Monument record 638/33 - Over Manor

{1}It has been suggested that the manor house of the Over Manor stood at the northern edge of the lord’s Inland, facing on to the south side of the original market place.

In 1571 the ‘Scite of the Over Mannor’ and the great close called Inlands with a parcel of meadow in the bottom occupied some 31 acres to the south of the town. An undated conveyance recorded the grant by Robert fitz Walter lord of Daventry to a man and wife of part of his capital messuage in Daventry, ‘in width from my garden towards the north 20 feet and in length from the churchyard towards the west 210 feet.’ At the view of frankpledge held in October 1502 three men, all described as servants, were presented for having broken the hedges of the king’s orchard

At some date after 1089 Matilda, daughter of Countess Judith, married Simon de Senlis who later acquired the earldoms of Huntingdon and Northampton. Their son, Simon de Senlis II, succeeded to the earldoms in about 1136 and Daventry became one of his possessions. When he died in 1153 the manor passed to his sister Matilda. She married twice. Her first husband was Robert fitz Richard, who died in 1136/7, and her second husband was Saher de Quincy, who became lord of Daventry by right of his wife in 1146. After the death of Saher the manor passed to Matilda’s son by her first husband, Walter fitz Robert, and in 1198 to Walter’s youngest son, Simon fitz Walter. Thereafter, the principal manor of Daventry remained in the fitz Walter family for nearly 200 years. When Thomas fitz Walter died in c. 1380-1 the Over Manor was divided between his two sisters and co-heiresses. One portion was later transferred to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and the other was sold in 1398-9 to his son Henry Earl of Derby.

The accounts for the Over Manor in the years 1381-1384 recorded the following cash income from the farm of mills: £12 1s 0d (1381-2), £8 7s 0d (1382-3), and £13 4s 0d (1383-4). In all three years these amounts were among the largest received from any single category of income. The mills included in the farm are unknown.

An attempt to locate the burgages can be made by using the 1571 Survey and a cartulary of the Over Manor dating from the later 14th century (judging from the names). The cartulary listed the people who occupied whole burgages or fractions of burgages and who owed suit of court to the portmote court of the Over Manor. The list contains 37 names and they occupied a total just short of 24 burgages, a figure which agrees with the 24 messuages held in burgage listed in the IPM of William Staverton in 1493-4 and which evidently related to the lease of the Over Manor.

<1> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Daventry (Medieval/Post Medieval/ Industrial), Section 3.1.2.1, 3.1.2.5 (Digital archive). SNN100501.

Record last edited

Apr 29 2021 2:39PM