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V.
XTbe Dictoda Ibietori^ of the Counties of Englanb
EDITED BY THE LATE WILLIAJVI PAGE, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
VOLUME II
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTIES OF ENGLAND
RUTLAND
DAWSON
FOR
THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH
Published by
Archibald Constable & Company Limited
in 1935
Reprinted for the University of London
Institute of Historical Research
by
William Dawson & Sons Ltd
Cannon House
Folkestone, Kent, England
1975
ISBN: 0712906622
Originally printed in Great Britain by
W.H. Smith & Son Ltd., London
Reprinted in Belgium by Jos Adam, Brussels
INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY OF
HER LATE MAJESTY
QUEEN VICTORIA
WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE
THE TITLE TO AND
ACCEPTED THE
DEDICATION OF
THIS HISTORY
DEDICATED BY OWEN HUGH SMITH
TO THE MEMORY OF
MAUD
WIFE OF JOHN GRETTON
She loved and was loved by Rutland
WILLIAM PAGE
Joint General Editor of the Victoria County History
1902-1904
Sole General Editor 1904-1934
WILLIAM PAGE, dlitt, fs a.
BY SIR CHARLES PEERS
THIS volume of the Victoria History, the ninety-third to be issued, marks a stage in the already long story of the great undertaking. For it is the first to be published after the death of Dr. William Page. In his last years, desirous above all things to secure the future of the work which he had so long directed, he transferred the whole of his interests in the History, with all the materials in his possession, to the University of London, in order that the Institute of Historical Research might from that time onwards carry on to its appointed end the task which had claimed the greater part of his time and energy for more than thirty years.
The History is his memorial. Whatever developments may be in store for it, his name will ever come first in its story, and it is fitting that this volume shall begin with a record of his life and work.
William Page was born on September 4, 1 861, in the house of his father, Henry Page, in Norfolk Square, London, W. His first school was one kept by Dr. Westmacott in the same district, and thence in due course he went to Westminster School. Family reasons made it necessary that his schooldays should be cut short, and after his father's death in 1875 he served his articles as a civil engineer, being appointed to a post under the Queensland Govern- ment in 1 88 I. Though he was not destined to remain long in this position, the experience he then gained, as is so generally the case, was of definite value to him in the very different profession to which he was to devote the rest of his days. History and archaeology were his natural studies, and the occasion which was to allow him to follow his bent was not long in coming. His sister had married Mr. W. J. Hardy, antiquary and record agent, and in 1885 Page deserted engineering to become his brother-in-law's partner in the firm of Hardy and Page, record agents and legal antiquaries. The partners were employed in a number of important cases where expert knowledge of records was essential and the range of enquiry practically unlimited. No better general training for an ' all-round ' antiquary could be desired.
In 1887 Page was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and what seems to be his first contribution to the proceedings of a learned society dates from I 8 8 8, when there was printed in Archceologia his paper entitled Some remarks on the Northumbrian palatinates and regalities. From this time, in spite of, or perhaps as a result of, his professional labours, papers from his pen appeared with regularity, as may be seen from the list appended to this notice, and it must suffice here to record his special interest in Hertfordshire, where, at St, Albans, his brother-in-law lived for many years, and Page himself from 1 896 to 1902. The St. Albans Archaeological Society, of which he became assistant secretary in 1897, owed much to him : he took an active part in the excavation of Verulamium, and became one of the founders of the Hertfordshire County ^ u. h
WILLIAM PAGE
Museum. But a wider sphere of usefulness awaited him. In the last years of the reign of Queen Victoria a project for a complete series of County Histories of England was brought forward, and developed with an enthusiasm and thoroughness which cannot be too highly commended. The Queen herself accepted the dedication of the History and allowed her name to be attached to it.
Under an Advisory Council full of distinguished names, and with Mr. H. A. Doubleday as editor, work was begun in the last years of the century, and the first volume of the History — Vol. I of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight — was published in 1900. Then the difficulties of the task became apparent. General articles by competent writers were to some extent procur- able, but the mass of records in which all the details of the history of the counties were contained needed expert investigation and tabulation, and there was no one to do it. The management of the History in this impasse were well inspired when they turned to Page and offered him the joint editorship. This was in 1902, and Page's immediate task was to build up an expert staff. How he succeeded in this the record of the History itself witnesses. In the year of his appointment one volume, the first of Hertfordshire, appeared ; in 1903 one volume, Hampshire II; in 1904 two volumes (Bedford I and Warwick I) ; in 1905 six volumes, in 1906 ten, in 1907 eleven, and in 1908 twelve. From 1904 Page had been sole general editor, and it is not too much to say that the whole credit for this brilliant piece of work was due to him. Then came a disaster for which he himself was in no degree responsible. The funds of the History failed, and many of the staff which he had with such labour got together and trained had to be dismissed. One volume appeared in 1909 and one in 19 10, and though a new source of support appeared the work continued on a much reduced basis, the annual output being from four to five volumes. Then came the war, and nofurthervolume was published till 1923.
Such misfortune might discourage any man, but Page, if one may say so, was singularly fitted to cope with adverse circumstances. Of an equable temper, kindly and generous to a fault, he was accustomed to make the best of things, and those who worked with him have cause to remember his unfailing serenity and considerateness. The duties of the History had brought him to London from St. Albans ; he lived in Battersea from 1904 to 1906, and at Frognal Cottage, Hampstead, from 1906 to 1922. Then, when the whole burden of the History devolved on him in its post-War phase, he took all its materials with him to Middleton in Sussex in 1922, arranging and storing them in a wooden hut in his garden. Finally, in 1928, he came into possession of the whole interest and assets of the History, and continued to send to press such further instalments of copy as it was possible to do. Last of all, in 193 1, he did what he could to ensure the continuance of his work by making over the History to the University of London, who appointed a committee to carry it on. Of this committee Page became the chairman, and so continued to the day of his death, February 3, 1934.
In spite of his preoccupations he was able to play a part in other under- takings, where his knowledge and capabilities were much in request. He was a member of the Editorial Committee of the Society of Antiquaries from 1 9 1 o for many years, and served his term as Vice-President of the Society from 191 6 to 1920. He was a valuable member of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for England, being an Assistant Commissioner from 1 909
WILLIAM PAGE
and a Commissioner from 1921. He was Lecturer in Archasology to London University 1923-4 ; chairman of the Local History Section of the Anglo- American Historical Conference, 1926 ; and a member of the Committee on House of Commons Personnel and Politics, 1929.
In 1932 his services to history were recognised, somewhat tardily, by the conferment of a Doctorate of Letters by Oxford University. The Public Orator, in presenting him for the degree, rightly dwelt on his long and untiring labours and the weight of responsibility which he, a second Hercules, had sustained. It is not for a Public Orator to beUttle the honours which his University bestows, but he might have added with truth that, like his great prototype, the rewards which he had received for his labours were for the most part conspicuous by their absence. It is to posterity that men like Page must look for their meed of praise. But as long as his contemporaries survive, his personality will not be forgotten. He was dowered with good looks beyond the common, enhanced by a natural dignity. Whether in youth or in age, he was a striking figure, and acquaintance with him only confirmed the impression that he was no ordinary man. The details of private life have no place in a memoir such as this, but for those who were privileged to meet him in his home there will remain the memory of an unaffected kindness and courtesy which were the natural counterpart of his bearing in the outer world.
zi
A LIST OF THE WORKS OF DR. WILLIAM PAGE Compiled by Agnes E. Roberts
THE VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY From 1902 to 1904 Dr. Page acted as joint general editor of the Victoria History of the Counties of England. From 1904 onwards he was sole general editor and, in addition, editor or joint editor of particular volumes.
A Guide to the Victoria History of the Counties of England. By H. A. Doubleday and W. Page. Pp. 140. [1902.]
Volume published under the general editorship OF H. A. Doubleday
Hertford. Vol. i. Ed. W. Page. 1902.
Volumes published under the joint general
EDITORSHIP OF H. A. DoUBLEDAY AND Dr. PaGE
Essex. Vol. i. 1903.
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Vol. ii. 1903.
Bedford. Vol. i. 1 904.
Warwick. Vol. i. 1904.
Volumes published under the sole general editor- ship OF Dr. Page
Cumberland. Vol. ii. Ed. James Wilson. 1905. Surrey. Vols, ii, iii, iv. Ed. H. E. Maiden. 1905-12. Include : Vols, iii-iv. Topography : Manorial descents compiled under the superintendence of W. Page and H. E. Maiden. Vol. iv. Romano-British Surrey, by W. Page and Edith M. Keate. Northampton. Vol. ii. Ed. the Rev. R. M. Serjeantson and W. Ryland D. Adkins. 1906. Includes : Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents by W. Page and others. Lancaster. Ed. William Farrer and J. Brownbill.
Vols, i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii. 1906-14. Worcester. Vols, iii, iv. Local editor : J. W. WiUis- Bund. 1913-16. Include : Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the superintendence of W. Page.
Volumes edited solely by Dr. Pace
Buckingham. Vols, i, ii, iii, iv, and Index. 1905-28. Include : Vols, ii, iii, iv. Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the super- intendence of W. Page.
Derby. Vols, i, ii. 1905-7.
Durham. Vols, i, ii, iii. 1905-28. Include :
Vol. iii. Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the superin- tendence of W. Page.
Sussex. Vols, i, ii. 1905-7.
Cornwall. Vol. i, and pts. 5 and 8. 1906-24.
Devon. Vol. i. 1906.
Lincoln. Vol. ii. 1906.
Norfolk. Vol. ii. 1906.
Nottingham. Vols, i, ii. 1906-10.
Somerset. Vols, i, ii. 1906-11.
Gloucester. Vol. ii. 1907.
Leicester. Vol. i. 1907. Includes
Romano-British Leicestershire, by W. Page and Miss Keate.
Oxford. Vol. ii. 1907.
Suffolk. Vols, i, ii. 1911,1907.
York. Vols, i, ii, iii, and Index. 1907-25.
Bedford. Vols, ii, iii, and Index. 1908-14. In- clude : Vol. ii. Romano-British Bedfordshire, by W. Page
and Miss Keate. Vols, ii-iii. Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the super- intendence of W. Page.
Dorset. Vol. ii. 1908.
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Vols, iii, iv, v, and Index. 1908-14. Include : Vols, iii, iv, v. Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the super- intendence of W. Page.
Hereford. Vol. i. 1908.
Hertford. Vols, ii, iii, iv, and Index. 1908-23. Include : Vol. ii. Topography : General descriptions and
manorial descents by W. Page and others. Architectural descriptions of Shenley, Wheat- hampstead with Harpenden, and Redbourn by W. Page, and of St. Albans Cathedral, by C. R. Peers and W. Page.
[The account of St. Andrew's chapel is taken from a paper on the chapel by W. Page in the Trans, of the St. Albans and Herts Archit. and Arch. Soc. N.S. i, 84.] Vols, iii-iv. Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the superintendence of W. Page. Vol. iv. Celtic and Romano-British Hertfordshire. Ecclesiastical history before the Conquest. Abbey of St. Albans before the Conquest.
Kent. Vols, i, ii, iii. 1908-32.
Rutland. Vol. i. 1908.
Shropshire. Vol. i. 1908.
Stafford. Vol. i. 1908. Includes :
Romano-British Staffordshire, by W. Page and Miss Keate.
Warwick. Vol. ii. 1908.
London, including London within the Bars, Westminster and Southwark. Vol. i. 1909.
Middlesex. Vol. ii. 191 1. Includes:
Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the superintendence of W. Page.
Surrey. Index. 1914.
ZUl
THE WORKS OF DR. WILLIAM PAGE
yoTk North Riding. Vols, i, ii, and Index. 1914-25. Include : Vols. i-ii. Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the super- intendence of W. Page. Worcester. Index. 1926. Berkshire. Index. 1927. Northampton. Vol. iii. 1930. Includes :
Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the superintendence of \V. Page. Kettering, by F. W. Bull, W. Page, and others.
Volumes edited by Dr. Pace with collaborators
Berkshire. Vols, i, ii. Ed. the Rev. P. H. Ditchfield
and W. Page ; iii, iv. Ed. W. Page and the
Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, assisted by J. Hautenville
Cope. 1906-24. Include :
Vol. i. Romano-British Berkshire, by W. Page and
Miss C. M. Calthrop. Vols, iii-iv. Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the super- intendence of W. Page.
Worcester. Vol. ii. Ed. J. W. Willis-Bund and W. Page. 1906. Includes : Topography : Blackenhurst Hundred. General descriptions and manorial descents prepared under the superintendence of W. Page.
Essex. Vol. ii. Ed. W. Page and J. Horace Round.
1907- Huntingdon. Vol. i. Ed. W. Page and Granville Proby, assisted by H. E. Norris ; ii. Ed. W. Page, Granville Proby and S. Inskip Ladds. 1926-J2. Include : Vol. i. Appendix : Little Gidding, by W. Page. Vol. ii. Political history to 1660, by the Rev. R. H. Murray and W. Page. Parliamentary history, by W. Page and Granville
Proby. Topography : General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the editorship of W. Page. Huntingdon borough, by W. Page, S. Inskip
Ladds, and others. Hurstingstone and Toseland hundreds : Intro- ductions, by W. Page. Broughton, by W. Page and Maud E. Simkins. Bury cum Hepmangrove, by Canon W. M.
Noble and W. Page. Ramsey, by W. Page. Little Raveley, by W. Page. Architectural descriptions of Abbots Ripton, Somersham and Wistow, by W. Page.
OTHER WORKS
Some remarks on the Northumbrian palatinates and regalities. Archceologia, Ii, 143-55. 1888.
Jottings from the Public Record OflSce. The Antiquary, ixi, 118. 1 890.
A list of the inventories of church goods made temp. Edward VI. The Antiquary, xxi, 165-8, 210-5, 269-70; xxii, 28-9, 76-9, 120-3, 167-9, 214-6, 256-60; xxiii, 37-8, 1 16-8, 270-1; xiiv, 31-2, 74-6, 1 20-1 ; xxvi, 29-32, 73-5, 268-70 ; xx^'ii, 218-9; s^ii, 69-71, 212-5, 265-9; "i^. 81-3; XXX, 26-8, 164-6. 1890-4.
Three early assize rolls for the county of Northumberland, saec. XIII. Surtees Soc, vol. Ixxxviii. Pp. xxviii, 476. Durham, 1 891.
Reprint from The Antiquary, xxi, 165-6, of list of Berkshire inventories of church goods made temp. Edward VI. Berks Architological Journal, i, 184-5. 1891.
Historical Manuscripts Commission. Thirteenth report. Appendix, part iv. The manuscripts of Rye and Hereford corporations. Capt. Lodcr-Symonds, Mr. E. R. Wodehouse, M.P., and others. [Calendared by W. J. Hardy and W. Page.] Pp. [iv], 577. [C.-6810] H. C. (1892) XLV, I. 1892.
A calendar to the feet of fines for London and Middlesex. Vol. i : Richard I to Richard III, by W. J. Hardy
and W. Page. Pp. [iv], 240, Ixiii. 1892. Vol. ii : I Henry FII to Michaelmas 1 1 and 1 2 Elizabeth. Pp. [iv], 159, xxxv. 1893.
The Chartulary of Brinkburn Priory. Surtees Society, vol. xc. Pp. xvi, 224, plate. Durham, 1 893.
Letters of denization and acts of naturalization for aliens in England, 1509-1603. Huguenot So- ciety, vol. viii. Pp. liii [Ixii], 258. Lymington, 1893.
[Extracts from a paper on] The Marian survey of the town of St. Albans. The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times, 20 May,
1893, p. 6, cols. 1-3.
[Printed in full in] Transactions of the St. Albans Architectural and Archceological Society, 1893 and
1894, pp. 8-24. 1896.
The history of the monastery of St. Mary de Pres. The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times, 19 May,
1894, p. 6, cols. 5, 6.
[Reprinted in] Transactions of the St. Albans Architectural and Archaological Society, N.S. i, 8-18. 1898.
Life at Westminster School in the days of Charles I. Middlesex and Hertfordshire Notes and Queries, i, 17-9. 1894.
The certificates of the commissioners appointed to survey
the chantries, guilds, hospitals, etc., in the county of
York. Part i. Surtees Society, vol. xci. Pp. xviii, 210.
Durham, 1894. Part ii. Surtees Society, vol. xcii. Pp. xviii,
211-607. Durham, 1895.
Notes on the remains of Verulamium.
The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times, 1 5 June,
1895, p. 6, col. 3.
[Printed in full in] Transactions of the St. Albans Architectural and Archaeological Society, 1893 and 1894, pp. 49-67. 1896.
Hendon parsonage in 1 540. Middlesex and Hertfordshire Notes and Queries, i, 1 16-9. 1895.
Historical Manuscripts Commission. Fifteenth Re- port. Appendix, part t. The manuscripts of the Earl of Dartmouth. Vol. iii, pp. x [xii], 332. [C— 8156] H.C. (1896) XLVIII, 333. 1896.
Old helmet and shackles at St. Peter's, St. Albans. Middlesex and Hertfordshire Notes and Queries, ii, 97. 1896.
IIT
THE WORKS OF DR. WILLIAM PAGE
St. Andrew's Cross, Chancery Lane.
Middlesex and Hertfordshire Notes and Queries,
ii, 146. 1896. Table of pontifical years of the bishops of Durham. Transactions of the Architectural and Archaological
Society of Durham and Northumberland, iv, 19-48.
1896. A calendar of the Inner Temple records.
Ed. F. A. Inderwick. Calendar prepared by
W. Page. Vol. i. 21 Hen. VII (1505) -45 Eliz. (1603).
Pp. xcviii [c], 536, plates. 1896. Vol. ii. I James I (1603) - Restoration (1660).
Pp. cxxxi [cxxxix], 427, plates. 1898. Vol. iii. 12 Charle^ II (1660)- 12 Anne (1714).
Pp. xcviii [c], 533, plates. 1901.
The inventories of church goods for the counties of York, Durham, and Northumberland. Surtees Society, vol. xcvii. Pp. xviii, 186. Durham, 1897.
Notes on the chantries and guilds of Hertfordshire. Middlesex and Hertfordshire Notes and Queries, iii, 24-6, 69-71, 144-6, 172-3. 1897. St. Albans Grammar School.
Middlesex and Hertfordshire Notes and Queries, iii, 208. 1897. Note on discoveries at St. Albans.
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd series, xvii, lo-Il. 1898. Historical Manuscripts Commission. Fifteenth report. Appendix, part vii. The manuscripts of the Duke of Somerset, the Marquis of Ailesbury, and the Rev. Sir T. H. G. Puleston, bart. Pp. xvii, 410, [C.-8552] H.C. (1897) LI, Pt. ii, I. 1898.
St. Alban'i Cathedral and Abbey Church. A guide. Together with some extracts from the history of the abbey by the late Rev. H. J. B. Nicholson. Pp. X, 98, plates. 1898. Report by W. Page and F. G. Kitton respecting the remains of the old Roman wall of Verulamium. The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times, 4 March, 1898, p. 7, col. 7. Note on the recent discovery of a Romano-British potter's kiln at Radlett. The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times, 5 Novem- ber, 1898, p. 8, col. 3. The brasses and indents in St. Alban's Abbey.
Home Counties Magazine, i, 19-25, 140-61, 241-7,
329-32. 1899. [Reprinted separately in the same year. Pp. 40, plates.] On some recent discoveries in the abbey church of St. Alban. Archaologia, Ivi, 21-6. 1899. Notes on a Romano-British pottery lately found at Radlett, Herts. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd series,
xvii, 261-70. 1899. [Also printed as "A Romano-British kiln discovered at Radlett " in Transactions of the St. Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaological Society, N.S. i, 176-84. 1901.]
The parochial chapel of St. Andrew, formerly attached to St. Alban's Abbey. Transactions of the St. Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaological Society, N.S. i, 84-102. 1899.
Report on the condition of Gorhambury Block and
St. Germain's Block by Messrs. Kitton and Page.
Transactions of the St. Albans and Hertfordshire
Architectural and .Archaological Society, N.S. i,
129-30. 1899.
St. Alban's Cathedral and Abbey Church. A guide. Being abridged from the guide and historical notes of the same church by the lau Rev. H. J. B. Nicholson and William Page. Pp. vi, 39. 1900.
Extract from report on the year's work of tlxe St. Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archseological Society. The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times, 14 April, 1900, p. 6, col. 6. Excavations on the site of Verulam. Report for 1898-9. Report for 1 899-1 900. Transactions of the St. Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaological Society, N.S. i, 198-209. 1 90 1. The history of Hatfield [being a report of paper entitled Some notes on the history of Hatfield]. The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times, 13 July,
i90i,p. s, col. 7. [Printed in full in] Transactions of the St. Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archao- logical Society, N.S. i, 334-56. 1903. The St. Albans school of painting, mural and minia- ture. Part i : Mural painting. Archaologia, Iviii, 275-92. 1902.
Excavations of Verulamium.
Transactions of the St. Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaological Society, N.S. i, 396-8. 1903. Berkhampstead Castle, by W. Page and Duncan Montgomerie. The Herts Advertiser and St. Albans Times, 3 June, 1905, p. 2, cols. 4-5 ; 10 June, 1905, p. 2, cols. 1-2.
Romano British Berkshire.
The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Archaological Journal, xiii, 106. 1907. [Notes in reply to Mr. Harold Peake's article " Romano-British Berkshire," ibid. 82-6, reviewing the article on Roman remains in Berkshire in The Victoria History of Berkshire."] Bedfordshire County Records. Compiled by Messrs. Hardy and Page, record agents, wdth an introduc- tion regarding the work of the County Records Committee.
Vol. i. Notes and extracts from the county records comprised in the Quarter Sessions rolls from 1714 to 1832. Pp. [viii], 298. [Bedford, 1907.]
Vol. ii. Notes and extracts from the county records, being a calendar of volume i of the Sessions Minute Books 1651 to 1660. Pp. [x], 54, xxi. [Bedford, 1909.]
Vol. iii. Notes and extracts from the county records, being a calendar of old deeds found in the County Muniment Room, and an index to the documents contained in the Muniment Room. The calendar compiled by Messrs. Hardy and Page. Pp. 63, fac. [Bedford, 1921.]
Historical Manuscripts Commission. Report on the manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont, vol. ii. Pp. xviii, 271, viii. [Cd. 4599] H.C. (1909) XXVI, I. 1909.
IV
THE WORKS OF DR. WILLIAM PAGE
Notes on the heart-case of Roger Norton, Abbot of St. Albans, and other antiquities found at St. Albans. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd series, =™i. 4S3-S- 1909-
Historical introduction to the Inventory of the historical monuments in Hertfordshire, pp. I-26. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England). 1910.
St. Albans and its neighbourhood, viii : Archsology. Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society and Field Club, xiv, 245-50. 191 1.
Some notes on Watling Street and its relation to London. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd series, niv, 137-43, 146. 1912.
Kingsbury Castle.
Transactions of the St. Albans and Hertfordshire
Architectural and Archteological Society, N.S. ii,
'49-57- 1912. Historical summary in the Inventory of the historical
monuments in Buckinghamshire, ii, 1-35. Royal
Commission on Historical Monuments (England).
1913- Some remarks on the churches of the Domesday
survey. Archieologia, Ixvi, 61-102. 1915.
Kings and Queens of England. Ed. Sir Robert S. Rait and W. Page. 4 vols. [19173-22.
History of the Abbey of St. Alban, by L. F. Rushbrook Williams. [Review.] History, iii, 49-50. 1918.
Commerce and industry. A historical review of the economic conditions of the British Empire from the Peace of Paris in 181 5 to the declaration of war in 1914, based on parliamentary debates. With a preface by Sir William Ashley. 2 vols. 1919. Vol. i. Historical review. Pp. xvi, 492, maps. Vol. ii. Statistical tables. Pp. xx, 239.
Notes on some early riverside settlements of London. [Report of a paper.1 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd series, xxxi, 125-6, 127. 1919.
St. Albans. The Story of the English Towns. Pp. [iv], 114, plates. I920.
The origins and forms of Hertfordshire towns and villages. Archteologia, Ixix, 47-60. 1920.
The early development of London.
The Nineteenth Century, lixxvii, 1042-56. 1920.
Clifford's Inn.
Clifford's Inn, Fleet Street, in the city of London. Particulars, plan and conditions of sale of ... the
principal portion of Cliffords Inn . . which Sir David Burnett . . . will submit for sale . . . on Wednesday, 2nd Feb., 1921. Pp. 15-23, plates, plan. [1921.]
The History of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, by Norman Moore. [Review.] The Antiquaries' Journal, i, 65-6. 1921.
F. Haverfield 1 860-1919, by Dr. G. Macdonald. [Review.] The Antiquaries' "Journal, i, 249-51. 1921.
London : its origin and early development. Pp. xii, 300. 1923.
General survey of Essex monuments. Anglo-Saxon and Danish. Inventory of the historical monuments in Essex, iv, xxvii-xxxi. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England). 1923,
The monastic chronicler and the early school of St. Albans, by Claude Jenkins. [Review.] The Antiquaries' Journal, iii, 277. 1923.
The infirmary of St. Albans Abbey.
Transactions of the St. Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archteological Society, 1924- 1926, 24-8. 1924.
British borough charters, 1216-1307, ed. A. Ballard and J. Tait. [Review.] The Antiquaries' Journal, iv, 75-7. 1924.
The care of county muniments, by G. H. Fowler. [Review.] The Antiquaries' Journal, iv, 293-4. 1924-
London on the Thames, by H. Ormsby. [Review.] The Antiquaries' Journal, iv, 428-30. 1924.
Three Roydonfamilies. by E. B. Royden. [Review.] The Antiquaries' Journal, v, 87-8. 1925.
Notes on the types of English villages and their dis- tribution. Antiquity, i, 447-68. 1927.
The History of Middleton in the county of Sussex. Pp. 21, plates. Privately printed, 1928.
Family origins and other studies by the late J. Horace Round. Edited with a memoir and bibliography by William Page. Pp. liiiv, 303, plate. 1930.
Note on the late Dr. Philip Norman. History, xvi, i^z. 1931.
Note on the Fictoria County History. History, xvii, 331-2. 1933.
Forms of mediaeval settlements in England. [Pp.4.] n.d.
[Historical Manuscripts Commission] Report on the manuscripts of Major-Gen. Gillespie of Trewyn House, Abergavenny. Not yet published.
ZVl
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTY OF
RUTLAND
Edited by The Late WILLIAM PAGE, Hon.D.Litt., F.S.A.
VOLUME TWO
DAWSON
FOR
THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Dedication . . . .
William Page, D.Litt.,. F.S.A. A List of the Writings of Dr. William Page .... Contents ..... List of Illustrations Editorial Note .... Topography ....
PACE
vii
By Sir Charles Peers, C.B.E., Litt.D., F.B.A., F.R.LB.A. . ix
By Acnes E. Roberts, M.A.
Xlll
xix
Introduction
County of Rutland Oakham Soke : —
Introduction
Oakham
Belton
Braunston
Brooke
Clipsham
Egleton
Langham
Wardley Martinsley Hundred :
Introduction
Ayston
Beaumont Chase
Edith Weston
Hambleton .
Lyndon
Manton Martinsthorpe Normanton .
Preston Ridlington . Uppingham
Wing .
General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under the editorship of the late William Pace, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A. ; Architectural descriptions, except where otherwise stated, by F. H. Cheetham, F.S.A. ; Heraldic drawings and blazon by the Rev. E. E. Dorlinc, M.A., F.S.A. ; Charities from information supplied by J. R. Smith, of the Charity Commission
By Catherine M. Jamison, Oxford Hon. School of Mod. Hist., and F. H. Cheetham, F.S.A. ..... xxvii
By the late William Page, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A. . . I
By the late William Page, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A. By Catherine M. Jamison, Oxford Hon. School of Mod. Hist. » j» >j » ))
By the late William Pace, Hon. D.Litt., F.S..A. .
By Ada Russell, M.A
By the late William Page, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A. .
By Olive M. Moger, Oxford Hon. Math. .
By Ada Russell, M.A. ; Description of Hambleton Old Hall
by J. A. Gotch, M.A., F.R.LB.A., F.S.A. By Ada Russell, M.A. ; Description of Lyndon Hall by
J. A. Gotch, M.A., F.R.LB.A., F.S..A. . By Olive M. Mocer, Oxford Hon. Math. .
)> »» )» )) ■ • ■
„ ,, ,, „ Description of
Normanton Park by J. A. Gotch, M.A., F.R.LB.A., F.S.A
By Ada Russell, M.A. ......
„ ,, „ ......
By Catherine M. Jamison, Oxford Hon. School of Mod. Hist By Ada Russell, M.A. ......
xix
4 5
27 32
37 41 45 48
S3
58 59 61 62
66
72 77 84
86 88 91 95 103
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Alstoe Hundred :- Introduction Ashwell Burley
Cottesmore with Barrow Exton
Greetham .
Horn .
Market Overton
Stretton
Teigh .
Thistleton .
Whissendine
Whitwell Wrandike Hundred :-
Introduction
Barrowden
Bisbrooke
Caldecott
Glaston
Liddington
Luffenham, North
Luffenham, South
Morcott
Pilton
Seaton with Thorpe-by- Water
Stoke Dry .
Tixover East Hundred : —
Introduction
Casterton, Great
Casterton, Little
Empingham
Essendine
Ketton
Pickworth
RyhaU
Tickencote
Tinwell with Ingthorpe
By the late William Pace, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A..
By Olive M. Mocer, Oxford Hon. Math. .
„ „ „ „ Descrip Burley-on-the-Hill by J. A. Gotch, M.A., F.R F.S.A
By Ada Russell, M.A
By the late Charlotte M. Calthrop, Class. Trip. ; D tion of Exton Old Hall by J. A. Gotch, M.A., F.R F.S.A
By Ada Russell, M.A
By the late Charlotte M. Calthrop, Class. Trip.
By Ada Russell, M.A
tion of I.B.A
escrip- B.A.,
By Olive M. Mocer, Oxford Hon. Math. . By Ada Russell, M.A
By the late Charlotte M. Calthrop, Class. Trip.
By the late William Pace, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A..
By Olive M. Moger, Oxford Hon. Math. .
By Marjory Hollincs, Oxford Hon. School of Mod.
By Maud E. Simkins .....
By Olive M. Mocer, Oxford Hon. Math. .
By Maud E. Simkins .....
By Olive M. Mocer, Oxford Hon. Math. .
By Marjory Hollincs, Oxford Hon. School of Mod. By Maud E. Simkins ..... By Olive M. Mocer, Oxford Hon. Matli. .
Hi
Hii
By the late William Page, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A. By Valerie Cunningham ....
By the late William Page, Hon. D.Litt., F.S.A. ; Description of Tolthorpe Hall by J. A. Gotch, M.A., F.R.I.B.A., F.S.A. By Olive M. Mocer, Oxford Hon. Math.
By Maud E. Simkins
By Olive M. Moger, Oxford Hon. Math.
)> )> »» )>
By St. John O. Gamlen, M.A.
107 108
112
120
127
134 138 141
HS 151 iSS '57 i6s
169 170
175 179 182 188
195 203 207 211 213 221 227
231
232
236 242
250
254 265 268
275 281
XX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Exton Park in 1 749
Map of the Hundreds of Rutland .... Oakham : Flore's House ..... „ The Butter Cross ....
„ Castle Hall : The Interior, looking West „ ,, ,, The Interior, looking South-west
„ ,, ,, from the South-east
„ „ „ Plan
„ „ in 1730 ....
„ Plan of Town 1610 (from Speed's map) „ Church Plan ....
„ ,, from the South-east . |
„ „ The Interior, looking East j
„ Plan of St. John's Chapel Belton Church from the East Braunston : Stone figure in Churchyard
„ Church from the South-east . 1
„ „ The Interior, looking East j
,, The War Memorial .
Brooke Church Plan .
„ „ from the South-east
Clipsham Church from the North-east
„ ,, The Interior, looking East
„ Plan Egleton Church Plan
„ ,, The South Doorway
„ ,, from the South-east . ~l
,, ,, The Interior, looking East J
Langham : The Village .... The Old Hall, South Front | » » „ ,, North Front J
„ Church from the South . 1
„ ,, The Interior, looking East j
„ „ Plan
Wardley : Old Cottages
„ Church from the South ) Ayston Church from the South-east J
» „ Plan .
Edith Weston Church Plan
,, „ „ from the South
,, ,, „ The Interior, looking East
Hambleton : Upper, The ' Priest's House ' The Old Hall from the North „ Church from the South-east |
xxi
^'1
The Interior, looking East '
PACE
Frontiipiece 3 S 6
plate, facing 8
• » .. 9
9
plate, facing 10
• .. .. II
. 19
plate, facing 20
plate, facing 30
31
. 32
• 39
plate, facing 40
• ., ,, 41
• 43
. . . 46
plate, facing 46
• i> » 47
. . . 48
plate, facing 48
91 )>
)J »J
49 54
plate, facing 56
60 . . 64
plate, facing 64 >, .. 65
66 67
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Hambleton Church Plan .... Lyndon : Old Cottages ....
„ The Top Hall from the South 1
„ Hall from the North . j
„ Church from the South-east . 1
„ ,, The Interior, looking West J
Manton Church Plan ....
„ „ from the South-west . )
„ „ The Interior, looking East J
Martinsthorpe House in 1684 . . |
„ Ruins of St. Martin's Chapel J
Normanton House in 191 2 : Left-hand Wing
Half-front „ „ „ Dining-room block j
PACE
. 70 - 73
plale, facing 74
• „ » 75
. 81
82
plate, facing
„ in 1684
. 1
„ Church from the South
Preston : The Old Manor House
^
„ Church from the South-east J
„ „ The Interior, looking East .
„ „ Plan ....
Ridlington Church from the South-east ^
„ „ The Norman Tympanum j
Uppingham : The Old Schoolroom 1
84 86
87
88
89 89
plaU, facing 94
t
J
„ The Market Place
„ Church Plan ....
„ „ from the South-east
,, „ The Interior, looking East ^
Wing Church from the North . . . j
,, The Village Street ..... Ashwell Church Plan .....
,, ,, Wooden Effigy ....
„ „ from the South-east . "I
,, ,, The Interior, looking East j
Burley-on-the-Hill : North Front . 1
„ ,, „ from the South-east J
„ Church : Monument to Lady Charlotte Finch „ „ from the North-west
.. „ Plan
Cottesmore : The Village ..... „ Church Plan .....
plate, facing
plate, facing
from the South
"1
:rbury J
„ ,, The Interior, looking East j
Exton : The Village
Park from an old Print
The Old Hall in 1880 .
Hall, and Chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury
Church from the South-east .....
Plan
„ Monument to Robert Kelway . . .1
» „ „ Baptist Noel, Viscount Campden j
„ The Interior, looking East ....
xxii
plate, facing plate, facing
plate, facing
96 100
100
lOI
103 no no
ni
112
n6
"7 n8 120 124
124
127 128
130
131 131
132 133
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Greetham : The Ram Tarn Inn before Reconstruction]
„ ,, „ ,, „ after Reconstruction j
„ Church from the South-east
„ „ The Interior, looking East
„ ,. Plan
Market Overton Church Plan ....
„ „ „ from the South-west 1
„ „ „ The Interior, looking East j
„ „ ,, The Tower Arch
Stretton : The Village ....
„ Stocken Hall ....
„ Church from the West . |
„ „ The Interior, looking East J
„ „ Plan
Teigh Church from the South-east
„ „ The Interior, looking West
Thistleton Church from the South-east Whissendine Church Plan
„ „ from the South-west
„ ,, The Interior, looking East j
Whitwell Church from the South-east
Plan Barrowden Church Plan
„ „ from the South-east
„ „ The Interior, looking East
Bisbrooke : Sketch of Old Church Caldecott : An Old House .
„ Church from the North-east
„ Plan Glaston Church Plan ....
„ „ from the South-west . 1
„ „ The Interior, looking East J
Liddington Bede House from the Churchyard
„ „ „ and West Doorway of Church j
„ „ „ Plan of First Floor
„ „ „ The Hall
„ „ „ Garden Tower, and Church
„ Church from the South 1
„ „ Altar Rails . J
„ „ The Tower
„ „ Plan
North Luffenham Church from the South
„ „ „ The Interior, looking East
„ „ „ Plan .
South Luffenham Church from the South-east „ „ „ The Interior, looking East
,) „ „ Plan .
Morcott Church Plan ....
„ „ from the South-west .
„ „ The Interior, looking North-west 1
Pilton Church from the South-east . . J
Seaton Church Plan ......
xxiii
PACE
plate, facing 1 34
)» >j
)> ))
136 137 137 143
plate, facing 144
14s . 146
plate, facing 148
.) ,, 149
• 149 plate, facing 154
'55
156
. 161
>> »
plate, facing 162
,, „ 163
. 166
• 173 plate, facing 1 74
175
. . . 178
• 179 plate, facing 180
. I8l
. 186
plate, facing 186
M ))
188
. 189 plate, facing 190
» J)
») )j
191
192
193 193
plate, facing 196
. 201
plate, facing 204
. 205
. 209
plate, facing 210
>j J)
211 219
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Seaton Church from the South
„ „ The Interior, looking East
Stoke Dry Church : South Column of Chancel . 1 Monument to Sir Everard Digby North Column of Chancel from the North-east . "1 The Interior, looking East J Plan . Tixover Church from the South-east „ „ The Tower Arch .
„ Plan . Great Casterton Church Plan „ „ „ The Font
„ „ „ from the South-east . |
„ „ „ The Interior, looking East J
Little Casterton : Tolethorpe Hall from the South „ „ „ „ in 1684 .
„ „ „ „ North Front
„ „ Church Plan
„ „ „ from the South
Empingham Church from the North-west 1 „ „ The West Doorway J
„ „ The Interior, looking East
„ „ Plan .
Essendine Church : South Doorway „ „ from the South
Ketton : The Stream .
„ Church : The West Front
„ „ from the South-west
„ „ The Interior, looking East
„ Plan ....
Pickworth : Ruins of Old Church Ryhall Church from the South-east
„ „ The Interior, looking East
>, » Plan
Tickencote Church : The Chancel Arch
„ „ Sketch by Dr. Stukeley
„ „ Plan by J. Carter, Sept. 1780
„ „ Plan ....
„ „ from the North-east
„ „ Section of the Chancel Arch
„ „ from the South 1
Tinwell Church from the South-east J '
.. >, Plan
PAOt
flaU, facing 220
»> »
f) )>
224
225
. 225 plate, facing 228
229 . 229
• 234 plaU, facing 234
9> >l
23s
236
. 238
. 240
flate, facing 240
,, >. 246
247
. 248
flate, facing 252
253
• 2SS
plate, facing 260
„ 261
. 262
plate, facing 268
„ „ 269
. 272
plate, facing 276
. 278
• 279
. 280
plate, facing 280 281
)> J>
283
XXIV
EDITORIAL NOTE
The whole of this vokime, with the exception of the Introduction, was printed under the editorial supervision of the late Dr. William Page. The cost of production has been generously guaranteed by Mr. Owen Hugh Smith, of Langham, Rutland.
Special thanks are due to Mr. V. B, Crowther-Beynon, F.S.A., Miss J. Finch, Mr. St. John O. Gamlen, Mr. Arthur Hawley, and Mr. W. L. Sargant for much valuable assistance in the compilation of the volume. Also to Sir E. Knapp-Fisher and Mr. Laurence Tanner, F.S.A., for affording faciUties of access to the records of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.
Thanks are also due to The Rt. Hon. the Dowager Countess of Gains- borough, Mr. J. A. Gotch, F.R.I. B.A., F.S.A., and Mr. H. F. Traylen, F.R.I, B. A., F.S.A., for help with regard to illustrations and plans and informa- tion on architectural matters ; and to Capt. R. J. E. Conant, M.P., the Misses Irons, and Mr. George E. Monckton for the loan of certain documents.
Many others have given much appreciated help by supplying information, reading proofs, and in other ways, especially the following : Rev. C. C. Aldred, Rev. E. D. Annand, Rev. William Ashburner, Mr. Edmund Bardwell, Rev. J. S. Barnes, Rev. J. H. Bellhouse, Rev. R. G. Bisseker, Mr. A. T. Bolton, Mr. A. M. Bradshaw,Mr. George Brudenell, Capt. Burnaby-Atkins, Rev. A.N. Carp, Rev. C.J. Cartwright,the late Lady Codrington, Rev. W. St. G. Coldwell, Rev. J. D. W. Dawson, Mr. Louis G. Dease, Rev. D. M. Evans, Rev. H. E. Farrell, Rev. O. L. Fawke, Major E. Guy Fenwick, Mr. W. H. M. Finch, Rev. James Flamank, Major C. H. Fleetwood-Hesketh, Rev. W. Fowler, Rev. A. E. Eraser, Canon R. H. Fuller, Rev. E. T. Glasspool, Mr. Cecil G. Gee, Rev. E. M. Guilford, Rev. E. C. Hart, Rev. G. A. Hassell, Mr. B. W. Home, Sir Dudley Clarke Jervoise, Rev. F. T. Johnson, Rev. I. C. Jones, Rev. H. V. Neilson, Mrs. Cecil Noel, Rev. P. C. Nichols, Rev. C. F. Norgate, the late Rev. A. D. Phillips, Canon E. B. RedUch, Rev. J. F. Richards, Rev. R. E. Roberts, Rev. C. J. B. Scriven, Rev. Col. A. D. Seton, B.Sc, the late Rev. H. J. Shirley, Canon A. H.. Snowden, Rev. E. Strong, Rev. F. J. W. Taverner, Rev. A. S. Tomkins, Prof. A. Hamilton Thompson, D.Litt., F.S.A., Rev. J. W. H. Toynbee, Rev. J. J. Wilson, Mr. Henry Wing, Rev. J. H. Woods, and Rev. J. K. Worley.
XXV
INTRODUCTION
RUTLAND, the smallest county in England, presents unusual features different from those of other counties. Its origin and development are stamped upon the county and its people, and the individuality still endures. The district long lay wild and uncultivated : a great part of it remained in its primeval state until the early part of the i 2th century, and this has strongly influenced its subsequent history. Its origin as a county is unique. It represented neither one of the sub-kingdoms of early Saxon times nor one of the newer areas formed for defence against the Danish invaders. It was a wild country with patches of cultivation surrounding the estate given to a succession of Saxon queens. County organisation did not emerge until the 1 2th century. To its remote position and wild character the chief features of its history can be traced : the sparseness of settlement in early days and the few remains of Roman and Saxon times ; its fame since the days of Henry I as a hunting country ; its lack of big towns and monastic houses ; its connection with the wool trade and, from the close of the middle ages, its popularity as a place of residence for wealthy country gentlemen.
Although sporadic finds of the Neolithic, Bronze and Early Iron Ages have been made, there is no evidence of any settlements of these periods, and the evidence regarding the tumuli found at Barrow, Essendine, Glaston, Upping- ham and Wing is insufficient to assign a date to them.' The Roman road called Ermine Street, which runs from Great Casterton to Lincoln, had per- haps the strongest influence in the development of the district in early times. It brought Romano-British settlements to Great Casterton and Market Overton, where the remains of Roman camps may be seen.^ Earthworks at Ridlington, Whissendine and Ranksborough Hill in Langham may be of the Roman period, but nothing has been found to give them a definite date.^
The early pagan Saxon cemeteries at North Luffenham, Cottesmore, and Market Overton indicate important settlements adjoining those sites, dating back perhaps to the 5th or 6th century. With the exception of these ceme- teries, there is little to show habitation until the loth century, when it would seem that the land, although still very sparsely populated, was being employed for profitable purposes. The types of settlements throw some light on the development of the district. The nucleated or clustered villages off' the high road, found near Ermine Street on the east, are Teutonic in origin ; while the ring-fence type of village, in which three or four roads inclose a piece of land, still probably a village green, indicates forest settlements of a later date. Examples of this type of settlement will be found at Belton, Langham, Manton, Wing, Exton and elsewhere.
The district known as Rutland in the loth century, which comprised
^ F.C.H. Rutl. i, 82,119. » Ibid. 86-93. » Ibid. Ill, 118.
xxvii
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
apparently Martinsley Hundred with Oakham, was held by Aelfthryth (945-1000?), mother of Ethelred the Unready. After his mother's death, Ethelred gave it in 1002 to his Norman queen Emma, on their marriage. Emma probably retained her dower lands when, after the death of Ethelred, she married King Cnut, and her son Edward the Confessor gave them to his queen Edith, from whom Edith Weston took its name. It would appear that by the time of the Conquest the district was gradually becoming cleared and had been granted to great lords to bring into cultivation and to colonise. The Domesday Survey of 1086, however, with its record of woods, spinneys and undergrowth, of sparse inhabitants and few ploughs, suggests that this process had not gone far. In the next century we have the picture of Henry I, as he rode north by the western borders of Rutland, marking down with the keen eyes of a hunting enthusiast five hinds in ' Riseborough wood.' On his return a year later he made permanent arrangements for the afforestation of a strip of Leicestershire and the greater part of Rutland. No great hardship seems to have been caused by his action, possibly because he was also responsible for the formation of the barony of Oakham with its hunting privileges, but the law- lessness of the hereditary foresters was the cause of bitter complaint. The most notorious was Peter de Neville, who became forester about 1248, and his misdeeds and exactions fill the roll of the Forest Eyre of 1269. He was justly outlawed ; one of his most unpopular actions was to imprison men in his house at Allexton, where the prison floor was flooded, instead of in Oakham gaol, but it was for a theft in Shropshire that he was finally hanged.* In succeeding cen- turies, the bounds of the forest were lessened, until it was finally disafforested in 1630, but it exercised a very definite influence on the development of the county. Its attractions as a hunting country still remain, although the deer have long since disappeared, excepting in the park of Exton. The history of the Cottesmore Hunt goes back to the early part of the i8th century, when the county was hunted by Mr. Thomas Noel of Exton Park, the author of one of the first books on hound-breeding. It was not till 1 788 that Sir William Lowther, later the ist Earl of Lonsdale, bought the hounds and established the Cottesmore Hunt.^
The formation of the barony of Oakham was the second important event of Norman times. To Walchelin de Ferrers, who certainly held the barony from 1 1 66-1 199, the county owes its most remarkable architectural feature in the Hall of Oakham Castle. Whether the story that he went on the Second Crusade and was present at the siege of Acre is true or not, it seems evident that he must have had at some time a close personal connection with Oakham. As a member of a younger branch of the Ferrers family, he may have hoped to found a powerful baronial house in Rutland, but when Normandy was lost his sons severed their connection with England, and after the death of his daughter, Isabel de Mortimer, Oakham became for three centuries a royal appanage.^ None of the other great landholders in the county lived there, but a roll of debts owed to the Jews in the later 1 2th century shows that Alberic, Count of Dammartin and William Mauduit, the King's Chamberlain, had used their Rutland property as security for loans. The charter of Mauduit shows the speculative nature of some of these transactions, for the payment of
* V.C.H. Rutl. i, 173, 252-3 ; Select Pleas oj the Forest (Selden Soc), 43-53.
* F.C.H. Rutl. i, 301. • Ibid. 171 ; see below, pp. 11,12.
xxviii
INTRODUCTION
the debt only became due on the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Of the lesser men, the sub-tenants — for subinfeudation had gone on apace — we know but little. Few laymen appear on the debtors' roll, but the parsons of Bisbrooke, Whissendine and Morcott, as well as the Priory of Brooke, were in debt to the Jews.'' The names of a good many Rutland tenants appear on the baronial side in the struggle with King John, but not as taking a leading part ;® and the royal authority in Rutland was strengthened by the grant of the county in 1227 by Henry III to his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, followed by the gift of Oakham some years later.* The consolidation of the county administration probably took place at this time. Richard himself had no personal connection with Rutland, but his officials seized the opportunity of the county, the soke and barony of Oakham, and the hundreds of Martinsley, Alstoe, and East all being in their master's hands to introduce a more effective administration. Perhaps this led to opposition in the county, resulting in strong support of Simon de Montfort's movement against Henry III. In spite of the inclosure of the town of Oakham with a fence, for which the king granted material from Ridlington Park, the town was taken by the insurgents and the hall damaged by fire.'" The war in Rutland seems to have been a very local affair, with no important leaders, and some fifty years later, in 13 1 1, we find that there were no knights resident in the county to represent it in Parliament, their place being taken by ' the more discreet and able men of the shire.' " A good deal of lawlessness is revealed at this time, when bands of men supported themselves by indiscriminate robbery, and the keepers of the peace had difficulty in preserving order — the case of the vendetta between the Harington brothers and John of Wittlebury, lord of Wittlebury manor and chief keeper of the peace in the county in 1336, is an excellent illustration In spite of repairs to the Castle, escapes from Oakham gaol were frequent, and the prisoners probably found safety in the forest lands. Henry Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, was at Burley when he set out to suppress the Peasants' Revolt, but there is little evidence of the men of Rutland taking an active part in the rising. This lawlessness was perhaps of less importance than appears from the judicial records of the time, for there is evidence of a steady growth of prosperity. The towns of Rutland were never important, although there had been markets at Oakham, Market Overton, and probably at Uppingham ' time out of mind ' ; but in the 13 th century the lords of the towns obtained new royal charters for their markets and fairs with a view to safeguarding their rights to the increasing tolls and dues. In the next century, fairs were also granted at Belton, Burley, Barrowden, and Empingham.'^
Apart from the hall of Oakham Castle and the Bishop of Lincoln's house at Liddington, little medieval domestic architecture of importance has survived in the county. What still exists is found chiefly in the older parts of rebuilt houses or in particular features, such as windows, re-used in later buildings, but the county can still show many good examples of the smaller stone manor houses, yeomen's dwellings, and cottages of the late i6th and 17th centuries. The abundance of good building stone influenced the style of architecture, which is seen even in many of the cottages, whose picturesqueness adds much
' P.R.O. Various Accts. 249, no. i. » F.C.H. Rutl. 1,171.
" Ibid. 172; see below, p. II. ^^ F.C.H. Rutl. i, ij^. 11 Ibid. 174.
'* Ibid. 175-6; see below, p. 160. *' See below, pp. 30, 112, 170, 242.
xxix
12
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
to the beauty of the villages. Thatch, either of reed or straw, is still common, being found even in Oakham, and roofs of Colleyweston and other ' stone slates ' are found almost everywhere. Except in Oakham and Uppingham, brick is little used, though bricks were being made in the county at the close of the 17th century.'*
Possibly the Saxon queens had a hall at Oakham from which the affairs ot the Soke of Oakham were administered, but the existing hall was built by Walchelin de Ferrers about 1 190. It belonged to an early fortified house, not properly a castle, as it is sometimes called ; Essendine Castle and Woodhead Castle were perhaps of the same nature, but nothing remains of either except the earthworks. The first Norman lords, being absentees, would require houses, probably of an unsubstantial character, only for their bailiffs and other officers, but the disposal of sub-manors had begun before the Conquest and subinfeudation grew rapidly afterwards. The little castles consisting of a mount, or mount with a bailey attached, which dot the country, are generally attributed to the 'Anarchy ' of Stephen's reign, but it well may be that some of them belong to the early period of the Barons' Wars. They probably had wooden towers crowning the mount and palisades defending the lower earth- works. Such castles were thrown up at Pilton, Beaumont Chase, and Burley, but they soon became useless for military purposes.
The fortified manor house of Oakham, to which the name of castle became attached in the 13th century, consisted of two courts, surrounded by a broad ditch, in the first of which stood the existing late 12th-century hall. This hall is one of the most beautiful and least spoilt examples of the architec- ture of the period to be found in any domestic building in England, the exqui- site detail ot the arches and capitals of the arcades being nowhere excelled. The long stiff-stalk foHage of the capitals, often compared with that in the quire of Canterbury Cathedral, is typical of the contemporary classical carving employed in Burgundy and elsewhere on the Continent, and the sculpture on the corbels and label-stops is of the same classic type.'^ The whole of the work is a splendid example of the new school of craft then beginning to prevail. The surviving portions of masonry in other parts of the castle are apparently of 13th-century date.'®
The lords of the manors, tenants of the greater barons, lived on the land and in the early 13 th century built houses generally within moated sites for protection from man and beast. No houses of this date survive in the county, but the moats remain at Hambleton, Horn, North Luffenham, Whissendine and elsewhere.
Flore's House in Oakham retains a good 13th-century moulded doorway, and internally an interesting lavatory basin of perhaps a century later, but the building was subsequently much altered. To the 13th century also belongs a vaulted cellar in Ryhall, and a window in a house at Braunston dates from about 1300. The gatehouse at Tolethorpe Hall, in Little Casterton parish, appears tu be of the latter half of the 14th century, but it has few distinguishing architectural features.
The growing prosperity of the 14th century was probably due to the increase ot sheep-farming. No sheep are mentioned in the Domesday Survey of Rutland, but 200 years later the export of Rutland wool was evidently an
" y.CH. Rutl. i, 234. IS See below, p. 9. '« See below, p. S.
XXX
INTRODUCTION
established trade, which could be injured by the quarrel between England and Flanders in 1270.^'' At first the common rights existing in the forest districts may have sufficed for the needs of the sheep-farmers. Brooke Priory, for instance, had common for 300 sheep in Leighfield Forest,'* but the 14th and 15th centuries saw the conversion of arable land into pasture, and the consequent displacement of the population. The small parish of Horn was apparently depopulated by 1376'® and its lands turned to pasture. Whether the village may have suffered unusually severely in the Black Death is not known, but it is significant that William Dalby, the wealthy wool merchant and founder of the Hospital of St. John and St. Anne at Oakham, belonged to the neighbouring parish of Exton. In 1394 Dalby and his son-in-law, Roger Flore, were exposing wool through the port of Lynn to Calais.^" The chief Rutland merchants belonged to the important company of the Staple at Calais in the 15th and i6th centuries, amongst the members in 1470 being W^illiam Trafford, John Kyrton, William Wareyn, all of Oakham, Richard Sales- bury of Brooke, and Thomas Adam of Langham.^' William Rose or Rosse, then a burgess of Calais, came from Oakham and was probably identical with the official of the same name who was Victualler of Calais for many years.^^ So great was the unrest caused by the unemployment due to the increase of sheep-farming that the government was forced in i 517 to hold an inquiry. The returns made by the Inclosure Commissioners for Rutland, although incomplete, show that the inclosures in East Hundred were of con- siderable dimensions. As early as 1445 the hamlet of Hardwick in Emping- ham had been depopulated, but many of the inclosures in the parish had been made recently by George Mackworth, the lord of the manor, and other free- holders.^^ In contrast to the inclosures in East Hundred, those round Oak- ham were small, and sheep-farming on a large scale could be carried on without much disturbance of the arable land. The will of Thomas Haselwood of Ridlington, made in 1558, is instructive. He was deputy for life for Francis Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, in Leighfield Forest and Ridlington Park, where he leased rights of herbage and pannage, and later he bought the manor of Belton from Lord Mountjoy. He left a ewe and a lamb each to his four maidservants and also to all his godchildren in Belton and Wardley, besides gifts of horses to the Earl and Countess and others. Huntingdon died two years later, leaving the bailiwick of the forest to another servant ; conse- quently Thomas Haselwood 's son and heir, Francis, found himself short of pasture at Belton, and was brought into collision with some of his tenants over his inclosures.-* In spite of the loss of Calais in 1557, which especially impoverished the town of Oakham, the wool trade flourished in the 17th century. Abel Barker, the Parliamentarian, carried on a considerable trade in wool, while Col. Thomas Waite, the regicide, who purchased the manor of Hambleton from the Trustees for the Sale of Delinquents' Lands, caused bitter complaints by his inclosures and high-handed methods.^
2S
" V.C.H. Rutl. i, 236-7 ; Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), li, 52. " L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, no. 1191. i« See below, p. 139.
^ Cal. Close R. 1392-6, p. 199. *i Cal. Pat. R. 1^^67-77, pp. 212-3, 29°-
** Ibid. ; P.R.O. Liit of Various Accts. pp. 60, 141-2. ^ Chan. Misc. bdle. 7, file 2 (2) ; see below, p. 242. " P.C.C. 18 Cheyney ; 8 Loftes ; see below, p. 29. ** Cal. S.P. Dom. 1653-4^ p. 28; 1654, PP' ^7> ^3-
xxxi
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
Although politically there is little to record relating to the county in the 1 5th century, socially it saw the beginning of a great change. The out- standing leaders in the Wars of the Roses had little personal connection with Rutland, although the Earl of Warwick had lands there. It was the scene of the battle of Loosecoat Field, where in 1470 Edward IV met and defeated the Lincolnshire insurgents near Empingham.'® Hitherto the resident land- owners were generally small men ; even if lords of a manor, their estates were small, and they themselves were little known except in county matters. The Despensers at Essendine and the Bishops of Lincoln at Liddington are almost the only exceptions. The activities of these local landowners in the county were, however, very noticeable, whether as members of parliament, sheriffs, magistrates or royal officials. The most striking example of this activity comes from the next century in the person of Anthony Colley of Glaston, but many other similar examples can be found. ^^ For the future, however, Rutland was remarkable as a county of resident landowners, owning large estates, still taking a leading share in county matters, but also in those of the country generally. The Mackworths, Haselwoods, Brownes, Digbys, and Haringtons all come into prominence in the i 5th century, although if they built themselves new houses, there are no traces of them left. Domestic work of the 15th century is represented by the still charming but neglected house of the Bishops of Lincoln at Liddington, which, though perhaps first erected in the 14th century or earlier, appears to have been wholly rebuilt by Bishop William Alnwick^* (1436-49), and altered by Bishop William Smith (1496-1514), when it assumed in the main its present appearance. It was, however, again altered in 1602, when it became a bede house, and thus includes work of three periods. The great hall on the first floor still retains a beautiful panelled wood ceiling and elaborate traceried cornice of the time of Bishop Smith, and there is also a good ceiling in the great chamber. Both rooms contain interesting stained glass, some of which is of Alnwick's time, but the greater part of Smith's.
The Digbys came to Stoke Dry by the marriage of Everard Digby with Alice daughter of Francis Clarke. He himself was killed in 1461 at the battle of Towton, but the family remained at Stoke Dry for many generations, and in the 1 6th century were also stewards of various royal manors in the county. Another Everard was a prominent courtier and was one of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators in 1605, but the most famous was Sir Kenelm Digby, courtier, diplomatist, admiral, philosopher and scientist, friend of Oliver Cromwell and also exiled royalist. His career shows a diversity of attainments rarely met with except in the 17th century. ^^ The Haringtons also obtained their first connection with Exton by marriage with Catherine Culpeper, who was descended from the family of Bruce or Brus. To this descent is attributed the rise of her son John Harington in the favour of James I, who stopped at his house at Burley and hunted there on his way to assume the crown of England. Harington, who had inherited or bought large estates in the county and rebuilt the house at Burley-on-the-Hill, was created Baron Harington of Exton, but the expenses of his public life — he was governor to Princess Elizabeth, and accompanied her on her marriage journey — impoverished him, and his heirs
»« V.C.H. Run. i, 179. ^ Ibid. 182-3.
^ See below, p. 189. " See below, p. 223.
xxzii
INTRODUCTION
were forced to sell most of his property. Ridlington Park, however, he left to his younger brother James, and from this branch came Sir Edward Harington, bart., the parliamentary leader in the county, his son James, one of the commissioners of the trial of Charles I, and James Harington, the author of Oceana?^ In the i6th century two other families became great landowners, but obtained their footing in the county as royal officials. David Cecil was the steward or bailiff of various royal manors, and his son Richard enriched himself with monastic lands, which were inherited by Willi? m Cecil, Lord Burghley, the great statesman and secretary of Queen Elizabeth. His Rutland property at Liddington and Barrowden and elsewhere passed to his eldest son, whose descendants the Earls of Exeter own them at the present day. Essendine, however, was left to his younger son Robert, Earl of Salisbury, who took his first title of Baron Cecil of Essendine from it, and in his youth may have lived in the old manor house of the Despensers.^' The Noels rose to importance in the county in the same way. Andrew Noel was the king's feodary in Rutland. His son purchased the lands of Brooke Priory and was the brother-in-law of the first Lord Harington. He bought up many of the Harington estates in the county. Others, notably Burley-on-the-Hill and Oakham Lordshold, were bought by the Duke of Buckingham, who rebuilt the house at Burley and added the famous stables there. Here was the scene of the first production of Ben Jonson's masque The Gipsies, and also of the introduction of the famous dwarf, Geoffrey Hudson, to the court. ^"
Buildings of the i6th century are less rare than those of the 15th, though not common. They include the original schoolhouses at Oakham and Uppingham, both erected in 1584, but in part altered in the i8th century. The older part of Clipsham Hall is dated 1582, and a house at Barrowden i 586. At North Luffenham Hall (formerly the Digbys' house) a barn bears the date 1555, and the oldest part of the house itself is probably of about the same time or a little earlier, though subsequently much altered and enlarged (c. 16 16 and in 1 8th cent.) ; in one of the outbuildings is some timber and plaster work, the only example of its kind in the county. The gateway and lodge of the 16th-century house built on or near the site of Brooke Priory are still standing.
Houses of the 1 7th century are found almost in every village, generally with high-pitched gables and mullioned windows, but frequently the mullions have been removed and the windows otherv/ise altered. Of the large houses of the period, Exton Hall and Tolethorpe Hall date from very early in the century, but the former is now in ruins, and the latter has been altered and enlarged in modern times. Hambleton Old Hall, an unaltered building of more moderate size, now a farmhouse, was erected about 16 10, and is a very charming example of its period, with loggias between the end wings on its two principal fronts. The older part of Stocken Hall is of 17th-century date, and the old manor houses at Preston and Tinwell remain externally little changed, the former, at present a farmhouse, presenting a long many-gabled front directly on the road. Several houses in the High Street of Uppingham belong to this period and style, and others of good design are found at Braun- ston, Caldecott, Clipsham, Edith Weston, Langham, Liddington, Manton,
*> Diet. Nat. Biog. ; V.C.H. Rutl. i, 183 ; see below, pp. 93, 115, 119. '1 V.C.H. Rutl. i, 180, 183 ; see below, pp. 172, 192, 252-3. ^ V.C.H. Rutl. i, 184; see below, pp. 10, 112. 2 ixxiii f
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
Morcott, Oakham, Ryhall, Thorpe-by-Water, and Wing ; many of these bear dates ranging from 1604 to 1691.
There is Uttle further information as to the county in the i6th century, although there were disturbances in the reign of Edward VI.'' This lack of evidence suggests that the latter half of the century was a time of prosperity, while the troubles caused by the inclosing of land were probably mitigated by the disafforestation of Leighfield Forest about 1630. The negotiations relating to compensation for loss of common rights afford a pleasant glimpse of the relations between the different classes of the community, since the free- holders of Belton refused to accept the inclosed lands offered them unless the poor of the parish were also compensated.'* There is little evidence of dis- satisfaction under the early Stuart kings, since the different subsidies, the forced loan of 1626, and even the ship-money levies were raised with little opposition, but in the petition presented by various gentlemen and others to Charles I, as he went to York in 1640, there is obvious disapproval of his breach with parliament.'® More elaborate were the petitions, presented by Sir James Harington and other Rutland gentlemen in 1642 to parliament, wherein the Irish rebellion, the influence of the Papists, and the need for various religious reforms were the chief points emphasised.'* Indeed, these petitions suggest that the religious aspect of the quarrel was more strongly felt in the county, which seems to have been Puritan in sympathy, than its political features. When war actually broke out the majority of the leading men of Rutland joined the royalist forces, but its geographical position, especially after the battle of Edgehill, put it definitely into the sphere of the Parliamentary Midland Association. The chief protagonists were Edward Noel, Viscount Campden, and his son Baptist for the king, with Sir Edward Harington and his son James for the parliament. It is rather difficult not to view the Civil War in Rutland as a rivalry between the Noel and Harington cousins. Even the insistance on the Irish rebellion in the petition of 1642 may have been aimed at Lord Campden, who had fought in Ireland. Sir Edward Harington, indeed, secured Oakham and its magazine and called out the militia, but his efforts in this were much impeded by the success of the Noels in recruiting for the king.'^ The personal popularity of the Noels in the county emerges and an echo of it arises as late as 1648 in a petition of various Rutland parliamentarians to General Fairfax.'® In 1643, when an expedition from Grantham under Captain Wray attempted to seize Baptist Noel's house at Exton, he met with * resistance by the coming in of the neighbours ' and was forced to withdraw, threatening vengeance on the whole Noel family.'®
In consequence Henry Noel at North Luffenham thought it necessary to collect ' a little guard ' of his neighbours to defend his house. So menacing was the royalist feeling that Lord Grey, the commander of the forces of the Midland Association, joined Wray and marched to Lord Campden's house at Brooke, but he failed to find its owner, and then turned on North Luffenham with a force estimated at 1,300 men with artillery. There could be only one end to Noel's defiance, and he was forced to surrender.*" While in prison in
" V.C.H. Rutl. i, i8i, 223. ^ Ibid. 224. 36 Ibid. 184-5, 186-7.
3« B.M. Press-mark 669, fol. 6 (ij. " /^,V/. MSS. Com. Rep. (Portland MSS.), i, 43, 80.
^ V.C.H. Rutl. i, 195 ; B.M. Press-mark 669, fol. 6 (i). ^ F.C.H. Rutl. I, igo. •wibid.
xxxiv
INTRODUCTION
London he sent a petition to the House of Lords, where it still exists, describing the siege. Lord Grey had drawn up his force on the slope opposite the house and sent a trumpeter demanding the surrender of Noel's person, his horses and arms. He refused, saying he had ' not a gunne more in my house than the feedinge of my hawkes require,' but offered to disarm those men not members of his household, for, according to Lord Grey, the little guard had increased to some 200 men. After further parleys the assault began in the evening, and was continued next day with such vigour that outhouses, stacks and barns were fired. The villagers were terrified and Noel surrendered to save their houses, but his conditions, he complained, were not kept, with the one excep- tion of finding a suitable escort for his wife. Lord Grey admitted that ' with much difficulty I preserved their lives ' (Noel and his friend Skipwith), ' but the soldiers were so enraged I could not save their goods.' The destruction of Sculthorpe hamlet is traditionally laid to their charge.*'
Burley-on-the-Hill was taken in the same year and became the head- quarters of the Rutland Committee. A garrison was maintained there until after the fall of Newark and much damage was done in erecting the forti- fications.*^
The little information that reaches us during the remainder of the Civil War is largely concerned with disagreements between different commanders. The best-known amongst the parliamentarians, in addition to Sir James Harington, were Colonel Thomas Waite, Abel Barker and Evers Armyn. There was little more fighting in the county, although the Rutland Committee was often in fear of a royalist rising. The heavy taxation demanded was unpopular, and even when collected the local men were unwilling to transmit it to London." A curious clause in the will of Sir Edward Harington, dated 1654, shows that he still had in his possession part of the sum raised for the defence of the county." After 1644, and still more after the fall of Newark, many royalists compounded for their estates, while in 1657 the Duke of Buckingham recovered Burley — or what remained of it after its garrison had burnt and deserted the house in a panic in 1645 — and other Rutland estates by a judicious marriage with Mary Fairfax.*^ Even more unpopular was the Protector's government, and probably the general feeling of the county was truly repre- sented in the address presented to Charles II on his restoration in which the signatories made their ' thankfull acknowledgement ' to God ' of His goodnesse in so great a Blessing accomplished without effusion of blood.'**
The county remained famous for its large houses and estates, although Buckingham was succeeded at Burley by Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham. The second half of the 1 7th century was a time of considerable activity in building and a new influence is seen in such houses as Lyndon Hall and the Top Hall in the same place, both interesting examples of the transition from the Jacobean to the more classic type then being gradually adopted, and the hall at South Luffenham is of the same type. In these buildings gables give place to hipped roofs with small dormers, and the windows are increased in height and have moulded architraves. The more fully developed new style
" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. (Portland MSS.), i, 99 ; Rutland Magazine, ii, 202-8. *- V.C.H. Rutl. i, 189, 191, 192 ; Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644-5, pp. 85, loo-i. *^ F.C.H. Rutl. i, 193 ; see Cal. S.P. Dom. 1644, '644-5, 1645-7, passim. « P.C.C. 326, 1653. « F.C.H. Rutl. i, 194-5. « Ibid. 200.
2 XXXV e *
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
is best seen in Nottingham's great house at Burley-on-the-Hill, built between 1694 and 1702 on the site of the older mansion burnt by the parliamentary forces. It occupies a commanding site on the brow of a hill, and in general lay-out follows the then rapidly prevailing type in which the main block is supported by outlying buildings, and connected with them by colonnades. Its plan is strictly symmetrical and the elevations are simple and dignified. The architect is not known.
The families of Heathcote, Sherard, and Lowther appeared in Rutland in the i8th century. The great house built at Normanton by Sir Gilbert Heathcote about 1730 was pulled down in 1925, and no 18th-century building of the same size or character now exists in the county. Tickencote Hall dates from early in the century. Clipsham Hall was rebuilt, Stocken Hall enlarged, and a new south front erected at the Digbys' house, North Luffenham. Dated 18th-century houses are found in Barrowden, Caldecott, Liddington, Manton, and Oakham.
Of the five crosses formerly existing in Oakham only the picturesque covered market-cross remains : it is known as the Butter Cross, and is an octagonal structure with high-pitched roof supported on timber posts, of late 1 6th, or early 1 7th-century date. Part of the shaft of what is said to have been a market-cross, long laid aside, has been recently set up in Liddington, and mutilated village or wayside crosses are found at Barrow and Edith Weston. At Oakham the stocks still stand under the loof of the market-cross, and on the green at Market Overton there are stocks and whipping-post combined. At Wing is a well-preserved turf maze, and there is said to have been one formerly at Liddington.
Rutland was still mainly an agricultural county. The cloth manufacture of 'tammy,' which continued till the early 19th century, and the trencher manufacture were never developed on a large scale, although the repercussion of the industrial revolution reached the county.*'' Most of the arable farming was still carried on in common fields, in the old-fashioned three-field system, and though there is evidence that some of the earlier inclosures were made with a view to improvement of method and not for sheep-farming, no change on a large scale was carried out till the need for increased food production brought about a continuous series of parish inclosures from 1760 onwards. If the movement involved hardship to the tenants, and particularly to the cottagers, an improved system of agriculture eventually resulted. The movements to form friendly societies and develop home industries were a special feature of Rutland at this time. They were started to counteract the rapidly increasing poverty, which sent more and more of the inhabitants to seek parish relief.**
The county is famous for its schools founded in 1584 at Oakham and Uppingham by Robert Johnson. Both have developed into important schools, but the headmastership of Edward Thring at Uppingham (1853-87) had an especially wide influence on English education. There were also a noticeable number of endowed elementary schools, while the schools of rural industry promoted at the end of the i8th century deserve mention."
No great monastic house was established in Rutland, for the priory of Brooke was small and impecunious. Ecclesiastically Rutland is remark- able as a land of beautiful parish churches, due to the plentiful supply of
« F C.H. Rutl. i, 233, 237. « Ibid. 223-5. *^ Ibid. 243, 298-300.
xxxvi
INTRODUCTION
good building stone. It is difficult to find who was responsible for their building. The numerous monastic patrons of the benefices were only respon- sible for the chancels of the churches, although Westminster Abbey, with its well-organised estates at Oakham, may have been more active both there and at Uppingham. Presumably, too, the churches attached to the prebendal manors of the chapter at Lincoln may have owed something to the canons, but generally speaking, if we may judge from the wills that have come down to us, here as elsewhere the inhabitants of the different towns and villages took a lasting interest in the fabric of their churches. The Bishops of Lincoln, famous in the 13th century for their administrative reforms, used their influence to promote church-building as well as to procure proper provision for the vicars of the churches. Thus Bishop Hugh de Welles (1209-123 5) bestowed spiritual benefits on all who helped in the rebuilding of Ketton church, and this was probably not an isolated instance.^"
At the principal manors churches were built which served a wide area around them and took the tithes for their support from that area. As the population increased, subsidiary churches or chapels were built which were served from the older or mother churches ; such, for instance, was the case of Oakham with its chapelries of Langham, Egleton, Brooke, and Gun- thorpe,®^ while Hambleton and Ridlington each had three churches in 1086.®^ Several of these churches were granted to religious houses and vicarages were later ordained at them.°'
For so small a county Rutland has an exceptionally large proportion of churches possessing features of architectural interest, some of them of con- siderable size and nearly all comprising work of more than one period. Of the fifty-two original parish churches, two — Horn and Martinsthorpe — no longer exist, three others (Bisbrooke, Normanton, and Pickworth) have been entirely rebuilt, while at Teigh and Thistleton the towers only are ancient. All the medieval styles, from the 1 2th to the 1 6th century, are represented in the ecclesiastical architecture of the county ; though work of the 13 th and 14th centuries in the main predominates, it has been frequently modified by the later insertion of windows, the addition of clearstories, parapets and other features, and in some cases by the remodelling in the i 5th century of whole portions of a fabric, as in the north transept of Empingham.
Only at Market Overton does any structural part of a Saxon church remain in situ,^^ but carved fragments of pre-Conquest date have been inserted in the west wall of the south aisle at Greetham, and another found at Ketton is preserved in the church there. There were churches returned in the Domesday Survey (1086) at Oakham, Hambleton (three churches), and Ridlington (three churches), and there were priests at Ketton, Barrowden, South Luffenham, Great Casterton, and Horn, implying perhaps the existence of churches. It is quite likely the churches at these places were there before the Conquest. The expansion of the county both politically and ecclesiastically occurred in the i 2th century, when nearly all the ancient churches were built or rebuilt, in most instances probably the former, and more than half retain
^B\ore,Hist.ofRutl. 183.
" See below, p. 23. ^^ J/Q.H. Rutl. i, 139-40. ^^ Ibid. 144.
** The claim of Whitwell is very doubtful : see below, p. 166. In addition to the tower arch at Market Overton, two pre-Conquest sculptured stones are incorporated in the later walling of the tower outside.
xxxvii
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
work of this date or show evidence of a i 2th-century origin. The dedications are almost entirely to Biblical saints, which were common to all periods. Of the others, the cult of St. Nicholas (to whom the churches of Cottesmore, Pilton, Stretton, and Thistleton are dedicated) did not reach this country until the iith century. The churches of St. Botolph at Wardley, mentioned in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and St. Edmund at Egleton have dedica- tions which they are unlikely to have received after the Conquest.
The principal surviving work of the i 2th century is at Braunston (jambs of chancel arch), Cottesmore (south doorway), Edith Weston (jambs of chancel arch and east respond of north arcade), Egleton (chancel arch and south door- way), Essendine (south doorway), Morcott (tower, tower arch, and north arcade), Preston (north arcade), Beaton (jambs of chancel arch and south doorway), Stoke Dry (carved jambshafts, etc., of chancel arch), Stretton (south doorway), Tickencote (richly decorated chancel arch), Tixover (tower and tower arch), and Wing (south arcade). Sculptured tympana remain at Egleton, Essendine, Little Casterton, and Ridlington, the two former /// situ, and a plain one at Stretton. The remarkable Norman chancel at Tickencote was rebuilt late in the i8th century and retains little or no ancient work, but is interesting as preserving in some measure a record of the original design. All the above work may be assigned to c. 1 1 50-80. The later work of the century (c. 1 190-1200) is more widely distributed, and includes an interesting series ot nave arcades in which ' the shape and ornamentation of the capitals are frequently curious and assume a characteristic local form.'^° The series includes Belton (south arcade), Brooke (north), Burley (north). Little Casterton (north), Edith \\'eston (north), Glaston, Hambleton, South LufFenham (north), Morcott, Seaton (north), Wing (north), and one bay of the north arcade at Ashwell. In these the development of the Romanesque volute into the elementary stifF-stalk foliage of the next period can be well studied in the capitals. The water-leaf with its inward-curving volutes is found at Edith Weston, Glaston, Hambleton, Seaton, and Wing, and the incurved fir-cone ornament at South Luffenham and Morcott. At Edith Weston, Glaston, and Seaton the arches have a large hollow on the soffit between two bold round or keel-shaped mouldings. DoonA'ays of late 12th-century date occur at Brooke, Hambleton, Morcott, Oakham, and Wing, those at Brooke and Oakham having pointed arches.^® The west front of the nave at Ketton is an outstanding piece of work of the period, in which the characteristic features of the 1 2th and 13th-century styles are intermingled.
The 13th century was a period of church-building throughout the land, and nearly every church in Rutland shows evidence of this activity.^' Many churches built or rebuilt at this time were, however, extensively remodelled in the next century — as at Ashwell and Whissendine — and though they retain a good deal of 13th-century work, it is no longer predominant. The chief structural work of the period in the county is found at Great and Little Casterton, Cottesmore, Empingham, Exton, Ketton, Langham, North Lutfen- ham, Manton, Pilton, Seaton, Stretton, Tinwell, Tixover, and Whitwell ; in
^5 R. P. Brereton, ' Some Characteristics of Rutland Churches,' in Rutl. Mag. i, 16. '* In the nave arcades pointed arches occur only at Glaston and Hambleton, in the first case apparently a later reconstruction in that form. *' It occurs in forty-one churches.
xxxviii
INTRODUCTION
the towers at Brooke and Hambleton ; and in one or other of the arcades at Ashwell, Ayston, Barrowden, Braunston, Burley, Caldecott, CUpsham, Edith Weston, Greetham, South Luffenham, Preston, Ridlington, Stoke Dry, and Whissendine. Some of this work is late in the century, as at Cottesmore and North Luffenham, and much of it is plain in character, with cylindrical piers and moulded capitals ; but piers with engaged shafts are found at Exton and Stretton, and capitals with stiff-stalk or more natural foliage occur at Barrowden, Great Casterton, Exton, North Luffenham,^* Ryhall, Stretton, Tinwell, and Tixover.
A characteristic feature of this period in Rutland is the open bell-turret of stone on the western gable of the nave, remaining examples of which occur at Little Casterton, Essendine, Manton, Pilton, Stretton, and Whitwell.®' The turrets differ in design, but all are constructed to hold two bells. Another characteristic of the 13th century in the county is the late retention of the semicircular arch,®° both in arcades and doorways. The arches are of this shape in arcades at Barrowden (chancel). Great and Little Casterton, Clipsham, Edith Weston, Empingham, Manton, Preston, Seaton, Stretton, Tixover, and in doorways at Barrowden, Braunston, Wardley, and Whitwell. The towers and spires of Langham and Ryhall and the beautiful bell-chamber stage of the tower at Ketton are excellent examples of the earlier part of the century, while those of Cottesmore and Seaton belong to its later years (c. i 280-1 300), a period in which a good deal of reconstruction was carried out in other parts of the county.®' The plain square-headed windows at Tixover are apparently original i 3th-century work.
The period of reconstruction extended well into the 14th century, no fewer than thirty-seven®- churches in the county showing work of some kind of this period. Several churches were so extensively remodelled as to assume externally in a great measure the appearance of 14th-century buildings, as at Ashwell, CUpsham, Glaston, South Luffenham, Oakham, Preston, Uppingham and Whis- sendine. At Langham less work of this century survives, but the nave arcades, chancel arch, and porch are of the period. In many of the churches the ball- flower ornament is used with some profusion, as in windows at Ashwell and Clipsham, and the window tracery is generally very good, new windows being then freely inserted. Probably the advance of education given by the priests of the chantries founded about this time, and the resulting capacity to read the services, were reasons for this enlarged window space and the generally increased light in the churches of the 14th century, a practice carried still further in succeeding years. To this century also belong many of the fine towers and spires of the county, as at Barrowden, Caldecott, Edith Weston, Empingham, Exton, Greetham, Liddington, South Luffenham, Oakham,®^ Preston, Uppingham, and Wardley ; all these have spires. Western towers of
** Beautiful well-developed foliage in south arcade.
** There was also one on the old church at Bisbrooke, and evidence exists of others at Great Casterton and Ridlington and perhaps at Braunston and Wing. At Tickencote the bell-turret (for two bells) was on the east gable of the old nave.
*" Brereton, op. cit. 18.
•1 As at Caldecott and Lyndon ; the south transept at Langham and the north chancel arcade at Oakham date from this time.
" Including St. John's Hospital chapel, Oakham ; or thirty-eight if the detached fragment of the old church at Pickworth is reckoned.
*' Oakham tower derives from Grantham, and Whissendine from Oakham.
xxxix
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
this period without spires are found at Ayston, Burley, Teigh, Thistleton, Whissendine, and Wing/* and there is other good work in the chancels of North Luffenham and Liddington. The beautiful 14th-century spire at Ketton surmounts an earlier central tower ; the spires at Empingham and South Luffenham are crocketed.
\\ ork of the i 5th century is largely confined to the insertion of windows, the remodelling of parts, the addition of clearstories, and other structural changes. At Langham and Oakham many beautiful windows were introduced and new parapets erected, while at Whissendine, in addition to new windows in the aisles, a lofty clearstory was built. At Empingham the north transept was remodelled and a new clearstory was erected, and at Liddington the nave was rebuilt, as were the chancels at Egleton, Ryhall, and Tinwell. Other work ot the period includes the western towers at Belton, Braunston, Great Casterton, and Ridlington, the clearstories at Little Casterton and Ketton, and the construction in its present form of St. John's Hospital chapel at Oakham. In all, work of this period occurs in twenty-one churches.
To the earlier part of the i6th century may be assigned the vestry at Oakham and the north porch at Stoke Dry, but the interesting remodelling of Brooke church took place late in the century.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries made little difference to the county, for the only monasteries were those of Brooke, always poverty-stricken and neglected, and the alien cell at Edith Weston, which was also allowed to fall into disreputable condition and by the end of the 14th century had been sold to the Carthusians of St. Anne's, Coventry. At neither of these are there any substantial remains of the priory buildings.®®
We learn from the Archdeacons' Visitations of the 17th century that the state of the churches and parishes was at a low ebb — windows broken and daubed up with plaster, communion vessels damaged and wanting, bells stolen, and irreverence of every kind practised, but some work of the period is found — e.g. the south transept at Stretton and the south porches at Caldecott, Greetham, and Stoke Dry. Normanton church was rebuilt in 1764, Teigh (except the tower) in 1782-84, the nave of Tickencote in 1792, and the chancel of Manton in 1 796.
The 19th century, in Rutland as elsewhere, was a period of much church restoration, in some cases (e.g. Exton) of so extensive a character as to amount almost to a rebuilding. New churches replaced the old at Pickworth in 1821 and at Bisbrooke fifty years later, and during the century the chancels at Burley, Caldecott, Edith Weston, Essendine, Hambleton, Market Overton, Pilton, Ridlington, Uppingham and Wing were entirely rebuilt, and at Thistleton all except the tower. At Normanton the i 8th-century fabric, to which a west tower and portico had been added in 1826, was replaced by a new building in the classic style in 1911.®® Barrow chapel, in Cottesmore parish, was built about 1830 on or near the site of a former chapel destroyed in 1660,
Of the greater churches the most notable are Oakham, Langham, Whissen- dine, Exton, Empingham, Ketton, Liddington, North Luffenham, and Seaton, all of which, in the words of Mr. Brereton, are ' admirable as whole
" Wing formerly had a spire. «^ V.C.H. Rutl. i, 164.
^ See below, p. 126.
xl
INTRODUCTION
buildings.'*' Of these Oakham is the largest, though exceeded by others as regards length of nave and chancel. At North Luffenham the length of the chancel is 47 ft. 6 in., and in five other churches over 40 ft., while in twelve the length of the nave exceeds 50 ft. Other churches, though less in size, are scarcely less interesting by reason of individual features or on account of the antiquarian problems they present. In the smaller buildings the length of the chancels averages about 22 ft. and that of the naves 30 ft. At Tixover the nave (26 ft. 6 in.) is shorter than the chancel.
The prevailing type of plan is that of chancel and aisled nave, with porch and western tower. This is found, with variations, in thirty-eight churches, in eighteen®* of which the tower is surmounted by a spire. In five**® there are transeptal chapels on both sides of either the nave or chancel, and in three'" on the south side only, but the true cruciform transeptal plan is found only at Ketton. Another type of plan is that already mentioned, where a bell-turret takes the place of a tower at the west end.'^ At Glaston the tower is between the nave and chancel, but there are no transepts.
At Ryhall are considerable traces of a 15th-century anchorage, which stood against the west wall of the north aisle of the nave.
Arrangements for medieval ritual are found in most of the churches, not only in the chancels (where old) but also in aisles and transept chapels. Good triple sedilia occur at Empingham (13th century), Seaton (late 13th century), Glaston (14th century), Liddington (14th century), and South Luffenham (14th century) ; with two seats at Barrowden, Caldecott, North Luffenham, and Ryhall ; and single seats at Preston and Wing."
Piscinse remain in thirty-eight churches, but not always in the chancels. There are six at Empingham and five at Oakham. Interesting examples occur in the south aisles at Belton and Morcott. The rectangular form of basin is not uncommon. There are double piscinse at Ashwell and Emping- ham, and at Stretton a double-arched recess with a single bowl. At Empingham, Liddington, and Seaton the piscina and sedilia form a single architectural composition. Floor drains are found at Little Casterton (two) and Whitwell."
At Little Casterton and St. John's Chapel, Oakham, medieval altar slabs have been recovered and set up, while one at Whitwell is in use as a gravestone.
Low-side windows are found at Great Casterton, Essendine, Liddington, North Luffenham, Whitwell, and Wing ; that at Essendine (now blocked) takes the form of a large quatrefoil set within a square frame.
There are clearstories in thirty-nine churches, mostly of 14th and 15th- century date, but at Great Casterton the 13th-century clearstory, with circular windows, remains, and one window of similar character at Empingham has survived.
^^ Rutl.Mag.i, 13.
** Or twenty-one if the short ' spires ' at Braunston, Hambleton, and Liddington be reckoned. " Empingham, Exton, Langham (originally), Oakham, and Whissendine (chancel). '" Edith Weston, Greetham, and Market Overton.
'"■ Of the six churches of this type, two — Manton and Stretton — have transeptal chapels. '^ The sedilia at Ashwell and Exton are over-restored or modern. ^ One at North Luffenham (north aisle) is modern.
xli
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
Sanctus bell turrets over the eastern gable of the nave occur at Caldecott and Manton.^*
There are good medieval iron hinges on the south doors at Barrowden and Great Casterton.
Upper chambers over porches are found at Langham, Manton, Ryhall, and Stoke Dry (north) ; in another at Cottesmore, rebuilt with the porch, the floor was omitted.
The fonts are often of a rather plain character, none of the bowls having figure sculpture, but some are panelled and moulded. Of thirty-six fonts which are definitely medieval about half can be assigned to the i 2th and 13th centuries, and seven or eight to the 14th century. Of these the earlier are the most interesting, the best examples being at Lyndon (archaic animal sculpture), Clipsham, Great Casterton (unmounted), Egleton, Braunston, Brooke, Oakham (intersecting arcade), Whitwell, Belton, Caldecott, Manton, Greetham, and Tickencote. Of 14th-century fonts the best are those at Exton, Ketton, Langham, South Luffenham, and Whissendine ; the only good i 5th-century example is at Burley. At Cottesmore the early 13th-century base has rudely carved representations of the Crucifixion and an abbot in benediction, but the bowl is a century later. The remarkable font at Market Overton is of composite character, its upper part perhaps fashioned from a late i 2th-century capital. At Teigh (in addition to a modern font) there is an 18th-century vase-like mahogany bowl attached by a brass arm to the altar rail.
Little is left in the way of furniture and woodwork. The roofs, where old, are almost everywhere of low pitch and plain in character, and are mostly of late 15th, or early 16th-century date. The best are at Little Casterton, North Luffenham, Oakham, Ryhall, and Whissendine.
Medieval chancel screens remain in position only at Liddington and Stoke Dry, and the lower parts of others at Little Casterton and South Luffenham, all of the i 5th century. At Egleton the screen is now in front of the tower arch. At Whissendine (south transept) is an early 16th-century screen from the old chapel of St. John's College, Cambridge, and at Glaston portions of a i 5th-century screen have been used up in the pulpit and desk.
At Brooke the interesting late Elizabethan screens and pews in the chancel and oak seating in the nave are still in use.
There are Jacobean oak pulpits at Brooke, Cottesmore, Empingham, Greetham, North Luffenham, Morcott, Uppingham, and Whitwell, some much restored. The chapel at Barrow possesses a good 18th-century pulpit.
At Liddington the 17th-century arrangement of the communion rails surrounding the table on four sides is preserved, though the table is now placed on the east side of the space thus enclosed. There are also 17th-century communion tables at Tickencote (chancel), and in six other churches in different parts of the buildings.'^ At Manton is a pillar alms-box dated 1627.
Teigh preserves its 18th-century internal arrangements, with pews facing north and south, and pulpit at the west end above the doorway ; there
'^ The small upper opening in the bell-turret in the same position at Tickencote, demolished in 1792, may have been for a sanctus bell.
'* Belton (aisle), Exton (south transept), Lyndon (vestry), North Lufienham (south aisle), Morcott (tower), and Whissendine (south transept).
zlii
INTRODUCTION
are 18th-century communion tables at Empingham (north transept) and Pickworth. At Pickworth the early 19th-century three-decker pulpit is retained.
There are stone wall benches at Brooke, Little Casterton, Pilton, and Tixover, and beautiful coffin-lids, mostly of 13th-century date, are found at Little Casterton, Empingham, Glaston (14th century), Hambleton (14th century), Liddington, Lyndon, Manton, and Whissendine. There are stone coffins at Braunston and Market Overton.
Figure brasses are rare, occurring only at Little Casterton (1381, a fine example), Liddington (i486, and another of 15th-century date, re-used in 1530), and at Braunston (1596) ; there are inscribed brass plates of some interest at Ashwell, Manton, and North Luffenham (Archdeacon Johnson, 1625).
Monuments of considerable interest are to be found in several of the churches. At Great Casterton and Seaton are mutilated 13th-century effigies, and effigies of later date occur at Ashwell (one of wood, another of alabaster), Burley (c. 1500), and Tickencote (wood, 1363). Of structural monuments the fine series of memorials to members of the Harington, Noel, and other families at Exton claims first mention ; they comprise nine monuments ranging in date from c. 1379 to 1790, one of them a good example of the art of Grinling Gibbons. Next in importance, and not less in interest, are the three Digby monuments at Stoke Dry (1496 to 1590), while of earlier date are a 14th-century table tomb with civilian male figure at South Luffenham, and another with incised cross (c. 1400) at Manton ; good mural monuments with one or more effigies are found at Barrowden (1588), Tinwell (161 1), Ridlington (16 13-14), Brooke (1619), and Tixover (1623).
Floor slabs with incised figures occur at Ashwell (1480), Langham (i 532), and Belton (1559).
A fair amount of stained glass of 14th-century date is found at North Luffenham (figure and armorial), and glass of the same period occurs at Little Casterton (grisaille), Whitwell, and Wing (a roundel). Glass of the 15th century occurs in the north transept at Empingham (chiefly armorial), and fragments at Ayston, Ketton, Liddington, Stoke Dry, and Tickencote, and there is also some old glass from elsewhere at Clipsham and Tixover.''
Of the many wall paintings formerly in Rutland churches the principal remains are at Braunston (Mass of St. Gregory), Essendine, Liddington (a Doom), and Stoke Dry (St. Andrew, St. Christopher, St. Edmund), while traces of coloured mural decoration remain in a fair number of churches : Great and Little Casterton, Empingham, Uppingham, and Whitwell. There were formerly representations of St. Christopher at Edith Weston, Ridlington, and Seaton ; a Doom at Wing ; and a Temptation in Eden at Caldecott.
Scratch dials are found at Braunston, Ketton, South Luffenham, Lyndon, Stretton (on tympanum), and Stoke Dry.
Ancient churchyard crosses have almost entirely disappeared, the muti- lated shaft at Empingham and a socket base at Lyndon alone remaining. In the churchyard at Braunston is an early carved stone figure of the type known elsewhere as ' Sheela-na-gig.'
There are dug-out chests at Brooke, North and South Luffenham, and
'* The glass at the Bishop of Lincohi's house at Liddington is referred to above, p. xxxii.
xliii
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
Empingham ; at Stoke Dry a bier dated 1694 ; and a fine display of funeral banners and armour at Exton. The Royal Arms, mostly painted panels, are found in eleven churches, but none is earlier than George II.
There are medieval bells (earlier than i6th century) at Ayston, Langham, Preston, Teigh, Tixover, and Whitwell, but none is dated. Bells of 16th- century date, mainly from the Leicester foundry, occur at Ayston, Barrowden, Braunston, Glaston (1598), South Luffenham (1593), Morcott, Seaton (two, 1597), Wardley, and Wing."
Of pre-Reformation church plate only one piece survives in the county, at Preston: — a silver-gilt paten, without date letter, but c. 1490-1500, with a Manus Dei in the centre. Elizabethan cups and patens are still in use at Ayston, Barrowden, Braunston, Egleton, Essendine (cup only), Exton, Glaston, Hambleton, Manton, Market Overton, Oakham, Pilton, Ridlington, Seaton, and Whitwell." Plate of i jth-century date is more widely distributed, being found in twenty-nine churches. At Egleton an i 8th-century porringer takes the place of a flagon.
" The bells of the county are exhaustively dealt with in North's Ch. Bells of Rut!. (1880). '" Of these, four date from 1569-70, and seven from 1570-71. See R. C. Hope, Ch. Plate in Rutl. (1887).
xl:
IV
COUNTY OF RUTLAND
The origin of the county of Rutland has already been traced so far as can be ascertained from the evidence available.' The district which the county now covers, having been forest land, was of late settlement. The types of villages, laid out round a green, and the prevalence of pasture land are indicative of a forest area. The county was afforested land in the time of Henry I, but the forest being destroyed during the ' anarchy ' of Stephen's reign, Henry II reafforested it. Henry III, by a mistake in the terms of a writ for perambulation, proposed to disafforest the lands that his grandfather (Henry II) had afforested. On discovering the error, however, in 1227 he ordered proclamation to be made that the county should remain forest.^ Leyfield Forest, on the west side of the county, is a survival of the Forest of Rutland, and remained forest into the 17th century.'
On account of the nature of the land, the formation of the county was gradual. Rutland can scarcely be said to have been a county in 1086, when the return for what is called Rutland is entered in the Domesday Book as subsidiary to Nottinghamshire and consisted only of the Hundreds of Alstoe and Martinsley* (including the Soke of Oakham). There was no earl until Edward Plantagenet was created Earl of Rutland in 1390, a date when an earldom, in the old sense, had lost its connexion with its county. Although William de Albini, a justice of the forest, is usually given as sheriff of the county in 1129-30, yet his return to the Exchequer is more in the nature of a bailiff's account than that of a sheriff, and occurs amongst other accounts which cannot claim to be those of shrievalties.® Rutland, however, undoubtedly had a sheriff by 1 1 54, for in 1 1 55 Richard de Humez, constable of Normandy, owed for the farm of the previous year and is described as sheriff. Never- theless the collections of the Danegeld from Alstoe and Martinsley Hundreds still belonged to the shrievalty of Nottingham,*^ and that of another part, possibly Wrandike or East Hundred, to the shrievalty of Northampton,'' while the remainder was returned by the sheriff of the county.* This arrange- ment remained as long as the Danegeld was collected (c. 1162). Escheats also appear to have belonged to the shrievalty of Nottingham; at all events an escheat in Wrandike Wapentake appears to have been so claimed in 1 169, but it was returned by the sheriff of Rutland in 11 77.* Further,
^V.C.H. Rutl. i, 134-6.
* Rot. Lin. Claus. (Rec. Com.), ii, 169. » Wright, Hist, of Rutl. 76. *V.C:H. Rutl. i, 138.
* Pipe R. 31 Hen. I (Rec. Q)m.), 134. Hugh de Port was addressed in the position of a sheri6F in 1087-92 (Dugdale, Mon. Angl. i, 301-2).
« V.C.H. Rutl. i, 138 ; Pipe R. 2, 3, 4 Hen. H (Rec. Com.), p. 39 ; Pipe R. Soc. v, p. 33. ' Pipe R. 2, 3, 4 Hen. H (Rec. Com.), p. 41 ; Pipe R. Soc. v, p. 8.
* Pipe R. 2, 3, 4 Hen. H (Rec. Com.), p. 42 ; Pipe R. Soc. v, p. 10.
* Compare entries Pipe R. Soc. xiii, p. 65 ; xxvii, p. 53 ; xiviii, p. 72, and later vols.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
according to the Hundred Rolls, the county was not made entirely inde- pendent of Northamptonshire until the time of King John,'" and in 1202 the Hundreds of Alstoe, Martinsley and East gave their verdicts before the justices sitting at Northampton, but these verdicts arc entered separately from those of Northamptonshire." Wrandike Hundred does not seem to have made an appearance before the justices. The independence of the men of Rutland in this respect was assured by Henry III in 1227, when he directed that they should not be bound to plead before the justices in eyre outside their county."
In 1204 King John made a grant of the county to his queen Isabel," but resumed it in 1205 and granted it at a fee farm rent of ^10 to Ralph de Normanville and his heirs.'* Ralph had been sheriff from 1202, and continued to take the profits of the county until 1 209. He and his sons forfeited their lands, and although they were pardoned by Henry III, they did not recover the county of Rutland, which was given back to Queen Isabel. After the death of the queen in 1246, Henry III apparently granted the county with the shrievalty to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1252, who either acted as sheriff or appointed a deputy.'' The county with the Hundreds of Martinsley, Alstoe and East and the shrievalty were specifically granted in 1312 to Margaret widow of Piers de Gaveston.'®
Henceforth the office of sheriff followed the descent of the Barony of Oakham (q.v.)'^ until the death of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, in 1397. After this date the sheriff was appointed in the usual way by the Crown.
With regard to the hundreds of the county, Alstoe Hundred was said in 1086 to be half in Thurgarton Wapentake and half in Broxtow Wapentake (co. Notts),'* a connexion, as Prof. Stenton points out, which must have been purely fiscal.'® The Hundreds of Alstoe and Martinsley became known as ihe Wapentake of Rutland. The remainder of what was later the county formed, about 1075, the two Hundreds of Witchley (Hwicceslea) East and Witchley West,^° and in 1086 comprised the single Wapentake of Witchley (Wiceslea) in Northamptonshire.^' The two Witchley Hundreds, which had become East Hundred and Wrandike Hundred, were probably attached to Rutland late in the reign of William II or early in that of Henry I.*^ Maud, the first wife of Henry I, was dowered with lands here, and she, who died in 1 1 18, gave Barrowden, Luffenham, Seaton and Thorpe, which then may have represented the Hundred of Wrandike, to Michael de Hanslope." Michael had his soke at Barrowden, from which probably the hundred originated, and Henry II confirmed the hundred to William Mauduit, his
" Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 49.
^Assize R. 1202 (Northants Rec. Soc), pp. 18-20.
" Cd. Pat. R. 1225-32, p. 142,
» Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), p. 128.
" Ibid. 149.
•* Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 49, 50, 53, where it is stated that Heniy III gave the county to R. Earl of Cornwall and the Earl's sheriff is referred to, but the grant of Oakham (q.v.) to the Earl does not include these liberties.
" Cat. Pat. R. 1307-13, p. 497.
" CaJ. Chart. R. 1341-1417, 330.
"F.CJi.Rutl. 1,1^8.
'^ F.CM. Notts, i, 21^.
*• F.CJI. Northants, i, 259, 296, 297.
*» F.CJI. RutL i, 124 ; Pipt R. Soe. ix, p. 65.
** They were separate hundred* in 1 1 66 (^Pipe R.Soc.ix,p. 65) .
"Add. MS. 28024, fcl- 49.
COUNTY OF RUTLAND
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VCALDECOTlj-
Map of the Hundreds of Rutland
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
chamberlain, grandson of Michael de Hanslope, * when my men came to Woodstock' (July 1163).^* Since this date the descent of the Hundred of Wrandike has followed that of Barrowden (q.v.).
The East Hundred of Witchley Hundred, with Martinsley and Alstoe Hundreds, apparently remained in the Crown until King John in 1205 granted the county to Ralph de Normanville; in any case Henry III, in 1252, seems to have granted the county with the three hundreds to his brother Richard, King of the Romans. The later descents of these hundreds will be found under the separate accounts of them (q.v.).
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF
|
OAKHAM |
BROOKE |
LANGHAM |
|
BELTON |
CLIPSHAM |
WARDLEY |
|
BRAUNSTON |
EGLETON |
Until the 15th century Oakham Soke was included in Martinsley Hundred. From an early date, however, it had its separate jurisdiction, which arose no doubt on account of its connexion with the Saxon royal house, as dower land of Saxon queens down to Edith, queen of Edward the Con- fessor. In 1428 the two hundreds were called the Hundred of Oakham with Martinsley, but by 1684 the Soke had been separated from Martinsley Hundred. The descent of the Soke has been traced under Oakham Barony (q.v.), and Mr. Wilfred Henry Finch is now owner. The court of the Soke was apparently held at the Castle.
*« Add. MS. 28024, fob. 22, 49 d, 50.
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
OAKHAM
OAKHAM
Ocheham (xi cent.), Hocham (xii cent.), Ocham (liii cent.), Okham (xiv cent.), Okeham (xv to xvii cent.), Oakham (xviii cent.).
Until 1894 ^^^ parish of Oakham consisted of three townships : Oakham Lordshold, comprising 2,010 acres ; Oakham Deanshold with Barleythorpe, con- taining some 1,235 acres ; and Gunthorpe, covering 500 acres. In 1894, under the Local Government Act, Deanshold and Lordshold with Gunthorpe were united to form the civil parish of Oakham, and Barleythorpe was made a separate civil parish. The present parish of Oakham has an area of 2,250 acres. It lies in the fertile vale of Catmose, the hills on the west side rising to over 600 ft. above Ordnance datum. Here are the sources of three small brooks which, flowing through the parish from west to east, join the main stream of the Gwash below Hambleton. The land is mostly pasture, rather less than a quarter being arable.
The market town of Oakham lies at the head of the Vale of Catmose, midway between the market towns of Melton and Stamford, and forms the natural centre for a small group of villages. The town grew up under the castle, to the south of which the Market Place and High Street seem to mark the limits of the original settlement. The older houses are of local marlstone with Ketton dressings and Collyweston slates, but there was a good deal of building in brick in the late
are not uncommon. One still stands in the High Street, and another, No. 19, Northgate, apparently of early 17th-century date, is a stone-built house with four-centred doorway and two-story mullioned bay windows. In the wall of No. I, Dean's Street is a panel inscribed ' s.c. 1682,' and No. 31, Gaol Street, a rectangular ironstone building, formerly a Quaker meeting-house, now used as a Church Room, bears a panel inscribed ' r.h. 1714.' On another house in the same street is ' M B. 1809.' At the corner of High Street and Gaol Lane stood the old Gaol and Bridewell, parts of which are still shown. In 181 1 the New County Gaol was built on a site in Station Road, but owing to lack of inmates it was closed in 1878.^
The oldest and most in- teresting example of domestic architecture in the town, how- ever, is a house on the south side of High Street (No. 34) known as Flore's House, which was no doubt the home of the Flore family that occupied an important position in the town in the late middle ages. William Flore was controUer of the works of the castle in 1 373-1 380 and sheriff of Rutland.^ His son, Roger
Flore or Flowik. Ennineei a cinqfoil er- mine.
Oakham : Flore's House
1 8th and early part of the 19th century. The houses then erected, a considerable number of which remain, are generally of simple but good design, with stone- slated or tiled roofs. Houses with thatched roofs
Flore, was one of the county members in several Parliaments from 1394 ^"^ H'4> ^""^ "''^ elected Speaker of the House of Commons in the four Parlia- ments of 1416, 1417, 1419 and 1422.^ He added
' Rutt. Mag. iv. 111. • Mini. Accts. (P.R.O.), Gtn. Ser. bdle. 964, no. 5 ; Col. Pat. R. 1 37i>74,
p. 290; 1377-81, p. 568; Cat. Close R. 1385-89, p. 147. William Flore was build-
ing in West Bargate in 1373 (Mins. Accts. loc. cit.). • Dirt. Nat. Biog.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
considerabljr to the family estates in Oakham,* and by his marriage with Katherine daughter of William Dalby became patron of the Hospital of St. John and St. Anne (q.v.). It is with him that local tradition associates Flore's House. His descendants remained as landholders in the town certainly until the death of Richard Flore in 1540,* shortly after which date the Flore property in Oakham was sold.*
The house retains a good 13th-century pointed entrance doorway of two moulded orders on jamb- shafts with moulded capitals and bases, and label with head-stops, and the middle part of the build- ing, which was occupied by a hall about 33 ft. long by 21 ft. wide,** is perhaps in the main of the same period though altered and subdivided. The house faces east and the entrance is at the end of the screens. In the wall of the screens there remains a projecting
end, and all that part facing the street is modern. In the Melton Road there is a good 18th-century house (No. 40) with a straight symmetrical front of two stories and an attic with dormer windows. In the middle of the ground floor there is a doorway with a semicircular coved canopy, over which is a panel vrith the initials and date ™,. On the first floor are seven windows. The front is stuccoed and has stone dressings and drafted quoins.
Catmose, lying between the Stamford and Upping- ham roads, was largely rebuilt and the extensive gardens were laid out by the Rt. Hon. G. J. Noel, for many years M.P. for Rutland. Adjoining is the Riding School of the Rutland Fencibles, a force raised by the Earls of Nottingham and Gainsborough at the beginning of the 19th century. Near by, too, is a handsome 18th-century house known as 'Judges
nlif:!!
Oacbam : The Bitttek Cross
lavatory basin, perhaps of 14th-century date, in the centre of which is a female head, with the drain holes on either side ; there is a small staple, probably for a towel, at the apex of the arched recess. The build- ing was much altered towards the end of the 15th or early in the i6th century, to which period the project- ing end wings apparently belong. On the ground floor of the north wing are two moulded square- headed windows. The upper floor and end gables are plastered, and the roofs are covered with stone slates and tiles. In 1914, for purposes of street widening, the building was shortened at the north
« Cat. Pal. R. 1370-74, P- 3'9 i '39^ 1401, p. 509; Feet of F. Rutl. Mich. « Ric II, no. 2« i Trin. 7 Hen. IV, no. 4 ; P.C.C. 69 LuSenham.
* Earlf Chan. Proc. bdle. 7, no. 108 ; Feet of F. RutL Mich. 34 Hen. VI, no. 16; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), zl, 23 ; zlri, 6 ; zlviii, 71.
*Jamet Wright, Hitt. Antiq. Rutl.
1684-87, p. 97. For pedigree of Flore, see Whitwell and Fiiit. Rutl. 1618-19 (Harl. Sot), 19, 30.
** Part of the roof u naible on the lecond Boor, but it i> apparently of later date.
' A beam it carried from pott to poit and lupported hj ttraight itrutt. There are cxured ttruti from the poitt to the principal laften. The height to the
6
Lodgings,' which masks a much earlier building. In the old castle park are the Lodge (Mrs. McNeile) and the modern Vicarage, while in Station Road is Deanscroft (Mr. J. Baird, late M.F.H.).
The stocks and Butter Cross form a picturesque group in the Market Place. The cross is an octagonal structure with high-pitched stone-slated roof sup- ported by a massive central stone pier and by eight upright timber posts on stone bas.es.' It is of late l6th or early 17th-century date, and about 36 ft. in dia- meter.* The octagonal central shaft stands on three steps and is surmounted, above the roof, by a four-
eavet it about 6 ft. 6 in. The roof it covered with Collfwetton ilatet.
* Sketch of Butter Crott in 1608 io Rutl. Mag. iii, i;;. The central ihaft it 3 ft. in diameter, and there it a cobbled tpace of about 9 ft. all round between the lower ttep and the supporting potti. The diameter of the ttcpt it about 16 ft. 3 in.
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
OAKHAM
sided sundial and vane. The steps form the seat for the stocks, which are still in position and have five holes. The position of the old market shambles is marked by a tree planted at each corner.
There were formerly four crosses besides the Market Cross. Those which stood at the junction of Church Street and High Street and of Finkle Street and Northgate Street evidently marked a boundary. Those which stood at the bottom of Mill Street and the west end of Northgate Street, where the North Gate was situated, may have marked the borough boundary.' At the junction of South Street and Catmose Street was Gibbet Gate. The gallows was at Mount Pleasant and the pillory stood opposite the Crown Hotel at the south end of the Market Place. i"
The market of Oakham is mentioned in 1249, when it belonged to Isabel Mortimer, whose predecessors presumably held it by prescriptive right.^ In 1252 Henry III granted to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, two weekly markets on Monday and Saturday,^ but in 1347 there was apparently only a Saturday market .1^ In 1792 the market was still held on Saturday,** but at the present day there is a weekly market for corn and cattle on Monday. A fair at the feast of the Decolla- tion of St. John the Baptist was held by Walchelin de Ferrers, the lord of Oakham, in the reign of Henry II.*''' In 1252 Henry III also granted to his brother the right to hold the two fairs annually, for three days at the feast of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist and three days at the feast of the Invention of the Holy Cross.'* In 1347 there was only a one-day fair on the feast of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist." It seems to have been the custom at this time to farm the markets and fairs," but in 1385 Richard II, the manor being in his hands, appointed a chief bailiff of the markets and fairs,** and in 1521" the markets and fairs were in the hands of the lord of the manor.
The port-moot which is mentioned in 1373,^" and was still held in 1521,^* appears to have been the precursor of a court of pie-powder^ by which it was replaced in the grant of three fairs made in 1600 by Queen Elizabeth to Sir John Harington.^ These fairs were to be held for two days at the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, at the Decollation of St. John the Baptist, and on the Tuesday and Wednesday in the first week of Lent. The three old fairs are still held on 15 March, 6 May, and 9 September. A pleasure fair is also held in May, and there are cattle fairs held on a Monday in each month except January. Tithes of the fair at the feast of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist were granted to the priory of Brooke by Walchelin de Ferrers,^^ <^m/i. Henry II, and were paid in the 14th century,^ but no tithes appear to have been paid in 1521.^*
No record of a pre-Reformation school at Oakham has been found, but one of the chantry priests may have acted as a schoolmaster. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster paid salaries to schoolmasters from 1563 to 1588, and in 1577 the Warden of the Hospital of St. John and St. Anne also had a school but had no bishop's licence^** In 1584 the sites occupied by the chapels of St. Mary and St. Michael were used by Robert Johnson for his school-house of Oakham School.^ The old school-house, which was restored in 1903, is an oblong building of coursed rubble, lying east and west, with ashlar groins and dressings, stone-slated eaved roof, and coped gable at each end. It is lighted by three large square-headed transomed windows of three lights on each side, those on the south side having hood-moulds. The entrance is at the west end of the south wall, along which runs an inscription in bold letters : ' schola latina CR^cA HEBRAicA A° 1584.' Above, between two of the windows, is ' refecta a° 1723.' There is also a date stone ' 1584' in the west wall. The scheme of internal decoration already alluded to*' was completed in 191 1. The present school-house was erected in 1858, from designs by Sir Sidney Smirke,on the site of the Hospital of Christ, which had for many years served as the old school-house. The dormitories were enlarged in 1866 and the Old Vicarage, used as a sanatorium, was shortly afterwards acquired. Bank House was built in 1884, a school-house for junior boys was added in 1910, and a second boarding house in 1928. At the same time a large science block, six new class-rooms, a library and music-rooms were added, completing the provision for 250 boys. A school chapel, designed by Mr. G. E. S. Streatfeild, who is also responsible for the other additions, was erected in 1924-5 in memory of old boys and masters who fell in the Great War. This fine monument, costing j^i7,ooo apart from the carvings on the west front by Mr. F. W. Sargant, was provided entirely by subscriptions. The architect, while retaining the Gothic style in keeping with the church, has succeeded in producing a building of great dignity and one admirably adapted for school worship.^
Among 15th-century place-names are Newgate, in which William Flore had a house, a messuage called ' le BuUe ' in Estbarregate, Fengate and Haynes Lane, Westbarregate (14th cent.).-'
Gunthorpe, a detached part of the parish to the south-east, was attached to Oakham township in 1316.*' There was formerly a village, but in 1684 a shepherd's cottage was the only dwelling.^* In 1846 there were 8 inhabitants, but only one house beyond Gunthorpe Lodge. It was then said to be a township in the parish of Egleton.^- The district was excepted from the inclosure of the parish of Oakham in 1820.*'
' Rull. Mag. iii, 155-6. One of theie crosses it said to have been like the cross at Liddington, the pedestal of which was carved with cherubim. The remains of it were in 1756 used as a horse block [Gent. Mag. Ixvi, 187).
"» Rud. Mag. iii, 155-8.
" Rot. Rob. Groiseusu (Cant, and York Soc), pp. 139-40.
" Col. Chart. R. i, 392.
'• CaL Inq. ix, no. 56.
'* Royal Com. on Markets and Fairs, App. p. 196.
'•* Wright, op. cit. additions, p. 5.
>» Cat. CbarU R. i, 391.
" Cat. Inq. ii, no. 56.
" Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), Gen. Ser. bdle. 964, no. 2 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 13 Ric II, no. 164.
" Cal. Close R. 1381-5, p. 552 j 1385-9, pp. 218, 536.
"Exch. Trea«. Receipt, Misc. Bks. clxxxi, fol. 6.
" Mins. Accts. loc. dt.
*' Exch. Treas. Receipt, loc. cit.
" Mins. Accts. loc. cit.
"Pat. R. 42Eliz. pt. 16.
«. Wright, loc. cit.
•* Mins. Accts. op. cit. nos. I, 1.
" Exch. Treas. Receipt, loc dt.
"*» Arthur Hawlcy, A translation of a graunte from bis Ma"* to Robert Johnson, clarke, etc. 17.
" V.C.H. Rud. i, 261, 269.
*' Ibid. 269, 270.
»• Bk. of Oakham School (1928).
••Irons' Notes; Cal. Fat. R. 1370-4, p. 319.
"Feud. Aids, iv, 207.
" James Wright, op. dt. p. 67.
••William White, Hist. Gaaettter and Directory L^cs. and RutL 1846.
•' Priv. Act of Pari. I Geo. IV, cap. 25.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
The castle** stands east of the THE CASTLE parish church, to the north of the Market Place. Its descent followed that of the Barony (q.v.). It was not until the 13th century that it was definitely called a ' castle,' being in reality a large fortified manor-house with an earthen bank around it, protected at first by timber and surrounded on all sides by a broad ditch. The earth- works, which comprise two courts and represent a type between the mount castle and the moated residence, have already been described.^ The hall, which stands within the first court, was built by Walchelin de Ferrers at the end of the 12th century. Its architectural details point to a period within the ten years between 1 190 and 1 200; it may, however, have been begun a little earlier, but it was finished before the death of Ferrers in 1 201. It is probable that the wall round the first court, or main enclosure, which has already been referred to,^ was raised about the middle of the 13th century by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, after he came into possession in 1 252. It is difficult to make out a definite date of what remains of the stonework, as the details are of a very plain kind.^ The most interesting feature of the wall is the small round tower, or bastion, which projects from the west curtain, but apart from this there was no serious attempt to provide the wall with flanking defences. The general character of the work, however, appears to be of the 13th century, and it is most likely that Richard was responsible for the fortifying of the place and for its conversion from a manor-house into a castle with a strong wall. In the inquisition which followed the death of Richard in 1272 nothing is said of the state of the buildings. It was, however, kept in good repair throughout the 14th century,^ and in 1308 the king ordered that it should be one of the castles specially fortified and guarded.*"
The entrance to the first court is now from a passage on the north side of the market-place immediately opposite the great hall, through a pedimented gate- way, which is a restoration of that erected by the first Duke of Buckingham early in the 17th century. The position of the hall in relation to the subordinate buildings can only be reconstructed by a comparison with other known buUdings of the time. In 1340 the castle is thus described : ' The castle is walled, and within are a hall, four chambers, a chapel, a kitchen, two stables, a grange for hay, a house for a prison, a chamber for the gatekeeper (Janitore) and a draw-
bridge with iron chains.'** The lord's chambers were at the west end of the hall and the kitchen and offices at the east end, but the position of the chapel is not known. Of the date or plan of these buildings it is impossible to speak with certainty, but it is not unlikely that the hall was originally the one permanent stone structure in the castle, the other buildings being of timber. In the course of time these buildings would be superseded by others of a more permanent nature, but these too have perished and only traces of their foundations are left.
The hall of Oakham Castle, often styled the Shire Hall, is well known as a very beautiful and little spoilt example of the domestic architecture of the late 12th century. It has many points of resemblance with the contemporary hall of Auckland Castle (co. Durham), especially as regards the plan, but at Auckland the building was converted into a chapel in the 17th century and many of its original features lost.*^ At Oakham the changes have been very slight. On plan the hall covers a rectangular space measuring inter- nally about 65 ft. by 42 ft.,** divided by north and south arcades into a middle space, or nave, and side aisles. The aisles are g ft. wide, and the arcades consist of four semicircular arches springing from cylindrical piers. It had the usual internal arrangements of a great hall, with the dais at the west end and the screens at the east, perhaps occupying the whole of the eastern bay. Three doorways, now blocked, which led to the kitchen and offices, still remain in the east wall. Of these the two main doorways are pointed** and have a continuous roll moulding, but the smaller one at the north end has a semicircular arch.** Above it, slightly more to the north, is a small blocked round-headed opening, which led to one of the adjoining upper chambers. The principal entrance was at the lower end by a doorway in the most easterly bay of the south aisle, but in compara- tively recent times this has been moved to the middle of the south wall, where it takes the place of a former window.** The lighting was by windows in the side walls and one in the eastern gable ;*' there was no clearstory.
The building is of rubble throughout, with ashlar quoins and dressings,** and has stone-slated eaved roofs with coped east and west gables to the nave. There are buttresses of two stages at each end sup- porting the arcades. The aisles are under separate lean-to roofs,** in which, on each side, a series of three dormer windows has been inserted.*" The
** Use has been made in the following description of a paper on Oakham Castle by Prof. A. Hamilton Thompson in Rutl. Maz- V, 82.
" V.C.H. Rutl. i, 115, where a pbn is given.
"Ibid. 116.
*• The wall of the enclosure is built of a coarse, ferruginous upper member of the oolite, with mortar made without much lime (C. H. Hartshome in Arcb. Journ. V, 140).
" Mins. Accts. op. cit. nos. I, 5 ; Cal. Pau R. 1370-4, p. 290; 1377-81, p. 568; 1381-5, p. 177; Cal. Inq. Mite, ii, no. 1703.
♦» Cal. Close R. 1307-13, p. 30.
♦' Cal. Ityj. Misc. ii, 1703. Within the walls were two acres of land by estimation ; without the castle ' a gar- den of the yearly value of 81. and preserve with a dyke.'
♦• The hall of Auckland Castle was built by Bishop Pudsey c 1190-95, but like other of his works is somewhat advanced in style. The arches are pointed and spring from clustered piers. The hall was converted into a chapel by Bishop Cosin in 1661-64, when the old roof was removed and a lofty clearstory added. None of the original windows remains. The hall measures internally 85 ft. by 48 ft. ^
" Length on north aide 65 ft. 3} in., on south side 64 ft. 6 in., width at west end 42 ft. 7 in., at east end 43 ft. 3 in. (Sir Henry Dryden's measurements. May 1848).
" Eitemally they have segmental chamfered arches.
" By tradition this opening led into the chapel, but it is unlikely that the chapel would be in this position (cf. J. HoUand Walker, Oakbam CastU, p. 17).
8
*• The doorway is shown in its original position in Buck's drawing of the hall, made in 1730. A window now occupies its place.
*' This window, though much restored, appears to be an original feature. It is round-headed, but of two plain pointed lights. Below it is a blocked 17th-cen- tury square-headed mullioned window of six lights.
**The stone used for dressing is a fine grained shelly oolite from Clipsham (Hartshome, op. cit. 140).
" There is a low unpierced clearstory between the roofs of the aisles and that of the nave.
*" A single dormer window at the west end of the south aisle is shown in the engraving of the hall in Wright's Hist. Rutl. p. 104. It is also shown in Buck's drawing (1730).
Oakham Castle Hall : The Interior, looking West
Oakham Castle Hall ; The Lnterior, looking South-west
Oakham Castle Hall from the Solth-east
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
OAKHAM
K5_5_
□ I 190-1200
El] Modern
walls are plastered internally. The west end^* is filled with wooden court fittings, and until 191 1 the east end was similarly furnished as a civil court, the end walls in each case being panelled. In that year, as a memorial to the Right Hon. G. H. Finch, M.P., whose bust is now placed there, the fittings at the east end were removed and the floor lowered to its original level and flagged.** The building was probably the Moot Hall mentioned in 1375,^' which was then and still is used for holding the assizes and later the quarter sessions, and for other public business of the town and county. There are modern addi- tions on the north side*^ and at the west end.
The arches of the arcades have flat soffits and moulded edges, with a kind of outer order or hood-mould, enriched with dog- tooth on both sides. Towards the aisles the hood has large head- stops, but on the nave side it ter- minates above the piers in large carved figures^ playing musical instruments. The piers have foliated capitals of great beauty, square abaci, and circular moulded bases with plain spurs on low square plinths.*' At the ends the arches spring from corbels*' composed of figures of animals resting on brackets supported by pairs of heads, one pair at the east end, opposite the former doorway, representing a king and queen. The foliage of the capi- tals, with its long stiff stalks and leaves which bend over, has often been compared with that in the quire of Canterbury Cathedral, and is typical of the classical carving which was em- ployed on the Continent*' at this period.*' The lateral windows, though varied in their details, are of one general form. Externally they are double lancets,*" with moulded heads and shafted jambs enriched with dog-tooth ;'i the openings are square topped, the pointed heads having solid spandrels ornamented with
foliage** and simple arcading. Internally the windows are recessed, both lights being under a semicircular moulded rear-arch enriched with dog-tooth, which is continued down the jambs to the floor.*' On the north side the two westernmost windows alone remain ;
10
20
30
40
SO
Scale of Feet
Former extent of Jury Room. North of tKi5 is a more niodem AtJdition
Doonudy iDOve<l here frofn A
Plan of Oakham Castle
Oii^indl pojitlon of doofuiay
of the others, one has been converted into a doorway leading to the jury room and the other blocked.*^ The doorway, now in the middle of the south wall, has a semicircular arch of two moulded orders and hood, the outer order on banded nook shafts with foliated capitals.** Inserted in the wall on each side of the doorway is a carved stone — on the east a
" To the extent of a bay and a half.
" The floor was lowered 10 in. There are now two steps across the hall in the second bay from the east. Formerly only the middle part of the floor, between the wooden fittings, was flagged. The removal of the panelling at the east end revealed the round-headed north-east doorway.
" Mins. Accts. op. cit. no. 5.
** The jury room on the north side has been enlarged, and the petty sessions and county court are now held in it.
•* Of these, two on each side are human figures, the others — over the two eastern piers — being animals.
" The plinths are level with the floor where it has not been lowered. The piers are 24 in. diam.
" Corbels were probably used instead of responds in order to make more room
for the high table at the top and more room for the entry at the bottom of the hall.
" Especially in Burgundy and the Ile- de-France. The contemporary capitals in Edith Weston Church show the same elegance, though not in so high a state of development.
" The sculpture of the heads support- ing the corbels and of the figures which form the stops of the hood-moulds of the arches is of the same classic type. ' The hard, vigorous execution of a new school of craft can be seen in the label stops at Oakham Hall ' (Prior and Gardner, Ftgure Sculpture in Engl. 227).
•** There is no containing arch.
" The dog-tooth is on each side both of the jamb shafts and mid-shafts. The shafts have foliated capitals and moulded bases, but only the mid-shafts remain.
These are circular in the westernmost window of each aisle, but elsewhere octagonal.
" The blank spandrel of the western- most window of the south aisle is apparently modem ; it is shown with foliage in Buck's drawing, where, however, the spandrels of the two middle windows are pierced.
" The rear-arch and jambs of the former window remain unaltered inside the present doorway, and conversely the internal portion of the old doorway is still in its original position.
** The east end of the north wall iui been much tampered with. The west jamb of the easternmost window is exposed.
" The moulded bases shown in Buck's drawing have been replaced by square blocks.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
grotesque animal, on the west a much mutilated figure striding a horse.** Another carved stone with muti- lated seated figure is near the south-east comer. There is a chamfered string-course along the south wall at sill level, but no plinth.
The present roof is modern, though apparently retaining some 17th-century work.*'
The chief officials were the constable of the castle** and the porter or janitor of the gaol.*'
In 1521 the castle was in a ruinous condition ; only the hail had been kept in some state of repair, as the courts were held there.'" In a survey of the lordship of Oakham made in that year there is apparently the earliest mention of the custom by which every peer entering the town does homage to the castle by giving a horseshoe or paying a fine. The models of the horseshoes which were originally attached to the outer door and gates, as shown in Buck's drawing, are now hung inside on the walls of the hall. The horse- shoes vary in size ; that given by George IV as Prince of Wales is very large and hangs at the west end of the hall. The origin of the custom is lost, but it is remarkable that the fines were received by the clerk of the market.'^
The town has never been incorpo- BOROUGH rated, but in the 13th and 14th centu- ries it was a private borough in the hands of the lords of Oakham barony (q.v.). Burgage tenements are mentioned about 1285'^ and still existed in Newgate in 1521." In 1300 there were 29 burgesses in the town,'* and in 1305 Margaret, Countess of GDrnwall, was granted leave to take a reasonable tallage from her tenants in the borough.'* A successful appeal against this taxation was made in 1344 by the itihabitants of Oakham, Langham and Egleton on the ground that Oakham was not a city, borough, nor ancient demesne, and that except on two occasions they had never been tallaged.'* This desire to escape the heavier taxation levied on a borough probably stopped any development of the town to- wards self-government. Nevertheless by comparison with other towns of a similar character it seems probable that the gilds of St. Mary and St. Michael (q.v.), besides their religious and social functions, exercised certain powers for the general welfare of the community. With the dissolution of the gilds, the vestry took over duties of a like nature, such as the provision and charge of the fire engine, buckets and ladders, which were kept in the church, and looked after the rights regarding grass in certain fields, and other matters not directly connected vrith the church." The town is now under the administrative control of the Urban District Council formed in 191 1, and remains under the jurisdiction of the county magis- trates.
"There is a jomewhat •imilar figure, locally known as George and the Dragon, as a finial on the east gable. On the wes' gable is a centaur or sagittary.
" It is simply framed, with four king- post principals over the Bare resting on the wall plate, and three others on corbels and wall-pieces over the piers. The ancient roof was probably semicircular. Hartshome was of opinion that the oldest remaining portions were two beams put up by the first Duke of Buckingham {Areb. Journ. v, l+a).
•• Cd. Pat. R. i370-74> P- 37' ; «37+-77i P- 373; '3«>-85. P- >8°i '485-94, P- *4-
There is a railway station at the west end of the town on the London Midland and Scottish Railway, which was opened in 1848. The now disused Melton Mowbray and Oakham Canal, terminating at Oakham, was completed in 1803.
Among the celebrities connected wdth the town was the Rev. Abraham Wright (1611-1690), who was pre- sented to the vicarage of Oakham in 1645. He was not inducted, as he refused to take the Covenant. After the Restoration he took possession of the vicarage. He published various books, the best known being a Eulogy of Wentworth." His son, James Wright, of the Middle Temple, was the author of The History and Antiquities of Rutlandshire (1684) and of other works. Jeremiah Whitaker (1599-1654), a Puritan and oriental scholar, was master of Oakham School, before becoming rector of Stretton, Rutland (1630), and a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643)." Sir Jeffery Hudson, the well-known dwarf, in the service of Henrietta Maria, was born at Oakham in 1 61 9.*' Titus Oates, who devised the story of the Popish plot and has been described as ' one of the vilest characters in history,' was born at Oakham in 1649.
The town is the centre of the cattle trade of the district. There was formerly a boot factory, owned by a Leicester manufacturer, which is now closed. For a long time the town has been an important hunting centre.
Oakham Lordshold was inclosed in 1820 under an Act of Parliament for the inclosure of the parish, Gunthorpe and Flitteris being excluded from its
,81
The barony" of Oakham, usually known as the lord- ship, castle and manor of Oakham, was formed out of part of the estate in Rutland and Leicestershire which was assigned, according to the 12th-century chronicler Gaimar, to two pre-Conquest queens, Elfthrith, the wife of Edgar, and Emma, the wife first of Ethelred the Unready and then of Cnut.** Edward the Con- fessor assigned it to his queen Edith,** who held all the manor of Oakham (except a canicate) and its five unnamed berewdcks at the time of the Norman Conquest.** Four of the berewicks may doubtless be definitely identified with Langham, Brooke, Egleton, and Gunthorpe ; the fifth was perhaps Knossington (co. Leic.).*^* Edith probably held the manor untO her death in 1075,** but, although the Confessor had granted the reversion to the Abbey of Westminster,*' William the Conqueror retained the manor in his own hands.** William Rufus gave to the abbey the church of Oakham, which probably included the manor later known as
'• Did. Nat. Biog.
'• Ibid.
*' Wright, Hist. Rud. 105 ; Did. !fal. Biog.
»' Priv. Act of Pari, i Geo. IV, cap. zj.
•• Campbell Chart. (B.M.), xv, 3.
" Ettorie da Engles (Rolls Ser.), lines 4135, 4140.
" y.C.H. Rud. i, 167.
^ Ibid. 139, 166-7.
"* cf. Westm. Dom. fol. 594.
" y.C.H. Rud. i, 139, 166-7.
•' Dugdale, Mm. Aizgl. i, 299.
"V.C.H. Rud. i, 139. For the use here of the term • Cherchesocb ' see ibid. p. 133,
provisions.'
LORDSHOLD OR BARONY
•• Col. Inq. Mite, ii, no. 1703 ; Cal. Pal. R. 1391-96, p. 259 ; 1408-13, P- 388 ; Exch. Treas. of Receipt, Misc. Bks. vol. cl, fols. 63-4.
'» Ibid.
" For details and list of the horse- shoes see Pearl Finch, Oakham Coide, pp. 33-39, 49-64 ; Nclea and Queries (Ser. iv), vol. iv, pp. 35a, 469.
" Mins. Accts. op. dt. no. i.
" Exch. Treas. of Receipt, voL clxxxi, fol. 6.
'• Cal. Iiuf. iii, no. 604.
'» CaL Close R. 1302-7, p. 251.
"Ibid. 1343-6, p. 289.
" Rutl. Mag. iv, 188-91.
10
' i V is ^ **o^ ^ -^^
t>, s-i s Vic ^ t
> -^^ ■St s ■^.cs
u
TmkLjbvt 'Deans X ant Tytht 'Banu Barjate— Tret SchnU SimBaU Tilt Ca/kfl The .Market MJtmJljb-it Gtlher Oatt
John Speed's Map of Oakham in i6io
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
OAKHAM
Deanshold and Barleythorpe.™ The remainder of Oakham was held by the Crown until the reign of Henry I, when it was formed into a barony, which seems to have been more or less identical with the former soke, excluding the Westminster holding. The barony or lordship was granted, probably by Henry I, to Henry de Newburgh or Roger his son, who in 1 123 succeeded his father as Earl of Warwick.'*' The overlordship remained with the Earls of Warwick until about the middle of the 12th century, when it was exchanged with the king for Sutton Coldfield (co. Warw.).*i After this time it was apparently held of the Crown. Before 1 130 Oakham was held by the Ferrers family as sub-tenants of the Earls of Warwick.
NtwBuRGH, Earl of Warwick. Cheeky or and azure a cbeveron
F I > R E n s, Earl of Derby. Argent six borse-sboes sable.
Henry son of Walchelin de Ferrers (Ferrieres), the Domesday commissioner, had a son Robert who in 1 1 38 was created Earl of Derby and died in 1139;'^ another son William, who died before 1 1 31,'* was possibly the first sub-tenant of Oakham, as his sons seem to have successively inherited it. Henry, the eldest of these sons, paid danegeld in Rutland, prob- ably for Oakham, in 1 1 30 and died before 1156-7.°'' Hugh, another son, gave Brooke in the soke of Oakham to the canons of Kenilworth with the consent of his brother William. Henry was probably dead at the date of the gift, as Hugh obtained confirmation of the grant from his nephew Walchelin, son of Henry, who was apparently under age and in the custody of [Robert] de Newburgh, his overlord, who also assented to the gift.°^ Walchelin was pardoned a debt to the Crown in 1161." He was holding Oakham in 1166 and in the same year answered for the barony held by the service due from ij knight's fees," which he was still holding in 1196.** He accompanied Richard I on the Crusades and visited him while in captivity. He died in 1 201, leaving two sons, Henry and Hugh, and two daughters, Isabel and Margaret.*' Oakham passed to Henry, the elder son, who forfeited his English
lands on the loss of Normandy in 1204.^ Hugh, to whom his father had given the manors of Lechlade and Longbridge, died in the same year, possibly before his brother's forfeiture, without issue, and these manors passed to Isabel, his eldest sister, the wife of Roger de Mortimer.^' Oakham, however, remained in the king's hands until 1207, when it was granted to Isabel and Mortimer for her life with reversion to the Crown.^*" After the death of Roger de Mortimer in 1215, Isabel married Peter Fitz Herbert.* By her first husband she had a son Hugh de Mortimer of Wigmore, who died without issue in 1227. Isabel continued to hold Oakham until her death in 1252, when, in accordance with the terms of the grant from King John, it reverted to the Crown.'
Henry III in 1252 granted the barony to his brother Richard of Cornwall, King of the Romans, on his marriage with Sanchia of Provence.* He was succeeded by his son Edmund, Earl of Cornwall,^ on whose death in 1300 it was assigned in dower to his widow Margaret de Clare.' The barony consisted of Oakham
Cornwall. Argent a lion gules crowned or in a border sable bezanty.
Clare. Or, ibree cbeverons gules.
(Lordshold), Langham and Egleton held in demesne ; knights' fees in Oakham, Clipsham, Braunston, Pickworth, Belton and Wardley in Rutland, and in Knossington, Thorpe Satchville and Twyford in Leicestershire ; and estates held in socage in Gun- thorpe and Braunston.' Edward II, after the death of the Countess of Cornwall, granted the barony to his niece Margaret de Clare, daughter of Gilbert Earl of Gloucester and Hertford and widow of Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, during pleasure.* In 1 3 17 it was regranted to her and her second husband Hugh de Audley and the heirs of their bodies,* but in 1 3 19 the grant was varied and made for their lives only.i" As a supporter of the Earl of Lancaster, Audley lost his possessions in 1321, and Oakham was granted during pleasure to Edmund, Earl of Kent, the king's brother." On the accession of Edward III, Audley was restored and created Earl
*• Dugdale, Mon. Angl. i, 301, 302 ; V.C.H. Rutl. i, 132 ; it is not clear if the manor was included in the church estate until the reign of Henry I.
•"G.E.C. Complete Peerage, viii, 52-3.
•* Dugdalf, Antiquities of H'artuirk- sbire (1730), ii, 909; Cal. Inq. iii, no.
477-
" Complete Peerage (2nd ed.), i«, 190-1.
•* This branch of the Ferrers family has been carefully traced by Mr. L. C. Loyd in Rutl. Mag. i, 177-85.
" Ptpe R. 31 Hen. I (Rec. Com.), 135 ; Rutl. Mag. i, 179.
•• Stapleton, Rot. Scacc. Norm, il, Uii, cinii ; V.C.H. Rutl. i, ijgj Dug- dale, Mon. Angl. vi, 23;.
•• Pipe R. Soc. iv, 58.
"Ibid. li, 124; Red Bk. 0/ Excb. (Rolls Ser.), 336.
••Ibid. 103.
•• Stapleton, loc. cit. ; Rot. de Oblat. et Fin. 178.
' Hardy, Rot. Norm, i, 143.
'• Rot. de Oblat. et Fin. 209.
"" Hardy, loc. cit. ; Rot. de Oblat. el Fin. 416; Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.) ii, 49; Pipe R. 10 John, m. 5 d ; Red. Bk. of Excb. (Rolls Ser.), 534-5.
« Cal. Pat. R. 1225-32, p. 478 ; Close R. 18 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 10; Cal. Close R.
"34-7. P- 'OJ-
* Bk. of Fees, i, 619; ii, I151; Cal. Close R. 1237-42, p. 472; 1247-51, p. 287 ; Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 49.
* Cal. Chan. R. i, 392.
II
* Cal. Pat. R. 1266-72, p. 640 J Cal. Close R. 1279-88, p. 72; Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 49.
• Cat. Inq. iii, no. 604 j Cal. Close R. 1296-1302, pp. 426, 437. She was the second daughter of Richard Earl of Gloucester and Hertford.
' Cal. Inq. loc. cit. ; vi, no. 70S ; Hen. VII, i, no. 1209 ; ii, no. 207 ; Chan. Misc. bdle. 8, no. 3 ; Cat. Inq. Misc. ii, no. 1703 ; Feud. Aids, vi, 386 ; Eich. Treas. Receipt, Misc. Bits, cl, foU. 63-4.
'Cal. Pat. R. 1 307-' 3. PP- 497. 5°»-
•Ibid. 1313-17, P- 664.
»»Ibid. 1317-21, p. 386.
"Cai. Close R. 1318-23. P- 3°3 i 1327-30, p. 76; Cal. Pal. R. I3»i-i4i p. 144.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
of Gloucester. The Earl of Kent had to surrender the barony, which was recovered by Audley and his wife, who were to hold it for their hves.^ In 1337 the reversion was granted in tail male to William de Bohun, brother of Humphrey Earl of Hereford, on his creation as Earl of Northampton.^^ He obtained possession on the death of Hugh Earl of Gloucester in 1 347,** and died in 1 360.^' On the death in 1 372 of his son Humphrey, who succeeded him, the barony reverted to the Crown under the terms of the grant
AuDLKY, Earl of Gloucester. Guletfretty
B o H n H , Earl of Northampton. Azure a bend argent cotised or tettceen six Uom or with three fierced moleU gules on the bend.
of '337) 39 he left only daughters.^' The barony was at first excepted from the dower assigned to his widow Joan,^' but by a later arrangement she received £()6 13J. I <i. annually, paid apparently orJy from the manor of Langham.'*
In 1 380 Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, half-brother of Richard II, received yearly ;£ioo from the issues of the barony, pending arrangements for his main- tenance,*' and another annuity of ;^ioo was granted to Sir Richard Stury.^" In 1385 the barony was granted to Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, for life,^i but after his attainder and flight from the country, in 1388,^^ it was granted in 1390 to the King's cousin Edward, eldest son of Edmund, Duke of York (d. 1402), on his creation as Earl of Rutland, to hold during the life- time of his father.^' The reversion was granted in fee tail in 1390 to the King's uncle Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, on his marriage with Eleanor, one of the daughters of Humphrey de Bohun.^ The Duke of Gloucester was arrested for conspiracy against Richard II and was murdered while a prisoner at Calais in 1397.^ His nephew Edward, Earl of Rutland, who was implicated in his murder, in the following year obtained a new grant of Oakham in tail male.^' Edward himself fell into disfavour in 1 399 and forfeited the Dukedom of Aumarle, which he had obtained in 1397 ; he, however, received a confirmation of Oakham from Henry IV in 1400.^' A further confirmation in 1 41 2 gave him a life tenancy only.^ He was killed at the battle of Agincourt in 1415.
The Gloucester attainder having been reversed in 1399, the barony had been successfully claimed in 1 41 4 by Sir William Bourchier and his wife Anne, Gloucester's daughter and heir.** Anne was the
BouKCHicK. Argent a cross engrailed gules between four water^bou" gets saiU.
Staffoud, Duke of Buckingham. Or a cbeveron gules.
widow of Edmund, Earl of Stafford, and on her death in 1438 Oakham passed to her son Humphrey Stafford, who was created Duke of Buckingham in 1444.*" His grandson and successor Henry, the second Duke, was executed by Richard III in 1483, and the barony was granted to Henry Grey, Lord of Codnor, in 1484.^' It was, however, restored to Edward, Duke of Buckingham, on the accession of Henry VII in the following year and was in the king's hands during his minority.** On a somewhat vague claim to the crown he was executed in 1521 and all his possessions were forfeited.^ Eleanor, Duchess of Buckingham, continued to hold Oakham as dower until her death in 1530.
No subsequent grants of the barony as a whole were made, although Henry VIII granted Oakham to Thomas Cromwell in 1 53 1 under the old title of the castle, lordship and manor,*' yet the grant seems to have referred only to the manor of Oakham with certain judicial rights in the soke and not to the
LoKD Cbomwill. Azure a fesse between three lions or with a rose gules between two choughs on the fesse.
Harimcton of Ex- ton. Sable frelty argnU
dependent manors and fees of the barony.^ In 1538 the manor was settled on Gregory, Thomas Cromwell's eldest son, and his wife Elizabeth, to hold for their lives, virith remainder to their son Henry.**
"Cdl. Close R. 1317-30, p. 76; Col. PaL R. 1327-30, p. 30; 1338-40, p. 100.
■• Ibid. 1334-38, p. 417 i Chart. R. II Edw. Ill, m. 24.
" Col. Inq. viii, no. 382 ; ix, no. 56 ; Cal. Close R. 1346-9, p. 342.
'• Complete Peerage (2nd ed.), vi, 472.
"Chan. Inq. p.nj. 46 Edw. Ill (lat nos.), no. 10.
" Cal. Close R. 1 369-74, p. 496.
"Cal. Pat. R. 1388-92, p. 354; Cal. Chart. R. y, 332.
'•Ca/. Pat. R. 1377-81, pp. 450-1 ; I38i-5,p. 14.
" Cal. Close R. 1377-81, p. 279.
" Cal. Pat. R. 1385-9, pp. 7, 14, 69.
" G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vi, 165.
" Chart. R. 11-13 Ric. II, m. 6, no. 5 ; Cal. Pat. R. 1388-92, p. 354.
••Ibid. pp. 251, 255-6; Cal. Chart. R. T, 330-1.
»• G.E.C. op. cit. iv, 43.
" Cal. Pat. R. 1396-9, p. 415.
*' Ibid. 1399-1401, p. 204.
•• Ibid. 1408-13, p. 413.
•• Ibid. 1413-16, pp. 269-70.
" Complete Peerage (2nd ed.), ii, 388 ; Cal. Pat. R. 1452-61, pp. 639, 645 ;
12
1461-7, p. 6; Mini. Acct». (P.R.O.), Gen. Ser. ptf. 1 1 17, no. II.
" Cal. Pat. R. 1476-85, p. 433.
" Ibid. 1485-94, p. 54.
" Cal. Inq. Hen. VII, i, no. 1209 ; ii, no. 207 ; Ezch. Treat, of Receipt, Misc. Bks. cl, fols. 63-4 ; L. and P. Hen. yill, iii, no. 2356 (12).
"Ibid, xiu(i), g. 1519(2).
*^ The curious position arose that the new holders of these manors and fees held of the Crown, but that suit of court was still owed to the court of Oakham.
"i. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (u), g- 967 (54)-
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
OAKHAM
In this way it escaped forfeiture at the time of Thomas Cromwell's attainder and execution, and was held by his descendants till 1596, when Edward, 4th Lord Cromwell, sold it to Sir John Harington, afterwards first Lord Harington of Eiton.^'' Lord Harington died in 1613,^ and his widow held the manor till her death in 1620, when it passed by settlement to his elder daughter and heir, Lucy, the wife of Edward, Earl of Bedford,^' who sold it in 1621 to George Villiers, afterwards Duke of Buckingham.^ It then passed to his son, the 2nd Duke, a minor at the time of his father's assassination in 1628. He recovered possession of it before the Restoration and sold it between 1684, when he was described as lord of the manor, and 1687, the date of his death,*! to Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham (d. 1730).''^ Daniel succeeded his cousin as 6th Earl of Winchilsea in 1729, and his descendants the Earls of Winchilsea and Nottingham owned it till the death of George, 9th Earl of Winchilsea, in 1826.''^ Oakham then passed to George Finch of Burley-on-the-HiU.** He was
mm
Vi7
ViLLitKS. Argent a cross gules tiiitb Jiw scallops or thereon.
Finch. Argent a cbeveron betzceen three griffons passant sable.
succeeded by his son the Rt. Hon. G. H. Finch, M.P., whose son Mr. Wilfred Henry Finch is the present lord of the manor.
In 1275 the lord of Oakham claimed to have gallows, pillory and tumbrel in the lordship, as well as the assize of bread and ale.** In 1 3 16 Margaret, Countess of Cornwall, also had infangthief and out- fangthief.** Edward, Duke of York, in 1403 obtained a special confirmation of the jura regalia belonging to the barony : which, besides the above, included waifs, strays, ransomes, fines of trespass and concealments, licences for agreement, aids and certain amercements of sheriffs, chattels of felons, fugitives and outlaws and all other forfeitures, returns of all writs and the execution of the same, rents, services, free customs and all other profits and commodities from and in the county from all tenants and residents.*^
The view of frankpledge was held for the soke of Oakham by Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, and had pro-
bably been claimed by his predecessors.* In 1622 the Duke of Buckingham held the view of frankpledge for the soke.** At the present day a court leet for the manor of Oakham Lordshold is held annually.
The court of Oakham appears to have served both as a court of the barony and the ordinary three weeks' court for the manors of Lordshold and Egleton.*" The sub-tenants of the barony owed suit of court*' at this court.*^ In 1846 the jurisdiction still extended over the old barony and the inhabitants owed suit at the court held at the Castle and paid id., otherwise they were liable to be fined at the pleasure of the clerk of the court.**
In 1252 Henry III granted to PARKS Richard, Earl of Cornwall, the right to
inclose with a ditch and hedge the wood called FLITTERIS at Oakham, which was within the king's forest of Leighfield (q.v.). He had also the right of putting his beasts into the park at will." The deer in the park are mentioned in 1300** and in 1521 it was described as 'within a mile of the town a httle park called Flitteris park containing about a mile and a half and having in it 80 fallow deer.'^° In 1373 the lodge in the park at Oakham is men- tioned." In 1399 Edward, Duke of York, granted the keepership of the park of Flitteris to Roger Flore for life.**
The LITTLE PARK was in existence in 1275, when Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, was presented for im- parking 2 roods of land of the king's highway passing through the Little Park.*'
In 1250 Isabel de Mortimer successfully maintained her right not to have the dogs of the manor of Oakham hambled** and in 1 275 Peter de Neville, the keeper of the forest of Rutland, was presented for fining the men of Oakham and Langham 10 marks because their dogs were not hambled, which they were not bound by custom to have done.*'
Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and his son had free warren in Oakham,*^ and the warrener received 6s. Sd. yearly in 1300.°*
A MILL was held (Ump. Henry II) by Walchelin de Ferrers, who granted tithes from it to the Priory of Brooke.*** Two mills were farmed about 1285.** In 1373 they were in lease, one being a water-mill and the other a wind-mill,** and mills were leased with other tenements in 152 1.**
Deanshold was formerly a towrn- DEANSHOLD ship in the parish of Oakham, separated from Lordshold (q.v.) at a date subsequent to 1086. With Barleythorpe (q.v.) it owed suit to a diflferent view of frankpledge*' and was separated from Lordshold minorially, but its lands and houses lay intermixed both in the town and
»' Feet of F. Rutl. East. 38 Eliz. ; Recov. R. East. 38 Eliz. ro. 6z.
" Complete Peerage (2nd ed.), \i, 321.
•• Chaa. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), cccxcii, 133.
" Feet of F. Rutl. Trin. 18 Jas. I ; Mich. 19 Jas. I.
*' Wright, op. cit. 96.
*• William White, op. dt ; Rutl. Mag.
i.53-
♦» White, op. cjt. ; Recov. R. Mich. 15 Geo. Ill, ro. 289 ; Trin. 45 Geo. Ill ; Priv. Act of Pari. I Geo. IV, cap. 25.
" White, op. cit.
♦• Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 53.
♦* Chan. Misc. bdle. 8, no. 3.
" Cal. Pat. R. 1401-5, p. 323 ; the last item was presunubl/ io right of holding
the shrievalty of the county rather than the castle of Oakham (ibid. 1388-91, pp. 387-8).
"Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), Gen. Ser. bdle. 964, no. 1 ; Cal. Inq. iti, no. 604.
"Add. Chart. (B.M.) 15250.
"Ct. R. (P.R.O.), Gen. Ser. ptf. 195, no. 85.
" C<J. Close R. 1333-7, PP- '9^-9; Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), Gen. Ser. bdle. 964, no. 1 ; Cal. Inq. iii, no. 604.
" Ct. R. loc. dt.
" White, op. cit.
" Pat. R. 36 Hen. Ill, no. 61. There was possibly a park here in 1230 (Close R. 14 Hen. Ill, m. 8.).
" Cal. Inq. iii, no. 604.
13
"Exch. Treas. Receipt, Misc. Bks. cl, fol. 63-4.
" Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), Gen. Ser. ptf. 964, no. 2.
" Cal. Pat. R. 1399-1401, p. 76.
" Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii, 50.
•» Cal. Close R. 1247-51, p. 287.
" Rot. Hund. loc dt.
" Ibid. 53.
•* Cal. Inq. iii, no. 604.
••• Wright, op. dt. additions, p. 5.
** Mins. Accts. op. dt. no. i.
" Ibid. no. 2.
•♦Eich. Treas. Receipt, Misc. Bks. clxxxi, fol. 6.
•' See Lordshold ; Westminster Abbey Roll, 20364.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
fields of Oakham.** Deanshold now belongs to the civil parish of Oakham, Barleythorpe having been formed into a separate civil parish in 1 894. It was inclosed at the same time as Lordshold in 1820.*' The manor of OAKHAM WITH BARLEY- THORPE^ or WESTMINSTER FEE^ in Oakham formed part of a larger estate, known from the 13th to the middle of the i6th century as the CHURCH''^ or RECTORY^ OF OAKHAM, acquired by the Abbey of Westminster some time after 1086.'* Edward the Confessor is said to have granted the reversion of Rutland after the death of Queen Edith to the abbot and monks,^' and there is a charter of 1067 in which William the Conqueror granted them the mother church of Oakham," but though Queen Edith certainly held the manor, it was in the king's hands in 1086, eleven years after her death." The church, however, to which 4 bovates of land were attached, was held by Albert, a Lotha- ringian clerk in the royal service.'* The monks of West- minster then obtained two writs from King William, pos- sibly the Conqueror, but more probably Rufus, grant- ing them the churches and tithes of Rutland, to hold as fully as Albert had held them." The church of Oakham, to which the chapels of the four berewicks of Langham, Egleton, Brooke and Gunthorpe*" were probably already attached, was a valuable possession, but it is clear that at some date the abbey obtained a much larger estate with manorial and other rights in Oakham and Barleythorpe. Although claimed as part of the endowment of the church,*^ the manor was to some extent dependent on the Castle of Oakham (q.v.), since in 1283 Edmund, Earl of Corn- wall, confirmed to the abbot all the liberties and free- customs in Oakham, which he had held in the time of Isabel de Mortimer, and also gave leave for the abbot to build a mill in Oakham.*^ A rent of ip. a year, which was paid to the Castle in 1 300** from Barley- thorpe, in lieu of certain services, was still paid in 15 15.** The confirmauon of Pope Alexander III implies that the abbey held the advowson of the church before 1 178.** Hugh de Grenoble, the
Abbiy of Wist- MiNSTm. Gules Si. Peter's keys crossed saliirevjtse xcilb St. Edward's ring or in the chief.
canonised Bishop of Lincoln (1186-1200), granted the abbey a pension of 30 marks a year from the churches of Oakham and Hambleton," and either Abbot William Postard (1191-1201) or his successor Ralph de Arundel granted 21 marks a year*' from the same churches to the infirmarer for the expenses of the infirmary. From this it seems clear that at the end of the 1 2th century the rector still held the whole estate in Oakham, from which the Abbey only received a pension. James Salvage, who was rector in 1205, agreed to pay a pension of 30 marks from Oakham alone.** He also obtained from King John the privilege of freedom for his tenants in Oakham and its chapelries from suit to the shire and hundred courts, from payment of sheriff's aid and from the royal bailiffs and their officials.** This suggests that he had a considerable number of tenants over whom he had manorial rights. His successor Gilbert Marshall, instituted in 1226 or 1227,'* undoubtedly held the manorial estate as well as the rectory in the more technical sense." According to Flete, the Westminster historian. Abbot Richard de Berkyng (1222-1246) acquired the church of Oakham with the manor of Barleythorpe at his own cost for the use of the abbey and obtained a charter of confirmation from Hugh de Welles, Bishop of Lincoln, and the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln.** The bishop's charter was only obtained after the matter had been brought to the arbitration of the Abbot of Chertsey and a sufficient share of the church property assigned to form a vicarage.** This took place in 1 23 1, and from that date the abbey held the great tithes of the church of Oakham, with its chapel- ries of Langham, Gunthorpe, Brooke, Egleton and pro- bably of Barleythorpe, the township of Barleythorpe, a house on the west side of the church, and all lands belonging to the church in Oakham, excepting one carucate, together with all homages, rents and other services appurtenant to them.** This estate the abbot assigned to the prior and convent of West- minster for the provision of pitances, reserving to himself procurations for two days.** In the 14th century the abbot received {JS ly. ^d. a year from the church of Oakham for the use of his hospice there,** but Abbot Lidyngton (1362-86) granted this for the upkeep of the plate which he had given for the refectory.*' The whole estate was administered by the pitancer or the warden of the church of Oakham, one of the monks, who frequently visited the town
•• Ibid. 2C758C, 20632, 20640, 20665.
•• Priv. Act of Pari, i Geo. IV, cap. 25.
" Westm. Abb. R. 20340, 20350, 20361.
" Ibid. 20732.
" Ibid. 20340, 20350, Z0361.
" Ibid. 20351, 20367, 20368, 20632.
'*F.C.U.Rud.l, 139,140.
" Dugdale, Mon. Angl. i, 299.
'• Cd. Chart. R. iv, 332. The authen- ticity of thi> charter is quettioned, but the facta given are probably accurate.
" r.C.H. Rutl. i, 139.
'• Ibid. 14a A» to Albert the King's clerk, see Round, Commune of LcnJan, 36-8.
'• Dugdale, Mon. AnfL i, 301, 302. Round dates these writs as between 1087 and 1092 (V.C.H. Hants, i, 424).
•• r.C.H. Rutl. i, IJ9; Westm. Domes- day, fol. 595.
*' Ibid, i Col. Close R. 1341-43, p. 296.
" Westm. Dom. foL 601.
" Cal. Inj. iii, no. 604.
"Mins. Acrts. (P.R.O.), Hen. VIII, no. 7239, pt. I.
"Westm. Abb. R. 12732 (notarial instrument of a bull of Alexander III).
•• Westm. Dom. fol. 594. The bishop is only named Hugh, but from the position among the Pitancers' charters, which are arranged chronologically, as well as from its contents, it must be assigned to Hugh de Grenoble and not to Hugh de WeUes.
•' Ibid. fol. 577 d ; John Flete, History of Westminster Abbey (Notes and Docu- ments relating to Westminster Abbey, II), 98. The Westminster Domesday puts Abbot Ralph's charter first. Flete gives Postard as the grantor, whose anniversary was observed at Oakham (Westm. Abb. R.
20355)-
•• Westm. Dom. fol. 649.
••Ibid. foL 594; Westm. Abb. R. 20615.
H
*^Rot. Hug. de Welles (Cant, and York Soc.),U, 138.
•' Westm. Dom. fol. 595.
•* John Flete, op. cit pp. 103, 106.
•• Westm. Dom. fol. S94b, 595 ; Westm. Abb. R. 20619; Rot. Hug. de Welles (Cant, and York Soc), ii, 244. The terms of the arbitration bear out the supposition that the manor of Oakham and Barleythorpe was not originally part of the spiritualities of the church. The anniversary of Bishop Hugh was to be kept at the Abbey, but at Oak- ham sums of money were distributed to the poor on the same day (Westm. Abb. R. 20350).
•* Westm. Dom. fol. 595.
•• Ibid. foL 596 ; Cal. Chart. A. i, 401 ; Customary of St. Augustine, Canterbury, and St. Peter, Westminster (Hen. Bradshaw Soc), u, 75, 77, 115,224.
•• Westm. Abb. R. 20350, 20354.
" Flete, op. cit. p. 135
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
OAKHAM
and superintended the bailiff or reeve.* In 1330 the warden came to supervise the harvest work,** but by 1341* commutation of these services had been introduced in most of the tenants' holdings. In 1 31 2 a lease of the estate was granted for 9 years to the rector of Oakham at a rent of £120 a year,^ but it does not seem to have become the regular custom until some years later to lease the demesne lands,^ and then they seem to have been leased to the various tenants of the manor and not to a farmer.* The granges of the different chapelries, excepting that of Brooke, which was let on lease as early as 1274,* seem to have been in the care of an official called the granger.' He had disappeared by the l6th century and all the granges were let at farm. This led to a more definite separation of the manor and the spiritualities of the rectory before 1515, though both were still administered by the warden.'
After the dissolution of Westminster Abbey the manor of Oakham with Barleythorpe was granted in 1542 to the Dean and Chapter of the newly established cathedral of Westminster and the old habit of caUing the whole estate the Church or Rectory of Oakham was dis- continued.* After the disso- lution of the bishopric by Edward VI the manor re- mained in the Crown until 1559, when Elizabeth granted it to the Dean and Chapter of the newly instituted collegiate church of Westminster.* Dur- ing the Commonwealth, the possessions of the abbey being confiscated in 1650, the manor was sold to Anthony Twyne,*" who, however, found that much damage had been done by the former lessee William Busby, who had cut down trees on his copy- hold to the value of ^{^200.^1 The Dean and Chapter recovered the manor after the Restoration,^^ but have recently disposed of all their property in Oakham piece- meaP^ and have separated it from Barleythorpe (q.v.). The prior and convent of Westminster held a view of frankpledge at Oakham on their tenants of Oakham and Barleythorpe,^* while in the 15th century the tithing of ' Tolcestre ' also owed suit to the same court.^^ Queen Elizabeth granted a court leet with the manor to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster in 1559,** but it is noteworthy that the title of the court was not changed on the court rolls till after 1705." From 1723, and possibly earlier, the court leet was held once in three years, and it was customary for one or two of the canons to be present .'* Dean
Dean and Chapter OF Westminster.
Azure a cross faty be- tween five martlets or and a chief or toith a pale of the royal arms between two roses gules.
Vincent was present at the court leet held in August 1803." The court was held for the prior and monks by the steward of the abbey, who came from West- minster for the purpose.^" Under the Dean and Chapter the same procedure was adopted, although a deputy-steward took his place on occasion.^
No mill is mentioned in the earliest accounts of the manor in Oakham, but in 1283 Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, ordered his bailiff to allow the Abbot of Westminster to build a windmill at Oakham.^ It is doubtful if it was ever built, as no windmill at Oakham appears in the manorial accounts. A horse-mill is, however, mentioned in 1516.^
BARLETTHORPE (Torp, xii cent.; Thorpe, Bolarystorp, xiii, liv cent.), formerly one of the three townships forming the parish of Oakham, was formed into a separate civil parish in 1894, under the Local Government Act of that year. The hamlet lies about one mile to the north-west of Oakham on the Melton Mowbray road. At the present day it consists of the Hall, Manor House Farm, the Riding School and some slate-roofed cottages. It is not mentioned in Domesday Book (1086) and does not seem to have ranked as one of the berewicks attached to the royal manor of Oakham.^* It is pos- sibly mentioned in 1 1 79, when William, the priest of ' Torp,' paid half a mark to the Exchequer for his lay fee.^^ It was inclosed in 1772.^*
In the early 13th century the manor was held by the monks of Westminster Abbey" and formed part of their manor of Oakham with Barleythorpe (q.v.).'* It is still in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, though separated since 1894 from the manor of Oakham.
No chapel of Barleythorpe is mentioned at the ordination of the vicarage of Oakham in 1 23 1,* when tithes were allotted to the abbey of Westminster and the vicarage. In 1515 the rectory of Barley- thorpe was leased by the prior and convent for Ifi 13J. \d. a year.** In 1535 Barleythorpe was one of the four chapelries attached to Oakham vicarage,^' and in the later 1 6th century was served by the vicar himself, no resident priest being appointed, as at Langham, Egleton and Brooke.*' Barleythorpe is now attached ecclesiastically to the vicarage of Langham.
A mill at Barleythorpe existed in 1329.*^ It was probably the windmill still standing, of which the rent appears in the manorial accounts of the manor till the 17th century.** A malt-mill is mentioned in 1514. Under the Commonwealth both these mills were sold to Anthony Twyne.**
LEIGHFIELD was formed from the central part of the Forest of Rutland or Lcighfield at its dis- afforestation about 1630 or possibly somewhat earlier.^ It was inclosed and declared to be extra-
"Westm. Abb. R. 20218, 20348, 20351,20355,20624. » Ibid. 20348. ' Ibid. 20632. » Ibid. 20628.
• Ibid. 20361, 20632.
♦Ibid. 20640; Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), Htn. VIII, no. 7239, pt. i. •Westm. Abb. R. 20218.
• Ibid. 20350.
' Mins. Accts. loc dt. •i. and P. Hen. Vlll, xvU, g. 714; Westm. Abb. R. 20373. •Pat. R. 1 Eliz. pt. II. •» Wtstm. Abb. R. 20728. " Ibid. 20732.
" Ibid. 20400, 20443.
" Inf. from Mr. W. L. Sargant.
" Wcstm. Abb. R. 20348, and series of court rolls.
" Ibid. 20364.
"Pat. R. I Eliz. pt. II.
" Westm. Abb. R. 20412.
"Ibid. 20412-20443.
" Ibid. 20443.
" Ibid. 20348 ; Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.) Hen. VIII, no. 7239, pt. I.
" Westm. Abb. R. 20412-20443 (Gun- thorpe chapel had fallen into decay and disuse).
" Westm. Dom. fol. 601.
" Westm. Abb. R. 20336.
IS
"F.C.H. Ruil.\, 139.
" Pipe R. Soc. xxix, 88.
" Priv. Act of Pari. 12 Geo. Ill, cap. 58.
" Westm. Dom. fol. 596.
" Westm. Abb. R. 20368, 20640, etc
•' Westm. Dom. fol. 595.
"> Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), loc cit.
" yahr Eccles. (Rec Com.), iv, 344.
" First Fruits Office, Plea R. no. 5 (65).
" Westm. Abb. R. 20348.
••Ibid. 20336, 20631, 20632, 10661, 20662, 20668.
»» Ibid. 20732 i Close R. 1653, pt. 22.
"White, op. cit. 1846, p. 647; cf. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1603-10, p. 611 ; 1623-25, p 580.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
parochial. There was no village and it consisted of hilly land, partly woodland and partly cultivated ; there were five lodges of the old forest included in Leighfield — namely, Leigh, Coles, Swintley, Lamblcy and College Lodges." Stilton cheese was largely made in the district, which is still mainly pasture land. It now forms a civil parish.
The manor of Leighfield or Leigh or Lye was formed from land held in the reign of Henry I by a Serjeant of the county called Hasculf.^ According to the 13th-century story, as the king was passing through the district on his way to the north, he saw some hinds and ordered one of his servants, named Pichard, to remain behind and guard the hinds for the royal use. When Henry returned the following year, Hasculf was made keeper of the forests of Rutland and Leicester, on the recommendation of Pichard, who had lodged at his house.'* It seems clear, there- fore, that Hasculf was a man of some position, and already held the messuage and three carucates of land with pasture, which was afterwards called the manor of Leighfield.'*" He was killed in the reign of Stephen, and was succeeded by his son Peter,*^ who is probably identical with Peter the Forester who appears in 1166.''^ Peter married a niece of Ivo de Neville, and his son Hasculf took the name of Neville.*' Peter died in the reign of John ard Hasculf appears to have hrld the manor till he entered religion in 1 248 or 1 249.** His son Peter de Neville succeeded him and attained an unenvi- able notoriety for his exactions and waste in the forest, which finally led to his outlawry in 1 274.''* Leighfield manor had, however, previously, in 1273, been given to his son Theobald de Neville, who granted it im- mediately to his grandmother Christine for her life, retaining half a bovate of land. She died before the end of the year and Theobald continued in seisin of the manor until he was ejected by the justices of the forest on his father's outlawry.**' He recovered it in 1275.'" In 1313-14 Theobald granted the manor to Reginald de Warle and his wife Alice and the heirs of their bodies, with remainder to Theobald and his heirs." Possibly this was only a grant of rent and service, since Theobald apparently continued to hold Leigh- field in demesne.** In 1357 the rent of 40/. and a pound of cummin yearly from Leighfield, with the
Neville. Azure CTuisiUy viitb three Jleurs de Us coming out of leopards* beads argent.
homage of the tenants in demesne, was granted by Sir Nicholas Peyver, knt., to John Wade, clerk.*' In 1360 Wade granted them to the chantry of the Blessed Virgin Mary, recently founded in Manton church by William Wade.*" Leighfield manor was held of the chantry until its dissolution.*'
Theobald Neville died in 1316, and his lands were delivered to his daughter and heir Alice and her husband Sir John Hakluyt." Sir John was dead in 1 362*' and his widow married John Wardieu.** They settled Leighfield manor on themselves and the heirs of their bodies, with remainder to Alice's son Sir William Hakluyt, in 1370.** Alice died in 1371,** and though Hakluyt evidently stiU claimed it up to his death in 1373,*' John Wardieu remained in pos- session probably till his death about 1377.** During Wardieu's absence on the king's service, the custody of the Forest of Leighfield was seized into the king's hands on account of certain forest offences ; but as the manor does not figure in the lawsuit, brought by his daughter and heir Elizabeth and her husband Sir Edward Dalingrugge, to recover the custody, it probably escaped seizure.** In 1382 they sold it to Sir William de Burgh,** but on the forfeiture of his lands in 1387 it was granted for life to Edmund, Duke of York,'' and in 1 391 to his son Edward, Earl of Rutland.*^ In 1399 Henry IV granted it for life to his esquire, Hugh Norburgh,*' but in the next year he was forced to grant ^^16. zii. a year from the issues of the county of Leicester, in lieu of the manor and custody of the forest, to Sir William de Burgh, whose lands had been restored.** On his death they passed to de Burgh's daughter Amy, wife of Robert ChesU- den,** who died seised of the manor in 1448 and was succeeded by her grandson John Chesilden.** In 1462 the manor had come into the hands of Edward IV, who granted it to Sir William Hastings, his chamberlain, re- cently raised to the rank of baron.*^ Quitclaims were made to Hastings in 1464 by Sir John Chesilden of Uppingham and his brother William.** The grant may have been made under political compulsion, since after the execution of Hastings, John Chesilden
granted the manor to Henry, Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Wiltshire and other feoffees.** On the accession of Henry VII, Hastings's young son and heir Edward was restored,'" and he and his descend-
Hastinos. Argent a mauncb sable.
" White, op. cit.
" Select Pleas of tbe Forest (Selden Soc.^,
" Ibid.
" Col. Close R. 1360-6+, p. 2Z% ■ Feet of F. RutU Hil. 44 Edw. Ill, no. 60; Col. Pat. R. 1 38 5-9, p. 4? I.
•• Select Pleas of the Forest, loc. cit.
" Pipe R. Soc. \i, 125.
" Select Pleas of tbe Forest, loc cit. ; Cai. CloseR. 1227-31, p. 343.
" Select Pleas of tbe Forest (Selden Soc), p. 46.
" Ibid. pp. ivii, 44.
••• Cal. fnq. Misc. i, no. 984.
** Cat. Close R. 1 272-79, p. 222.
" Feet of F. Div. Cos. HU. 7 Edw. II. no. 93. Alice cannot have been Theo- bald's daughter of the same name, as the
grantee was in the guardianship of Henry de Barton.
" Cf. Cal. Fine R. 1307-19, p. 329.
••Feet of F. RutL Hil. 31 Edw. Ill, no. 46.
"> Inq. a.q.d. cccxii, 8 ; Cal. Pat. R. 1358-61, p. 360.
"Chan. Inq. p.m. 47 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), no. 18 ; 26 Hen. VI, no. 2 ; Chan. Inq. Misc. xxxii, 4.
" Cal. Fine R. 1307-19, 296, 329.
» Cal. Close R. 1360-64, p. 328.
" De Banco R. no. 425, m. 198.
" Feet of F. Rutl. Hil. 44 Edw. Ill, no. 60.
" Cal. Close R. 1369-74, p. 247.
" Chan. Inq. p.m. 47 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), no. 18.
•' Chan. Inq. Misc. ccxiv, 87.
16
" Ibid. ; Plac in Cancellaria (Tower Ser.), no. 20.
« Feet of F. Rutl. Mich. 6 Ric. II, no. 3.
•' Cal. Pat. R. 1385-9, p. 434; Chan. Inq. Misc. cccxxxii, 4.
" Cal. Pal. R. 1388-92, p. 391.
** Ibid. 1399-1401, p. 48.
" Ibid. p. 337.
» Feet of F. Rutl. Mich. 22 Ric. II, no. 27 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 26 Hen. VI, no. 2.
•• Ibid. ; Visit. RuU. 1618-19 (Harl. Soc), 21.
" Cal. Pat. R. 1461-7, p. 103 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. i Ric. Ill, no. 32.
•* Close R. 3 Edw. IV, pt. i, mm. i8d,
26d.
•• Visit. Rutl. op. cit. 22. '" Complete Peerage (and ed.), vi, 373-4-
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
OAKHAM
ants held the manor until Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, sold it to Sir James Harington in 1582." His son John, the first Lord Harington of Exton, died abroad in 161 3,'^ and John his only son and successor settled the manor on feoffees to be sold for the pay- ment of his father's debts." The second Lord Haring- ton survived his father only a few months, and in 1614 his sister and heir Lucy and her husband, the Earl of Bedford, sold the manor to Sir Edward Noel, bart.'^
Noel. gules and
Or fretly a quarter
D I G B Y . Azure a jieur de lis argent.
The Noels held it until the time of Edward, first Earl of Gainsborough, whose daughter Jane married William, the fifth Earl Digby, and the manor seems to have come into the possession of one of her younger sons, Wriothesley Digby, who was the owner in 1747.''' His son of the same name was lord of the manor in 1781." It appears later to have been bought by George, the ninth Earl of Winchilsea, and afterwards passed to Mr. George Finch, who owned it in 1846." Mr. Wilfred Finch is the present owner of the manor. A portion of Leighfield remained with the Noels and was sold in 1925 to Mr. James Ward."'
In 1312 Edward II granted a view of frankpledge with sheriff's aid, in Leighfield, to Margaret, Countess of Cornwall.™
In the time of Edward the Confessor, Leuenot held a carucate of land in the manor of Oakham.'* In 1086 Fulcher Malsor (Mala Opera) had succeeded him and held it apparently of the king in chief.'" Fulcher Malsor was a large landowner in Northamp- tonshire and gave his name to Milton Malsor, held of the Bardolf fee, and Thorpe Malsor. His descendants held their Northamptonshire property for several generations, but no later connexion with them has been found at Oakham, and presumably their holding reverted to the Crown and was merged in Oakham Lordshold.
The manor of GUN THORPE may be identified as one of the five unnamed berewicks attached to the manor of Oakham in the Domesday Survey (1086).*' It was held in socage tenure as a sub-manor under the
lords of Oakham (q.v.),*^ certainly until the attainder of Edward, Duke of Buckingham, in 1521.*'
The early history of the lords of the manor is obscure. Gunthorpe was probably held by Alexander de Boville or Beiville** late in the 12th century, when he claimed the advowson of Gunthorpe chapel against the rector of Oakham.** Possibly he was succeeded by WiUiam de Boville, against whom his brother Gilbert brought an unsuccessful action for 2 virgates as his share of their father's land held in socage.** In 1223 the tenant seems to have been Henry de Boville, a grand- son of Alexander, who again claimed the advowson of the chapel." Probably the manor passed to two or more co-heirs, either daughters or granddaughters of Henry, since in 1285-6 Margery and her husband Geoffrey de Fontibus quitclaimed to Sarah and her husband John de Hotot 28/. rent, one-third of a messuage and 2 virgates of land in Gunthorpe, Martinsthorp and Exton.** The Hotots evidently obtained all the manor of Gunthorpe, as in 1300 WiUiam de Hotot held 9 virgates of land there of the castle and manor of Oakham at a rent of 34?. and suit of court at Oakham.*' He was stiU in seisin in 1316,'" but had apparently been succeeded by another John de Hotot before 1321.*^ William de Hotot was tenant in 1346,*^ but from that time the descent of the manor disappears for nearly a century. In 1434 John Sapcote left it by will to feoffees, who were to grant it to his wife Joan for life with remainder to his son John in tail. The will was proved in the spring of 1434. The younger John had two sons living in 1434,'^* but in 1463 it was in the possession of Eleanor, widow of Sir William Sturmy, and Joan,
wife of Richard Carlile, who "granted it to Richard Sapcote of March (co. Camb.).»3 The latter died seised of Gunthorpe in 1498 and was succeeded by his cousin. Sir John Sapcote, son of Sir Richard Sapcote of Elton (co. Hunts) and brother of Sir Thomas Sapcote of Burley.** In 1527 his son, Sir Richard Sapcote of Elton, was lord of the manor,'* and on his death in 1543 it passed to his son Robert of Elton, a minor.** Robert held it in 1578." It passed to Frances, one of his three daughters and co-heirs, who married James Harington of Ridlington'* and died in 1599. Her husband was created a baronet in 161 1.'* Gunthorpe passed to his son Sir Edward Harington, whose lessee of the manor and agent in
A 4k
S A p c o T I. Sable three dovecotes 'argent.
" Recov. R. Mich. 8 Hen. VIII, ro. 545 ; Trin. 25 Eliz. ro. 1137 ; Feet of F. Rutl. Hil. 24 Eliz.; Close R. 24 Hen. VIII, m. 30 ; Cora. Pleas, Deeds Enr, Hil. 35 Hen. VIII, m. 13d; P.C.C. 8 Loftes.
" Complete Peerage (2nd ed.), vi, 321.
" Wright, op. cit. 75.
'* Ibid. Wright quotes a fine of Mich. 12 Jas. I, but the Feet of Fines are now missing for that term.
" Recov. R. East. 20 Geo. II, ro. 133 ; Brydges, CoUins's Peerage, v, 381, 383.
"Ibid.; Recov. R. Hil. 21 Geo. Ill, ro. 367.
" White, op. cit. 648.
"» Inf. kindly supphed by Mr. Louis G. Dease.
" Cal. Pat. R. 1313-17, p. 664.
''V.C.H. Rutl. i, 139.
"> Ibid.
"V.C.H. Rutl. i, 139.
" Cal. tnq. iii, 604 ; Feud. Aids, iv, 207.
" Cal. Inj. Hen. VII, vol. ii, no. 202 ; Complete Peerage (2nd ed.), ii, 390-1.
" Maitland, Bracton's Note Bk. no. 1653. The name is here given as Boville, but in the Curia Reg. R. it appears as Colville, Beivill and Bivill {Curia Reg. R. i, p. 314 and n.).
" Maitland, loc. cit.
" Curia Reg. R. i, p. 314.
*' Maitland, loc. cit. " Feet of F. Rutl. case 192, file 4, no. 15.
17
" CaL Inj. iii, no. 604.
•» Feud. Aids, iv, 207.
" Cat. Irtq. V, no. 330.
" Chan. Misc. bdle. 2, no. 39, m. 8.
"• Alfred W. Gibbons, Early Lincoln ll'ills, 163.
" Feet of F. Rutl. Trin. 2 Edw. IV, no. 3.
"Cal. Inq. Hen. VII, ii, no. 202; Visit. Hunts (Camden Sot), 12.
" Feet of F. Div. Co». Mich. 19 Hen. VIII.
" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), Ixix, no. 96.
•' Feet of F. Rutl. Trin. 20 Eliz.
»» Visit. Hunts, loc. cit. ; G.E.C. Baronetage, i, 53 ; Feet of F. Div. Cos. Trin. 8 Chas. I.
"G.E.C. loc. dt.
A HISTORY OF RUTLAND
Rutland was Abel Barker of Lyndon.* Sir Edward was succeeded in 1653 by his son James, the Parlia- mentarian, whose orders to cut down all the trees at Gunthorpe naturally drew forth expostula- tions from Barker.* In 1655 the manor was sold to William Ducie of Islington, afterwards Viscount Downe, or to his brother Sir Hugh Ducie, K.B.'
The latter died seised of Gunthorpe in 1662 and was succeeded by his son William, then a minor.'' It passed probably by sale to John Flavell, merchant tailor of London, the owner in 1684,* and then to Sir Joseph Eyles, knt., who sold it to Sir John Heath- cote, bart., in 1738.' From that time it belonged to
TTTTTT
-i;^
DnciE. Or a fesst vair bettoeen three cinq~ foils guUs,
Heathcote. Ermine three roundels vert, each charged with a cross or.
his descendants. Lord Aveland being the lord of the manor in 1862.'
The lords of the castle and manor of Oakham held the view of frankpledge in the manors of Belton and Gunthorpe.* The Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem claimed in 1283 that his 12 tenants in Gunthorpe should come to the view of frankpledge held by him at Whitwell and Uppingham.* A wind- mill appurtenant to the manor of Gunthorpe is mentioned in 1632.**
The church of ALL SAINTS con- CHURCHES sists of chancel 43 ft. by 20 ft., with north and south chapels, each about 16 ft. 9 in. wide, south vestry, clearstoried nave 56 ft. 9 in. by 22 ft. 6 in., with north and south aisles about 17 ft. 6 in. wide, large north and south transepts of two bays divided into eastern and western aisles, south porch, and engaged west tower 16 ft. square, all these measurements being internal. The tower is surmounted by a spire. The wddth across nave and aisles is 61 ft. 9 in., and the transepts are each 27 ft. 6 in. wide, with a projection beyond the aisles of 15 ft. The chapels cover the chancel its full length, the walls being flush at the east end.
The east end of the chancel, the north transept, two bays of the north aisle and the west wall of the porch are of coursed rubble, but elsewhere the walls are faced vnth ashlar. All the roofs are leaded, and.
' G.E.C. Baronetage, i, 53 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. V, App. pp. 392-94.
« Ibid.
' Recov. R. Trin. 1655, ro. 116; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. T, App. p. 395.
* Ibid. J G.E.C. Baronetage, ii, 77 ; VVrieht, op. dt. 67.
» Ibid.
• Feet of F. Rutl. Trin. ii & 12 Geo. II. ' Recov. R. HU. 35 Geo. Ill, ro. 182;
White, op. cit. 1846, 1862.
' Chan. Misc. bdle. 8, no. 3 ; Feet of F. Rutl. Trin. 18 Jas. I ; Mich. 28 Chas. II.
*Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 672.
" Feet of F. Div. Cos. Trin. 8 Chas. I.
" The parapets of the vestry and of the
with the exception of that of the chancel, are of low pitch behind battlemented parapets.** Internally all the walls are plastered. *-
The oldest part of the present building is the south doorway, which dates from c. 1 190, and has a pointed outer arch of two moulded orders supported by shafts and an inner less elaborately moulded drop-arch on half-round responds with fillet. The shafts and responds have moulded bases and capitals with square abaci, but while the capitals on the east side are plain those on the west have stiff water-leaf foliage. The space between the outer and inner arches is plastered. No other portion of the I2th-century*^ church has survived, the building having been enlarged early in the 13th century, when the nave aisles were either added or widened, and the chancel probably extended its present length. The porch also is substantially of this date. An internal keel-shaped string-course below the windows of the south aisle and both the transepts points to the lower part of these walls at least being of this period, and in the east wall of the north transept is a piscina of the same date with fluted bowl and an edge-roll with two fillets. The string-course, much renewed, occurs also in the north aisle west of the doorway, but is not continued along the west wall, as on the south side. To the 13th century also belong the piers and responds of the transept arcades, together with the remains of two responds in the south aisle, all which would seem to Indicate that the plan of the early 13th-century church was the same as at present with the exception of the chancel chapels, tower and vestry. That the end of the chancel originally stood free is clearly shown on the outside, where the north and south arms of the pairs of angle buttresses are yet visible incorporated in the later walling of the chapels.
About the end of the 13th century a north chapel was added to the chancel, or a smaller one enl?rged and extended eastward. The three arches of the exist- ing arcade between the chancel and chapel have good mouldings, of which the roll and fillet, used also on the soffit of each arch, forms the principal member. The abaci of the capitals have the scroll-moulding usual in work of this period (c. 1280-90), and the piers consist of four attached shafts with fillets, divided by arrises at the angles formed by the quatrefoil plan.'* The west arch of the chapel, which divides it from the north transept, is similar in design, but the whole arcade shows evidence of a later heightening.
Shortly afterwards, about the first quarter of the 14th century, the rebuilding of the nave was taken in hand,*^ new arcades with lofty columns and arches erected, the chancel arch reconstructed to match the arcades, and the tower begun at the west end. At the same time the transepts were heightened in proportion
chancel gable alone are is now on the outside of the west wall.
'* It was perhaps the alterations at thi« date that necessitated the reconsecration of the church for which licence wa^ given in 131 1 (Line Epis. Reg. Instit. Dalderby, iiid).
" If the original church were cruciform, the old tower over the crossing probably had been left standing till this time, supported by heavy masonry, with the old arches opening into the enlarged transepts. It would now be entirely removed, the old masonry of the crossing taken down, and the crossing thrown into the new nave (Trans. Riill. Arch. Soc. (1912), 37).
high-pitched straight.
" With the exception of the tower.
**The bowl of the 12th-century font is noticed below. The original Norman church may have been cruciform, with transepts and central tower, but there is no actual evidence of this. During repairs to the porch in 1930 what appears t» have been one of the consecration crosses of the 12th-century church was found in the west wall. It is a piece of Clipsham stone about 13 in. by 9 in., the cross extending over its entire surface. The stone probably had been used in some former repairs to the porch. It
18
THE SOKE OF OAKHAM
OAKHAM
to the new nave, that on the north side being re- modelled first. It would appear that in this general reconstruction of the nave the walls of the aisles and transepts were in the main rebuilt from about sill level, all the older windows being of this period. The tower and spire were completed during the 14th century, and were probably designed upon the model of the tower and spire at Grantham church, completed c. 1300, but used here with more modest proportions and less striving after height. The north :iisle of the nave was perhaps wholly rebuilt in this century.
d C.II90
133 Century early c 1280-90 I4IB Century
In the 15th century, also, new roofs of lower pitch than before were erected over the nave'* and aisles and the clearstory assumed its present appearance, being then heightened and new windows inserted. New windows were inserted also in the aisles, those in the south aisle being late in date, and new parapets were added to the whole church. All the gables, except that of the chancel, have curious curved crocketed finials, that of the nave being surmounted by a double crucifii. In its general appearance the church affords a good example of combined 14th and
Scale of Feet
152] Century EARLY 162 Century E-S Modern
Plan of Oakham Church
The chief structural changes in the 15th century were in the chancel. During this period, probably after 1450, the north chapel was rebuilt from the ground with waUs higher than before, and the arches between it and the chancel were raised to a height corresponding to those of the nave. This remodelling of the arcade was effected by lengthening the piers and bases and by supplying longer bells to the capitals, car\'ed with meagre conventional foliage — the whole of the old stonework being retained. The effect of the old moulded capitals in conjunction with their later bells is more curious than beautiful.
Later in the century, c. 1480, the south wall of the chancel was pierced by an arcade of three arches and a chapel added. The vestry, which is on the south side of the chapel, appears to have been planned with it, but may not have been completed till later.
!• The old roof line of the nave 13 on the east wall of the tower.
"Trans. Rutl. Arch. Sac. (1912), p. 40.
** Augmentation of Cburcb Lands^ 980, p. 274, quoted in Rutl. Mag. i, 226.
'• The decree leading to a faculty, dated 17 Sept. 1857, is cited and a full account of the restoration given in RuU. Mag. i, 78-83 ; ii, 25-30. The church was re- opened 10 Nov. 1858.
" There were two galleries, one over
15th century architecture. Though the abbot and convent of Westminster, as rector, and the secular priests who were vicars, were responsible for the upkeep of the chancel, it is evident that the greater part of the church was built at the expense of the lords of the manor and the important inhabitants of the town. The owners of the castle and the wealthy family of Flore may be held largely responsible for the beauty of the nave and the splendid tower and spire.'' The chancel had fallen into decay in 1658,'^ and an order was issued for its repair. In 1857-8 there was a very extensive restoration'^ of the fabric under the direction of Sir Gilbert Scott, when the galleries"" and pews which then filled the church were removed, the floors renewed, the gables of the chancel and north chapel taken down and rebuilt, new roofs erected over the chancel and south chapel, and the other roofs
the other, at the west end (Rutl. Mag. i, 73). The internal fittings " exceeded in