HOWXPIMC.
; DIEGO j
Oversize
v.^
Zhc IDtctotla Distort of tbe Counties of Enolanb
EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
VOLUME II
The publisher regrets that a fev/ pages of this scarce copy are slifditly soiled as it had to fee made up from old sheet stock.
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE
AND COMPANY LIMITED
This History is issued to Subscribers only By Archibald Constable & Company Limited and printed by Eyre & Spottiswoode H.M. Printers of London
INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY OF
HER LATE MAJESTY
QUEEN VICTORIA
WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE
THE TITLE TO AND
ACCEPTED THE
DEDICATION OF
THIS HISTORY
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTY OF
NORTHAMPTON
Edited by THE REV. R. M. SERJEANTSON, M.A. AND W. RYLAND D. ADKINS, B.A., M.P.
VOLUME TWO
LONDON
JAMES STREET
HAYMARKET 1906
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Dedication
Contents
List of Illustrations
Editorial Note
Table of Abbreviations
Ecclesiastical History
Religious Houses
Introduction
Abbey of Peterborough
Priory of Luffield
Priory of St. Michael, Stamford
Priory of Wothorpe
Priory of St. Andrew, Northamp ton
Priory of St. Augustine, Daventry
Abbey of Delaprd
Abbey of Pipewell
Priory of Catesby
Priory of Sewardsley
Abbey of St. James, Northampton
Priory of Canons Ashby
Priory of Chalcombe
Priory of Fineshade or Casll
Hymel Hermitage of Grafton Regis Nunnery of Rothwell Abbey of Sulby Preceptory of Dingley Black Friars of Northampton Franciscans of Northampton Austin Friars of Northampton Carmelite Friars of Northampton Hospital of Armston Hospital of Aynho
Hospital of St. James and St, John, Bracidey
Hospital of St. Leonard, Brackley
Hospital of Cotes
Hospital of St. David and the Holy Trinity, Kingsthorpe
Hospital of St. John Baptist and St. John Evangelist, North- ampton . . . .
By the Rev. R. M. Serjeantson, Ryland D. Adkins, B.A.
By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.
M.A., and W,
FACE V
iz ziii
xvii xix
79 83
95 98
lOI
I02 109 114 116 121 125 127 130
135
»37 137 138 142 144 146
J47 148 149
150
15' 153 "5+
IS4
156
IX
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Sepulchre, Stam Leonard, Tow
Religious Houses {continued) ; —
Hospital of St. Leonard, North- ampton
Hospital of St. Thomas, North ampton
Hospital of Walbek, Northamp ton ....
Hospital of St Leonard, Peter borough .
Hospital of St. Thomas the Mar tyr, Peterborough
Hospital of Pirho
Hospital of St. Giles, Stamford
Hospital of St. John Baptist and St. Thomas the Martyr, Stamford
House of St. ford
Hospital of St.
cester ...
Hospital of St. Leonard, Thraps ton ....
College of Cotterstock
College of Fotheringhay
College of Higham Ferrers .
College of Irthlingborough .
College of All Saints, Northamp ton ....
College of Towcester
Priory of Everdon
Priory of Weedon Beck
Priory of Weedon Pinkney or Weedon Lois
Early Christian Art
Schools ....
Industries : —
Introduction
Quarries (Historical) .
Quarries and Mines (Technical)
Bell Founding .
Pipe Making
Leather ....
Boots and Shoes
Gloves ....
Whips ....
Textiles and Allied Trades .
Lace ....
Paper .... Forestry ....
Sport Ancient and Modern
The Royal Buckhounds
Stag Hunting .
By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A.
By J. RoMiLLY Allen, F.S.A, By A. F. Leach, M.A., F.S.A,
By C. H. Vellacott, B.A.
» >»
By Beeby Thompson, F.C.S., F.G.S By T. J. George, F.G.S. By Bruce B. Muscott
By T. J. George, F.G.S By Bruce B. Muscott By T. J. George, F.G.S,
By Bruce B. Muscott
By J. NisBET, D. CEc
Edited by E. D. Cuming
By Christopher A. Markham, F.S.A.
PACE
•59
i6i
i6z
162
162 163 163
164
.65
165
166 1 66
170
177 179
180 181 182 182
183
187 201
289 293 298
307 308 310
317 331
33» 332 336 339 341
353 35 +
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Sports Ancient and Modern {continued)
Early Foxhounds
The Pytchley Hounds The Woodland Pytchley The Pytchley Country The Grafton Hounds The Grafton Country The Fitzwilliam Hounds
Harriers and Beagles
Otter Hunting
Coursing .
Falconry .
Shooting .
Angling .
Flat Racing
Steeplechasing
Golf
Athletics .
Cricket .
Football . Polo Ancient Earthworks
Topography
By Christopher A. Markham, F.S.A.
Soke of Peterborough : — Introduction
Borough of Peterborough Bainton .... Barnack .... Borough Fen Castor ....
Sutton
Upton Etton .... Eye ....
Glinton .... Helpston .... Marholm .... Maxey .... Newborough Northborough . Paston .... Peakirk .... St. Martin's, Stamford Baron
By the Rt. Hon. Lord Lilford
By M. R. L. White ....
By Christopher A. Markham, F.S.A.
»> f» »'
By A. G. Bradley ....
By Charles Herbert ....
By Home Gordon, assisted by J. P. Kingston, B.A., P. H. Fryer, M.A., and the late W. G. Grace, Jun., M.A
By C. M. Purvis and C. W. Alcock
By Christopher A. Markham, F.S.A.
Compiled from notes and plans supplied by the Rev,
E. A. DoWNMAN ....
General descriptions and manorial descents prepared by the General Editor, the Editors for the County, and Miss Joyce Jeffries Davis, Oxford Honours School of Modem History ; Architectural descrip- tions by C. R. Peers, M.A., F.S.A., and J. A. GoTCH, F.S.A. ; Heraldic drawings and blazon by the Rev. E. E. Dorling, M.A.
(By Miss Mary Bateson)
FAGB
355 356 367 368 369 372 373 375 376 376
377 377 380 382
383 386 388
388 393 396
397
421 424 460 463 4-7* 472 481 483 486 490 492 495
499 502
507 508
5i« 5'9 52*
XI
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
PAGE
Topography (con/inuet/) : —
Soke of Peterborough {continued) : —
Thornhaugh . ...........529
UfFord 533
Wansford . . . . . . . . . . . -537
Wittering . . . . . . . . . . . . -539
Willybrook Hundred : —
Introduction ............. 54*
Apethorpe ............. 54.3
Collyweston . . . . . . . . . . . . .550
Cotterstock . . . . . -SSS
Duddington ............. 560
Easton on the Hill ............ 564
Fotheringhay ............. 569
Glapthorn .......... . . 576
King's ClifFe .......... . . 579
Lutton ............ . . 584
Nassington . . . . . . . . . . .586
Southwick ... ....... . . 591
Tansor .............. 595
Woodnewton ............. 599
Yarwell .............. 602
XII
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
In the Pytchley Country . . By William Hyde ....... Frontispiece
Northampton Monastic Seals —
Plate I .... full-page fi late, facing 94
Plate II „ „ „ 116
Plate III „ „ „ 136
Plate IV. . . . • „ „ „ 160
Cross-base in Churchyard, Castor . . . . . . . . . . .190
Cross-slabs and Footstone in Peterborough Cathedral .... full-pa^ plate, facing 190
The so-called ' Hedda's Stone ' in Peterborough Cathedral . . . „ ,. „ 192
The Font, Wansford .........*„„■,, 196
Tympanum over South Doorway, Pitsford Church . . . . . . . .197
Capitals at Wakerley Church ............ 198
Capitals of the Tower Arches, Castor Church ..... fill-page plate, facing 198
Ancient Earthworks —
Borough Hill, Daventry ............ 398
Burnt Walls, Daventry . . . . . . . . . . . -399
Hunsbury .............. 399
Rainsborough or ' Charlton C.imp '.......... 400
Arbury Hill . . ....... ..... 401
Castle Dykes ' Camp ' ............ 402
Irchester ............... 402
The Mount, Alderton ............ 403
Great Cransley Mound ............ 404
Cnlworth Castle ............. 404
Earls Barton Castle ............. 405
Clifford Hill 405
Hill Ground, Lilbourne ............ 406
Toot Hill, Peterborough ............ 406
Preston Capes .............. 406
Sulgrave Castle ............. 407
Towcester Bury Mount ............ 408
Wollaston Castle ............. 408
Long Buckby Castle ............. 409
Castle Dykes .............. 409
Fotheringhay Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . .410
Lilbourne Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . .411
Sibbertoft Castle Yard . . . . . . . . . . .411
Titchmarsh Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . .413
Barnwell Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . .413
Barton Seagrave Castle . . . . . . . . . . . .414
xiii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGB
Ancient Earthworks {continued) —
Braybrooke Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . • 4'4
Evenley Old Town 4' 5
Hinton Manor House ...... . . . . • 4'7
Rothersthorpe Berry . . . . . . . . . . . . • 4'7
Steane Castle . . . . . . . . . . . . . .418
Hall Close, East Farndon 4'9
Peterborough : The Town Hall and St. Tohn's Church 1 ,■ „ , y •
) . . full -page plate, facing 430
„ Interior of St. John the Baptist's Church J
Peterborough Cathedral : The Crossing, looking North 1
-,,_.,._,, > • • • » »> »» 43*
„ „ North Side of Presbytery [
Peterborough Cathedral : Interior of the 'New Building' ) .c
\ • ' )> >i »» 43"
„ „ The Nave, looking East )
Peterborough Cathedral : East Side of the North Transept ) . .0
„ „ North Transept from the West )
Peterborough Cathedral coloured plan, facing 440
Peterborough Cathedral : Diagrams showing the development of the present West Front . -44'
Peterborough Cathedral : The North-west Transept and Tower full-page plate, facing 44*
Peterborough : Blocked Arch in West Wall of Cloister \ e
„ Archway at North-west of Cloister /
Plan of the Monastic Precincts ............ 44^
Peterborough: South-east Angle of Cloister ). . . . full-page plate, facing 448
„ Cloister Lavatories and Frater Door J
Infirmarer's Lodging, Peterborough ........■•• 45°
Peterborough : Building South of Infirmary, possibly the Hostry I ^ full-page plate, facing 450
„ West Side of Hostry Passage )
Peterborough: Entrance Hall of the Bishop's Palace )
f • • • » i> » 45*
„ South Wing of the Bishop's Palace )
Heaven's Gate Chamber, the Palace, Peterborough ........ 454
Peterborough: West Gateway of the Precincts | full-page plate, facing 454
„ The Abbot's Gateway, now the Bishop's Gateway J
Peterborough : West Gate of Precincts and St. Thomas's Chapel \ ,
I • » » i> 45"
„ The Deanery Gateway )
Longthorpe Tower .............. 457
Plan of Longthorpe Tower 459
Bainton Church and base of Cross . 460
Barnack Manor House ............. 468
Plan of Barnack Church ............. 469
Barnack Church : The Tower from the South-west .... full-page plate, facing 470
Barnack : Old House in Village |
Castor Church : View from the South /
Milton House : Site Plan dated 1643 ....... » » 47^
Milton House : Part of the North Front j .
„ „ Wrought Iron Gates in the Walled Garden )
Plan of Castor Church 479
Castor Church : Tower Arches from the South Transept \ . „ , . ■ «
.... . . \ • full-page plate, facing 480
„ „ South Door of Chancel and Dedication Inscription J
Manor House, Upton ..........••■ 484
Upton Church from the West 485
xiv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Old House to East of Church, Etton 4^6
Woodcroft House .............. +88
Plan ofWoodcroft 489
Clinton Church : The Tower and Spire
Helpston Church : Exterior from the West
Farmhouse, East of the village of Marholm . ......... 499
Marholm Church : The Chancel and Fitzwilliam Monuments ^ ;/-•,„
[ . . full-page plate, facing 502
Maxey Church from the West )
Maxey Church : West Arch of North-east Chapel . . . . „ » » 5°^
Northborough Manor House : The Hall 1
»> f> » 5'-'
1 full-page plate, facing 494
1
„ „ „ The Entrance Gateway
Plan of Northborough Manor House ........... 5°9
Northborough Church : Interior of De la Mare (Claypole) Chapel
„ „ General View froi
Paston : The Rectory from the South-east
General View from the bouth-west j
)• • • • jy >» y> 5
Werrington Church : The Chancel Arch . . . . . . „ „ „ 5'°
The Hermitage, Peakirk 519
Peakirk Church : South View ■> ^ ,, ,;../••
I . full-page plate, facing 520
Stamford St. Martin : The Burghley Almshouses from the River J
Burghley House \
Wothorpe House : The Ruined Central Block J
Plan of Burghley House toaw» 524, 525
Thornhaugh Church : North Arcade of Nave \ r 11 . j.i . /-,•«„ r,,
^ I full-page plate, facing 532
UfFord Church : South-west View )
Plan of Wittering Church .... . 54°
Wittering Church: The Chancel Arch I full-page plaU, facing 540
„ „ from the South J
Apethorpe Hall coloured plan, between 544, 545
East Front, Apethorpe Hall 54*5
Apethorpe Hall : The Long Gallery full-page plate, facing 546
Courtyard, Apethorpe Hall 548
Apethorpe Church : The Mildmay Monument full-page plate, facing 548
Sundial at CoUyweston . . . . . . . • ■ • • • • 55°
House on South Side of Village Street, CoUyweston . . . . . . • -55'
House in Village, CoUyweston . . . . . . . • • • • -55^
Cotterstock Hall : The South Front J _ ^ . full-page plate, facing 556 „ Church : The Chancel from the South-east j
The Manor House, Duddington 5 6°
Duddington Church from the South 5°^
The Old Rectory, Easton on the Hill 5^4
Plan of Old Rectory, Easton on the Hill S^S
Easton on the Hill Church : The Tower from the West ^ _ ^ , y^u.^^^, ^j^te, facing 568 Fotheringhay Church : The Nave, looking East )
King's ClifFe Church : South-east View \ g^ Lutton Church : Apreece Monument and Easter Sepulchre j
North Gable of the Manor House, Nassington S^?
Nassington Church from the South-east \ full-page plate, facing 590
Southwick Hall : The South Front )
XV
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Plan of Southwick Hall 593
Plan of Tansor Church .......••..•• 597
Tansor Church . The Chancel and east end of Nave .... full-page plau, facing 598
Woodnewton Church from the South ........ „ ■,-> 000
Vilbge Street, Yarwell 602
LIST OF MAPS
Ecclesiastical Map between 78, 79
Ancient Earthworks Map „ 39^, 397
Index Map to the Hundreds of Northamptonshire facing 421
„ „ Soke of Peterborough „ 424
„ „ Hundred of Willybrook ,,542
Topographical Map of Northamptonshire in four sections . .... at end of volume
Speed's Map of Northamptonshire ......... » »>
XVI
EDITORIAL NOTE
The Editors desire to thank all who have helped in the production of this volume. They would especially mention Mr. S. G. Stopford Sack- ville, Mr. E. P. Monckton, Mr. A. Adcock (editor of the iSforthampton Mercury), Mr. F. Bates, the Rev. F. Buttanshaw, Mr. G. Herbert Capron, Mr. J. Dack, Mr. T. A. Dickson, the Rev. W. Hopkinson, the Rev. La G. Leney, Mr. G. K. Papillon, the Rev. C. J. Percival, the Rev. W. D. Sweeting, late of Maxey, and Mr. A. G. Weigall, while they are under even greater obligation to Archdeacon Moore, Mr. John Rooke of Weldon and Colonel C. I. Strong of Thorpe Hall for much time spent in collecting materials.
They acknowledge with gratitude the facilities for seeing important houses and their contents and for acquiring information with regard to manorial descents which have been accorded to them by the Marquis of Exeter, the Earl of Carysfort, Viscount Melville, Lord Kesteven, Mr. G. C. W. Fitzwilliam, Mr. H. L. C. Brassey, the Rev. G. H. Capron, and Mr. J. G. Dearden.
Mr. C. S. Magee, diocesan registrar of Peterborough, Mr. William Smith, deputy diocesan registrar of Lincoln, and Mr. G. J. Gray, the custodian of the records of the dean and chapter of Peterborough, have kindly given full access to documents in their charge without which the History could not have been written ; and the clergy and churchwardens of the parishes in these hundreds have, without exception, shown the same courtesy with regard to their parochial records. Similar con- sideration has been shown to the Editors by Mr. H. A. Millington, the Clerk of the Peace for Northamptonshire, and Mr. H. Hankinson, the Town Clerk of Northampton.
The Board of Agriculture and Sir Thomas Elliott, K.C.B., have most kindly allowed the publication of the exact proportion of tillage, pasture, and woodland in each parish included in these hundreds.
The Editors are also particularly indebted to Mr. J. Horace Round, M.A., LL.D., for reading the proofs of the section on Topography ; to Mr. I. Chalkley Gould, F.S.A., for assistance in the article on Earth- works; to the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., for advice on various matters ; and to the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Architectural and Archaeological Societies of Northamptonshire for illustrations.
TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS
|
Abbrev. Plac. (Rec |
Abbreviatio Placitorum (Re- |
Chartul. . . |
Chartulary |
|
|
Com.) |
cord Commission) |
Chas. |
Charles |
|
|
Acts of P.C. . |
Acts of Privy Council |
Ches. , . |
Cheshire |
|
|
Add |
Addition.al |
Chest. . . . |
Chester |
|
|
Add. Chart. . |
Additional Charters |
Ch. Gds. (Exch |
Church Goods (Exchequer |
|
|
Admir. . |
Admiralty |
K.R.) |
King's Remembrancer) |
|
|
Agarde . . |
Agarde's Indices |
Chich. . . . |
Chichester |
|
|
Anct. Corresp. . |
Ancient Correspondence |
Chron. |
Chronicle, Chronica, etc. |
|
|
Anct. D. (P.R.O.) |
Ancient Deeds(Public Record |
Close |
Close Roll |
|
|
A 2420 |
Office) A 2420 |
Co |
County |
|
|
Ann. Men. . . |
Annales Monastic! |
Colch. . . . |
Colchester |
|
|
Antiq. . . . |
Antiquarian or Antiquaries |
Coll. . . |
Collections |
|
|
App. . . |
Appendix |
Com. |
Commission |
|
|
Arch. . . . |
Archaeologia or Archasological |
Com. Pleas . |
Common Pleas |
|
|
Arch. Cant. |
Archaeologia Cantiana |
Conf. R. |
Confirmation Rolls |
|
|
Archd. Rec. . |
Archdeacons' Records |
Co. Plac. . . |
County Placita |
|
|
Archit. . . . |
Architectural |
Cornw. . |
Cornvs^all |
|
|
Assize R. . . |
Assize Rolls |
Corp. |
Corporation |
|
|
Aud. Oft. . . |
Audit Office |
Cott. . . . |
Cotton or Cottonian |
|
|
Aug. Oft. . . |
Augmentation Office |
Ct. R. . . |
Court Rolls |
|
|
Ayloff"e . . |
Ayloffe's Calendars |
Ct. of Wards . Cumb. . . |
Court of Wards Cumberland |
|
|
Bed |
Bedford |
Cur. Reg. . . |
Curia Regis |
|
|
Beds .... |
Bedfordshire |
|||
|
Berks . . . |
Berkshire |
D |
Deed or Deeds |
|
|
Bdle. . . . |
Bundle |
D. and C. . . |
Dean and Chapter |
|
|
B.M. . . . |
British Museum |
De Banc. R. . |
De Banco Rolls |
|
|
Bodl. Lib. . . |
Bodley's Library |
Dec. and Ord . |
Decrees and Orders |
|
|
Boro. |
Borough |
Dep. Keeper's Rep |
Deputy Keeper's Reports |
|
|
Brev. Reg. . |
Brevia Regia |
Derb. . |
Derbyshire or Derby |
|
|
Brit |
Britain, British, Britannia, etc. |
Devon |
Devonshire |
|
|
Buck. . . . |
Buckingham |
Dioc. |
Diocese |
|
|
Bucks . . . |
Buckinghamshire |
Doc. . . Dods. MSS. |
Documents Dodsworth MSS. |
|
|
Cal |
Calendar |
Dom. Bk. |
Domesday Book |
|
|
Camb. . . |
Cambridgeshire or Cambridge |
Dors. . |
Dorsetshire |
|
|
Cambr. . . |
Cambria, Cambrian, |
Cam- |
Duchy of Lane. |
Duchy of Lancaster |
|
brensis, etc. |
Dur. . . . |
Durham |
||
|
Campb. Ch. . |
Campbell Charters |
|||
|
Cant. . . . |
Canterbury |
East. . . . |
Easter Term |
|
|
Cap |
Chapter |
Eccl. . . . |
Ecclesiastical |
|
|
Carl. . . . |
Carlisle |
Eccl. Com. |
Ecclesiastical Commission |
|
|
Cart. Antiq. R. |
Carta; Antiquae Rolls |
Edw. |
Edward |
|
|
C.C.C. Camb. . |
Corpus Christi College |
Cam- |
Eliz. . . . |
Elizabeth |
|
bridge |
Engl. . . . |
England or English |
||
|
Certiorari Bdles |
Certiorari Bundles |
(RoUs |
Engl. Hist. Rev. |
English Historical Review |
|
(Rolls Chap.) |
Ch.ipel) |
Enr. . . . |
Enrolled or Enrolment |
|
|
Chan. Enr. Decree |
Chancery Enrolled |
decree |
Epis. Reg. |
Episcopal Registers |
|
R. |
Rolls |
Esch. Enr. Accts. |
Escheators Enrolled Accounts |
|
|
Chan. Proc. |
Chancery Proceedings |
ExcerptaeRot.Fin |
Excerpta c Rotulis Finium |
|
|
Chant. Cert. . |
Chantry Certificates (or Cer- |
(Rec. Com.) |
(Record Commission) |
|
|
tificates of Colleges and |
Exch. Dep. |
Exchequer Depositions |
||
|
Chantries) |
Exch. K.B. . |
Exchequer King's Bench |
||
|
Chap. Ho. . . |
Chapter House |
Exch. K.R. . |
Exchequer King's Remem- |
|
|
Charity Inq. |
Charity Inquisitions |
brancer |
||
|
Chart. R. 20 Hen |
Charter Roll, 20 Hen |
ry in. |
Exch. L.T.R. . |
Exchequer Lord Treasurer's |
|
III. pt. i.No. ic |
part i. Number 10 |
Remembrancer |
TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS
Exch. of Pleas, Pica Exchequer of Pleas, Plea Roll
R.
Exch. of Receipt . Exchequer of Receipt
Exch. Spec. Com. . Exchequer Special Commis-
Feet of F. . . . Feed. Accts. (Ct. of
W.irds) Feod. Surv. (Ct. of
Wards) Feud. Aids . . .
fol
Foreign R. . . . Forest Proc.
Feet of Fines
Feodaries Accounts (Court of
Wards) Feodaries Surveys (Court of
Wards) Feudal Aids Folio
Foreign Rolls Forest Proceedings
Gaz Gazette or Gazetteer
Gen Genealogical, Genealogica,
etc.
Geo George
Glouc Gloucestershire or Gloucester
Guild Certif.(Chan.) Guild Certificates (Chancery) Ric. II. Richard II.
Memo. R. . . .
Mich
Midd
Mins. Accts. . . Misc. Bks. (Exch.
K.R., Exch.
T.R. or Aug.
Off.)
Mon
Monm
Mun
Mus
N. and Q. .
Norf . . Northampt.
Northants .
Northumb. . Norvv. .
Nott. . .
N.S.
Memoranda Rolls
Michaelmas Term
Middlesex
Ministers' Accounts
Miscellaneous Books (Ex- chequer King's Remem- brancer, Exchequer Trea- sury of Receipt or Aug- mentation Office)
Monastery, Monasticon
Monmouth
Muniments or Munimenta
Museum
Notes and Queries Norfolk Northampton Northamptonshire Northumberland Norwich
Nottinghamshire or Notting- ham New Style
Hants
Harl.
Hen.
Heref.
Hertf.
Herts
Hil. .
Hist.
Hist. MSB. Com. Hosp. . . Hund. R. . . Hunt. . . . Hunts .
Inq. a.q.d. Inq. p.m. Inst. . . Invent. . Ips. . Itin. . .
Jas. . Journ.
Lamb. Lib. Lane.
L. and P. VIII.
Lansd.
Ld. Rev. Rec.
Leic.
Le Neve's Ind.
Lib. . . .
Lich. . .
Line.
Lond.
Hen.
m. Mem.
Hampshire
Harley or Harleian
Henry
Herefordshire or Hereford
Hertford
Hertfordshire
Hilary Term
History, Historical,Historian,
Historia, etc. Historical MSS. Commission Hospital Hundred Rolls Huntingdon Huntingdonshire
Inquisitionsad quod damnum Inquisitions post mortem Institute or Institution Inventory or Inventories Ipswich Itinerary
James Journal
Lambeth Library Lancashire or Lancaster Letters and Papers, Hen.
VIII. Lansdowne
Land Revenue Records Leicestershire or Leicester Le Neve's Indices Library Lichfield
Lincolnshire or Lincoln London
Membrane Memorials
Off. Orig. O.S. Oxf. ,
Palmer's Ind. . Pal. of Chest. . Pal. of Dur. . Pal. of Lane. .
Par
Pari
Pari. R. . . . Pari. Surv. . Partic. for Gts.
Pat
P.C.C. . . .
Pet
Peterb
Phil
Pipe R
Plea R
Pop. Ret. . . . Pope Nich. Tax.
(Rec. Com.) P.R.O
Proc. . . . Proc. Soc. Antiq.
pt. Pub.
R
Rec. . . . Recov. R. . . Rentals and Surv.
Rep
Rev
Ric
Office
Originalia Rolls Ordnance Survey Oxfordshire or Oxford
Page
Palmer's Indices
Palatinate of Chester
Palatinate of Durham
Palatinate of Lancaster
Parish, parochial, etc.
Parliament or Parliamentary
Parliament Rolls
Parliamentary Surveys
Particulars for Grants
Patent Roll or Letters Patent
Prerogative Court of Canter- bury
Petition
Peterborough
Philip
Pipe Roll
Plea Rolls
Population Returns
Pope Nicholas' Taxation (Re- cord Commission)
Public Record Office
Proceedings
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
Part
Publications
Roll
Records
Recovery Rolls
Rentals and Surveys
Report
Review
Richard
XX
TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS
Roff. .... Rochester diocese Rot. Cur. Reg. . Rotuli Curia Regis Rut Rutland
Sarum . . . .
Ser
Sess. R
Shrews
Shrops ....
Soc
Soc. Antiq. .
Somers
Somers. Ho.
S.P. Dora. . . .
Staff. . . . .
Star Chamb. Proc.
Stat
Steph
Subs. R. . . .
SufF.
Surr
Suss
Surv. of Ch. Liv- ings (Lamb.) or (Chan.)
Topog.
Salisbury diocese Series
Sessions Rolls Shrewsbury Shropshire Society
Society of Antiquaries Somerset Somerset House State Papers Domestic Staffordshire
Star Chamber Proceedings Statute Stephen Subsidy Rolls Suffolk Surrey Sussex
Surveys of Church Livings (Lambeth) or (Chancery)
Trans. Transl. Treas. Trin.
Topography or Topographi- cal Transactions Translation Treasury or Treasurer Trinity Term
Univ University
Valor Eccl.
Com.) Vet. Mon. . V.C.H. . . Vic. . . . vol. .
(Rec.
Warw. .
Westm. .
Westmld.
Will. .
Wilts
Winton.
Wore.
Yorks .
Valor Ecclesiasticus (Record
Commission) Vctusta Monuments Victoria County History Victoria Volume
Warwickshire or Warwick
Westminster
Westmorland
William
Wiltshire
Winchester diocese
Worcestershire or Worcester
Yorkshire
XXI
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
THE very little that the historian can tell us with regard to the Romano- British church has no special connexion with the Midlands or Northamptonshire.^ But when we come to the Saxon period there is firm historic evidence of the manner in which Christianity was propagated and organized in the districts out of which this county was to be formed. The story of the conversion of the several kingdoms of the Hept- archy, though still somewhat involved, has of late been cleared of a good deal of the mist and myth by which it was surrounded. The same year (597) that witnessed the landing of St. Augustine on the shores of Kent, also witnessed the death of St. Columba, who some thirty-four years previously had left the Isle of Saints for the south of Scotland, there founding the monastery of lona. It was Aidan, a monk of lona, and a band of Irish- Scottish monks who, about 635, founded the monastery of Lindisfarne on this side of the border ; and it was from Lindisfarne that Chris- tianity gradually spread through the north and centre of England. Toward the latter part of his reign, Penda, the ever-warring pagan king of Mercia, associated with himself as ruler his eldest son Peada.' This prince gained the hand of Alfleda, daughter of Oswy, the Christian king of Northumbria, on condition that he and those he ruled should embrace her faith.* Baptized together with his whole retinue by Finan, second bishop of Lindisfarne, Peada turned southwards in 653 with his Christian wife and four priests, Cedd, Adda, Betti (all Angles), and Diuma, to his sub-kingdom of the Middle Angles.^ The missionaries he brought extended their labours also into Mercia proper, without opposition from Penda.* In 656, when Penda was dead, and his whole kingdom subject to Oswy, the aforesaid Diuma, a monk of Lindisfarne, and of Scottish race, was consecrated first bishop of Mercia, and the Middle Angles and Lindsey by Finan.'' This was the beginning of the great Mercian see of Lichfield, the mother of twelve or thirteen other sees. In 658 Diuma was succeeded by Ceollach, also a Scot, and consecrated by Finan ; but in 659 Ceollach ' returned ' to lona and gave place to Trumhere, an Angle of monastic training and consecrated, again, in
' The authors of this article, while jointly responsible for the accuracy of its statements and its general composition, desire to say that the actual terminology up to the end of page 66 is that of Rev. R. M. Ser- jeantson, and from this point onwards that of Mr. Ryland D. Adkins.
' Until recently it was common enough in a variety of books of some repute, as well as in popular handbooks, to find reference made to Brixworth church as an example of a Roman basilica, transformed into a Christian church. Precise archaeolog)- however has quite upset this theory, and shows that Brix\vorth is simpU- a remarkable example of the extensive use of Roman materials in a building of later date.
' liede, E(cl. Hist. lib. iii, cap. 21. * Ibid. ' Ibid.
* Hunt, Hist, of the Engl. Church a.d. 597-1066, 97.
' Bede, loc. cit. Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angt. 2 ; Browne, Conversion of the Heptarchy, 1 13.
2 I I
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
the Scottish church.^ The fourth bishop, consecrated in 662, was Jaruman, likewise of Celtic consecration.^
Thus far the christianizing of Mercia, including what is now North- amptonshire, had been accomplished solely from the old Celtic sources ; but with the death of Jaruman in 667 came a change. The conference of Whitby had been held, and the work, of the Scottish church in England was finished. For two years there was no episcopal work in Wulfhere's kingdom, save what Wilfrid, with his roving commission, could effect.' When Theodore came in 669, Wulfhere, the successor of Peada, the first to recognize Canterbury as the ecclesiastical centre of England, asked him for a bishop.* Accordingly Theodore in that year appointed Chad,° who had held the see of Northumbria. This bishop had been consecrated originally in the British church,' and the archbishop ' consummated his ordination afresh on Catholic principles.'' St. Chad definitely established the seat of the bishopric at Lich- field, and died there in 672.' Theodore then ' ordained into his place ' Winfrid, who had been a deacon under the late bishop.' Winfrid was present at the council held by Archbishop Theodore in 673 at Hertford, when ten important articles for the better government of the Church were discussed, in- cluding a proposal to increase the episcopate.^" It was probably for resisting this proposal that Winfrid was deposed by the archbishop in 675, when Saxulf, first abbot of Medehamstede, was ' ordained to be bishop in his stead.'" Up to 678 Saxulf remained bishop of the whole Mercian kingdom, including the Middle Angles and Lindsey,^'' but now there were established separate dioceses of Lindsey (678) ," Worcester (about 680)," Hereford (676-88),^° Leicester and the Middle Angles (680),^* and possibly Dorchester-on-Thames (about the same date.)" The last, if it really existed at this time," was probably soon included in the diocese of Leicester." It is difficult to decide whether the present Northamptonshire (the greater part of which seems to have been then the county of the South Angles) was at this period in the diocese of Leicester,^" or whether it remained under the parent see of Mercia or Lichfield, ^^ which still retained the shires of Stafford, Derby, Chester, and part of Shropshire.-^ At a rather later period Northamptonshire seems certainly to have been in the diocese of Leicester," over which the short-lived arch- bishopric of Lichfield (787-802) ^* exercised authority for a few years." About 869 or 888 the seat of the bishopric of Leicester was moved to Dorchester-
' Bede, loc. cit. Stubbs, loc. cit. ' Bede, op. cit. lib. iii, cap. 24 ; Stubbs, loc. cit.
' Will, of Malm. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 216 ; Stubbs, op. cit. 2-3.
* Bede, op. cit. lib. iv, cap. 3. ' Ibid. * Ibid. lib. iii, cap. 28.
' Ibid. lib. iv, cap. 2 : cf. Will, of Malm. loc. cit. ' per omnes iterum gradus elevatum.' For the question involved see Hunt, op. cit. 133, and Browne, Conversion of the Heptarchy, 119-24.
' Stubbs, op. cit. 3 ; Bede, op. cit. lib. iv, cap. 3. ' Ibid. '" Ibid. cap. 5.
" Ibid. cap. 6 ; Stubbs, loc. cit. " Bede, op. cit. lib. iv, cap. I 2. " Ibid.
" Ibid. 21 (23). '* Ibid. 12 ; Florence of Wore. (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 36, 41.
" Ibid. 239-40, 242. " Ibid. 240 ; Bede, op. cit. lib. iv, cap. 21 (23).
'- Hill, Engl. Dioceses, 127-31. " Hunt, op. cit. 142.
" From 691, this diocese was administered for a short time by St. Wilfrid. Stubbs, op. cit. 162.
" Hill, op. cit. 135.
" Ibid. 136. It may have been in the diocese of Dorchester, if there really was a Mercian see of that name before 869, and if that see had not united with Leicester (Ibid, and J. R. Green, The Making of Engl. 343), or been created anew (Will, of Malm. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 307).
" Hill, op. cit. 137.
'* Ibid. 1 7 1-9 ; Hunt, op. cit. 240, 245 ; Will, of Malm. Gesta Reg. (Rolls Ser.), i, 85 ; 'John of Peterborough,' p. 9 in J. Sparke, Hist. AngL Script, (but he gives a wrong date).
" Hill, op. cit. 156 (map).
2
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
on-Thames, under the pressure of the Danes/ and probably nothing remained under the bishop's control except Oxfordshire, the greater part of Bucking- hamshire, and the southern extremity of Northamptonshire." The northern part of the diocese, with the town of Leicester, was recognized as a Danish possession by the treaty of Wedmore (879).* The original proportions of the see must have been recovered, if only nominally, by the triumph of Edward the Elder over the Danes in 921,* but for some time afterwards the position of the bishop in this part of his diocese was perhaps not assured, for it was a bishop of Winchester (Ethelwold) who, about 966, founded a monastery at Peterborough, the abbey of Peada and Saxulf having been destroyed by the Danes a century before/
About this time the diocese of Dorchester was united with that of Lindsey, for Leofwin, bishop of Lindsey, moved southwards — doubtless because the Danes made it impossible for a Christian bishop to remain in the north — and became bishop of Dorchester/ The seat of the bishopric, which now extended from the Thames to the Humber, seems to have remained at Dorchester ^ till, in the latter half of the eleventh century, it was removed to Lincoln.^
After thus giving, in briefest outline, some account of the episcopal con- trol of Northamptonshire up to the Norman Conquest, it will be well to return for a few moments to the story of the conversion of the inhabitants. Peada, the first member of the royal house of Mercia to embrace Christianity, is said to have been also the first to found a regular missionary settlement in this region, namely at Medehamstede (Peterborough) in the midst of a marshy tract at the extreme north-west of the county. This scheme is represented as having been begun by him with the aid of Oswy of North- umbria about 655, and subsequently enlarged by Peada's brothers, Wulfhere and Ethelred, and by his sisters, Kyneburgh and Kyneswith,^ and a promi- nent part in it is assigned to Saxulf, who was the first abbot,'" and who, as is related, succeeded Winfrid in 675 as bishop of Lichfield. Founded in some such manner as this, the great monastery of Peterborough began, even before Saxulf's elevation to the episcopate, to send out missionaries and religious colonies, of which one of the earliest was that established (a settle- ment of some importance) at Brixworth."
Guthlac, the hermit of the fens, settled at Crowland,'^ in Lincolnshire, close to the border of Northamptonshire, about 699, and doubtless his in- fluence in the northern part of the latter county was considerable. About the same date St. Pega, his sister, established a Christian cell within the county at the place that, soon after her death, obtained the name of Peakirk."
' Stubbs, op. cit. II, 162 ; Jngl. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 73 ; Hill, op. cit. 186-7, ^'O-
'Ibid. 212. ' Ibid. 185. Mbid. 212.
'Ibid. 213; Will, of Malm. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 317. Malmesbury here places Peterborough in Huntingdonshire.
° Ibid. 311-12 ; Stubbs, op. cit. 15. Stubbs, however, elsewhere places the union about 1003 (Cons/it. Hist, of Engl, i, 2 74n.), and Hunt takes a similar view (op. cit. App. ii).
' Hill, op. cit. 210-11 ; Will, of Malm. loc. cit. Angl. Sa.x. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 96, 104, n8, 129, 17'- * Hill, op. cit. 261 ; Stubbs, Rig. Stur. Angl. App. ii.
' Angl. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 25-9, 31-3.
'° Ibid. ; Bede, op. cit. lib. iv, cap. 6.
" ' Hugo Candidus,* 6, 9, in J. Sparke, Hist. Angl. Script.
" Felix, Fita S. Guthlaci (Acta Sanct. 1 1 April).
" It is mentioned as having been destroyed by the D.ines in Dugdale, Mon. ii, 95.
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Another cell of somewhat similar date was founded at Weedon Beck by St. Werburgh^ (daughter of Wulfhere), who had the general superintendence of the houses of the devout women throughout Mercia. St. Kyneburgh, sister of Wulfhere, was the first ruler, if not the founder, of a Christian settlement at Castor,* and with her were associated her sister, St. Kyneswith, and her kinswoman, St. Tibba.^ St. Wilfrid is said to have founded a monastery at Oundle, and there he was overtaken by sickness on one of his innumerable journeys and died in the seventy-fifth year of his age (a.d. 709).*
The abbey of Peterborough and the settlements of Brixworth, Peakirk, Castor, Oundle, and Weedon, together doubtless with other colonies, were for a time either blotted out or grievously maimed by the pagan Danes, who overran this part of Mercia in 870, when their object was no longer mere plunder, but settlement.^ For nearly a century the Christianity of the shire was under a heavy cloud, but with the restoration of the great monastery of Peterborough in 963, or 966, better days dawned. The county was again harried in the early part of the eleventh century, but by that time many of the Danes were Christians, and there was not the like deliberate destruction of all that pertained to the worship of God." The extent of pre-Norman Christianity throughout the shire can be better gauged under the head of Christian architecture.
Dorchester, as has been stated above, remained the seat of the bishopric that included Northamptonshire till after the death of Wulfwig, the last Saxon bishop, in 1067.' In that year the Conqueror filled the see by the appointment of Remigius, an ecclesiastic from the monastery of Fecamp, who had been of material assistance in forwarding his victorious course,* and this prelate moved the seat of the episcopal government to Lincoln.^ From that
' Tanner, Notitia, (ed. J. Nasmith), Northants, xxxvi, 36. ' Dugdale, Man. vi, 162 1.
' The full dedication of the church of Castor was in the honour of the ' Holie Virgins Seynt Keneburgh, Kenyswythe, and Tybbe,' and is given in a will of 1532, though other wills only name St. Kyneburgh. The subsidiary church of Upton is also dedicated in honour of St. Kyneburgh. The Celtic saint, St. Columba, is commemorated in the dedication of Collingtree, the terminal of the place-name being also Celtic ; St. Wilfrid, of the Roman obedience, at Guilsborough ; St. Werburgh, at the chapel of Weedon Beck ; St. Guthlac, at Passenham and at the chapels of Deeping Gate and Elmington ; and St. Pega, at Peakirk. It may be as well to give here a complete summary of the dedications of the old churches of Northamptonshire, taken in each case from pre-Reformation wills. The dedications of this county are most inaccurately given in modern gazetteers and calendars. For instance, a group of churches is assigned to St. Luke, and in everyone of these churches this dedication is a recent invention. These errors have unfortunately been perpetuated in a large work of three volumes (1899) on the dedications of English churches. The true dedication of each church will hereafter be given under each parish. This summary includes a certain number of old parochial chapels that had fabrics at a distance from the parish church, but omits the churches of merely religious foundations. St. Mary, 62 ; St. Peter, 25 ; St. Andrew, 20 ; St. Michael, II ; St. Leonard, 8 ; St. Lawrence, 7 ; St. James, 6 ; St. Botolph, 5 ; Holy Cross, 3 ; St. Catherine, 3 ; St. Edmund, 3 ; St. Margaret, 2 ; St. Giles, 2 ; St. Martin, 2 ; St. George, 2 ; All Saints, 43 ; St. John Baptist, 20 ; SS. Peter and Paul, 19 ; St. Nicholas, 1 1 ; Holy Trinity, 7 ; St. John Evangelist, 6 ; St. Mary Magdalen, 6 ; St. Helen, 5 ; St. Guthlac, 3 ; St. Mary and All Saints, 3 ; St. Denys, 3 ; St. Thomas of Canterbury, 2 ; St. Bartholom.ew, 2 ; St. Gregory, 2 ; The Assumption of Our Lady, 2 ; St. Kyneburgh, 2 ; St. Peter and St. Mar)% l ; St. Leger, I ; St. Benedict, I ; St. Stephen, i ; St. David, I ; St. Werburgh, I ; St. Matthew, i ; St. Michael and All Saints, I ; St. Saviour, I ; St. Columba, I ; St. Pega, I ; St. Wilfrid, 1 ; St. Faith, I ; Decollation of St. John Baptist, I ; St. Sepulchre, I.
* Dugdale, loc. cit. ; Bade, op. cit. lib. v, cap. 19.
' ' John of Peterborough,' 1 6-2 1 , and ' Hugo Candidus,' 14-16, both in J. Sparke, Hist. Angl. Script.
' See subsequent account of Peterborough under ' Religious Houses.'
' Jngl. Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 171.
' Will, of Malm. GestaPontif. (Rolls Sen), 312.
' Ibid. At a council held in 1072, the bishops were ordered to fix their sees in centres instead of villages (Will, of VliXm.. Gesta Reg. (Engl. Hist. Soc), ii, 479). The date of the transference by Remigius is variously given (Hill, Engl. Dioceses, 261 ».). Stubbs prefers to date the see of Lincoln from the episcopate of Remigius's successor (Reg. Sacr. Angl. App. ii).
4
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
city the churches of Northamptonshire were ruled for five centuries. Remigius placed seven archdeacons over seven provinces which he ruled. One Nigel he appointed archdeacon of Northampton.^
Without again traversing the ground already covered in the article on the Northamptonshire Domesday Survey, it is necessary to touch upon the survey very briefly from the ecclesiastical point of view. The abbey of Peterborough, at the time of the Conquest, was the only old Northampton- shire ecclesiastical foundation that held land in the county. Its rights, as well as those of smaller ecclesiastical bodies not in Northamptonshire, but holding endowments within that county, seem to have been thoroughly respected by the Conqueror. Only four churches are mentioned in the survey, namely, those of Brackley and Pateshull (Pattishall), and two more. All Saints' and St. Peter's, the locality of which is not given, but which are possibly Stamford churches. Although only four churches are named, men- tion is made of fifty-three priests associated with as many manors. It has long been recognized that the absence of any mention of a church from a given passage of the survey does not in any way imply that a church did not exist. So far as Northamptonshire is concerned, archaeology abundantly proves the pre-Norman existence of a considerable series of churches unnamed in Domesday, and history supports that conclusion. For example, the Con- queror confirmed to the abbey of St. Ebrulf (Evroul) in 1081 the North- amptonshire churches of Byfield and Newton St. Lawrence,^ neither of which finds a place in the survey.
As to priests, Sir Henry Ellis thought that their mention generally implied a church.' Though probably this is so in the majority of instances, it is not necessarily so in all cases ; for, as has been pointed out by later writers, the priest may sometimes be named in his personal and not in his official character.*
Under the Conqueror's successor, the see of Lincoln, like many others, was for a time kept vacant, doubtless because the revenues of vacant bishoprics went to the crown ; and thus, as happened only too frequently in succeeding reigns also, Northamptonshire was left without episcopal super- vision.
Bishop Remigius fled in 1092, and it was not till 1094 that Robert Bloet, the king's chancellor, was consecrated to fill his place.* In the time of Rufus this county begins to figure very prominently in English ecclesiastical history, indeed it is not a little remarkable that so many important events connected with the policy and development of the church in the Middle Ages should have taken place within its limits. This probably arose from two causes, its central position, which made it generally convenient for the gathering of the council, and the fact that the castles of Northampton and Rockingham were favourite residences as hunting head quarters of the Norman and early Plantagenet kings. The Red King's dispute with Anselm, and that of Henry II with Thomas a Becket, were the two most important crises of the Church of England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The central point
' Hen. of Hunt. (Rolls Ser.), 302. ' Province' here does not mean 'county,' for there are nine counties mentioned. Rutland is omitted.
' The charter is cited in Dugdale, Mon.v'i, 1078.
' Ellis, General Introduction to Domesday, i, 289. ' Domesday Studies, ii, 339-.).46.
' Will, of Malm. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 313; Stubbs, op. cit. 24.
5
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
of each of these disputes was brought out at the respective councils of Rock- ingham and Northampton. In connexion, too, with the Crusades, the two most important councils, so far as the church was concerned, were held at Geddington and Pipewell.
At the time of Anselm's promotion to Canterbury the papal see was claimed by two rival popes, and Anselm, as abbot of Bee in Normandy, was supporting Urban, in whose favour that province had decided. Early in 1095 he asked the royal permission to go to Rome to receive from Urban the pall, but the king seized on this request as an act of treason, and as infringing a principle observed, so he declared, by the Conqueror, that no pope should be acknowledged in England without the consent of the crown. ^ At Anselm's suggestion the king summoned the council, which met at Rock- ingham Castle on 25 February, 1095.^ The archbishop complained that, he was reduced to the dilemma of forfeiting his fealty to the king, or renouncing his obedience to the pope, and called upon the bishops to give him their counsel and support. They, however, played a timorous and un- worthy part — including Bishop Bloet, of Lincoln, the chancellor and tool of the king — and attempted to induce their chief to yield. But their efforts were fruitless. The case was twice adjourned, and when the bishops, instigated by William and encouraged by his example ' refused faith and obedience ' to the archbishop, the barons, knowing that the general feeling of the clergy and laity was on Anselm's side, emphatically declined to do likewise.' Eventually the king was obliged to give way, and soon afterwards he recognized Urban as pope, and was formally reconciled to the archbishop.* The struggle between the crown and the primate was renewed later on more general grounds," and was revived in the following reign on the question of lay investitures.* The dispute was eventually ended by a compromise ; the bishops were to do homage and take the oath of fealty to the king ; but they were no longer to be invested by him in their bishoprics by the delivery of a pastoral staff or ring.
For half a century after the death of Anselm the ecclesiastical history of England was comparatively uneventful, although the church was making much quiet progress. The creation of the see of Ely in 1109,^ by taking from the diocese of Lincoln — still ruled, down to i 123, by Bishop Bloet ^ — the whole of Cambridgeshire, rendered episcopal ministration in the remainder of the parent diocese, including Northamptonshire, somewhat more thorough. But Lincoln still remained the largest diocese in England, comprising seven counties and a half,' and it is all the more scandalous, therefore, that for the greater part of nineteen years, from the death of Bishop Robert de Chesney in I 167, to the appointment of Hugh of Grenoble (afterwards St. Hugh) in 1 1 86, it was practically without episcopal supervision. In the latter half of this century the struggle between Church and State was renewed with an intensity even greater than in the days of Anselm, and again Northamptonshire was the centre of the fray. The actual points at issue between Becket and the king are apparently trivial ; they were really fundamental. Becket's concep-
' Eadmer (Rolls Ser.), 52-3.
' Ibid. 53 and note ; Stephens, Hist, of the Engl. Church, a.d. i 066-1 272, 97 et seq.
» Eadmer (Rolls Ser.), 54-64. ' Ibid. 69, 71.
' Ibid. 77 et seq. ' Ibid. 131, 186.
' M.itt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 136. ' Stubbs, op. cit. 24.
' Hill, op. cit. 263-4 > Stephens, op. cit. 192.
6
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
tion of the status and privileges of the clergy seemed to Henry inconsistent with the due order and government of the realm. Henry's violence of method and personal want of character led Becket to see in him a deadly enemy of the Church and of religion.
The archbishop had not long been consecrated when he began to offend the king, first by objecting to the conversion of ' sheriff^s aid ' into a royal tax,' then by excommunicating a tenant-in-chief, without first consulting the king according to custom,' but chiefly by his championship of the immunity of the clergy from the jurisdiction of the secular courts. A case in point was that of Philip de Broi, a canon in the Lincoln diocese, who, having been acquitted in the bishop's court on a charge of murder, refused to plead in a secular court, and insulted the judge. The king insisted on the necessity of a secular trial of the accused, both for murder and for contempt, but Becket revoked the case to Canterbury, where, after the decision that the question as to murder could not be re-opened, the canon was duly punished for insulting the lay judge. ^ Not satisfied, however, the king presently requested the assent of the bishops to the customs of Henry I, involving the delivery of criminous clerks to the secular court immediately after degradation by the court ecclesiastical. But the bishops would not assent without a reservation of the rights of their order.* This reservation formed the principal subject of a curious conference between Becket and the king near Northampton. Henry, who was there first, would not let the archbishop enter the town, alleging that it would not contain the retinues of both, and rode out to meet him, when a conversation took place in the open air. In spite of Henry's angry reproaches, however, Becket firmly refused to retract the obnoxious stipulation.^ Among those wavering bishops whom the king now formed into a party against their chief, was Robert de Chesney, bishop of Lincoln.* The breach between king and primate was further widened by the latter's attitude at the council of Clarendon in January 1164, when he promised to observe the customs of Henry I, yet objected to confirm that promise when the royal claim for the predominance of the secular power was defined by the reduction of the customs to writing.'' Further offence was caused by his apparent contempt of a summons to appear in the king's court, whither one John the Marshal, taking advantage of a recent royal order, had transferred a suit which he had instituted against the archbishop in the latter's own court.* Shortly afterwards he was again summoned, not directly, but through the sheriff of Kent,' to appear at a council at Northampton. He arrived there on Tuesday, 6 October, 1 1 64 (after some annoyance from the king's retinue, who had occupied his lodgings), and was housed at the priory of St. Andrew.'" Next day the king refused the kiss of peace." On Thursday Becket was con- demned by the lay lords and the prelates sitting in the council together, to forfeiture of all his movable property for contempt of the first summons, and was required to answer for >C3°° ^"^ ^^^ ^^^ castles of Eye and Berkhamp- stead ; and on Friday he was sentenced to repay to the king a loan of £s°°
' Materials for Hist, of Thomas Becket (Rolls Ser.), i, 12.
' Ibid, iii, 43. ' Ibid, i, 12 ; ii, 374 ; iii, 45 ; iv, 24.
* Ibid, ii, 376; iv, 202-5. * Ibid, iv, 27. ' Ibid. 30; ii, 327,
' Ibid, i, 15-23 ; ii, 3 1 1, 379-83 ; iii, 46-9, 278-89 ; iv, 33-7, 99-103, 189, 206-8.
' Ibid, iv, 40, cf. i, 20, § vii.
' Ibid, iii, 51. '" Ibid. 50 ; iv, 42. " Ibid, iii, 50.
7
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
or jTijOoo.* On Saturday the king demanded nothing less than an account of the revenues of all sees, abbacies, baronies and other honours, of which, while he was chancellor, Becket, had had charge during vacancies." At the crisis of his misfortunes the archbishop was seized with sharp and sudden illness, but on Tuesday, i 3 October, recovered, and after celebrating the mass of St. Stephen (with the introit ' Princes did sit and speak against me ') ^ he took with him the Host, as if he were going on his last journey and would need the ' Viaticum,' * and rode down to the castle, the gates of which were barred as soon as he had entered.^ His archiepiscopal cross he bore himself in spite of his suffragans, and evidently prepared to resist to the uttermost the temporal power. The arguments of the archbishop of York were rejected with a ' Hence, Satan.' ^ Presently the bishops and nobles were summoned to confer with the king, who sat in an inner apartment, and Becket was left almost alone with his faithful attendants, William FitzStephen and Herbert of Bosham.*
On being informed by the bishops that their chief intended to appeal against them to Rome, and that he had forbidden them to sit any more in judgment upon him, the king sent a final message by the lay lords to the archbishop, asserting that his attitude was contrary both to his general allegiance to the crown and to his specific promise at Clarendon, and that one of the constitutions" allowed bishops to attend all trials in the king's court except when a death sentence was to be pronounced. The message concluded with the question whether he would stand by the judgment of that court upon his financial administration as chancellor. The archbishop, how- ever, not only remained obdurate, but now formally appealed to the pope.^" When the nobles reported this answer, the bishops likewise appealed to the same authority against their chief." Thereupon the king required the lay lords to pass judgment, the bishops being permitted to withdraw, but when Robert earl of Leicester came forth to announce the sentence of condemnation for perjury and treason, Becket refused to listen, insisting that he could not be judged by a lay court, and, amid the insults of bystanders, left the hall.^* Taking Herbert of Bosham up behind him^^ he rode back to St. Andrew's, where he was awaited by an admiring throng who eagerly besought his blessing.** Being now deserted by a large portion of his retinue, which included over forty secular and regular clergy, besides knights and squires,*^ he entertained a number of the poor at supper," during which the thought of flight was suggested." Becket ordered his bed to be laid in the priory chapel, but just before dawn he escaped by the north gate of the town and rode to Lincoln,'* whence he travelled southward to Sandwich and crossed to Flanders " on his way to the pope, who was then at Sens. Meanwhile, some of the bishops and others had left Northampton for the same destination on behalf of the king.^* On arrival they were not very sympathetically received,** but Becket, who
' Material! for Hist, of Thomas Becket (Rolls Ser.), iii, 52-4, 296-9.
* Ibid. 299. ' Ibid, iii, 56, 300-4. ' Ibid. 305. ' Ibid, iv, 46. ' Ibid, iii, 57, 305. ' Ibid, i, 35.
* Ibid, iii, 58-9, 306-8. As they were eye-witnesses it is mainly on their description of the trial that this brief account is based.
' Materials for Hist, of Thomas Becket (Rolls Ser.), i, 21, §x.
'" Ibid, iii, 62-4. " Ibid. 66, 308. "Ibid. 67-8, 309-10.
" Ibid. 68. " Ibid, iv, 52. " Ibid, iii, 311; iv, 45.
'" Ibid, i, 40 ; iv, 52. " Ibid, iii, 312. '* Ibid, iv, 53-4.
" Ibid. 55 ; ii, 399-400. " Ibid, iii, 72. " Ibid. 73, 335.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
came later, was welcomed with enthusiasm/ and the majority of the constitu- tions of Clarendon, which he exhibited in a full consistory, were solemnly condemned.^ The incidents connected with the council of Northampton, and the subsequent struggles culminating in his murder at Canterbury, served to stamp the name and memory of St. Thomas of Canterbury deeper on the minds of the mass of the people than that of any other figure in Church or State from the Conquest to the Reformation.
The troubles of the reign of John must have been keenly felt in Northamptonshire, for he spent much of his time at Northampton and Rockingham every year that he was in England, making this county, indeed, more his residence than any other part of the kingdom. In the second year of his reign died St. Hugh of Lincoln, whose beneficent rule that diocese had enjoyed for fourteen years. ^ The see remained vacant till 1203, was then held by William of Blois (elected in opposition to the king's nominee) till 1206, and was then vacant again for three years.* In 1208 the quarrel between John and the pope about the appointment of Stephen Langton to the primacy came to a head, and England was laid under an interdict, in consequence of which the hfe of the Church, though perhaps less affected than has sometimes been supposed,^ nevertheless suffered considerably. As a counterblast the king confiscated the property of the clergy, both religious and secular. Most of the bishops left the country. The clergy throughout the land were oppressed and insulted by the king's emissaries, and many, both of the clergy and of the laity, went into exile like the bishops.* Archbishop Langton, consecrated by the pope in 1207 to succeed Hubert Walter, who had died in 1205, was obliged to remain in exile till the king should give way. The see of Lincoln was already vacant when the interdict was pubUshed ; but even when it was filled by the election of Hugh Wells, in I 209, the new bishop so annoyed John by obtaining consecration from Arch- bishop Langton at Melun, that the king declared the see again vacant and confiscated its revenues.''
In I 210 ineffectual negotiations for the reconciliation of the crown and the clergy took place between John and two papal emissaries, Pandulf and Durand, at Northampton.^ In 121 3 John submitted to the pope, and Arch- bishop Langton, the bishops (including Hugh of Lincoln), and the exiled clergy and laity generally returned to England.'
Except for the three years 1203-6, the huge diocese to which Northamptonshire belonged had now been without actual supervision since the death of St. Hugh ; and from 1208 it had been suffering presumably in almost every parish, from the interruption, consequent upon the interdict, of most of the ministrations of the Church,^" as well as from the results of the king's ill-treatment of the clergy and the general spoliation of church property." On the bishops' return, those who had inclined to the king's side in each
' Materials fir Hist, of Thomas Becket, (Rolls Ser.), iii, 76, 3+0. ' Ibid. 3+0-2.
' Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), ii, 309 ; iv, 141.
* Stubbs, op. cit. 33, 36, 37. ' Stephens, op. cit. 211-12.
' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 521-3 ; Walter of Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 199-200, 213. ' Ibid. 200 ; Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 528. ' Ibid. 531-2.
' Ibid. 550 ; Walter of Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 211, 213.
'" Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 522. The interdict was mitigated more than once. {Walter of Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 201, 205).
" Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 52;?.
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
diocese sought absolution from their diocesan, and received it, all save ecclesiastics, for these were reserved for the pope's judgment.' Many sees and abbacies were now vacant, several of the latter, including that of Peterborough being in the Lincoln diocese, but the bishops would not allow them to be filled unless the procedure was to be canonical;' and it was not until the king had rendered satisfaction for the plunder of ecclesiastical property, that they consented to take off the interdict in the summer of 1214.^ In 1 2 15, by agreement with certain of the bishops who had been in exile, including the archbishop and the bishop of Lincoln, freedom of election to sees and abbacies was granted by John and confirmed by the pope.*
As would naturally be expected, the historical associations of the Church in Northamptonshire gather largely about the county town. It was here that a dispute arose which led to one of the earlier interferences of the pope in the affairs of the shire. Simon de St. Liz, who had founded the priory of St. Andrew about 1093, filling it with Cluniac monks, gave to that house all the churches in the town.' The parishioners of certain of these churches, however, had taken upon themselves to found chapels without the sanction of the patrons. The monks of St. Andrew's, therefore, appealed to Rome, and in 1 20 1, the pope, Innocent III, decided in their favour. As the see of Lincoln was then vacant the publishing and enforcing of the papal mandate was entrusted to the archbishop of Canterbury, in association with the bishops of London and Ely.*
Simon, the son of the above-mentioned Simon de St. Liz, had bestowed on the priory of St. Andrew a tenth of the profits arising from a fair held on All Saints' Day in the church and churchyard of All Saints ' (which is conclusive evidence of the considerable size of the nave of the Norman church). The scandals attendant on such a use of any part of a church came home to that earnest prelate. Bishop Grossetete, who ruled the diocese of Lincoln so ably from 1235 to 1253, and in the former year he induced King Henry III, who was then at Northampton Castle, to order that for the future the fair should be held in 'a void and waste place to the north of the church,' the present large Market Square.' The bishop followed up the royal action by issuing to his archdeacons an injunction which cited the decree relative to All Saints', and forbade generally, under pain of ecclesiastical censure, any buying or selling in the monastic and parochial churches of their archdeaconries.' In a second communication he ordered them to correct various abuses, particularly the desecration of churches and church- yards by their being used for games.'"
Northampton, like other towns in England of commercial importance, had its Jewry, which was probably established in the latter half of the twelfth
' Walter of Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 213.
'Ibid. 213-14. The vacant abbeys were now in the king's hands under somewhat exceptional circumstances.
' Walter of Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 214, 217 ; Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 541, 569, 570, 575, 576.
* Ibid. 607-10. ' Dugdale, Mon. v, 185. V.CM. Norlhants, i, 293.
' Northants Chart. No. 7 (Bodl. lib.).
' Reg. of St. Andrew, Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii, fols. 2, 3.
' Close, 20 Hen. Ill, m. 24.
' Letters ofBp. Grosseleste (Rolls Ser.), 71. "" Ibid. 75.
10
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
century.' The Jews' quarter in our English towns was always, as might be ex- pected, near the market-place, and in Northampton it was placed to the west of the great market-square, chiefly in Silver Street and part of Gold Street.^
There was a strange notion current among the antiquaries of the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries that the round church of St. Sepulchre was the old Jewish synagogue.* Such an idea was, of course, absurd, but it is true enough that near St. Sepulchre's lay the Jewish burial-ground, just out- side the north gate.* Where the synagogue stood can now be determined from the recently calendared charters at the British Museum.
The schola of the Jews is mentioned soon after their expulsion as being on the west side of Northampton, beyond the bridge.^ It afterwards became the property of the abbey of St. James, Northampton, and was the scene of a curious incident in connexion with one of those widespread out- bursts of anti-Semitism which marked the first year of Richard I, when the popular dislike of the Jew was fanned by the enthusiasm attending the third crusade.* On 7 March, i 190, a number of young men who had joined the crusade and had assembled from various districts at Stamford, where a great market or fair was being held, organized an attack on the Jews in that town, partly from religious motives, but even more with a view to defraying their crusading expenses out of the plunder.'' Many Jews were killed, and Jewish houses were ruthlessly pillaged. One of the plunderers named John carried off his spoils to Northampton, where he was robbed and murdered by the man in whose house he lodged. The murderer threw the body over the town wall and decamped with the booty. When the corpse was found, the excited anti-Semitic feeling at once ascribed the crime to the Jews, and the dead man soon began to be regarded as a martyr. Miracles were reported to have been performed at his tomb, and matters went so far that pilgrimages as to a shrine began to be organized from surrounding, and even from comparatively remote, districts.* The fraud was encouraged by the local clergy on account of the material gain.' News of these proceedings came, however, to the ears of the diocesan, St. Hugh, who hurried at once
' There was apparently no Jewry here in 5 Hen. II (Jacobs, The Jews of Angei'in Engl., p. 28, § 9), but the roll of a general subscription made by the Jews for Richard I, probably towards his ransom, shows that the Jewish settlement at Northampton had attained to a position of considerable importance by 1 194. It was at Northampton, also, that the promise of this subscription was made, on behalf of the Jews of all England (Ibid. 162-3, 381-2)-
' Cox and Serjeantson, Hist, of St. Sepulchre's, Northampton, 26, n.
' Ibid. 26, n. 160. The same idea used to be current with regard to the round church at Cambridge (Ibid. 26, «.).
' The burial-ground seems to have been rented from the prior of St. Andrew's. It was maintained at least in part, by the rent of some houses in Stamford. A stone wall surrounded it {Trans. Jeteish Hist. Soc. of Engl, ii, 98). In 1177 the king granted a licence to the Jews to have a burial-ground outside the walls of any city where they could, without objection, purchase a convenient site {Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), ii, 137).
' ' Schola ' was then the regular term for a synagogue, and, as has been remarked, is strangely similar to the familiar word ' school ' for synagogue still in common use among English Jews (Jacobs, Jewish Ideals, p. 169). From a will of 1630 (quoted by Cox and Serjeantson, loc. cit.), it would seem that a synagogue was then believed to have once stood in or near Silver Street.
' Ralph de Diceto (Rolls Ser.), ii, 75. The motive of these outbre.iks seems to have been due to greed quite as much as to religious ardour (Will, of Newburgh in Chron. of Steph. Hen. II, and Ric. I (Rolls Ser ), i, 308. In 2 Hen. Ill the Jews throughout England were protected by royal writ to the local sheriffs and officers against annoyance from ' Crucesignati ' (Tovey, Jnglia Judaica, ^. 77). The Jews were forced to contribute towards the crusade. Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), ii, 338.
' Will, of Newburgh in Chron. of Step. Hen. II and Ric. I (Rolls Ser.), i, 3 lo-l I.
Mbid. 311. » Ibid.
II
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
to Northampton to put an end to the imposture.^ A serious riot ensued, which the biographer of St. Hugh mentions as affording an instance of the courage and presence of mind which the saint could display. Writing generally of this and certain other somewhat similar incidents, he tells how the good bishop, while swords were flashing round him, and his attendants were crouching in their terror beneath the very altars, could succeed bare- headed and unarmed, in quelling the storm by his intrepidity and the sternness of his rebukes, and how his remarkable personality subdued the infuriated burghers of Northampton.^ The tomb which was the centre of the disturbance is said to have been within the church of All Saints.'' Wherever it was, the scandal associated with it was decisively checked. St. Hugh profaned the votive offerings and forbade further reverence to be paid to the false martyr under pain of excommunication.*
After the erection of a special court in the latter part of the twelfth century for the regulation of Jewish affairs, known as the Exchequer of the Jews,' the members of this race were practically forced together in those towns where chests were established for the registration of their bonds." Northampton and Stamford, as well as Lincoln, are frequently mentioned in the thirteenth century as towns containing these public chests.'' In 1218 ' the sheriff and constable of Lincoln and of Stamford . . . and the sheriff and constable of Northampton,' as well as the authorities of various other parts of England, received an important order' by which the Jews were to be allowed to remain where they were, and to have the same ' communa ' among the Christians which they had had aforetime ; the officers to whom the order was addressed were to watch over their interests, and to proclaim that the king had granted the Jews his ' firm peace,' notwithstanding any action that might be taken to the contrary by the bishop of the diocese, to whom the affairs of ' the king's Jews ' were to be of no concern ; ' and if the Jews did anything for which they could be bound over to appear the said officers were to see that they appeared before the king's justices appointed for the custody of the Jews,^" and that the jury was composed of Jews and Christians of good repute ; they were not to allow Jews to be summoned for debt before the 'court Christian'; and they were to see that all was managed as in the time of John."
As regards episcopal hostility to the Jews, much, of course, depended on the character of individual bishops. In the diocese which included Northampton the Jews on the whole suffered more at the hands of civil
' Will of Newburgh in Chron. of Step. Hen. II and Rk. I (Rolls Ser.), i, 3 1 o-i i .
- Magna Vita S. Hugonis (Rolls Ser.), 167, 348.
' Serjeantson, Hist, of All Saints', Northamft. 15. ' Will, of Newburgh, loc. cit.
^ Cunningham, Groivth of Engl. Industij and Commerce, i, 188.
' The justices of the Jews were ordered in I 283-4 '° receive all Jews staying in any place wherein there was no chest of chirographers of the Jews, on the ground that their residence in such places was contrary to the custom of the king's Jewry. Close, 1 2 Edw. I, m. 8.
' Pat. I Edw. I, m. 18 ; 4 Edw. I, m. 36.
* Ibid. 2 Hen. Ill, m. 3. It had also been ordered that the Jews of Northampton and elsewhere should wear two white strips of linen or parchment on the breast of their clothing, that none injuring them might pretend that he did not know they were Jews (Tovey, op. cit. 79-80).
' For the relation of the mediaeval church and king toward the Jews, see Jacobs, The Jews of Angevin England, pp. ix-xxii.
'" Tovey, Atigl. Judaica, 31, 43, 48.
" John had granted a charter of privileges to the Jews of England and Normandy. The Jews had also figured in the Great Charter. Ibid. 61, 73.
12
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
than of ecclesiastical authorities.^ They were especially befriended by St. Hugh/ and later on by Bishop Grossetete.' In the episcopate, however, of Grossetete's successor, Henry Lexington, the cruel accusation of ritual murder, which in Europe was first brought against the Jews of Norwich in 1 1 44,* was repeated at Lincoln in the case of 'little St. Hugh' in 1255, and led to the execution of some nineteen Jews, including one who is said to have been a chief priest or rabbi {pontifex) and the imprisonment of a much larger number.^
The Jews of Northampton did not escape a similar charge in the next reign. An old crucifix, built into the wall of a house at the south-west corner of St. Sepulchre's churchyard, is even now occasionally pointed out as a memorial of the crucifixion of a christian boy on Good Friday, i 277 ! ' Ritual murder, as ascribed to the Jews, is, of course, a wicked myth, but it is undoubtedly true that, early in the reign of Edward I, the Jews of Northampton had this terrible charge brought against them, and that many suffered death in consequence. It is commonly asserted that, on this probably quite baseless accusation, fifty Jews were drawn at the horse-tail outside the walls of the town and there hanged.
A seventeenth-century statement places the alleged crime in the seventh year of the reign, and states that the Jews did not ' throughly kill ' the boy ; adding that in connexion with the affair many Jews, after Easter, were drawn at horse-tail and hanged in London.''
In 1290 the Jews were banished the kingdom, and their property in Northampton and elsewhere was confiscated to the crown.'
Northampton was specially identified with the different phases of the crusading movement. The great Simon de St. Liz, earl of Northampton, joined the first crusade, which ended in the capture of Jerusalem by assault on 15 July, 1099. It is almost certain that he was the founder of the round church at Northampton, built after the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and that he built it on his return (which took place in the same year) as a thank-offering for the success of the expedition.' At the beginning of 1 188, (Jerusalem having fallen into the hands of the Saracens
' Many of the higher clergy were deeply in their debt. In 1 175 William of Waterville, abbot of Peterborough, was deposed by Archbishop Richard for having entered the monastery church with an armed force and extracted the arm of St. Oswald and other relics against the will of his monks, in order to pledge them to the Jews (Jacobs, op. cit. 57).
' The biographer of the saint vividly describes their lamentations at his funeral. Magna Fita S. Hugpnis (Rolls Ser.), p. 373.
'' Letter! of Bishop Grosseteite (Rolls Ser.), p. 33. * Jacobs, Jews oj Angevin Engl. 19-21.
' Ann.Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i, 340 ; ii, 346. Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 516-19, 546, 552. According to the first of these accounts the Dominicans, according to Matthew Paris the Franciscans, inter- vened on behalf of the condemned jews in London. For the discussion of the whole of this celebrated case see Jacobs, Jetfisk Ideals, 192-224.
° Cox and Serjeantson, Hist, of St. Sepulchre's, Nortkampt. pp. 1 19-122.
' John Weever, Anet. Funeral Monuments (ed. 163 l), p. 377. The Jewish Encyclopaedia (ix, 335) gives the following account : 'In 1279, a boy having been found murdered at Northampton, some Jews of that town were t.iken to London, dragged at the tails of horses, and hanged.'
* Cal. of Pat. 18 Edw. I, m. 14, 13 ; 19 Edw. I, m. 25, zi, 20. At this time there seem to have been only five Jews or Jewesses holding landed property in Northampton, the general community holding, besides their synagogue and cemeter)', five houses and five cottages (with curtilages belonging to them). The buildings were subject to certain payments to the prior}' of St. Andrew and the abbey of St. James. The ' archa ' or chest of the Northampton Jews was duly delivered at Westminster, but the particulars of their bonds have been lost {Trans. Jewish Hist. Soc. of Engl, ii, 98). Not till 1890 do we again find any considerable settle- ment of Jews at Northampton, but in that year some Russian Jews arrived and established a syn.agogue (Jewish Encyclopaedia, ix, 335). 'Cox and Serjeantson, Hist, of St. Sepulchre's, Norlhampt. 23-6.
13
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
on 6 October, i 187,') the archbishop of Tyre met the kings of England and France at Gisors, and preached the third crusade. Both Henry II and Philip laid aside the differences which had brought them to Gisors and took, the cross/ as Prince Richard had done already.^ Before the end of January, at a council held at Le Mans, Henry issued an order levying the famous tax known as the Saladin tithe, whereby every man in his domains who did not personally join the crusade was required to give one-tenth of his income and goods toward the expenses.* Returning immediately afterwards to England, he designed to go to Canterbury, but hearing that the services in the cathedral there were suspended ' he went instead to Northampton, where the archbishop was about to hold a conference with his clergy and where the bishops and barons also assembled on the news of the king's arrival.* On 1 1 February a great council met in the king's presence at Geddington, when a number of important articles, which had apparently been before the council held at Le Mans,^ were read and approved, regulating matters connected with the aforesaid tithe (clerical books and vestments being specially exempted therefrom), and with the personal behaviour and business arrangements of the crusaders. Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, then rose and excommunicated all who should break the peace during the crusade, after which he somewhat inopportunely raised the question of his quarrel with the monks of Canterbury. Partly in consequence of the stirring sermons delivered during this council by him and by Gilbert Glanvil, bishop of Rochester, many persons, both clerical and lay, took the cross before the council broke up, among those who did so being the bishop of Lincoln. Arrangements were also made for the collection of the aforesaid tax in the counties on the principle ordained at Le Mans, while in the towns a list was to be made of the richer inhabitants, who were to pay the tithe according to an assessment made by persons acquainted with their affairs, a similar plan being applied to the Jews.*
In the following year Henry died, and Richard I was crowned at West- minster on 3 September. A council of the higher clergy was summoned to meet in London almost immediately afterwards, that the king might fill up a number of ecclesiastical offices then vacant, before starting for the Holy Land. The council, however, was presently adjourned to Geddington,^ and its actual meetings were held at the neighbouring abbey of Pipewell,'" on the outskirts of the royal forest of Rockingham. It opened on 15 September, i 189, being attended by the abbots and priors of almost the whole of England and by a number of bishops, among them the crusading Archbishop Baldwin, the saintly Hugh of Lincoln, and several prelates from Ireland and the Continent. Many important ecclesiastical vacancies were filled at this council, including several abbacies and the sees of York, Winchester, London, Salisbury, and
' Rogir de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), ii, 321 and note. ' Gena Hen. II et Ric. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 29-30.
' Ibid. p. 29. *Ibid. 30-31.
' This was an incident in that protracted quarrel between Archbishop Baldwin and his cathedral monastery which occupies so large a part of the Chron. o/Gervase of Cant.
* Gervase of Cant. (Rolls Ser.), i, 406. Henry, apparently while he was at Northampton, sent to Canterbury to complain of the cessation of the services as a slight to himself on his arrival in England. (Ibid.)
^ Gesta Hen. II et Ric. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 31-2-.
" Ibid. 33 ; Gervase of Cant. (Rolls Ser.), i, 409-12 ; stc iho Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), ii, 335 et seq.
' Gen'ase of Cant. (Rolls Ser.), i, 457-8.
'" Gesta Hen. II et Ric. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 85 and note.
14
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Ely,' and it was on this occasion that Baldwin made his claim, which he supported by an appeal to the pope, that the right to consecrate to the see of York belonged to the archbishops of Canterbury.^
On Sunday, ij September, John, bishop elect of Whithern (Galloway), was consecrated in the abbey of Pipewell by the bishop of Enaghdune and the archbishops of Dublin and Treves/ After the appointment of justiciars by the king, the council was dissolved * and shortly afterwards Richard set forth on the crusade.
The next crusade with which Northampton was associated was the seventh. Many of the nobles, headed by Richard earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III, took the cross in 1236.' Various causes, however, delayed their departure, and it was not till 12 November, 1239, that the crusaders assembled at Northampton to discuss their impending expedition. To prevent being inveigled by papal influence into engaging in other warfare on the way, Richard and his companions bound themselves by a solemn oath, sworn upon the high altar in the church of All Saints ' to take their journey to the Holy Land for the deliverance of the holy church of God in that year.'* In spite of this oath, the crusaders were not able to start till 10 June, 1240.^
About thirty years later, the same town played the most considerable
part, so far as England was concerned, in the ninth and last crusade. On
24 June, 1268, a great assembly was held here to kindle religious enthusiasm
against the renewed successes of the infidel. The fullest description of the
scene as given by a chronicler of the time may be thus rendered in English :
There assembled on Sunday, the festival of St. John Baptist, at Northampton, the papal legate the bishop of Winchester, and an innumerable multitude of English knights, and there, after a solemn preaching, Prince Edward, and Prince Edmund his brother, sons of the king. Prince Henry, the eldest son of the king of the Romans, the earls of Gloucester and Warenne, Lord William de Valence, and other knights to the number of one hundred and twenty, much troubled by the havoc wrought in the Holy Land — especially by the capture of Antioch by the Saracens — received on their shoulders the sign of the Holy Cross, in token of their intended expedition. Aroused by the example of the nobility, a vast number of people of both sexes, and of all conditions, rushed forward to receive the cross. Of the number of the knights, twenty-two were of the superior rank termed knights-banneret. The enthusiasm thus roused in Northampton was carried throughout the cities, boroughs, and towns of the whole kingdom, by the preaching of the Dominican and Franciscan friars, so that a great and innumerable multitude soon bore upon their shoulders the sign of the cross.'
Not the least interesting incident in the ecclesiastical history of North- ampton at this period — a period when education was largely the monopoly of the church — was the establishment here of a university. About the year I 26 1 a quarrel at Cambridge between the northern and southern scholars, led to a serious riot in which the townsfolk joined, and a number of the masters
' These were assigned respectively to GeofFrey (the king's natural brother), Godfrey de Lucy, Richard Fitz- Nigel, Hubert Walter, and William de Longchamp, who (except Geoffrey) were all consecrated later at West- minster and Lambeth {Ralfih de Diceto (Rolls Ser.), ii, 71, 75).
' Geoffrey, however, was consecrated 18 August, 1 191, at Tours, by the archbishop of Tours (Ibid. 96). Baldwin was then dead and the see of Canterbury vacant. A protest had, however, been made by William de Longchamp, bishop of Ely, as legate {Gervase of Cant. (Rolls Ser.), i, 496-7).
^ Fulmar, archbishop of Treves, died soon after this council while staying at Northampton, and was buried in the priory of St. Andrew (Ralph de Diceto (Rolls Ser.), ii, 70 ; Gesta Hen. II et Rk. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 89).
• Gesta Hen. II et Ric. I (Rolls Ser.), ii, 85-7 ; Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser.), iii, i 5-16 ; Gervase of Cant. (Rolls Ser.), i, 458.
' Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 368.
' Ibid. 620. In the following year Northampton was the scene of a meeting of the bishops to protest against an unwarrantable exaction by the pope (Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 437).
' Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 437. ' Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 217.
15
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
and students, annoyed at the too frequent disturbances of their studies, deter- mined to migrate to Northampton.' For this plan they obtained a licence on I February, 1260— i, from the king,** who also issued letters patent to the Northampton authorities directing them to receive the new-comers and treat them with due respect/
Early in i 264 the settlement was reinforced by the advent of a number of students from Oxford who had left that city in fear that their privileges would be taken away by the king in consequence of a recent town-and-gown conflict. These seceders were shortly afterwards induced by the king to return, but before any except a very few of them had actually done so, Henry issued a new writ expelling all scholars from Oxford till after the approaching session of Parliament there, probably because the university favoured the baronial party. Many of the ejected scholars thereupon openly went over to the barons, and were directed by them to repair to Northampton,* which thus seems to have received two immigrations from Oxford in rapid succession. These, however, were not the only migrations of university scholars to North- ampton that are recorded. There had been one as early as 1238, when a number of students seceded hither from Oxford after that affray between the scholars and the retinue of the Cardinal-Legate Otho which had brought such severe punishment upon the former and their university from both the legate and the king,^ and it is not improbable that a community of students had existed in Northampton continuously, from 1238 up to the later immigrations from Cambridge and Oxford already mentioned.* The seceders from the latter university in 1264 had been directed to Northampton because that town was under the influence of the barons.^ As a stronghold of that party, it was attacked in the same year by the king, on the resumption of hostilities follow- ing the Mise of Amiens.
As the foremost ranks of the royal forces entered the town by a breach near the priory of St. Andrew, they were assailed with especial vigour by the clerks from Oxford, who, marching under a banner of their own, plied them with slings, bows, and catapults. At this the king was so enraged that he swore that as soon as he was safe inside the walls, the scholars should be hanged. As soon as the clerks heard this, many of them shaved their heads (i.e. probably renewed their tonsures) ; and on the king's entrance some of them fled to the castle, others left their horses and arms behind them and took refuge in the churches, while a few (but of the baser sort, de communi populi) ran away altogether. When the king demanded the execution of his oath it was pointed out to him that to hang the scholars would certainly alienate many of his own supporters, who had sons and other relatives among them, whereupon he abandoned his intention. An attack was subsequently made upon the castle which immediately surrendered, and after it had been garrisoned the king took his departure.' But though the scholars from Oxford * had been spared, the university of Northampton was doomed.
' Cooper, ^nii. ofCamb. i, 48.
' Rymer, Foedera (Rec. Com.), i, pt. i, 403. ^ Ibid.
* Majcwell-Lyte, Hist, of the Univ. of O.xf. 63-5, 74 ; Rashdall, The Univ. of Europe in the Middle AgeSy
", 395-
' Maxwell-Lyte, op. cit. 34-7. '' Rashdall, op. cit. ii, 396.
' During the war much plunder was taken by the insurgents at Northampton and some other towns from the unfortunate Jews (Rigg, Select Pleas . . . from the . . . E.xch. of the Jews (Selden Soc), Introd. p. xxxvii. ' Hen. Knighton (Rolls Ser.), i, 241-4 ; Walter of Hemingburgh (Engl. Hist. Soc), i, 309-12.
16
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
After the battle of Lewes (fought on 14 May, 1264), a writ was issued in the king's name, but really prompted by the victorious Simon de Montfort, ordering the Oxonians to return to Oxford,' and on i February, 1264-5, another writ was issued in similar circumstances forbidding the mayor and citizens of Northampton to allow any longer the existence of a university in the town or the sojourn of any students there under any other conditions than had existed before the foundation of the said university, on the ground that such a university did harm to Oxford, and that the bishops were unanimously of opinion that its removal would conduce to the advantage of the English Church and to the profit of students.^
Just before the first crusade the priory of St. Andrew, as has been already stated, was entrusted by Simon de St. Liz with the patronage of all the churches in Northampton. This control of parish churches by religious houses was a notable cause of ecclesiastical dispute in England, at any rate up to the year 12 19. The parish churches of England were at first all rectories possessing the tithes, the glebe, and the offerings. Vicarages had their origin in appropriation, that is, the giving of the advowsons, and subsequently the rectories or endowments, to religious houses. For some time after the Con- quest the monasteries that obtained benefices from patrons procured occasional licence to dispense with episcopal institution or induction. This grew into a habit, so that the heads of many religious houses claimed and maintained the right to institute to their own benefices by investiture. The consequences only too often were fitful clerical residence and a lack of hospitality or alms- giving within the parochial limits, as well as occasional neglect of the divine offices. To check this evil the council of London, held at Westminster in September, 1 125, passed the decree — termed by the first earl of Selborne ' the coping-stone of the parochial system ' — that the bishop should institute to every benefice in his diocese.^ By many of the monasteries this English canon was, however, systematically disobeyed, and in 1 179 the third Lateran Council * ordered that the bishops were to require monasteries to assign a sufficient maintenance for vicars, and that vicars were not to be removable at the will of the appropriators. ' Even this failed to reduce to obedience the more powerful of the English monasteries, which steadily refused to assign definite stipends or security of tenure to their vicars. The council of London, held at Westminster in 1200, also dealt pointedly with the question,* and at last it was taken up still more decisively by the great Lateran Council (the fourth) of 1 2 1 5.'' The English bishops were now determined to put down any further defiance of their powers. The one who was the most persistent and gained the day for his own and other dioceses was that vigorous administrator, Hugh Wells, of Lincoln. Finding that there was still much resistance throughout his vast and unwieldy diocese, Bishop Wells boldly attacked the most powerful offisnder, the great abbey of St. Albans, and fastened on the case of its appropriation of the revenues of the important
' Maxwell-Lyte, op. cit. 66.
' This writ is printed by T. Fuller in his Hisl. of the Univ. of Camb. (ed. Prickett and Wright), 31-2. See also R.ishdall, op. cit. ii, 395.
' Bail, Summa Conciftorum, ii, 398. ' Ibid, i, .^04 ct seq.
6 Before this, ' appropriations might have been made to laymen,' but by the decrees of this council, ' which were incorporated into the English law, laymen were made incapable of appropriations granted to them ' (Phillimore, The Eccl. Law of the Ch. of Engl. (ed. 2), i. 222).
* Bail, op. cit. ii. 414. ' Ibid, i, 413 et seq.
2 17 3
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
church of Luton, where there was merely a single temporary stipendiary priest as vicar, without any legalized income or recognized position in the diocese. This battle of the parishes against the monasteries — for all recognized this as a test case — was a prolonged one, and very costly to both combatants. It eventually resulted in the appointment by Pope Honorius of a special commission (the bishop of Salisbury and the abbots of Westminster and Waltham), which gave judgment in 12 19. It was thereby ordered: (i) that the vicar should be presented for approval and institution to his diocesan ; (2) that he should receive all the small tithes and obventions of the church and its parochial chapels, with a suitable manse ; (3) that he should pay all parish dues, procurations, and synodals ; and (4) that the bishops of Lincoln should for the future have full jurisdiction in the church of Luton. ^ After this victory the religious houses thoughout England gave way all along the line, wherever pressed, and the formal ordination of vicarages became general.
From this time onward any further encroachment on parochial rights by monasteries or other religious orders was very exceptional. In a considerable number of parishes the benefices remained rectories, the monasteries merely presenting the rectors, and obtaining now and again a small pension from the tithes ; whilst in cases where the great tithes were appropriated, the vicars were presented, and had an assured income, usually about a third of the value of the benefice. Houses of regular canons, such as the Augustinian and Premonstratensian, might present to the livings their own members, but in the case of the much more numerous monks, whether Benedictine, Cluniac, or Cistercian, this was strictly forbidden, though the restriction was occasionally evaded. Save, then, that the income of a benefice appropriated to a religious house was divided between that house and the incumbent, the parishes that had religious patrons and those that had secular patrons differed practically in no way from one another. The question of the vicarages is one with which the ecclesiastical history of this county is specially connected. It is usually assumed that no vicarage was formally ordained in England until about 1200, but the living of Blakesley in the south of the county was entered as a vicarage on the diocesan roll in 11 56. It was appropriated to the Knights Hospitallers.^
No sooner was the Luton case settled than Bishop Wells proceeded to secure the definite establishment of vicarages throughout his diocese, and the enrolment of others that had been ordained in previous times. One of the most interesting items in the fine collection of episcopal muniments at Lincoln is the Liber Antiquus of that energetic prelate, wherein are entered particulars of no fewer than 300 vicarages in the seven archdeaconries of his diocese. Internal evidence shows that this list was compiled about 1220, but certain additions were made somewhat later in his episcopate. The Northampton vicarages enumerated in this volume are fifty-three, and comprise Little Addington, Canons Ashby, Cold Ashby, Mears Ashby,
' A copy of this deed is given in AnU<i. of Beds. (Biblio. Topog. Brit.), iv. 62. See also Cobbe, History of Luton Church (1899), 100-3.
' Blakesley is briefly entered on Bishop Wells' list of vicarages, and a later hand has added that the ordination of this vicarage was entered on the roll of Robert, formerly bishop of Lincoln, in the eighth year of his episcopate. This must refer to Bishop Robert de Chesney, who was consecrated in 1 148. Cf. the important charter of Robert de Chesney in Round, Cal. Doc. France, p. 444., No. 1,231. This must be earlier than 1 154.
18
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Ashby St. Ledgers, Little Billing, Blakesley, Bozeat, Brackley, Brafield, Catesby, Chacombe (Chalcombe), Daventry, Dodford, Duston, Evenley, Fawsley, Floore, Fotheringhay, Guilsborough, West Haddon, Hardingstone, Hemington, Horton, Little Houghton, Lilbourne, Marston, Maxey, Moulton, Newbottle, Northampton (All Saints, St. Bartholomew, St. Edmund, St. Giles, St. Michael, St. Gregory, and St. Sepulchre), Norton by Daventry, Pattishall, Peterborough (St. John Baptist), Preston Deanery, Preston Capes, Roade, Slipton, Staverton, Sulgrave, Watford, Weedon Beck, Weedon Lois, Welford, Wellingborough, Woollaston, and Wothorpe.' Forty of these parishes are expressly stated to have had their vicarages ordained auctoritate concilii. By this must be meant the fourth Lateran Council (12 15). Almost all of the vicarages thus characterized in the Northampton and other archdeaconries w^ould be those ordained by the bishop after the Luton judgment, w^hen the general canon of the council was supported in a particular case.
Six of these Northamptonshire vicarages are described as ordained exduddum, that is, ' very long ago,' namely, Guilsborough, Marston, Maxey, Moulton, Newbottle, and Wellingborough.
Bishop Wells's existing roll of institutions at Lincoln does not begin till 1220, but there are two transcripts or full excerpts which contain notices of occurrences in 1217.^ Among the institutions of the latter year are those made to the Northamptonshire livings of Addington, Maxey, and Norton, the incumbent in each case being styled ' perpetual vicar.'
The considerable variety of religious houses holding the great tithes of Northamptonshire is illustrated by the list of the fifty-two examples of this period : — Priory of St. Andrew, Northampton, thirteen ; priory of Daventry, seven ; abbey of St. James, Northampton, five ; abbeys of Peterborough, Sulby, Leicester, priories of Dunstable, Delapre, and Catesby, and the Knights Hospitallers two each ; priories of Canons Ashby, St. Neots, Huntingdon, Launde, Luffield, Merton, and Chalcombe, abbeys of Alnwick and Crowland, and the hospital of St. John, Northampton, one each. In addition to these, there were three foreign houses, each of which held a single vicarage, namely, the abbey of St. Lucien, near Beauvais, the abbey of Bee, and the abbey of Ebrulf (St. Evroul), all in Northern France.
The ordinations of these vicarages do not give (with the exception of Peterborough) such full details as are found in later examples, but no two of them are precisely alike, and most of them have some special point of interest. The vicars of the various Northampton churches, all of which belonged to the priory of St. Andrew at its north gate, were treated after a different fashion from the country vicars, as the emoluments of these town churches were so small. The vicar of the great church of All Saints was entitled to
' The full title of this volume is Liber Jntijuus de Ordinationibus Vicar'mrum tempore Hugpnis Wells, Lincohlensh Episcopi, 1209-35. It was printed by Mr. A. Gibbons in 1 888, with an introduction by Canon G. G. Perry. The Northamptonshire vicarages are on pp. 31-40 of Mr. Gibbons's edition. Canon Perry's edition assumes that the Liber Jnti^uus was written in 1 2 1 8, but careful examination shows that the date was about 1220, the year after the Luton case. As a proof of some later entries, it may be mentioned that there is a reference under one vicarage to the council of Oxford, which was held in 1222. By a slight error in transcription Mr. Gibbons has placed the notice of St. Sepulchre under the heading of St. Gregory. Both ordinations are mentioned in the original MS. There is a full criticism of the Liber Antiquus in H. Cobbe's History of Luton Church (1899), 517 et seq.
' Bishop Kennett's Collections, Lansd. MS. 946 ; and Hutton's Collections, Harl. MSS. 6950-5.
19
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
daily board, either in the frater or in the prior's chamber, as he preferred, his servant boarding in like manner with the prior's upper servants. He received as stipend 30/. a year, and td. at each of the four principal feasts. He was also allowed the residuum of the blessed bread every Sunday, half of every second legacy, and a penny whenever he celebrated mass at a funeral or a marriage. Moreover, the monks not only sustained all parochial charges, but found two chaplains with their two clerks to assist the vicar. The vicar of St. Sepulchre's was on a like footing with his brother of All Saints', save that he had a stipend of two marks, and did not receive any clerical assistance. The vicars of St. Edmund, St. Giles, and St. Michael received the full value of their churches, save that they had to render to the priory the respective sums of twenty shillings, twelve marks, and four marks. The vicar of St. Bartholomew's retained all the income of that church by rendering annually to the monks a pound of white incense.
With regard to the country vicarages, one or two of the more exceptional features may be named. The vicar of Little Addington received part of his stipend in kind, the abbot of Sulby supplying him with six quarters of wheat and six of barley, half the quantity at Easter and the other half at Michaelmas. The abbey of St. Lucien exempted from the dues of the vicar of Weedon Lois the oblations offered to relics in the church of Weedon, as well as the candles on the day of the Purification. One of the most interesting obligations that we have met with in regard to vicarage ordinations is that which rested upon the canons of the Austin houses of both Chalcombe and Canons Ashby with regard to the vicars of those parishes, namely, the providing them each with a palfrey to attend synods or chapters, or to visit the sick whenever necessary.
During the last half of the thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century the ordination of vicarages in this county went on apace, though after an intermittent fashion, until the number enrolled by Bishop Wells was nearly doubled. The proportion of vicarages to rectories in Northampton- shire was far in excess of the average proportion in England generally. At the end of the pre-Reformation period there were in this county 105 vicarages to 176 rectories, whereas the general proportion throughout England stood at 3,845 to 9,284.^ It is difficult to offer any adequate reason or reasons for this exceptional feature of Northamptonshire church life, but it was probably chiefly due to the powerful influence of the great abbey of Peterborough in the north of the county, and of the priory of St. Andrew in Northampton and the adjoining districts. There would, too, be less disposition on the part of bishops to put a check on appropriations when so many of the Northamptonshire parishes were of comparatively small area and population.
The amount of tithes, glebes, and advowsons held throughout the shire by religious houses does not, of course, by any means represent the extent of territorial influence which the religious orders possessed. They had tenants almost everywhere up and down the county, some of these tenants occupying small farms or holdings let at a definite rental and under no special control ; others being found on the large farms or granges where the monks or canons had a definite agricultural establishment and a chapel, the latter in no way connected with the parochial system.
' Cutts, Parish Priests and their People (1893), caps, xxv, xxvi.
20
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
The Taxation Roll of 1291 shows the great extension of ecclesiastical temporalities that had taken place in the two centuries succeeding the Great Survey. Besides the monastic establishments of the shire itself, many religious houses situated in other counties or abroad possessed temporalities in North- amptonshire when the Taxation Roll of 1291 was compiled; as, for example, the abbeys or priories of St. Albans, Belvoir, Biddlesden, Bradenstoke, Brad- well, Bury St. Edmunds, Bushmead, Chicksands, Clattercote, Creting, Croxden, Crowland, Deeping, Dunstable, Elstow, Evesham, St. Frideswide, Godstow, Grestain (Normandy), Huntingdon, Launde, Lavendon, Leicester, Lenton, Lilleshall, Markyate, Merevale, Kirkby Monachorum, Newstead, Owston, Ogbourne, Ramsey, Sawtry, Snelshall, Thorney, Tickford, Tutbury, Ware, Wardon, St. Wandrille (Normandy), Westminster, Woburn, and Wroxton.^
This Taxation Roll of the Church — undertaken in order to ascertain the correct value of the tenths granted by Pope Nicholas IV to the king for six years for crusading expenses, and completed for the province of Canterbury in 1 29 1 — was compiled under the direction of the bishops of Winchester and Lincoln. Perhaps that accounts for there being somewhat fuller particulars recorded of Lincoln - than of some other dioceses. The total value of the Northamptonshire benefices' was £l->Z'^Z ^ S^- ^^■■> ^^^ ^°'" ^^^ purposes of taxa- tion ^429 ijs. 9|^. had to be deducted for seventy-seven livings that were under the annual value of 10 marks.* Mr. Round has commented on the great diversity of income in parochial endowments which is shown by the entries that name such endowments in Domesday Book.' That diversity has always been apparent, and its causes are too obvious to need explanation. But as our attention has been drawn to the exceptional number of vicarages in the county, it is of some interest to note, in fairness to the religious houses, that according to the Taxation Roll of 1291 Northamptonshire contained far more small rectories than small vicarages. Out of the seventy-seven livings under the annual value of 10 marks fifty-six were rectories and only twenty-one vicarages.*
Occasionally the emoluments of a church appropriated to a religious house were divided into two parts or rectories, one of which was held by the religious house and the other by the incumbent for the time being, and both parties were alike termed rectors. Thus the church of Higham Ferrers was in two moieties, or rectories, one held by the resident priest and the other bv the Austin canons of Dunstable ;^ Isham was in like manner divided between the local priest and the priory of St. Andrew;^ and Weldon between the local priest and the priory of Launde. ° Pattishall, on the other hand, was in the singular position of having one half of its rectory appropriated to the Dun- stable canons, and the other to the convent of Godstow.^" Clipston, again, was divided into three portions, but none of these were appropriated ; they were all small, and two were assigned to one rector and the third to another, so that one rector of Clipston had an income of £<) i 5J. 6id. while his fellow- rector only drew £/\. ijs. 9W." It must not, however, be understood that such division of the emoluments into two or more rectories was always, or
' Poj>e Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 53-6. ' Ibid. 30-77.
' Ibid. 37-40, 42-3. * Ibid. 40, 43. ' F.C.H. Hants, i, 420-1.
* Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 37-43 (Archdeaconry of Northampton).
' Ibid. 38. ' Ibid. 39. ' Ibid. 38.
'» Ibid. " Ibid. 39.
21
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
even usually, an arrangement adopted for the sake of avoiding vicarages, for such cases often came down from much earlier days, when portionary churches were the rule and not the exception.
The endowments of the secular or parochial clergy were subject, in the thirteenth and succeeding centuries, to the gravest abuses, among the chief of which was the holding of benefices in plurality. A notable instance of this evil occurs in connexion with Northamptonshire. On 23 May, 1280, Bogo de Clare was presented by the earl of Gloucester to the rectory of Whiston. His institution was claimed from the official of Lincoln, the see being then vacant. Institution had to be granted, for a papal dispensation was produced. Bogo's proctor had to declare on oath the name and value of each preferment that his principal already held, the total yielding the then great income of ^(^228 6^. 8^. Bogo held the widely dispersed churches of Callan (diocese of Ossory), Leverington (Ely), St. Peter's, Oxford (Lincoln), Kilk- hampton (Exeter), Eynsford (Canterbury), Polstead and Soham (Norwich), Acaster and half Doncaster (York), Swanscombe (Rochester), Dunmow (London), Rotherfield (Chichester), Simonburn (Durham), Fordingbridge and half Dorking (Winchester), Llandogo (Llandaff), and Ham and ' Cheverell ' (Salisbury).^ AH these rectories would be served by mere stipendiary chaplains, and the parishes would probably be in a worse plight than those that had duly ordained vicarages.
Northamptonshire also supplies some striking examples of one of the greatest grievances inflicted by the crown upon the Church : the application of benefices in royal hands or under royal influence to the remuneration of offices of civil administration, without the least regard for the needs of the diocese, the archdeaconry, or the parish.
Sometimes such benefices provided an income in this way for an official of creditable life and high character, as in the case of Hugh de Pateshull. In early life this official was employed in the Exchequer.^ He lost the favour of John through siding with the baronial party. Henry III, however, appre- ciated his merits, and in 1234 he became treasurer of the kingdom.' He was a clerk in priest's orders, and was a prebendary of St. Paul's, as well as holder of several livings. In 1240 Hugh was consecrated bishop of Lichfield,* and discharged that office faithfully till the following year,^ when, revisiting his native county of Northampton, he was taken ill and died at Potterspury.' In 1239, when he was nominated to the bishopric and was accepted by the chapters of both Lichfield and Coventry, he had taken the then unusual step of at once resigning his parochial benefices. The register of his friend. Bishop Grossetete, shows that in that year he resigned the Northamptonshire rectories of Brockhall, Cottingham, Elkington, and Stowe-Nine-Churches, together with the half-rectory of Higham Ferrers.^
Bishop Grossetete, who was so justly severe and so exemplary as a diocesan, would scarcely see much wrong (in spite of the better feeling of the times) in such comparatively moderate plurality as served to find an income for the upright Hugh de Pateshull; but in another case con- nected with Northamptonshire, that of Robert Passelew, it was otherwise.
' Line. Epis. Reg. Sutton. ' Matt. Paris, Chron. Moj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 296.
' Ibid, iii, 296 ; iv, 1-2. He is also mentioned as ' domini regis cancellarius,' Ibid, iii, 54.2. * Ibid, iii, 542-3, iv, I, 31. ' Ibid, iv, 171.
^ Ann. Men. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 157. ' Line. Epis. Reg. Grosseteste.
22
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
A man of ability but of unscrupulous character, he had taken an evil part in public affairs in the days of John, and was for a long time an exile from the kingdom.^ In 1228, after the death of Archbishop Langton, he returned and gained the favour of Henry III,^ who made him treasurer of the Exchequer, and afterwards deputy-treasurer of the kingdom.' About 1244 the king made him justice of the forests, an office that he exercised with the greatest severity.* Although Passelew was not in priest's orders, the king conferred on him a prebend of St. Paul's and the archdeaconry of Lewes, as well as certain minor preferments. But Henry met his match when he endeavoured to increase his favourite's income at the expense of the Church in the diocese of Bishop Grossetete. He presented Passelew to the rectory of St. Peter's, Northampton, which, in conjunction with Kingsthorpe and Upton, was at that time a valuable piece of preferment. The bishop refused to institute Passelew, stating that it would be contrary to divine law and canonical sanc- tion to institute one who exercised the functions of a forest judge.' In a letter to Archbishop Boniface, he explained that as a justice of the royal forests Passelew judicially inquired into thefts of vert and venison, caused those branded with such charges to be arrested and imprisoned, and sentenced not only laymen but clerks, besides discharging other functions of that office ; that Passelew had been frequently but fruitlessly warned by him (presumably after the presentation to St. Peter's) to cease from exercising such an office ; and that the refusal to institute was grounded upon Passelew's illicit exercise thereof, as well as upon other objections not specified.* Grossetete's action was all the bolder, because Passelew had been presented in the time of this bishop's predecessor to two other rectories in Lincoln diocese — Swanbourne, Buckinghamshire, in 1218, and Brampton, Northamptonshire, in 1231.^ Shortly before this rebuff to the king the canons of Chichester, partly because they knew such a step would win the royal favour, elected Passelew as their bishop, but Grossetete was able to defeat their intention. The election of Passelew came before the bishops, and they deputed Grossetete to examine him. Passelew had to submit to examination, and the sturdy bishop of Lincoln reported that he was too ignorant for the episcopate.' The king was indignant and appealed to Rome for his consecration,' but Innocent IV eventually consecrated Richard de Wych, whom the bishops had put forward without asking the king's consent.^"
Bishop Grossetete was as bold against papal as against royal encroach- ments, and the well-known instance of his rejecting for preferment the nephew of the pope " is often cited. His register, however, shows that he could not always keep foreigners out of the benefices of his diocese ; and it must be remembered, too, that his vigour in this direction was less marked during the earlier portion of his episcopate than it became toward the end. Giles de Spoleto, described as clerk of the papal legate, was instituted to the
' Arm. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 89 ; Walter of Coventry (Rolls Ser.), ii, 262-3 ! Matt. Paris, Chrtm. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 94. ' Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 107.
' Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 240, 296. * Ibid, iv, 400-1, 426-7.
' Letters of Bishop Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), 349. ' Ibid. 353-4.
' Line. Epis. Reg. Hugh Wells. Swanbourne was then in the gift of St. Andrew's priory, Northampton, and Brampton in that of Thomas Picot.
' Matt. Paris, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 401. ' Ibid. 412.
'° Ibid. 401, 426. Passelew was eventually ordained priest in 1249, and the bishop of Ely then gave him the church of Dereham (Ibid, v, 85). " Letters of Bishop Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), 432.
23
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Northamptonshire rectory of Werrington in 1237. Alemannus de Cokanato (a name obviously not English), described in the register as a cousin of the papal legate, was in 1244 instituted to the rectory of Deene, also in this county.^ It is, of course, almost certain (though it is not possible to state it as a fact) that neither of these foreigners resided in his benefice. Among foreigners beneficed in Northamptonshire later on in the century, may be named J. de Aqua Blanca, the pope's chamberlain, instituted to Geddington in 1282 ; and the imperious Boniface VIII, who only resigned the rectory of Towcester when he became pope, and who was followed in the same living in 1295 by another Italian, who, through his proctor, exhibited papal letters to secure it.*
Another great evil of Grossetete's days that he endeavoured strenuously to combat, was the holding of livings by clerks who were not priests. In 1244 the Northamptonshire rectories of Harrowden and Geddington were both filled by sub-deacons.
There is, however, one other aspect of Grossetete's administrative abilities that may rightly be mentioned under this county. In 1221 he seems to have become archdeacon of Northampton, and it was the knowledge of the manifold and grave abuses prevailing which he gained as archdeacon that caused him to put forth his powers as bishop to such varied and practical purpose. Soon after his consecration he began a systematic visitation of his immense diocese, and he has left on record the admirable and novel plan which he then adopted,' and which there is reason to believe he first carried out in his old archdeaconry of Northampton. Orders were issued to his archdeacons to instruct the rural deans to call together both clergy and laity at some convenient centre in each deanery. On the day appointed, Grosse- tete, with several of the ablest of his much-loved friars, was in readiness. The bishop himself preached to or admonished his clergy, while one of the friars preached to the great concourse of the people. During the day four of the friars were continuously engaged in hearing confessions, to which duty the bishop earnestly exhorted them. When the bishop had concluded his address to the clergy, he then proceeded to the confirmation of the children whom the parents had been previously urged by their parish priests to bring. When this was over, the bishop, with his clerks around him, spent the rest of the day listening to inquiries, and in giving advice or judgment in all cases brought before him.
Exceptional energy was displayed in the administration of this great diocese by Bishop Dalderby, whose episcopate extended from 1300 to 1320. He paid very close attention to the religious houses of this county, and of his circumspection and vigour generally a good idea can be formed from the fol- lowing brief summary of some of his principal acts connected with the arch- deaconry of Northampton, culled from his register.*
Indulgences were granted toward the repairs of the bridges of Oundle, Towcester, Geddington, and of the south bridge of Northampton ; for the fabric of the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr at Thrapston bridge ; to those visiting the church of St. John Baptist, Barnack, the altar of Our Lady at
' Line. Epis. Reg. Grosseteste. ' Line. Epis. Reg.
' Letters of Bishop Grosseteste (Rolls Ser.), 71, 134, 146, 305, 344, etc. * Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderby, passim.
24
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Lilford, the parish church of Weldon, and the Lady chapel of Moulton ; and for the repair of the church of Harlestone, and of the south aisle of the church of Fotheringhay. The high altar of the newly-built church of Roth- well was dedicated in 1310, and in the same year the altar of Our Lady at Kingsthorpe church ; the bishop also dedicated three altars in St. Michael's, Northampton, the high altar of the church of Preston, and an altar in the church of UfFord. In 13 17 he instructed the archdeacon of Northampton to make collections for the fabric of the mother church of Lincoln.
The zeal of this prelate was also shown in other directions. Hearing that the vicar of All Saints',' Northampton, was incapable of doing duty through age and infirmity, he appointed a commission to inquire and report as to this case and others that might resemble it. The rector of Thorpe Malsor was cited to make residence. Irregular superstition was curbed, and the bishop inhibited the veneration of a well of St. Thomas the Martyr, in the field of Hackleton, in Piddington parish. A mandate was issued to all deans, rectors, vicars, and chaplains to bring children to be confirmed.
The bishop showed himself a strong upholder of the mendicant orders. In 13 18, he licensed 104 Dominicans, sixty-two Franciscans, and sixteen Austin friars to hear confessions throughout the diocese ; but at the same time he inhibited unlicensed friars from either hearing confessions or preaching.'
Another entry in Dalderby's register tells of what seems, at first sight, an outbreak of iconoclastic rage. In Whitsun week, 13 13, the parishioners of Tansor were making their customary Whitsuntide procession to Oundle, preceded by their cross and candles. They had just entered the churchyard when some of the inhabitants of Oundle rushed upon them, attacked both priests and people, broke up the staff of the cross into three or four pieces, and trod the cross under their feet 'in an heretical and diabolical manner.' The bishop in consequence excommunicated the offenders.* The real reason for this attack was certainly mere local jealousy, and no anger against the symbol of Christianity. Probably it was customary, and was considered courteous, for the crosses of surrounding parishes to be lowered on entering the town or the churchyard of Oundle.* At any rate the entry is of interest as showing that Oundle, an early centre of Christianity, was regarded as the mother church or minster of some of the surrounding parishes, who came at Whitsuntide to make their Pentecostal offerings.
It was in the episcopate of Dalderby's third successor. Bishop John Gynwell, that the diocese was visited by the Black Death. That terrible scourge which swept over Europe in the fourteenth century, reached these shores in 1348, probably in the month of August, and quickly spread from the coast of Dorset, where it first appeared, over all the west of England. On 17 August the bishop of Bath and Wells ordered his clergy to hold special services every Friday in their churches to avert God's wrath. In the following month, the prior of Canterbury (the see being vacant)
' An interesting inhibition addressed to the dean of Northampton with respect to trading within the church and churchyard of this parish will be found printed in Dinscy, Horae Decanicae Rutales (1844), ii, 436.
' Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderbv, 368, 370, 383.
» Ibid. f. 2453.
* The crosses of Alrewas and Longton had to be delivered up on entering, at Whitsuntide, the close of Lichfield. Quarrels like that at Oundle were by no means infrequent.
2 25 4
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
ordered processions or litanies throughout the province/ By the summer of 1349 the plague was raging throughout all parts of England. It was at its worst in Northamptonshire from May to October in that year. Of the beneficed clergy 148 died,' though the benefices subject to episcopal institu- tion numbered only 281. The number of deaths would be far larger among the unbeneficed, particularly among the monks and friars. The clergy of the county town, where the plague was fiercest in October, suffered terribly. Out of the nine parochial benefices of Northampton, seven were rendered vacant, the vicarage of All Saints' being twice emptied.
A very striking instance of the effect of the Black Death upon the religious houses of the county is afforded by the abbey of Peterborough. In the custumal of that house it is stated that the number of the monks at the time of the great mortality was sixty-four, but that the deaths of that period reduced it to thirty-two, and that it was found impossible to observe the accustomed rota of services.' The priory of LuiSeld is said to have lost all its monks and novices as well as the prior. There perished also the prior of Canons Ashby ; the masters of the following hospitals : that of SS. John and James at Brackley, that of St. John Baptist at Armston, and that of SS. John and John Baptist at Northampton ; and the superiors of the nunneries of Delapre, Rothwell, Sewardsley, Catesby, and Wothorpe. Wothorpe never recovered from the effects of the pestilence. On the petition of its patron, it was in 1354 united to the neighbouring convent of Stamford St. Michael, the royal licence stating that the house was ' by the late pestilence reduced to such poverty that all the nuns, save one, had in consequence dispersed. ' *
The effect of the Black Death upon religious and other architecture, and upon social life in general, is dealt with elsewhere : suffice it here to say a word or two about the effect upon ecclesiastical life in particular. Knighton, a canon of St. Mary's, Leicester, who thus lived in Lincoln diocese, and close to the border of Northamptonshire, and who wrote shortly after the cessation of the epidemic, thus sums up the situation : —
At that time there was everywhere such a dearth of priests that many churches were left without the divine offices, mass, matins, vespers, sacraments, and sacramentals. One could hardly get a chaplain to serve a church for less than ;^io, or lO marks. And whereas before the pestilence, when there were plenty of priests, anyone could get a chaplain for 5 or even 4 marks, or for 2 marks and his board, at this time there was hardly a soul who would accept a vicarage for ;^20, or 20 marks. In a short time after, however, a large number of those whose wives had died in the pestilence came up to receive orders. Of these many were illiterate and mere laics, except in so far as they knew in a way how to read, although they did not understand what they read.°
The lists of ordinations from the Lincoln episcopal registers fully confirm some of Knighton's statements as to the after results, though the considerable
' F. A. Gasquet, The Great Pestilence, 71-4.
' This estimate is formed from the Lincoln Episcopal Register, compared with the Patent Rolls, where the presentations to benefices in the king's gift are recorded. In seventeen cases there were two or more changes during the year. It cannot of course be positively stated that in every case the vacancy was through death by the plague, but this must be true of the enormous majority of cases. The institutions of the arch- deaconry of Northampton, which included Rutland, were 32 in 1348, 183 in 1349, and 46 in 1350.
' Lambeth MSS. 198^ and 198^. This MS. is not paged.
* Pat. 28 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 16. See also Gasquet, op. cit. 1 37-8.
' For Knighton's account of the plague and its after results, and of the action of the bishop of Lincoln see his Chronicle (RoUs Ser.), ii, 58-65. For the wording of the above translation the writer is indebted to Abbot Gasquet (op. cit. 205-6).
26
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
number of graduates that appear among the persons instituted show that his charge of illiteracy was .somewhat sweeping.
Although the institution of those in minor orders to benefices was per- missible, it remained the exception, and the best of the bishops endeavoured to reduce it to a minimum. But the Black Death upset all usual ecclesiasti- cal procedure. The years 1349-51 are remarkable for the extraordinary number, not merely of persons who were ordained, but of persons whether in minor orders or otherwise, who were ordained straight to benefices. The striking difference begins with the ordination held at the prebendal church of Liddington, in March, 1348-9, when fourteen sub-deacons were ordained to benefices, five of which were in Northamptonshire, viz. : Ashley, Blakes- ley, Creaton, Litchborough, and Middleton Cheney. On 6 June, 1349, at Grantham, thirteen acolytes, eleven sub-deacons, and nine deacons were ordained to benefices, of which those in Northamptonshire were Armston, Ashby St. Ledgers, Elkington, Pytchley, Wadenhoe and WoUaston. On 18 September Lincoln witnessed the ordination of forty acolytes, twenty- three sub-deacons, and twelve deacons. A great ordination was held at the Carmelite church, Stamford, on 19 December, when the benejiciati included thirteen acolytes, sixty sub-deacons and seventy-six deacons, many of them destined for parishes in Northamptonshire. At an ordination in the church of Rothwell, on 20 February, 1349-50, eleven acolytes were ordained to benefices. There was another ordination on 13 March, when those appointed to benefices included five acolytes, thirteen sub-deacons, and forty- three deacons. It was much the same with the four other ordinations of that year, and with those of 1351 and 1352, which were held at scattered centres, such as Bedford, Huntingdon, Oxford, Sleaford, and Stowe, and it was not until after the May ordination of 1353 that matters resumed a nor- mal condition.
These beneficed clerks were for the most part speedily passed on to the priesthood, but what must have been the condition of their parishes mean- while, so far as sacraments and sacramentals were concerned ? A few in- stances, occurring in this county, may be given here of the rapidity, contrary to all usual custom, with which many of these clerks progressed in orders. Richard de Cranesley was ordained sub-deacon, and instituted to Ashley in March, i 349, and was priested in the following June. The case of John de Wrangle and the vicarage of Blakesley was exactly similar. John Spelyng, instituted to Little Billing in September, was ordained acolyte and sub-deacon at the time, deacon in December, and priest in the following March. Philip Weland, William Danet, and Elias de Brympton were instituted in December, 1349, to the respective livings of Grendon, Hargrave, and Newnham ; at the same date they were all three ordained to the degrees of acolyte and sub- deacon, and were admitted to the diaconate and the priesthood at the follow- ing Easter. But protracted and far-reaching as were the effects produced upon the Church by the Great Pestilence and recurrences of the plague in 1361 and 1366, she maintained, with little diminution, the dignity of her corporate life.
In 1380 Northampton was the scene of an important meeting of Parlia- ment. In connexion with the not infrequent summoning of Parliament to this town, the statement has been made (first by Bridges and then repeated by sub-
27
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
sequent writers) that it met in 1380 and on several subsequent occasions in the church of All Saints.^ Reference to the Fine RoUs^ however, shows that in 1380 the king and his Parliament met in the priory of St. Andrew, in the great new dormitory, not as yet divided into cubicles/ There was indeed a meeting held at the same time in All Saints', but it was composed of clergy assembled in convocation, and the like is true of the subsequent occasions just alluded to. This Parliament of 1380 was a memorable one, both for Church and State. Opened by the young king, Richard II, and first addressed by the chancellor, Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, it was chiefly concerned with the raising of money for the wars then being waged in France. The king asked for ^T 160,000. The Commons promised _^ 100,000, provided that the clergy, as owners of a third of the kingdom, paid one-third of the sum. The clergy, sitting in All Saints', where the message reached them, demurred to this stipulation as an infringement of their rights, saying that, ' their grant was never made in Parliament, neither ought to be ; and that the laity neither ought nor had the power to bind the clergy, nor the clergy the laity.' Nevertheless, they expressed their willingness to consider the question independently, and eventually voted, approximately, the proportion required. In the following month (December) the king formally notified the southern archbishop of this clerical subsidy and of the times of its payment.'
In the preceding year, when a graduated poll tax had been adopted, the following scale had been imposed by convocation on the clergy : — Bishops and mitred abbots ^4, beneficed clergy ^3 to 2s. according to the value of their living, monks and nuns from 3J. 4^. to 4^. according to the value of the house to which they belonged, and unbeneficed clerics 4^/. This had pro- duced from the clergy >(^8,ooo. The exact method adopted to raise the far larger sum of jr3 3,000, authorized by the convocation of Northampton, is not known, but in all probability it took the form of a heavier poll tax. The newly devised poll tax, passed on this occasion by the Parliament of Northampton, was not graduated, and fell heavily on the poorer classes. It was, indeed, the chief cause of Wat Tyler's rebellion of the following year.* That rebellion, it will be remembered, was contemporary with, and by some was even partially attributed to, the spread of the teaching of Wycliffe. A great part of WyclifFe's work was done in this diocese and within a few miles of the north-west border of Northamptonshire. He was the rector of Lutter- worth, in Leicestershire, from 1375 till his death in 1384, and among his conscientious supporters may be mentioned Sir Thomas Latimer, who bore a well-known Northamptonshire name.^
It was where men most did congregate that Wycliffe's revolutionary social tenets, still further emphasized after his death by his followers the Lollards, gained the strongest hold. They caused considerable disturbances at Leicester and at Northampton. In 1392 a formal complaint was made to the king against John Fox, mayor of Northampton, who was charged with infringing both ecclesiastical and civil rights by the headstrong character of his proceedings. The complaint embodies so many vivid particulars, and illustrates so well the extent and character of Lollardism in the county town,
' Bridges, Hist. ofNorthants, i, 429.
' Hartshorne, Memorials of Northampton, 163-7 > Serjeantson, Hist, of All Saints', 32. ' Fine R. 4 Ric. II, m. 22. * Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii, 485-7.
' Hen. Knighton (Rolls Ser.), ii, 181.
28
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
that it is best to reproduce it in full from a seventeenth-century transcript now in the Bodleian Library M —
Anno 1 6 Ric. II. A complaint to y King and Council, against John Fox, Maior of North' etc., exhibited in French by Rich'' Stormesworth, Woolman; complaining yf ye s'' Maior hath presumed by Colour of his office, to use Royal power and auctority of Holy Kirke in y s'i Town authorising y' Lollards to preach, maugre y Bishop of Lincoln and his Curates, notwithstanding their Inhibicons.'' That y s"* Mai^ is a Lollard, keeping in his house one Richard Bullock chaplain, who hath been convicted of many Errors and Heresys at North' before Thos. Botteler, Archdeacon of Northt) and likewise one James CoUyn, sometime a Prentice of y^ Trade of Mercery in London : refusing his Arte to become a Lollard : w<^h James Collyn was y= first maintainer of LoUardy in North' and ye s'l Maif hath drawn to him one Tho. Compworthe of y' county of Oxford, who hath been convict before y' chancelU and University there of many Err'' and Heresys. And one Nicolas Weston, a ffryer Carmelite apostate and Lollard without ye licence of his Order, and made him Parish Chaplain of St. Gregory's at North'- Andy' ye s'' Mai' hath drawn unto him one Mr. Wm. North wold, an instructor of ye Lollards of ye Town, without ye licence of ye s"* Bp etc. ; ye w'^ Mr. Wm. did wrongfully occupy ye Archdeaconry of Sudbury about seven years, and after Symoniacally took away a great sum of Money, on w'^'' he liveth at this day deliciously in ye House of St. Andrew at North' : where he hath caused such debate between ye Prior and Menkes y' ye house is well nigh undone. Mr. Wm. caused ye like troubles at Melkesworth and Oseney and St. John's at Bedford, etc.
That ye s"* Mai'' hath made ye whole Town of North' in a manner to become Lollards, being vexatious to such as are not. That he brought in one Robert Braibrok, a chaplain, an Herretick, to preach in All S" Church at North' maugre ye Bp etc. and one Parson of Wynkpole, a Lollard, to preach there, who assended ye Pulpit w" ye Viccar of ye Church, after the offertory, went to ye Altar to sing his Mass ; whom ye s<i Mai'' followed and took by ye back of his vestment, to cause him to cease, till ye s'^ Preacher had preached, and ye Vicar answer'd non possum. The s") Parson preached there his Lollardy in ye after- noon too, to whom the s^ Rich'' Stormesworth cryed, 71m autem, Tu autem, to cause him to hold his peace : comanding him to come down, upon w'^^' an uproar ensued, and y' ye s^ Rich"* was in danger of his life. That afterwards ye i.^ Mai' fearing that he might be blamed for w' he had done in maintenance of ye sA Preacher, got unto him 8 or 9 of ye 24 chief men to assist him for ye inditeing of ye s^ Rich'' for ye s'^ ffray, [and] summoned ye Dosouns to appear at his court. That Laurence Barber, one of ye Dosouns, was imprisoned by ye rest for not agreeing with their p'sentment. That ye Mai'' got a Jury of Lollards who, together with Wm. Pisford, an enemy of ye s^ Rich'' gave their Verdite yt ye sd Rich'' was principal in ye Affray, ye %i Rich"' being absent when this Verdite was given. That no action is there maintainable by ye Inhabitants against ye Lollards during this man's maioralty. That ye Maior etc. sent to Oxford to hire Preachers to preach during ye time of Lent, at ye Cross in ye Church Yard in ye Market-place of North'- That ye Commissaries of ye Bp of Lincoln dare not sit upon Lollardy in North' for fear of ye Maior. That he with other Lollards brought ye afores"* Mr. Wm. Northwold from ye Monastery of S' Andrew's, arrayed en une cloke, une Tabard, et une chapon furres de pcllure and w'h a Cap on, as if he had been a Docf or Master of Divinity, to preach.
It has not been found possible to trace the issue of this complaint, but at all events John Fox' must have been a man of some considerable substance in the town, and could not have undergone any serious punishment ; for subsequently he was again mayor in two successive years, 1399 and 1400.
The Lollards came to be regarded in the time of Henry IV as a positive danger to the state on account of their social tenets, and rigorous measures
' This is undoubtedly a condensed rendering of the French of Anct. Petition 7,099 (P.R.O.). A fuller English transcript will be found Cott. MS. Cleopatra II, 201.
' In 1392 Bishop Buckingham issued a letter to the clergy of his diocese with respect to the wolf that was preying on the flock, particularly in the town of Northampton, where unlicensed preachers were expounding after the manner of the Lollards. The bishop inhibited all such preachers, and ordered that his proclamation should be published in all the churches of Northampton. In the following year the bishop commissioned the abbot of St. James's, Northampton, and others to inquire and report as to the names of Lollards, as a number of wandering priests and others were leading the flock astray, especially in Northampton (Line. Epis. Reg. Buckingham, fols. 393, 401).
' He had been appointed a local commissioner by the crown in 1387. Cal. Pat. 1 1 Ric. II, pt.i, ra. 21 J.
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A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
were adopted for their suppression. It is noticeable, however, that the more reUgious side of the movement never died out, and that the places where Lollardism mostly prevailed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were permeated with Puritanism in the two centuries that followed. Of no place in England, as will presently be seen, is this more true than of Northampton.
From 1405 to 141 9 the diocese was ruled by a bishop who had himself been formerly a Lollard, and even a leading exponent of Lollard opinions. The career of Bishop Philip Repington was not free from faults, but he was at least a strict disciplinarian. Towards the end of his rule he issued severe warnings against laymen presuming to sit in the chancels of churches. One of his special injunctions in this respect was against Joan, the wife of Lawrence Mortymer, of Towcester, in this county, who took her seat in the chancel after knowing that the penalty of greater excommunication would be pronounced against such offenders.' A later instance of Lollardism in Northamptonshire during this century is afforded by the case of John Frankes, rector of Yardley Hastings, who had to make a formal abjuration before his diocesan of erroneous opinions publicly preached. He had preached against pilgrimages and the adoration of images.^
The Assize of Arms of 1 1 8 1 bound every holder of land to produce one or more men fully equipped and capable of fighting in national defence. For more than four centuries, the providing for and the assembling of the local militia (though the scale of arms was revised in 1285) continued on the basis laid down by Henry II. Though the clergy, both secular and religious, were, of course, exempt from any personal service in arms, they were liable for their proportionate share of the local force in all cases where their income was derived from a charge on land or from the land itself. In times of emergency special attention was given to the due proportions of the Assize of Arms so far as it affected the clergy. The bishops were held responsible for the apportioning of the number and quality of men-at-arms due from the clergy of their diocese in proportion to the income of those clergy, and obtained their returns through their rural deans. Such an emergency arose in 141 8, when the king was absent in France and a Scotch invasion not improbable ; and details of the clerical array for the deaneries of Peterborough, Oundle, and Weldon will be found in a register of the abbey of Peterborough. This array, one of a class of which there are few examples for that period, is unfortunately too long and intricate for full discussion here. It is valuable as giving a kind of clergy-list (though not a complete one) for a large portion of the county, and much interest attaches to many of the particulars it contains as to the peculiar liabilities, with regard to national defence, of various classes of ecclesiastics and of several religious communities — the colleges of Cotterstock and Fotheringhay, the priory of Fineshade, and the abbeys of Peterborough and Pipewell. The document containing this array is now preserved in the British Museum.'
The deaneries mentioned in the document had to provide eighteen ' armed men,' eight of whom fell to the share of the wealthy abbey of Peterborough. From the terms of other arrays it is clear that this expression meant mounted yeomen, as when in 1285 anyone possessed of ^^15 in lands
' Line. Epis. Reg. Repington, fols. 144, 147, 1 50. ' Ibid. Chedworth, fol. 46.
' Add. MS. 25,288, fols. 81^-83.
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
or 40 marks in goods had to furnish a man provided with ' an hauberke, a brest plate of yron, a sworde, a knife, and an horse.' Of the 233 archers, seventeen w^ere harnessed archers (furnished with a leather corslet, etc.) and armed with sword and battle-axe. The chaplains of Clapton and Stanion had each to provide a pikeman, armed with ' palet and pole-axe.'
This array did not secure a unanimous response. The master of the college of Fotheringhay, with five of the eight chaplains, proved contumacious, and so did the rector of Lutton. One of the chaplains at Apethorpe, one of those at Cotterstock, and the chaplain at Newton were excused from providing soldiers on the ground of impotence, that is, doubtless, of poverty. At Barnwell there was an instance of a pensioned ex-rector, who, as he drew twelve marks from the living, was liable to this array, as well as the rector in charge. It is also of peculiar interest to note that Master John Colnet, prebendary of Nassington, was exempt from the array, in consequence of his being with the king in Normandy.
Between the days of the French wars and the eve of the Reformation the course of religious life in Northamptonshire was comparatively un- eventful. As to the condition of the churches and the general support of the various religious uses in them during the first half of the sixteenth century, much information can be gleaned from the large number of Northamptonshire wills of the time of Henry VIII in the local probate office. Reference to some of the more important details will be made in the account of the separate parishes, but a few particulars may be mentioned here. It was an almost invariable custom to leave some bequest, however small, to the mother church (Lincoln, and afterwards Peterborough), and another to the parish church for forgotten tithes, for the repair or sustenta- tion of the bells, and for the high altar. Usually there were also bequests to the lights before different images or pictures, as well as to the sepulchre (Easter) light, the rood light, or the light before the blessed sacrament. Bequests to ' the torches ' or great funeral tapers for parochial use were also common. These gifts were frequently in kind, such as a quarter or strike of barley, a sheep, a cow, or a hive of bees. There was frequently a stock or store pertaining to different lights or altars which was managed by the churchwardens, or by special gilds under their supervision. The procuring or repair of costly vestments, altar vessels, censers, candlesticks, service books, and the like, as well as altar linen, was also materially helped by means of legacies, those who could not afford whole gifts of this description being content to leave small sums ' toward ' such and such an object.' It should be remembered that the great cost of all the details of worship was then borne, even in the humblest parish church, by the free-will offerings and bequests of the parishioners, save in the rare cases of an endowment for lights. Church rates were unknown until post-Reformation days. These wills also show that considerable repairs and rebuildings of towers and spires were in progress during the first quarter of the sixteenth century, with the occasional addition or reconstruction of an aisle or a porch. Rood lofts were now and again renewed at this period, and often re-gilded and repainted.
' Readers of Tudor wills can see how later on they bear witness to the abandonment of the old usages, the re-establishment of some of them under Mary, and their gradual cessation in the early days of Elizabeth. In some parishes the various successive injunctions with regard to lights were but tardily obeyed.
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A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Ere the scandalous tale of the wholesale dissolution of monasteries is reached, it should be mentioned that precedents for suppression in England were numerous, from the cases of the Knights Templars and the alien priories in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, down to the reign of Henry VIII. But it should also be remembered that in all these the papal sanction had been asked and granted, and that the possessions and funds of a suppressed house were (with very rare exceptions) devoted to other religious purposes.* In fact it was a policy similar to that now followed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners when they transfer funds from the estates of bishoprics and chapters to the augmentation of small livings. Northamptonshire yields several examples. In the fifteenth century, for example, the small priory and the manor of Weedon Pinkney (also called Weedon Lois) were made part of the endowment of Archbishop Chichele's foundation of All Souls', Oxford.^ In 1494, the pope, at the request of Henry VII, granted a bull for the suppression of Luffield Priory, which was too poor to maintain itself, and for the incorporation of its property with his new foundation at Windsor,* a grant which was subsequently revoked by Pope Julius II in favour of Westminster Abbey and the chapel of Henry VII there.* In the next reign (1526) Cardinal Wolsey carried this principle a great deal further, and obtained both papal and regal consent to the suppression of many of the smaller monasteries to enable him to found that great college at Oxford which was afterwards known as Christ Church ; one of the establishments thus suppressed being the Cluniac House at Daventry.
It may be mentioned in passing that for a few months Wolsey was himself the ecclesiastical ruler of Northamptonshire. After having held the deanery of Lincoln for six years he was consecrated bishop of that see on 6 March, 15 14; but six months later (November) he was translated to York, and neither as dean nor as bishop was he much in the diocese of Lincoln. Afterwards, however, not long before his death, which occurred in November, 1530, he spent Easter at Peterborough. On Palm Sunday he carried his palm in the procession ; on Maundy Thursday he washed the feet of a number of poor men, with the abbot as his attendant ; and on Easter Day he sang high mass in the abbey,'' The practice to which he had resorted so recently in the case of Daventry and a few other religious houses, was destined to become, five years after his death, a general policy, directed by far more unscrupulous hands and actuated by far more doubtful motives.
The principal monastic houses in Northamptonshire at this time were the abbeys of Peterborough (Benedictine), Pipewell (Cistercian), St. James, Northampton (Austin Canons), Sulby (Premonstratensian), the priory of St. Andrew, Northampton (Cluniac), and the nunneries of Delapre (Cluniac), and Catesby (Benedictine). In addition to these, the friars of each of the four orders had a house in Northampton, and the Knights Hospitallers a preceptory at Dingley.
' So, in the case of the priory of Luffield (vUe infra), the bulls of Alexander VI and Julius II for its annexation to other foundations expressly stipulate that it should not revert to profane, or as we should say, lay uses. Dugdale, Mon. iv, 352.
' Ibid, vi, 1018 ; CaJ. of Pat. Edw. IV, 1 46 1 -7, 1 48.
' Ibid, iv, 352. * Ibid.
' Gunton, Hist. cfCh. of Peterb. (1686), 57.
32
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
In 1535 a commission was issued. The commissioners in the case of St. Andrew's Priory, Northampton, included Dr. Richard Layton, arch- deacon of Buckingham, and certain laymen. A formal confession ^ was made by the monks in the presence of the commissioners ; but the faults admitted, whatever they may have been, did not debar the brethren from receiving pensions, while the prior was later chosen as the first dean of the newly constituted see of Peterborough. A letter from one of the commis- sioners to Cromwell ends by saying : ' We have practised with the poor men for their pensions as easily as the king's charges and as much to his grace's honour as we could devise.'^
The income of this house was >C4o° ^ year, and the pensions allowed made a total of ^36 3J-. 4</., without those of the prior and sub-prior. The rest went to the king and the rents probably increased, if we may credit the statement of one of the commissioners that the prior's predecessors ' pleasured much in odoriferous savours, as it should seem by their converting the rents of their monastery that were wont to be paid in corn and grain, into gilly-flowers and roses.' "
Dr. London, the commissioner who reported as to the friars and the nuns, was of worse character even than Layton, and after convictions for perjury and worse offences died at last in 1543 in the Fleet Prison.* His evidence consequently requires thorough sifting, and carries little weight. According to him, John Goodwin, the prior of the Austin Friars, knowing of his approach divided ^^30 among the brethren ; but the commissioner, hearing what had happened, imprisoned the delinquent and got back about 40J. of the money. ^
The Carmelite Friars of the town were reported as being so much in debt that all they had would not clear it off, and London complained gene- rally of the poverty of the churches of the friars and the coarseness of their surroundings. Later he admitted that the town of Northampton and the villages round were falling into decay, and that many attributed the cause to the destruction of the four friaries.' The friars at this time had certainly fallen away from their original fervour, but this unconscious testimony to their poverty and to their goodness to the poor deserves note. Dr. London gave a good report of the Cluniac nuns of Delapre. He received the
' L. and p. Hen. VIII, xiii, pt. i, No. 396.
' Ibid, xiii, pt. i, Nos. 405, 407. A report addressed to Cromwell by all the commissioners (Ibid. pt. i, 405) states that the prior Francis Leycetour and sub-prior specially asked to have their cases submitted for Cromwell's consideration, and accordingly were respited ; that the other members of the chapter were
pensioned as follows : —
Age
31
Thomas Smyth Thomas Gowlestone Robert Marten James Hopkyns Richard Bunbery
|
Age |
C |
5. |
d. |
|
|
52 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
John Harolde . |
|
50 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
Thomas Barbor |
|
41 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
William Warde |
|
52 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
Thomas Aterbury |
|
40 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
William Sowthecote . |
29
27 31
|
£ |
s. |
d |
|
6 |
8 |
|
|
6 |
8 |
|
|
3 |
4 |
|
|
3 |
4 |
|
|
3 |
4 |
|
|
^£7 |
per |
annum, |
and that John Rote, aged thirty-six, was given the vicarage of St. Giles's, Northampton, with instead of a pension, the commissioners saying that though nominally of the value of £-, it is ' of so smale valew that evere of them haveying his pension shalbe in better case than he.' When the religious pension roll of Philip and Mary was drawn up, Thomas Bettes the sub-prior was receiving ^S per annum, the three last on the original list £z ly. 4<2'. e.ich, and Gowlestone ^^4, while Richard Cooke, a name not mentioned before, was also receiving ^^4 (Pension Roll Phil, and M.ary, Add. MS. 8,102).
' L. and P. Hen. nil, pt. i. No. 407 ; cf. No. 404.
' Narrative of Reformation (Camd. Soc), p. 35 ; Strype, Eccl. Memoirs, i, 175.
» Cott. MS. Cleop. E iv, fol. 227. * Cromwell Corresp. (P. R. O.), xxiii, 69-96.
2 33 5
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
surrender of the convent personally, and strongly commended to Cromwell the case of the abbess, whom he described as ' a gudde agydde woman.' He assigned to her in her great age a fourth part of the sheep, namely fourscore, and other stock, and asked Cromwell to deal favourably with her and her sisters in their pensions.^
The commissioners also reported favourably of the nunnery of Catesby, which they found in very perfect order : ' the prioress a sure wyse discrete and very religyous woman with ix nunnys under here.' They considered that the house was a great boon for the relief of the king's poor subjects in a somewhat out-of-the-way quarter.^ At this report the king was angry, and said openly that they had been bribed. Nor is this unlikely, for the prioress of Catesby was at that very time foolishly writing direct to Cromwell, quoting this report and offering him if he could get the king's leave for her house to stand, ' one hundred marks of me to buy you a gelding, and my prayers during my life, and all my sisters' during their lives.' ^
Most favourable also was the commissioners' report of the abbey of St. James, Northampton, praising the brethren for their relief of the poor, and stating that they were of good report with the whole town.*
The commissioners' report was followed in every instance by the sup- pression of the house reported on, and all monasteries in the county ceased to exist within the five years 1535—40. In most cases the buildings, or the greater portion of them, were destroyed. The great Benedictine abbey of Peterborough, however, had a somewhat different fate from the monasteries, being made the seat of one of the six new dioceses which were finally con- stituted by Henry instead of the proposed fifteen.^ Letters patent in 1541 * converted the monastery and church into an episcopal see for Northampton- shire and Rutland with an establishment of bishop, dean, and six prebendaries. Dr. Chambers, the last abbot, who had not been the choice of the monks, but had been forced on them by Wolsey, and who had offered Cromwell >C3°° to spare the abbey, was made first bishop, and the account of Peterborough in the article on the Religious Houses will show how far the monastic revenues were applied to the purposes of the see. By being separated, however, from the huge diocese of Lincoln, to which it had belonged for five centuries, Northamptonshire was at any rate placed in a position to receive better epis- copal supervision. Great as were the wrongs inflicted by Henry upon the church, his creation of new dioceses deserves to be mentioned as a very notable improvement in her organization. Very different from the treatment of Peterborough was that of the important Cistercian house of Pipewell, where kings and councils had met in earlier times. This abbey was granted at the
' Cott. MS. Cleop. E iv, fol. 208. ' Ibid. fol. 209.
' L. and. P. Hen. nil, x. No. 383.
* In this connexion it should be borne in mind that besides the daily distribution of food at the gates of the monasteries the reception of poor travellers, and the special visiting of the sick and needy in the district, there were as a rule certain sums set apart for alms, through bequests or otherwise. The sums were charged on real property, and so came under the notice of the commissioners who drew up the Fa!or of 1535. The amount in this county of the obligatory alms of monastic houses at the time of the dissolution, was ^^84 9;. I id. equal to over j^8oo of our money. The precise amounts were : Peterborough £'^6 19/. 4a'., St. James's ^^7 bs. od. St. Andrew's £6 \6s. zd., Pipewell, £1 15/. od.. Canons Ashby, ^^3 8/. od., Sulby, £2 18/. 9^'., and Delapre, j^i 6s. id. Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv. 284, 296, 301, 315, 319, 321, 337. On the general subject of monastic charities in the county see Dr. J. C. Cox, Engl. Mon. (1904), cap. iv.
^ See Hen. VIII's scheme of bishoprics, L. and P. Hen. Fill, civ, pt. ii, Nos. 428, 429, 430.
* Ibid, xvi, Nos. 1,148, 1,226 (6-8, 10).
34
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
dissolution to Sir William Parr,' and news of the destruction of the buildings having reached London, a commission was appointed in 1540 to inquire into the matter. One of the commissioners was actually the late abbot. The account of their findings given in the article on the Religious Houses will show how ruthlessly the buildings were despoiled. The fabrics of the other monasteries in the county were similarly treated, hardly one stone being left upon another to tell the tale of their former life.
There is no evidence of any such open rebellion in this county against the suppression of the monasteries as occurred in the north, and to some extent in Lincolnshire. The only abbot in Northamptonshire of really dis- tinguished position, Chambers of Peterborough, whose conduct Gunton explains by saying that he probably loved to sleep in a whole skin, and de- sired to die in his nest,** was told he would be bishop of the new see, and made no protest.' St. Andrew's, Northampton, with its patronage of the town livings, had not been in harmony with the strong municipal life of the borough ; and the undoubted popularity of St. James's and other houses does not seem to have extended beyond those persons who received benefactions, or the immediate neighbourhood. Many of the landed gentry shared in the spoil, and although the dissolution came before changes in doctrine and ritual had taken place in the church, the prevalence of Lollardism in this county would tend to encourage any anti-monastic bias in the minds of the people.
Thus it will be seen that Northamptonshire at this crisis presents no special features, but illustrates the general character of the problem. The cases of the Northamptonshire houses show, what recent historians have made clear, that the bulk of the ' religious,' especially in the larger foundations, were leading good lives; while the absence of any marks of popular indignation at the time of their fall indicates that, apart altogether from the character of their inmates, they were less in touch than formerly with the life and vigour of the country. The many reasons which led to their downfall — namely, their relation to the now repudiated papal authority, the demands of the national government for more resources, the decay of faith of the mediaeval type before the learning and the ruthless criticism of the Renaissance, the unscrupulous character of Henry and his ministers, the steady growth of religious ideas deeply anti-monastic in character, the opportunity for satisfying the greed of courtiers and officials — all these divers forces shared in the result, and will be accorded different values according to the pre-dispositions of students.
No particular events in the county mark the phase of opinion or policy of which ' The Six Articles ' were the expression, and the next change came when, after the suppression of the monasteries, the king and his advisers turned their attention to the chantries.
Chantries, which were primarily foundations for the maintenance of one or more priests to offer up prayers for the soul of the founder, his family and ancestors, and all Christian souls, spread throughout England in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There were only two named in the whole of the
' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. ii, No. 466 ; Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. cix. No. 29.
' Gunton, Hist, of Peterborough (16S6), 57-8.
' The inhabitants of Peterborough, however, petitioned Queen Elizabeth in I 581 for relief, complaining that their trade was decaying, and that they and their interests had been better protected by the late abbey, with its power and influence, than they were now by the bishop and the dean and chapter. {Cal. S. P. Dom. Eliz.. cxlviii, 38).
35
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Taxatio of 129 1 ; one of these was for the soul of good Bishop Hugh Wells, of Lincoln, who died in 1235. In the majority of cases a chantry would be founded at an existing altar of the parish church, but not unfrequently the east end of an aisle was rebuilt or a chancel chapel added for its better accommodation. Usually chantries were enclosed within screens or parcloses, and included special seats or provision for the founder and his family ; in this way they were the precursors of the big ' hall pew.' Now and again chantries were founded in the private chapel of the manor house. Occasion- ally their foundation involved a separate building, at a distance from the parish church, and such building became a regular parochial chapel, or some- times, if the foundation secured immunity from all parochial control, a ' free chapel.'
It is quite a mistake, though a common one, to think that chantry priests were as a rule mere mass priests ' with no parochial functions or responsi- bilities.' ' The ordinations of these chantries frequently enjoin that the priest or priests were to be present at the general offices of the church and to assist the incumbent in sacramentals. Small schools were often attached to the chantry, the priest being the parochial schoolmaster, as was the case at Aid- winkle, Blisworth, Rothwell, etc. In other cases the chantry priest was the chaplain of a gild or fraternity which had a temporal as well as a spiritual mission to fulfil.
The churches of the county that had definitely endowed chantries at the time of their confiscation under Edward VI, were Great Addington, Aid- winkle, Ashby St. Ledgers, Blisworth, Boughton, Brington, Brixworth (2), Bulwick, Chalcombe, Charwelton, Clipston, Cogenhoe, Finedon, Green's Nor- ton, Gretton, Harringworth, Kingsthorpe, Lowick, Marholm (2), Maxey, Marston Trussell, Peterborough, Rothwell, Rushton, Spratton, Stamford Baron, Towcester, and Weedon Beck, making a total of thirty chantries. In 1545 an Act was passed (37 Hen. VIII, c. 4) ' for the Dissolution of the colleges, chantries and Free chapels at the King's pleasure.' The reason given for their suppression was that money was required for the king's wars, and that, as many private patrons, availing themselves of the altered feeling of the time, were seizing the property of the chantries, it would be better that the money should go into the pocket of the king for the benefit of the whole community.^ Only some half-dozen chantries and colleges fell under this Act, two of them (the chantries at Aldwinkle and Lowick) being in Northamp- tonshire. Shortly after the passing of the Act the king appears to have changed his mind, for on dissolving Parliament he informed the House that he intended to reform, not to destroy, the chantries. Henry died early in 1547, and one of the first proceedings of the new king's advisers was to pro- cure the passing of a fresh Act (i Edw. VI, c. 14), handing over to the crown the property of all chantries, colleges, fraternities and gilds. The reason now given was an entirely new one, viz., that the saying of masses for the dead was superstitious, but no promise was made for the continuance of the other duties which chantry priests had discharged. The new Act was promptly put in force, and the chantries were everywhere suppressed.
' These are the words of the usually accurate historian Wakeman {Hist, of the Ch. of Eng!.). Their error is obvious to every original inquirer into the subject of English chantries. See Cutts, Parish Priests, ^^.^S—j 2 ; Page, Torkshire Chant. (Surtees Soc).
* Leach, Engl. Schools at the Reformation, 6 1 .
36
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
At the same time specific endowments for stipendiary priests (or as we should now say, assistant clergy) were seized by the crown, and on similar grounds, namely because a part of their duty was the saying of masses for the departed. There were Northamptonshire instances of this at Brackley, Far- thinghoe, Hartwell, and Kettering. Moreover, for a like reason, the endow- ments of many a rectory and vicarage were at this time materially lessened ; for whenever it could be ascertained that lands, rent or rent charges had been left to the incumbent with the specific charge of saying so many masses, the property was at once seized by the crown.*
With the chantries fell the colleges. Many had been dissolved in the reign of Henry VIII, but those which had hitherto managed to escape now shared the same fate. The Northamptonshire colleges were at Higham Ferrers (dissolved 1542); Cotterstock, Fotheringhay, AH Saints' (Northampton), Towcester, Irthlingborough.^
The expediency or inexpediency of suppressing the colleges and chantries will naturally be judged by men of different schools of religious thought in very opposite ways. But there is far less difference of opinion as to the great harm done to the whole community by the confiscation of the gild property. This was professedly due to their being involved with superstitious uses, but the legislators of the time, in the teeth of popular opinion, disregarded the social and economic work of these gilds (which was by far the larger part of their activity) as well as their religious uses capable of being adapted to the times. Hence resulted great harm to the community as well as gross injustice to the members of the gilds. Gilds (in the sense of course of religious gilds) may be said to have existed for two purposes, one strictly religious, the other social or philanthropic. Most of them owe their origin to the desire of one or more individuals to assist in some practical fashion the services and upkeep of their parish church. Many of the gilds maintained at their own cost one or more chaplains : other of the less wealthy ones maintained the lights in certain chapels, provided vestments and books, and cared for the adorn- ment of the particular chapel in which their members met periodically for worship.
To take a single instance, the gilds of the great church of All Saints', Northampton, maintained at their own expense no less than twelve chaplains to assist the vicar in conducting the services of their parish church. In addition to this, one of the gilds (that of Holy Trinity) paid the stipends of the ' organ player,' ' three singing men,' and the sexton, and maintained a song-school for the instruction of the choristers.'
On the social and economic sides the gilds did the work of the modern friendly societies. They assisted their members in the various vicissitudes of life — in sickness, in old age, in cases of loss by fire, wrongful imprisonment,
' The following were the Northamptonshire parishes which had these ' obits ' confiscated : Achurch, Alderton, Apethorpe, Armston, Cold Ashby, Ashton, Anyho, Benefield, Brigstock, Braunston, Long Buckby, Bugbrooke, Chipping Warden, Collyweston, Cransley, Crick, Culworth, Doddington, Duston, Ecton, Easton Maudit, Easton Neston, Etton, Everdon, Eydon, Floore, Geddington, Glinton, Grcatworth, Grimsbury, Guilsborough, Hargrave, Harrowden, Haselbech, Helpston, Holcot, Irchester, Lamport, Litchborough, Lud- dington, Middleton Cheney, Nassington, Naseby, Newnham, Newton, Oakley, Passenham, Pilton, Polebrook, Preston, Pytchley, Raunds, Rockingham, Roade, Rushden, Stoke, Stoke Doyle, King's Sutton, Sibbertoft, Thorpe, Thornby, Tiffield, Tv\7\vell, Ufford, Wadenhoe, Warmington, Weldon, Wilby, Whitfield, Woodford, WoUaston, Wooton, and Yar^vell.
^ A full account of these societies is given under Religious Houses. ' Serjeantson, Hist, of AH Saints', 5 2-6.
37
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
or shipwreck. Each gild member, in contributing to the funds of the fra- ternity, felt that he was providing for himself against a rainy day.
Gilds increased rapidly in numbers and popularity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and at the time of their suppression every town church of any note possessed several, and a very large number of the county churches boasted one or more of these associations in which religion, thrift and good fellowship were usefully blended. Thus the little village church of Dallington, near Northampton, possessed two gilds — those of Our Lady and of the Rood. All Saints', Northampton, had seven. ^ With the gilds, chantries, and colleges there disappeared also the ' free-chapels ' at Ashton in Oundle parish, Sutton in the parish of Weston by Welland, the chapel of St. James at Higham Ferrers, and others ; while a specific endow- ment for Teeton, which was a chapel of ease to Ravensthorpe, was also seized by the crown.
In this county, as elsewhere, the suppression of the gilds very seriously crippled the resources of religion. The incumbents of the larger parishes found it next to impossible, without the aid of the gild chaplains, to provide adequately for the services ; while the church fabrics speedily fell into dis- repair, the funds which for generations had been lavishly supplied for their maintenance being suddenly cut off. It was chiefly owing to these losses that Northampton borough, which had within its walls at the beginning of the sixteenth century twelve parish churches (in addition to the various monastic churches), retained at the end of the century only four.
Economically, the suppression of the gilds deprived the members at one blow of the provision that they had been laying up all their lives for sickness or old age, destroyed a valuable social machinery, and greatly increased pauperism.*
In 1552 a further confiscation of Church property took place. Com- missioners were sent round from parish to parish with instructions to make an exact inventory of the vestments, sacred vessels, and ornaments in the various churches, with a view to their appropriation by the crown. The commissioners' returns with regard to the town of Northampton have been lost,^ but a large number of those relating to the country churches are still preserved at the Public Record Office, and show that Northamp- tonshire was not a whit behind other counties in the beauty and value of its church furniture and ecclesiastical vestments.* There is no evidence that the proceeds of the plunder were actually used for any rehgious or even national purpose.
The condition of the diocese of Peterborough in the reign of Mary presents several features of interest. Whatever the feeling of the laity may have been, it is worthy of note that the Marian policy was accepted by the clergy with far greater equanimity in the diocese of Peterborough than in England at large. The average proportion of deprivations for conscience
' For a full account of the gilds of this church see R. M. Serjeantson, Hisl. of All Saints', 40-6.
■ The late Mr. J. Toulmin Smith, one of the greatest authorities on gilds, and a Nonconformist, describes the suppression of the gilds and the confiscation of their property as 'a case of pure wholesale robbery and plunder done by an unscrupulous faction to satisfy their greed under cover of law' (Eng/. Gilds, p. xlii).
' It is true that one is still extant relating to the church of St. Edmund, but this is probably of a slightly earlier date.
* A graphic account of the general work of the commissioners is given in Dr. Augustus Jessop's Before the Great Pillage.
38
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
sake throughout all the dioceses of England and Wales in the first thirteen months of Mary's reign is generally accepted as about one in five, whereas in Peterborough diocese the proportion was one in ten. The exact number for Northamptonshire was twenty-eight.
The religious persecution of this reign had only one victim in North- amptonshire, so far as the death penalty was concerned. It has been stated that this immunity was chiefly due to the character of Bishop David Pole, who was consecrated on 15 August, 1557,' on the death of Bishop Chambers,* and who is described as a learned, pious, and meek man, and as having given no encouragement to severity within his jurisdiction. John Kurde, a shoe- maker of Syresham, after a year's imprisonment, was brought before Dr. Bensley, archdeacon of Northampton, in the church of All Saints, Northampton, in August, 1557, on a charge of denying transubstantiation, and holding other heretical views. He was condemned to death, handed over to the secular power, and burnt outside the north gate on 20 September, John Rote, vicar of St. Giles's (ex-monk of St. Andrew's priory),' in vain exhorting him to recant.
The question of the pensions of the dispossessed monks and of the ejected chantry and collegiate priests received special attention in the reign of Philip and Mary. A revised list was drawn up for each county, on which various fresh names appear, but the amount granted in the old cases (many of the ejected persons had died in the interval) seems never to have exceeded the sum originally promised. The Northamptonshire list includes twenty-five monks, twelve religious canons, six nuns, and thirty-six chantry, collegiate, or stipendiary priests. The total expenditure was £1^^ 4-'"- lo^-*
With the accession of Elizabeth in 1558 came another movement away from Rome ; and her advisers, warned by her sister's reign, went more quietly and slowly to work than the promoters of the late movement in the opposite direction. The process of deprivation for conscience sake was extended over a considerable period. The number of those thus deprived of their benefices in the county of Northampton was sixteen. In 1559 were ejected Bishop Pole, Dean Boxall, and the incumbents of Bugbrooke, Harrowden, and Wadenhoe ; in 1560, the incumbents of Cottingham, Kettering, and Yelvertoft; in 1561, the rector of Dingley; in 1562, the incumbents of Desborough and Lodding- ton. The incumbents of Alderton, Badby, Mears Ashby, Newnham, and Southwick were also ejected, but the precise dates of their deprivation cannot be ascertained.^
Special visitations of all the dioceses were made in 1559 to secure the subscription of the clergy to the Elizabethan Settlement. The visitors were almost exclusively of the laity, those for the county of Northampton being headed by William Parr, marquis of Northampton, as lord-lieutenant. The Peterborough subscriptions are, unfortunately, not extant. Archbishop Parker, who was consecrated on 17 December, 1559, instituted a metropolitical
' Stubhs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. 82. ' Gunton, Hist, of Pelerburgh, 69, 70.
' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii, pt. i, 405.
* This includes the yearly payments to a large number of annuitants of the religious houses, and not merely the payments made to the pensioners proper. The ex-abbot of St. James's, Northampton, was then receiving the yearly sum of ^^i I 6s. S^/., and the ex-prioress of St. Michael's nunner}-, Stamford, j^8. The Premonstratensian canons of Sulby were each receiving ^^6, while the five surviving nuns of Delapre were only in receipt of pittances varjing from £2 13/. ^J. to 20s. (Add. MS. 8,102).
' Gee, The Elizabethan Clergy, l 5 5 8-64 passim.
39
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
visitation with the object of testing the working of the new Act of Uniformity and gauging the obedience of the clergy to the Injunctions. All these visitations were held by commission, and after the issue of a prohibition restraining the suffragan bishops from holding any visitations of their own. Peterborough came late upon the list : it was not until 19 December, 1560, that a commission was issued to Thomas Yale, vicar-general of Canterbury, and Edward Leeds, to hold a visitation of this diocese.'
The Marian bishops were all imprisoned for not taking the oath of supremacy, save Goldwell of St. Asaph, who fled to the Continent, and David Pole of Peterborough, whose age and mildness, though he was quite as firm in his convictions as his brethren, secured him more lenient treat- ment.^ He was deprived in November, 1559,^ and the temporalities of the bishopric were seized. In an interesting list of about the year 1561 of ' Recusants which are abroad and bound to certain places,' * mention is made of ' Doctor Poole, late bishop of Peterborough, to remain in the city of London and suburbs, or within three miles' compass about the same,' his character being thus given in the margin : 'A man known and reported to live quietly, and therefore hitherto tolerated.' Subsequently Bishop Pole was removed to other quarters, and in November, 1564, was at the house of Bryan Fowler, at the manor on Sowe in Staffordshire, for Dr. Bentham, bishop of Coventry, complained ^ that his presence there ' causeth many people to think worse of the regiment and religion than else they would do, because divers lewd priests have resorted thither. His removal would do much good to the country.' This ' removal ' seems to have taken place, and he died in May or June, 1568.^ John Boxall, dean of Peterborough, for refusing the oath of supremacy, was imprisoned in the Tower for three years, and after- wards handed over to the custody of Archbishop Parker, whom Cecil scolded (in 1567) for allowing him too much liberty.''
On the deprivation of Bishop Pole, the see of Peterborough, after some delay, was filled by the consecration of Edmund Scambler on 1 6 February, 1560— I.'' In the late reign as minister to a secret Protestant congregation in London, he had been in great danger, but afterwards, on the accession of Elizabeth, became chaplain to Archbishop Parker.' In his first episcopal visitation he prescribed to the chapter of Peterborough an interesting body
' Cant. Archiep. Reg. Parker (Lambeth), fol. ^iSJ. Immediately following this commission, in Parker's register, is an interesting instance of submission on the part of one of the Northamptonshire clergy to Dr. Yale, as commissary of the see. George Butman, rector of Barnwell, who had apparently refused his subscription to Elizabeth in the previous year, sought the benefit of absolution. This was granted him, and having been restored to his benefice he was asked what benefices he now held. In answer he confessed that, in addition to the church at Barnwell, he also held the church of Stevlngton in Lincoln diocese, whereupon Dr. Yale enjoined upon the rector that he should reside one year in the one parish and one in the other, 'sub pena juris.'
' Gunton, Hist, of Peterburgh, 70. ' Stubbs, Reg. Smi: Angl. 82.
* S.P. Dom. Eliz. Addenda, xi, 4;. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Salisbury Papers at Hatfield, pt. i (1883), 309. ' The place of his death is not certainly known. Sanders, writing only three years after his death, states
in his Di Fisiii/i Monorchia that Bishop Pole died in prison. It is possible that this was the Fleet, as the bishop by his last will, dated 17 May, 1568, appointed as his chief and trusted executor Sir Thomas Fitzherbert, who was then and had been for some time before a prisoner there. The statement, often repeated, that the bishop died at one of his farms is based on no contemporary authority. The chief provisions of his will have been printed by Phillips, Extinction of the j^mient Hierarchy (1905), 284.
' Spanish Cal. i Nov. 1 567. In addition to being dean of Peterborough, John Boxall was dean of Windsor and archdeacon of Ely, as well as prebendary of Salisbury, Bath and Wells, and London. He was one of Queen Mary's Privy Council.
* Stubbs, Reg. Sacr. Angl. 83. " Diet. Nat. Biog. L, 396.
40
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
of articles, which in many points resemble those in the Prayer Book, and to which he required their subscription.'
On 26 October, 1577, he made a return to the council of the number of recusants in his diocese, with the value of their lands and goods, suggesting at the same time that more information would have been obtained by a return of those refusing to receive the Communion,^ and on 18 November in the same year he sent up information of other recusants, not before certified, this second return including not only his own diocese, but also the county of Huntingdon.^
The list, made about 1561, which has been already quoted, contains an entry to the effect that ' Doctor Tresham, late of Oxford, was ordered to remain within the bounds of Northamptonshire,' and the marginal reference describes him, somewhat equivocally, as ' a man whose qualities are well known.' Dr. William Tresham was a native of Great Oakley in this county, and had risen to distinction in the Church under Henry VIII, whose favour he had gained by advocating Queen Katherine's divorce. In 1 540 he had been nominated a member of the commission for inquiring whether the current ceremonial of the Church was supported by Scripture and tradition, and had subsequently disputed on doctrine with Peter Martyr, and with Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer. Imprisoned under Edward VI, he had returned to favour under Mary. Besides filling several high offices — among them the vice-chancellorship of Oxford — he had held the Northamptonshire livings of Towcester, Bugbrooke, and Green's Norton ; but for refusing to take the oath of supremacy after the accession of Elizabeth, he was deprived of all his preferments except Towcester. On promising to take no active steps against the Elizabethan settlement, he was allowed to retire to North- amptonshire, where he died in 1569.*
The Treshams, whose principal seat was at Rushton, were prominent during the latter part of this reign, and the opening years of the succeeding, one for their attachment to the Roman Catholic church, as were also the Vaux family of Harrowden and the Catesbys, owners of Ashby St. Ledgers. Before 1580 they seem to have conformed more or less to the Elizabethan settlement.^ Sir Thomas Tresham, whose grandfather and namesake had been grand prior of the order of St. John, as revived by Mary,^ and who succeeded to the Rushton estate in 1559 as a minor, appears to have been brought up in the reformed faith, but he and Sir William Catesby were among the principal converts made in 1580 by the famous Jesuit, Robert Parsons.^ Thenceforth they were assiduous promoters of the religious propaganda carried on by the Jesuit mission. It was probably because these important converts of Parsons were domiciled in Northamptonshire, that the county was visited in the same year by his colleague, Edmund
' Gunton, op. cit. 71—2, where these articles are given in full. He devoted considerable attention to the government of his cathedral, putting forth certain injunctions for it in 1576 {Cal. S. P. Dom. Ellz. cix, 21). In 1580 a case was pending in the Court of Arches between him and one Smith, touching the deprivation of the latter of a prebend for not keeping residence according to the cathedral foundation. A reference to /lets of P.C. (New Ser.), xii, 249-50, xiii, 89, will show that this was thought an important, and even, in a sense, a novel case. In 1582 the bishop sought confirmation for some new cathedral statutes {Diet. Nat. Biog. loc. cit.).
' Cul. S. P. Dom. ETtz. cxvii, 16. 'Ibid, cxviii, 29.
* Did. Nat. Biog. LVII, 206. ' Ca/. S. P. Dom. E/iz. lix, 22. ' Ibid. Mary, xii, 48, 60.
' Simpson. Edmund Campion, a Biography, 252 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. XLIII, 412.
2416
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Campion,^ who may possibly have sprung from a Northamptonshire family of that name.' For a time he was hiding at Great Harrowden, where the third Lord Vaux had provided his manor-house with facilities for the secret conduct of Roman Catholic services.^ Campion also received hospitality at Rushton, where there were doubtless similar means of eluding persecution.* For harbouring so dangerous a papist Sir Thomas Tresham was summoned in August, 1 58 1, to London, as was also Lord Vaux,' and in November they and Sir William Catesby were tried before the Star Chamber for having refused, at their previous examination, to state on oath whether Campion had been at their houses.* But notwithstanding this persecution, both Sir Thomas Tresham and Lord Vaux remained conspicuously faithful to their sovereign, and kept aloof from all secret negotiations with Spain. ^
Campion was far from being the only representative of the Society of Jesus who found shelter in this part of the country. Thus in 1581 and 1582 the Privy Council was making efforts for the apprehension of one Edmond or Edward Chambers, ' a wandring and sedityous Jesuite,' who seems to have been moving about in Northamptonshire, Rutland, and Huntingdonshire.* Among those required to take part in the search for him were Sir Edmund Brudenell and (as far as the first two counties were concerned) the bishop of Peterborough," to whom the council further issued a letter (19 April, 1582) 'for the searching of certain houses in the counties of Northampton and Rutland,* and the apprehension not only of Chambers, but of ' such other Jesuits or seminary priests as are presently or hereafter shall be known to remain and lurk within the said counties.' " Toward the end of the reign Great Harrowden seems to have been for a time the headquarters of the noted Jesuit, John Gerard, who was sheltered here by Elizabeth Vaux, widow of a son of the third Lord Vaux." A hiding place at Rushton, the home of the Treshams, is said to have sheltered Gerard's colleague, Edward Oldcorne.' ^^
The recusancy of Sir Thomas Tresham and Sir William Catesby assumed a more dangerous form in their children. Francis Tresham, the eldest son of Sir Thomas, did not inherit his father's loyalty to the state. He was involved in a notorious intrigue with Spain, and in the Gunpowder Plot, nor has his reputation been much bettered by the fact that he was almost certainly the betrayer of that conspiracy.'' His complicity therein was probably the immediate cause of the concealment of those interesting family documents which were so curiously discovered at Rushton in 1828. '* He died of disease in the year of the plot, but his head, as that of a traitor, was afterwards publicly exposed at Northampton. '^
Even more deeply involved in the conspiracy was Robert, second son of Sir William Catesby. According to one view, the idea of destroying the Protestant king and Parliament, and setting up a Roman Catholic government in their stead, was his conception.'* On the discovery of the plot it was to
'Simpson, loc. cit. 'Ibid. ^ Diet. Nat. Biog. LVIII, 196. ■* Ibid. LVII, 204. 'Ibid. loc. cit.
^ Cal. of the Rushton Papers, by J. Taylor (Tracts relating to Northants, Second Ser. 1881), bdle. vi, Nos. II, 13. ^ Cal. S.P.Dom. Eliz. ccxxxix, 26.
^ Acts of P. C. (New Ser.), xiii, 259, 362, 387, 411, 421. 'Ibid. 363, 385-6.
'"Ibid. 386-7.
" J. Morris, S. J., Life of Father John Gerard, 332 et seq. Allan Fea, Secret Chambers and Hiding-places, 52-4.
^ Ibid. 59. " Gardiner, Hist, of Engl. 1603-42, i, 251.
" Taylor, preface to Cal. of Rushton Papers. '^ Gardiner, op. cit. i, 268. "Ibid. 235,
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Ashby St. Ledgers that he and several of his fellow-conspirators fled. He was caught and killed a few days later at Holbeach.' In the Vaux family the ardour of the third Lord Vaux was especially maintained by his son Henry and his daughter Anne, both very prominent in the religious intrigues of their day. ^ Among the popish recusants in the county may also be men- tioned the Bentleys of ' Little Ogle,' near Rothwell. *
But if the adherents of the Roman Catholic church counted for compara- tively little in this district, the disputes within the Church of England between high churchmen and Puritans were here particularly prominent. There was no county in the whole of England where Puritantism gained such a strong- hold, or made such open demonstration of its objects and methods. The novel teaching of the two previous centuries, first by the friars, and secondly by the Lollards, had made a deep impression, as we have already seen, in this part of the ancient diocese of Lincoln. The alienation from the parochial clergy encouraged by the one, and the anti-sacerdotal principles of the other, prepared the way for a complete rejection by many of the episcopacy, and the substitution of the Presbyterian principles of Calvin, which the Marian exiles brought back, with them from the Continent. The three objects that they set themselves to achieve were the substitution of Presbyterianism for Episcopacy, the gradual disuse of the Book of Common Prayer in favour of extemporary prayers and lectures, and above all, the establishment of the ' Discipline.' This last was a court of morals to be administered by a kind of parish vestry. It must be remembered that both parties (High Church and Puritan) in the reign of Elizabeth, if not later, claimed to be true churchmen, and so strove to mould the national church according to their views.
For the first ten years of Elizabeth's reign the Privy Council managed to steer its way with some success between the extremes of Romanism and Puritanism, and to suppress most of their manifestations. But the rising in the North in 1569 provoked a reaction in favour of Puritanism from many who had hitherto held aloof, and the papal bull of 1570 helped in the same direction.
Two causes gave great encouragement to the development of Puritanism, and to its acceptance in Northamptonshire. Lord Burghley, for political reasons, gave the movement considerable support, and it also received at this time direct encouragement from Bishop Scambler. A rhyming pamphlet, published at Northampton in 1570, shows how in the popular mind the issue was between Geneva and Rome. The via media of Hooker and the High Church Anglican party only became prominent later in the reign.
It was at the great church of All Saints, Northampton, in 1571 that the famous Puritan exercises known as ' Prophesyings ' had their origin. The rules relative to the ' Prophesyings ' or ' Exercises of the Ministers ' are given, together with along confession of faith, in the Domestic State Papers. The
'Gardiner, op. cit. i, 257-9, 263. Popular tradition connects Ashby St. Ledgers with trea9onable meetings held under Robert Catesby's presidency. Allan Fei, Secret Chambers and Hiding-places, 56.
'J. Morris, S. J., Trcnbles of our Catholic Forefathers, first and second %ct. passim ; Life of Father John Gerard, 31 1-13.
' Ibid. 1 1, 314.
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A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
rules and confession are accompanied by an elaborate series of orders,' regulat- ing the religious affairs of the town and, to a certain extent, of the county also, and laying down the details of a stern religious discipline. A specially noteworthy point in these orders is the bishop's sanction to the use in church of Calvin's Catechism.
Whatever may be thought of the ' discipline ' above mentioned, and of the ' classes ' to be described presently, there was nothing necessarily revo- lutionary in their exercises or ' Prophesyings ' elaborated at Northampton, so long as they remained merely devotional meetings for the clergy under strict regulation, coupled with successive expositions of Scripture before the general congregation. The idea became popular, and spread from Northampton to the dioceses of London and Norwich, and by 1573 had reached the dioceses of Chester, Durham, Ely, and York. The Privy Council, however, having before them the Northampton document, in which the rules for spiritual exercise were annexed to the discipline orders which we have just cited, and dreading all religious enthusiasm, determined on their suppression. It will be remembered that it was the refusal of Archbishop Grindal to put down these ' prophesyings ' in accordance with the letter of Elizabeth to the bishops
' Ctil. S.P. Dom. Ellz. Ixxviii, 38. The orders and dealings in the Churche of Northampton established and sett up, by the consent of the Bysshop of Peterborough the maior and bretherne of the Towne there and others the Queenes Ma"" Justices of peace within the saide Countie and Towne taken and founde the Vth daie of June I 57 I, Annoque XIIJ Regine Elizabeth.
1. The singinge and playeinge of Organes before tyme accustomed in the Quier is putt downe and the comen prayer theare accustomed to bee said is brought downe into the bodie of the churche amongest the people before whome the same ys used accordinge to the Queene's booke with singinge psalms before and after the Sermond.
2. There is in the chefe churche every tewsdaye and thursdaie from IX of the clock untill X in the mornynge Redd a lecture of the scriptures begynnynge with the confession in the booke of Comen prayer and ending with prayer, and confession of the faith, etc.
3. There is in the same churche every sondaye and holydaie after mornynge praier A Sermond the people singinge the psalmes before and after.
4. That service be ended in everie parishe churche by IX of the clock in the mornynge every sondaye and holydaye to thcnde the people maye resort to the sermon to the same church and that every mynister gyve warnynge to the parishioners in tyme of comen prayer to repaire to the sermon theare, excepte they have a sermon in their owne parishe Churche.
5. That after praiers don, in the tyme of Sermon or Catechisme none sitt in the streetes or walk up and downe abroade or otherwye occupie themselves vaynely, uppon such pcnaltie as shalbe appointed.
6. That youth at thende of eveninge prayer every sondaie and holydaye before all the elder people are examyned in A por9on of Calvyns Catechisme which by the reader is expounded unto them and holdeth an hower.
7. There is a general Communyon every quarter in every parish churche with a sermond whiche is by the mynister at Comen praier warned fower several! sondaies before every Communyon, with exhortafon to the people to prepare for that daie.
8. One fourthnighte before eche Comunyon, the mynister with the Churchewardens maketh his Circuyt from howse to howse to take the names of the Comunycantes and to examyne the state of their lyves, amongse whom yf any discorde be founde the parties are brought before the Maior and his bretherne being assisted with the preacher and other gentillmen before whome there ys recon- sylement made, or ells Correccion and puttinge the partie from the Comunyon which will not dwell in Charitie.
9. And ymediatly after the comunyon the mynister &c. retorneth to euery howse to understand whoe have not receaved the comunion accordinge to comon ordre taken and certyfieth it to the Maior &c. who w"" the mynister examyneth the matter and useth mcanes of persuation to induce them to their duties.
10. Every comunyon daie eche parisshe hath ij comunyons thone for servauntes and officers to beginne at V of the clocke in the mornynge w"" a sermonde of an hower, and to ende at VIIJ The other for m« and dames etc., to begynne at IX the same daie w"" a like sermonde and to ende at XII at the uttermoste.
1 1. The manner of this comunion is besides the sermonde accordinge to the order of the Queene's book saving the people, beinge in their confession uppon their knees for the dispache of manye doo orderly aryse from their pewes, and so passe to the Comunyon table, where they receave the sacram' and from
44
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
that brought about the sequestration of his see, and his suspension from office.' The order of suppression was dated 7 May, 1577, and Bishop Scambler found it necessary to obey. Having been the first bishop in any way to sanction the methods complained of, he resented their suppression, and apparently encouraged the clergy of Northampton to show a like spirit. The result of the conflict was a decline in religious observances and church services, and Lord Keeper Bacon, who visited Northampton toward the close of 1 578, when the town was recovering from a visitation of the plague, was shocked at its spiritual destitution and lack of any preacher. He wrote a severe letter to Bishop Scambler, saying that the condition of things would be lamentable in a poor village, and far more so in ' a towne so greate and so notorious as Northampton.'^
The bishop, however, maintained his policy of inaction until the formal attention of the Privy Council was called to the ' disorders in matters eccle- siastical in the town of Northampton.' On 5 April, 1579, they addressed a letter to the bishop, requiring him ' with the assistance of some learned ministers in the places adjoining, and especially Mr. Smith, parson of Blis- worth,' to inquire into these ' disorders,' and to take steps for their repression with the aid of such gentlemen and justices in the neighbourhood as he should think fit to consult.'
The bishop excused himself on the ground of ill-health, but it was he who, about this time, reported to the council that people were repairing in great numbers out of their own parishes in Northampton to the house of the noted Puritan and parliamentary leader, Peter Wentworth, at Lillingstone
thence in lyke order to their place, havinge all this tyme a mynister in the pulpitt readinge unto them comfortable scriptures of the passion or other lyke pertaynynge to the matter in iiande.
1 2. There is on euery other Sntterdaye, and nowe euery Satterdaie from IX to XJ of the clocke in the mornynge, an exercise of the mynisters bothe of Towne and countrj-e about the interpretacon of scriptures, the mynisters speakinge one after another, doth handell some texte, and the same openly amonge the people ; that doon, the mynisters doth w"'drawe themselves into a pri\ye place, theare to confere amonge themselves as well touchinge doctrine as good liefF, manners or others orders mete for them.
13. There is also a vvekelye assembly euery thursdaye after the lecture by the maior and his bretherne, assisted w"" the preacher, mynister, or other gentlemen, appointed by the Bisshoppe for the correction of discorde made in the towne, as for notorious blasphemy, whoredome, drunkeness, raylinge against religyon, or the preachers thereof, skowldes, rybaulds, and suche lyke, w'^*' faults are eche Thursdaye presented unto them in writinge by certein sworne men, appointed for that cervice in each parisshe, so the bisshoppes authoritie and the mayors joyned together being assisted w'" certein other gentillemen in comyssion of peace, yll lyefF is corrected, Godds gloary sett fourthe, and the people brought in good obedience.
14. The comunyon table standeth in the bodye of the churche, accordinge to the book at the over ende of the midle He, havinge three mynisters, one in the mydle to delyver the bread, the other ij at eche ende for the cupp. The mynisters often tymes doo call on the people to Remember the poore w'"" is there plentyfully doon, and thus the comunyon beinge ended, the people doo singe a psalm.
15. The excessyve ringinge of bells at forbidden tymes by Injunctions (whereby the people grewe in disorder to the slaughter of some and the unquyetinge of others geven to here sermonde) is inhibitted, allowinge notw"'standinge suche orderly ringinge as may serve to the callinge of the people to churche and gevinge warnynge of the passinge and buriall of eny persons.
16. The carryenge of the bell before courses (corpses) in the streets, and biddinge prayers for the ded (w'"" was there used till w"" in thes twoo yeres) is restrayned.
17. There is hereafter to take place ordered that all mynisters of the shyer once euery quarter of the yere, uppon one monethcs warnynge gyven repayer to the said towne, and theare, after a sermonde in the churche herde, to w'Mrawe themselves into a place appoynted w"'in the sayde churche, and there pryvately to conferre amongst themselves of their manners and \yves, amongst whome yf any be founde in faulte, for the fyrst tyme exhortation is made to hym amongest all the bretherne to amend, and so Ivkewyse the seconde, the thirde tyme by complaynt from all the bretherne, he is comytted unto the bysshopp for his correccon.
See Nortiam/it. Borough Rec. (1898), ii, 386-90, where the confession of feith and the rules for the prophesying are also given in full.
' See Strype, Grindal, 325 et seq. and GrinJal Remains (Parker Soc), 372-390.
' Harl. MS. 398. The letter is printed by R. M. Serjeantson, Hist, of All Saints', Northampton, 1 1 i-i 5. ' Acts ofP.C. (New Ser.), xi, 93.
45
A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Dayrell, over the Buckinghamshire border/ apparently to receive the Com- munion according to the Puritan rite. It was he, too, who ordered the imprisonment of one Flower alias Guye, of Northampton, afterwards accused to the council of having spoken disrespectfully of Elizabeth and her supre- macy.^ On 30 May, 1579, the council sent Wentworth a summons to appear before them, and forbade him to admit any to the services at his house, except persons from his own parish.* They also ordered the Northampton authorities to send up Flower, and to certify what words he had used against the queen and what had happened after they were spoken.* At the same time they again required the bishop to repair to Northampton, and on this occasion they associated with him Sir John Spencer, Sir Edmund Brudenell, Sir Edward Montagu, and one Roger Cave, esquire. These commissioners were to call in the aid of ' Mr. Shepparde, the archdeacon, and Mr. Smith, parson of Blisworth ' (of whom the council seem to have entertained a high opinion), and were to ' inform themselves of all such disorders in the town as either Jenninges, the minister there, or any other could deliver unto them.' If the bishop was still unwell the others were to proceed without him. A report was afterwards to be sent up to the council.^ On 1 1 June the council notified the mayor of Northampton of their dealings with John Flower. After first committing him to prison they had released him ' upon his bond and sub- mission.' As he had been accused also of having avoided the Communion at his parish church, they had enjoined him to communicate there according to the queen's injunctions on his return to Northampton. He was to signify his willingness to do so to the curate of the parish, who was to report to the council if Flower failed to present himself at the Communion service." Shortly before this Martin Clipsham, vicar of St. Giles's, Northampton, had presented to the council a schedule of disrespectful words that had been used in the town against the queen. Instructions were therefore sent down (11 June) together with the schedule, to Sir John Spencer, Sir Edward Montagu, and Roger Cave, to repair to Northampton and inquire into the matter with the assistance of the mayor, who was to inform the council as to what the town authorities had been doing in the matter, and what he himself could answer to a charge that had been made against him in the aforesaid schedule. They were also to bind over John Roller to ' answer to law ' upon notice to be given him at his dwelling. As, moreover, certain charges had been brought against 'Jenninges, one of the ministers of that town,' they were to investigate any complaint that might be presented by the mayor or others against his life and doctrine, and, if necessary, were to cite the said Jenninges or other offenders before the council.^ On 3 August the council wrote to the lord treasurer and the chancellor of the exchequer (who, they had heard, were about to visit Sir Christopher Hatton, the vice-chamberlain, at Holdenby), enclosing the reports which they had received from Sir John Spencer and others, and desiring their lordships as they would be so near to Northampton, to summon ' William Jenninges, parson of Allhallowes,' to their presence, together with the mayor and others, and to settle the dispute ' to the preser-
' V.C.H. Bucks, i, 312. * Acts ofP.C. (New Ser.), xi, 133, 137, 219. ' Ibid. The exception is interesting. Wentworth, it may be remarked, was a man of powerful con- nexions. His wife was sister to Sir Francis Walsingham, and aunt by marriage to Sir Philip Sidney. ' Ibid. 'Ibid. «Ibid. 158-9. ' Ibid. I 59-60.
46
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
vation of unity hereafter.' They were also desired to send for Peter Wentworth, to whose house at Lillingstone, inhabitants at Northampton were still resorting, and to deal with this difficulty ' so as their Lordships be not hereafter any more troubled therewith.' ^ IBut the case of Jennings, at any rate, was not settled yet, if, that is, he was the ' preacher named Jenens' mentioned in the Acts of the council under 6 September, i 580, where a letter is recorded as sent to the bishop of London, ' requiring ' the latter to remove 'Jenens ' from Northampton, where, according to report, he had been ' a very unquiet and indiscreet person in his behaviour among the inhabitants,' and to send him to a certain benefice in Devonshire.^
As early as 1572 Thomas Cartwright, previously Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, published a treatise strongly attacking episcopal government, and advocating Calvin's Presbyterian system, and in 1574—5 he issued an English translation of Walter Travers' celebrated book on ecclesiastical discipline. Cartwright endeavoured to show how Presbyterianism could be grafted on to the Church of England. To put it briefly, he suggested the retention of bishops, who, however, would be left with little more than a semblance of power, whilst all real authority was to be vested in ' classes,' or boards of Puritan clergy and elders. Fuller, an almost contemporary writer, and a native of Aldwinkle, speaking of these ' classes,' says he found them ' more formally settled in Northamptonshire than anywhere else in England.'^
In 1587, Northamptonshire, in accordance with the scheme of Cart- wright and Travers, was divided into three ' classes,' those of Northampton, Daventry, and Kettering. Their meetings were each of them commonly attended by some six or seven Puritan incumbents. The Northampton ' classis ' was frequently held at the Bull Inn ; and one, Edmund Snape, acting as curate of St. Peter's, generally presided. There was also an assembly at Northampton, consisting of six members, two from each 'classis,' Daventry being usually represented by two members named Barbor and King, and Kettering by two members named Stone and Williamson. They went so far as to order a survey to be taken of every benefice in the shire, having a special column for the ' life, paines and qualities ' of the incumbent. A Puritan incumbent was appointed to draw up this account of his brethren for each deanery, Mr. Littleton, at one time curate of West Haddon, being chosen for the Haddon deanery.' All the members of the Northamptonshire ' classes ' subscribed as follows : — ' We doe promise to submit ourselves unto such orders and decrees as shall be set downe by our classis, and we doe pro- mise to submit ourselves to be censured by our brethren of this classis in all matters concerning doctrines and discipline.' As an instance of the discipline, it may be stated that Nicholas Edwards, rector of Courteenhall, was severely rebuked by the Northampton ' classis ' for using the sign of the cross in Baptism,^
Whether Bishop Scambler would have tolerated these more advanced developments of Puritanism in his diocese is perhaps doubtful, but the way had been largely prepared for them by the favour he had shown to the move-
' Jets of P. C. (New Ser.), xi, 218-19. ' l\nd. xii, 194. ' Fuller, Church Hist. bk. ix, section 7.
* The style of comment in which they indulged can be gathered from the sample of the Cornwall survey given by Neal, Hist, of the Puritans.
^ BzncToh, Dangerous Positions and Proceedings (1593), 75-8. Lansd. MS. ccxxxviii, 327. Ix:, 3, 24; Strype, li'kitgift, iii, 268-85.
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A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
ment in its earlier stages. Indeed, prominent as was the part which he played in the religious affairs of his day/ he was a lax administrator of his diocese, and the venality of his officers was notorious. He much im- poverished the see in favour of Cecil (through whose influence he is said to have obtained it) and of the queen, and it was perhaps fortunate for Peter- borough that in 1585 he was translated to Norwich.'' The Puritan move- ment, however, continued its course unabated under his successor, Richard Rowland,' as indeed has already appeared. A paper, dated 16 July, 1590, containing charges brought against ' the ministers of Northamptonshire and .Warwickshire ' * indicates to what length in these counties the movement had gone in the direction of Presbyterianism. Above the ' classes ' were general ' synods,' and in doctrine and worship as well as in organization, most of the principal notes of Presbyterianism were already present, either in actual prac- tice or in intention. ° There appear to have been about four ' classes ' to a county,^ and those of Northamptonshire were attended by the ' ministers' of Warkton, ' Courtnoll ' (Courteenhall), ' Cookenoe ' (Cogenhoe), Higham, Abington, Wellingborough, Weeden (Weedon), and other places.^
When Archbishop Whitgift succeeded to the primacy, in 1583, most stringent subscriptions were insisted on from all exercising any ecclesiastical functions, pledging them to the use of the Book of Common Prayer, and none other, in their ministrations. In the following year a list of twenty-five in- terrogatories was drawn up, which were to be administered by the court of High Commission to any of the clergy whom the court thought good to question. Whitgift promised Burghley that resort would not be made to the interrogatories, save when private remonstrance failed. In 1585 — to counter- act parliamentary action, and prove to the queen and Burghley that the Puritan clergy were as a body small in number, and slender in ability, and had acquired a fictitious importance through the support of some in high places — the archbishop had a return prepared of the conforming and non- conforming clergy throughout the whole of the province of Canterbury, stating their degrees. Unfortunately the return for Peterborough is wanting, but out often dioceses there were 786 beneficed incumbents who conformed to the law, and only 49 who did not. A new code of canons was issued, and greater pressure used towards the offenders. Naturally angry at the energy of the archbishop, and the warm support given him by Elizabeth, the more extreme of the Puritans retaliated, and their outburst of invective brought into play the suspended use of the interrogatories of the Star Chamber.
The Marprelate Tracts,* in 1588-90, were most intimately connected with Northamptonshire. Hatred of episcopacy was the keynote of the whole series of these tracts, seven in number, which were but an amplification of the text supplied by Tyndale, ' That the Bishops were Antichrists, inasmuch
' He was concerned in the preparation of the Bishops' Bible {Diet. Nat. Biog. L, 396), and was one of the seven bishops who, in 1583, presented to the queen a body of articles for the general government of the church {Ca/. S.P. Dom. Eltz. clxiii, 31). His writings were placed in the Roman Index (Gunton, Hist, of Peterburgh, 72). He seems to have had a reputation for skill in reducing individual opponents of the Eliza- bethan Settlement to conformity {Acts ofP.C. (New Set.), xii, 338, 362 ; xiii, 12).