Fifteen hides in BRAMPTON were held by Edward the Confessor and passed in 1066 to William the Conqueror. Ranulf, brother of Ilger, had the custody of the manor and Elric, the King's thegn, held a hide and a virgate. The manor remained in the hands of the Crown until 1194 and Henry II, it is stated, had here 2 carucates of the manor in demesne with a messuage and woods, meadows, mills and pleas, and tilled those 2 carucates with his own ploughs. The men of the manor at the same time held 28 virgates in villeinage with the meadow pertaining thereto, some at a rent of 5s. a virgate for all services, and others by the services of ploughing, weeding, carrying and carting of food and venison, and giving heriot and merchet. Later the Crown leased the services of the villeinage lands for £20 a year to the men of the manor, retaining the woods, mills and pleas, until King Richard, on his return from Germany in 1194, granted the manor to Lambert de Colonia. Lambert continued to take £20 a year from the men for three and a half years, when he demanded new customs which the men were unwilling to give. The men of the manor appealed to King Richard, but he increased the farm to £30. King John further increased the farm to £50 a year, but permitted the men to discontinue the payment of merchet and heriot; he continued, however, to tallage them when he tallaged his other demesnes. He seems to have resumed the grant to Lambert de Colonia in 1202, and in the following year granted the manors of Brampton and Alconbury to David, Earl of Huntingdon. David died in 1219 and his son John le Scot being under age, his wardship was granted to his uncle Ranulf, Earl of Chester. John le Scot, Earl of Chester and Huntingdon, died without issue in 1237 and Brampton was assigned to his widow, Helen, who married in the same year Robert de Quincy. At this time (1239) the men of Brampton paid 60 marks for a confirmation of their farm. The lands of John le Scot were partitioned, and before 1241 the manor of Brampton and Houghton had been allotted to Henry de Hastings, husband of Ada, sister and co-heir of John le Scot. In 1247 the Crown desired to make an exchange for the manor of Brampton under the terms of the grant to Earl David, and writs were issued to John de Balliol and Henry de Hastings, but nothing further was done.
Hastings.
Or a sleeve gules.
Henry de Hastings died in 1250 and Geoffrey de Lusignan, the king's half-brother, had a grant of the manor in 1251 during the minority of Henry, son of Henry de Hastings. Although the king had authorised Henry de Hastings in 1242 to take tallage from his men of Brampton, they refused in 1243 to be tallaged and raised hue and cry on the bailiffs of the sheriff who had been called upon to assist the bailiffs of Henry de Hastings, and drove them to Huntingdon. Upon judicial inquiry it was adjudged that Henry could tallage his men, but only when the king tallaged his manors and demesnes.
Henry, son of Henry de Hastings, was among the partisans of Simon de Montfort in 1265, and the king seized Brampton until he 'came in.' Henry died early in 1269 and was succeeded by his son John, first Lord Hastings of Abergavenny, who died in February 1313. His second wife, Isabel, with the assent of his son and heir John, received the manor in dower in 1313, and was returned as sole proprietor in 1316. She died in 1334, John having predeceased her in 1325, leaving a son and heir, Laurence, a minor, created Earl of Pembroke in 1339. He died seised in 1348, leaving a son John aged one year, who in 1362–3 received the custody of the manor. John died in 1375 and, on the death of his son and heir John, still a minor, in 1389, the earldom of Pembroke became extinct, the barony of Hastings remaining dormant until 1841. Sir Hugh de Hastings, younger son of John, first Lord Hastings, had a son John who should have inherited in 1389, but for some unknown reason he was passed over. He died without issue in 1393, and his great-nephew and heir Hugh died in 1396 without issue. When John the last Earl of Pembroke died, Reginald Grey of Ruthin, son of Reginald, son of Elizabeth, daughter of John de Hastings and Isabel his wife, was declared to be heir to this manor. His superior claim rested on his descent from the first Lord Hastings by his first wife, while Hugh was descended from the second wife. In 1410 a court of chivalry granted the Greys of Ruthin the right to quarter with their own arms the quarterly coat of Hastings and Valence, and in 1428 Reginald, Lord Grey of Ruthin, held the knight's fee in Brampton and Houghton that John, Earl of Pembroke, had held. He died in 1440 and was succeeded by his grandson Edmund, whose desertion at the battle of Northampton in 1460 ensured the Yorkist victory. He was created Earl of Kent by Edward IV in 1465 and, dying in 1489, was succeeded by his son George, who died in 1503, leaving a son Richard, lord of Brampton. Richard died childless in 1524, having greatly wasted his estate, and his sister Anne, wife of John, first Lord Hussey of Sleaford, inherited Brampton, which came to the Crown on Hussey's attainder in 1537 for his share in the Pilgrimage of Grace. It was sold in 1538 to Richard Cromwell, who in 1542 exchanged it for the manor of Upwood. Edward VI granted the manor, with the meadows called Portholme and Southolme, to Princess Elizabeth in 1550 in part fulfilment of the will of Henry VIII, and in the following year confirmed it to her.
Grey of Ruthin.
Barry argent and azure with three roundels gules in the chief.
Immediately after his accession James I granted it to Queen Anne, and on her death he bestowed it on his favourite George Villiers, Marquess (afterwards Duke) of Buckingham, who, however, was allowed to exchange it for other lands. In 1627 it was leased to Henry, Earl of Manchester, for 40 years and it was further disposed of by the Commonwealth government in February 1651–2. At the Restoration it was granted to the Queen Mother, and in 1622 the reversion of the lease in fee was granted to the Earl of Sandwich. It has since descended with Hinchingbrooke (q.v.) to the present Earl of Sandwich.
As ancient demesne of the Crown, Brampton was subject to tallage. The jurors of 1278–9 said that Brampton used to make the sheriff's tourn but had ceased to do so, and view of frankpledge, gallows, and fines under the assize of bread and ale belonged to the manor. In 1286 John de Hastings was summoned to show his right to these privileges and to waifs, tumbril, etc., and the jury stated that when the Crown held the manor, the men of Brampton paid a mark yearly for view of frankpledge and that they ought still to pay this direct to the king. The grandfather of John de Hastings, however, had by oppression and distraint compelled them to pay the mark to himself and he paid it to the king to have view of frankpledge; and his successors had retained the mark for themselves. An order was given for the king to recover his seisin of this payment. The lord's court is mentioned in 1292. In 1302 Hastings received a grant of free warren in all his demesne lands of Brampton and Lymage, a member of this manor.
The tenants of Devorgilla de Balliol, who shared Brampton with the Hastings in the thirteenth century, are mentioned in 1278–9, and John de Hastings said that he held the manor jointly with her and Robert de Brus in 1286. After the forfeiture of Balliol his lands were granted in 1306 to John de Bretagne, or Britannia, Earl of Richmond, the king's nephew, including a rent of 26s. 8d. from Brampton. In 1313 he was granted tallage 'for the manor' as ancient demesne of the Crown; in 1331 he had leave to grant his rent here to Mary, Countess of Pembroke, for life. John de Britannia died childless in 1334, and his nephew and heir John does not seem to have succeeded, in spite of an order for delivery of seisin. Apparently this fee passed to Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, who was in possession in 1338, when his pound was broken by 46 persons of Brampton and some outsiders, whose beasts he had impounded for services due. This fee certainly merged in the Crown with the accession of Henry IV, if it had not already done so in 1341 on the death childless of John de Britannia.
