Sygone 
 
 Northamptonshire 
 
 ml 
 
 .inr ' ' 
 
 
 'mm 
 
 mi 
 
 'r I 
 
 I I 
 
 > ^ 
 
 ( ' I 
 
 i I 
 
 
 ( \ I 
 
 
 K c : __j p X
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 c 
 
 A
 
 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Of this book 500 copies have been printed, 
 and this is 
 
 No
 
 cm 
 
 
 NUKTHAMITON CKUSS.
 
 BYGONE 
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 OLD CHURCH LORE, "OLD-TIME PUNISHMENTS, 
 " HISTORIC YORKSHIRE," ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO., LTD. 
 
 NORTHAMPTON : 
 ABEL & SONS, PARADE. 
 
 HULL: 
 WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. 
 
 I 89 I.
 
 
 preface* 
 
 T N the following pages an attempt is made 
 -- to bring together a series of chapters on the 
 
 more interesting themes in the historic byways 
 
 and highways of Northamptonshire. 
 
 I am greatly obliged to my contributors, and 
 think that their articles cannot fail to interest and 
 instruct the readers of this book. 
 
 My thanks are also due to the Rev. C. J. 
 Gordon, m.a., and Mr. Edward Chamberlain, for 
 the loan of illustrations, and to Mr. T. Tindall 
 Wildridge for making some original drawings for 
 these pages. 
 
 Mr. D. Norman, Mr. A. Chamberlain, b.a., 
 and -others, have cheerfully placed important 
 information at my service, and otherwise helped 
 me, and to them also I beg to tender my thanks. 
 
 In conclusion, I hope that this work may 
 
 534804 
 
 UBRART
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 prove a welcome contribution to the literature of 
 the Midlands. Its production has recalled many 
 pleasant memories of my earlier life spent in that 
 part of Old England. 
 
 William Andrews. 
 
 Hull Literary Club, 
 November jth, i8gi.
 
 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Historic Northamptonshire. By Thomas Frost ... i 
 
 The Eleanor Crosses. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a. . 23 
 
 FoTHERiNGHAY : PRESENT AND PAST. By Mrs. Dempsey . 37 
 
 The Battle of Naseby. By Edward Lamplough ... 55 
 
 The Cottage Countess 67 
 
 The Charnel House at Rothwell. By Edward Chamberlain 74 
 
 The Gunpowder Plot. By John T. Page .... 81 
 
 Earls Barton Church. By T. Tindall Wildridge ... 89 
 
 Old Fairs. By William Sharman 97 
 
 Witches and Witchcraft. By Eugene Teesdale . . . 105 
 
 The City of Peterborough. By Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s. . 116 
 
 The English Founders of the Washington Family of 
 
 America. By Thomas Frost 130 
 
 Anne Bradstreet, the Earliest American Poetess . . 146 
 
 Liber Custumarum, Vill^^ Northamptoni.^. By Christopher 
 
 A. Markham, F.s.A 153 
 
 Thomas Britton, The Musical Small-Coal Man. By E. 
 
 E. Cohen 167 
 
 Old Scarlett, The Peterborough Sexton . . . 176 
 
 Accounts of the Towcester Constables. By John 
 
 Nicholson 180 
 
 The Miserere Shoemaker of Wellingborough. By T. 
 
 Tindall Wildridge 192 
 
 Sir Thomas Tresham and his Buildings. By John T. 
 
 Page 196 
 
 Northamptonshire Folk-Lore. By John Nicholson . . 205 
 
 Northamptonshire Proverbs 214 
 
 An Ancient Hospital. By the Rev. I. Wodhams, m.a. . . 217 
 
 Index 225 
 
 List of Subscribers 227
 
 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 U 
 
 Ibietoric IRortbamptonsbtre, 
 
 By Thomas Frost. 
 
 THE reminder, to an average Northampton- 
 shire man or woman of the present day, 
 that his remote ancestors were half-naked savages 
 at the time when Rome was the centre of the 
 civilisation of the ancient world, would be apt to be 
 regarded with feelings not very different to those 
 with which most of us contemplate the theory of 
 the evolution of our race from the simian order. 
 There can be no doubt, however, that the 
 aborigines of this island, at the time when the 
 Roman legions landed upon our shores, had 
 attained no higher degree of civilisation than 
 existed among the islanders of the Pacific in the 
 time of Captain Cook. The tribe that inhabited 
 what is now the County of Northampton were 
 
 called the Coritani, and that is all that is known 
 
 A
 
 2 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 about them. When the Romans established their 
 supremacy over the land, their territory was 
 included in the province called Flavia Caesariensis, 
 and soon became intersected by roads, while 
 towns arose here and there in the clearings of the 
 great forests which then overspread so much of 
 the surface. 
 
 Two of the four great Roman roads which 
 crossed the county may still be traced. The one 
 known to antiquaries as the Watling-street 
 entered Northamptonshire at Old Stratford, and 
 crossed towards Daventry ; and the Ermin-street 
 entered at Castor, and was continued into 
 Lincolnshire. Roman remains have been found 
 in several places in the county. In 1781, 
 extensive remains of a Roman building, including 
 a handsome tesselated pavement, fifty feet square, 
 were found at Preston Wood, in the parish of 
 Piddington. At the close of the preceding 
 century, a similar pavement was discovered in a 
 meadow, about half a mile from the Watling- 
 street, in the parish of Heyford Nether. About 
 a mile from Daventry, near a branch of the 
 Roman road just mentioned, is Borough Hill, the 
 site of the most extensive Roman camp in the 
 kingdom. It is supposed that when the Roman
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 3 
 
 general, Ostorius Scapula, subdued the Coritani, 
 he converted the northern point of the hill into a 
 permanent camp, near which a town rose. In 
 1823, when the western side of the hill was 
 excavated in the interests of archaeology, the site 
 of the Prsetorium, or residence of the Roman 
 general, was unearthed, consisting of several 
 rooms and a bath, with a tesselated pavement, 
 together with Roman coins, pottery, etc. The 
 foundations of a Roman building and some 
 interesting fragments of embossed pottery were 
 discovered, about forty years ago, in the neigh- 
 bourhood f Chipping Warden, on the site of the 
 Roman station, Brinavis. Roman coins and 
 pottery have also been found near Towcester. 
 
 What has been observed of the aboriginal 
 population must be qualified, in some degree, by 
 the change which resulted from the grafting of a 
 people of a higher type upon the native stock. 
 When the Romans withdrew from this country, 
 it was invaded by warlike hordes from the shores 
 of the Baltic, and they soon succeeded in over- 
 running it and effecting a permanent settlement. 
 Britons and Saxons became blended into one 
 people, and the country of the Coritani a portion 
 of the kingdom of Mercia. Subsequently, when
 
 4 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 the kingdoms of the Heptarchy had been united 
 for some years under one king, and Alfred 
 introduced the present division into counties, the 
 town of Northampton, then called Hampton, was 
 considered of sufficient importance to give its 
 name to the county, with the prefix of North, to 
 distinguish it from other places of the same name. 
 
 In the following reign, the county was overrun 
 by the Danes, who obtained possession of North- 
 ampton. In 918, a year afterwards, the leaders 
 of these fierce marauders submitted to Edward, the 
 son of Alfred ; but, in 921, we find them breaking 
 their parole, and, in conjunction with their com- 
 patriots from Leicester, making an unsuccessful 
 attack on Towcester. Before the close of the 
 same year, they were defeated, and again made 
 their submission. In loio, another irruption of 
 the Danes took place, under Sweyn, the father of 
 Canute, when Northampton was burned by them, 
 and the country around devastated to such an 
 extent that it was nearly depopulated. 
 
 The Danes ceased to trouble the land during 
 the reigns of the latter Saxon kings, but their 
 plunderings and burnings had not faded out of 
 memory when Norman William marched through 
 England with his mail-clad host, and forced upon
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 5 
 
 the country another change of rulers. The earl- 
 dom of Northampton was created by him in 
 favour of Waltheoff, son of the brave Siward, 
 Earl of Northumberland, and, in 1070, he gave 
 him the hand of his niece, Judith, daughter of 
 Odo, Earl of Albemarle. Under the successors 
 of the Conqueror, Northampton was on several 
 occasions the residence of the sovereign, and the 
 seat of parliaments and conferences. The first 
 royal visit on record was that of Henry I., in 
 1 106, for the purpose of an interview with his 
 brother Robert, Duke of Normandy, for the 
 settlement of their differences, which, however, 
 remained to be disposed of in a less amicable 
 manner. Sixteen years later, the same monarch 
 revisited the town with his court, and celebrated 
 the festival of Easter with much pomp and 
 splendour of a semi-barbaric kind ; and, in 1 1 3 1 , 
 a parliament or convention assembled there, in 
 which the barons swore fealty to the Empress 
 Maud of Germany, Henry's daughter and heiress. 
 That Maud never reigned is, however, matter of 
 history, being deprived of her right of succession 
 by Stephen. 
 
 An interesting episode of the dispute between 
 the Crown and the Church, or rather the priest-
 
 6 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 hood, in the following reign was enacted in 
 Northampton in 1164. Archbishop Becket 
 having refused his assent to the Constitutions 
 of Clarendon, devised in the preceding year 
 ** for the good order of the kingdom, and for the 
 better dejfining the limits of ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
 tion," he was cited to appear before the king and 
 his council at Northampton, there to answer the 
 charge of contumacy, and such others as might 
 be made against him. The inquiry was opened 
 in the castle, to which Becket, who lodged at 
 the priory of St. Andrew (a portion of the site 
 of which is now occupied by the church of that 
 name), was attended through the streets by a 
 great concourse of the townsmen and the people 
 of the surrounding country. He rode on a 
 sumptuously caparisoned horse, and wore his 
 pontifical robes, bearing a silver cross. Thus 
 arrayed, he entered the hall in which the court 
 was held, from which the king, enraged by his 
 defiant bearing, immediately withdrew, followed 
 by his councillors. Presently, however, the Earl 
 of Leicester returned, headed by the barons, and 
 began to read the judgment of the court. " Son 
 and Earl," said Becket, interrupting him, "hear 
 me first. I forbid you to judge me. I decline
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 7 
 
 your tribunal ; and refer my quarrel to the 
 decision of the Pope. To him I appeal." He 
 then turned and walked slowly to the door of 
 the hall, where he mounted his horse, and rode to 
 the priory. Thence he departed in the dead of 
 night, disguised as a monk, and attended by two 
 clerks and a servant, and proceeded to the coast, 
 whence he passed over to Flanders. 
 
 The next event in the history of the county 
 which demands our attention, is the revolt pro- 
 moted by Prince Henry, when Anketil Mallory, 
 castellan of Leicester, advanced from that town to 
 Northampton, at the head of a considerable force, 
 and, having defeated the burgesses who opposed 
 him, plundered the town and carried away for 
 ransom two hundred of the inhabitants. The 
 outbreak was suppressed by the king, and the 
 leaders banished to Normandy. Councils were 
 held at Northampton in 11 76 and 11 77; and in 
 1 1 79 a parliament, or convention of notables, sat 
 there to amend and enforce the Constitutions of 
 Clarendon. In the following year, another con- 
 vention was held there to settle the affairs of the 
 kingdom, prior to Henry's departure for the 
 continent. Ten years later, Richard I. held a 
 council at the abbey of Pipwell, within the
 
 8 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 borders of Rockingham Forest, which was 
 attended by all the bishops and abbots of the 
 kingdom, and many laymen of rank, the object 
 being to make arrangements for the king's 
 expedition against the Saracens. On his return 
 from the East, in 1193, Richard kept the festival 
 of Easter at the castle of Northampton, where 
 he entertained the King of Scotland, who had 
 made his submission to Henry II. twenty years 
 previously. 
 
 On the death of Richard, which, as every 
 reader of history knows, took place in Normandy, 
 the barons held a council at Northampton, and 
 were induced by the partisans of Prince John 
 to take the oath of allegiance to him, though 
 Arthur, the son of his elder brother Geoffrey, 
 was then living. The new king was a frequent 
 visitor to Northampton, and it is there that 
 Shakespeare represents him as hearing the cause 
 of the Falconbridges. With the exception of the 
 third and fourth years of his reign, which he 
 passed in Normandy, he visited Northampton 
 every year, and sometimes three or four times 
 in the same year. In 12 10, he was there to 
 receive his vassal, Llewellyn, King of Wales ; and 
 it was there, too, that he assembled a council to
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 9 
 
 confer with the Papal legates for the purpose of 
 adjusting the differences between himself and 
 the Pope, which, however, resulted in his 
 excommunication, no agreement being arrived at. 
 The baronial revolt followed. The nobles had 
 had enough of absolutism, and, assembling in 
 arms at Stamford, marched to Brackley, where 
 they were met by the commissioners from the 
 king, who was then at Oxford, The concessions 
 which they demanded being refused, the barons, 
 under Lord Fitzwalter, advanced to Northampton, 
 and besieged the castle, but, being unprovided 
 with battering-rams, were unable to effect its 
 capture. It was, however, one of the four castles 
 placed in their hands as security for the fulfilment 
 of the stipulations of the Great Charter. At the 
 close of the reign trouble broke out between the 
 garrison and the townsmen, and many of the 
 former being slain, the soldiers, in revenge, 
 burned a considerable portion of the town. 
 
 The political troubles of the period did not end 
 with the reign of John. Sentence of excommuni- 
 cation having been pronounced by the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury against the recent disturbers of the 
 peace, they came to Northampton and there made 
 their submission to the king, to whom they
 
 lo BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 surrendered the castles which they held of the 
 Crown. Fresh differences arose, however, be- 
 tween Henry and the barons, in consequence 
 of his cancelling the charter of the forests, and 
 a baronial council was held at Northampton for 
 their settlement. In 1242, when Peter of Savoy, 
 the Queen's uncle, was in England on a visit, 
 a tournament was appointed to be held at 
 Northampton, at which the royal guest was to 
 be opposed in the lists by the Earl of Norfolk, 
 who had acquired much distinction in the mimic 
 combats of which Scott has given such a vivid 
 picture in the romance of " Ivanhoe." The 
 contemplated encounter created so much excite- 
 ment, however, owing to the belief that Henry 
 favoured the foreigner, that the encounter was 
 forbidden by royal proclamation. 
 
 The contentions between the Crown and the 
 barons continuing, owing to the faithlessness of 
 the king, and the determination of the nobles to 
 maintain the Great Charter, the former, in 1263, 
 marched an army from Oxford, and attacked 
 Northampton, which was defended by Simon de 
 Montfort, son of the Earl of Leicester. Faithless 
 in war as in council, Henry, being unsuccessful 
 in his assault of the castle, invited the barons to
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. ii 
 
 a parley from the walls, and, while thus engaged, 
 a breach was made on the opposite side, near the 
 priory of St. Andrew, and an entrance effected. 
 The defenders offered a desperate resistance, but 
 the partisans of the king were the victors, and 
 fifteen knights, with sixty gentlemen of inferior 
 degree, were made prisoners. The war did not 
 end here, however, and after the defeat of the 
 king's party at the battle of Lewes, the castle of 
 Northampton was re-taken by the barons, and 
 their victory celebrated by a grand tournament, 
 to which all the nobles and knights of the realm 
 were invited. 
 
 Edward I. summoned a parliament at North- 
 ampton, shortly after his accession to the throne, 
 and, in 1290, he spent nearly a month in the 
 town and neighbourhood, entertaining the monks 
 of the several orders having houses in the county 
 three days in succession. In 1300, the court kept 
 the festival of Christmas there, and on the death 
 of his queen, Eleanor of Castile, her funeral 
 cortege passed through the town on its way to 
 Westminster, resting at the place where the cross, 
 afterwards erected as a memorial, still stands. 
 " The name of Edward I.," says Mr. Hartshorne, 
 " when regarded in connection with Northampton,
 
 12 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 is linked with associations commanding an interest 
 far beyond its vicinity, since the monument in the 
 neighbourhood, consecrated by sincere affection 
 to the memory of his queen, is a work not only 
 seizing admiration by its just proportions and 
 purity of design, but one to which all Englishmen 
 who are imbued with a lofty feeling for art, may 
 proudly refer as an evidence that, at this remote 
 period, their own countrymen were capable of 
 conceiving, as well as executing, the most sublime 
 ideas of architectural beauty." Unfortunately, there 
 is a less pleasant side to this picture of Edward's 
 reign. It is impossible to contemplate without 
 a shudder the barbarous execution of the last 
 sovereign of Wales, one of whose quarters was 
 sent from Shrewsbury to Northampton, and there 
 exposed on one of the gates ; or the execution of 
 three hundred Jews at the latter town, on charges 
 of clipping the coin, and, subsequently, of fifty 
 more of those persecuted people for alleged 
 participation in the crucifixion of a boy 
 on Good Friday, 1279. There is much 
 reason to fear that such wholesale indict- 
 ments and executions were often only 
 pretexts for confiscating the property of the 
 victims.
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 13 
 
 Parliament assembled at Northampton several 
 times during the reigns of Edward III. and 
 Richard II., the last occasion being in 1381, 
 which was also the last time a parliament was 
 ever held there. 
 
 During the next three-quarters of a century, 
 there is little to record in the history of the county 
 beyond the preaching of the Reformation by the 
 disciples of Wickliffe, the first of whom, in North- 
 amptonshire, was James Colly n, who was protected 
 by John Fox, the chief magistrate of Northampton, 
 notwithstanding the inhibition of the Bishop of 
 Lincoln and the opposition of the clergy. But 
 in July, 1460, the fields near Northampton were 
 the scene of a sanguinary encounter between the 
 armies of the contending factions of York and 
 Lancaster. Henry VI. marched from Coventry 
 with his forces to check the progress of the Earl 
 of March, afterwards Edward IV., and the famous 
 Earl of Warwick, "the king-maker," who were 
 advancing from London ; and, having crossed 
 the Nen, occupied an advantageous positioil in 
 the open, between Hardingstone and Sandyford, 
 having the river in his rear, and strong entrench- 
 ments in front. On the morning of the 9th, the 
 Yorkist army was seen approaching in three
 
 14 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 divisions, commanded by the Earl of March, the 
 Earl of Warwick, and Lord Falconberg. The 
 battle commenced next morning, when Henry's 
 entrenchments were forced, and his army com- 
 pletely routed, himself taken prisoner, and several 
 of the nobles who supported him left dead on the 
 field. Henry entered Northampton a prisoner, 
 and, a few days afterwards, was sent to London, 
 and lodged in the Tower. This decisive victory 
 gave the crown to Edward. 
 
 In 1469, a formidable insurrection having 
 broken out in Yorkshire, a body of the insurgents 
 marched into Northamptonshire, and defeated 
 the king's forces at Danesmoor, near the village 
 of Edgecote. Earl Rivers and Sir John 
 Woodville, father and brother of the queen, were 
 captured by the rebels at Grafton, taken to 
 Northampton, and beheaded. More foul deeds 
 were perpetrated on Edward's death. The Duke 
 of Gloucester was then on the Scottish border, 
 and the Prince of Wales at Ludlow. Earl Rivers 
 was sent by the dowager-queen to escort the 
 young monarch to London ; but Gloucester, 
 having arrived at Northampton on the day Rivers 
 and his charge reached Stony Stratford, the latter 
 joined him, and an evening was spent in con-
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 15 
 
 viviality and apparent amity. Next day, they 
 travelled in company towards Stony Stratford, 
 but, on the way. Rivers, with Lord Grey, Sir 
 Thomas Vaughan, and Sir Richard Hawse, were 
 arrested, and sent back to Northampton, whence 
 they were afterwards removed as prisoners to 
 Pontefract. 
 
 Under the Tudor regime, Northampton, in 
 common with many other towns in the Midland 
 counties, declined in importance, and, in the 
 reign of Henry VHI., had^fallen into decay. 
 Whether it was due to its ceasing to be an 
 occasional resort of the court, or to the inter- 
 ference of Henry VH. with the free government 
 of the town, or the blighting influence of the civil 
 war, there is no evidence to show. Henry VHI. 
 passed one night in the town in 1540, on his way 
 to York ; and it received a visit from Elizabeth 
 in 1564, as she travelled in stately progress to 
 Burghley. The queen of James I. and Prince 
 Henry were received in great state by the 
 magistrates of the town when on their way from 
 Edinburgh to London ; and Charles I. and his 
 queen honoured it with a visit in 1634, when 
 some costly plate was presented to them. 
 
 History is not made up of royal progresses and
 
 i6 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 pageants, however, and the time was now 
 approaching when the country was to resound 
 once more with the tramp of hostile armies, set 
 in motion to determine whether England should 
 be ruled by the will of one man, or in conformity 
 with that of the people. In that great conflict, 
 the towns of Northamptonshire, which had be- 
 come strongholds of Nonconformity, sided with 
 the Parliament. Lord Brooke seized the castle 
 of Northampton in 1642, and held it for the 
 Parliament, while the ardour of the townsmen in 
 the cause is shown by an order, preserved in the 
 chamberlain's minutes, "That there be an assess- 
 ment of ;^ioo, to be laid out in fortifying the 
 town," and that "every householder shall send an 
 able-bodied man every day, at one in the after- 
 noon, to be employed on the works for the 
 defence of the town." A letter from one Jeremiah 
 Wharton to a friend in London states that sixty 
 cavaliers were lodged in the castle prison, having 
 been taken prisoners at Brackley by Lord Brooke 
 and troops from Northampton, who defeated the 
 company of Sir John Byron. Soon afterwards, 
 the partisans of the king made an attack upon 
 the town, but were beaten and driven off by the 
 defenders, with the loss of twenty men. Then,
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 17 
 
 as a news-letter in the library of the British 
 Museum records, " The Earl of Essex came to 
 Northampton, which was great joy and comfort to 
 us all ; but, in the night, there was a pistol-bullet 
 shot in at his chamber window, which missed him 
 narrowly, that caused the town to be up in arms 
 on a sudden, but who it was that did it we cannot 
 find as yet." 
 
 In February of the following year, Prince 
 Rupert, with his brother Maurice and the Earl of 
 Carnarvon, entered Northamptonshire, and, after 
 plundering Towcester and the district round 
 about, marched on into Warwickshire. On the 
 6th of May following, a battle was fought on the 
 Town Field at Middleton Cheney, between the 
 Royalists, commanded by the Earl of North- 
 ampton, and the Parliamentarians, in which the 
 latter were defeated, with the loss of 217 men 
 killed, and more than 300 taken prisoners. In 
 August, a sharp conflict took place within a mile 
 of Towcester, between a troop of Royalist cavalry 
 from Banbury, who were levying contributions 
 from the neighbourhood, and a small Parlia- 
 mentarian force, the fight being maintained with 
 obstinacy for more than half an hour. Captain 
 Chamberlain, who commanded the Royalists, was
 
 i8 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 killed, as were also five of their opponents, a 
 much larger number being wounded. A consider- 
 able section of the royal army, commanded by 
 Prince Rupert, was quartered at Towcester at 
 this time, and frequent skirmishes took place 
 between the adverse forces. On one occasion, a 
 body of Parliamentarian cavalry, commanded by 
 Colonel Harvey, surprised Towcester in the night, 
 killed the sentries and about thirty more, and took 
 twenty prisoners, without the loss of a single man. 
 On another occasion. Captains Butler and 
 Wollaston, and two other captains "of the Parlia- 
 mentary army, united their forces, and surprised 
 the enemy's quarters at Duncot, near Towcester, 
 killiHg about twenty, and taking thirty prisoners. 
 On the 1 8th of April, 1644, a skirmish took 
 place at Ashby Canons, near Towcester, between 
 a company of Parliamentarian infantry, sent by 
 the Governor of Northampton to levy contribu- 
 tions in the neighbourhood of Banbury, and a 
 body of two hundred foot and twenty horse from 
 the latter place, then held by the Earl of North- 
 ampton for the king. The Parliamentarians had 
 taken up their quarters at Canons Ashby House, 
 the residence of Sir John Dryden, but on the 
 approach of the Royalists, of which they had
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 19 
 
 timely notice, they retreated into the church. 
 The enemy disregarded the sacred character of 
 that edifice, however, and effected an entrance, on 
 which the defenders took refuge in the tower. 
 From that position their assailants were unable 
 to dislodge them, and, after a struggle of two 
 hours' duration, prepared to set fire to the build- 
 ing. The defenders then surrendered, and were 
 taken to Banbury, but, shortly afterwards, were 
 released by a force from Northampton. 
 
 Two months later, a Parliamentarian force from 
 Northampton, commanded by Major Lydcot, 
 attacked a body of Royalists near Towcester, and 
 defeated them, killing twenty-five, and taking a 
 great number of prisoners. These desultory 
 skirmishes were quickly followed by more im- 
 portant operations. On the 28th of June, a 
 Royalist army, commanded by the king in person, 
 was drawn up in battle array on Grimsbury Field, 
 near Towcester, and was faced by a Parlia- 
 mentarian army, under General Waller, on the 
 opposite bank of the Churwell. On the following 
 morning. Waller having taken up a very advan- 
 tageous position near Banbury, Charles drew off 
 towards Daventry, leaving a strong guard of 
 dragoons at Cropedy Bridge, to defend the
 
 20 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 passage of the river. Waller, on attempting to 
 force a passage across the bridge, was repulsed 
 with great loss, and chased to a considerable 
 distance ; but he succeeded in rallying his troops 
 again, and, having effected a junction with the 
 forces of Major-General Brown a few days after- 
 wards, entered Northampton on the 4th of July. 
 
 After Charles had captured Leicester, on the 
 31st of May, 1645, he arrived at Daventry on 
 the 7th of June, and fixed his headquarters there, 
 sleeping at the Wheat Sheaf Inn for six nights. 
 His army, consisting of about 10,000 men, in 
 nearly equal proportions of cavalry and infantry, 
 was quartered in the neighbouring villages. He 
 waited there several days for intelligence of the 
 movements of Fairfax, who had drawn off from 
 Oxford, and whose forces, he had heard, were in 
 a disorganised condition. On the 12th, having 
 had an alarm from a skirmishing party of Parlia- 
 mentarians in the neighbourhood, he kept his 
 army under arms all night on Borough Hill. 
 Next morning, learning that Fairfax was at 
 Northampton, with a larger force than had been 
 reported to him, and in good condition, he fell 
 back upon Market Harborough, with the intention 
 of returning to Leicester ; but the junction of
 
 HISTORIC NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 21 
 
 Cromwell with Fairfax forced him to abandon 
 that design, and risk an encounter. A decisive 
 battle was fought on the following day near the 
 village of Naseby, six miles from Harborough, in 
 which Charles was defeated, and forced to retreat 
 in confusion to Leicester, a distance of sixteen 
 miles. " It is not a little remarkable," observes 
 Mr. Baker, " that the battle which decided the 
 fate of the first Charles, and the last struggle of 
 the interregnum which terminated in the restora- 
 tion of the second Charles, both took place in this 
 county, and within a few miles of Daventry." 
 
 The battle of Naseby was the last event of 
 importance which occurred within the borders of 
 the county during the civil war. Sir Thomas 
 Fairfax passed through Northampton, however, 
 on the 30th of December, 1647, at the head of 
 three regiments of cavalry and three of infantry, 
 escorting a treasure-chest containing ;!^20o,ooo for 
 the Scottish army ; and in the following year, 
 Cromwell's infantry marched through the town 
 without shoes and stockings, which state of 
 destitution moved the townsmen to send after 
 them to Leicester fifteen hundred pairs of those 
 necessary articles. With the end of the civil war 
 the history of what may be called " Bygone
 
 22 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Northamptonshire " reaches its natural termina- 
 tion. The subsequent chronicles of the county- 
 are records of peaceful progress. After the 
 restoration of monarchy, the walls of Northampton" 
 were ordered to be demolished, and as much of 
 the castle as was not required for civil purposes 
 was pulled down, and the site sold. The changes 
 of the last two hundred and fifty years leave 
 nothing to be regretted. It is better to make 
 boots and shoes than to be the shuttle-feathers of 
 tyrannic monarchs and lawless barons.
 
 Zbc lEleanor CvoescB. 
 
 By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, b.a. 
 
 IT has been remarked by more than one 
 historian that in the first Edward we meet 
 the earHest king, since the Norman Conquest, 
 who ruled this country, not as a conqueror 
 aftiong the conquered, but as an EngHsh- 
 man among Englishmen. If in many of the 
 harsher traits of his character, on the one 
 hand, we are bound to admit that he faithfully 
 mirrored the peculiarities of his people in his own 
 and subsequent times, we may, on the other, 
 surely hope that in the purity of his life and the 
 Intensity of his domestic affections, along with 
 others of his more praiseworthy qualities, he was no 
 less thoroughly English. The popular admiration 
 of his contemporaries has handed down to us 
 stories of his goodness as a son and as a father ; 
 but of his devotion as a husband, he has himself 
 bequeathed to us undying memorials. 
 
 The marriage of Edward was, to a large extent,
 
 24 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 influenced by diplomatic considerations. At the 
 age of fifteen, he received the hand of Eleanor of 
 Castile, then only ten, and with it the undisputed 
 title to the Duchy of Guienne, to which her 
 brother, Alphonso X., renounced all claim in 
 consequence of the union. Ten years later she 
 came to England, not only to share his home, but 
 to be his constant companion in camp as well as 
 court, a true " help meet for him " in all the 
 dangers and anxieties of a warlike age ; for from 
 the dry root of political expediency, sprung the 
 fair flower of a faithful and even romantic 
 affection. 
 
 Of the queen's devotion to her lord we have 
 a pathetic illustration in the well-known story of 
 her sucking the poison from his arrow-wound at 
 Acre. That the devotion which she inspired was 
 no less strong, the subject of this paper abund- 
 antly proves. " Living, I loved her dearly," 
 wrote Edward to the Abbot of Cluny, "and I 
 shall never cease to love her dead." 
 
 The golden bond thus treasured by the two 
 was severed at a time when the king's thoughts 
 were filled with schemes of conquest. Scotland 
 was to be subdued, and the royal army had 
 already advanced into the north with that pur-
 
 THE ELEANOR CROSSES. 25 
 
 pose, when the news came that Eleanor, who was 
 following to join it, was lying dangerously ill at 
 Hardeby, in Nottinghamshire. With all speed 
 possible her husband hurried southward to her 
 side ; but it was too late, the face that greeted 
 him was cold in death. 
 
 It was on the 28th of November 1290, after 
 nearly thirty years of married life (we do not count 
 the ten years in which they lived apart a married 
 boy and girl,) that Edward was thus widowed. 
 The body of the queen was embalmed, the inward 
 parts being buried at Lincoln, the heart in the 
 Friars Praedicant's church, the rest in the 
 cathedral, while the body itself was borne in 
 solemn state to the Abbey at Westminster. 
 
 The sad procession began on December 4th, 
 and every night during the funeral march of over 
 one hundred and fifty miles, a halt was called, and 
 some spot was marked whereon a cross should 
 be reared to the glory of God and to the memory 
 of the queen. Then was the body laid, to await 
 the renewed journey, within some neighbouring 
 church or convent chapel, where flickering tapers 
 dimly lit the choir, in which, in silent prayer or 
 chanting solemn litanies for the dead, the watchers 
 knelt.
 
 26 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 How many of these halts were made is un- 
 certain. It is beyond question that crosses were 
 erected at Geddington, Northampton, Stony 
 Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Alban's, 
 Waltham, Cheap, and Charing. Grantham and 
 Stamford lay claim to the same distinction, and 
 a few other places, which would make the total 
 fourteen or fifteen, have been named on more 
 doubtful authority. The city of Lincoln, where, 
 as above stated, the queen's heart lay, also had 
 its cross. 
 
 Certain, however, it is, that whatever the 
 original number of these sacred memorials, three 
 only now remain, those, namely, of Geddington, 
 Northampton, and Waltham ; and of these, it 
 will be seen, Northamptonshire can boast the 
 possession of two. 
 
 The tide of time, sweeping for centuries 
 against these masterpieces of a bygone age, 
 must undoubtedly have left its mark upon them, 
 but it was no such gentle touch that deprived 
 us of these and so many other similar memorials 
 of the past. The iconoclastic zeal of a narrow 
 and ignorant Puritanism, devoid alike of all 
 reverence for the ancient and all love for the 
 beautiful, this it was that " broke down all the
 
 THE ELEANOR CROSSES. 27 
 
 carved work thereof with axes and hammers." 
 There is a print of the Puritan era (now in the 
 Pennant Collection in the British museum) * 
 which shows us a mob in a wild frenzy, with 
 ropes, ladders, and hammers, wrecking the cross 
 in Cheapside ; t and from this one instance we can 
 easily picture to ourselves the way in which we of 
 these later days have been robbed of the many 
 other emblems of devotion and treasures of 
 art, left to us by the piety and affection of 
 King Edward. 
 
 None of the three existing crosses have 
 altogether escaped the hands of the destroyer. 
 Geddington Cross has suffered the least, having 
 lost only a very small portion at the top of the 
 structure ; time has touched it with all gentleness, 
 and as the "restorer" has never interfered with 
 it, it has come down to us in every other respect 
 almost as it left the carver's hands, save for the 
 mellowing of age. The Northampton Cross has 
 also suffered decapitation, but otherwise has 
 had more to bear from innovators than from 
 destroyers ; Her Majesty's justices of the peace, 
 under Queen Anne, took upon themselves the 
 
 * Engraved in Knight's "Old England," No. 1899. 
 + This destruction was not, however, due to mob violence merely, but 
 was the carrying out of an order of the Parliament of 1643.
 
 28 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 improvement of the work by affixing a sundial 
 to each of its faces, and surmounting the whole 
 with a new cross out of all proportion with the 
 canopy-work which supported it. These additions, 
 no doubt well-meant, but infinitely tasteless, have 
 happily been removed ; would that the same were 
 possible with the amateur decoration which dis- 
 figures the base, on which some scores of visitors, 
 ambitious of transmitting their unknown names 
 to posterity, have gibbeted themselves for ever as 
 Goths and snobs. The cross at Waltham, as we , 
 now have it, is practically a new one, ill-usage and 
 restoration having left but little of the original ; 
 a second and careful restoration in recent years 
 (as a memorial of the jubilee of Queen Victoria 
 in 1887) has rendered it a fair representation of 
 the Eleanor Cross, but it can hardly be con- 
 sidered more than a nineteenth century work on 
 a thirteenth century model. 
 
 To the two Northamptonshire crosses, which, 
 together with the others, were erected between 
 the years 1291 and 1294, we now turn our more 
 particular attention. 
 
 The funeral procession, passing through Grant- 
 ham and Stamford, probably made its third halt 
 at Geddington. The choice of this village for
 
 THE ELEANOR CROSSES. 29 
 
 a resting-place must have been due to its posses- 
 sion of a royal residence, of which nothing now 
 remains but the tradition, and some irregular 
 mounds that mark the site, within a close (called 
 the " Hall Close ") on the north side of the 
 churchyard. Henry H. held a council here in 
 1 177, and again eleven years later another of 
 much more importance, both in its constitution 
 and its consequences ; for, as Stowe tells us, " he 
 held a parliament about the voyage into the 
 Holy Land, and troubled the whole land with 
 the paying of tithes towards it." This was 
 preliminary to his throwing in his lot with 
 Philip Augustus of France in active support of the 
 second crusade. 
 
 Within this manor-house, then, we can picture 
 the bereaved king passing the night, sometime 
 in the closing days of the year 1290, while the 
 embalmed and encoffined body of his queen rests 
 in the ancient church * of St. Mary Magdalene 
 hard by. And next morning the slow procession, 
 fording the Ise, here neither broad nor deep 
 (it is now spanned by a quaint and narrow 
 bridge, beside which is still a ford) winds its 
 
 * The church would even then be ancient, for some parts are of Saxon 
 workmanship.
 
 30 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 way onward, with every outward emblem of grief, 
 towards Northampton. 
 
 At the meeting-place of the three main streets 
 of Geddington is a wide open space of irregular 
 shape, and in the midst of this was raised in due 
 time a graceful cross, the memorial of that solemn 
 night. 
 
 On a flight of seven hexagonal steps stands a 
 triangular column, each face of which is divided 
 into four oblong panels by a horizontal band of 
 moulding, and by perpendicular mouldings at the 
 corners and in the centre, which, continued up- 
 wards, form the shafts of canopies above. The 
 beautifully-diapered surfaces of the panels are 
 slightly curved, the upper ones bearing each a 
 shield of arms. The design of the niches contain- 
 ing the statues is peculiar ; six crocketed canopies 
 rise from delicately formed shafts, two on each 
 side of the triangle, but the three statues of the 
 queen (locally called the " three weeping queens") 
 stand, not within the arches, but facing the angles 
 of the structure, thus having one of the corner 
 shafts immediately in front of the figure, an 
 arrangement which has doubtless assisted in 
 breaking the force of the weather, and preserving 
 the effigy within. The triangular form is pre-
 
 GEDDINGTON CROSS.
 
 32 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 served above by three nearly square shafts, 
 terminating in pinnacles, whose outward faces 
 correspond with the central shafts below ; these 
 outward faces, as well as the angles between, 
 being relieved by pinnacle work rising from 
 behind the niches. 
 
 So far the work is in a singularly perfect state, 
 but the topmost stones are gone. These probably 
 rose in a column, round which the square shafts 
 stood like buttresses, bearing on high the small 
 ornamental cross, with which each of these 
 structures was surmounted. 
 
 A curious story, illustrative of the brutal sports 
 once popular, not in bygone Northamptonshire 
 only, but throughout bygone England, is told of 
 the destruction of this small upper section of 
 Geddington Cross. 
 
 On the festival of the patroness of the Parish 
 Church, St. Mary Magdalene (July 22nd), 
 " Geddington Feast " is held, when, among other 
 rural sports and jollity in vogue, it was formerly 
 the practice to fasten a squirrel to the top of the 
 cross, to be pelted to death by the merry-makers 
 below, * who, so the tale goes, did their part with 
 
 * For another instance of such cruel and brutalising amusements, now, 
 happily, things of the past, see the account of the Stamford " Bull-running," 
 in "Bygone Lincolnshire," vol. i, p. 201. (Hull, A. Brown & Sons).
 
 THE ELEANOR CROSSES. 33 
 
 such good will as not only to kill the annual 
 squirrel, but, in the course of time, seriously to 
 damage the chief glory of their parish. It is 
 more than likely, however, that Puritan bigotry 
 had done something before this in the way of 
 removing the sign of our salvation from its place 
 on the monument. 
 
 It will be necessary for us to say a few words 
 on the comparisons that have been made between 
 the still-surviving examples of the Eleanor 
 Crosses ; but, before doing so, it will be well to 
 consider in detail the other Northamptonshire 
 specimen, that near the county town. 
 
 Northampton, some nineteen miles distant from 
 Geddington, was probably the next (or fourth) 
 resting-place of the funeral procession. The old 
 town had long since grown used to witnessing 
 royal state. Councils and kingly feasting had 
 taken place here, from time to time, under almost 
 every king since the Conquest, but never before 
 saw it so sad a royal entry as when the funeral of 
 Queen Eleanor swept through the streets, in the 
 twilight of the December evening, to its temporary 
 resting-place southward of the town. Here, at 
 some little distance off the high road, lay on the 
 left hand a house of Cluniac nuns, Delapre Abbey
 
 34 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 by name, the chapel of which, in all probability, 
 sheltered the bier throughout the night. 
 
 The site chosen in this instance for the memorial 
 cross was on the highway side, facing the abbey, 
 and overlooking the town. 
 
 The plan of Northampton Cross is octagonal, 
 rising on seven steps, which have, unfortunately, 
 been recently renewed. The first stage consists of 
 eight gables of rather elaborate tracery, separated 
 by pinnacled shafts, and bearing two shields in 
 each face, and in the centre of each alternate face 
 an open book upon a desk. A band of roses, 
 delicately carved, surmounts this, above which 
 again is a moulding ornamented with a bold 
 indented pattern. The second stage is formed 
 by exquisitely-worked canopies, containing four 
 statues of the queen ; here, and in almost all the 
 tracery of this cross, foliage is largely introduced, 
 and is most naturally and gracefully treated. The 
 last stage of the structure, as it now stands, is 
 quadrilateral, consisting of four traceried gables, 
 out of which rises the broken shaft that once bore 
 the cross. 
 
 In design, the Northampton Cross is far more 
 elaborate, and, in the opinion of most, more 
 graceful, than that of Geddington. The triangle
 
 THE ELEANOR CROSSES. 35 
 
 is certainly not so elegant a figure on which to 
 build as the octagon, and, from some points of 
 view, the Geddington Cross distinctly illustrates 
 this. Yet there is a lightness about the latter 
 which is very attractive, arising from its small 
 base in proportion to its height, and from the way 
 in which one can see through the stage bearing 
 the statues. The Nottingham Cross has, how- 
 ever, undoubtedly proved more suggestive to 
 modern artists than its neighbour at Geddington 
 has done. 
 
 The architect of the cross in the county town 
 is said to have been John de la Battaile, while 
 Alexander of Abingdon and William de Ireland 
 were responsible for the execution of the work ; 
 the last-named is credited with the carving of the 
 statues of the queen in this and several other 
 instances. The architect of Geddington Cross 
 is unknown ; its whole design is so unlike the 
 rest of the series of which any details have come 
 down to us, that it seems probable that its origin 
 was quite different, and some (judging by the 
 style of contemporary work in Spain) have 
 suggested that some Castilian may have designed 
 this memorial of his royal countrywoman.* 
 
 * See an article on the Eleanor Crosses, by Mr. A. Rimmer, in the 
 " Art Journal," of February, 1874.
 
 36 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 With the course of this truly royal funeral we 
 have nothing further to do ; its next resting-place 
 is Stony Stratford, in Buckinghamshire, and so 
 it passes beyond our province. It will be enough 
 for us to add that the melancholy journey was 
 completed on December 17th, 1290, and that 
 Charing Cross (the cross of the beloved queen, 
 " chere reine,") marked the last halt ere that 
 form, which all the statues tell us was both noble 
 in stature and beautiful in feature, was at last laid 
 to rest beneath the fretted roof of the burial- 
 place of kings at Westminster. 
 
 As lovers of art, of antiquity, and of the 
 Christian faith, we must needs feel indignation 
 and regret that so many crosses, similar to those 
 which we have attempted to describe, have been 
 ruthlessly destroyed ; as lovers of our kind we 
 must feel no less moved that men should have 
 had the heart to tear down the memorials of one 
 so worthy to be remembered.
 
 jTotberinobav : preeent anb paet. 
 
 By Mrs. Dempsey, 
 
 PROBABLY no site possessing so many- 
 claims to interest from the past bears such 
 slight present indications of what has been, so little 
 to show the most careful observer where once 
 stood the famous Castle of Fotheringhay, a royal 
 residence, a state prison, the birthplace of the 
 third Richard, and the place of execution of the 
 beautiful, ill-fated Marie Stuart, 
 
 " A sad prisoner, passing weary years 
 In many castles, till at Fotheringhay 
 The joyless life was ended." 
 
 There is an enormous, uneven mound of earth, 
 honeycombed with rabbit-holes, and covered with 
 grass. One side is worn into irregular ridges by 
 which sheep sometimes climb from their quiet 
 grazing ground in the meadow below, formerly a 
 great yard, "half encompassing the castle." 
 On the northern and western sides, the hill 
 descends steeply into a long marshy pool, where
 
 38 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 ducks paddle contentedly among flags and rushes, 
 with here and there a bright patch of blue forget- 
 me-nots. This is all that remains of the inner 
 moat, sixty-six feet wide and spanned by a 
 massive drawbridge, which, for protection and 
 defence, once surrounded the walls. 
 
 Upon and around the mound grow very fine 
 hawthorns, about fourteen in all, bearing in early 
 summer pink and white May-blossoms of unusual 
 size and beauty. There, too, " Beside the thorn, 
 the barren thistle springs," growing luxuriantly 
 throughout the whole area of the castle, Scotia's 
 emblem, "with its purple coronals and its glossy 
 green leaves, veined with milky white," from which 
 it receives its name of the Milk Thistle (Carduus 
 Marianus). It maybe an open question whether 
 this or the Cotton Thistle (Onopordiuni acanthitun) 
 is the thistle par excellence of Scotland, but, 
 beyond doubt, the Milk Thistle was the chosen 
 emblem of Mary Queen of Scots, for, though 
 more than three hundred years have passed, this 
 variety is still found growing profusely about 
 every place where she resided from Dumbarton 
 to Fotheringhay, and the inference is that the 
 royal captive, or some of her attendants, scattered 
 the seed freely beyond the walls of her English
 
 FOTHERINGHA Y: PRESENT AND PAST. 39 
 
 prisons, as well as in the gardens of her Scottish 
 homes. 
 
 Beyond the moat are traces of a wall, and, 
 farther still, the Nen glides peacefully along, 
 winding like a silver thread through " the exceed- 
 ing goodly meadowes by Foderinghey," as an old 
 chronicle has it. The river formed part of an 
 outer moat, and also an approach by water, 
 Edward IV. coming in this manner from Crow- 
 land, in 1469, to join his queen, then residing at 
 Fotheringhay. This queen, Elizabeth Grey or 
 Woodville, was secretly wooed and won by the 
 English monarch amid the leafy shades of Grafton, 
 not far distant. In ancient times, the Nen was 
 crossed by a ford, and, possibly to protect this 
 passage, the mound was first raised upon which, 
 at a later day, the keep of the castle was built. 
 Queen Elizabeth, in one of her progresses, made 
 some stay at Fotheringhay, and, at her order and 
 charges, a stone bridge of four arches was erected, 
 upon which a tablet was placed with the inscrip- 
 tion : 
 
 " God save the Queen, 
 
 This bridge was made by Queen 
 
 Elizabeth, in the 15 th yere of her Reygne. 
 
 A.D. 1573." 
 
 Generations passed away, the tablet was
 
 40 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 destroyed by Cromwell's soldiers in their zealous 
 hatred of monarchy. The bridge fell into decay, 
 and, in 1722, was re-built by a stone-mason of 
 Stamford. The Nen was opened for general 
 navigation in 1728. 
 
 Upon the river bank stands one huge boulder, 
 in colour and appearance resembling limestone, 
 but hard as rock. It is higher than a tall man, 
 and about eight feet thick. Pieces are constantly 
 being chipped from the surface by visitors, and 
 carried away as relics. This shapeless block 
 appears to be the sole fragment of the castle 
 masonry remaining. 
 
 Near to the castle hill stands the church, a 
 remarkable building in the Perpendicular style, 
 although the original intention of founding a 
 collegiate church, with cloisters, colleges, and 
 appropriate surroundings, was never carried out. 
 Above the west end of the nave rises a massive 
 embattled tower of two storys, surmounted by 
 the falcon device of the royal Yorks as a vane. 
 
 Nearly at the close of the fourteenth century, 
 Edmund of Langley, fifth son of Edward III., 
 having re-built the ancient castle, erected a 
 "large and magnificent choir," at the east end of 
 the old church. When he died, his son Edward,
 
 FOTHERINGHA Y: PRESENT AND FAST. 41 
 
 Duke of York, continued the proposed improve- 
 ments, intending to re-build the nave on a similar 
 elaborate plan, but his death at Agincourt stopped 
 proceedings for a time, though the work was 
 eventually carried out, to some extent, by com- 
 missioners. When dying, Edward had directed 
 that his burial should be at Fotheringhay. The 
 body was conveyed to England, and laid in state 
 at Westminster, a solemn service being performed 
 in St. Paul's Cathedral, by order of the king. 
 The interment took place at Fotheringhay, on 
 December ist, 14 15, the tomb being afterwards 
 described by the historian as " a flat, marble 
 stone, and upon it was his image flat in brass." 
 Successive members of the York family restored 
 and improved other portions of the original 
 building. 
 
 Windows of richly-stained glass were also 
 added, no fragment of which now remains. 
 
 In the 37th year of Henry VI., Richard 
 Plantagenet, Duke of York, was killed at the 
 battle of Wakefield. Elated with victory, the 
 ambitious Margaret of Angou, with unwomanly 
 brutality, caused the head of her late opponent, 
 encircled with a paper crown, to be placed on 
 Micklegate Bar, overlooking the town of York.
 
 42 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Richard's body, with that of his second son, 
 Edmund, the young Earl ot Rutland, so bar- 
 barously murdered by Lord Clifford, were buried 
 at Pontefract. 
 
 Time brought round the defeat of Margaret, 
 the deposition of her husband, the coronation of 
 the Earl of March as Edward IV., and the 
 murder of Margaret's son. Then followed the 
 removal of the unhappy, bereaved mother to the 
 Tower, where her husband, Henry VI., had, with 
 one short interval, past the last seven years of 
 his life in bitter captivity, and where he had 
 recently died under somewhat suspicious circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The new king, Edward, had previously caused 
 the head of his father to be taken from the wall 
 of York to Fotheringhay, and, in the year 1466, 
 he transferred thither the bodies of his father and 
 brother from Pontefract, with great pomp and 
 ceremony. 
 
 The procession was seven days passing by 
 easy stages to Fotheringhay, and was there met 
 by the king and queen, the two princesses, the 
 members of the royal household, and many others, 
 attired in deepest mourning. The obsequies 
 were continued for several days, and the remains
 
 FOTHERINGHA Y: PRESENT AND PAST. 43 
 
 were deposited in one grave in the choir, near 
 that of the hero of Agincourt. A handsome 
 shrine was erected by the king to their joint 
 memory, in 1477. The wife of Richard Plan- 
 tagenet survived her husband about thirty-six 
 years, and was then buried by his side. 
 
 In the last year of Edward VI., the choir and 
 collegiate buildings were granted to Dudley, 
 Duke of Northumberland, and, from that time, 
 fell gradually into decay. When Queen Elizabeth 
 visited Fotheringhay, she found the graves of 
 her ancestors (the Dukes of York) neglected 
 among the ruins of the cloisters, or, as stated by 
 Fuller, the coffins re-buried in the churchyard, 
 without stone or memorial whatever. By the 
 queen's command, the bodies were removed into 
 the church, and deposited on each side of the 
 communion table ; the monuments now in exist- 
 ence being placed by her in memory of the 
 illustrious dead. Over each tomb is a wooden 
 tablet ; the one on the south side bears the 
 following inscription : 
 
 " Edward, Uuke of York, was slain at the battle of Agin- 
 court, in the third year of Henry V., 141 5." 
 
 The north tablet reads : 
 
 " Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, nephew to Edward,
 
 44 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Duke of York, and father to King Edward IV., was slain at 
 Wakefield, in the thirty-seventh year of Henry VI., 1459, and 
 lies buried here with Cecily, his wife. Cecily, Duchess of 
 York, was daughter to Ralph Neville, first Earl of West- 
 moreland." 
 
 The monuments bear crests, armorial devices, 
 and various symbolical representations in common 
 with the whole interior of the church. The one 
 most often repeated is the device of the royal 
 house of York, a falcon enclosed in a fetterlock. 
 Sometimes the bird is represented as attempting 
 to spread its wings and force the lock ; and again, 
 when the fortunes of the White Rose were in the 
 ascendant, the falcon appeared free and the lock 
 open. 
 
 The pavement of the church abounds in tomb- 
 stones, from which the brasses have disappeared. 
 
 The original font and pulpit are still used, the 
 latter bearing Richard III.'s badge of a boar. 
 The font is of unique design, and a most interest- 
 ing object. There is a peal of four bells, one 
 bearing date 1595. 
 
 Fotheringhay itself is reduced from a market 
 town of some importance in the county to a 
 remarkably quiet and fast diminishing village. It 
 still "is but of one street, all of stone building," 
 and many of the houses are thatched. The
 
 FOTHERINGHA Y: PRESENT AND PAST. 45 
 
 " New Inn," now a gentleman's residence, is 
 believed to have been built by Edward IV., and 
 was used on special occasions to supplement the 
 accommodation of the castle. 
 
 The local belief that the Fotheringhay estate, 
 having belonged to the Crown, will revert to the 
 Crown again has not at present been verified ; 
 but it is a remarkable fact that very rarely has it 
 passed from father to son for generations. Many 
 owners have died childless, and the land has 
 changed hands frequently simply by purchase. 
 
 It is a curious fact that while many accounts of 
 the strength, grandeur, and magnificence of the 
 castle have been recorded, there is no engraving, 
 plan, or draft known to be in existence, to show 
 the appearance of one of the most interesting 
 places in history. 
 
 It was originally built in the reign of Stephen 
 by Simon de St. Liz (an ancestor of Marie 
 Stuart), who married a great-niece of William the 
 Conqueror, and seems to have been a most un- 
 happy possession. Its owners, with very few 
 exceptions, " found in Fotheringhay either a 
 troubled home, a gloomy prison, or the grave of a 
 violent death." The last of the "luckless 
 Balliols " to possess it was Mary of Valence,
 
 46 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Countess of Pembroke, whose bridegroom was 
 killed in a tournament on the day of their 
 marriage. " She passed the long years of her 
 virgin-widowhood at Fotheringhay, devoting her- 
 self to the services of religion, and her fortune 
 to the foundation of Pembroke Hall, in the 
 University of Cambridge, to perpetuate the 
 memory of her husband of a few hours." She 
 was succeeded by Edmund of Langley, who re- 
 built the castle, the keep being erected in the 
 form of a horse fetterlock. His son and successor, 
 Edward, Duke of York, perished in France, while 
 fighting gloriously in the front rank of English 
 archers, in 141 5, and soon 
 
 " From Agincourt's victorious plain, 
 They bear the fallen hero o'er the main " 
 
 to his grave in the collegiate church at Fothering- 
 hay, which he had enlarged and adorned. His 
 brother " Richard, Earl of Cambridge, the next 
 owner was shortly afterwards beheaded, on a 
 charge of treason. His son Richard was the 
 Duke of York, who was killed at Wakefield, and 
 whose body, with that of his son Edmund, was 
 brought to Fotheringhay for burial. Richard's 
 wife, Cecily, daughter of the first Earl of West- 
 moreland, spent there nearly the whole of her sad
 
 FOTHERINGHA Y: PRESENT AND PAST. 47 
 
 widowhood (a period variously stated from thirty 
 to thirty-six years), Hke Mary of Pembroke, and 
 like her there too found a grave. 
 
 Conspicuous among the many sorrows of the 
 Duchess Cecily's life must have been the terrible 
 fate of her two little grandsons, Edward V. and 
 his brother in the Tower. Most agonising must 
 have been the bitterness of her grief that the cruel 
 director of so base and treacherous a deed was 
 her own son, born at Fotheringhay, Richard 
 Crookback, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards 
 Richard III., of infamous memory. 
 
 The Duchess Cecily kept the manor in her 
 own right until the ninth year of her son Edward 
 IV., and after that time, under successive 
 sovereigns, it " was held in fee and right by royal 
 hand." 
 
 Henry VII. bestowed the castle upon his wife, 
 Elizabeth of York, as sole representative of that 
 once-powerful family. Henry VIII. settled it on 
 his first queen, Catherine of Arragon, who appears 
 to have had a liking for the place, as she spent 
 large sums of money in repairing and renovating 
 certain portions ; but, discovering that the king 
 had a project to keep her there in close confine- 
 ment, she declared that " to Fotheringhay she
 
 48 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, 
 
 would not go, unless bound with cart-ropes and 
 carried thither." Catherine retired to Kimbolton, 
 where she spent her life in quiet seclusion, and 
 was afterwards buried in Peterborough Cathedral. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Mary, the castle was 
 used as a state prison, Edward Courtney, Earl of 
 Devon, was confined there after removal from 
 the Tower, on a charge of being concerned in 
 the Wyatt conspiracy. 
 
 In the autumn of 1586, the apartments in the 
 castle which had lodged the Queen of England, 
 were occupied by another royal lady, not this 
 time a guest, but a prisoner, and to her Fothering- 
 hay owes its greatest interest. 
 
 To eyes accustomed to the sunny skies of 
 France, and the bonnie hills of Scotland, dreary 
 must have been the prospect, across those fields 
 in the low-lying valley of the Nen. Small 
 wonder, in that fog-laden atmosphere, Mary 
 suffered agonies from neuralgia and rheumatism. 
 In October three weeks after her arrival from 
 Chartley forty-six peers were appointed by 
 Queen Elizabeth as a commission. Of these, 
 thirty-four arrived at Fotheringhay, and were 
 entertained at the New Inn and various other 
 houses, as the castle precincts were filled with
 
 FOTHEIUNGIIA Y: PRESENT AND PAST. 49 
 
 numerous soldiers, guards, and attendants, during 
 the progress of the trial. Mary had been keeping 
 her bed, and could scarcely stand ; nevertheless 
 she faced her accusers with undaunted spirit and 
 courage, and, for two days, met their charges 
 with a calm and dignified denial. On the second 
 day the court broke up abruptly, and the so- 
 called trial was ended. The commissioners met 
 again at Westminster, when sentence of death 
 was pronounced. 
 
 Owing to remonstrances from the King of 
 France, Mary's life was spared for a short time, 
 but, on February ist, Elizabeth signed an order 
 for the execution, suggesting that the large 
 banqueting-hall would be a more fitting place 
 than the court-yard. Early on Sunday morning, 
 February 5th, the Tower executioner, and other 
 officials, came to Fotheringhay. On Tuesday, 
 the Earls of Kent and Shrewsbury had an inter- 
 view with Mary, and informed her that her 
 execution was to take place on the following 
 morning, at eight o'clock. 
 
 The final scene in the grim tragedy at 
 Fotheringhay was swiftly enacted. Unfortunate 
 to the end, three strokes of the axe were required 
 before the neck was severed. 
 
 D
 
 50 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 The body was rudely wrapped in coarse cloth 
 stripped from a billiard table, while the severed 
 head, on a velvet cushion, was exposed in the 
 open window of the hall to gratify the curiosity of 
 soldiers and visitors who thronged the court-yard. 
 
 Lord Talbot mounted a swift horse and rode 
 to tell Queen Elizabeth that her prisoner at 
 Fotheringhay was dead. 
 
 Both head and body were carried to an upper 
 chamber, and, after hasty and imperfect embalm- 
 ing, were placed in a leaden coffin ; and for six 
 months remained unburied. James of Scotland and 
 others petitioned Elizabeth that the body might 
 at least receive Christian burial. She finallv 
 granted permission, and ordained that the funeral 
 should take place at Peterborough Cathedral, with 
 full state ceremonies. On August ist, 1587, 
 officers were sent from London to make arrange- 
 ments, and, two days previous to the funeral, the 
 Garter King-at-Arms, with five heralds and 
 forty horsemen, brought to the castle a splendid 
 car, covered with black velvet, ornamented with 
 pennons and escutcheons, bearing the arms of 
 Scotland, and drawn by four horses. 
 
 At ten o'clock the same night the procession 
 started for Peterborough, attended by "a long
 
 FOTHERINGHAY: PRESENT AND PAST. 51 
 
 train of mourners, both men and women, who 
 had been faithful to the Queen of Scots in the 
 days of her captivity, and now followed her 
 remains as they were borne away in mock state 
 from Fotheringhay Castle, her last prison, and 
 the scene of her sham trial and cruel death." "It 
 must have been a weird scene, in the dead of the 
 night, to anyone who chanced to see that torch- 
 light procession making its slow way along the 
 country roads." The distance was rather more 
 than ten miles, and the west door of the cathedral 
 was reached between one and two o'clock in the 
 early morning. The cortege was met by bishops 
 and clergy, the King-at-Arms and state officers, 
 and the coffin, which weighed nearly nine 
 hundredweight, was at once placed in the vault 
 prepared to receive it, in the south aisle, opposite 
 to the tomb of Katherine of Arragon. 
 
 On Tuesday, a magnificent procession passed 
 from the Bishop's Palace, Queen Elizabeth being 
 represented as chief mourner by the Countess of 
 Bedford, a crown of gold and jewels was borne 
 on a purple velvet cushion, before a sham coffin, 
 carried upon a bier, under a gorgeous canopy. 
 This was placed above the vault where the real 
 body was already laid. Impressive services and
 
 52 BYG ONE NOR THAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 imposing ceremonies were held over the remains 
 of Henry VI I. s grand-daughter. In con- 
 clusion, the burial service was read at the tomb, 
 and the officers of state broke their white wands 
 and cast them upon the coffin. 
 
 A great banquet was prepared at the Bishop's 
 Palace, but Mary's servants were allowed to eat 
 in a room apart, as they said, "their hearts were 
 too sad to feast, and they preferred being by 
 themselves, as they could not restrain their tears 
 from falling." 
 
 They were afterwards escorted back to 
 Fotheringhay, and kept in rigorous confinement 
 for three months, scarcely being allowed the 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 Mary's son, James, sent to the English court, 
 demanding their release, which was granted, and, 
 with one or two exceptions, they returned to their 
 native countries of France and Scotland. 
 
 No person of distinction appears to have again 
 resided at the castle ; popular tradition tells that 
 one of the first acts of James, when he ascended 
 the English throne, was the total destruction of 
 the place where his mother met with so igno- 
 minious a death. 
 
 It is not correct, however, that James de-
 
 FOTHERINGHAY: PRESENT AND PAST. 53 
 
 molished the strong towers and massive walls at 
 Fotheringhay. Instead of destroying the castle, 
 James turned it to profit, by bestowing it upon 
 three of his courtiers, but it seems to have 
 been rather an encumbrance, and allowed to 
 fall into ruin, until a descendant of one of 
 these courtiers, seeing that an enormous outlay 
 would be required to restore the buildings, pre- 
 ferred to dismantle the castle, and sell not only 
 the contents, but also the materials of which it 
 was built. The lordship and manorial rights 
 were also sold, and changed owners frequently, 
 until they were bought, with the estate, by Lord 
 Overstone. 
 
 When the demolition of the castle was made, 
 about the year 1627, by order of Henry, last 
 Earl of Newport, a large purchaser was found in 
 Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, of Conington, Hunts, 
 who was descended from the royal family of 
 Scotland, and, being proud of his kinship to 
 Marie Stuart, endeavoured to possess himself of 
 every possible memento of his unfortunate relative. 
 He bought nearly all the old banqueting-hall. 
 Eleven arches and columns, which stood in the 
 interior, were conveyed to Conington Castle, then 
 being enlarged, and were built into the north and
 
 54 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 west fronts of the ground floor. The carved oak 
 chair used by Mary on the scaffold is still pre- 
 served in the chancel of Conington Church. 
 
 Portions of the stone were carried to Oundle, 
 Fineshade, and other places, for building purposes, 
 the walls, in this way, being gradually removed. 
 In 1820, while digging out the foundations of the 
 old banqueting-hall, a labourer found Queen 
 Mary's ring, supposed to be her betrothal ring 
 from Darnley, as it is engraved with the initials 
 M.H., entwined in a true lover's knot. Inside 
 are engraved the royal arms of Scotland, and 
 " Henri L'Darnley." Miss Agnes Strickland 
 conjectured that Mary wore the ring at her execu- 
 tion, but, falling from her finger in the agony 
 of death, it was thrown away unseen with the 
 bloody sawdust, to remain undiscovered for 233 
 years. It is now in the South Kensington Museum. 
 
 Twenty-six years after Mary's death, her son, 
 King James, sent an autograph letter to the 
 Dean and Chapter of Peterborough Cathedral, 
 authorizing the removal of his mother's body to a 
 sepulchre, befitting her rank and lineage, in West- 
 minster Abbey, and there the body now rests, 
 under a magnificent monument, in the south 
 aisle of Henry VI I. 's Chapel.
 
 ^be Battle of maecb^ 
 
 By Edward Lamplough. 
 
 AFTER the defeat of Prince Rupert's gallant 
 army at Marston Moor, on the 2nd of 
 July, 1664, the cause of King Charles gradually 
 but surely declined. His Majesty had rightly 
 estimated the crisis of the war, when he 
 demanded of Prince Rupert the relief of York, 
 and the defeat of Manchester's army. 
 
 Rupert's disaster lost the loyal North to the 
 king. York surrendered ; and, one by one, the 
 loyal fortresses fell into the hands of the Parlia- 
 mentarian captains. When at the height of 
 his prosperity, Newcastle failed to make the 
 most effective use of the splendid material at 
 his disposal, and in the hour of defeat he lost 
 heart, and withdrew from the conflict. 
 
 With tireless devotion and gallantry the 
 Cavaliers maintained the conflict, unfortunately, 
 however, tarnishing their military fame by many
 
 56 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 acts of license, and especially by the plundering 
 of the country through which they marched. 
 
 The royal commanders Goring, Wilmot, and 
 Greenvil rendered themselves especially ob- 
 noxious to the country people, who began to 
 assemble in arms for the protection of their 
 property from the depredations of both armies. 
 The members of this defensive association were 
 styled "Clubmen," and necessarily suffered from 
 the jealousy and resentment of both Parliament- 
 arians and Cavaliers. 
 
 On the resumption of active hostilities, in 1645, 
 the Parliamentarians brought their famous newly- 
 modelled army into the field, under the command 
 of that brilliant soldier. Sir Thomas Fairfax. 
 
 To King Charles there remained barely a third 
 of his kingdom in loyal obedience, and his 
 widely-dispersed forces, although, perhaps, more 
 numerous than the Parliamentarians, were not 
 kept so well in hand, nor subjected to such 
 perfect discipline. 
 
 At first, success attended the royal plans. The 
 besiegers of Chester retired on the first alarm of 
 his advance, and on the 31st of May, he stormed 
 and sacked Leicester. 
 
 Fairfax had projected the relief of Taunton,
 
 THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. 57 
 
 then beleagured by Greenvil, but being diverted 
 from this object by the command of Parliament, 
 he marched against the king, and on the evening 
 of the 13th of June, he quartered his army at 
 Northampton, six miles from the royal army, 
 which had taken up a position near the village 
 of Naseby, between Daventry and Harborough. 
 
 Cromwell had joined the army, having received 
 his commission of Lieutenant-General ; and 
 Ireton, reconnoitering the royal army, fell upon 
 and forced one of the outposts. 
 
 Upon this intimation of the enemy being 
 within striking distance, the king called a council 
 of war. The first intention had been to retire 
 northward until the arrival of reinforcements, 
 but, with their usual gallantry, the Cavaliers 
 were eager to engage when they found the 
 enemy at hand, although they were outnumbered, 
 and conscious that the battle would, in all prob- 
 ability, be decisive of the struggle. 
 
 The resolution to fight was unfortunate, but 
 
 " The Man of Blood was there, with his long essenced hair. 
 And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine," 
 
 and these gallant Cavaliers were never slow at 
 trying their strength against their enemies. Had
 
 58 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 the retreat northward been continued, the royal 
 army would have been swollen by reinforcements 
 of 5000 foot and horse, including Gerrard's corps 
 of 3000. As it was, Charles had only 7,400 men 
 to pit against the 10,000 of Fairfax, 
 
 The Parliamentarian captains had not expected 
 the king to turn upon them, and abide the hazard 
 of the field ; but on being satisfied that this was 
 his intention, and having obtained some infor- 
 mation from their prisoners relative to the 
 number of his forces, they concluded to accept 
 the proffered battle. The early dawn of the 
 14th June beheld their serried masses in motion, 
 not marching to the resonant pealing of the 
 battle psalm, nor to the exhilarating sounds of 
 trumpet and drum, but pressing forward through 
 the grey dawn in impressive silence. 
 
 When in the vicinity of Naseby, the marching 
 army sighted a body of cavalry advancing under 
 the royal banner, and Fairfax and Cromwell 
 decided to form their line of battle on the spot. 
 
 Doubtless this was Rupert's reconnaissance, 
 and the halt of the advancing enemy induced his 
 rash conclusion that they were about to retreat. 
 
 The ground selected was a gentle eminence, 
 sloping down to, and commanding the fallow
 
 THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. 59 
 
 field over which the Royalist attack would be 
 made. With their usual deliberation and pru- 
 dence, the Parliamentarians made the best of 
 their position, and posted their twenty pieces of 
 ordnance to command the approaches. 
 
 When Fairfax commenced his march, the 
 Royalists were forming their line of battle on 
 an elevation about a mile south of Harborough. 
 Lord Astley commanded the infantry of the 
 centre ; King Charles held the reserves under 
 his immediate orders, they consisted of his 
 life-guards, under the Earl of Lindsay ; Rupert's 
 regiment of foot ; and the royal horse-guards, 
 under the Earl of Lichfield. The wings con- 
 sisted of cavalry, and Rupert carried his banner 
 on the right, while Sir Marmaduke Langdale 
 commanded the left, being assisted by Sir Henry 
 Baird and Sir George Lisle. 
 
 To maintain his position, and compel the 
 enemy to take the initiative, or to decline the 
 battle, was the reasonable and prudent course 
 that Charles should have adopted ; but this course 
 was not consistent with the character of his 
 ofificers. 
 
 The impetuous Rupert was apprehensive that 
 the enemy was retreating without risking a battle ;
 
 6o ' BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 the rumour spread through the army ; all were 
 impatient of inaction, and anxiously awaited the 
 first indication of the enemy's approach, too rashly 
 concluding that the retreat had commenced. 
 
 To ascertain the state of affairs, Prince Rupert 
 pushed on for about a couple of miles, and, 
 drawing a rash conclusion from his hurried 
 reconnaissance, despatched a hasty message to 
 his royal uncle, stating that Fairfax appeared to 
 be on the point of turning his back, and that a 
 general advance of the royal forces would drive 
 his army from the field. 
 
 In an unhappy hour the unfortunate monarch 
 acceded to the wishes of his commanders, and, 
 forsaking his position, rushed precipitately upon 
 his fate. The ruinous consequences of defeat 
 must have been apparent to all, yet every advan- 
 tage was surrendered, and impatience and disorder 
 reigned in the royal army. The heroism of the 
 Cavaliers may not excuse their contempt of their 
 adversaries, which was opposed to all reason and 
 experience. None knew better than they that 
 Cromwell, Fairfax, and Ireton, were not the 
 men to retreat in confusion before an inferior 
 army ; nor were their soldiers likely, under any 
 circumstances, to disperse without coming to blows.
 
 THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. 6i 
 
 " Queen Mary," was the field-word of the 
 king's men, "God our strength," that of their 
 opponents. 
 
 " Before the cannon was turned, or the ground 
 chosen by the RoyaHsts," they rashly commenced 
 the conflict, at ten o'clock on that memorable 
 June day. 
 
 As the Royalists closed upon their adversaries, 
 fierce cries of exultation rolled from rank to rank, 
 for both armies welcomed the trial at arms as 
 though conscious that it was to prove the crown 
 of that long, bloody waste of civil war, the final 
 decision of the supremacy of one of the contending 
 parties. 
 
 Rupert commenced the battle by delivering 
 one of his fiery charges. In vain Ireton strove 
 to stem the rushing tide of men and horses ; his 
 squadrons were pierced, and ridden over and 
 through. As though driven by a whirlwind, the 
 left wing of the Parliamentarians was borne off 
 the field in utter confusion, followed by Rupert's 
 Cavaliers, with loose reins, wild with the excite- 
 ment of pursuit, and making deadly work with 
 pistol and rapier. Ill fared it with Ireton in the 
 onset ; his horse fell under him, slain by a shot ; 
 his face was scored by a pike, one thigh was
 
 62 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 pierced by a sword, and he fell into the hands of 
 the " Moabites," to recover his liberty during the 
 confusion of the later conflict. 
 
 Six cannons were captured, but the rash prince 
 held on, chasing the fugitives to Naseby ; thus 
 losing the golden opportunity of taking the whole 
 of Fairfax's ordnance. On his return, it was so 
 well guarded by a body of Musketeers, that he 
 failed to make any impression upon it. 
 
 With equal gallantry. Sir Marmaduke charged 
 uphill, scourged by cannon shot, and wasted by 
 the fire of Cromwell's Ironsides, who resorted to 
 their carbines before falling on with the 
 sword. 
 
 Despite the valour of the northern horse, they 
 recoiled as Cromwell met them in full career, 
 with his loud war-cry, " God with us." Thus held 
 in deadly play, the Cavaliers were shaken, and, at 
 this crisis, a reserve of Cromwell's cavalry swept 
 round the front of the contending warriors, and 
 fell like a thunderclap on Sir Marmaduke's left 
 flank. Already staggered by Cromwell's charge, 
 the Cavaliers were fairly over-mastered, and driven 
 from the field. 
 
 As at Marston Moor, the infantry of the royal 
 centre were maintaining an heroic struggle with
 
 THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. (^t, 
 
 Fairfax and Skippon, having driven in their 
 advanced column. It was a gallant contest for 
 the ground, and the Cavaliers now struggled for- 
 ward, anon were borne back, as the fortunes of 
 the battle waxed and waned. The gallant, hard- 
 fighting Fairfax was severely taxed. Skippon 
 was wounded, but declared, when pressed to retire 
 from the field, that " he would not stir so long as 
 a man would stand." 
 
 Bareheaded, for he had lost his helmet in the 
 melee, Fairfax dressed his lines, and strove to 
 bear back the royal foot. Encouraged by his 
 example, his troops clung to their ground, and 
 the rage of battle deepened. The commander of 
 his body-guard. Colonel Charles D'Oyley, offered 
 to cover him with his own head-piece, and 
 remonstrated with him for hazarding his life in 
 the murderous hand-to-hand fight. "It is well 
 enough, Charles," responded the hero, in kindly 
 refusal, as he pressed forward. 
 
 Cromwell, in his care for the battle as a whole, 
 never allowed himself to be carried away by the 
 excitement of pursuit, and, leaving two squadrons 
 of cavalry to pursue Langdale's horse, and prevent 
 their rallying and resuming the conflict, he 
 promptly proceeded to the assistance of Fairfax,
 
 64 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Amid the scene of carnage, one regiment of the 
 royal infantry was conspicuous by its unshaken 
 front, although D'Oyley asserted that it had 
 sustained two charges. Fairfax accordingly pre- 
 pared to charge the Cavaliers in front and flank. 
 The effect of this double charge was terrible, and 
 Fairfax and D'Oyley met in the heart of the 
 melee. The brave young Cavalier who carried 
 the royal standard was slain by Fairfax, and one 
 of his soldiers tearing the standard from the 
 death-grip of the young ensign, carried it off in 
 triumph, loudly boasting that he had slain its late 
 bearer with his own hand. Fairfax, overhearing 
 D'Oyley rating the boaster for his falsehood, 
 exclaimed, " Let him alone ; I have honour 
 enough let him take that honour to himself." 
 
 In this crisis of the battle, Cromwell came up 
 with his Ironsides, and fell upon the royal infantry, 
 already cruelly over-matched. Utterly broken, 
 they fell in scores ; many accepted quarter, and 
 threw down their arms, others sought to escape 
 from the field. The confusion was dreadful, and 
 beyond the possibility of remedy. 
 
 Charles, at the head of his weak reserve, beheld 
 the victory wrested from him, and was shaken by 
 the most poignant grief and despair. He had
 
 THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. 65 
 
 gallantly exerted himself to re-form his troops, and, 
 on beholding the fatal blow with which Cromwell 
 seconded the charges of Fairfax and D'Oyley, he 
 attempted to charge the Ironsides at the head 
 of his guards. Then it was that the Earl of 
 Carneworth, swearing some round Cavaliers' 
 oaths in the excitement of the moment, laid hands 
 upon the king's bridle and turned his horse's head 
 round, crying, "What, sir, would you rush upon 
 instant death ? " On beholding this apparent 
 movement of retreat, the royal horse fled on the 
 spur, and the field was in the hands of the Parlia- 
 mentarians. 
 
 At this dark moment, Rupert came up with his 
 disordered cavalry, thinned by their charge and 
 by the repulse they had sustained in attempting 
 to carry Cromwell's cannon. The king's guard 
 also rallied, and galloped back to his succour ; but 
 Fairfax and Cromwell were re-forming their lines, 
 in readiness to meet Rupert's attack, or to fall 
 upon him. 
 
 Rupert's cavalry were too weak, their horses 
 were blown by charge and pursuit, and any 
 attempt to recover the lost field would be induced 
 by madness and despair ; yet Charles faced the 
 Cavaliers, sword in hand, and implored them to
 
 66 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 make " One charge more, and recover the 
 day." 
 
 Nothing remained for the Royalists but to bear 
 their monarch from that sanguinary field. That 
 night His Majesty reached Leicester, closely 
 followed by the cavalry of Fairfax, whose infantry 
 appeared before the walls on the following day. 
 
 In losing this fatal battle, Charles lost his 
 gallant little army. The slain consisted of 150 
 officers and 650 soldiers ; the prisoners numbered 
 5000, including 500 officers. 
 
 The trophies and munitions of war which fell 
 into the hands of Fairfax were numerous and 
 valuable. Amongst them were the King's 
 standard, 100 pairs of colours, 12 cannons, 40 
 barrels of powder, and 800 stands of arms. 
 
 The king's private carriage, with his cabinet, 
 fell into the hands of his enemies, and his private 
 letters convinced the Parliamentarians that it was 
 impossible to confide in his honour and integrity. 
 Selections from the letters were printed, and the 
 national distrust of, and indignation towards, the 
 king, increased from that day. 
 
 Truly, as Clarendon puts it, on that melancholy 
 day of Naseby "the king and the kingdom were 
 both lost."
 
 ^be Cottage Countcea. 
 
 THE Poet Laureate has given a world-wide 
 interest to the romantic story of " The 
 Peasant Countess " of " Burleigh House by 
 Stamford town," in his popular poem, " The Lord 
 of Burleigh." He relates how Henry Cecil, in 
 the guise of a landscape-painter in humble circum- 
 stances, wooes and weds a rustic maiden, and how 
 a shadow overcasts her bright dream when the 
 real rank of her husband is made known to 
 her : 
 
 " But a trouble weighed upon her, 
 
 And perplexed her night and morn, 
 With the burthen of an honour 
 
 Unto which she was not born. 
 Faint she grew, and ever fainter, 
 
 And she murmured, ' Oh, that he 
 Were once more that landscape-painter, 
 
 Which did win my heart from me.' 
 So she drooped and drooped before him, 
 
 Fading slowly from his side : 
 Three fair children first she bore him, 
 
 Then before her time she died."
 
 68 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 The poet tells how keenly the Lord of Burleigh 
 mourned her loss, and that he buried her in the 
 dress in which she was married. 
 
 The real facts, however, are not so poetical, yet 
 Hazlitt says that the story outdoes the "Arabian 
 Nights," The following particulars may be 
 regarded as a correct version of this romantic 
 tale. Henry Cecil was born in the year 1754, 
 and was the only child of the Hon. Thomas 
 Chambers Cecil, by his marriage with Miss 
 Charlotte Gardner. At the age of nineteen he 
 had lost his parents, and was the presumptive 
 heir to his uncle's estates and the Earldom of 
 Exeter. He was by no means popular with his 
 uncle, and seldom troubled the inmates of 
 Burleigh House with his presence. While still 
 a minor he married into a good old West of 
 England family, and his wife was a lady of great 
 personal charms, named Emma Vernon, the only 
 daughter of the Squire of Hornbury Hall, in the 
 county of Worcester. The union was not a 
 happy one, young Cecil being far from an 
 exemplary husband. He wasted much of his 
 time and money in gambling. After fifteen 
 years of married life he sought and obtained a 
 divorce. His own folly and other circumstances
 
 THE COTTAGE COUNTESS. 69 
 
 rendered him a poor man, and induced him 
 shortly before the time he obtained a divorce to 
 quit the society of those in his rank of Hfe, and 
 settle down in one of the secluded villages in 
 Shropshire. He selected Bolas Magna, a charm- 
 ing little place, nestling among apple orchards 
 and green lanes. Here he was known as John 
 Jones, and was lost to the fashionable world, out 
 of sight and out of mind. For a short time he 
 lodged at the village hostelry, freely conversing 
 with the customers who came at night to smoke 
 their pipes and drink their beer. The days he 
 spent in sketching the pretty bits of scenery in 
 the district. 
 
 The noisy life of an inn soon palled upon him, 
 and he sought lodgings at some of the farm- 
 houses, but his search was almost futile, as he 
 was viewed with much suspicion; indeed, some 
 went so far as to hint that he was a highwayman. 
 The honest country folk failed to discover any 
 visible means of his making money, although they 
 saw that he spent it pretty freely. He at last 
 procured lodgings at the dwelling of a labourer 
 called Hoggins, and soon made himself a favourite 
 in the humble household. Cecil appears to have 
 been anticipating the day when he would be a
 
 70 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 free man, and, even before he had obtained a 
 divorce, he paid some attention to an attractive 
 young woman named Taylor. She, however, 
 being engaged, did not favour his suit. He then 
 made love to Sarah Hoggins, the daughter of his 
 landlady a young, comely, honest girl, who 
 reciprocated his affection. Her mother was 
 doubtful about the matter, feeling that the 
 marriage of her girl with a stranger was a step 
 that might lead to serious results, and she had a 
 lingering suspicion that there might be some 
 truth in the rumour of her lodger being a high- 
 wayman. The father was more favourably 
 inclined ; he saw that the man had plenty of 
 money, and it was a golden opportunity not 
 to be missed, and he encouraged the match. 
 Eventually the mother had to give way. In 
 June, 1 79 1, he obtained a divorce, and, on the 
 3rd of October, in the same year, in the little 
 church of Bolas, Henry Cecil and Sarah Hoggins 
 were married. He bought a piece of land near 
 Hodnet, and on it built a house, the largest in 
 the neighbourhood. The local tradesmen looked 
 upon him with mistrust, and he had to make 
 liberal advances of money before they would 
 undertake the work. Here he lived with his
 
 THE COTTAGE COUNTESS. 71 
 
 young wife, teaching her such accomplishments 
 as she would require in her future high station. 
 He did not, however, give any hint as to his real 
 character. His superior manners and education, 
 in spite of the mystery of his life, made him 
 friends, and inspired some confidence, and caused 
 the ratepayers to elect him to one of their parish 
 offices. The duties of his parochial appointment 
 took him to the sessions at Shrewsbury, where he 
 encountered a brother magistrate, who had been 
 an old schoolfellow, but was not recognised by 
 him. As a proof of his disposition to oblige his 
 friends and make himself generally useful, we 
 have found the following anecdote more than 
 once recorded that "he on one occasion 
 gratified his father-in-law by carrying a large pig 
 to be given as a present to a neighbouring 
 squire." 
 
 A little daughter was born at Bolas, and died 
 after living a few days, and was buried in the 
 churchyard, without a stone to mark her grave, 
 which is now forgotten. 
 
 After he had been married about two years he 
 read in a country newspaper an account of the 
 death of his uncle, which occurred towards the 
 close of the year 1793. Early in the following
 
 72 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 January, he repaired, with his wife, then nineteen 
 years of age, to Burleigh House. He merely 
 told her that he had to go to a distant part of 
 the country, and wished to have her company. 
 They travelled on horseback, the wife being 
 seated on a pillion behind her husband, according 
 to the fashion of the period. They stopped 
 at the several noblemen's and gentlemen's seats 
 on their route. At last they reached Burleigh 
 House, where she was told that she was a 
 countess, and the mystery of Henry Cecil solved. 
 
 When surrounded by the titled and the great 
 she sighed for a humbler position, but never- 
 theless she made an excellent wife and mother, 
 and the happiness of her husband was complete. 
 It was of short duration, for in the flower of her 
 life she died, deeply lamented, on January 17th, 
 1797. 
 
 In addition to the first-born previously men- 
 tioned, they had a daughter and two sons. One 
 of the sons was the peer who succeeded his father. 
 Lord Burleigh settled seven hundred a year on 
 his wife's parents, and gave them the house he 
 had just vacated. The Countess was cordially 
 received by the Earl's relatives, and mixed in 
 the fashionable society of London, and won
 
 THE COTTAGE COUNTESS. 73 
 
 respect and regard from all with whom she came 
 in contact. 
 
 Lawrence painted her portrait, and she is 
 represented with an oval countenance, and far 
 from rustic in appearance, her face being very 
 pleasing. 
 
 It remains to be stated, to complete the outline 
 story of the life of Henry Cecil, that he was 
 created a marquis, and that he married for his 
 third wife the Dowager-Duchess of Hamilton, 
 and died in the year 1804.
 
 Z\)c Charnel Ibouee at IRotbwclL 
 
 By Edward Chamberlain. 
 
 ROTHWELL, or Rowell as it is sometimes 
 called, is an ancient town in the County 
 of Northampton, and in Domesday Book, William 
 the Conqueror is mentioned as Lord of the Manor 
 thereof. Here are several objects of peculiar 
 interest, the chief of which is the venerable 
 church, which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. 
 This is the longest parish church in the county, 
 being one hundred and seventy-three feet in length. 
 In it may be seen some old Misererean seats with 
 their carved oaken stalls and elbow rests ; a fine 
 brass to William of Rothwelle, one of the first 
 Romish priests who held office in the edifice ; a 
 tomb and brass to Owen Ragsdale, who founded 
 Jesus Hospital; several striking funeral monu- 
 ments and hatchments ; a triple piscina (very 
 rarely seen) and a quadruple sedilia. The 
 chapel of our Ladye is still in existence but 
 very dilapidated, and all these show that
 
 CHARNEL HOUSE AT ROTHWELL. 75 
 
 the church at one time was of more than local 
 importance. 
 
 It was under this ancient edifice that a curious 
 discovery was made, and the strange sight of a 
 vast collection of human skulls and bones was 
 brought to view. 
 
 In the south aisle of the church, about two 
 hundred years ago, a grave was being dug some- 
 what deeper than usual, when, to the surprise of 
 the workman, a portion of the earth gave way, 
 and his astonishment may be better imagined 
 than described, when he found whitherward his 
 labours had been leading him, that other workers 
 had been there, and other gravediggers had been 
 preparing graves before him. 
 
 It appears to have been through this that the 
 bones were discovered, and in the vault may be 
 seen the hole in the roof blocked up with rough 
 stones. 
 
 The first published record of the bones is in 
 the " Natural History of Northamptonshire," by 
 John Morton, m.a., issued in 17 12. In section 
 50, chapter 8, mention is made of "men's and 
 women's skulls in the famous charnel house at 
 Rowell," but no particulars are given beyond the 
 words we have quoted.
 
 76 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 An entrance is now obtained by means of a low 
 doorway in the south porch of the church, and a 
 narrow winding stone stairway leads us down 
 seventeen steps into the vault. 
 
 The sight is an extraordinary one ! Shall we 
 one day be tenants of such a resting place ? The 
 thought is not calculated to raise pleasant 
 feelings. The bones around us, stacked pile 
 upon pile, row upon row, and layer upon layer, 
 with almost mathematical precision, seem con- 
 fronting us on every side. 
 
 The remains do not consist of complete 
 skeletons, but only the hardest bones in the 
 human frame, and they are stacked round the 
 vault in alternate layers of skulls, arm and leg 
 bones, and so on. No small bones are seen, 
 but some of these may be hidden beneath and at 
 the back of the piles of larger ones. 
 
 The vault measures in length thirty feet, and is 
 fifteen feet wide. The bones are arranged on 
 two sides and at the farther end. They average 
 about four feet in height, and measure from two 
 to five feet from the front to the back of the 
 heaps. 
 
 In Paul Cypher's " History of Roth well," 
 the number of skeletons is stated as 30,000.
 
 CHARNEL HOUSE AT ROTH WELL. 
 
 77 
 
 Major Whyte Melville, in his lecture on the 
 bones, estimates them at the same number, but 
 Mr. Samuel Sharp, in a paper read before 
 the Committee for Local Antiquities at North- 
 ampton, gives them as 3,000 to 4,000, which is 
 
 CHARNEI. HOUSE AT UOTHWEl.L. 
 
 probably nearer the correct number. The 
 remains, by their marks of decay, appear to be all 
 of the same date, and some of the skulls are white 
 and polished as though they had never lain in a 
 grave. Most of them appear to be the bones of
 
 78 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 full grown men, one measured thigh bone being 
 twenty-five inches in length, and the circumference 
 in the smallest place over four and a half inches. 
 It is generally supposed that some of the skulls 
 are the remains of warriors, for on examination 
 they appear with terrible wounds upon them. 
 
 One skull in particular has a large hole in the 
 forehead with a smaller hole at the back, which is 
 thought to be a wound from a lance or arrow 
 which went through the head from front to back, 
 causing instant death. 
 
 Another skull is seen where blood has 
 apparently run into the fracture, thus showing that 
 it was caused during life. It was evidently given 
 with a sword or battle-axe, and with such force 
 that the weapon crashed through the skull to the 
 throat of the warrior. One striking peculiarity of 
 the skulls is that most of them have extremely 
 low foreheads. This shows that they were 
 not of the highest type of human beings. 
 
 There is no trace whatever as to whence these 
 remains have been derived, and various con- 
 jectures have been made as to their source, 
 which may be correct or not. 
 
 One surmise, that they were brought from the 
 battlefield at Naseby and deposited here, is quickly
 
 CHARNEL HOUSE AT ROTHWELL. 79 
 
 disposed of. Naseby is ten miles from Roth well, 
 and the dead at the battle did not exceed 2,000. 
 These were buried in pits the following day, 
 which pits may still be seen on the battlefield. 
 
 A place of sepulture for monks has been sug- 
 gested, but the number of bones and the wound 
 marks would be against this theory. Again, it has 
 been suggested they were the victims of a plague, 
 but of this there is no evidence. 
 
 The most probable theory is that a number of 
 the bones were collected after some battle or 
 conflict, and the remainder removed from a part of 
 the graveyard taken for secular purposes, and 
 placed from time to time in this underground 
 chamber. The vault has a strong stone roof, 
 and at the farther end is a sketch on the wall, 
 which is stated to represent the Resurrection. 
 The vault is said to have been used for the 
 funeral rites of the Romish Church, and would be 
 disused when the building was changed from a 
 Catholic to a Protestant church at the time of the 
 Reformation. If such were the case, it would 
 easily follow that many of the smaller and softer 
 bones perished in course of time, or were lost in 
 removal, while the remainder, of harder nature, 
 stored or buried in the disused vault under
 
 8o B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 the church, have there remained until the present 
 time. 
 
 The view of the vault is from a photograph 
 which was taken by means of magnesium 
 ribbon. The spectator is supposed to be stand- 
 ing near the door, and the piles of bones on either 
 hand and at the farther end are plainly shown. 
 The marks on the vaulted roof are the initials of 
 visitors, who, with the candles used on these 
 occasions, have thus distinguished themselves.
 
 ^be (Bunpowbcr plot 
 
 By John T. Page. 
 
 IN the historic annals of bygone Northampton- 
 shire, two facts in connection with the 
 Gunpowder Plot stand out very boldly. These 
 are the conception and the betrayal of the plot 
 by Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham re- 
 spectively. Both these men were natives of 
 Northamptonshire, and both belonged to staunch 
 Roman Catholic families, but their two natures 
 were so widely different that while one was 
 determined enough to stake all on the result, the 
 other vacillated between the claims of relationship 
 and friendship, until the former overpowered him 
 and led him to betray the cause he had espoused. 
 
 Of the families of these two men we shall give 
 a very brief account, and also strive to record a 
 few of the more important incidents in the parts 
 played by Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham 
 in this diabolical plot. 
 
 The first Catesby of any note appears on the
 
 82 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 scene in the reign of Richard III. This Sir 
 William Catesby stands revealed to us con- 
 spicuously in many stirring scenes. He was high 
 in favour with his royal master all through his 
 eventful reign, and in the end fought so 
 valiantly with him on Bosworth Field that he 
 was beheaded at Leicester, by order of the victor, 
 three days after that celebrated battle. His 
 grandfather, John de Catesby, had obtained, 
 through marriage, the whole of the lordship of 
 Ashby St. Ledger's, which, on his death, 
 descended to his son William. After the execu- 
 tion of Sir William, the estate was, for some time, 
 taken possession of by the Crown, but eventually 
 (in 1496) was restored to his son George. Hence- 
 forth, until the reign of James I., the Catesbys 
 played a more or less prominent part in the politics 
 and principal events of the time, and their zeal 
 for the Roman Catholic cause is exemplified by 
 the fact that, in the reign of Elizabeth, the second 
 Sir William Catesby of the name was cited and 
 convicted before the Court of Star Chamber on 
 the charge of attending Mass and harbouring 
 Jesuits. 
 
 To Robert Catesby, however, the son and heir 
 of this Sir William, it was left to hand down the
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 83 
 
 name of Catesby to an unenviable fame, and to 
 disinherit his posterity for ever, by projecting the 
 famous Gunpowder Plot. 
 
 Looking back into the dim recesses of the 
 centuries when, in May, 1603, Robert Catesby 
 first conceived the plot, we behold the man, a 
 leader amongst his fellows for anything " requiring 
 clearness of head and strength of will," selected 
 to organise all the main points of his diabolical 
 scheme. A year afterwards, in May, 1604, a 
 house has been obtained on a lease, adjoining the 
 Parliament Houses, and in March, 1605, we see 
 the band of conspirators have safely stored away 
 their barrels of powder in the vaults beneath the 
 edifice intended for destruction. What hours of 
 anxious care and forethought are the lot of the 
 chief during these months of plotting ! What 
 visits to Ashby are made, and what secret meet- 
 ings are organised in that room which still 
 occupies its position over the old gateway leading 
 to the Manor House ! 
 
 At length comes the time when the blow 
 must be struck, if at all. Parliament meets 
 on November 5th, and all is ready the deeply- 
 laid plans are divulged to the chosen few, and, 
 by the time arranged, every man is at his
 
 84 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 post, and ready to do his part to place England 
 once more under the sway of Roman Catholicism. 
 Need we dwell on the result how the plot was 
 divulged by Tresham in the words of that memor- 
 able letter to Mounteagle, and how Fawkes was 
 captured red-handed ? Early on that Tuesday 
 morning the chief members of the band are 
 galloping for dear life from London to Ashby. 
 It is about six in the evening of the dull 
 November day when the paved yard of the old 
 Manor House echoes with the clatter of Catesby's 
 tired steed, and in a very short time he has 
 passed out again from beneath that quaint old 
 gateway in the direction of Dunchurch, never 
 more to return. Away off in Worcestershire, he, 
 with others, eventually takes shelter in the house 
 of Stephen Lyttleton, one of his brother con- 
 spirators, at Hoi beach. The house is besieged 
 by their pursuers, and Percy and Catesby, 
 standing back to back, fall by the same bullet. 
 
 It was in 1439 that the estates at Rushton first 
 came into the hands of the Tresham family, when 
 William Tresham, afterwards Sir William, became 
 their owner. During the reign ot Edward 
 IV., Sir Thomas Tresham, who had fought 
 for the Lancastrians, was beheaded. The estates
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT, 85 
 
 were then escheated to the Crown, but, though 
 granted to others, they eventually, in the reign of 
 Henry VII., reverted to one John Tresham. 
 His son. Sir Thomas Tresham, was most 
 enthusiastic in the Catholic cause, being made 
 by Queen Mary, as a reward for his zeal at 
 her accession, Lord Prior of the newly restored 
 Order of Knights Hospitallers of St. John of 
 Jerusalem. The son of this Sir Thomas died 
 before his father, and the estates became the 
 property, at the age of fifteen, of the grandson, 
 Thomas Tresham, who later in life was knighted 
 by Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth, and whose 
 remarkable career is fully dealt with in 
 this book in the chapter entitled : " Thomas 
 Tresham, and his Buildings." This poor gentle- 
 man, however, suffered great persecution in 
 consequence of being a Roman Catholic, and 
 spent much of his time in prison and much of 
 his money in fines. " For more than twenty years 
 he constantly paid into the Treasury ;^26o a 
 year, as the penalty for not going to church." 
 He died in September, 1605, leaving his estates 
 to his son Francis (one of a family of ten children), 
 who was at that time deeply involved in the 
 Gunpowder Plot.
 
 86 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Francis Tresham has become memorable 
 in history as an undecided character, through 
 not throwing his whole heart into the Plot, in 
 furtherance of which he had contributed as much as 
 ;^2,ooo in money. Two of his sisters had married 
 the Lords Stourton and Mounteagle, and it was 
 to the latter, to whom he was much attached, that 
 he transmitted that well-known anonymous letter 
 on the 28th of October, 1605, which led to the 
 discovery of the Plot. 
 
 This letter is still preserved in the State Paper 
 Office, and the following copy, in which the 
 original spelling is adhered to, may not be out 
 of place here : 
 
 " my lord out of the love i beare to some of you ere frends 
 i have a caer of youer preseruacion therfor i would advyse 
 yowe as yowe tender youer lyf to devyss some exscuse to shift 
 of youer attendance at this parleament for god and man hathe 
 concurred to punishe the wickednes of this tyme and thinke 
 not slightlye of this advertisment but retyere youre self into 
 youre contri wheare yowe maye expect the event in safti for 
 thowghe theare be no apparance of anni stir yet i saye they 
 shall receyve a terrible blowe this parleament and yet they 
 shall not seie who hurts them this cowncel is not to be 
 contemned becauss it maye do yowe good and can do yowe no 
 harme for the dangere is passed as soon as yowe have burnt 
 the letter and i hope god will give yowe the grace to mak good 
 use of it to whose holy proteccion i comend yowe. 
 to the ryght honorable the lord mowteagle."
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 87 
 
 It is pretty generally accepted now that 
 Tresham sent this letter to Mounteagle as a ruse 
 to conceal a previous betrayal of the Plot. The 
 way in which, on being handed in by a servant, it 
 was ordered to be read aloud to the assembled 
 guests, and the fact of Tresham's name not being 
 mentioned in the original indictment against 
 those implicated, both point pretty clearly to this 
 solution. 
 
 Tresham was, however, thrown into the 
 Tower on the 12th of November, and, after 
 being examined in a strange manner on various 
 occasions, he died in prison of a painful disease 
 on the 23rd of December, 1605, the only one of 
 the band of conspirators who did not suffer a 
 violent death. He was the last Tresham who 
 owned the estates, the present occupier being in 
 no way related to the family. 
 
 As has been seen, Francis Tresham owned 
 the Rushton estates for only a few months between 
 the death of his father and his own untimely end. 
 He was known as an earnest Roman Catholic, but 
 he paid little attention to the estate during his 
 father's lifetime, and on his death was too 
 bewildered by the position in which he found 
 himself relative to the Gunpowder Plot to leave
 
 88 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 behind him any traces of his short reign as Lord 
 of the Manor of Rushton. 
 
 His historical fame lies in the fact that he was 
 the only one of the conspirators who betrayed 
 any signs of wavering, in consequence of which 
 we are indebted to him for the non-success of one 
 of the most diabolical and deeply-laid plots 
 recorded in the pages of English history.
 
 I6arl6 Barton Cburcb* 
 
 By T. Tindall Wildridge. 
 
 THE advancement of the arts is almost in 
 direct ratio to the degree of security of the 
 nations among which they are practised. In this 
 light, no more certain key to general historic facts 
 can be found than in the main characteristics of 
 architectural styles, and, inversely, in national 
 conditions lies the explanation of those styles. 
 With this reflection it behoves us to approach 
 such monuments of the past as the ancient Saxon 
 church of Earls Barton. 
 
 The verdicts given during the present century 
 upon various remains of what may be called the 
 English adaptation of the Byzantine style of archi- 
 tecture have somewhat changed in the direction 
 of greater acknowledgment of the presence of 
 Saxon work in fabrics previously set down as 
 purely Norman. Rickman enumerates 120 
 churches of this country with Saxon traces, and 
 there are so many others containing fragments ot
 
 90 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 the Saxon period that competent examination 
 would probably now enable his list to be greatly- 
 increased. The tower of Earls Barton is an 
 instance ; in Evans & Brittons' " Beauties of 
 England and Wales," it is treated as being of 
 the "early Norman style." But that day has 
 passed away, and the sturdy old tower has taken 
 its proper place as one of the best examples of pure 
 Anglo-Saxon architecture which the rudeness of 
 the style has permitted the bold renovators of every 
 succeeding period to hand down to us. It was 
 considered by Sir Gilbert Scott as belonging to 
 the period anterior to the invasion of England by 
 Sweyne ; this, though apparently mere conjecture, 
 is acceptable, as it places the relic neither among 
 the earlier nor the latest examples prior to the 
 Conquest. 
 
 The earliest Saxon churches had no towers, 
 which were an importation from the Continent, 
 upon the discovery of the part which bells might 
 be made to play in ecclesiastic usage. That 
 Saxon architecture was by no means stationary 
 may be inferred from the fact that they were the 
 later portions the towers which were mostly 
 retained when the Norman picks ravenned 
 among the Saxon churches.
 
 EARLS BARTON CHURCH. 91 
 
 It is the tower that is left of Saxon Earls 
 Barton. It speaks of a time when communication 
 with the arts of Europe was limited, when pay- 
 ments of money were fewer than payments in 
 kind, and when masonic organization was here in 
 
 EARLS BARTON CHURCH TOWER. 
 
 its infancy. Yet, comparatively, the tower is 
 witness to more than ordinary munificence ; it is 
 spacious and strong, and the utmost ornament of 
 the conventional art of its time and place was
 
 92 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 lavished upon it. Whether the Normans left the 
 tower because it was then sufficiently near being 
 equal to the church they added to it (demolishing 
 the rest of the early building), or because the 
 money at their disposal would not permit of the 
 building of a new tower, is one of many similar 
 questions to which there can be no positive reply. 
 Retention of earlier work is often put to the score 
 of economy, when perhaps a truer reason may be 
 that, devastators though the mediaeval building 
 clerics were, they retained in true taste structure 
 of periods anterior to their own, for the 
 world has never been without its antiquaries. 
 They had a better knowledge of the Gothic they 
 created than we who judge it and them, and there 
 is fair evidence that they retained the best, while, 
 where there is incorporation with a succeeding 
 style, it is done with surpassing lack of in- 
 harmonious contrast and incongruity. 
 
 Earls Barton Church has been subject to a 
 careful modern restoration, though the battlement 
 on the tower was an egregious error. The 
 general character of the body of the building is 
 Early Perpendicular. Incorporated with this 
 work are some Norman portions : part of the 
 chancel arch ; the south door, shafted, and with
 
 EARLS BARTON CHURCH. 93 
 
 rich mouldings ; and a fine arcade on both north 
 and south sides. Dr. Bonney judges that the 
 rising of the three bays on the south side towards 
 the east indicates that the Norman chancel was 
 as long as the present one ; this seems to be 
 undeniable. It is evident that the Norman 
 church was most elaborate. 
 
 The Tower, Northamptonshire's most antique 
 gem, is built in four stages, which gradually de- 
 crease in size at each storey. There is the usual 
 long and short rustic work at the corners, formed 
 by stones placed alternately vertical and 
 horizontal. There are several unglazed windows 
 with round shafts. The faces of the walls are 
 relieved by flat pilasters running continuously 
 from the top of the third storey to the ground, 
 being interrupted by the flat cornice of each stage. 
 The panel spaces between the pilasters are filled 
 with the cement-like coating known as "pebble- 
 dash," or "rough cast," being a concrete of 
 small stones and mortar. 
 
 The ground stage is the tallest, and its pilasters 
 are interrupted by transverse stones, fillet-wise, 
 at nearly regular intervals. There are some small 
 semi-circular arches below the cornice of this 
 stage, and probably they were originally in
 
 94 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 every panel at this part. There is a small west 
 door with a semi-circular head, projecting key- 
 stone to outer order, and block capitals. The 
 capitals are relieved by a slight arcading ; the 
 inner order of the arch is hewn from a single 
 stone. In the south side of this storey is a two- 
 light window, which has a certain barbaric grace 
 of its own, and is an excellent example of Saxon 
 detail of construction. It has in the head of 
 each arch a Greek cross, which form also appears 
 on some of the arches in the wall. Adjoining 
 this window is a sculptured design, which is 
 doubtless armorial, and may be the ensign of 
 some thane who built or contributed largely to 
 the edifice. The second stage has the flat 
 arches of its panels upon the lower cornice, 
 so that they adjoin the arches of the first 
 tier. The third stage has its arches triangular, and 
 so arranged in double rank as to form a con- 
 tinuous belt of lozenges round the tower. The 
 fourth tier is short, and contains the belfry 
 windows. Here glooms the heavy Saxon in- 
 telligence. The pilaster panelling of the rest of 
 the tower is a decrepit and cheap copy of classic 
 prototypes, where wood or metal " strips " ran up 
 the walls ; but these burly pillarets supporting
 
 EARLS BARTON CHURCH. 95 
 
 diminutive arches, each rounded feebly out of a 
 single square block, are indigenous. The pillars 
 are in groups of six, and have round capitals, 
 square bases, and medial fillets compressing their 
 waists. 
 
 Britton's " Architectural Antiquities " gives a 
 view of this tower which shows it suppositiously 
 completed ; each face is surmounted by a gable 
 
 WINDOW WITH BALUSTERS, EARLS BARTON CHURCH TOWER. 
 
 of the same proportions as the triangular arches, 
 and in the midst rises the spire. This form is 
 seen at Sompting, in Essex, but in that tower 
 there is no upper cornice, though no doubt the 
 parapet of the Earls Barton tower is a subsequent 
 addition. Whatever the original form may have 
 been in this respect, the general aspect of the tower
 
 96 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 must have been, in spite of its shortcomings, one 
 of beauty surpassing the hideously plain towers 
 which rose over many a lesser manor church of 
 say the Decorated or Perpendicular period. It 
 is, in fact, to return to the reflection with which 
 this article commenced, surprising to find a suc- 
 cession of buildings akin to this the outcome of 
 a period so stormy and unceasingly troubled as that 
 in which it was built ; and its character in part 
 debased, and in part undeveloped is that of a 
 people whose leisure was annexed and whose 
 means were absorbed by never-ending strife.
 
 By William Sharman. 
 
 THE fairs of past time were of far more 
 importance than those of the present day. 
 They formed the great hoHday of our forefathers. 
 Families were united at them. Friend met friend 
 at the fair. Acquaintance was made between 
 stranger and stranger. News was retailed and 
 slanders circulated. Altogether the old English 
 fair formed a common means of communication 
 between different parts of the country, especially 
 in Northamptonshire, it being one of the most 
 central of all the English counties. 
 
 Most of its ancient towns have the privilege 
 of a fair. Towns without one are in most cases 
 but of recent growth. 
 
 Northampton boasts of numerous fairs, 
 especially of the one devoted to the sale of wool. 
 
 The ancient city of Peterboro' has several, 
 but, as regards the business transacted, no fair 
 is larger than the one held at Boughton Green,
 
 98 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 a parish without a village, at the present time, 
 even the little church itself being in ruins. 
 
 But the business done at Boughton Green 
 fair in the past was simply enormous. Days 
 before the fair, goods of all descriptions found 
 their way to Northampton and the neighbouring 
 towns, and upon the 24th of June a fair of large 
 size was in full swing. Carts, waggons, rakes, 
 ladders, ropes, and string, had their allotted 
 portion of standing room in the commodious 
 field. Immense stacks of besoms, thousands of 
 feet of timber, and huge piles of hurdles, occupied 
 another portion, and tempted Farmer Brown to 
 " speculate." 
 
 Tradespeople went there to meet tradesmen of 
 neighbouring counties. Buckinghamshire sent 
 its wood hoops. Leicestershire its willow bowls. 
 Kings Cliffe its noted taps, spoons, and carved 
 ware. Banbury supplied its celebrated cakes, 
 and Corby and Geddington, rakes and shafts. 
 Horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs, had a day allotted 
 for their sale. Shows, swings, stalls, and sweet- 
 meats attracted the youngsters, whilst older 
 people could every day have their fortune told, 
 be cheated at thimble rig, or pay the piper in the 
 dancing booth. So much money was taken at this
 
 OLD FAIRS. 99 
 
 fair that on one occasion a certain Captain Slash 
 and a number of other reckless desperadoes decided 
 to attempt to secure a share of it for themselves. 
 So, toward midnight, when all the stall-keepers 
 and showmen were asleep, the band attacked the 
 wild beast show and liberated some of the in- 
 mates. The noise of the beasts and the screams 
 of the awakened stall-keepers were terrible in 
 the darkness, but the captain failed to secure 
 much of the money as one stall-keeper ran for 
 help from the Green to Northampton in her 
 night-dress, and her bags of copper and silver 
 tied to her. Meantime, however, the keepers of 
 the wild beast and others fell upon the rogues 
 and drove them off (when fully acquainted with 
 the state of affairs.) 
 
 Wellingboro', a town of 15,000 inhabitants, has 
 several fairs, but the chief one is that dedicated 
 to Saint Luke, and held in October. A hundred 
 years ago, when the town was not half the size it 
 is now, its streets, during the fair time, were 
 filled with merchandise. Cheese Lane was 
 crowded with piles of cheeses ; Market Street 
 with cattle ; Sheep Street with pens of sheep, 
 and Broad Green with its pleasure fair. The 
 inhabitants have a curious dinner called Hock
 
 loo B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 and Dough Flake, which is still very commonly 
 eaten on the Fair Sunday. It consists of pork 
 with a surrounding layer of flour and water 
 mixed into a paste, interspersed with potatoes 
 and seasoned with herbs. But even St. Luke's 
 Fair becomes every year of less importance, and 
 is scarcely more now than a larger market. 
 
 The village of Corby holds a fair once every 
 twenty years. Upon the fair day, which is Whit- 
 Monday, every visitor that enters early either 
 pays a toll of not less than sixpence, or is chaired 
 shoulder high through the village to find a 
 resting-place in the old-fashioned stocks. 
 
 We might mention other fairs, but to give a 
 good idea of one of the most ancient let us 
 imagine ourselves at Rothwell, or Rowell, as it is 
 more commonly called, say in the year 1790. It 
 is a very old town, noted for its hospital, market- 
 house, nunnery, and bone vault. What pre- 
 parations have been made ! All the old Blue 
 Coat Pensioners of Jesus Hospital have been 
 measured, fitted, and supplied with new blue 
 coats and breeches for the Fair Sunday. Kitchens, 
 barns, cellars, and out-houses have been lime 
 washed. The Blue Bell, the Wool-Pack, 
 the Sun, and the Crown Inns have scented the
 
 OLD FAIRS. loi 
 
 whole town with new beer. Pigs have been 
 killed by the farmers, fat oxen by the butchers, 
 and tripe prepared by the dressers. All the 
 neighbouring fields have been hired weeks ago. 
 This is one of the most ancient fairs in the 
 county. Formerly, from the year 1 1 54, a Sunday 
 market was held, but in 1204 the day was 
 changed to Monday, and by royal charter a fair 
 was granted to the town, commencing each year 
 on Trinity Sunday Eve, and lasting through the 
 five following days. 
 
 A great deal of beer will be drunk if the 
 weather is hot, and although Rowell has nine 
 or ten public-houses, yet there will not be 
 accommodation enough in the town. Green oak 
 boughs are therefore fixed above many a cottage 
 door to show that the inmate has a special right to 
 sell beer during the fair, and many a quarrel will 
 take place in these little "bough houses," as they 
 are called. Ostlers have the privilege of taking 
 in, on their own account, the farmers' horses, 
 providing they fix over the gateway or stable 
 door a wisp of hay. 
 
 All the preparations for the fair being complete, 
 the ceremony of proclaiming it takes place at 
 four o'clock on Saturday afternoon. The Squire's
 
 102 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Hill is alive with horses. Riding on a noble 
 steed comes the Lord of the Manor, or if it is 
 only his deputy, he sits on a common hack with 
 mace in hand and the proclamation tied to his 
 neck with blue ribbon. This officer is preceded 
 by six or eight halberdiers, and followed by 
 the Yeomanry Band on horseback. The lines 
 of Macaulay apply well to the Rothwell proces- 
 sion as it nears the Market Hill : 
 
 " With his white hair unbonnetted the stout old sheriff comes, 
 Before him march the halberdiers, behind him sound the 
 
 drums ; 
 His yeomen round the market-cross make clear an ample 
 
 space, 
 For there behoves him to set up the Standard of Her Grace ; " 
 
 etc. 
 
 The proclamation (which is still read every 
 year at the opening of the old charter fair early 
 on Monday morning, instead of as formerly on 
 the previous Saturday afternoon) would be read 
 nearly as follows : 
 
 " Whereas, heretofore, his late Majesty King James the First, 
 and his progenitors. Lords of the Manor of Rothwell had, 
 and used to have, one fair in the year, to be holden in the 
 said Manor, which said Manor is now by good and lawful 
 means come to John Borlase Tibbits, Esq. He, the said 
 John Borlase Tibbits, Esq., doth by these presents, notify 
 and declare, that the said fair shall begin this Monday
 
 OLD FAIRS. 103 
 
 after the feast of the Holy Trinity, and so to continue for the 
 space of five days next, after the holding and keeping of 
 it, and no longer, during which time it shall be lawful for 
 all her Majesty's subjects to come and to go, to buy and 
 to sell all manner of cattle, merchandise, and other stuff 
 being saleable ware and allowed to be bought and sold 
 by the laws of this kingdom. No toll for cattle ; stakes 
 for horses, sheep-pens, shows, and stalls are charged for as 
 heretofore. And he further strictly chargeth and commandeth 
 all persons within the liberties of the said fair to keep the 
 Queen's peace in all things, upon such penalties as the laws 
 and statutes of this kingdom are provided. 
 
 " God save the Queen and the Lord of the Manor." 
 
 And now the proclamation having been read 
 in the horse fair just behind the oldest dissenting 
 chapel in the Midlands, in the cattle fair on the 
 Squire's Hill, in the streets of the town, and also 
 in the Market Place where the pleasure fair is 
 held ; every salesman shouts " God save the 
 King," and commences business. 
 
 The number of visitors is very great. Farmers' 
 wives come in on pillions, riding horseback behind 
 their husbands. Market carts bring in numbers 
 of tradesmen, and waggons carry crowds of 
 country men, whilst the coaches are filled to 
 excess. 
 
 Naseby, nine miles away, holds its own Rowell 
 fair. The neighbouring town of Kettering also
 
 I04 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 keeps up the anniversary, so that Trinity week 
 becomes a great holiday time. 
 
 But the former glory and greatness even of 
 Rowell fair are fast departing. No barricades 
 are now required by the inhabitants to keep 
 the herds of cattle from their houses and windows, 
 no "bough house" licenses are granted to the 
 cottagers, and although the fair is not now 
 proclaimed until the Monday morning, it is 
 practically all over by the Wednesday night.
 
 Mitcbe6 an^ Mttcbcraft 
 
 By Eugene Teesdale. 
 
 SAYS H. P. Blavatsky: ''Witch! mighty 
 name, which in the past contained the 
 promise of ignominious death ; and in the present 
 has but to be pronounced to raise a whirlwind of 
 ridicule, a tornado of sarcasms ! How is it then that 
 there have always been men of intellect and learning 
 who never thought that it would disgrace their 
 reputation for learning, or lower their dignity, to 
 publicly affirm the possibility of such a thing as a 
 ' witch,' in the correct acceptation of the word." 
 
 In his " Sadducismus Triumphatus ; or, a full 
 and plain Evidence concerning Witches and 
 Apparitions" (1726), the learned divine, Joseph 
 Glanvil, Chaplain-in-Ordinary to King Charles II., 
 and Fellow of the Royal Society, defined a witch 
 as "one who can do, or seems to do, strange 
 things, beyond the known power of art and 
 ordinary nature, by virtue of a confederacy with 
 evil spirits."
 
 io6 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 In 1678, Dr. Henry More, the Platonist, after 
 dealing with the derivation of the word from wit, 
 thus signifying in its origin a wise woman, goes 
 on to say, " use, questionless, had appropriated 
 the word to such a kind of skill and knowledge as 
 was out of the common road or extraordinary. 
 Nor did this peculiarity imply any unlawfulness. 
 But there was after a further restriction, in which 
 alone now-a-days the words witch and wizard are 
 used, and that is for one that has the knowledge 
 and skill of doing and telling things in an extra- 
 ordinary way, and that in virtue of either an 
 express or implicit association or confederacy 
 with some bad spirits." And, in an account of the 
 " Arraignment, Conviction, and Execution of 
 certaine Witches at Northampton," printed in 
 London in 161 2, we have yet another definition, 
 which is of value in that it " may at the least giue 
 notice and make knowne what manner of Persons 
 they be, of whom I am to speake. A Witch is 
 one that worketh by the Deuill, or by some 
 Deuillish or Curious Art, either hurting or heal- 
 ing, reuealing things secret, or foretelling things 
 to come, which the Deuill hath deuised to 
 entangle, and snare mens soules, withall, unto 
 damnation."
 
 WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT. 107 
 
 Having now obtained full and clear definitions 
 of our subject it will be well to dwell briefly on 
 the best means of finding out and defeating their 
 evil aims. Reginald Scott, in " The Discoverie 
 of Witchcraft" (1584), gives many directions. 
 "To find out a witch : In die dominico sotulariae 
 juvenem axungia seu pinguedine porci, ut moris 
 est, pro restauratione fieri perungunt : and when 
 she is once come into the church, the witch can 
 never get out, untill the searchers for hir expresse 
 leave to depart." This superstition is named in a 
 curious article we recently found in volume I. of 
 "The Athenian Oracle" (London, 1706). At 
 page 293 is mentioned the case of "a boy that 
 was worn out even to a consumption by the 
 common Load and Oppression of a Witch in the 
 Night-time ... an Elder Brother of his that 
 came from the University, hearing the Relation 
 of the Boy's Distemper, suppos'd the Reason of 
 it, and ordered the Boy to lie with his Father, he 
 himself designing to sleep in that Bed, and when 
 Night came (according to my Friend's words) he 
 Charm'd the Room, as is usual, to retain a Thief 
 (for such things have been done, though we 
 believe by no good means), and in the Night 
 time he heard the Lid of the Chest under the
 
 io8 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Window make a little Noise, as if a Cat or some- 
 thing else had leap'd out of the Window upon it, 
 whereupon he rose and struck a light, and there 
 stood an Old Woman, a Neighbour which he 
 knew very well, in the midst of the Room ; he 
 bid her go, she answered, She could not 'till he 
 dismiss'd her ; whereupon he took her by the 
 Hand and led her down the Stairs, and sent her 
 home." 
 
 Reginald Scott tells us that " to be utterlie rid 
 of the witch, and to hang hir up by the haire, you 
 must prepare an image of the earth of a dead man 
 to be baptized in another man's name, whereon 
 the same, with a character, must be written ; then 
 must it be perfumed with a rotten bone, and then 
 these psalmes read backward : Domine, Dominus 
 noster, Dominus illuminatio mea, Domine exaudi 
 orationem meam, Deus laudem meam ne tacueris : 
 and then burie it, first in one place, and afterwards 
 in another." 
 
 But many and various are the ways and means 
 of detecting the "foul brood." These are briefly 
 summarised by a writer in the Retrospective 
 Review, 1822, and the list will give some idea of 
 the ease with which an ignorant and credulous 
 populace could condemn to torture and even
 
 WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT. 109 
 
 death perfectly innocent and harmless persons. 
 "Witches were detected," we learn, "by their 
 inability to shed tears ; by their not sinking when 
 placed upon water with their hands and feet tied 
 across, the right hand to the left foot, and the left 
 hand to the right foot ; by their mistaking, or 
 omitting, when they attempted to repeat the 
 Lord's Prayer ; by insensible excrescences upon 
 their body, supposed to be the Devil's marks ; 
 by an extra teat ; by being watched till their 
 familiar (in the shape of some animal, but dis- 
 tinguished from a real animal by the impossibility 
 of catching or killing it) came for its daily meal 
 of the witch's blood ; by the testimony of the 
 bewitched party ; by the accusation of other 
 witches ; and by being made to walk incessantly 
 till they were fatigued and bewildered into con- 
 fession." In "The Athenian Oracle," already 
 quoted from, the witch in reply to an enquiry 
 "how she came to use such tricks," answered, 
 "that a man came to her house, who relieved 
 her, afterwards fetched blood of her, which she 
 shewed, and there was a kind of Impression of 
 Letters." Further we are told that she was in- 
 duced to go to church regularly, but it was " a long 
 time before they could teach her the Lord's
 
 no B YGONE NOR THAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Prayer, and hinder her from stopping her ears." 
 Matthew Hopkins, the notorious witch finder, 
 had a variation of one of the tests given above, 
 which consisted in keeping the supposed witch 
 without food and sleep for twenty-four hours, 
 with her body placed in some uncomfortable and 
 fatiguing position. She was then closely watched 
 through a slit in the door to see if the familiar 
 came for his meal, and whether this occurred or 
 not, the result of the day's mental and physical 
 torture was a confused state of mind that generally 
 rewarded the efforts of Hopkins with success. 
 
 Northamptonshire has been the scene of many 
 a deed of witchcraft, and of many an execution of 
 witches consequent thereon. The attempt to 
 fasten a charge upon the Duchess of Bedford of 
 having by witchcraft obtained the love of Edward 
 IV. for her daughter, Queen Elizabeth, is a matter 
 of national history, and an important part 
 of county history. Travelling on to the year 
 1612, we have, in a pamphlet published in that 
 year, an account of " The arraignment, conviction, 
 and execution of certaine witches at North- 
 ampton, the 22 of luly, last past." After a 
 preamble and a dissertation on " What a Witch 
 is, and the Antiquity of Witchcraft " (from which
 
 WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT. iii 
 
 we have previously cited a definition) we are 
 introduced to Agnes Browne of Gilsborough, 
 "of poore parentage and poorer education, one 
 that as shee was borne to no good, was, for want 
 of grace, neuer in the way to receiue any, 
 euer noted to bee of an ill nature and 
 wicked disposition, spightfull and malitious, and 
 many yeeres before she died both hated and 
 feared among her neighbours." The chronicler 
 appears to have been himself somewhat 
 "spightfull and malitious," it may be through the 
 baneful influence of Agnes Browne and her 
 daughter Joan. This latter "Chicken of her 
 Dammes hatching" "was so well brought vp 
 vnder her mother's elbow, that shee hanged with 
 her for company vnder her mother's nose." 
 These two were accused of bewitching first 
 "Mistris" Belcher, and then her brother, 
 "Maister" Auery, by the infliction of dire and 
 grievous pains, as well as bewitching the body of 
 a child to death. " They stood stiffely vpon their 
 Innocence," but without avail. With these two 
 was executed Arthur Bill, " a wretched poore 
 man, both in state and mind," who was suspected 
 of bewitching a girl to death. Proof of his guilt 
 was short, when the ingenious justices and other
 
 112 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 officers determined on the swimming experiment, 
 in which they also included poor Arthur's father 
 and mother, "that were both Witches." None 
 of them sank, whereupon Arthur was arrested to 
 stand trial for the tragedy. He, afraid that his 
 father would bear witness against him, conspired 
 with his mother, and between them the father 
 was bewitched in such a manner he could not 
 speak a word. Of this, however, he was relieved, 
 and became by his evidence the chief cause of his 
 son's condemnation. The mother, acting on the 
 advice of her familiar, cut her throat to save 
 herself from hanging. 
 
 * Hellen lenkinson, of Thrapston, and Mary 
 Barber, of Stanwicke, bewitchers of cattle 
 and men, also died at the same time. As the 
 self-satisfied chronicler puts it : " So without 
 any confession or contrition, like birds of a 
 feather, they all held and hanged together 
 for company, at Abington gallows hard by 
 Northampton, the two-and-twentieth day of July 
 last past : Leaving behind them in prison many 
 others tainted with the same corruption, who 
 without much mercy and repentance are like 
 to follow them in the same tract of Precedencie." 
 We have seen above some of the means of
 
 WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT. 113 
 
 detecting a witch, and reading through the 
 pitiful story of the trials of the poor wretches 
 executed in 16 12, we find some of them followed. 
 But let the tests fail, let all evidence be in- 
 sufficient, it matters not ; the very pleading of 
 innocence is jeered at as mere obduracy of a 
 sinful heart, and in itself almost sufficient proof 
 of the crime alleged. 
 
 A curious instance of witchcraft is given by 
 Glanvil, in his " Sadducismus Triumphatus," as 
 happening at Walton, near Daventry, in 1658. 
 Widow Stiffs youngest daughter, "ten years of 
 age, vomited in less than three days, three Gallons 
 of Water to their great Admiration." Not 
 satisfied with this she casts up large stones and 
 coals, many of them too large to get into a 
 man's mouth. Various other funny things 
 happened about the same time, the bedclothes 
 were thrown off the bed, the chests of drawers 
 and other furniture so placed that it was almost 
 impossible to move in the room, the Bible, which 
 had been laid in one bed, witched away to 
 another, and so on. Stones from some hidden 
 and mysterious source were thrown at the 
 windows which they broke, and as the narrator 
 
 of this matter tells us that he saw the broken 
 
 H
 
 114 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 windows, we must of course believe that they 
 were broken by witchcraft. However, a suspected 
 witch was luckily sent to prison, with the result 
 that in a very short time the disturbances at 
 Widow Stiffs ceased. 
 
 In 1674, Ann Foster was arraigned and duly 
 found guilty of various evil acts. She bewitched 
 a flock of thirty sheep, and set a house and barns 
 on fire with the aid of Satan her colleague. All this 
 she confessed to, and was cast into Northampton 
 gaol, whence she was brought for trial to the 
 assizes, and condemned to be hanged, which 
 death she suffered on " the 22th of this Instant 
 August." 
 
 The fullest details of the compact with the 
 Devil, of the work of the familiars, and of the 
 pranks played by the witches, as well as of the 
 way in which evidence was obtained for their 
 prosecution, are given in two old tracts dealing 
 with the trial of Elinor Shaw, of Cotterstock, and 
 Mary Phillips, of Oundle. These two women of 
 evil repute were a by- word in the mouths of their 
 neighbours, and to be revenged therefor entered 
 into agreement with the devil, pawning their souls 
 to him in return for certain powers of ill. In the 
 course of nine months, "they had Kil'd by their
 
 WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT. 115 
 
 Inchantments and Witchcraft ... 15 Children, 
 eight Men, and six Women, tho' none was 
 suspected of being Bewitch'd but those two 
 Children and the Woman that they Dy'd for." 
 In the same period, they also killed by witchcraft 
 "40 Hoggs of several poor People, besides 100 
 Sheep, 18 Horses, and 30 Cows, even to the 
 utter Ruin of several Families." Many "waggish 
 tricks " are recorded of them, and much curious 
 lore may be gleaned from the two tracts named, 
 which were reprinted about twenty-five years ago. 
 These two women were condemned to a horrible 
 death, "To be Hang'd till they are almost Dead, 
 and then surrounded with Faggots, Pitch, and 
 other Combustable matter, which being set on 
 Fire, their Bodies are to be consumed to Ashes." 
 This appears to be the last execution for the 
 crime in the county, or, indeed, in the country. 
 Many cases of alleged witchcraft of a later date 
 are recorded in various places, such as the 
 Northainpton Mercury, and as late as 1785 we 
 read of the swimming test being applied. Still 
 later, about 18 10, we are informed by Mr. John 
 Taylor, a similar trial took place at Butlen's Mill.
 
 Zbc Ctt^ of peterborouob. 
 
 By Frederick Ross, f.r.h.s. 
 
 IN the fenlands of the Saxon Kingdom of 
 Mercia, spreading south of the Wash, there 
 lay, in the 7th century, between the Nen and the 
 Welland, in the north-east angle of the present 
 Northamptonshire, the small village of Mede- 
 hampstead the home in the meadows surrounded 
 by swamps, and inhabited by the rude Pagan 
 Gyrvii or Fenmen. The Kingdom of Mercia 
 comprehended the present counties of Northants, 
 Lincoln, Huntingdon, Leicester, Nottingham, 
 Derby, Warwick, Rutland, Oxford, Buckingham, 
 Worcester, and part of Salop and Hereford. 
 
 The Kingdom of Mercia, at this period, was 
 governed by Penda, a fierce old Pagan and 
 bigotted worshipper of Woden, who made a vow 
 to exterminate the nascent Christianity of the 
 neighbouring Kingdom of Northumbria, and made 
 raids into that country, slaying in battle King 
 Eadwine, the patron of Paulinus, the Bishop of
 
 THE CITY OF FETERBORO UGH. 1 1 7 
 
 York and Apostle of the north ; and, afterwards, 
 Oswald, Saint and King, the second introducer 
 of the worship of Christ, and, after a long life, 
 was slain himself in a battle with Oswy of 
 Northumbria, the founder of the Abbey of 
 Streoneshalh, Whitby, which was the last battle 
 in the struggle between the rival faiths. 
 
 Saxulf, a Mercian noble, who had become 
 converted to Christianity, determined upon the 
 erection of a Christian Church in Mercia, and 
 fixed upon the village of Medehampstead as the 
 site. Peada, son of Penda, who then occupied 
 the throne, having become Christian, favoured 
 his intention, and made a grant of an extensive 
 tract of unreclaimed fenland for the support of 
 the monks of the rising monastery. He died 
 soon after, and was succeeded by his brother 
 Wulfere, who seems to have maintained the old 
 ancestral faith, as he put to death his two sons, 
 Wulfade and Rufine, for embracing Christianity, 
 Werbode, his steward, being their betrayer, who 
 the monks tell us was strangled by the devil, a 
 foolish proceeding on his part, thus to kill a useful 
 servant. Wulfere soon after was stricken with 
 remorse, confessed his crime, and vowed, by way 
 of expiation, to be baptised in the Christian faith,
 
 ii8 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 and establish Christian churches and mona- 
 steries throughout his dominions. 
 
 In the year 870, the monastery and church, 
 which were completed by Wulfere, his brother 
 Ethelred, and his two sisters, Kyneburgh and 
 Kyneswith, endowed with ample possessions 
 and privileges and dedicated to St. Peter, were 
 destroyed by the Danish Vikings, who sailed up 
 the Wash and plundered and burnt all the 
 monastic establishments of the Fenlands. This 
 occurred in the time of Hedda, 7th Abbot of 
 Medehampstead, who was slain along with the 
 whole of his monks. 
 
 Of this, the first monastery, Saxulf, the founder, 
 became the first abbot, and held the office until 
 the year 676, when he was nominated 7th Bishop 
 of Lichfield, at which place, St. Chad's Oratory, 
 it is presumed, the sons of Wulfere were con- 
 verted, although the monks of Medehampstead 
 pretended that St. Chad's Oratory was within the 
 precincts of their monastery, planting a bay tree 
 on the spot, and surrounding it with cloisters 
 with nine windows of painted glass, wherein was 
 depicted with rhyming distiches, the whole story 
 of the martyrs, Wulfade and Rufine, which were 
 ruthlessly destroyed by the Puritans in the 17th
 
 THE CITY OF PETERBOROUGH. 119 
 
 century. The most precious relic of this oldest 
 monastery, was the right arm of Saint Oswald, 
 the Northumbrian King, who was slain in a battle 
 with the Mercian heathen, Penda, which re- 
 mained for ages afterwards uncorrupted, and was 
 the instrument, according to the monks, of a 
 multitude of wonderful miracles. 
 
 The Abbey lay in ruin, with the monks all slain, 
 and the land, which had been reclaimed from the 
 swamp by the industry of the fraternity, in a 
 state of desolation for a century, and the in- 
 habitants of the village, which had gradually 
 grown up round the monastery, and were in a 
 great measure dependent upon it for employment, 
 on the land, or in various handicrafts, or for alms, 
 had been mostly dispersed, a few cottagers only 
 remaining to gain a precarious livelihood from the 
 ungenerous soil ; when, in 970, King Eadgar 
 commenced the re-edification of the church and 
 domestic dwellings, which again became peopled 
 by holy men. In this work he was assisted by 
 Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, Dunstan, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and Oswald, Arch- 
 bishop of York, who came thither with a great 
 company of nobles at the dedication, when, from 
 the bestowal of great gifts and privileges by the
 
 I20 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 king, it came to be called Goldenburgh, but, 
 soon after, from its dedication to St. Peter, it 
 assumed its present name of Peterburgh. It was 
 instituted of the order of St. Benedict, soon re- 
 sumed its former or greater dignity and 
 importance, and a town gradually gathered round 
 it again ; and was held in such reverence that all 
 visitors, even were they king, bishop, or abbot, 
 passed through the portals barefooted. The first 
 abbot of the new establishment was Adulf, 
 chancellor to King Eadgar, who, on the death of 
 his son, came to Peterburgh, and, in the presence 
 of the king and his nobles, gave all his wealth to 
 the Abbey, and assumed the cowl, and, twenty 
 years after, was made Archbishop of York. After 
 him came Kenulf and Elsin, the latter holding 
 the Abbey fifty years, both of whom were great 
 collectors of Saints' relics, of which the Abbey 
 became exceedingly rich. Other famous abbots of 
 this period were St. Wolstan, afterwards Bishop 
 of Worcester ; Egelric, Bishop of Durham ; and 
 Leofric, a relative of Earl Leofric, the husband of 
 Godiva. 
 
 Brand was the last Saxon Abbot, who entered 
 upon his office in the same year (1066) that the 
 Norman William effected the conquest of England,
 
 THE CITY OF PETERBOROUGH. 121 
 
 and he remained unmolested until 1069, in the 
 midst of the turbulence occasioned by the Con- 
 queror's subjugation of Northumbria, and the 
 sturdy opposition of the Anglian and Danish 
 population. In that year, Brand was deposed by 
 William, and one Thorold, a Norman, substituted, 
 who found his office anything but a bed of roses. 
 Brand still maintained that he was the true abbot, 
 and Thorold a foreign usurper, and was supported 
 in his pretensions by the two famous heroes, Earl 
 Waltheof, who was his nephew, and Hereward 
 the Wake, " the last of the Saxons," in the Camp 
 of Refuge in the neighbouring Isle of Ely, and 
 the whole body of Saxons and Danes, calling to 
 their assistance the Danes who were lying in 
 their ships in the H umber, when they made an 
 assault on Thorold's Abbey, which had been 
 fortified by him in the shape of a castle manned 
 by 140 soldiers. Enraged at the vigorous 
 defence, Hereward fired some adjoining houses, 
 and the church fell a prey to the flames. The 
 monks were slaughtered, one sick monk in the 
 infirmary alone escaping the fate of his brethren. 
 The castle was pulled down 200 years afterwards, 
 but the site, on a mound called Tout-hill, is 
 still pointed out. The buildings were partially
 
 122 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 restored, and the services continued until the year 
 1 1 16, when they were totally consumed by a fire, 
 which broke out accidentally, although the monks 
 attributed it to a profane imprecation of the abbot 
 when the fire would not burn and he was impatient 
 for his supper. 
 
 Two years afterwards was laid the foundation 
 stone of the present Minster, and, in 1143, the 
 monks recommenced service in the choir, which 
 by this time was completed, but it was not until 
 1237 that the entire church was completed, 
 and consecrated by the Bishops of Lincoln and 
 Exeter. Although the church was finished in the 
 interior, other features have been added to the 
 exterior the bell-tower, the western spires, the 
 lantern tower, recently re-constructed, the new 
 building at the east end, erroneously called the 
 Lady Chapel, all which have since been 
 added. 
 
 It was Abbot de Seez who called upon the devil 
 to blow up his fire, which he did so effectually as 
 to burn down the Abbey, but, however responsible 
 de Seez may have been in causing the destruction 
 of the building, we must admit that he applied his 
 architectural talent promptly and with unceasing 
 energy to the re-edification of the church, resolv-
 
 124 SYG ONE NOR THAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 ing that it should compete in grandeur with its 
 neighbours Lincoln and Ely. 
 
 Peterborough is considered the finest Norman 
 church in England, Norwich only excepted, with 
 features of Early English, as, for instance, the 
 grand western front, without equal for massive 
 dignity. As the nave was in course of erection, 
 the style of architecture was in the state of transi- 
 tion from Norman to Early English, and presents 
 a noble vista from the western transition end to 
 the original Norman eastern choir. The original 
 Norman tower appears to have become decayed, 
 and was taken down, alarm being created by the 
 fall of the Tower of Ely in 132 1. 
 
 The second tower, for a long time in the present 
 century, had presented suspicious evidences of 
 instability, and, in 1882, it was determined to 
 rebuild it, which has now been done. In taking 
 down the walls, several interesting stones have 
 been found of Saxon and Roman chisel-work, and 
 the site of the original Saxon church, which 
 appears to have been cruciform in shape. In the 
 precincts was erected a chapel in the decorated 
 style, in honour of St. Thomas a Becket, 
 which attracted great numbers of pilgrims, 
 enshrining, as it did, some paving stones
 
 THE CITY OF PETERBOROUGH. 125 
 
 from the spot where he suffered martyrdom, 
 portions of his dress and drops of his blood, which 
 were brought by Benedict, a contemporary monk 
 of Canterbury, afterwards Abbot of Peterborough. 
 Benedict was the builder of the nave of the 
 church, and the finisher of the Chapel of St. 
 Thomas, whose life he wrote. He built, also, the 
 great gateway and the Chapel of St. Nicholas 
 over it. He was author of a chronicle " De 
 vita et gestis Henrici H. et Ricardi I.," and a 
 work on "The Passion of St. Thomas," besides 
 transcribing the works of Justinian, Seneca, 
 Martial, and Terence, the Meditations of St. 
 Anselm, etc., and died in 1 194. 
 
 Robert Lindsay, temp. John, is supposed, but 
 without absolute proof, to have been the builder 
 of the great west front, and to have glazed thirty 
 of the nave windows. Martin, a monk of 
 Ramsey, succeeded in 1226, who obtained from 
 the Pope the privilege of celebrating the Mass in 
 his Abbey, during interdicts, but in a low voice, 
 and without the ringing of bells. Walter of 
 Edmondsbury (1233) had to oppose a claim of 
 provisions with the Pope. Richard de London 
 (1273) was a great wrangler at law, the 
 " Chronicon Petroburgensis " being in great
 
 1 26 B YGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 measure filled with his lawsuits, which were 
 recorded by William Woodford, the presumed 
 author of the chronicle, and who succeeded to the 
 Abbacy. 
 
 Godfrey of Croyland, 1 299-1 321, was termed 
 the " Courtier Abbot," on account of his mag- 
 nificence, luxury, and refinement of manners ; 
 entertaining, on one occasion, the king and his 
 suite at a cost of ^1,543 13s. 4d., which, in- 
 cluding costly gifts to two cardinals and others, 
 swelled the amount to ^3,646 4s. 3d. William 
 Genge, 1396, was the first mitred abbot; Robert 
 Kirton, 1496, the builder of the beautiful new 
 building at the east end of the church, and John 
 Chambers, 1528, the last abbot and first bishop. 
 
 In the year 1539, the lesser monasteries and 
 other religious houses, those with incomes of less 
 than ;^200 per annum revenue, were dissolved to 
 satisfy the rapacity of Henry VIII., his creature, 
 Cromwell, and the crowd of hungry courtiers, 
 who were eager to share in the spoil ; and, soon 
 afterwards, the larger houses, including Peter- 
 borough shared the same fate, thousands of monks, 
 friars, and nuns being thrown destitute upon the 
 world, or pensioned with slender pittances. At 
 the first dissolution, when 375 convents were
 
 THE CITY OF PETERBOROUGH. 127 
 
 dissolved, 10,000 persons were turned adrift from 
 their homes with simply a donation of twenty- 
 shillings and a new gown, which, as Fuller 
 observed, "needed to be of strong cloth to last till 
 they got another." 
 
 Peterborough, however, fared better than the 
 monasteries in general. King Henry proposed, 
 as some sort of atonement, the erection of twenty- 
 one new " Byshopprychys," to be endowed out of 
 the confiscated revenues, and Peterborough, being 
 one of these, Letters Patent were issued in 1542, 
 constituting Peterborough the seat of the Diocese 
 of Northampton and a city, the Abbey Church a 
 Cathedral, and Abbot John Chambers the first 
 Bishop. 
 
 There has been a series of twenty-seven 
 bishops, some of them men of note, as William 
 Lloyd and Thomas White, two of the bishops 
 who were sent to the Tower by James II., after- 
 wards deprived as nonjurors. White Kennett, the 
 antiquary, Herbert Marsh, the controversialist, 
 W. C. Magee, translated to the Archbishopric of 
 York, and several to other Bishoprics. Among 
 the Deans also, several were promoted to the 
 episcopal bench John Cosin, to Durham ; Charles 
 Mannes Sutton, to Canterbury ; Simon Patric,
 
 128 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 to Chichester and Ely ; Richard Kidder, to Bath 
 and Wells; J. H. Monk, to Gloucester; and 
 Thomas Turton, to Ely. From the Prebendaries 
 came John Williams, of Lincoln, and Dr. Bridge- 
 man, of Chester. John Pocklington, another 
 Prebendary, author of " Sunday no Sabbath," 
 was stripped of his preferments. 
 
 Among the writers were Robert Swapham, a 
 chronicler of the Abbey, in the 12th century; 
 Symon Gunton, Prebendary, 17th century, author 
 of " The History of the Church of Peterborough ;" 
 and William Woodford, in the 13th century, 
 presumed writer of the " Chronicon Petro- 
 burgensis." 
 
 Peterborough has the distinction of having 
 been the burial place of two queens Katharine 
 of Arragon, who died at Kimbolton, Hunts., 
 in 1536, and Mary, Queen of Scots, who 
 was beheaded, or rather murdered, at Fothering- 
 hay, in Northamptonshire, in 1586-7, and 
 her head exposed, at one of the windows of the 
 castle, to the gaze of the multitude. They were 
 buried by the same sexton Richard Scarlett, 
 who died in 1594, at the age of 98, and whose 
 figure is represented inside the cathedral, with 
 some verses beneath, in which it is recorded :
 
 THE CITY OF PETERBOROUGH. 129 
 
 " He hath interd two Queenes within this place ; 
 And this towne's householders, in his life's space, 
 Twice over." 
 
 Very simple monuments were placed over their 
 graves, but the cathedral itself is said to be Queen 
 Katharine's monument, King Henry having, it is 
 represented, spared the Abbey Church, and con- 
 verted it into a cathedral in her memory. The 
 body of Queen Mary was removed by her son. 
 King James, to Westminster Abbey. 
 
 There are fourteen monuments of bishops in 
 the church, and the graves of two Archbishops of 
 York Elfricus and Kinsius, who had been monks 
 in the Abbey, and who repose there without 
 monuments. 
 
 Like all other ecclesiastical buildings, the 
 church suffered much damage at the hands of the 
 sixteenth century " Reformers," but still more 
 from the ignorant fanaticism of the Puritans of 
 the seventeenth, especially in the matter of 
 painted glass, of which Peterborough presented a 
 glorious display, which was smashed to fragments 
 by means of pikes, hammers, and axes, by the 
 soldiers and other zealots, with shouts of hilarity 
 and derision.
 
 ^be ]ngU0b f ounbere of tbe Maeblngton 
 JTamil^ of amertca* 
 
 By Thomas Frost. 
 
 NO Northamptonshire family has received so 
 much attention from the genealogists as 
 that of Washington, and no places in the county 
 have been so frequently visited by American 
 tourists as the neighbouring villages of Sulgrave 
 and Brington, where a branch of that family, from 
 which the first President of the United States 
 sprung, resided until past the middle of the 
 seventeenth century. It has been somewhat 
 difficult to disentangle the records of the family 
 from the errors of the earlier genealogists ; but 
 it may be regarded as established by Mr. J. 
 Penderel-Brodhurst (himself a member of a 
 family connected by marriage with the American 
 Washingtons) that the illustrious hero of the 
 War of Independence was descended from the 
 Laurence Washington whose tomb may be seen 
 in the church at Great Brington at the present
 
 THE WASHINGTON FAMILY. 131 
 
 day. The first of the family mentioned by Baker, 
 in his history of the county, was John Washington, 
 of Whitfield, in Lancashire, whose great-grandson 
 was Laurence Washington, who was Mayor of 
 Northampton in 1532 and 1545, and one of the 
 original trustees of the Free Grammar School of 
 that town, named in the deed of foundation of 
 Thomas Chipsey, in 1541. This Laurence 
 received, on the dissolution of the monastic 
 houses, a royal grant of the manor of Sulgrave 
 and the lands of the Priories of St. Andrew, 
 Northampton, Canon's Ashby, and Catesby. He 
 is described as of Northampton and Gray's Inn, 
 London, esquire, and is stated to have been a 
 wealthy wool merchant. He married first 
 Elizabeth, the widow of William Gough, of 
 Northampton, who died childless, and secondly, 
 Amee, daughter of Robert Pargiter, of Greatworth. 
 He died in 1584. 
 
 The Manor House at Sulgrave, which is still 
 in existence, though much altered since its erec- 
 tion, was probably built by Laurence Washington 
 shortly after he came into possession of the estate. 
 It is built of limestone, and consists of two stories, 
 besides attics. The roof is chiefly of stone-slates, 
 probably from quarries in the neighbouring parish
 
 132 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 of Helmdon. One of the chimneys of the north 
 wing is of stone, while the eastern group of three 
 is of old bricks. The entrance hall remains, but 
 is now divided, forming a sitting-room and a 
 dairy. It was entered from the front through a 
 porch, which is still standing, though the outer 
 entrance is now blocked up. The Washington 
 arms, with the stars and bars sunk, instead of 
 being in relief, appear on the spandrils. The 
 jambs of the wooden frame of the doorway from 
 the porch to the passage, on the west side of the 
 hall, have been removed, as also has the original 
 back-door, a new doorway having been made a 
 little more to the east. The large window looking 
 towards the front has had its mullions removed. 
 The present east wall of the hall does not appear 
 to have been an outer wall, and it is stated that 
 the house originally extended about seventy feet 
 to the east of the present wall. The wall on the 
 west side of the passage has no trace of a doorway 
 in it, and appears not to have been the original 
 wall, or there would have been doorways in it to 
 the kitchen and buttery. The whole of the house 
 to the west of the passage, where these offices were, 
 or should have been, has either disappeared or was 
 never erected. Against a portion of this wall and
 
 THE WASHINGTON FAMILY. 133 
 
 part of the porch, piggeries have been built. A 
 portion of the original house appears to have 
 adjoined the hall on this side ; and it is stated 
 that there was, at one time, a large arch, with a 
 porter's lodge over it, to the north-west of the 
 hall, which renders it probable that there was a 
 court on the north side of the hall. At present 
 there is, at right angles to the hall, a wing stretch- 
 ing about fifty feet northward, but this does not 
 appear to have been a portion of the original 
 building, as it is not in the right position with 
 regard to the hall, being too far westward, and 
 having in it none of the characteristic features of 
 the period when the house was erected. There 
 seems no reason why this wing should have been 
 erected where it is, as the kitchen, which forms a 
 portion of its ground plan, should have been in 
 the west wing. 
 
 In 1 6 10, the manor of Sulgrave was sold by 
 Robert Washington, son and heir of Laurence, 
 and the family then removed to Brington. A 
 writer from whose description of the house some 
 of the foregoing particulars have been derived, 
 observes that, "as the house was arranged, and 
 at least partly built on a large scale, and as the 
 property and house were so soon sold after the
 
 134 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 commencement of the building, it is not unlikely 
 that the owner over-built himself, and so was 
 compelled to sell. There are other circumstances 
 in the history of the family after the sale which 
 point to this conclusion. If this was the case, it 
 is likely that the house never was completed 
 according to the original design ; and this again 
 would account for the abnormal position of the 
 north wing, and the absence of any vestige of a 
 range on the west side of the court." 
 
 The Washington monument in Sulgrave 
 Church, around which so much interest gathered 
 in the course of the genealogical inquiry concern- 
 ing the ancestry of the illustrious George 
 Washington, was near the east end of the south 
 aisle. A slab of grey Hornton stone bears a 
 brass plate on which is engraved a headless figure 
 of Laurence Washington, and the incision for 
 his wife. Above this, in the centre, is a shield of 
 the Washington arms, and below the fixture is 
 the inscription. Beneath this were groups of 
 the children of Laurence, four sons and seven 
 daughters, but these have disappeared within 
 recent years, and must have been stolen. Of the 
 six plates originally on the slab, that on which 
 the figure of the wife was engraved, and the
 
 THE WASHINGTON FAMILY. 135 
 
 portion of the companion plate bearing the head 
 of the husband, had been abstracted long before. 
 The plates are thinner than those usually found 
 on early monuments. The figure of Laurence 
 Washington is represented as wearing a long 
 loose coat, open in front, with hanging sleeves, 
 bordered with fur, under which he wears a frock 
 coat, buttoned up to the throat, and confined at 
 the waist by a girdle. The shoes are of the 
 broad-toed form of the period. The hands are in 
 the attitude of prayer. The inscription, in black 
 letter, is as follows : 
 
 " Here lyeth buried ye bodys of Laurence Wasshington Gent 
 and Amee his wyf by whome he had issue iij sons & vij 
 daughts wc Laurence Dyed ye day of anno 15 
 
 & Amee Deceassed the vj of October anno Dni 1564." 
 
 It would appear from the blanks in the in- 
 scription that Laurence Washington had the 
 monument placed in the church after the death 
 of his first wife, in 1564, and had spaces left for 
 the date of his own death to be engraven on, 
 which, for some unknown reason, was never done. 
 The figures of the four sons on the missing 
 brasses showed them as attired in frock coats, 
 knee breeches, and broad-toed shoes ; while those 
 of the daughters were represented in long gowns,
 
 136 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 confined by girdles, and close-fitting caps. There 
 is no evidence, however, that either Laurence 
 Washington or his wife were buried in Sulgrave 
 Church. In the course of some alterations at the 
 church, a vault was found beneath the Washington 
 slab, but this was shown by a coffin plate to be 
 that of Lydia Jackson, who died in 1741. 
 
 The village of Brington, to which the 
 Washington family removed after the sale of the 
 Sulgrave property, stands upon an eminence, 
 seven miles from Northampton. The massive 
 tower of the parish church crowns the hill at the 
 entrance of the village from the side of Althorp 
 Park, which lies in the valley below, and has 
 been for three centuries and a half the seat of the 
 Spencers. The situation is a very pleasant one, 
 with its long avenue of elms by which the church 
 is approached from the high road, the fine old 
 park below, and the wooded hill beyond, on which 
 historic Holmby stands. The picturesque old 
 house of the Washingtons is situated in an out- 
 lying portion of the parish known as Little 
 Brington, by which name it is distinguished from 
 Great Brington, which is the full name of the 
 village. It is still in good preservation. Above 
 the door is the inscription :
 
 THE WASHINGTON FAMILY. 137 
 
 " The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. 
 Blessed be the name of the Lord. 
 Constructa 1606." 
 
 The first, in point of time, of the tombs of the 
 Washingtons in Brington Church is in the 
 chancel, near the north chapel, and is protected 
 by a wooden flap, with a hinge, so that the slab 
 is never trodden upon, and, indeed, may easily be 
 missed by the curious visitor. Both the epitaph 
 
 SLAB ON THE WASHINGTON TOMB. 
 
 and the impaled arms of Washington and Butler 
 are deeply cut in the stone. The parish register 
 shows that Laurence Washington was buried on 
 the 15th of December, 16 16, two days after the 
 date given in the epitaph as that of his death. 
 The following is the inscription :
 
 138 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 " Here lieth the bodi of Lavrence Washington sonne and 
 heire of Robert Washington of Soulgrave in the countie of 
 Northampton esquier who married Margaret the eldest 
 daughter of WilHam Butler of Tees in the countie of Sussexe 
 esquier who had issue by her 8 sonnes and 9 daughters which 
 Lavrence deceased the 13 of December a. dni. 1616." 
 
 " Those that by chance or choyce of this hast sight 
 Know life to death resignes as daye to night 
 But as the sunns returne revives the day 
 So Christ shall us though turnde to dust and clay." 
 
 In the main aisle of the nave, about half-way 
 towards the chancel, and therefore the first to 
 attract the attention of strangers visiting the 
 church, is another memorial of the Washingtons. 
 Two brasses are set in a long stone slab, one at 
 the head, and the other near the foot. The first 
 bears the following inscription, very clearly and 
 sharply engraved, and showing very little trace 
 of wear, though it has been trodden by the feet 
 of successive generations of worshippers for 
 nearly two hundred and seventy years : 
 
 " Here lies interred ye body of Elizab. Washington widdowe 
 who changed this life for immortalitie ye 19th of March 1622. 
 As also ye body of Robert Washington Gent her late husband 
 second sonne of Robert Washington of Solgrave in ye county 
 of North, esqr. who depted this life ye loth of March, 1622. 
 After they lived lovingly together many years in this parish." 
 
 The lower brass, which is rather larger than
 
 THE WASHINGTON FAMILY. 139 
 
 the one bearing the inscription, shows the arms 
 of Washington, which, described in heraldric 
 language, were argent, two bars gules ; in chief 
 three mullets of the second. In ordinary 
 language, we should say, two red bars and three 
 stars upon a silver ground. The workmen who 
 engraved the brass, however, erroneously made 
 the bars golden, instead of red. 
 
 Before leaving the old church at Brington, it 
 may be noted that the parish register contains 
 entries relating to the Washington family of 
 anterior date to their occupation of a house in 
 that parish. One of these records the baptism 
 and burial of Gregory, a child of Laurence 
 Washington, on the i6th of January, 1607 ; and 
 another the marriage of Philip Curtis and Amy 
 Washington, on the 8th of August, 1620. In the 
 windows of Fawsley Church are six shields of 
 arms connected with the Washington family, 
 which have been a source of perplexity to 
 antiquaries and genealogists, there being no known 
 reason for their being there. There are two similar 
 shields in the possession of Lady Hanmer, at 
 Weston, and, as these are known to have come 
 from the Manor House at Sulgrave, it is more 
 than probable that those in Fawsley Church
 
 I40 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 came from the same place. The first of these, 
 in the order of time, is at Fawsley, and is charged 
 with the Washington arms, below which appears 
 " Wasshpngton]." The second is one of those 
 at Weston, and bears the arms of Washington 
 impaling those of Kitson, thus commemorating 
 the marriage of John Washington and Mary 
 Kitson. The third, also at Fawsley, has below 
 the arms the names of Laurence Washington 
 and Amee Pargiter, in the following form : 
 "Wasshingtn and Pergiter." Fawsley Church 
 also contains the fourth, with a similar presentation 
 of the names of Robert Washington and Elizabeth 
 Lighte. The fifth of the series is at Weston, 
 and bears the names of Washington and Butler 
 below the shield. The remaining three are all 
 in F'awsley Church. The inscription on the 
 sixth is almost obliterated, but is conjectured to 
 have borne the names of Alban Wakelyn and 
 Anne Washington, names which occur in the 
 pedigree given by Baker. On the seventh the 
 Washington arms impale those of Newce, a 
 Hertfordshire family, but the place for the wife's 
 name is blank, and no such marriage appears in 
 the pedigree. The last shield of the series is so 
 much mutilated that it can only be assigned to
 
 THE WASHINGTON FAMILY. 141 
 
 the place it occupies by the correspondence of 
 the surrounding wreath and scroll. 
 
 Two of the sons of the large family of Laurence 
 Washington attained the distinction of Knight- 
 hood, and the eldest of these, Sir William 
 Washington, repaired the fortunes of the family 
 for a time by his marriage with the half-sister of 
 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. How 
 far the subsequent reverses of the family were 
 due to the political and religious discords of the 
 period cannot now be determined ; but the 
 Washingtons seem to have been unsettled for some 
 years previous to that emigration to America which 
 eventuated in placing the head of the family in 
 the high position of chief magistrate of the young 
 republic of the United States. From the fact 
 that they were members of the Established 
 Church it may be inferred that the social con- 
 ditions of the latter years of the reign of Charles I., 
 and those which immediately followed the fall of 
 monarchy and episcopacy, were not conducive 
 either to their material prosperity or their ease of 
 mind. 
 
 , There has been some contention as to whether 
 the John and Laurence Washington who 
 emigrated to America towards the end of the
 
 142 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSFIIRE. 
 
 first decade of the second half of the seventeenth 
 century were the sons of the Laurence Washing- 
 ton who died at Brington in 1616, or some other 
 member of the family bearing the same baptismal 
 names. According to the pedigree given by 
 Baker, in his history of the county, the former 
 view is correct, and it was for a long time 
 generally accepted. Colonel Chester, writing in 
 1866, contended, however, that there was no 
 evidence of the relationship, or even that they 
 belonged to this county, and that there was 
 strong presumptive evidence against the identity. 
 According to him, it was only a coincidence that 
 a John and Laurence Washington, of Brington, 
 lived at the same time as another John and 
 Laurence Washington, who emigrated to 
 America. Mr. Penderel-Brodhurst, while con- 
 tending that "it is from Laurence Washington 
 and Margaret Butler that the illustrious first 
 President of the United States was descended," 
 pronounces it "ascertained, after much research," 
 that John Washington, great-grandfather of the 
 American hero, and his brother Laurence were 
 the sons of the Rev. Laurence Washington, 
 rector of Putleigh, in Essex, but ejected from his 
 living under the Commonwealth. If this state-
 
 THE WASHINGTON FAMILY. 143 
 
 ment is correct, it would go far to explain the 
 choice of Virginia for a new home, rather than 
 one of the New England colonies of the 
 Puritans. 
 
 As Dr. Draper remarks, in one of the intro- 
 ductory chapters of his history of the American 
 Civil War, " The Royalist sentiments that had 
 characterised the first settlers still predominated 
 in the community, which was also firmly attached 
 to the previous religious preferences of the mother 
 country ; for, though the Virginians had invited 
 their Puritan neighbours in the north to leave 
 their inclement abodes and settle in the more 
 genial climate of Delaware Bay, they also resolved 
 that no minister should be permitted to preach in 
 Virginia, except in conformity with the Church 
 of England. It was owing to this aristocratic 
 tendency that, after the disasters to the Royalist 
 cause and the execution of Charles I., so many of 
 the ruined nobility and clergy found a refuge in 
 Virginia." To that colony, therefore, John and 
 Laurence Washington, whether they were the 
 sons of Laurence Washington, of Brington, or of 
 the Essex rector of that name, went out in 1657, 
 or, according to Mr. Penderel-Brodhurst, in 
 1659, and settled on the banks of the Potomac,
 
 144 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 in what is now the county of Westmore- 
 land. 
 
 Shortly after settling down in Virginia, the wife 
 and two very young children of John Washington 
 died, and were buried on his own plantation. 
 He subsequently married Anne Brodhurst, the 
 daughter of a planter named Pope, who had 
 emigrated from England some years previously, 
 and whose name is perpetuated in Pope's Creek, 
 in Virginia. The lady had previously been the 
 wife of Walter Brodhurst, son of William 
 Brodhurst, of Lilleshall, in Shropshire. By his 
 union with her, John Washington became the 
 great-grandfather of George Washington, of 
 Mount Vernon, the first President of the United 
 States. That remarkable man was one of the 
 sons of Augustine Washington, who owned 
 extensive plantations in Virginia and Maryland, 
 which he divided at his death among his 
 sons. 
 
 There remains to be told of this remarkable 
 chapter of family history only the interesting fact 
 that the charges upon the Washington arms, 
 which George Washington had engraved upon a 
 ring which he wore, suggested the stars and 
 stripes of the American flag. The arms of the
 
 THE WASHINGTON FAMILY. 145 
 
 Washingtons of Sulgrave were, it will be 
 remembered, two red bars and three red stars 
 upon a silver ground. The bars became in the 
 flag the stripes upon a white field, and the stars 
 were multiplied in the upper quarter, next the 
 staff, to a number corresponding to that of the 
 States originally forming the Union. 
 
 K
 
 Hnne Brab^trect, tbe lEarlieet Hmcrican 
 poetess. 
 
 To Northamptonshire belongs the honour of 
 giving birth to the first female poet who 
 produced a volume of poetry in America. Her 
 name was Mrs. Anne Bradstreet. She was born 
 in the year 1612. The place of her birth is not 
 absolutely certain. "There is little doubt," says 
 Helen Campbell, the author of "Anne Bradstreet, 
 and Her Time," " that it was at Northampton, 
 England, the home of her father's family." At an 
 early age she sailed with her father, Thomas 
 Dudley, to Massachusetts Bay, he being one of the 
 earliest settlers in New England. For some years 
 he had been steward to the Earl of Lincoln. He 
 was a man of means, and belonged to a good 
 family, claiming kinship with the Dudleys and 
 Sidneys of Penshurst. Literature had for him 
 many charms ; he wrote poetry, and, says his 
 daughter, he was a " magazine of history." He 
 left his native country and braved the perils of
 
 ANNE BRADSTREET. 147 
 
 sea and land to settle in a distant clime where he 
 might worship God according to his conscience. 
 This stern, truth-speaking Puritan soon had his 
 sterling merits recognised, and held the governor- 
 ship of Massachusetts from 1634 to 1650. He 
 closed at the age of seventy-seven years a well- 
 spent life. After death, in his pocket were found 
 some of his recently written verses. His 
 daughter Anne was a woman of active and 
 refined mind, and had acquired considerable 
 culture at a time when educational accomplish- 
 ments were possessed by few. She suffered 
 much from ill-health ; in her girlhood she was 
 stricken with small-pox, and was also lame. Her 
 many trials cast a tinge of sadness over her life 
 and writings. 
 
 She grew up to be a winsome woman, gaining 
 esteem from the leading people of her adopted 
 country, and her fame as a writer of poetry 
 reached the land of her nativity. 
 
 She married, in 1629, Simon Bradstreet, 
 Secretary, and afterwards Governor, of the 
 Colony. 
 
 Her first volume was published at Boston in 
 1640, and was dedicated to her father. The title 
 is very long, and is as follows: "Several Poems,
 
 148 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 compiled with great variety of wit and learning, 
 full of delight, wherein especially is contained a 
 Complete Discourse and Description of the Four 
 Elements, Constitutions, Ages of Man, and 
 Seasons of the Year ; together with an exact 
 Epitome of the Three First Monarchies, viz. : the 
 Assyrian, Persian, and Grecian, and the Beginning 
 of the Roman Commonwealth to the end of 
 their last King ; with divers other pleasant and 
 serious Poems. By a Gentlewoman of New 
 England." The book met with much favour, 
 and soon passed into a second edition. In the 
 third edition, issued in 1658, her character is thus 
 sketched : " It is the work of a woman honoured 
 and esteemed where she lives, for her gracious 
 demeanour, her eminent parts, her pious con- 
 versation, her courteous disposition, her exact 
 diligence in her place, and discreet management 
 of her family occasions ; and more so, these poems 
 are the fruits of a few hours curtailed from her 
 sleep, and other refreshments." The work was 
 reprinted and published in London in 1650, with 
 the high-sounding title of " The Tenth Muse, 
 lately sprung up in America." Compared with 
 much that was written in the age in which she 
 lived, her poetry is entitled to a foremost rank,
 
 ANNE BRADSTREET. 149 
 
 but it is not sufficiently good to gain for it a 
 lasting place in literature. It mainly attracts 
 attention in our time as being the first collection 
 of poetry published in America. 
 
 Professor Charles F. Richardson, one of the 
 soundest critical American authors, speaks of 
 some of the poems as by " no means devoid of 
 merit, though disfigured by a paucity of words 
 and stiffness of style." The estimable writer of 
 this volume won words of praise from her leading 
 countrymen. President Rogers, of Harvard 
 College, himself a poet, thus addressed her : 
 
 " Madam, twice through the Muse's grove I walked 
 Under your blissful bowres 
 Twice have I drunk the nectar of your lines." 
 
 All her critics were not so complimentary as 
 President Rogers. Some did not think that a 
 woman had a right to wield a poet's pen, and to 
 such she adverts in the following lines : 
 
 " I am obnoxious to each carping tongue 
 Who says my hand a needle better fits, 
 
 A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong, 
 For such despite they cast on female wits : 
 
 If what I do prove well, it won't advance ; 
 
 They'll say it's stol'n, or else it was by chance." 
 
 Here are four lines on "The Vanity of all Worldly
 
 I50 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Things," which, although short, is a favourable 
 example of her poetic power : 
 
 " As he said vanity, so vain say I, 
 Oh vanity, O vain all under sky ; 
 Where is man can say, lo ! I have found 
 On brittle earth a consolation sound ? " 
 
 The next specimen of her poetry is an " Elegy 
 on a Grandchild " : 
 
 " Farewell, sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye ; 
 Farewell, fair flower, that for a space was lent. 
 Then ta'en away into eternity. 
 Blest babe, why should I once bewail thy fate, 
 Or sigh the days so soon were terminate, 
 Sith thou art settled in an everlasting state ? 
 
 " By Nature trees do rot when they are grown. 
 And plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall. 
 And corn and grass are in their season mown. 
 And time brings down what is both strong and tall ; 
 But plants new-set to be eradicate, 
 And buds new-bloom to have so short a date. 
 Is by His hand alone that nature guides, and fate." 
 
 The lines which follow were written in the 
 prospect of death, and addressed to her husband : 
 
 " How soon, my dear, death may my steps attend. 
 How soon 't may be thy lot to lose thy friend, 
 We both are ignorant. Yet love bids me 
 These farewell lines to recommend to thee. 
 That, when that knot's untied that made us one 
 I may seem thine, who in effect am none.
 
 ANNE BRADSTREET. 151 
 
 " And, if I see not half my days that's due, 
 What Nature would God grant to yours and you. 
 The many faults that well you know I have, 
 Let be interred in my oblivious grave ; 
 If any virtue is in me, 
 Let that live freshly in my memory ; 
 And when thou feel'st no griefs, as I no harms. 
 Yet live thy dead, who long lay in thine arms ; 
 And, when thy loss shall be repaid with gains. 
 Look to my little babes, my dear remains. 
 And, if thou lov'st thyself or lovest me, 
 These, oh protect from step-dame's injury ! 
 And, if chance to thine eyes doth bring this verse, 
 With some sighs honour my absent hearse, 
 And kiss this paper, for thy love's dear sake, 
 Who with salt tears this last farewell doth take." 
 
 In the year 1666, her house at Andover was 
 consumed by fire, and her letters and papers 
 destroyed, which put an end to one of her Hterary 
 projects. Six years later she died, at the age of 
 sixty years. Her loss was keenly felt by her 
 many admirers. It is said of her by an American 
 author : "Her numbers are seldom correct, and 
 her ear had little of Milton's tenderness or 
 Shakespeare's grace ; yet she was the con- 
 temporary of England's greatest poets, the 
 offspring of that age of melody which had begun 
 with Spenser and Sidney, an echo, from the 
 distant wilderness, of the period of universal
 
 152 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 song." Several of her descendants are amongst 
 the most gifted of American poets ; they include 
 Channing, Dana, Holmes, and others. Her 
 husband nearly reached the age of a hundred 
 years, and was termed " the Nestor of New 
 England."
 
 Xiber Cuetumarum, IDill^ IRorbamptoni^. 
 
 By Christopher A. Markham, f.s.a. 
 
 THE first charter acquired by Northampton 
 was granted in 1189 by Richard I., and 
 thus the records belonging to the borough are 
 both ancient and valuable. These are examined 
 and scheduled by the Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, in 
 his " Historical Memorials of Northampton ; " but 
 although he mentions all the grants, charters, and 
 miscellaneous records, he does not notice the very 
 interesting old Book of Customs still preserved 
 amongst the borough archives. 
 
 This book contains 148 folios of fine vellum, 
 the boards are of oak, covered with calf, on which 
 various devices are stamped. At the corners and 
 in the centre of each board are plates of brass, 
 and the book is secured by brass clasps. The 
 binding is of the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century. The writing being of the fifteenth 
 century, or perhaps earlier, it is beautifully clear,
 
 154 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 and almost the whole is written by one hand, the 
 capitals being mostly rubricated. 
 
 On the five fly leaves, before the actual customs 
 commence, are the following common forms : 
 
 Form for making Supersedeas, or staying the 
 process of law ; this is written in Latin, and is 
 directed to John Asteley, who was mayor of the 
 town in the year 1488-89. 
 
 Form of a Power of Attorney, dated 1448, 
 commencing, " I A. B. of Norhampton etc 
 mchaunt of the staple at calles have made 
 ordeiyned and substitute CD. mchaunt of the 
 same staple myn attney," and ending, " To all 
 and singler the pmissz above wreton I have sette 
 my seale etc and at the speciall Instance and 
 request of me in so moche as my seale is un- 
 knowen to many of you the worshippfull ssr. fif. B. 
 mayre of the toun above seid hath sette the seall 
 of his office the day and yere above seide etc." 
 
 Form of Release from, the King, this is 
 preceded by a request of the king's " trewe and 
 feithfull liege men John Wattes and Thomas 
 Bodyngton * late baillifz of your towne of 
 Norhampton to graunte your gracious lettres of 
 Prive Seall in forme as folowith to be made and 
 
 * They were bailiffs in the year 1487.
 
 LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 155 
 
 the selde late Bailliffz shall pray to God for 
 preservacioun of your most noble and royall 
 estate." King Henry then of his "speciall grace 
 and mere mocion and for certain considerations 
 him speally mevyng did pardon remite and relesse 
 unto the seide John Wattes & Thomas 
 Bodyngton " the moneys due from them after 
 their year of office. 
 
 Letters Patent from the King concerning the 
 Peace of the Town. These are directed " to his 
 trustee and well beloved greeting them well and 
 not doubting but that their wisdoms could 
 remember and well consider that the use and 
 encreasing of sad rule and good governance in 
 every city and town first and principally pleaseth 
 God establish perfect rest and tranquility noresheth 
 and encreaseth love causeth plenty and laws to 
 have their due causes justice to be indeferently 
 ministered and executed and further directing 
 them by their best wisdoms to see that good rule 
 should be firmly had and effetually followed 
 within their jurisdiction and they were to certify 
 to the King the names of the offenders with the 
 speciality of their offences and letting them witt 
 that if it came to the King's ears and perfect 
 knowledge that they suffered such misruled people
 
 156 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 he (the King) would so sharply lay it to their 
 blame as should be a fearful precedent and 
 grevous example to all other his subject," These 
 letters were no doubt directed to the mayor and 
 corporation of the town. 
 
 Letters Patent from the King to the Mayor 
 respecting arrow makers : To ' ' his welbelo ved 
 Symond Motte"* gretyng" assigning to him the 
 duty of arresting and taking all arrow makers as 
 well within the liberty as without, and to take 
 them to the King's works and put them in his 
 wages in his City of London, "and the same 
 arowes and tymber for the same arowe hedes 
 silk wax ffethurs stuffures whatsoeve ther bee 
 the which for the workes aforesaide shall be sene 
 behoneable for our money in this ptie resonabley 
 to be paied to take to arrest and to provide." 
 
 This ordinance brings to one's mind the time 
 when England's defence consisted in the strong 
 arm and steady eye of her yeomen ; when each 
 town had its arrow manufacturers, and each 
 village its shooting ground, often still called by 
 the name of the Butts. 
 
 And Letters Patent from, the King to the 
 
 Query was this the John Motte who was Mayor in 1 527 and again 
 in 1538.
 
 LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 157 
 
 Mayor respecting the Levying of Troops. After 
 these fly leaves, the customs proper commence, 
 being preceded by a table of the headings of the 
 chapters. After the table are these words : 
 " Usages and the Laws of the Town of Northton 
 confermed bi the charters of diverse kynges of 
 England by the purchases of old wise men of the 
 same Town." 
 
 These customs occupy eighty chapters, and, as 
 it is impossible to deal with them all, it is pro- 
 posed to abstract some of the most interesting 
 portions. 
 
 The first chapter deals with lands and tene- 
 ments bought after the usage and customs of 
 Northampton, and holden a year and a day. 
 
 The second chapter is headed " ffor to aske a 
 cate of londe and in whiche maner :" the commence- 
 ment is " Purveide hit is allso that if any man 
 haue londes tenements or rents of his heritage or 
 of purchase and he that lond tenement or rent 
 nedith to sellyn his kyne allwey shall be moste 
 next to ask the cate than any man ellis or the 
 chefe lorde if there be no man of the lynage and 
 if the chefe lorde take the sales be he forbarred 
 of the cate." 
 
 This word "cate" is a contracted form of
 
 158 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 the old French word " achate," meaning a 
 purchase. 
 
 By chapter four " if any man take a wife hit 
 shall be good to dowen his wyfe at his wylle in a 
 certeyne summe of siluer." 
 
 Chapter eight deals with a husband's right to 
 a life interest in his wife's lands after her death, 
 by courtesy, providing " that if any man take a 
 wyffe with free marriage and get a childe on her 
 and the crie of the childe be herde with inne 
 the hows after the deth of the wyfe he shall hold 
 that ffree marriage to the terme of his lyffe." 
 
 By chapter twelve it is also granted " that if 
 any man haue dwelled withouten chalenge of his 
 lorde in the town of Norhampton a yere and a 
 day and he be fyre house holdyng at loot and 
 scotte he shall dwelle free ther by the frannchise 
 of the towne." 
 
 In chapter eighteen it is provided "that if any 
 strange man that ledeth wolle into the town of 
 Norhampton may not sellen his wolle dept 
 yn but all hole to gedere And that no 
 strainge man may byen wolle in the town of 
 Norhampton but if it be in tyme of the feyre or 
 of good men of the same town And that no 
 strainger may byen threde in Norhampton for
 
 LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 159 
 
 to leden it out of the town but in tyme of a feire 
 No strainger ne may byen fressh hydes or pelts 
 in Norhampton but in tyme of ffeyr And that 
 no marchaunde of this shire no non other 
 strainger of other shires that comyth into 
 Norhampton with wolle hides talowe honey or 
 chese or fflesshe shall no where leyen down but 
 in the kynges shoppe And there to be purveide 
 a common shoppe." 
 
 By chapter nineteen " if any man have noryshed 
 tapster or servaunte and they of wikked wille 
 haue withdrawen or voyden her servise " the 
 bailiffe is to punish them. 
 
 Chapter twenty-two states that if a man " be 
 summoned " before the mayor and he " withsitt 
 the sommouns " he is to amerced at two shillings. 
 " And hit is to be undirstonden that a ryche man 
 be amercied at ijs. a mene man at xijd a poore 
 man at vjd And theise ameriaments be their 
 turned in to the profite of the commoune." 
 
 By chapter twenty-five no " ffysher nor 
 other man that fisshe sellith " is to buy fish of 
 any man bringing fish to the town before he 
 brings it into the market. And no merchant is 
 to go out of the town " nygh nor ffer by xxiiij. 
 myles from Norhampton for to byen ffysh or sake
 
 i6o BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 for to derthen the towne." If he do so he Is to 
 be fined two shillings. And if he do so thrice 
 "and thereof be overtaken fforswere he the craft 
 a yere and a day." 
 
 Chapter twenty-six : All " baxsters " are to 
 " setten in a serteyn stede togedyr and on on 
 rowe allso as they do of Eckton* and all other 
 strange Baxsters," and they are not to keep any 
 bread at home to "derthern the chepying." 
 
 Chapter twenty-seven: No man "that bereth 
 burthens of hay or of strawe pese strawe or bene 
 strawe into towne ne come it nought doun 
 to the erthe from his hedde tyll they have 
 solde hit. And if their done lese they the 
 burthene." 
 
 Chapter twenty-eight : Timber also is not to 
 be laid " down to the kynges grounde " till it be 
 sold. 
 
 Chapter thirty : No " huckster man nor 
 woman of Norhampton ne gon owte of the town 
 at non of the gates ne in no strete ne in other 
 hydynges But in the kynges chepyng ... to 
 buy ffyshe nor hennes nor kokkes nor chese nor 
 non other vitaile nor wode nor cole for to 
 derthen the vitaile And no man ne bye suche 
 
 * A village about six miles from the town.
 
 LIBER CUSTUMARUM. i6i 
 
 thyng beforn the prime be rungen at all holowen 
 chirche." * 
 
 Chapter thirty-five : If any man be " sommoned 
 to waken in the town that nede ben he shall sende 
 no man to wache for him But yf he nan ne 
 convenable and defensable And that wacche be 
 made from house to house so as it cometh a 
 boiigte And that none be released nor forborn 
 but if he be a warkeman that lyveth uppon his 
 owne hondes." 
 
 Chapter thirty-eight : No man to take any 
 other man's servant, " but if it so be that he witte 
 howe and in what manere he be departed from 
 his maister that he served and that he be de- 
 parted in good maner." 
 
 Chapter forty-one : If " any man or woman 
 ley his peny uppoun any marchandyze tille that 
 the seller hym hath granted the marchandise 
 leseth a peny to the profite of the bailliz and 
 good leve be to the other That wolle that 
 marchandize after byen And if any marchaund 
 bye be lasse than by a ferthyng hole but yf it be 
 peltis to parchmyn be in mercy of ye baillifs of 
 vjd." 
 
 Chapter forty-five : No " bocher " is to " haunte 
 
 * All Hallows, or as it is more commonly called, All Saints, is the 
 principal church still standing in the centre of the town.
 
 i62 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 the office of the bocherye as a maister " till he pay 
 3s. 4d, to the town " os they in olde tyme were 
 wonte to geven." 
 
 Chapter forty-seven : No butcher is to " sellen 
 sussemy flesshe fressh ne flesshe of a dede gote 
 ne calidiouns of a shepe nor Nete nor hedys of 
 calveren nor of Nete nor such manere of fowle 
 thynges but under the pillorie And if tho thynges 
 ben I foundene in other stedis for to sellen be 
 thei loste to the baillifz profite And the susmy 
 be geven to seke men of seynt Leorandis." 
 
 Chapter forty-nine: If "any chapman or 
 marchaund that marchaundoth with penyes of 
 straunge men " he shall be fined. 
 
 Chapter seventy-one : No one was to go about 
 the town after the bell of All Saints Church was 
 tolled at nine o'clock at night without a 
 light. 
 
 By chapter seventy-three, hardware sellers are 
 to sell their goods next the fish stalls in Mercers 
 Row. 
 
 The division into chapters continues only to 
 chapter eighty, after which the various ordinances 
 and customs are distinguished only by their 
 several titles. 
 
 One ordinance is to the effect that a miller
 
 LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 163 
 
 " shall have noo hoggys gese no dukkys at his 
 mylle nor manere of pultre but iij henneys and 
 a cokke." 
 
 An Innholder also is to sell "a pot of iij pyntes 
 of the beste ale for jd." 
 
 A Taverner also is not to ** make nor mdyll 
 noo maner of wyne within his Tavern." 
 
 And a " Bere brewere" is to make "no maner 
 of Bere but of good stuffe and that yt be holsom 
 for mannys body." 
 
 In the thirty-seventh year of the reign of 
 Henry "At the comon assemble holden at the 
 guyhalde in the towne of Norhampton," 
 Laurence Washington, the mayor, with the 
 agreement of his brethren, the twenty-four 
 co-burgesses, and the whole body of the town, 
 ordained that whereas the bakers of the town had 
 sent bread into the country on horseback every 
 day, which was thought to be a dearthing of the 
 corn that came into the market " from the vij 
 daye of December next folowyng that no baker 
 of this saide towne shall send forth of this towne 
 into the country but one horse lodyd w' breade 
 any daye uppone the payne of eny default so 
 taken to forfett brede and paye vjs. viijd. the one 
 half thereof to the meyre for the tyme being and
 
 i64 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 the Other half to the vse and pfett of the chamber 
 of the said towne." 
 
 This Laurence was Mayor of Northampton in 
 1533, and again in 1546, and died in 1584. He 
 was possessed of Sulgrave, in the County of 
 Northampton, and was the ancestor of George 
 Washington, the first President of the United 
 States. 
 
 Some of the punishments inflicted on various 
 tradesmen for transgressing their assize are 
 quaint. For instance, a miller was to have a 
 quart of wheat given to him for grinding a bushel 
 of wheat, and if he set it he was to have another 
 quart, and he was not to water any man's corn to 
 give him the worse for the better. And if he 
 broke any of these conditions the fine was to be 
 forty pence, and after two warnings he was to be 
 judged to the pillory. 
 
 When a brewer buys a quarter of malt for two 
 shillings he is to sell a gallon of beer for a half- 
 penny, and to make forty-eight gallons of a 
 quarter of malt, and so in proportion according to 
 the price of malt. " And that he sett non ale asale 
 tylle he have sent aftyr the ale Tasters to see 
 that yt be good and abulle And that he selle a 
 quarte of the beste ale within him for ob. (^-^d.)"
 
 LIBER CUSTUMARUM. 165 
 
 For continued neglect of these ordinances, he is 
 "to be jugged to the cukkyng stole and aftir to 
 the Pelorye." 
 
 If a fisher sell bad fish "he is to be jugged 
 unto the stocks openly in the market place." 
 
 In this town, the stocks stood on the Market 
 Square. In the year 1691, the town paid two 
 shillings for removing these stocks ; this was for 
 the purpose of restoring or repairing them, as we 
 find them in common use long after. In fact, 
 entries occur in the sessions records of persons 
 being committed to the stocks in Northampton in 
 the present century. 
 
 The pillory also stood on the Market Square, 
 although it does not seem to have been much 
 used there at any time. In the year 1689, the 
 following entry appears in the minutes of Quarter 
 Sessions : " It is ordered that Thomas Smith of 
 Kislingbury now Prison"" in their Mat'" Gaole for 
 this county being convict of counterfeiting a Pass 
 under the hands of the right hono"^ Christopher 
 Lord Viscount Hatton and Sir Roger Norwich 
 Bart be continued in the Pillory in the Publick 
 Markett place in the Towne of Northampton for 
 the space of one hour betwixt the houres of 
 twelve and two in the afternoon with a writeing
 
 i66 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 on his Brest declaring his crime and be from 
 thence re-conveyed to Prison there to remain till 
 the next Quarter Sessions of the Peace to be held 
 for this county and till this court shall otherwise 
 order." Indeed within the memory of persons 
 still living in Northampton, the pillory has been 
 used as an instrument of punishment. 
 
 The following excerpt from the Sessions 
 minute book appears to be the only case of any 
 person having been ducked by order of Sessions. 
 No doubt, this mode of punishment was generally 
 ordered by mob law, and at once carried out, the 
 cucking stool always being in a convenient place 
 and ready for service, the people being at once 
 jury, judge, and executioner : 
 
 "Trin. Sess. 23. Car. II. [1684]. That said 
 ffranes Mason to be douckt in ye ducking stoole in 
 ye towne of Northton Saturday next between ye 
 houres of 11, 12. i and 2." 
 
 Doubtless this Frances Mason was a "com- 
 munis rixatrix," though, being a widow, it is not 
 easy to see why her scolding should offend ; but the 
 magistrates seemed to think it did, and therefore 
 bound her over in the sum of twentyshillingstobeof 
 the good behaviour, and ordered her to be ducked 
 at three different times on the next market day.
 
 ^bomas Britton, tbe ni>u0tcal 
 SmalUCoal riDan. 
 
 By E. E. Cohen. 
 
 THE traveller journeying from Northampton 
 to Peterborough will, on his way thither, 
 pass through the little town of Higham Ferrars 
 if he should care to break his journey and 
 possess both antiquarian and architectural tastes, 
 he will find much to interest him in the old 
 Church, a charming specimen of decorated 
 English architecture, an old Grammar School, 
 and still more ancient Market Cross, the ruins of 
 an old Castle, and Archbishop Chichley's School, 
 that great Archbishop whose talents were 
 recognised both by Henry IV. and Henry V. 
 He was the founder of All Saints' College at 
 Cambridge, and built, at his own expense, the 
 Western Tower of Canterbury Cathedral. It is, 
 however, of a more humble citizen of Higham 
 Ferrars to whom I wish to direct attention. 
 Thomas Britton, the musical small-coal man.
 
 1 68 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Was it not Henry Taylor who wrote " That 
 the world knows nothing of its greatest men." 
 Does it not frequently happen that even when 
 accidentally it discovers a genius, it can learn but 
 little of his earliest days. 
 
 So of Thomas Britton, we simply know that 
 his parents were of humble circumstances, and 
 that he was born in 1654. Who can say but the 
 glorious example of his illustrious townsman 
 turned his head towards the great city, and led 
 him to think that he might also climb up the 
 rugged spokes of fame's steep ladder. 
 
 Upon his arrival in London, Britton bound 
 himself to a small-coal man, living in St. John's 
 Street, Clerkenwell, close to the Jerusalem Gate, 
 the man being so obscure and humble that 
 tradition has not even handed down his name. 
 At the termination of his apprenticeship, Thomas 
 turned his face homewards; remaining at home 
 until he had expended the small sum his patron 
 had given him. Once more he turns towards 
 London, and considering gratitude a surplus 
 commodity in trade when one has to carve 
 out a path for oneself, he set up a business on 
 similar lines, in close proximity to his old master, 
 who was still alive, transforming an old stable into
 
 THOMAS BRITTON. 169 
 
 a dwelling-house and store. Britton was naturally 
 ambitious, and he became an ardent student in all 
 intellectual pursuits. 
 
 Being also scientifically inclined, he commenced 
 to dabble in what the ignorant folk of his day 
 considered the black art chemistry. He con- 
 structed for himself a laboratory, which won for 
 him much renown, and the character and scope of 
 his experiments and researches drew from many a 
 professional admirer, praise. 
 
 It was not only as a chemist he became 
 renowned, but in the more entrancing art of 
 music, for his skill both in the practice and theory 
 was very great. 
 
 In his little rooms, for over fifty years, a 
 musical club met, and here concerts were frequently 
 held ; there can be no doubt it was the parent 
 stem of the great London concerts. The guiding 
 spirit of this musical club was Sir Roger 
 L'Estrange, a celebrated literary man, and the 
 censor of the Press of Charles II., the translator 
 of Seneca and Cicero. Not only had Britton 
 gained the regard of Sir Roger, but many other 
 eminent personages were attracted to him by his 
 deep love of literature, science, and art. His 
 musical club drew together not only the men of
 
 I70 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 quality, but many of the wits and savants of the 
 day, who were only too pleased to honour him 
 with their presence ; and yet, whilst of lowly 
 station, his unassuming qualities so commended 
 him to men of the highest rank, that they always 
 prefixed their addresses to him with Mr. 
 
 As he pursued his calling in his blue smock, 
 carrying his small-coal in a sack, the populace 
 would cry, as he passed down the street, " There 
 goes the famous small-coal man who is a lover of 
 learning, a musician, and a companion of 
 gentlemen." 
 
 A writer of his day has left us this very graphic 
 description of Britton's house and home : " On 
 the ground floor was a repository for small-coal ; 
 over that was the concert-room, which was very 
 long and narrow, and had the ceiling so low that 
 tall men could but just stand right up in it. The 
 stairs to this room were on the outside of the 
 house, and could scarce be ascended without 
 crawling. The house itself was very old, low 
 built, and in every respect so mean as to seem 
 only the fit habitation of a very poor man. Not- 
 withstanding all these discomforts, this proverty- 
 stricken home, this low hovel attracted to it as 
 fashionable an audience as ever assembled at the
 
 THOMAS BRITTON. 171 
 
 opera." A noted belle and foremost lady of 
 
 position in the land, the beautiful Duchess B , 
 
 was wont to remark, that "The pleasure 
 in listening to Mr, Britton's concerts over- 
 whelmed the sense of discomfort experienced 
 in mounting his stairs." 
 
 Amongst the famous musicians taking part in 
 these concerts we find no less a personage than 
 Handel; Dr. Pepusch, the well-known composer of 
 the overture to the "Beggar's Opera;" and 
 Bannister, the famous fiddler, the first Englishman 
 to distinguish himself on the violin. It was here 
 that Dubourg as a child made his debut. So small 
 was he that he had to stand upon a foot- 
 stool so that the audience might catch a glimpse 
 of him. Overcome by stage fright, the child 
 nearly fell from his perch. 
 
 The subscription to the concerts was merely 
 nominal, the charge being only ten shillings per 
 annum. Out of that sum Britton furnished both 
 the room and instruments. Coffee was handed 
 round to the guests at one penny per cup. This 
 was an innovation on Britton's original idea, which 
 was to have had everything free. Those co- 
 operating with him stated that no greater insult 
 could have been offered than to desire to
 
 172 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 remunerate him for services rendered. A song 
 
 writer, named Ward, the author of " The London 
 
 Spy," goes thus far in verse to confirm the 
 
 idea : 
 
 " Upon Thursday repair 
 To my palace, and there 
 Hobble up stair by stair, 
 But I pray ye take care 
 That you break not your shins by a stumble ; 
 And without e'er a souse 
 Paid to me or my spouse, 
 
 Sit still as a mouse 
 At the top of the house. 
 And there you shall hear how we fumble." 
 
 Britton's personal appearance may thus be 
 described : short and thick set, slightly below 
 medium height, with a straight open countenance. 
 
 There are two portraits of Britton still in exist- 
 ence, but of their present whereabouts I am 
 unable to say both executed by his old friend 
 Wollaston. The painting of the first portrait was 
 entirely due to an accidental circumstance. It 
 happened thus : 
 
 One day whilst pursuing his ordinary round, 
 Britton found that owing to the briskness of trade 
 his load had become considerably lightened. He 
 was quite close to the home of his friend 
 Mr Wollaston, the painter, whose frequent in vita-
 
 THOMAS BRITTON. 173 
 
 tions he had never cared to accept, as he always 
 had compunction in inflicting his society upon 
 those who stood higher in the social scale. He 
 further felt that his own calling was derogatory. 
 With these impressions he decided to defer his 
 visit. It so happened, however, that Mr 
 Wollaston, who sat at his window in Warwick 
 Square, spied Britton and called him in, Britton 
 very timidly accepting the invitation. And this is 
 how Wollaston came to paint him in his blue 
 smock and his coal measure in hand. 
 
 Bateman's shop in Paternoster Row was the 
 famous Saturday morning rendezvous of the 
 connoisseurs, collectors, and bibliophiles of the 
 day. It was no uncommon thing to see here the 
 Duke of Devonshire, or the Earls of Pembroke, 
 Oxford, or Sunderland, in animated conversation 
 with Britton, who used to arrive upon the scene 
 after finishing his rounds, attired in the old blue 
 smock. 
 
 It was Britton's lot, like many another celebrity, 
 to be misunderstood, and various motives were 
 ascribed for his musical assemblies, which some 
 folk were ready enough to assert were but the 
 cover for seditious meetings, whilst the laboratory, 
 as I have before said, left the impression upon the
 
 174 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 vulgar mind that he had relations with the much- 
 maligned ruler of the lower regions, Pluto. 
 
 Personally he was styled in turn Atheist, Jesuit, 
 and Presbyterian. Despite all these dire calumnies 
 he was much respected, and won the esteem of all 
 who knew him. 
 
 Even the circumstances of his death are nearly 
 as remarkable as the episodes of his life. It was 
 due to the pranks of a ventriloquist, Honeyman by 
 name, a blacksmith by trade. 
 
 A friend of Britton's, Mr. Robe, a j.p. in 
 Clerkenwell, a frequent performer at the 
 assemblies, thought he would play a practical joke 
 on Britton, so he introduced Honeyman to the 
 house unawares. For the purposes of his joke he 
 arranged that he should, in sepulchral tones, which 
 were to appear as distant as possible, announce to 
 Britton his impending end, telling him at the same 
 time he might avert his doom by kneeling 
 down on the spot and repeating the Lord's 
 Prayer. Britton, in response to the voice, did as 
 he was bid. Returning home he took to his bed, 
 and in a few days died, leaving Mr. Robe, as a 
 legacy of his folly the remembrance and remorse 
 following his practical joke. Britton was buried 
 in the parish churchyard on October ist, 17 14.
 
 THOMAS BRITTON. 175 
 
 Britton left to his sorrowing widow a consider- 
 able library of books, an extensive collection of 
 MS., music books and instruments, all of which 
 were eventually dispersed under the hammer. 
 
 His character may best be summed up in the 
 lines which John Hughes, the poet and dramatist, 
 and the well-known contributor to the Spectator 
 and Tatler, wrote under his portrait : 
 
 " Tho' mean in rank, yet in thy humble cell 
 Did gentle peace and hearts unpurchased dwell. 
 Well pleased, Apollo thither led his train, 
 And music warbled in her sweetest strain ; 
 Cyllemis so, as fables tell, and Jove 
 Came willing guests to poor Philemon's grove. 
 Let useless pomp behold, and blush to find 
 So low a station, such a liberal mind." 
 
 Another poet, none other than Matthew Prior, 
 the poet, politician, and plenipotentiary of William 
 HI., likewise celebrated his fame in lines under his 
 portrait, which run as follow : 
 
 " Tho' doomed to small-coal, yet to arts allied, 
 Rich without wealth, and famous without pride, 
 Music's best patron, judge of books and men. 
 Beloved and honoured by Apollo's train. 
 In Greece, in Rome, sure never did appear 
 So bright a genius in so dark a sphere ; 
 More of the man had probably been saved 
 Had Kneller painted and Virtu grav'd."
 
 lb Scarlett, tbe petcrborougb Scyton, 
 
 DEATH, that prime supporter of sextons, 
 deals somewhat tenderly with them, 
 frequently extending their term of life beyond 
 the allotted threescore years and ten of holy 
 writ, and even adding thereto the ten years of 
 heaviness that usually close the drama of life. 
 
 Among the famous sextons thus indulged with 
 special opportunities for the plying of their 
 necessary business. Old Scarlett, the historic 
 sexton of Peterborough Cathedral, occupies a 
 distinguished position, his term of years being 
 extended to ninety-eight. His death occurred on 
 the 2nd of July, 1591, and he is reputed to have 
 buried two generations of his fellow-townsmen. 
 
 When Catherine of Arragon, the divorced wife 
 of King Henry VHL, died at Kimbolton Castle, 
 A.D. 1536, old Scarlett prepared the grave of that 
 unfortunate lady ; and also performed the same 
 melancholy service for another distinguished 
 victim of Tudor craft and treachery, when the
 
 OLD SCARLETT. 
 
 177 
 
 decollated corpse of the unfortunate Queen of 
 Scots was conveyed from Fotheringhay Castle to 
 receive its first interment in Peterborough 
 Cathedral, a.d. 1587. 
 
 OLD SCARLETT. 
 
 Scarlett's epitaph alone would have served to 
 perpetuate his fame, but the affixing of his 
 portrait in the west end of the church has 
 
 M
 
 178 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 intensified the interest in the old man and his 
 long years of work. The engraver's art has 
 introduced Scarlett's form and face into several 
 books, for the satisfaction of the curious antiquary, 
 and as a fitting accompaniment to his epitaph, 
 which runs as follows : 
 
 " You see old Scarlett's picture stand on hie ; 
 But at your feet here doth his body lye. 
 His gravestone doth his age and death-time show, 
 His ofifice by heis token(s) you may know. 
 Second to none for strength and sturdy limm, 
 A scare-babe mighty voice, with visage grim ; 
 He had inter'd two queenes within this place, 
 And this townes householders in his life's space 
 Twice over ; but at length his own time came, 
 What he for others did, for him the same 
 Was done. No doubt his soule doth live for aye 
 In heaven, though his body clad in clay." 
 
 In that interesting and cleverly conceived and 
 executed work. Dr. Robert Chambers's " Book of 
 Days," he thus refers to our notable Northampton- 
 shire sexton : "And what a lively effigy short, 
 stout, hardy, and self-complacent, perfectly 
 satisfied, and perhaps even proud of his pro- 
 fession, and content to be exhibited with all his 
 insignia about him. Two queens had passed 
 through his hands into that bed which gives a 
 lasting rest to queens and to peasants alike. An
 
 OLD SCARLETT. 179 
 
 officer of Death, who had so long defied his 
 principal, could not but have made some impres- 
 sion on the minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and 
 other magnates of the cathedral, and hence, as 
 we may suppose, the erection of this lively- 
 portraiture of the old man, which is believed to 
 have been only once renewed since it was first 
 put up. Dr. Dibdin, who last copied it, tells us 
 that ' Old Scarlett's jacket and trunk-hose are of 
 a brownish red, his stockings blue, his shoes 
 black, tied with blue ribbons, and the soles of his 
 feet red. The cap upon his head is red, and so 
 also is the ground of the coat armour.' "
 
 accounts of tbe XTowcester Conetablee. 
 
 By John Nicholson. 
 
 ONLY an old account book, with its pages 
 soiled and stained, torn and worn ; with 
 an eloquence all its own, since the hand that 
 penned the first pages has been cold and lifeless 
 these two hundred years and more. Only an old 
 account book, kept by parish constables from 
 1688 to 1727, from the bloodless Revolution 
 to the coronation of George II., but full of 
 interesting items bearing on the social and 
 political life of our forefathers. 
 
 As we read such entries as the following : 
 
 " 1691. May 16, Paid Robt Newman 
 for mending and making up ye 
 Holbeards- - - - - 13s. od. 
 Pd. Richd. Wadge for Painting 
 
 ye Halbd. 6d. 
 
 17 1 7. Oct 23, ffor a New Watch stafT - 6s. 8d." 
 
 the measured tramp of our policeman on his beat 
 gives place to the voice of the watchman crying, 
 "Twelve o'clock, and a rainy night," and in mind
 
 THE TOWCESTER CONSTABLES. i8i 
 
 we can see him patroling the streets in his long 
 coat, with halberd in one hand and lantern in 
 the other ; the light being a necessity to him, 
 as the streets were either ill-lighted or not 
 at all, and the roads were neither paved nor 
 macadamised. 
 
 There is no mention of coal in this book. 
 Wood seems to have been the common fuel. 
 Although coal was used, indeed St. Paul's was 
 erected by a tax on sea coal brought into London, 
 those great distributors, railway trains, were 
 unknown, and coal could not commonly be 
 obtained. 
 
 "1688. Dessem ye 12, Pd ffor 6 Hundred 
 
 of wood 4s. 6d. 
 
 13, Pd ifor 7 Hundred of wood - 5s. 3d. 
 
 14, Pd ffor 3 Hundred of wood and 
 
 on pond of Candales - - - 2s. yd. 
 22, Pd ffor 2 Hundred of wood ffor 
 ye woatch ye night after Betimes 
 ffier IS. 6d." 
 
 These are evidently special items, as there are 
 no others similar for such a quantity of wood 
 in so short a time ; but there is no fuel except 
 wood mentioned, and no provision for artificial 
 light but candles, the price of which was fourpence 
 per pound.
 
 1 82 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 One might suppose there had been a Rate- 
 payers' Association in this parish, whose members 
 kept a keen eye on all parochial expenditure, for 
 in order to keep down expense we find entries 
 like this : 
 
 " 1727. Oct 5, gave a big belyd Woman 
 
 to get hur out of Towne - j[,o os. 3d." 
 
 Poor woman ! poor unborn babe ! Then as now, 
 it was almost a crime to be poor ; and she was 
 not the only one that received threepence "to go 
 away." 
 
 The succeeding entry shews how they coped 
 with outbreaks of fire : 
 
 " 1688. May 10, To 2 Watchmen when 
 Jno Bells chimney was on 
 
 fier IS. od. 
 
 1679. Aug 9, payed to 23 workemen 
 
 at Mr Waples fier - - ;^i 3s. od. 
 payed for ale for the worke- 
 men and other Labour and 
 Watch - - - - IIS. gd." 
 
 England was " merrie England " ortce upon a 
 time, so we find that on Easter Monday, 1696, 
 the constable spent 2s. at Joseph Kingston's, 
 "by order of ye Townsmen," and although we 
 are not informed for what purpose this money 
 was spent, it would ^probably be to provide
 
 THE TOWCESTER CONSTABLES. 183 
 
 liquor or sports. Some people think a fair 
 or feast to be a very tame affair unless there 
 be a fight or quarrel of some kind, and an entry 
 under date 1699, Oct. 18, tells us that sixpence 
 was "spent on the Watch onn fair day night." 
 The following is curious : 
 
 " 1696. Oct ye 2, pd tto 2 men for Garding a 
 
 Gipsee for shoating Benit sharpe - 6d." 
 
 Probably the "gipsee" would be in the stocks, 
 and those travelling tinkers, those peripatetic 
 pagans, have always been a thorn in the side 
 of our local constabulary. 
 
 The man mentioned in the subjoined extract, 
 evidently was so troublesome as to be a public 
 nuisance, and that parochial policy demanded his 
 removal : 
 
 " 1 701. ffeb i6, pd for orders and Coppies of 
 orders in Refferrence to remove 
 William HoUan, and to send him 
 away when the Townsmen shall 
 please to give him notice Thereof - 3s. od." 
 
 The next extract, under the same date, gives 
 us an insight into bygone days and ways not 
 excelled by any other line in this museum of 
 local antiquities : 
 
 " 1 701. ffeb 16, pd for ye Towne Plow ^t^ 15s. od."
 
 1 84 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 The modern Radical idea epitomised in " three 
 acres and a cow " is but an echo of the days 
 of old, when every householder was apportioned 
 a share in the arable and pasture land of the 
 village community. The allotments were divided 
 into long, narrow strips, averaging about one- 
 eighth of a mile in length, with long furrows from 
 end to end, hence our word, furlong. The strips 
 were separated by low banks, called balks, and 
 the whole enclosed in a high bank, called 
 reins. 
 
 The huge, heavy plough, drawn by four yoke of 
 oxen, took so much turning, that it was driven as 
 far as possible in a straight line. The ground 
 was cultivated by co-operative labour, and the 
 produce shared among the householders. One 
 half lay fallow every alternate year, and formed 
 common pasture for the village cattle, while the 
 meadow-land was a distinct field, the hay of 
 which was also distributed as fairly as the 
 agricultural produce. 
 
 Scolding women were soused under water. 
 
 " 1688. Aug 24, Pd for the reppare ye 
 Cookin Sttool and all charges for 
 tto Duck Ahs Gones in - - 19s. 6d." 
 
 Drunkards were laid by the heels, and had time
 
 THE TOWCESTER CONSTABLES. 185 
 
 for reflection with their feet fast in the stocks, 
 until they were sober. 
 
 "1702. June 4, pd for watching 
 
 drunken woman in ye stocks j,oo 00 04." 
 "1689. April ye 29, Pd for watching 3 
 
 in ye stocks . . . is. od." 
 
 An old man told me that when a new pair of 
 stocks had been erected in their village, they were 
 watched for several nights by the constable and 
 his friends, to prevent their removal or destruction 
 by those to whom they were meant to be a terror. 
 Lulled to a sense of false security by their non- 
 molestation, the watch was removed, and next 
 morning the stocks were gone. Diligent search 
 discovered not their hiding-place, and the secret 
 was so well kept that no clue could be obtained. 
 A very dry summer, years afterwards, almost dried 
 up the village pond, and there, in the middle, 
 among mud and dead cats, were the long-lost 
 stocks. Thus one is not very much surprised at 
 an entry like this : 
 
 "1694(5). Mar II, for warrant for 
 them that brok the old 
 stocks . - - - jQo OS. 6d." 
 
 Therefore new stocks had to be " sette down," 
 which cost 2s. lod. ; and the timber for the stocks 
 and " culloring " them cost 1 os. lod. more.
 
 1 86 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Both men and women were whipped, though 
 
 their offence is not stated. 
 
 " 1688. Sep 29, To going to North- 
 ampton wth Meakins wife 
 and 7 more witnesses - 2s. 
 
 To bringing her back - is. 
 
 To 2 Watchmen 2 nights and 
 
 days and Beere - - 4s. 
 
 To whipping Meakins wife 
 and a whip - - - is. 2d. 
 
 1689. April ye i, pd to keeping Henry 
 
 Griffin - - . . jp^o os. 6d. 
 
 ' Pd for whipping him - j[^o os. 6d." 
 
 Having found herein the cucking-stool, the 
 stocks, and the whipping-post, there yet remains 
 the pillory, which was repaired in 1699, at a cost 
 of 3s. ; and on 
 
 "1727. Feby 9, Pd ye mans charge 
 
 yt stud In ye Pereley - ;;^o 4s, 6d." 
 
 In 1688, James II. deserted the throne, throw- 
 ing the Great Seal into the Thames as he fled. 
 Ireland remained loyal to him, under the Lord- 
 Lieutenant Tyrconnel, who had 50,000 men in 
 arms, and it shews how afraid the English were 
 that this army would be used for invading 
 England when inland counties felt the alarm. 
 
 " 1689. Jan 16, To Wm Hastings for 41b of 
 Candles when ye Alarm of the 
 Irish was - - - - is. 4d.
 
 THE TO WC ESTER CONSTABLES. 187 
 
 "To James Thomas for 2 Links att 
 
 The Marine - . . . 6d. 
 To Robt Newman for Powder and 
 
 Ball - - . . . 6d. 
 
 19, To Bread for 200 soldiers - 7s. 4d. 
 
 20, To bread for more soldiers - 3s, 6d." 
 
 These were the days of the press gang, when 
 
 men deemed suitable for the Navy were seized 
 
 and hurried off to serve as seamen, nolens volens. 
 
 " 1693. Feb 16, pd 2 men for Gardine 
 
 sum Imprest men - - ;;^oo 02 00 
 
 Mar 28, ffor Carrying an 
 Imprest man - - - 00 03 06." 
 
 To prevent such outrageous abduction, many men 
 obtained and carried on their person a Protection 
 Order, a copy of which is subjoined : 
 
 "No. 40. o^^^^aF^ J. Ferraby, Printer, 
 
 Ubese are to Certitp whom it may concern. That the 
 Bearer hereof, 
 
 James Spencer, aged 19 years, middle stature, fair com- 
 plexion, wears his own light hair loose, 
 
 Is one of the Seventy Men employed by Messrs, Westerdell 
 
 and Barnes, Shipwrights, at Hull, and entered in their 
 
 Protection, 
 
 Dated the Sixth day of October, 1787. 
 
 (Signed) T, WESTERDELL & BARNES," 
 
 But if the press gang were determined to have 
 any particular man, even if he had an Order, they
 
 i88 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 would not scruple to steal it, and then impress 
 him for being without one. 
 
 Louis XIV. of France espoused the cause of 
 the deposed James II., and collected a large army 
 with which to invade England and dethrone his 
 great rival, William III. The defeat of his fleet 
 at La Hogue disconcerted his plans, and the 
 Treaty of Ryswick was signed by William and 
 Louis on the 20th of September, 1697. Shortly 
 afterwards comes this notice in the book under 
 our review : 
 
 " 1697. Oct ye 10. Spent in Proclaiming ye 
 
 Peace - - - - - 2s. od. 
 Oct ye 26. Spent at the Proclaim- 
 ing Peace - - - - 3s. od." 
 
 Five years later the war of the Spanish 
 Succession was undertaken to preserve the 
 balance of power in Europe. 
 
 " 1702. May 19, for proclaiming Warrs by 
 
 orders - - - 2 s. od. 
 
 29, Spent at Proclaiming of 
 
 War - - - 2S. od." 
 
 George I. died on the loth of June, 1727, and 
 a few days afterwards George II. was proclaimed 
 king. "The king is dead. Long live the 
 king!"
 
 THE TOWCESTER CONSTABLES. 189 
 
 "1727. June ye 20, Pd for Ribings to 
 hang upon ye Constables 
 Stafe, and outher Expences 
 yt Day being ye Day of Pro- 
 clamation of ye King - j[^2 5s. 6d." 
 
 In the autumn of the same year George II. was 
 crowned. 
 
 "1727. Oct II, Spent atte ye Crowne 
 
 Ashan Day - - - - 2 s. od. 
 
 Oct 30, Spent at ye Crownation - 2s. od." 
 
 In three of the above extracts there are two 
 items of different dates bearing on the same 
 subject. This is owing to there being two 
 constables, as a rule, for the same year, which ran 
 from March to March. Here followeth a list of 
 the constables, with their year of office : 
 
 " 1688. Robert Barratt and George Stokes. 
 1689. John Day, Thomas Wood, Will Wills (March to 
 December), 
 
 1 69 1. Thomas Summers. 
 
 1692. William Brett, Richard Marshall. 
 
 1693. Edward Butler. 
 
 1694. George Smith. 
 
 1695. George Carter, John Smith. 
 
 1696. Abraham Shackleton, John Goodchild. 
 
 1697. Richard Ratnitt, Richard James. 
 
 1698. Richard Watson, William Harris. 
 
 1699. Thomas Oldham. 
 
 1700. Lawrence Savage, Henry Perrin. 
 
 1 70 1. Anthony Fletcher, William Peake.
 
 igo BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 "1702. Samuel Orsborne, Samuel Carter. 
 
 1703. Thos. Gillford, Edward Bloxham. 
 
 1704. William Dimmock, William Marshall. 
 
 1705. James Ffoddy. 
 
 1706. William Shepard. 
 
 1707. John Hall, Samuel Thompson. 
 
 1708. ffarmar ffowkes, Lawrence Savage. 
 
 1709. Thomas Cory, Henery Adkins. 
 
 171 1. Johh Capell, Abraham West. 
 
 17 1 2. Samuel Sharp, Thomas Newman. 
 
 17 17. Matthew Luck, John Pursell. 
 
 1 7 18. Matthew Luck, John Pursell. 
 1723. Joseph Wilkins. 
 
 1726. Thomas Carter, George Davis. 
 
 1727. Samuel Osmond, William Goodchild." 
 
 In the above list of constables in only one case 
 do the constables hold office for two successive 
 years (17 17- 18); and in only one other instance 
 does the same name occur twice, viz., Lawrence 
 Savage (1700-8). 
 
 In the good old days they put a tax upon 
 heaven's daylight by taxing the windows of a 
 house. This window tax was imposed in 1695 to 
 defray the expense of recoining, and in making 
 up a deficiency in the silver coinage. It was 
 repealed in 1851, and the Inhabited House Duty 
 substituted. 
 
 " 1717. June 18, for going to Northampton 
 wth the Duplicates of the Window 
 tax 2s. od."
 
 THE TOWCESTER CONSTABLES. 191 
 
 The last item to which we shall call attention 
 relates to the Poll-tax, which was abolished by 
 William III., in 1689, but it is referred to in these 
 accounts some years later. 
 
 "1697. Aug II, for Returning a warrant 
 
 about ye Pole Tax - - - 2s. od." 
 
 The Poll-tax was levied in 1380 for the defence 
 of the realm, and the first imposition ranged from 
 4d. for a peasant to 6 13s. 4d. for an earl, but 
 this was afterwards increased. The tax pressed 
 very heavily on the poorer classes, and the rough 
 way in which it was exacted greatly incensed the 
 people. A brutal collector having offered a rude 
 insult to the daughter of a tiler in Dartford, paid 
 the penalty by his life. This was the signal for 
 a great insurrection, for the whole country was in 
 an excited state, and a spark was sufficient to 
 kindle a great conflagration. 
 
 Wat Tyler's death at Smithfield, Richard's 
 promises and pardons, which he was not allowed 
 to fulfil, are matters of history. A large number 
 of the rebels were executed, and the great rising 
 came to an end, ^eeming to have only increased 
 the load of suffering borne by our unhappy 
 forefathers.
 
 ^be niM^ererc SboemaFicr of 
 MelUnGborougb, 
 
 By T. Tindall Wildridge. 
 
 THE Church of All Saints and St. Luke, 
 Wellingborough, contains examples of 
 the Norman, Early English, Transitional Early 
 English, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles 
 of architecture. There is preserved in this 
 building an unusually large proportion of ancient 
 woodwork, the roof, the screen, and the stalls 
 being all of great interest, as conservation 
 rather than so-called restoration has been 
 the principle upon which the guardians of 
 the church have wisely acted. The stalls, six 
 in number, and their miserere seats, point to the 
 early dependence of the church upon the 
 Abbey of Croyland, and to the officiation here, in 
 some capacity, of a corresponding number of 
 ecclesiastics. As is well known, the miserere 
 shelves are secondary seats under the seats of the 
 stalls, and though scarcely sufficiently wide to
 
 THE MISERERE SHOEMAKER. 
 
 193 
 
 afford a secure resting place, they were doubt- 
 less a great relief during the inordinately long 
 services which the capitulars had to undergo. 
 The name " miserere " is said to be from 
 these seats being raised at the chanting of the 
 51st Psalm, beginning Miserere Mei; their more 
 correct name was " Misericorde " a mercy or 
 relief. They are also called " subsellse " from 
 
 THE MISERERE SHOEMAKER, WELLINGBOROUGH. 
 
 their situation. One of these misereres at 
 Wellingborough is of special interest, as it is 
 evidence of a continuity in the staple manufacture 
 of the town from at the latest the reign of 
 Edward IV. This miserere is known as "the 
 Shoemaker." It represents a workman sat with 
 a board upon his knee, upon which are spread the 
 implements of his craft, among which can be 
 clearly distinguished the awl, " clincher " (a sort 
 
 N
 
 194 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 of chisel), hammer, seat-file, and several cutting 
 knives. 
 
 He wears a costume very nearly approaching 
 the fashionable attire of the early part 
 of Edward IV.'s reign ; his shoulders are 
 padded with the bulky waddings called 
 mahoitres, and his doublet and sleeves have 
 the appearance of being quilted or stuffed. He 
 does not. however, wear the long-toed shoes of 
 the upper class, for, supposing him a shoemaker, 
 he would have need to bear in mind the ordinance 
 by which any shoemaker or cobbler making 
 poulaines, or long-pointed shoes, for unprivileged 
 persons was liable not only to the forfeiture of 
 twenty shillings for each offence, but also the " pain 
 of cursing " by the clergy. The worker is shewn 
 holding a knife, evidently keen, with both hands, 
 and carefully cutting not a shoe, but a rose for 
 the decoration of one, while in the bosom 
 of his doublet he wears a smaller similar 
 rose. The whole action of the figure and the 
 minutely carved tools are undoubtedly those of a 
 leather worker, and it may be safely inferred that 
 he carving is a semi-satirical caricature upon the 
 costume of the day and upon the legal strictures 
 on dress ; as also upon the wholesale decoration
 
 THE MISERERE SHOEMAKER. 195 
 
 of the adherents of Edward with the badges of 
 the sun and the rose. It is but to "shoe the goose" 
 to attempt explanation of all the fanciful designs 
 of misereres, but it almost seems as though this 
 mediaeval humourist wished to say by his carving, 
 " Nowadays all men dress as richly as the law will 
 let them, and as for York roses, why even the 
 shoemakers have to spend their time making them, 
 and they themselves, forsooth, shall be decorated 
 therewith." At either side of the shoemaker is 
 an eagle seated upon a conventional bush.
 
 Sir ^bomaa ^resbam anb bie 
 BuilMngs. 
 
 By John T. Page. 
 
 " T)LESSED is the man," said Lord 
 -L/ Brougham, " who has a hobby." To this 
 trite assertion might well be added a benediction 
 on the man who, having a hobby, also possesses 
 the means wherewith to carry it out. Some 
 hobbies are very expensive, and many a man has 
 been forced to lay his hobby down with a sigh 
 because he lacked the wherewithal to proceed 
 further with it. Notwithstanding this, good work 
 has often been done in the pursuit of a hobby, and 
 it would be comparatively easy to adduce many 
 examples in support of this statement. In the 
 case of Sir Thomas Tresham, we have a man 
 whose hobby was building, and although the times 
 were evil for him he left behind much work that 
 was beautiful and curious in design, and lasting 
 in point of workmanship. 
 
 The grandfather of Sir Thomas Tresham, the
 
 SIR THOMAS TRESHAM. 197 
 
 builder, was the first, and also the last, Prior of 
 the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which was 
 resuscitated in the reign of Queen Mary. Notwith- 
 standing this, he married twice, and several children 
 were born to him. His eldest son, having married, 
 died on the same day as his wife, leaving an 
 infant son named Thomas, two and a half years 
 old. In 1559, Sir Thomas, the Prior, died, leaving 
 his estates to his grandson, who was then fifteen 
 years of age. For some unexplained reason, this 
 youth, who was brought up by his grandfather, had 
 been educated as a Protestant. Henceforth his 
 history is a blank until we find his name amongst 
 those who received the honour of knighthood 
 from Queen Elizabeth, on the occasion of her 
 celebrated visit to Kenilworth, in July, 1575. By 
 this time he was also a married man and a father. 
 At the age of thirty-seven, in the year 1580, he was 
 converted to Roman Catholicism under the 
 influence of the missionary priests Campion and 
 Parsons. His life now became one long series of 
 fines and imprisonments. Before the year of his 
 conversion was out he was in durance vile, and for 
 the next ten years he spent a great portion of his 
 time under restraint, either in the Fleet, at 
 Hoggesdon (Hoxton), at Ely, or at Banbury. In a
 
 198 BYG ONE NOR THAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 letter written in 1593 he himself refers to the fact 
 that he had not been allowed to visit Northamp- 
 tonshire for the past eight years ; but from this time 
 until 1595 he resided in the county in the bosom 
 of his family. In 1595, he was again carried away, 
 and, except at a few brief intervals, he did not 
 enjoy freedom until within a couple of years or 
 so of the death of Elizabeth. 
 
 On March 25th, 1603, he played a conspicuous 
 part by proclaiming James I. King at Northamp- 
 ton. James had secretly encouraged the 
 Romanists for some time previously, and this 
 made them very anxious to see him securely 
 seated on the throne. 
 
 The few remaining years of Tresham's life were 
 spent in peace and quietness in Northamptonshire, 
 and there is every reason for supposing that he 
 knew nothing of the contemplated Gunpowder Plot, 
 in which his son Francis was so deeply involved. 
 
 On September iith, 1605, a little less than 
 three months before his son divulged the Plot, he 
 peaceably breathed his last. 
 
 Having briefly reviewed the eventful life of Sir 
 Thomas Tresham, we now turn to a cursory 
 examination of the remains of his handiwork in 
 the buildings which he erected.
 
 SIR THOMAS TRESHAM. 199 
 
 The first of these structures is the Market 
 House at Rothwell. Although the inscription of 
 the year of its erection and the building itself 
 were both left unfinished, an agreement in 
 existence concerning " certain buildings at Roth- 
 well Cross 2 July 1578" fixes the date accurately 
 enough. It has been said that " if finished with 
 
 
 
 -^^^^^^2S^;^^t^ 
 
 the gables and the finials, which it was 
 undoubtedly meant to have, it would be one of the 
 most picturesque buildings of its time." It is 
 raised on arches and is square in shape, with 
 projections at intervals, enriched with pilasters. 
 Around the cornice are depicted the arms of 
 various noblemen and gentlemen of the county,
 
 200 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 and around the frieze is sculptured the 
 following : 
 
 "THOME TRESAMI MILITIS FVIT HOC OPUS IN GRATIAM DULCIS 
 PATRIiE FECIT SV^ TRIBVSQUE NORTHAMPTONIyE VEL MAXIME 
 HVJVSQUE VICINI SIBI PAGI COMMUNE QU^SIVAT NIHIL PRATER 
 DECUS PERENNE AMICORUM TERPRETATOR DIGNUS HAVD TANTO 
 EST BONO A DOMINI MILLESIMO QUINGENTESIMO SEP ." 
 
 From 1593 to 1595, Tresham was hard at work 
 
 with his building. During this period he enlarged 
 
 Rushton Hall, the family residence, constructed 
 
 the curious Triangular Lodge at Rushton, and 
 
 commenced the New Building at Lyveden. 
 
 Several of the gables at Rushton Hall bear his 
 
 coat of arms and the date 1595. It was here, 
 
 during the progress of some repairs, in 1832, that 
 
 a bundle of books and papers which once belonged 
 
 to Sir Thomas were discovered in a cavity over 
 
 one of the doorways. A quotation from one of 
 
 these papers will very aptly precede our notice 
 
 of the Triangular Lodge and Lyveden Building, 
 
 and to some extent account for the introduction 
 
 of the mystic element in their construction. It is 
 
 contained in a letter written by Sir Thomas, 
 
 presumably from Wisbech Castle, about the year 
 
 1 584, and runs as follows : 
 
 " If it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity 
 and Passion of Christ to depaint in this chamber, this is the
 
 SIR THOMAS TRESHAM. 201 
 
 principal instance thereof: That at my last being hither 
 committed, and I usually having my servants here allowed me, 
 to read nightly an hour to me after supper, it fortuned that 
 Fulcis, my then servant, reading in the Christiati Resolution, in 
 the Treatise of Proof that there is a God, etc., there was upon a 
 wainscot table at that instant three loud knocks (as if it had 
 been with an iron hammer) given ; to the great amazing of me 
 and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton." 
 
 The Triangular Lodge undoubtedly symbolises 
 the Trinity. It has three floors and three sides. 
 Each side is thirty-three feet three inches long, con- 
 tains three windows, and is surmounted by three 
 gables, each of which finishes with a trefoil on its 
 pinnacle. The various shields, devices and figures 
 which are to be seen on the walls would take too 
 long to describe fully here, if only from their 
 great number. Reference, however, must be 
 made to the Latin inscriptions, which are very 
 curious. In the case of the longer ones, which 
 run round the walls just beneath the gables, it will 
 be observed that, containing thirty-three letters 
 each, they are strangely in keeping with the 
 character of the place : 
 
 North Side. 
 
 " QVIS SEPARABIT NOS A CHARITATE CHRISTI." 
 
 South-East Side. 
 
 " APERIATVR TERRA & GERMINET SALVATOREM." 
 
 South- West Side. 
 
 "CONSIDERAVI OPERA TVA DOMJNE ET EXPAVI."
 
 202 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Several shorter sentences are inscribed on 
 different parts of the walls. 
 
 In the second storey on the south-east side is 
 the doorway, which is approached by a flight of 
 steps ; on the same side, below the windows, are 
 the initials T, T., and the date 1593. 
 
 At Lyveden there are two buildings known as 
 the "Old Build " and the "New Build" respec- 
 tively. 
 
 The "Old Build" is supposed to be the work 
 of Sir Thomas Tresham, because the style is 
 Elizabethan, but beyond that and the character 
 of the workmanship there is no direct proof. 
 The construction of the building betrays no signs 
 of eccentricity, and has readily lent itself in these 
 later times to the uses of a convenient farm-house. 
 The " New Build " stands in a fine position on 
 high ground surrounded by woods. It is con- 
 structed in the form of a Greek Cross, and is 
 intended as a symbol of the Passion of Christ. 
 On the key-stones of the arches are the arms of 
 Sir Thomas Tresham and his wife, who was a 
 daughter of Sir Robert Throckmorton. Each 
 limb of the cross terminates with a large and deep 
 oriel window. The interior of the building is now 
 in a very dismantled state, and affords an easy
 
 S/Ji THOMAS TRESHAM. 203 
 
 vantage ground for all sorts of wild plants. 
 Although it was never finished, it was not left in 
 its present state of incompleteness. During the 
 Civil War it received much harm from the hands 
 of a certain Major Butler, who caused the timber 
 to be sawed out of the walls for building purposes 
 of his own, hard by at Oundle. Thanks, however, 
 to good workmanship and strong cement, the 
 removal of the stonework proved too great a 
 task for this redoubtable Iconoclast. 
 
 Like the Triangular Lodge, this building is also 
 covered with many devices, figures, and inscrip- 
 tions. Various emblems of the Crucifixion, such 
 as the cross, ladder, hammer, nails, spear, etc., are 
 carved in roundels all along the walls above the 
 second storey. Round the upper storey were 
 carved the following sentences, but they are now 
 sadly defaced and ruined : 
 
 "JESVS MVNDI SALVS + 
 GAVDE MATER VIRGO MARIA + 
 
 VERBUM AVTEM CRVCIS PEREVNTIBUS QVIDEM STVLTITIA EST + 
 JESV BEATVS VENTER QVI TE PORTAVIT + 
 MARIA MATER VIRGO SPONSA INVPTA + 
 BENEDIXIT TIBI DEVS IN ^TERNVM MARIA + 
 MIHI AVTEM ABSIT GLORIARI NISI IN CRVCE DOMINI NOSTRI + ." 
 
 The lower storey contains many shields for arms, 
 but most of these are left in a very unfinished state.
 
 204 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 The good workmanship of these buildings has 
 before been alluded to, and it is doubtless owing 
 to this, and to the durability of the Weldon stone, 
 of which they are all composed, that they are in 
 such comparatively good condition after having 
 stood the storm and stress of nearly 300 years. 
 
 As we take leave of this subject we cannot do 
 
 better than call to mind the quaint and brief 
 
 sentence used by Fuller, who thus sums up the 
 
 character of Sir Thomas Tresham the builder : 
 
 " Hard to say whether greater his delight or skill in 
 buildings, though more forward in beginning than fortunate in 
 
 finishins: his fabrics."
 
 IRortbamptonebire fol\\^%ovc. 
 
 By John Nicholson. 
 
 IT is perhaps fitting that much of what relates 
 of folk-lore should be published under the 
 title " Bygone." Though stories of fairies and 
 hell-hounds, or of "Jinn with the burnt tail," may 
 still enchain attentive ears round the glowing fire 
 in the gloaming, these stories are but memories, 
 the world about which they tell has long since 
 ceased to be real, even to the mass of our rural 
 population, and now exists only in lay and 
 legend. How many of us have ever seen a may- 
 pole, except as a revival, not a survival ; and few, 
 if any of us, even though gifted with the super- 
 natural powers possessed by the seventh child of 
 a seventh child, have ever beheld the tiny forms 
 of Queen Mab's followers sporting on the fairy 
 ring. 
 
 Schoolmasters and locomotive engine-drivers 
 have done much to level society, and banish old 
 beliefs and curious local customs ; the one by dis-
 
 2o6 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 semination of knowledge of books, the other by 
 affording cheap and rapid transit to distant places. 
 
 Very old people have heard, and declare unto us, 
 that it used to be the custom for a housewife, before 
 retiring to rest, to carefully sweep the ashes and 
 embers of the wood fire into a heap on the broad 
 hearthstone, in the wide chimney open to the 
 starry sky. On this warm clean stone she placed 
 a basin or bowl of water for the fairies' bath, and 
 if any of the family awoke during the night they 
 might hear the tiny footsteps of the elves as they 
 frisked over the cooling stone. These visits always 
 brought good luck to the house, unless an 
 attempt was made to watch the sprites, when they 
 immediately sought fresh quarters, and tradition 
 says that the watcher, from Peeping Tom down- 
 wards, always became blind. 
 
 These midnight marauders kept not the eighth 
 commandment always, they seemed to think that 
 the property of mortals was placed at their dis- 
 posal, and robbed their enemies to enrich their 
 friends. It is said that a certain farmer lost very 
 many sheaves from his barn, for in these old 
 world stories, the barn was the place where was 
 stored what the earth did bear ; we never hear of 
 stacks in fairy tales. The thief or thieves could
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE FOLK-LORE. 207 
 
 not be discovered, though watch, strict and con- 
 stant, was kept ; until, one night, the farmer hid 
 himself among the sheaves to act as his own 
 detective. At midnight, two tiny elves came 
 tumbling through the pike-hole, and set to work 
 diligently making little bundles suitable for carry- 
 ing away. At length, after much labour, they 
 paused, and one said to the other, *' I twit 
 (sweat), do you twit?" "I'll twit ye, if ye bin't 
 off," said the farmer, as he rushed out of his 
 hiding-place ; but the elves had vanished, and 
 never again annoyed that farmer with their 
 thievish tricks. 
 
 A South Northamptonshire legend tells of a 
 young fellow who was fortunate enough, one moon- 
 light night, to witness the revels of the fairy folk. 
 It is only fair, alike to both parties, to state that 
 the rustic was returning from a village feast, and 
 that says much for his condition, but, any- 
 how, he saw " a vast o' fairy folk " playing football. 
 Mortal though he was, he joined the throng of 
 tussling mites, and at length succeeded in kicking 
 their ball. It burst with a loud noise, the scene 
 vanished, and he fell to the ground stunned. 
 When he recovered he thought it had been a 
 dream but for the remains of the " bursten ball,"
 
 2o8 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 and the presence of many golden coins, with 
 which the ball had evidently been stuffed. 
 
 Many of the gods of our Norse and Saxon 
 forefathers, when they were dethroned from their 
 thrones of honour, still retained their power, and are 
 now a power for evil instead of good. The gods 
 became devils, bogies, or ghosts : and often per- 
 form wonderful feats of strength to thwart the 
 designs of man. Hence we have a legend 
 respecting Ninechurches, near Daventry. Its 
 name at one time was simply Stowe, and here the 
 lord of the manor determined to build a church 
 upon a site duly chosen. Plans were made, and 
 foundations laid, but, next morning, all the results 
 of their labour had vanished. After a long search, 
 the stones, tools, etc., were discovered some 
 distance away, on the spot where the church now 
 stands. Of what use is it being a lord of the 
 manor if you cannot have your own church where 
 you choose ? So everything was taken back, a 
 second start made, only to be carried away during 
 the night. Nine times did my lord endeavour to 
 carry out his scheme, and nine times was he 
 checked by the removal, during the night, of what 
 his men built during the day. Finally it was 
 borne in upon him that even lords of the manor
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE FOLK-LORE. 209 
 
 have to give in, and the church was erected on 
 the site selected by the unseen power. In order 
 to determine who or what was the cause of the 
 mischief a workman did watch all one night, but 
 the only information gained was, that it was 
 "summet bigger nor a hog." 
 
 Another story commonly related throughout 
 Northamptonshire is as follows : " A spirit 
 asserted a claim to a field hitherto possessed by a 
 farmer, and, after much disputing, they came to 
 an arrangement by agreeing to divide its produce 
 between them. At seedtime, the farmer asked 
 the Bogie what part of the crop he will take, 
 " tops or bottoms." " Bottoms," said the Bogie, 
 who is outwitted by the farmer sowing wheat. 
 The farmer thus secured the grain, stubble falling 
 to the lot of the sprite. Next year, the Bogie 
 chose "tops," whereupon the crafty farmer raised 
 a crop of turnips, Bogie again coming off second 
 best. Tired of this unprofitable farming, the 
 Bogie agreed to hazard his claims on a mowing 
 match the disputed field being the stake played 
 for. Before the day of meeting, the farmer stuck 
 iron bars among the grass to be mown by his 
 opponent ; and when the trial did commence, the 
 unsuspecting goblin found his progress retarded
 
 2IO BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 by his scythe coming into contact with these bars, 
 which he thought were some hard species of 
 dock. " Mortal hard docks these ! " said he. 
 "Nation hard docks!" His blunted blade soon 
 brought him to a standstill, and as he could not 
 sharpen unless the farmer also did, he cried out in 
 despair, " When d'ye wiffle waffle (whet), mate ? " 
 "Waffle!" said the farmer, "oh, about noon, 
 mebby I " " Then," said the disheartened Bogie, 
 " I've lost my land ! " So saying, he disappeared, 
 and the farmer ever afterwards held undisputed 
 ownership. 
 
 Witches and their reputed power must needs 
 be mentioned in Folk-Lore. In Northampton, 
 tradition says anyone could become a witch by 
 sitting on the hob of the hearth, and after carefully 
 cleaning and paring her nails, to give utterance to 
 these words " I wish I was as far from God as 
 my nails are from dirt ; " and there and then she 
 was endowed with those wonderful powers which 
 placed at her mercy all who incurred her dis- 
 pleasure, and which enabled her to change herself 
 into other shapes, chiefly animal, but if wounded 
 or maimed in that state, her human shape shewed 
 the same injury. A woodman working in the 
 forest had his food stolen by a cat, day after day,
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE FOLK-LORE. 211 
 
 and after lying in wait for the four-footed thief, 
 succeeded in cutting off a fore paw. When he 
 got home he found his wife with only one hand. 
 
 A few years ago, there was a tree standing near 
 the village of Tyresham, about which the following 
 story is told. A man, with his little boy, was 
 passing by the tree, when the little fellow begged 
 for a stick from it, to play with. The man took 
 his out knife and began to cut, but at once desisted, 
 for a stream of blood spouted out of the cut made 
 by the knife. A certain woman of the village, 
 long suspected as a witch, appeared with her arm 
 bound up, and was thus proved to be as suspected. 
 Being subjected to the water ordeal, she ended 
 her days in a neighbouring horsepond. 
 
 Natural perforated pebbles, horseshoes, and 
 straws or knives crossed on the floor are believed 
 to be efficacious preventatives. 
 
 The following word charm is used to prevent a 
 thorn from festering : 
 
 " Our Saviour was of virgin born, 
 His head was crowned with a crown of thorn ; 
 It never cankered nor festered at all ; 
 And I hope in Christ Jesus this never shauU." 
 
 For a mouse to run over a person is considered 
 a sign of death, or the apparition of a white one
 
 212 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 running across the floor of the room. To meet a 
 shrew-mouse is ominous of evil. 
 
 The crowing of a hen foretells evil, but it 
 generally falls on the fowl, for she is decapitated 
 as soon as captured. If the cock comes strutting 
 up to the door, and crows on the threshold, a 
 stranger may be expected. A hen is always 
 "set " with an odd number of eggs, to ensure good 
 luck ; and to further secure this desirable fortune 
 each Q^^ is marked with a small black cross. 
 
 For the cure of fever, and for stopping or 
 preventing bleeding at the nose, a toad must be 
 killed by transfixing it with some sharp pointed 
 instrument, after which it is enclosed in a little bag 
 and hung round the neck. 
 
 Among omens of misfortune or bad luck may be 
 mentioned to see a crow flying alone ; swallows 
 or jackdaws flying down a chimney; the chattering 
 of magpies; and the desertion of a hearth by 
 crickets. 
 
 If an apple tree bear, at the same time, both 
 blossom and fruit, it betokens death to some of 
 the owner's family ; while the discovery of a double 
 nut augurs well for the finder. In decorating the 
 house with evergreens at Christmas, care must be 
 taken not to let ivy be used alone, or even in
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE FOLK-LORE. 213 
 
 profusion, as it is a plant of bad omen, and will 
 prove injurious. 
 
 In making bread, the dough is crossed in order 
 to make it rise quicker. If a person wash in the 
 same water in which another person has washed, 
 they two will quarrel ere the day is out, unless 
 the water be crossed, by making the form of the 
 cross with the finger on the water. 
 
 If a horse get a nail in its foot, it must be kept 
 bright after it is taken out, or the horse will not 
 recover from his lameness. 
 
 The hair cut off the head must be burnt, 
 for if it be thrown away, some bird will probably 
 use it for nest-making, and the original owner 
 will be seized with violent headache. 
 
 Such are some of the beliefs, current or once 
 current, in our county : but this branch of study 
 requires a volume to itself in order to do it 
 justice. In these few pages the subject is only 
 glanced at, but its closer acquaintance will well 
 repay the diligent student.
 
 IRortbamptonebire proverbs, 
 
 THE proverbs of Northamptonshire although 
 not numerous are curious, and it will not be 
 without interest to reproduce a few of the more 
 historically interesting. It is an ancient saying : 
 
 "The Mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his 
 dagger." 
 
 He is said to have done this to keep them a 
 sufficient distance from his nose. Dr. Fuller says 
 this "town being eighty miles from the sea, fish 
 may well be presumed stale therein. Yet I have 
 heard (says the Doctor) that oysters, put up with 
 care, and carried in the cool, were weekly brought 
 fresh and good to Althrop, the house of the Lord 
 Spencer, at equal distance : and it is no wonder ; 
 for I myself have eaten in Warwickshire, about 
 eighty miles from London, oysters sent from that 
 city, fresh and good ; and they must have been 
 carried some miles before they came there." 
 
 There is an old Northampton saying respecting 
 fuel:
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE PROVERBS. 215 
 
 " He that must eat a buttered faggot let him go to North- 
 ampton." 
 
 Fuller explains the origin of this proverb thus : 
 " Because it is the dearest town in England for 
 fuel, where no coals can come by water, and little 
 wood doth grow on land." Camden noted the 
 absence of trees in the county. 
 
 A couplet says : 
 
 " Brackley breed, 
 Better to hang than to feed." 
 
 " Brackley," wrote Ray, " is a decayed market- 
 town and borough, which abounding with poor, 
 and troubling the country about with beggars, 
 came into disgrace with its neighbours. I hear 
 now that this place is grown industrious and 
 thriving, and endeavouring to wipe off the 
 scandal." 
 
 Morton mentions the next two that we give : 
 
 " If we can Padwell overgoe, and Horestone we can see, 
 Then Lords of England we shall be." 
 
 " That there was a battle at Danesmore, 
 betwixt the Saxons and the Danes, the name of 
 the place, and constant tradition of the inhabitants, 
 may reasonably incline'us to believe. The people 
 there have a notable rhime, which they make the 
 Danes to say upon the point of battel. Padwell
 
 2i6 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 is a noted flush spring in Edgcote grounds. 
 Horestone, a famous old stone upon the borders of 
 Warwickshire (in Wardlington field)." 
 " Wansford, in England." 
 
 "Another, though less tragical, instance of the 
 greatness and suddenness of the inundations of 
 the Nyne, is that well-known and not unpleasant 
 story of a man who, as he was fast asleep on a 
 little haycock in a meadow on the Nyne, nigh 
 Wansford, never dreaming either of floods or 
 rain, was carry 'd off by one of these floods, with 
 his haycock under him. The poor man at length 
 awakes, and looks about him with all the surprise 
 imaginable. He had laid down to sleep on a 
 haycock in a dry meadow nigh Wansford, but 
 finds himself afloat in the midst of waters, for 
 ought he knew, in the wide ocean ; and as the 
 story goes, one espying him in this condition, 
 calls to him, and enquires where he lived. The 
 poor fellow in a piteous tone, reply'd, * At Wans- 
 ford, in England.' However, the memory of the 
 accident is preserved in the sign of the chief inn at 
 Wansford. And thence the common proverbial 
 saying of, living at Wansford, in England ; so 
 common hereabouts that I admire it escaped Mr 
 Fuller in his collection oi Local Proverbs."
 
 Hn ancient IbospitaL 
 
 By Rev, I. Wodhams, m.a. 
 
 THE story of the Ancient Hospital of St. John 
 and St. James, at Brackley, may not be so 
 interesting as other stories which relate to 
 " Bygone Northamptonshire," yet in some 
 respects this Hospital, and the chronicles be- 
 longing to it, are unique. The chapel of the 
 Hospital still exists, and relics of its antiquity 
 remain in spite of various restorations following 
 upon preceding neglect. Some beautifully-cut 
 Norman moulding over the doorway, an unpolished 
 Purbeck marble pillar of fine proportions in the 
 north-west wall, the bowl of an early English font, 
 several plain doorways and windows, an east 
 window of great size, two stone figures, supposed 
 to represent St. John and St. James, remain as 
 witnesses of its past glories, and form part of the 
 venerable building, which is still used, as of yore, 
 for prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. The very 
 stones are a link between the lives passed away
 
 2i8 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 and those of the coming generation. For a long 
 time the chapel remained in ruins, now it is again 
 used by Magdalen College School and the Parish 
 of Brackley. Many of the buildings of its time 
 have perished, or are in a state of picturesque 
 ruin. This remains to connect a dead past with 
 a living present. 
 
 Similarly, the Hospital, too, has come down to 
 modern times, with its continuity more or less 
 broken, from the twelfth century. Through 
 various vicissitudes, which endangered its exis- 
 tence, some of local character, others arising from 
 national ferment, the old foundation has been 
 preserved, and its character and spirit remain 
 almost unchanged. By curious processes, which 
 have very slowly developed, the venerable institu- 
 tion has become a school and no school in 
 England, we believe, can trace its origin back to so 
 early a period. More than 700 years have passed 
 over it, and the present Magdalen College School 
 may be said to be the child of the Oxford College 
 of that name, and the grandchild of the primary 
 foundation. 
 
 The founder was Robert, Earl of Leicester, 
 called Robert "le Bossu," and who was the 
 second of four Earls of Leicester of the same
 
 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 2 1 9 
 
 name. The date of the charter is not given, but 
 from the character of the writing, and from known 
 details of the founder, the date can be fixed 
 approximately about the year 1 160. The Earl of 
 Leicester had previously founded the Abbey of 
 St. Mary de Pre, the great house of Augustinian 
 canons at Leicester. Being Lord of the Manor at 
 Brackley, he granted an acre of land to " Solomon 
 the Clerk," that he might build there a Hospital 
 and a free chapel to be dedicated to St. John the 
 .\postle. The freedom of the chapel was 
 confirmed by the Abbot and monastery of 
 Leicester, by the Bishop of Lincoln, in whose 
 diocese Brackley then was, and by the Pope. 
 This chapel was intended for use as a private 
 chapel of the Earls of Leicester, when in residence 
 at the Manor, as well as a chapel of the Hospital, 
 and its freedom still remains. It is still 
 independent of the Parish Church, except by the 
 mutual consent of the vicar and the authorities of 
 Magdalen College. The heart of Robert, Earl of 
 Mellent, the father of the founder, was deposited 
 in the chapel in lead. This circumstance is 
 recorded in the chronicles of Knyghton, in the 
 Cotton Library, " Robertus comes Mellenti venit 
 cum Willielmo scilicet conquestare in Angliam.
 
 2 20 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Iste Robertus hospitale de Brackley fundavit, et 
 dotavit, ubi cor ejusdem, ad hue integrum in 
 plumbo, sale servatum, habetur." 
 
 The "ad hue " was, of eourse, about the end of 
 the fourteenth eentury. The nineteenth eentury 
 proved too mueh for what was " integrum in 
 plumbo, sale servatum " in the fourteenth. A 
 workman, in the year 1836, in digging a hole for 
 a gallery, found a leaden box. Opening it, there 
 was revealed a "bit of old leather," and this he 
 threw away. 
 
 The Hospital probably had the same rule as 
 the Austin canons. There were a master (or 
 prior, as he is sometimes called) and brethren, 
 not all in holy orders. Only the master was 
 bound to be so ; probably the brethren were 
 mostly in minor orders ; there is no evidence to 
 show that they were other than "secular clerks." 
 The patrons of the Hospital were the Earls of 
 Leicester. They presented the master (or prior), 
 gave grants of land to the master and brethren. 
 Amicia, a granddaughter of the founder, married 
 Simon de Montfort, and their son held a meeting 
 of the barons at Brackley, to formulate the 
 demands which they presented to King John at 
 Northampton. The Manor of Brackley and the
 
 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 2 2 1 
 
 patronage of the Hospital passed next to the De 
 Quincys, who were good friends to Brackley and 
 the Hospital. Roger de Quincy, Earl of 
 Winchester, granted a charter to the burgesses. 
 The heart of Margaret, Countess of Winchester, 
 was buried in the chapel, where also were laid 
 her son Roger and his two wives. By the side 
 of the shrine in which the heart of his mother lay 
 entombed. Earl Roger had placed a measure made 
 in the shape of a coffin, and provided that it 
 should be filled with corn from his Manor of 
 Hawes three times in the year, for the use of the 
 Hospital. The patronage passed after his death 
 to the family of the Zouches, thence by marriage 
 to the Hollands. Towards the end of the 
 fourteenth century, difficulties of various kinds 
 beset the Hospital, bad management, disputes 
 with their neighbours, and probably with their 
 patrons. When, through another heiress, the 
 Hospital came under the Lovels, the brethren, 
 who in 1279 numbered amongst them nine priests 
 beside the master, and who in 1381 were reduced 
 to a total of four, became extinct, and on the 
 death of John Brokehampton, in 1423, the 
 Hospital was left without inhabitants. Francis, 
 Lord Lovel (or " Lovel the Dog,") sold the
 
 222 BYGONE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 Hospital and its possessions to William of 
 Waynflete, the founder of Magdalen College, and 
 the old foundation was incorporated in that 
 college. In the reign of King Henry VHI., the 
 President and Fellows and Scholars made use of 
 the buildings during a plague at Oxford, and they 
 seem to have served as a temporary habitation 
 of the college in other times of pestilence or 
 scarcity. A chauntry priest was maintained by 
 the college; the last was John Barnard, who had 
 an annual stipend of ^8 6s, 8d. On his 
 death the college established a school ; Thomas 
 Godwin, afterwards Bishop of Bath and Wells, 
 was probably the first master. Antony a Wood 
 says that he resigned his fellowship, and left 
 Oxford, because he could not get on with certain 
 " Papists " at Magdalen. Francis Godwin, his 
 son, in his book " De Praesulibus Angliae," says, 
 " Pontificiorum factione . . . nescio quid 
 prsedioli oblatum est modo scholse moderationem 
 vellet suscipere, abdicata Magdaleusi societate, 
 quam conditionem libeuter accepit sub exitum 
 regni Edwardi sexti." In Queen Mary's reign 
 he had to leave the school, but, having taken the 
 degree of Bachelor of Medicine, he supported 
 himself by its practice. The school was carried
 
 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 
 
 223 
 
 on until 1787 in the building occupied by the 
 Chantry Priest. In Leland's time there were 
 several tombs of noblemen in the presbytery of 
 the Chapel. Mr. John Welchman repaired the 
 Chapel in 1745. Neglect and disuse again 
 brought it to desolation, and it was restored again 
 during the last thirty years. The buildings 
 suffered from being let on long leases, and but 
 little remains of the old buildings except the 
 chapel. Mr. Thomas Bannister, a master of the 
 school, was buried in the chapel as lately as the 
 year 1821.
 
 3nt)ey. 
 
 A'Becket, relics at Peterborough, 
 
 124-25 
 A'Becket appeals to the Pope, 7 
 American flag, Origin of, 144-45 
 Arragon, Catherine of, 47-48, 128- 
 
 129, 176 
 Arrow-makers, "Arresting," 156 
 
 Bakers, 160, 163 
 
 Bradstreet, Anne, 146 ; Poems of, 
 151 ; Gifted descendants of, 152 
 Britten, Thomas, 167 
 Brook, Lord, 16 
 Butchers, 162 
 Buyers, etc., 161 
 
 Canons Ashby House attacked, 18-19 
 
 Catesbies, The, 81-83 
 
 Catesby, Robert, 83-84 
 
 Charm, A, 211 
 
 Chronicle of Abbot Benedict, 125 
 
 Collyn, James, 13 
 
 Coritani, Tribe of, i 
 
 Cottage Countess, The, 67 
 
 Constables, List of, 189 
 
 Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, 53 
 
 " Courtier Abbot," The, 126 
 
 Cropedy Bridge, Defence of, 19 
 
 Danes, The, 4 
 
 Danesmoor, or Edgecote, Battle at, 
 
 14 
 Ducking a Scold, 166, 184 
 Duncot, Skirmish at, 18 
 
 Earls Barton Church, 91 
 
 Edward L, 23-24 
 
 Eleanor, Queen of Edward I. , 24- 
 
 26; Crosses, The, II, 23 
 Essex, Earl of, Attempt to shoot, 17 
 
 Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 21 
 
 Fairs, Old, 97; at Boughton Green, 
 98-99 ; at Corby, 100 ; at 
 Rothwell, 100-4 ; Thieves at, 
 99; at Wellingboro', 99-100 
 
 Fairy Legends, 207, 209 ; Bath, 
 206 ; Football, 207 
 
 Fines and Penalties,. 159, 166 
 
 Fish, Sale of, 159 
 
 Flavia Ciesariensis, 2 
 
 Fotheringhay, Past and Present, 37 ; 
 Castle demolished, 53 ; Castle, 
 Fragment of, 40 ; Church, 40- 
 41 ; Church, Edward, Duke of 
 York, buried at, 41 ; Church, 
 Richard, Duke of York, buried 
 at, 43 ; Queen Elizabeth's 
 bridge at, 39 
 
 Geddington Cross, 30-32 
 Gunpowder Plot, The, 81 
 Gypsy, "Carding" a, 183 
 
 Hampton, re Northampton, 4 
 Heart, A buried, 219 
 Hereward at Peterborough, I2I 
 Historic Northamptonshire, i 
 Hospital, An ancient, 217 
 Hucksters, 160 
 
 Interdict, Celebrating Mass during, 
 
 125 
 Invasion, Apprehensions of, 186 
 
 Jews, Severities against, 12 
 
 Land, Purchase of, etc., 157-58 
 Leicester shoes Cromwell's foot, 21 
 L' Estrange, Sir Roger, 169 
 Liber Custumanim, Vilhe Nor- 
 hamptoniiF, 153; described, 153- 
 
 Light, Regulations re, 162 
 
 Market House, Rothwell, 199 
 Mercia, 3 ; Christianity introduced, 
 
 117 
 Middleton Cheney, Battle at, 17 
 Millers not to keep "hoggys," etc., 
 
 163-64 
 Miserere Shoemaker, The, 192 
 Mounteagle, Lord, Letter to, 86 
 
 Naseby, Battle of, 20-21, 55-66 
 "New Build," The, 202-3 
 
 P
 
 !26 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ninechurches, Legend of, 208 
 Northampton, Anketil Mallorj', 
 
 Plunders, 7 5 Barons at, 9 ; 
 
 Battle at, 13-14; Burnt, 4; 
 
 Convention at, 7 ; Cross at, 
 
 Eleanor's, li, 27, 33-35; 
 
 Declines under the Tudors, 15 ; 
 
 Demolition of walls ordered, 
 
 22 ; Earldom of, 5 ; Edward I. 
 
 at, 11; Henry III. at, 10; 
 
 John at, 8; Parliaments, etc., 
 
 at, 5, 13, 15 ; Richard I. at, 8 ; 
 
 Stormed by Henry HI., 10- 11 
 Northamptonshire Folk- Lore, 205 
 
 "Old Build," The, 202 
 Omens and Signs, 21 1 -13 
 
 " Peace of the Town," 155 
 Penda opposes Christianity, 1 16-17 
 Peterborough, The City of, 116; 
 Abl)ey of, 117-20; burnt, 118; 
 Abbey of, rebuilt, 119; Abbey 
 of, The Dissolution, 126-27 > 
 its Authors, 128; Bishops, 127- 
 128 ; Puritanical Mischief at, 
 129 ; Royal Interments at, 128 
 Pillory, The, 165, 186 
 " Plough, The Town," 183 
 " Power of Attorney," Form of, 154 
 Practical Joke, A fatal, 174 
 Pressgang, The, 187 
 Proclamations, Royal, 188-89 > of 
 
 Rothwell Fair, 102-3 
 Proverbs, Northamptonshire, 214 
 Publicans, 163 
 Puritan Iconoclism, 26-27 
 
 " Release from the King," Form of, 
 
 154 
 Removal, A curious, 183 
 Revolution, Incident of, 16-21 
 Richard I., re Crusades, 7-8 
 Richard III. seizes Earl Rivers, 15 
 Roman Roads and Remains, 2-3 
 Rothwell, The Charnel House at, 74 
 Rupert, Prince, 17 
 Rushton Hall, Discovery at, 200 
 
 .Saxon Architecture, 89-90 
 
 Saxulf founds a Monastery, 1 17-18 
 
 Scarlett, Old, 128-29, 176 
 
 Straw, etc., 160 
 
 Seez, Abbot de, and his supper, 122 
 
 Serfdom, Release from, 158 
 
 .Servants, Hiring of, etc., 159, 161 
 
 Squirrel, Pelting the, 32 
 
 St. John and St. James, Hospital of, 
 217 
 
 Stocks, The, 165, 185 
 
 .Stuart, Mary, at Fotheringhay, 48- 
 50 ; discovery of her ring, 54 ; 
 interred at Peterborough, 50- 
 52, 128, 177 ; removed to 
 Westminster Abbey, 54, 129 
 
 Taxes, Window and Poll, 190-91 
 Thistle, Mary Stuart's emblem, 38 
 Timber, 160 
 
 Towcester, Skirmishes at, 17-19 
 Towcester Constables, Accounts of 
 
 the, 180 
 Tresham, Francis, 81, 85-88 ; .Sir 
 
 Thomas, and his buildings, 196 
 Treshams, The, 84-86 
 "Triangular Lodge," The, 200-2 
 Troops, Levying of, 157 
 
 \^a!ence, Mary of, her widowhood, 
 45-46 
 
 Waltheof, Earl of Northampton, 5, 
 121 
 
 Washington Family of America, 
 The English Founders of the, 
 130; at .Sulgrave, 130-43; 
 Manor House at Sulgrave, 131- 
 133 ; Monuments at .Sulgrave, 
 134; at Brington, 130, 133-43 ; 
 House at Brington, 136-37 ; 
 Tombs at Brington, 137-39 ; 
 Arms of, in Fawsley Church, 139 
 
 Whijiping, Case of, 186 
 
 Witches and Witchcraft, 105-15, 
 210-11 
 
 Witch, Definitions of a, 105-6 ; Test 
 of a, 107-8, 109-10; to get rid 
 of a, 108; executed at Abington, 
 1 10-12; executed at North- 
 ampton, 1 14 -15 
 
 W'itchcraft, curious case at Walton, 
 113 ; late cases, 115 
 
 Wollaston, the Painter, 173 
 
 Wood, fi-el, 181 
 
 Wool, Sale of, 158 
 
 Wulfere slays his sons, 117 
 
 \'ork, Cecily, Duchess of, 43-44, 
 46-47
 
 Xi6t of Subscnbcre. 
 
 Abel & Sons, Northampton (4 copies). 
 
 Addison, Rev. L., Gretton. 
 
 Adkins, Mrs. II. D., Springfield, Northampton. 
 
 Allen, E. G., 28, Henrietta .Street, Covent Garden, London. 
 
 Anderson, Rev. G., F.R.H.s., Otterhampton. 
 
 Anderson, Jno., jr., 99, Nassau Street, New York. 
 
 Archer, Henry, Wellingborough. 
 
 Armstrong, C, Cambridge. 
 
 Atkinson, Rev. C. Chetwynd, M.A., Ashton-on-Mersey. 
 
 Bain, Jas. , Public Library, Toronto. 
 
 Barker, Rev. C. R. , Duston, Northampton. 
 
 Barker, E. F., Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 
 Barlow, Alfred, Kettering. 
 
 Barker, Frank, Holly Road, Northampton. 
 
 Barrett & Son, Daventry. 
 
 Barry, J., Cliftonville, >forthampton. 
 
 Beattie, S., 18, Marriott Street, Northampton. 
 
 Becke, C. C. , 20, Market Square, Northampton. 
 
 Becke, John, The Cedars, Northampton. 
 
 Bell, Wm., The Hull Press, Hull. 
 
 Bellamy, C. H., 97, Bishop .Street, Alexandra I'ark, Manchester. 
 
 Berrill, F., Kettering. 
 
 Bethell, W., Rise Park (2 copies). 
 
 Bigge, Rev. IL J., Cottingham, Uppingham. 
 
 Bird, Thos. , Kettering. 
 
 Bird, W. L., Daventry. 
 
 Blunsom, Mr., Northampton. 
 
 Boden, Rev. M. H., Naseby Vicarage, Rugby. 
 
 Bohn, Geo., Tranliy Park. 
 
 Bolam, C, Boughton House, Kettering. 
 
 Bools, W. E., 7, Cornhill, London. 
 
 Booth, Richard, Brighton. 
 
 Bostock, R. C, West Norwood. 
 
 Boutflower, Rev. D. S., Newbottle Vicarage. 
 
 Brig<^s, A., Rawden Hall, Leeds. 
 
 Bromley, Charles, Goole. 
 
 Bull, F. W., Kettering. 
 
 Bullock, Rev. G. F., King's Sutton. 
 
 Burnell, G., Norlh.impton. 
 
 Butlin, IL, Rothwell,
 
 2 2 8 LIST OF S UBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Buttanshaw, Rev. F., m.a.. Cotterstock, Oundle. 
 
 Carter, E. R., Post Office, Southampton. 
 
 Cary-Elwes, V. D. H., The Hall, Great Billing. 
 
 Cartwright, T. L., Melville, Newbottle Manor, Banbury. 
 
 Cartwright, W. C, Aynhoe Park, Banbury. 
 
 Cardigan, Countess of, Deene Park, Wansford. 
 
 Caster, G. C, Market Place, Peterborough. 
 
 Causton, W. H. , m.d., 365, King Street, Ravenscourt Park, W. 
 
 Chamberlain, Alfred, B.A., Hull. 
 
 Chamberlain, C. W., Rothwell. 
 
 Chamberlain, D. B., Rothwell. 
 
 Channing, F. A., M.p., Pytchley House, Kettering. 
 
 Clarke, Rev. R. D. L., King's Cliffe, Wansford. 
 
 Cockayne, G. E., F.s.A. , College of Arms, London (two copies). 
 
 Cohen, E. E., Hull. 
 
 Colledge, W. S.,' Junr., Northampton. 
 
 Collet, Rev. E., m.a.. Long Eaton. 
 
 Cook, J. W., 7, Mark Lane, London. 
 
 Cooper, Major Cooper W., Toddington Manor, Dunstable. 
 
 Cooper, Hy., 17, The Draper)', Northampton. 
 
 Cordingley, Jno. R. , 10, Melbourne Place, Bradford. 
 
 Coachman, Rev. E. C. , Sibbertoft. 
 
 Cove, G. Arkesden, Lawford, Northampton. - 
 
 Cox, Rev. R. H., m.a., Hardingstone. 
 
 Cox, Retired Commander, R.N., Hardingstone. 
 
 Crick, W. D., 7, Alfred Street, Northampton. 
 
 Curwen, G. R., Salem, Mass. 
 
 Currie, H. W., Rushden House, Higham Ferrers. 
 
 Cuthbert, Miss, Marston St. La\\rence, Banbury. 
 
 Dain, H. B., 41, Waterloo Street, Birmingham. 
 
 Davis, S., Towcester. 
 
 Dempsey, J., Belvedere, Boone, County Illinois. 
 
 Dempsey, John, Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 Dorman, T. Phipps, Reincliffe House, Northampton (2 copies). 
 
 Dolben, Miss Mackworth, The Hall, Finedon. 
 
 Draper, Jno., Lancaster, Grant County, Wisconsin, U.S.A. 
 
 Draper, E. , Primrose Hill, Northampton. 
 
 Dryden, Sir Henry, Bart., Canons Ashby, Byfield. 
 
 Du Boulay, Rev. J. H., East Haddon. 
 
 Durham, E. A., .St. Andrew's Villa, Northampton. 
 
 Duthy, Miss, Islip, Thrapstone. 
 
 Dyer, H. H., 2, Newland, Northampton. 
 
 Eady, J. C. , Market Harborough. 
 
 Edmonds, Rev. F. S., Harringworlh. 
 
 Early, W. J., Wellingborough. 
 
 Ellcott, E. K., Towcester. 
 
 Elvin, C. N., M.A., Eckling Grange, East Dereham. 
 
 Egerton, B. de M., Brackley. 
 
 Empson, C. W. , 11, Palace Court, Bayswater Hill, W. 
 
 English, M. Y., Orton, Peterborough.
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 229 
 
 Feather, Rev. G. , Glazenlntry Vicarage, Manchester. 
 
 P'ennings, L., Northampton. 
 
 Fickling, W. , St. Peter's College, Peterborough. 
 
 J^ielder, E. J., no, Brixton Road, London, .S.W. 
 
 Firth, .S., 4, Exchange Buildings, Leicester. 
 
 Foljanibe, Cecil (i. S., m.I'., Cockgiode, Ollerton. 
 
 Forster, T., Colchester. 
 
 Foster, Jos., Market Harborough. 
 
 Foster, \V. H., Spratton Grange. 
 
 P'risby, S., Northampton. 
 
 Frost, Thomas, Derby. 
 
 Galloway, F. C, Bowness-on-Windermere. 
 
 Gardner, Arthur, Northampton. 
 
 Garrard, G. E., Northampton. 
 
 Gasquoine, Rev. T., Northampton. 
 
 (iates, H. P., J. p., The Vineyard House, Peterborough. 
 
 Gaylor, C, Brixworth. 
 
 Gibbs, A. J., Northampton. 
 
 Gibson, W. H., Northampton. 
 
 Gooch, Rev. Jno., Holcott, Northampton. 
 
 Gordon, Rev. C. J., Rushden, Higham Ferrers. 
 
 Gorman, D. , Chesterfield. 
 
 Goss, W. E. and J., Kettering (2 copies). 
 
 Greene, R., F. k.c. p.e.. Berry Wood. 
 
 Green, Thos., 20, Market Square, Northampton. 
 
 Gregory, M. W. , Lellington Avenue, Leamington. 
 
 Gross, Rev. A. W., Milton (2 copies). 
 
 Guest, W. H., Arlington Place, 263, Oxford Road, Manchester. 
 
 Hadland, S., Lower Weedon. 
 
 Haggerston, W. J., Newcastle-on-Tyne Public Libraries (2 copies). 
 
 Hainsworth, L., 120, Bowling Old Lane, Bradford. 
 
 Halford, Rev. J. F., Brixworth. 
 
 Harding, S. J., Kettering. 
 
 Harrison, Rev. J. B., Paulerspury. 
 
 Harrison, J. H., Bugbrooke, Weedon. 
 
 Harold, F. , Northampton. 
 
 Haslewood, Rev. F. G. , Ll-.u., Chislet, Canterbury. 
 
 Hayes, Miss, Brafield. 
 
 Hesleden, B. , Derngate, Northampton. 
 
 Hewlett, Miss A. M., 83, Bailiff Street, Northampton. 
 
 Higgins, Mrs. Jno. Knight, Northampton. 
 
 Hill, B. R. , 19, Woodlands Terrace, Darlington. 
 
 Hill, Rev. Charles, m.a., Culworth, 
 
 Hill, F., Castilian Terrace, Northampton. 
 
 Holden, Rev. Canon, d.d., South Luflenham. 
 
 Holding, M., a. r. i.b.a. , Northampton. 
 
 Hope, H. W., Luffness, Drem, N.B. 
 
 Hopkinson, Rev. F., i.l^.ii., The Dell, Malvern Wells. 
 
 Horn, General Sir Frederick, C..C.B., Buckby Hall, Rugby. 
 
 Hull, C, 2, Albert Road, Regent's Park, London, N.W. 
 
 Humphreys, Rev. A. G. P., Thorpe, MandcvUle. 
 
 Hunt, Miss, St. Rumbald's, Astrop, King's Sutton. 
 
 Huntingford, Rev. G. W., Barnwell, Oundle.
 
 230 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Hutchinson, H., Wythemail Park, Orlingbury. 
 
 Isham, Sir C, Bart., Lamport Hall. 
 
 Jacobson, Thos. E., Sleaford. 
 
 James, D. , Burton Latimer. 
 
 James, F. , Edgeworth Manor, Cirencester. 
 
 Jesson, Thos., F.o.s., Great Houghton House, Northampton. 
 
 Jeyes, Miss, Holly Lodge, Boughton. 
 
 Johnson, A., 47, Oxford Terrace, Hyde Park, W. 
 
 KeganPaul, Trench, & Co., Paternoster House, London. 
 Kilburn, A. H., 8, Gold Street, Northampton. 
 Knightley, Lady, Fawsley, Daventry. 
 Kirby, Miss, Glapthorne, Oundle. 
 Kirby, J. W., Bozeat, Wellingborough. 
 
 Lane, C. W., Kettering. 
 
 Law, Rev. Wm. Marston, Trussell (2 copies). 
 
 Lea, Mrs., Northampton. 
 
 Leathes, F. de M., 17, Tavistock Place, W.C. 
 
 Linnell, W. H., Wootton Grange, Northampton. 
 
 Leggott, J. H., F.R.H.S., Stowmarket. 
 
 Legard, Rev. Cecil, Cottesbrooke. 
 
 Leicester, Lord Bishop of, Peterborough. 
 
 Lilford, Lord, Lilford Hall, Oundle. 
 
 Lindsay, Rev. H. , Kettering. 
 
 Lloyd, H., Pitsford Hall, Northampton. 
 
 Loyd, Rev. L. H., Little Houghton (2 copies). 
 
 Mackintosh, Rev. A., Moulton. > 
 
 Manfield, J., 62, Billing Road, Northampton. 
 
 Manfield, M. P., m.p., Northampton. 
 
 Maikham, C. A., f.s.a., Sedgebrook, Northampton. 
 
 Markham, H. P., Court House, Northampton. 
 
 Marlow, Miss, 102, Abington Street, Northampton. 
 
 Maunsell-Tibbits, J. B., Barton Seagrave. 
 
 Mee, Mrs. E., 17, Mina Street, Llanelly. 
 
 Mills, R. M., Bourne. 
 
 Monkhouse, F. , Kingston Mount, Didsbury. 
 
 M'Cormick, Rev. Y. H. J., f.s.a., Scot, Ilkeston. 
 
 Moore, Rev. E. M., Benefield. 
 
 Mutton, J., Derngate, Northampton. 
 
 Newman, Rev. F. B., Burton Latimer. 
 
 Newman, W., M.i)., Stamford. 
 
 Nicholson, Rev. Geo., B.A., Langhani Place, Northampton (2 copies). 
 
 Nicholson, John, Hull. 
 
 Norman, D., Towcester. 
 
 Northampton Free Library. 
 
 O'Brien, H. S., Blatherwycke Park, Wansford, 
 Owen, Dr., Rushden, Higham Ferrers.
 
 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 231 
 
 Packe, Rev. H. V., Lamport. 
 
 Page, J. T., Holmby House, Forest Gate. 
 
 Parkinson, J. A., Northampton. 
 
 Patchett, John, Mildred House, Underclifie Lane, Bradford. 
 
 Payling, R. , Cowgate, Peterborough. 
 
 Payne, W. G. Reeves, Northampton. 
 
 I^aul, Rev. G. W. , Finedon. 
 
 Penny, Rev. E. L., D.D., Plymouth. 
 
 Percival, Andrew, Minster Close, Peterborough. 
 
 Percival, T. M., Park House, Towcester. 
 
 Phillips, Rev. James, Weston Favell. 
 
 Phillips, M., West Street House, Chichester. 
 
 Pinder, James, Thornby Hall, Rugby. 
 
 Potts, John, Guardian Office, Banbury (2 copies). 
 
 Pratt, S., Stanwick House, Higham Ferrers. 
 
 Pressland, T. , Dallington. 
 
 Prichard, H. S., Abington Abbey (2 copies). 
 
 Pulpher, Jabez, Raunds. 
 
 Ramsay, B., Brackley. 
 
 Randall, J., Bank Chambers, George Street, Sheffield. 
 
 Ratt, Geo., Rockingham. 
 
 Rawlins, Lt. -Colonel J., Earls Barton. 
 
 Robinson, H. A., Guildhall Road, Northampton. 
 
 Robinson, Ro. , Handsworth, Birmingham. 
 
 Reynolds, D. , 20, Margaret Street, Northampton. 
 
 Ross, Fredk., f.r.h.s., 137, Huddleston Road, Tufnell Park, N. 
 
 Rothwell Congregational vSunday School Lil^rary. 
 
 Scholes, Councillor, Morley. 
 
 Scratten, Rev. W. , Badby. 
 
 Scriven, R. G. , Castle Ashby. 
 
 Scott, Mrs., Clarenden Lodge, Hardingstone. 
 
 Severance, Miss, Thenford. 
 
 Sharman, Wm., W^ellingborough. 
 
 Sheffield, D., Earls Barton. 
 
 Shepard, Thos. , The Hill House, Kingsthorpe. 
 
 Simpson, William, 71A, St. Giles Street, Northampton (2 copies) 
 
 Sissmore, Rev. T. L., 31, Green Park, Bath. 
 
 Smith, Geo. T. , Towcester. 
 
 Smith, H. H. , Stanley Grove, Oxford Road, Manchester. 
 
 Smith, J. P., Rothwell. 
 
 Smith, Mrs. H., Alderton, Towcester. 
 
 Smith, Rev. S. L. , Brampton Ash. 
 
 Spokes, Mrs. Elizabeth, Abington (2 copies). 
 
 Sotheby, Major- General, Ecton. 
 
 Stevenson, F., 104, Regent's Park Road, London, N.W. 
 
 Stewart, Rev. J., f.r.h.s., Penryn. 
 
 Stockdale, Henry M. , Mears Ashby Hall. 
 
 Stringer, C. W. , Southlands, Kettering. 
 
 Swallow, T. W. , Northampton. 
 
 Swane, T., Keighley. 
 
 Sweeting, Miss S. E., 11, Bedford Well Road, Eastbourne.
 
 232 LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Taylor, Rev. R. V., b.a., Melbecks, Richmond. 
 
 Teesdale, Eugene, Hull. 
 
 Thompson, Beeby, Northampton. 
 
 Thompson, Jno. , J. P., The Lindens, Peterborough (2 copies). 
 
 Thorpe, C. E., 8,- Billing Road, Northampton (2 copies). 
 
 Thursfield, J. F., Kettering. 
 
 Trolove, F. W., Rushton. 
 
 Tolhurst, Jno., Glenbrook, Beckenham. 
 
 Toller, T. N., m.a., 13, ^lauldeth Road, Fallowfield, Manchester. 
 
 Tucker, Raymond, St. Margaret's Mansions, Victoria Street, London. 
 
 Turner, Rev. V. C, Little Oakley. 
 
 Tyack, Rev. G. S., B.A., Crowle. 
 
 Walls, Mr., Junr., Northampton. 
 
 Watson, Rev. J. S., Lowick, Thrapston. 
 
 Watson, G. L. , Rockingham Castle. 
 
 Watts, J. W., Wollaston, Wellingborough. 
 
 Wells, Rev. H. W., Great Missenden, Bucks. 
 
 Wells, W. R., Northampton. 
 
 West, T. G., 9, Aberdeen'Terrace, Northampton. 
 
 Whistler, Rev. R. A., m.a., Pilton, Oundle. 
 
 White, Rev. R. D., Moreton Pinkney, Byfield. 
 
 Wickes, Rev. J. B. , m.a., Boughton, Rectory^ 
 
 Wicksteed, Chas., Kettering. 
 
 Willes, W. A., King's Sutton Manor, Banbury. 
 
 Wildridge, F., Silver Street, Wellingborough. 
 
 Wildridge, T. Tindall, Beverley. 
 
 Wilkinson, W. King, m.a., Whiteholme, Slaidburn, Clitheroc. 
 
 Wilson, Rev. W., Stoke, Bruerne. 
 
 Wing, Rev. C. Foston, Wigston, Leicester. 
 
 Wrighton, W. E., 19, Helen Street, Woolwich. 
 
 Wodhams, Rev. I., m.a., Brackley. 
 
 Wood, R. H., f.s.a. , Penrhos House, Rugby (4 copies). 
 
 Wood, Rev. W. S., Alfford, Stamford. 
 
 Woolston, T. IL, Kingsley Road, Northampton. 
 
 Yates, Rev. W., M.A., Coltingham Rectory, Uppingham.
 
 Elegantly bound in doth gilt, demy 8uo., price 6s. 
 
 Oft) CPurcp Bore. 
 
 By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., 
 
 Author of '''' Curiosities of the Church" '^ Old-Time Punishments" 
 ^^ Historic Romance" etc. 
 
 c o ]sr T E nsT T s. 
 
 The Right of Sanctuary The Romance of Trial A Fight 
 between the Mayor of Hull and the Archbishop of 
 York Chapels on Bridges Charter Horns The Old 
 English Sunday The Easter Sepulchre St. Paul's 
 Cross Cheapside Cross The Biddenden Maids Charity 
 Plagues and Pestilences A King Curing an Abbot 
 of Indigestion The Services and Customs of Royal 
 Oak Day Marrying in a White Sheet Marrying under 
 the Gallows Kissing the Bride Hot Ale at Weddings 
 Marrying Children The Passing Bell Concerning 
 Coffins- The Curfew Bell Curious Symbols of the Saints 
 Acrobats on Steeples A carefully-prepared Index. 
 
 (s->:^ ILLLIST-RATE-D. S-v:^ 
 
 For Opinions of the Press see next page.
 
 ^'- PRESS OPINIONS.-'-^ 
 
 " The success of that very interesting volume, ' Curiosities 
 of the Church,' has induced Mr. Andrews to extend his researches 
 still further into the religious and social life of old-time England. 
 The result is in every way satisfactory. ^luch that is new, carefully 
 gathered from unpublished documents and other sources, is inter- 
 woven with a fund of anecdote and information that has never 
 perhaps been so readably offered to the general public before. 
 When there is not a dry page or a superfluous paragraph in the 
 whole book, it is difficult to commend special chapters above 
 their fellows. That devoted to the ' Old English Sunday ' demon- 
 strates that the strife still raging between Sabbatarians and their 
 more liberal-minded opponents had its origin in early Saxon times. 
 Two very instructive chapters are those relating to ' Chapels on 
 Bridges' and 'Charter Horns,' the former containing a reproduction 
 of an old woodcut of the first London Bridge. Several chapters 
 are devoted to ancient marriage customs and ceremonies. They 
 read curiously in our days of ' Jacksonised Wedlock.' The fascina- 
 ting subject of bells and their significance is dealt with at some 
 length, and we must not omit the interesting history of the crosses 
 that have at different times been erected throughout the country, 
 few of which have escaped demolition. To the antiquary, as well 
 as to the general reader, this work will prove useful and instructive." 
 The Gentlewoman. 
 
 " Mr. Andrews, in ' Old Church Lore,' makes the musty 
 parchments and records he has consulted redolent with life and 
 actuality, and has added to his works a most interesting volume, 
 which, written in a light and easy narrative style, is anything but 
 of the ' dry-as-dust ' order. The book is handsomely got uj), being 
 both bound and printed in an artistic fashion." Northern Daily 
 News. 
 
 " A worthy work on a deeply interesting subject. . . . We 
 commend this book strongly." European Mail.
 
 PRESS OPINIONS Continued. 
 
 "It must be confessed that when we read the statement 
 in the preface of this work that an attempt had been made to 
 blend instruction with entertainment, our mind was filled with 
 gloomy forebodings. But it seems that we had no occasion for 
 them. Mr. Andrews discusses his various subjects, The Right 
 of Sanctuary, The Romance of Trial, Charter Horns, The Curfew 
 Bell, and so on, in so pleasant a style, and with such evident 
 love of his work, that all fear of the dry-as-dust immediately 
 vanishes, and we find ourselves taking as great interest in ancient 
 clerical usages and customs as he himself does, and are, in fact, quite 
 reluctant to part with our guide when the end of the volume is 
 reached. We feel that we should also mention the excellent typo- 
 graphy of the publication, and the suitable illustrations by which it 
 is accompanied. " Publishers' Circular. 
 
 " An interesting volume." The Scotsman. 
 
 "Contains much that will interest and instruct." Glasgow 
 Herald. 
 
 " The author has produced a book which is at once entertaining 
 and valuable, and which is also entitled to unstinted praise on the 
 ground of its admirable printing and binding." Shields Daily Gazette. 
 
 ' ' The book is eminently readable, and may be taken up at any 
 moment with the certainty that something suggestive or entertaining 
 will present itself. " Glasgow Citizen. 
 
 "Mr. Andrews' book does not contain a dull page. . 
 Deserves to meet with a very warm welcome." Yorkshire Post. 
 
 HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. 
 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.
 
 SECOND EDITION. Bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo. 6s. 
 
 Cuxmitm of t^t C^urc^: 
 
 studies of Curious Customs, Services, and Records. 
 By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., 
 
 Author of "Historic Romance," "Famous Frosts and 
 Frost Fairs," " Historic Yorkshire," etc. 
 
 eO/NTE/NTS: 
 
 Early Religious Plays : being the Story of the English Stage in 
 its Church Cradle Days The Caistor Gad-Whip Manorial 
 Service Strange Serpent Stories Church Ales Rush-Bearing 
 Fish in Lent Concerning Doles Church Scrambling Chari- 
 ties Briefs Bells and Beacons for Travellers by Night Hour 
 Glasses in Churches Chained Books in Churches Funeral 
 Effigies Torchlight Burials Simple Memorials of the Early 
 Dead The Romance of Parish Registers Dog Whippers and 
 Sluggard Wakers Odd Items from Old Accounts A carefully 
 compiled Index. 
 
 -- I LLU ST-RATED. < ^ 
 
 |5rc06 pinions. 
 
 " A volume both entertaining and instructive, throwing much light on the manners 
 and customs of bygone generations of Churchmen, and will be read to-day with much 
 interest." Ne'a'bcry House Magazine. 
 
 " An extremely interesting volume." North British Daily Mail. 
 
 "A work of lasting interest." Hull Examiner. 
 
 " F'ull of interest." The Globe. 
 
 "The reader will find much in this book to interest, instruct, and amuse." Home 
 Chimes. 
 
 " We feel sure that many will feel grateful to Mr. Andrews for having produced such 
 an interesting book." The Antiquary. 
 
 " A volume of great research and striking interest." The Bookbuyer { New York). 
 
 " A valuable book." Literary IVorld (Boston, U.S.A.). 
 
 "Contains, in a popular and readable form, much that is curious and instructive." 
 Manchester Guardian. 
 
 " An admirable book." Sheffield Independent. 
 
 "An interesting, handsomely got up volume. . . . Mr. Andrews is always chatty, 
 and expert in making a paper on a dry subject exceedingly readable." Netvcastle Courant. 
 Mr. William Andrews' new book, 'Curiosities of the Church,' adds another to the 
 series by which he has done so much to popularise antiquarian studies. . . . The book, 
 it should be added, has some quaint illustrations, and its rich matter is made available for 
 reference by a full and carefully compiled index." Scotsman. 
 
 HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. 
 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.
 
 AN IMPORTANT BOOK FOR REFERENCE. 
 
 Fcap 4to. Bevelled boards, gilt tops. Price 4s. 
 
 FAMOUS FROSTS and FROST FAIRS 
 
 IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Cbroiuclct) tvom tbe Baiiiest to tbe present Uime, 
 
 By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S,, 
 
 Author of "Curiosities of the Church," "Old-Time 
 puxishments," etc. 
 
 Only 400 copies printed, each copy numbered, and only 20 remain 
 on sale. Three curious full-page illustrations. 
 
 THIS work furnishes a carefully prepared account of all the great 
 Frosts occurring in this country from a.d. 134 to 1887. The 
 numerous Frost Fairs on the Thames are fully described, and 
 illustrated with quaint woodcuts, and several old ballads relating to 
 the subject are reproduced. It is tastefully printed and elegantly 
 bound. 
 
 The follomnri are a few of the many favourable reviews of 
 ' ' Famous Frosts and Frost Fairs. " 
 
 "The work is thoroughly well written, it is careful in its facts, and 
 may be pronounced exhaustive on the subject. Illustrations are given 
 of several frost fairs on the Thames, and as a trustworthy record this 
 volume should be in every good library. The usefulness of the work 
 is much enhanced by a good index." Public Opinion. 
 
 " The book is beautifully got up." Barnsley Independent. 
 
 "A very interesting volume." Northern Daily Telecjraph. 
 
 "A great deal of curious and valuable information is contained in 
 these pages. ... A comely volume." Literary World. 
 
 " The work from first to last is a most attractive one, and the arts 
 alike of printer and binder have been brought into one to give it a 
 pleasing form." Wakefield Free Press. 
 
 "An interesting and valuable work." West Middlesex Times. 
 
 " Not likely to fail in interest." Manchester Guardian. 
 
 "This chronology has been a task demanding extensive research 
 and considerable labour and patience, and Mr. Andrews is to be 
 heartily congratulated on the result." Derby Daily Gazette. 
 
 "A volume of much interest and great importance." Rotherham, 
 Advertiser. 
 
 HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. 
 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ld.
 
 ELEGANTLY BOUND IN CLOTH GILT, DEMY 8vo., 6s. 
 
 IW^^l^ Fi^MILY mkpL 
 
 By FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S. 
 
 Author of "The Ruined Abbeys of England," " Celebrities of 
 
 Yorkshire Wolds," " Biographia Eboracensis," 
 
 "The Progress of Civilisation," etc. 
 
 W r MONGST Yorkshire Authors Mr. Frederick Ross 
 C I occupies a leading place. For over sixty years he has 
 been a close student of the history of his native 
 county, and perhaps no author has written so much and well 
 respecting it. His residence in London has enabled him to 
 take advantage of the important stoi'es of unpublished infor- 
 mation contained in the British Museum, the Public Record 
 Office, and in other places. He has also frequently visited 
 Yorkshire to collect materials for his works. His new book 
 is one of the most readable and instructive he has written. 
 It will be observed from the following list of subjects that the 
 work is of wide and varied interest, and makes a permanent 
 contribution to Yorkshire literature. 
 
 eONT 
 
 The Synod of Streoneshalh. 
 
 The Doomed Heir of Osmotherley. 
 
 St. Eadwine, the Royal Martyr. 
 
 The Viceroy Siward. 
 
 Phases in the Life of a Political 
 
 Martyr. 
 The Murderer's Bride. 
 The Earldom of Wiltes. 
 Blackfaced Clifford. 
 The Shepherd Lord. 
 
 ENTS : 
 
 The Felons of Ilkley. 
 The Ing-ilby Boar's Head. 
 The Eland Tragedy. 
 The Plumpton Marriage. 
 The Topcliffe Insurrection. 
 Burning of Cottingham Castle. 
 The Alum Workers. 
 The Maiden of Marblehead. 
 Rise of the House of Phipps. 
 The Traitor Governor of Hull. 
 
 IMPORTANT NOTICE. The Edition is limited to 500 copies, 
 and the greater part are sold. The book will advance 
 in price in course of time. 
 
 HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. 
 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd.
 
 Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 6s. 
 
 By EDWARD LAMPLOUGH. 
 
 T 
 
 eO/STEySTS: 
 
 HIS work contains carefully-written accounts of the following 
 Yorkshire Battles, which cannot fail to interest and instruct the 
 reader. It is a book of more than local interest : 
 
 Winwidfield, etc. Battle of Stamford Bridge After Stamford Bridge 
 Battle of the Standard After the Battle of the Standard Battle 
 of Myton Meadows Battle of Boroughbridge Battle of Byland 
 Abbey In the Days of Edward III. and Richard II. Battle of 
 Bramham Moor Battle of Sandal Battle of Towton Yorkshire 
 under the Tudors Battle of Tadcaster Battle of Leeds Battle of 
 Wakefield Battle of Adwalton Moor Battle of Hull Battle of 
 Selby Battle of Marston Moor Battle of Brunnanburgh Fight 
 off Flamborough Head Index, 
 
 pillions Of tbe ffrc0S. 
 
 " A remarkably handsome volume, typographically equal to the best productions 
 of any European capital." A'orlk British Daily Mail. 
 
 " A handsome book. It is extremely interesting, and is a work which cannot fail 
 to find a permanent place amongst the best books devoted to the history of the county. 
 The military history of Yorkshire is very closely investigated in this work. Although 
 the book is written in a clear and jjicturesque style, great care and attention have been 
 given to the researches of antiquaries and historians, and many authorities have been 
 consulted, in consequence of wliich, several long-established errors have been corrected, 
 and some oft-repeated but superficial conclusions confuted. Special attention has been 
 given to the military iiistory of the county during the great rebellion a subject which 
 h:is yet to be fairly and intelligently treated by the general historian. So far as the 
 limits of the work pemiit, the general history of the county, from epoch to epoch has 
 been sketched, maintainini,' tlie continuity of the work, and increasing its intei est and 
 value both to the general reader and the specialist. The printers of the book are Messrs. 
 W'm. Andrews and Co., HilU, and it must be regarded as a good specimen of local 
 typograpliy." WaLetield Free Press. 
 
 "An important work." Bertrley Independent. 
 
 " Does great credit to the new firm of book publishers. ' Yorkshire County Magazine. 
 
 "A beautifully printed volume." Halifax Courier. 
 
 " Mr. Lamplough's book is thoroughly readable, and is written in a manly as well 
 as a discriminating spirit." Yorkshire Post. 
 
 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO. 
 HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.
 
 Now Ready. Elegantly bound, cloth, 6s. 
 
 A Month in a Dandi 
 
 A WOMAN'S WANDERINGS IN NORTHERN INDIA 
 
 By CHRISTINA S. BREMNER. 
 " It is a lively record of a holiday spent in India, and out of the visual route of the 
 globe-trotter." WaMcld Free Press. 
 
 Cloth 2S., Paper is. 
 
 Stepping-Stones to Socialisnn 
 
 By DAVID MAXWELL, C.E. 
 
 "The author has evidently retieuted deeply on the subject of Socialism, and his 
 
 views are broad, equitable, and quite uj) to dat. In a score or so of chapters he discusses 
 
 Socialism from manifold jjoints of view and in its manifold aspects. Mr. Maxwell is 
 
 not a fanatic ; his book is not dull, and his style is not amateurish." Hall Dail;/ yfail. 
 
 Cloth, 4S. 
 
 yorkshire in Olden Tinnes. 
 
 Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. 
 " The work consists of a series of articles contributed by various iiuthors, and it 
 thus has the merit of bringing together much sjwcial knowledge from a great number of 
 sources. It is an entertaining volume, full of interest for the general reader, as well as 
 for the learned and curious." Shields Daily Gazette. 
 
 Paper Cover Is., Cloth 2s. 
 
 My Christ: and other Poenns. 
 
 By H. ELVET LEWIS. 
 
 (elfkd) 
 " Tlie fifty pages, by no means overcrowded, which Mr. Elvet Lewis has given vis, 
 go far to justify the hope that a new poet of genuine power has arisen among us. The 
 thought is often singularly beautiful. The expression is so simple and so natural that 
 it conceals the art. The delicacy of the workmanship may easily blind us to the strength. 
 Mr. I>ewis is es.sentially original, though his affinities are closest, jjerhaps, to Wliittier 
 and Lynch ; but there is not a trace of imitation to be found in the book from one end 
 to the other." Literary World. 
 
 Fancy Cover, is. 
 
 Wanted An Heiress : A /Novel. 
 
 By EVAN MAY. 
 " It is an entrancing story, and perfectly wlidlesome reading. In this work the 
 author of " The Greatest of These " is at her best ; and "Wanted, an Heiress." may be 
 pronounced a leading tale of the season." South Yorkshire Free Press. 
 
 2 vols., 7s. 6d. each. 
 
 one Lincolnshire. 
 
 Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. 
 In the Press. 
 
 Byg-one Notting"hamshire / Bygone Derbyshire 
 
 Edited by William Stevenson. S Edited by William Andrews, k.r.h.s. 
 
 Byg 
 
 Bygone Lancashire i Bygone Essex 
 
 Eilited l)y Ernest Axon. > Edited by William Andrews, f.r.h.s. 
 
 HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS d CO., THE HULL PRESS. 
 LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & CO.
 
 ^WH^m Of CAUIORmA UBRARV 
 
 I^os Angeles 
 
 HO PHONE -ItNEW^tS 
 
 KCD LO URI 
 
 APR 2 8 1986 
 
 iieu 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNU 
 
 LOS ANGELE8
 
 Ill 
 
 iiiiii
 
 
 
 
 Uy.' 
 
 M<^k:in