Parishes: Aslacton

ASLACTON.

TORI, before the Conquest, (whose Lands were afterwards Walter de Ayncourt's) had a Manor in Aslactune, which was rated to the Tax for one Car. The Land was three Car. There Walchelin, the Man or Tenant of Walter de Aincurt, had two Carand one Sochm. on one Bovat of this Land, six (or seven) Vill. two Bord. with one Car ½. and twenty-four Acres of Meadow. This kept the old Value 30s. having Soc in Hochesword.

Another Manor, with Soc and Sac, had Leving, which discharged itself to the DaneGeld for one Bovat. The Land was half a Car. After the Conquest Uluric held it of Ilbert de Lacy, whose Fee it became; and there had two Oxen ploughing, two Sochm. one Bord. having half a Car. and eight Acres of Meadow. This kept the Value also which it had in the Confessor's Time, viz. 5s. 4d. (fn. 1)

Another Manor here was of the Tainland, which Levric had before the Normans came, and discharged it likewise to public Geld for one Bov. The Land was four Bov. Uluric held it afterwards of King William, and there had two Oxen in Plough, and two Sochm. one Bord. with half a Car. there was likewise eight Acres of Meadow, and it kept the old Value 5s. 4d.

In Aslacton was some antient Demesne of the Soc of Orston, the King's Manor, as much as was rated to the Geld at one Bov. There was one Villain.

In Haslacheton was there likewise of the Soc of Whatton, of the Fee of Gislebert de Gand, which used to be rated to the Geld for half a Car. The Land was one Car. and an half. There nine Sochm. had four Ploughs or Carucats.

This Part, it seems, had the pre-eminence to carry the Tithes; or else the nearness of that Church, made the rest of the Lords less careful to get one of their own, and so the whole Township hath been ever esteemed in Whatton Parish, and the Church Interest (except that little of Orston) went with that Rectory in the Time of Henry the Second, (fn. 2) to the Abbey of Wellebeck, to which Henry Crok, Son and Heir of Walter Crok, of Aslacton, gave the Homage and Service of Mr. Raph, Son of Mr. Richard, for two Oxgangs of Land in Aslacton, and of divers others: and also divers other Lands.

Another Part was held by the Family, which took their Name from Burton, near Nottingham, in the Wapentake or Hundred of Thurgarton, called Burton-Forz, and is still distinct from the rest, and now in the Tenure of Mr. M. Hawford, of Eedy-Weston, in Rutland, as I take it.

But the most considerable Part of this Township, viz. both Deyncourt's, and that of the Fee of Gaunt (which, 32 E. 1. (fn. 3) John de Newmarch, is said to hold here and in Hawkesworth), were very antiently the Aslactons, who held of the Newmarches, of Whatton, and they of the other Newmarches, and they of Gaunt, and after of Bellomonte.

(fn. 4) Reginaldus de Aslacton, (probably descended from Uluric or Walchelin) was a Witness, as was also Roger de Burton, to the Lady Adelina de Whatton's Deed, who by the Consent of William de Heriz, her Husband, gave to the Priory of Lenton, her two Men or Tenants, Hugh and Henry, with the three Bovats of Land they held in Aslacton, which Gift she and her said Husband offered on the high Altar of the Holy Trinity, at Lenton.

(fn. 5) Simon, Son of Reginald de Aslacton, gave to the Priory of Thurgarton, a Toft, and Croft here, which was Ordric's, and one Acre of Meadow, of the Fee of Oliver Dayencourt, and a great Land, or Selion, whereon was a Wind-Mill; all which H. Prior of that Place gave to Maud, the Wife of Simon de Aslacton, and the Heirs on her begotten.

(fn. 6) Raph Bozun, (or Begun), gave to Reginald, Son of Simon de Aslacton, 22s. yearly Rent, out of Thurverton, and Skerington, with Maud, his Sister, in frank Marriage.

Simon de Aslacton, who was Sheriff of this County 44, and 45 H. 3. I take to be Son of this last Reginald, and Father of another, who was also Father of Reginald de Aslacton, Knight, who by Fine, between himself and Roger de Aslacton, Parson of Hawkesworth, 2 E. 3. (fn. 7) settled this Manor of Aslacton, on himself for Life, then to his Son John, the elder, and the Heirs of his Body; for want of which, to John, the younger; then to Simon; then to Roger, his other Sons, and the respective Heirs of their Bodies, successively; for want of which, to the right Heirs of himself.

John, the elder, had two Wives: by his first, called Alice, he had William de Aslacton, mentioned in Torlaston; (fn. 8) his second was Johan, the Relict of Peter Hodle, and Sister and Co-Heir of John, Son of Simon de Kirketon, in Holland, Lord of Sibthorp, but by her he had no Issue.

(fn. 9) John de Aslacton, Clerk, 30 E. 3. was impleaded by Nicholas de Langford, Junior, and Alice his Wife, and John Ryvell, Chr. and Joan his Wife, Daughters and Heirs of Roger Deyncourt, for violently ejecting them from the Custody of the Land and Heir of John de Aslacton, being then under Age; which John died, seized of one Hundred Acres of Land, forty of Meadow, and the third Part of the Manor of Aslacton, which he held of the said Roger Deyncourt, by Knight's Service, viz. by Homage and Scutage, for a Knight's Fee, whereupon the Jury gave them 20l. Damage, and they desired Execution and had it. This Heir, then in Minority, was William it seems, whose Daughter and Heir, Isabell, was married to Edmund Cranmer, and to that Manor of Aslacton.

(fn. 10) Edmund Cranmer, of Aslacton, and Isabell his Wife, 4 H. 6. claimed against William de Sibthorp, Esquire, two Mess. one Toft, twenty-six Acres of Land, and two of Meadow, in Aslacton. She left a Son, John Cranmer, (fn. 11) who by Alice, the Daughter of — Marshall, of Muscam, had a Son named Thomas Cranmer, who married Agnes, the Daughter of Lawrence (or Stephen) Hatfeild, of Willoughby, in Thurgarton-a-Lee Hundred; and by her had his eldest Son, John Cranmer, whose first Wife was Joan, Daughter of John Frecheville, Esquire; and his second, Margaret, Daughter of John Firz-Williams, of Sprotburgh; another of his Sons was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Martyr, fit to weigh down the Scale against Thomas Becket, his Predecessor; another Son was Edmund Cranmer, Archdeacon of Canterbury: he had also divers Daughters, Jane, Wife of John Monings, Lieutenant of Dover-Castle; Isabell, of Sir — Shepey, Knight; Anne, of Edmund Cartwright; and Dorothy, of Harold Rosell, of Radcliffe-on-Trent.

King Edward the Sixth, by his Indenture, bearing Date the 20th of March, in the first Year of his Reign, for the Sum of 429l. 13s. 2d. granted to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Scite of the Priory of Arthington, and divers Lands thereunto belonging, and the Scite of the Monastry of Kirstall, and the Demesne Lands thereof, and other Lands belonging to it, both in Yorkshire, and the Rectories of Whatton and Aslacton, with the Advowson of the Churches, both which then lately belonged to the Monastery of Welbeck. And the Manor of Wood-Hall, (in Ratcliffe) in this County, late Part of the Possessions of Thomas Grey, Esquire. And the Advowson of the Church of Kingesworth, in Kent, to him and his Heirs for ever.

His Nephew, Thomas Cranmer, Son of his Brother John, by his said first Wife, died, seized of the Rectory of Whatton and Aslacton, 8 Decem. 5 E. 6. (fn. 12) to which belonged one Hundred Acres of Land, twenty of Meadow, thirty of Pasture, in Whatton and Aslacton, and also of the Manor of Aslacton, six Mess. &c. and two Mess. in Whatton, &c. and left his Son Thomas Cranmer, his Heir, then above twenty-two Years of Age. Which latter Thomas had two Wives; by his first he had Mary, Wife of John Rosell, of Radcliff-on-Trent, Esquire, Grandson of Harold before-named; and by his second, Elizabeth, Daughter of Thomas Hutchinson and Widow of William Brookesby, of Grimsby, (fn. 13) he had Alice, Wife of Thomas Molyneux, and after of Sir John Thorold, his Daughters and Heirs, and died 8 Decem. I Eliz.

Sir John Molyneux, Baronet, Son of the said Alice and Thomas, and Father of Sir Francis, sold the Cranmer's Interest, which descended to him. And the Manor is now the Marquis of Dorchester's; the Tithes and some Glebe, with the Parsonage House, &c. were Mr. Gervas Armstrong's, of Scarrington, as in that Place is noted.— Thomas Bean had a good Freehold here, Part whereof is my Brother-in-Law's, Thomas Jalland. And there are some other small Freeholders, Thomas Castledine, Thomas Draper, both of Scarrington, with some others; divers of the Tenants in Aslacton, do Suit to the Court-Leet at Cotgrave, formerly belonging to St. John's, of Jerusalem. There was a Chapel in the Town, which is now a Dwelling-House.

[Throsby] Aslacton.

THIS lordship was inclosed in 1780, and contains about 1200 acres of land. It consists of several manors; the principal of which belongs to Mr. Grant, of Bingham. The estate, of which Mr. Grant's is a part, formerly belonged to the Marquis of Dorchester; afterwards to the Duke of Kingston, who willed it to his nephew, John Brand, Esq. who sold it to the present Duke of Portland; and his Grace, a few years since, sold it out in three portions: one to Mr. Grant above-named; another to Mr. Marriott, then of Bingham, but now resident upon his at Aslacton; and the third portion to Mr. Green, a reputable farmer at Carcolston.

In this small village, or hamlet, which parishes to Whatton, and once had a chapel but now utterly decayed, was born the ever-memorable Bishop Cranmer, who suffered martyrdom in the reign of Mary the First. On Mr. Marriott's estate may be traced several moats, islands, pleasure-grounds, &c. formerly belonging to that worthy prelate. On the scite of that, on which the Bishop's house stood, is erected one occupied by Mr. Spurr, who has in his possession, some curious relics of antiquity, which, it is said, belonged to the Cranmer family. "'Tis a compliment," (says a friend of mine in this neighbourhood) "due to Mr. Marriott to say, that he has used every means in his power to preserve the antient appearances of the moats, walks, &c. since they became his property; but some of the former owners, or occupiers, with infinitely less taste, have taken down a hill, which was thrown up by the Archbishop, on the summit of which, tradition says, he was wont to sit and survey the face of the country, and listen to the tunable bells at Whatton." (fn. 14)

Aslacton inhabitants, I find, still elect a chrchwarden, and have a separate levy towards the support of the church of Whatton, amounting to the third of the annual expence.— A farm, in this place, occupied by Mr. Walker, which contains 200 acres of land, is left for the support of a school at King's-Cliff, Northamptonshire. Another farm, here, belongs to, and is occupied by, Mr. Oliver, besides those noticed above.