The Lords of the Manor of Kings Sutton
| 1156 – 1191 | Richard de Camvill | | 1191 – 1212 | Gerard de Camvill | | 1212 – 1226 | Richard de Camvill | | 1226 – 1240 | William de Longespe | | 1240 – 1252 | Stephen de Longespe | | 1252 – 1276 | Emmeline de Longespe | | 1276 – 13?? | Henry de Lacy | | 1316 – 1331 | Emmeline de Longespe | | 1331 – 1350 | Maud la Zouche | | 1350 – 13?? | Robert de Holand | | 13?? – 13?? | Maud, wife of John, Lord Lovel | | 13?? - 1485 | Holands and Lovells until Francis, Viscount Lovel | | 1485 – 1488 | The Crown | | 1488 – 1??? | George, son of the 1st Earl of Derby | | 1??? – 1597 | The Derby family, until William, the 6th Earl of Derby | | 1597 – 1598 | James and Robert Kenwrick | | 1598 – 16?? | Robert Kenwrick | | 16?? – 1735 | The Kenwrick family | | 1735 – 17?? | Sir John Willes | | . | . | | . | . |
Both Bridges1 and Baker2 document the history of the Manor of Kings Sutton in considerable detail. At the time of the Domesday Survey and up to the reign of Henry II it belonged to the Crown.
In 1156, Richard de Camvill, Lord of the Manor and castle of Middleton (Stoney) of Oxfordshire, was given a grant of tenure of Sutton and the two Hundreds of Sutton and Abbodestowe. Simon Fitz Peter, the sheriff of the county, records in his 1156 accounts of the “corpus comitatus” (royal manors and villages in his charge), “deducted £30 blench, or blank uncoined silver, for Sutton, which the King had granted to Richard de Camvill”.
Richard de Camvill was a supporter of King Stephen and in 1147 was witness to the agreement between the King and Henry, Duke of Normandy, concerning the succession to the Crown of England. He retained his position as advisor and administrator under Henry II and accompanied Henry on expeditions to Normandy, Touraine and Toulouse in 1159.
Richard died in 1189 and his eldest son, Gerard de Camvill, inherited the estate at Sutton. In 1199, it is recorded that Simon de Pateshull, the sheriff, “deducted £30 blench for Sutton with the addition of 100 shillings (£5) for the Hundreds of Sutton and Abbodestowe, then in possession of Gerard Camvill”. This is again recorded in 1212 in a survey of all the lands throughout England held in tenure from King John. Gerard married Nichola, daughter of Richard de la Haye, by whom he had an only son, Richard Camvill. In 1199, with his father still living, Richard was given leave to marry Eustachia, the daughter and heir of Gilbert Basset of Bicester. At the time, she was the widow of Thomas de Verdon of Alton in Staffordshire.
Richard inherited the rights to the Sutton Hundred and Middleton castle on the death of his father in 1212; but in 1216, having joined the confederated barons, he was dispossessed of these rights by King John, in favour of Ingelram de Cigon. However, in the following year, the first in the reign of Henry III, he was back in favour and these rights were restored to him and he made a payment of 2000 marks (£1333 67p.) to the Crown for the tenure of the rest of his inheritance. In the pipe roll (the accounts of the royal income) for Northamptonshire the same year, 1217, Richard is shown to owe the King 300 marks (£200) for tenure, probably the proportion due for Sutton and the Hundred.
His wife Eustachia, daughter and heiress of Gilbert Basset, died in 1215, leaving him with an only child, Idonea. William de Longspe, the 1st Earl of Salisbury, son of Henry II, obtained her wardship, including the liberty to dispose of her in marriage, with all her inheritance from her mother, to his eldest son, William de Longspe. William and Idonea were married in c. 1220. Richard Camvill died in 1226, and with Idonea being of full age, the King transferred to her and her husband, William, all the lands of her late father.
In 1236, at the time of the Crusades, William de Longespe took to the cross, and attended the Earl of Cornwall on his expedition to the Holy Land. He returned safely with honour about four years later. On his return, he gave the whole Manor of Sutton, with the Hundred, to his brother Stephen Longespe, with the exception of the meadow, named Sideham, which he reserved for himself so that his tenants of Middleton could continue to mow this meadow. The agreement bound Stephen and his lawful heirs to keep the meadow, and provide necessary meat and drink for twenty-five of the Middleton tenants on the day that they mow it. William then engaged on a second adventure to the Crusades and was killed in 1250, in a battle with the Saracens, between Cairo and Damietta.
Stephen Longspe married Emmeline, daughter and heir of Walter Ridleford and the widow of Hugh Lacy, Earl of Ulster. It is recorded that during his time, Stephen had held the office of Justiciar (Ireland) i.e. an officer of the King's Court, and the office of Seneschal or Steward of Gascony. Stephen died in 1252 and Emmeline, his widow, retained the title of Countess of Ulster from her first widowhood. She had two daughters, Ela, the wife of Roger la Zouche, by whom she had Alan la Zouche, and Emmeline the wife of Maurice Fitz-Maurice.
Upon her death in 1276, the Manor and Hundred were seized by the King, and granted to Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who was married to Margaret, the granddaughter of William de Longspe. But this grant appears to have been reversed, for in 1316, Emmeline Longespe, daughter of Stephen and Emmeline, was certified to be in possession both of the Hundred and Manor. Her husband, Maurice Fitz-Maurice, had died in 1315 and Emmeline had reverted to her maiden name.
In 1325, it is recorded that Emmeline took to court John Prewes, John Iryshe, and others, for “ digging in her free ground and cutting down the banks of the Charwell in divers places to the destruction of her meadow; to which they replied that the said water runs in the Bishop of Winchester's manor of Adderbury, between the counties of Oxford and Northampton, in which the bishop has a free fishery in right of the said manor, and because the said Emmeline made a sluice on the bishop's ground; the said John Irysh, then the bishop's bailiff, removed it without doing any injury to her ground in Kings Sutton”. The result of the court decision is not recorded.
In 1329, Emmeline had a writ of “quo warranto” exhibited against her. This was a procedure devised under the reign of Edward III that kept under review the exercise of any special rights over his/her tenants, other than those granted to the Lord of the Manor. She was required to state by what right she claimed jurisdiction (view of frank-pledge) in Sutton and the Hundred to regulate the price and quality (assize) of bread and ale, punish in the pillory and deal with “wayfs and strays”. She had also ensured that her bailiffs carried out the execution of the King’s writs. This meant that the sheriff, the King's representative, could not enter her land without the permission of her bailiffs. However, the sheriff was allowed to hold two “tourns” (fund raising events) in the hundred yearly, receiving at the tourn after St. Michael 40s 8d (£2 03p), and the same sum at the tourn after Easter.
She claimed these privileges had been passed down to her “from time beyond memory”. The King's attorney contended that the Hundred was a royal jurisdiction belonging to the Crown, which no one could possess without special grant from the King, which Emmeline did not have. A jury having been summoned found that Emmeline was entitled to all the privileges as claimed. However, it appeared that she had punished offenders for breaking “the assize of bread and beer” by a fine of 10s (50p) instead of the Iegal punishment of pillory and tumbril. This being the case, the “view of frank-pledge” was forfeited, but restored again on payment of 20s (£1) to the King. Emmeline Longspe died in 1331, and the estate passed to Maude la Zouche, the widow of Robert de Holand. Maude was the second daughter of Alan la Zouche, a nephew of Emmeline.
Robert de Holand, 1st Baron Holand was born in Lancashire, England in 1270. He was a favourite of Thomas Plantagenet, 2nd Earl of Lancaster and knighted in 1307. Thomas was one of the leaders of the baronial opposition to Edward II. Robert served him by suppressing the rebellion of Sir Adam Banastre in 1315, by which time the Earl of Lancaster was de facto ruler of England following the disaster at Bannockburn in 1314. However, in 1318 a new faction of barons arose, and Lancaster was deposed from office. In 1321, Lancaster was again at the head of a rebellion. This time, however, he was defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge. Although King Edward III would later pardon Robert de Holand for his part in the rebellion, the followers of the Earl of Lancaster considered him a traitor and had him executed in 1328.
From Maude the Manor of Sutton passed to her son, Robert de Holand, in 1350 and from him to Maud his only daughter and heir, the wife of John, Lord Lovel. The Manor then passed down through the Holands and Lovells, until it returned to the King after the “attainder” of Francis, Viscount Lovell in 1485. Francis Lovell was a prominent Yorkist who led rebellions against the Crown. He was condemned of treason, and was declared "attainted", meaning that his civil rights were nullified and he could no longer own property or pass property to his family by will or testament.
Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell, 1454-1487, son of John, 8th Baron Lovell, probably knew Richard III from a young age and was to be a life-long friend and supporter of the future King. As soon as Richard became King on 26th June 1483, Lovell was promoted to the office of Lord Chamberlain. Lovell had command of the fleet that was to have stopped Henry Tudor’s landing in 1485, but it failed to do so. He then fought for Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22nd August 1485 and after the battle fled to sanctuary at Colchester. After Bosworth he became a leader of the Yorkist opponents of Henry VII and supported Lambert Simnel, the child Pretender. After the defeat at Battle of Stoke Field, Nottinghamshire, on 16th June 1487, he was seen escaping from the battle, but was never heard of again. More than 200 years later, in 1708, the skeleton of a man was found in a secret chamber in the family mansion at Minster Lovell in Oxfordshire. It is supposed that Francis Lovell had hidden himself there and died of starvation.
In 1488 King Henry granted the Manor to George, the son and heir of Thomas, 1st Earl of Derby. Over the following hundred years it passed through the Derby family until in 1597, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Manor was sold by William, 6th Earl of Derby to James and Robert Kenwrick for the sum of eight hundred and twenty pounds; the Hundred remaining in the hands of the Derby family. James Kenwrick had been the 5th Earl of Derby's bailiff for the Hundred of King's Sutton. A year later in 1598 James Kenwrick renounced his share to his nephew Robert and retired to the family home in Eccleston, Lancashire. The Manor then continued through Robert Kenwrick's descendants until 1735 when George Kenwick sold the Manor to the Attorney General, Sir John Willes. Sir John Willes was made attorney general in 1733. In 1739 he was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, a position he held for twenty-one years.
Sources:
1. The History of Northamptonshire - John Bridges, 1791 pp 178 –191.
2. The History of The County of Northampton - George Baker, 1822 pp 657 –708.
3. Articles by Jaqueline Coombes, Don Hughes, Ann Daff and Robert Webb.
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