MICHELDEVER HUNDRED 



NORTHINGTON 



cased in stone, with a magnificent portico and other 

 classic decorations. 1 Both house and park, according 

 to Duthy, owed their origin to the family of Henley, 

 who resided there for many generations. Carlyle, 

 among other of the great men of the early nineteenth 

 century, was a constant visitor at the Grange. Thus 

 in 1844 he wrote to Lady Ashburton, 'I am in ugly 

 drudgery and sorrow, and shall not see the beautiful 

 face of " The Grange " or any beautiful thing, for I 

 know not what long months or years.' * 



Apart from the north-west corner of the parish, 

 which includes a part of Micheldever Wood, and 

 covers the greater part of the 501 acres of woodland, 

 the rest of the parish is mostly composed of arable and 

 pasture land, covering respectively 1,331 and 684^ 

 acres. When Duthy wrote, early in the nineteenth 

 century, the work of draining the water meadows 

 was being carried on by Lord Ashburton with excel- 

 lent results. Thus, though, as Duthy stated, the land 

 with its chalk soil and subsoil is 'for the most part 

 thin and weak in quality,' since there are ' tracts of 

 a stronger description on some of the hills, and since 

 the water meadows can now be turned to use as 

 pasture land, farming is in a comparatively flourishing 

 state in the parish, good crops of wheat, oats, and 

 turnips being grown.' Many now disused chalk and 

 gravel-pits are still to be seen in the fields. 



There is no inclosure award. 



Six hides at NORTHINGTON were 

 MANORS named in the almost certainly spurious 

 charter of Edward the Elder to the New 

 Minster. 3 In the Domesday Survey it is difficult to 

 distinguish Northington from the other lands of the 

 abbey in Micheldever Hundred. It may, perhaps, 

 have been identical with the six hides held by Alsi 

 and his father before him. 4 In the fourteenth century 

 three distinct holdings can be traced in Northington. 

 These were the demesne lands of the abbey, known 

 later as the Grange, and two reputed manors held by 

 under-tenants, and known respectively as Northington 

 and Totford. 



The GRANGE, as its name denotes, was kept under 

 the immediate control of the abbey. In 1 263 Alice wife 

 of Henry le Frankelyn released all her right in 36 acres 

 of land in Northington to the abbey, 6 and in 1 346 

 the abbot of Hyde was said to hold there a moiety of 

 a hide which had been in the tenure of Henry le 

 Frankelyn.' It seems, therefore, that this land was 

 part of, or was added to, the Grange. Amongst the 

 lessees of the Grange was Thomas (or William) 7 

 Turner, who obtained a thirty years' lease from the 

 abbey, 24 May, 1519. He also farmed the glebe 

 lands and the tithes of Northington chapel, paying 

 for the whole 8 I o/. yearly. 8 After the surrender of 

 the abbey in 1538, the Grange fell to the crown 

 with the rest of the monastic lands, and was leased 



H K N L E Y. Azure a 

 lion argent 'with a crown 

 or in a border argent and 

 thereon roundels gules. 



successively to William Ryth and Richard Pigot. 

 Finally, in January, 1589-90, Queen Elizabeth sold 

 it to Richard Thekeston and Henry Best," who were 

 probably speculators, for they parted with it almost 

 immediately to James Hunt of Popham, 10 who died 

 seised of it in 1605." His grandson of the same name 

 sold Northington Grange and chapel, together with 

 two mills," 464 acres of land, meadow, wood, and 

 heath in Northington and Kingsclere, and the tithes 

 of Northington, to Sir Benjamin Tichborne in 1641." 

 Northington Grange was evidently purchased by Sir 

 Robert Henley before 1665," 

 and added to his estate in 

 Swarraton, which was also 

 known as the Grange. He 

 was buried at Northington in 

 1692 and was succeeded by 

 his eldest son Anthony, whose 

 grandson Robert was Lord 

 Keeper and was created earl 

 of Northington by George III. 



The title became extinct 

 on the death of his son and 

 heir Robert, whose sisters and 

 co-heiresses sold the Grange in 

 1787 to Henry Drummond, a 

 wealthy banker." Drummond's grandson and heir, the 

 famous follower of Irving, sold the estate in 1817 to 

 Alexander Baring, a cousin of Sir Thomas Baring of 

 Stratton. He also was a leading banker, and was 

 created Baron Ashburton in 1835. In 1842 he 

 negotiated the settlement of the boundaries between 

 the United States and the British Territory in 

 America, and during his lifetime many distinguished 

 guests visited the Grange. The estate was inherited 

 in 1848 by his son William Bingham, second Lord 

 Ashburton, a noted philanthropist, who was succeeded 

 by his brother in 1864. The latter's son and heir, 

 the fourth Lord Ashburton, greatly improved the 

 Grange estate." He died in 1889 and was succeeded 

 by the present Francis Denzil, fifth baron. 



The tenement known later as NORTHINGTON 

 MjfNOR " was held of the successive lords of 

 Micheldever, and apparently had no manorial rights 

 attached to it. It evidently included land lying near 

 the site of the present village of Northington, its 

 appurtenances extending into Totford and Swarraton. 

 The tenant in 1167 seems to have been a certain 

 Richard," and late in the following century Herbert 

 Butler (Pincettia) was holding three hides in North- 

 ington of the abbot of Hyde, while Richard son of 

 Ralph also had four and a half virgates there." In 

 1 346 Henry of Northington was holding with the 

 abbot a part of the land which had been Henry le 

 Frankelyn's. 10 Northington was a few years later in 

 the possession of Thomas Bifleet and his wife Alice, 



1 Duthy, Sketches of Hampshire, 150. 



a Quoted in A Brief Hist, of Northington 

 and Swarraton, by W. L. W. Eyre, rector 

 of Swarraton. 



8 Kemble, Codex Dipl. 836. 



< V.C.H. Hants, i, 4.69*. 



5 Feet of F. Hants, 47 Hen. Ill, 

 No. 47. 



6 Feud. Aids, ii, 319. 



1 He ii called by both names in the 

 account. Perhaps it was William Turner 

 who obtained the lease, and Thomas 

 Turner, his heir, who was holding it at 

 the time of the Dissolution. 



8 Mins. Accts. Hants, 30-31 Hen. 

 VIII, R. 135, m. 44 dorm. 



9 Pat. 32 Eliz. pt. 7, No. I. 



10 Close, 32 Eliz. pt. 20. 



11 Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Ja. I (Ser. 2), 

 bdle. I, No. 67. 



12 One, at least, of the mills was in 

 Kingsclere. 



" Feet of F. Hants, East. 17 Chas. I. 



14 He was taxed for thirteen hearths 

 in Northington in 1665 ; Lay Subs. R. 

 176/565. It is not mentioned in the 

 will of his father, Sir Robert Henley, in 

 1655 (see Eyre's Hist, of Swarraton and 



395 



Nortbington, 28), who ii nevertheless 

 stated to have been the purchaser in the 

 memoir of the first earl of Northington 

 by his grandson. 



15 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 27 Geo. III. 



16 Eyre, Hist, of Swarraton and North- 

 ington, 35 et seq. 



*< It was not so called till the seven- 

 teenth century. 



18 Pipe R. (Pipe R. Soc.), xiii, 188. 



19 Testa de Ne-uill (Rec. Com.), 239. 

 Herbert Butler paid a rent of 41. to the 

 abbey, while Richard son of Ralph paid 

 221. yearly. M Feud. Aids, ii, 329. 



