HITCHIN HUNDRED 



remainder to their second son Henry. 36 Sir Gerard 

 held till his death in I 3 g 9 37 and was succeeded under 

 this settlement by Gerard, his son, 38 who married 

 Eleanor de St. Amand. His only son and heir 

 Gerald died in 1+28, leaving by his wife Parnel a 

 daughter Elizabeth, 39 who married first Sir William 

 Beauchamp, kt. 40 (summoned to Parliament as Lord 

 St. Amand from January 144.8— 9), 41 and secondly 

 Roger Toocotes. Her second husband forfeited 

 the estate early in the reign of Richard III as a 

 rebel, and it was granted to Thomas Meryng, one 

 of the king's servitors, 43 but was restored to Roger 

 Toocotes some seven years later. 43 Elizabeth died in 

 1491 4i and her husband a 

 year later. 44 The manor was 

 inherited by Richard Beau- 

 champ, kt., Lord St. Amand, 

 son of Elizabeth by her first 

 husband. Richard was at- 

 tainted in 1483, bat restored 

 two years later by Henry VII. 

 He died in June 1508 with- 

 out legitimate issue, 46 having 

 bequeathed all his estates to B , , 



his natural son Anthony St _ Amand . ' Cl /„ „ 

 Wroughton alias St. Amand, fixe between six mrtkn 

 who conveyed the manor in »' «* " harder argent. 

 1520-1 to St. John's College, 



Cambridge. 47 This grant caused some trouble 

 between the college and George Brooke, Lord 

 Cobham, who claimed the manor as heir to Richard 

 Beauchamp, being descended from Reginald brother 

 of Sir Gerard Braybrok, who married Eleanor dc 

 St. Amand. 48 The master of the college appeared 

 against Brooke in a Star Chamber suit for having 

 in February 1529-30 incited various persons to 

 come with weapons at three 

 o'clock in the morning to 

 break into the manor of Rame- 

 rick. According to the master, 

 these brought ladders 6 or 7 ft. 

 high and broke the wall of 

 the house and thus entered it 

 and kept possession, refusing 

 admission to a justice of the 

 peace. 49 Lord Cobham pleaded 

 that he was seised in demesne 

 as of fee of the manor and 

 lived there peaceably until 

 unjustly disseised by the 

 college. 50 A few years later 

 the dispute was brought to a close by the surrend 

 by Lord Cobham to St. John's College of his inter: 

 in the manor. 51 In 1617 the college received 

 grant of court leet and view of frankpledge in Ickl 



ICKLEFORD 



their possession 



ford," The manor has remain* 

 until the present day. 



The priory of Wymondley had lands in Ickleford, 

 by whose grant does not appear. A certain Thomas 

 de la Sale, who was imprisoned for felony in the 

 reign of Edward I, held a messuage and izj acres of 

 land of the prior. 53 The monastery also had a mil! 

 called Hyde Mill, 61 which at the time of the Disso- 

 lution was held by the convent of Elstow, co. Bedford, 

 at a rent of 30/. The mill and the rent were granted 

 by Henry VIII to James Nedeham in February 

 1542-3. 66 They descended to John Nedeham, who 

 died seised in 1591, leaving a son and heir George."" 



In 1566 John Brocket! and Ellen his wife con- 

 veyed an estate, under the name of the manor of 

 Ickleford, to trustees for a settlement. sr Edward 

 Brockett some years after alienated this to Edmund 

 Knott. 58 A messuage in Ickleford, the residence of 

 Daniel Knott, is mentioned as part of the manor of 

 Ickleford in 1607, 59 and Edmund Knott, yeoman, 

 died seised of a capital messuage there in 1618, 

 leaving a son and heir John. 110 



The parish church cf ST, KATHE- 



CHURCH R1NE, standing in the middle of the 



village, is of stone, entirely covered with 



plaster. It consists of a chancel, nave, south aisle 



and south chapel, north vestry, west tower and south 



The earliest part of the church is the nave, dating 

 from the middle of the izth century. The chancel 

 and west tower were built early in the following 

 century, and the south porch was added about the 

 middle of the 15th century. In 1859 the church 

 was restored and the south aisle, south chapel and 

 north vestry were added. 



The chancel windows are all modern except a 

 1 3th-century lancet in the north wall. A modern 

 door opens to the north vestry. The piscina, with a 

 broken bowl, is of the 15th century. Above it is 

 some 15th-century tracery, possibly the remnants of 



In the north wall of the nave are two windows, 

 one on each side of a blocked izth-century doorway, 

 which, although it is much decayed and repaired with 

 cement, has a well-preserved cheveron moulding on 

 the rear -arch. The eastern of the two north windows, 

 of the 14th century, is of three cinquefoiled lights 

 with tracery in a square head, and the western, of the 

 1 5th century, is of two cinquefoiled lights, also with 

 tracery, in a pointed head. Both are much repaired 

 with cement. At the east end of the wall is a rood- 

 loft staircase. A much broken piscina is of the 

 15 th century, probably moved from its original 

 position. The roof is of the 1 5th century, supported 

 on grotesque stone corbels. The south arcade and 



" Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 9 Edw. Ill ; 

 Harl. Chart. 47 B. 9. 



"Chan. Inq. p.m. 3} Edw. Ill ( 1st 

 nos.), 00. 31 ; Add. Chart. 15+73 i ?«"/■ 



41**437- 



3a Harl. Chart. 46 F. 3; ; Feud. Aids, ii, 

 449- 



35 Chan. Inq. p.m. 7 Hen. VI, no. 40. 



* Wrottcsley, Ped. from Plea R. 345 ; 

 Feet of F. Div. Co. East. 16 Hen. VI. 



a G.E.C. Cmltpktt Peerage. 



*> Pat. 2 Ric. Ill, pt. iii, m. I. 



* Close, 7 Hen. VII, m. 10 d. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vii, 49. 



