Master of 

 St. John's held chiefly in Piddington and 

 the Prior of St. Andrew's in Hackleton. 

 See infra. 



O C) o 



Grey OF Ruthin. Barry 



argent and axure ivitk 



three roundels gules in 



the chief. 



ton and Hackleton.' On the death of John de Grey of 

 Ruthin in 1323 his tenants were found to be the 

 master of St. John's Hospital for half a fee and Eliza- 

 beth de Pakenham for half a 

 fee.* Two years later his son 

 Roger de Grey held half a fee.' 

 In 1338 Robert de Crendon, 

 clerk, had licence to alienate to 

 the Hospital of St. John a mes- 

 suage and land which the hosiptal 

 held of Roger de Grey,'° and in 

 1 349 Roger was still holding half 

 a fee, extended at 40J. yearly." 

 The later history of Piddington 

 is confused. Part of the fee may 

 have been annexed to the manor 

 of Hackleton and Piddington 

 held in 1475-6 of Edward de Grey, Earl of Kent,'^ 

 and part may be accounted for in the 200 acres of 

 land, 100 acres of pasture, and 5 tofts in Piddington, 

 Horton, and Hackleton, worth 5 marks, held to farm 

 of the Hospital of St. John for the life of Elizabeth the 

 widow of William de Preston, who died in 1487.'^ 



William Walter died seised of a manor of Pidding- 

 ton in 1 5 59,''* described as sometime belonging to 

 Henry Morton, who may have inherited from Joan 

 Morton the sister and heir of William de Preston." 

 Five years later John son of William Walter and his 

 wife Margaret conveyed the property to Francis Sam- 

 well'* who between 1579 and 1587 brought a suit 

 against Robert Harlowe and his wife Martha, late the 

 wife of Jasper Hartwell, concerning leases of the tithe 

 barn and tithes in Piddington granted by the Master of 

 St. John's Hospital." In 1639 there wasafineconcern- 

 ing the manor with land in Hackleton and Horton 

 between Robert Samwell, esq., and WiUiam Lane, esq., 

 grandson of Sir William Lane.'* 



At the time of Domesday the Countess Judith held 

 in HACKLETON 2 hides of the soc of Yardley Hast- 

 ings, and the Bishop of Coutances half a hide formerly 

 held by Burred, but in 1086 by Winemar." The hold- 

 ing of the countess appears in the 12th-century survey 

 as I hide held by Nortgold, i hide by the monks of 

 Northampton, and half a hide byTurgisde Quenton.^" 

 The property of St. Andrew's Priory seems to have had 



^ Cal. Inq. p.m. vi, p. 314. The family 

 of Pakenham held of de Grey in Bedford- 

 shire : Farrer, ii, 329. 



^ Cal, Inq. p.m. vi, 612. The other 

 half fee may have been the manor of 

 Hackleton, which John de Grey had 

 apparently alienated to Ralph Basset in 

 1303: De Banco R. East. 14 Ric. II, 

 m. 441. 



'° Cal. Tat. 1334-8, p. 497; Inq. 

 a.q.d. ccxl, I. 



" Cal. Inq. p.m. ix, 118, p. 122; Cal. 

 Close, 1346—9, p. 582. 



'^ Chan. Inq. p.m. 15 Edw. IV, no. 44. 



'^ Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII, i, 529. 



■•* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxviii, 60. 



^5 Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. Vll, i, 529. 



'^ Feet of F. Northants. Hil. 6 Eliz. 



" Early Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 217, 

 no. 34. Sir John Wake held a lease of 

 tithes in Piddington and Hackleton in 

 I 641 : Bridges, i. 378. 



■8 FeetofF. Northants. Hil. i4Chas. I. 



■9 V.C.H. Northants. i, 310*. 



" Ibid. 376a. 



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