THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. LXVII.—BEDFORDSHIRE, CAILBRIDGESHIRE, AND HUNTING- DONSHIRE
:—TIIE LAND AND TEE TOWNS.
.SIR ROBERT COTTON (in the time of James and Charles I.), as Mr. Speed tells us, made an observation upon the county of Huntingdon that the families of it had been with time outworn, few only (of the many former) then remaining whose surnames before the reign of the last Henry (VIII.) were in this shire of any eminency. Neither the reason, however, which he gives of the proximity to London drawiug away and exhausting the gentry— no sufficient proximity surely for that—nor that assigned by Fuller and the editors of the old Magna Britannia, that, so much of the land belonging to the Church, a great revolution was caused in it at the Reformation by its confiscation and redistribution among laymen, is sufficient to explain the disappearance of the old lay families holding land before the Reformation. Causes with which we are unacquainted must have led to this result here, as well as in the case of the other counties of this Province.
The King kept but little land in his own hands in the distribu- tion of the soil of Huntingdonshire as set forth in Domesday Book. The principal ecclesiastical holders were the Bishops of Lincoln and Constance; and the Abbots of Ely, Ramsey,—" Ramsey the Rich," —(whose possessions were very large), Thorney,—" Thorney the bane of many a good tree, "—as a satirical ballad styles it ;—Croy- land—" Croyland, as courteous, as courteous as may be; "—and Peterborough, "the proud." The largest lay holder of lands by far was Ewstace the Sheriff (of whom nothing seems to be known), and next to him the Countess Judith, widow of Waltheof, Earl of Northampton. Waltheof was the son of Shakespeare's Earl " Siward." William the Conqueror gave him in marriage his niece Judith, and made him Earl of Huntingdon, and after the death of Earl Morcar, of Northumberland also (part of his father's earldom); and the greatest part of the lands in both those counties seems to have belonged to him. We have already men- tioned the vacillating part he played in the conspiracy entered into by Earl Ralph Guader and the Earl of Hereford against William in 1074. Betraying his confederates to the King, on Lanfranc's advice, he was seemingly pardoned, but soon after William's return to England was seized and beheaded at Winchester. His remains were at first buried under the scaffold, but afterwards removed to Croyland Abbey. Judith, his widow (and, some say, his betrayer), was afterwards offered in marriage to Simon de St. Lize, but refusing him on the ground of dis- like of his person, she was turned out of her estate, and Simon married in her place Maud, her daugher by Waltheof, with whom he received the earldom of Huntingdon. Simon dying in the beginning of the reign of Henry L, his widow remarried David, brother of Alexander, King of Scotland, and after- wards his successor in the throne, who in her right inherited the possessions of Waltheof, and was made Earl of Huntingdon and Northumberland. From this time, as peace or war with Scotland alternated, the Scotch Princes or the St. Lizes held the earldom of Huntingdon and the greater part of the lands in the county. In the Bruce and Balliol wars of the Plantagenet period the earldom was confiscated by the Kings of England, and Edward III., in his eleventh year, created William Clinton Earl of Huntingdon. Some part of the land was, however, still retained by the Bruces, and from them descended to the knightly family of Cotton. Guiscard d'Angoulesme was the next Earl, and after his death in 1380 the title was conferred on John Holland, whe was succeeded by his son John, and he by his son Henry (both. also Dukes of Exeter). Thomas Grey, afterwards Marquis of Dorset, held the title for a short time, and then William Herbert,. on surrendering to Edward IV. his father's charter of creation as Earl of Pembroke. Henry VIII. in his twenty-first year bestowed the title on Lord Hastings, grandson of the Lord Hastings beheaded by Richard III.,—whose descendant is the present Earl of Huntingdon,—the property having passed away from the title into the female line, represented by Rawdon-Hastings, Marquis of Hastings.
The other principal proprietors at the period of Domesday Survey were Eustace (the 3rd) Count of Boulogne, and Gilbert de Gand, son of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, brother-in-law of the Con- queror. The latter Baron was one of the few who escaped frora York when the Danes assaulted it in 1069, was the refounder of Bardney Abbey in Lincolnshire, and is believed to have died about the year 1094. Other proprietors were Robert, Earl of Eu (or Ow), in Normandy, one of the chief counsellors of William's invasion of England, and to whom he gave the ca.stlery of Hastings ; Hugh d'Avranches, the grim Earl of Chester ; Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckinghamshire ; William de Warren, Earl of Surrey ; Hugh de Bolebec (whose barony expired with the younger of his two sons) ; Eudo Fitz-Hubert, or Dapifer (the Steward), the founder of the Abbey of St. John at Colchester, to whom we have already had occasion frequently to allude ; Swein lie Essex (of whom we have also already spoken) ; Roger de Ivery, son of Waleran de Ivery, the hereditary cupbearer to the Dukes of Normandy, and himself cupbearer to William as King of England ; Errulf de Heading, first Earl of Perch ; Aubrey de Vere ; William Fitz-Ansculf (whose principal seat was Dudley, in Worcestershire), son of Ansculf de Pinchengi ; Ranulf, brother of Ilger ; Robert Fafiton ; William Ingania ; and Ralph Fitz- Osmund. Besides the Countess Judith there is another female landowner mentioned, Rothais, wife of Richard Fitz-Gilbert (the' ancestor of the great Clare family), daughter of Earl Walter Giffard. In the list of "King's Thanes" which follows, we have the usual relics of the old Saxon and Norse aristocracy—Chetel- bert, Alwine, Avic, Eric, Ellie, and Godde, and his son Ulvric.
"Cambridgeshire and this county," says Fuller, "may pass fist the emblem of man and wife, who have long lived lovingly together, till at last upon some small disgust they part bed and board, and live asunder. Even from the time of King Henry the Second, these two shires were united under one Sheriff (as originally they I I one Earl of the Royal Blood of Scotland) till in the twelfth of King Charles (on what mutual distrust I -know not) they were
divided. But the best of the emblem is still behind. As such separated persons do on second thoughts sometimes return together again, as most for their comfort, convenience, credit, and conscience, so these two counties (after six years' division) have been reunited under the same Sheriff, and so continue to this day."
The following are a few of the names which appear in a list of the gentry of Huntingdonshire, in the reign of Henry VI., in the year 1433 :—Stivecle, Stonham, (Everard) Digby, Devyle, Nesen- ham, Hethe, Bayons, Lowthe, Parker, Taillard, Eyr Bekeswell, Castell, Waldesheefe, Freman, Donold, Mayll, Boteler de Alyngton, Boteler de Hilton, Kirkeby, Sankyn, Langton, Rokes- den, Puller, Sampson de Somersb, Druell de Weresle, Cockeyn Parker de Kimbolton, Parker de Bukden, Daniel, Aungevin, Copgray,Ulfe, Sturdvale, Charwalton, Hayward, Boton, Barbour, Faillour, &c. Among other ancient families we may mention Bevill, and Wesenham. In the Tudor and Stuart periods we have the names of Marshe, Cotton, Montagu, Cromwell, Hewet, Armyne, Leman, Proby, Hammond, and Pedley ; and still later, the IVhistons (the family of the celebrated Whiston). The principal influence in the county is now in the Montagus (Dukes of Manchester and Earls of Sandwich), and the Probys (Earls of Carysford). The Russells (Dukes of Bedford), and the Fellowes, Thornhill, and Heathcote families have also some influence.
Huntingdon, the Huntandene of the Saxon Chronicle, is situated on the north left bank of the river OUS2, on gently rising ground. It is connected with the village of Godman- chester by a causeway across the meadows, which in time of floods are overflowed by the Ouse. "In this causeway are three bridges. The principal one, over the main channel of the Ouse, is of stone, is ancient, and has six arches. The principal street extends
I almost a mile north-west from the bridge over the Ouse." The neighbourhood of the ancient Romano-British station at God- manchester no doubt pointed out the north bank of the river as a convenient site for a Saxon settlement, which, while distinct from the old town, would overawe it, and enjoy similar advantages of situation. In the year 917 Edward the Elder built or rebuilt a castle here, of which traces of the outworks yet remain. In the time of the Domesday Surrey it was a considerable place. It was then divided into two portions, each containing two ferlings, i.e., fourth divisions or wards. The burgesses in one portion amounted to 116, in the other to 140; besides these there were 22 burgesses belonging to Eustace the Sheriff, and 18 belonging to Gilbert de Gaud. The 116 burgesses had .100 bordarii, who assisted them in paying geld to the King. The borough of Huntingdon then paid geld for a fourth part of the hundred of Hyrstingstau, for fifty hides. Previous to the time of the Survey there had been three monetarii in IIuntingdon, but they were employed there no longer. The dues from Huntingdon were farmed. Two-thirds of the firma burgi were paid to the King, and one-third to the Earl. There were once four religious houses in the borough, viz.—a Priory of Austin canons, founded before the year 793 (the site of which in the town was moved by Eustace de Lovetoft, in the time of the Empress Maud) ; a hospital, to which Malcolm IV. of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon, was a great benefactor, and probably founder ; another hospital, founded by David, Earl of Huntingdon, in the time of Henry II.; and a house of Augustine Friars, established probably about 1285. Huntingdon is said by antiquaries to have once been a place of much greater extent than at present. Sir Robert Cotton (as quoted by Speed) ascribes its decay to some alterations made in the river by one Gray, "a minion of the time," which impeded its navigation. Leland says that some ages before it had 15 churches, though in his time (Henry VIII.) reduced to four, the rest fallen through time and neglect, but traces of their walls and yards then remain- ing. The only churches that now remain are St. Mary's and All Saints'. Huntingdon had its first charter about the year 1206. King John granted it a peculiar coroner, receipt of tolls and customs, a recorder, town clerk, and two bailiffs. Charles I., by a new charter granted in 1630, vested its government in a mayor, 12 aldermen, and an indefinite number of burgesses or common council, chosen from the principal inhabitants. It would seem that this was considered at the time as a restriction of the ancient liberties of the townspeople. The borough has returned two Members to Parliament from the 23rd of Edward I. The suffrage was, until the Reform Act of 1832, in the freemen and resident householders paying scot and lot ; but the Earl of Sand- wich really nominated the representatives, as he has virtually con- tinued to do also since the restricted suffrage of the Reform Act. The borough is henceforth to return only one member. Its sole historical interest is connected with the name of the Cromwell family, whose seat, Ilinchinbrooke—now that of the Montagus, Earls of Sandwich—was close to the town. The Great Protector, Oliver Cromwell, was born in the town, which he afterwards represented in the Parliament of 1628-9. Charles L's army effected an entrance, after a smart resistance at the bridge, in 1645, and plundered grievously the place and neighbourhood, in revenge for the decided part taken by the townsmen on the side of the Parliament, and probably with some recollection also of the connection between the place and that rising Parliamentary soldier, Lieutenant-General Cromwell. The population of the municipal borough was in 1861 only 3,816, but that of the Parliamentary borough was 6,254; the former had declined in population in the previous ten years, for in 1851 it numbered 3,882 inhabitants. The borough is really scarcely more than an agricultural village, the trade of the town being principally in wool and corn.
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