THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
LXXXIL-CENTRAL ENGLAND : RUTLAND, LEICESTERSHIRE, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE SINCE TILE NORMAN CONQUEST.-(CON- TINUED.) GREAT part of the lands of Nottinghamshire at different periods
.A. subsequent to the Norman Conquest came into the hands of the Church, and such as still remained thus attached at the time of the Dissolution of the Monastic Houses were of course then redistributed among the lay proprietors and the new gentry whom the Tudors called into existence. The county until the tenth year of Elizabeth was governed by Sheriffs jointly with Derbyshire. In the reign of Henry VI. the gentry included the following family names (as spelt in the old list) : — Stanhope (Knight of the Shire) ; Cheworth, Zouche, Plumton, Welughby, Strelley, Perponnt, Markam, Clyfton, Meryng, and Annesley (Knights) ; Cokfeld ; Makerell ; Nevyll ; Brewc ; Stanton ; Leek ; Sutton ; Curson ; Byrton ; Mercy; Wastnes ; Gaitford ; Clay ; II usse ; II ikli tige ; Barbour (of Leek) ; Doyle; Bevercotes ; Moresby ; Morewode ; Dunham ; Serlby ; Wilbram ; Geneley ; Lassels ; Powerr ; 1Varberton ; Ranscheatere (of Worksop); White (of Colyngatn) ; Glouseter (of Circoston) ; Skrymshire (of Muskhatn) ; Darley (of Thorpe); Columboll (of Thorpe) ; Bampton (of Beaton) ; Crecy (of Mark- ham) ; Stutfin (of Mansfeld Woodhouse); Braunspeth (of Rog- nell) ; Melton (of Normanton) ; Norton (of Kirton) ; Cromwell (of Charletou) ; Caldewell (of Laxton) ; Drapour (of Welhagh) ; Carleton (of Blithe); Hogekyngson (of Misterton) ; Lyndrike (of Stockwith) ; and Caxton (of Tuxford).
Nottingham castle and town were captured by the troops of the Empress Maud in the Civil War of that age, and King John died at Newark, October 17, 1216. The story of the arrest of Queen Isabella's favourite, Mortimer, in Nottingham Castle, by Edward M.'s orders, is well known. Lambert Simnel (the so- called Earl of Warwick) was defeated in 1487 by the Royal army under Henry VII. (after a very desperate and for a long time doubtful fight) at East Stoke, on the right bank of the Trent, four miles south-west from Newark. Charles I. set up his standard at Nottingham in 1642 with great ceremony. Soon afterwards Nottingham passed into the possession of the Parliament, and it remained their head-quarters for this district during the whole of the Civil War, the Governor being Colonel John llutchinson, whose name has been immortalized by his wife and biographer, Lucy Apaley. On the other hand, Newark became the Cavalier head-quarters, and many were the attempts made on both aides to dispossess the other party of its stronghold. In 1644, while held for the King by Sir John Henderson, Newark was besieged by the Parliamentarians under Sir John Meldrum, and Lord Willoughby of Parham ; but was relieved by Prince Rupert, who drove part of the besieging army over the Trent, and compelled the rest to capitulate, with all their artillery and ammunition. In the ensuing winter the town was again unsuccessfully besieged by the Par- liamentarians. In the spring of 1646 King Charles arrived at the head-quarters of the Scotch army before Newark, and the town was surrendered by his orders to the besiegers.
" Mediaeval remains are not very numerous in Nottingham. shire, considering the size and importance of the county. Newark is the only castle worth mentioning, as that of Nottingham is, thought a ruin, only the shell of a modern building of the last century. Of abbeys and monastic remains, Newstead is the most important and the most beautiful, though its metamor-
phosis to residential purposes partly puts it out of the pale of mediaeval buildings, the west front of the church excepted." It was founded for Augustinian Canons by Henry II. about the year 1170, and at the Dissolution of the Monasteries the chief part of the abbey buildings was fitted up as a residence by Sir John Byron, to whom they were granted ; but the chapel was allowed to go to decay. " Next in preservation are the conventual remains of Radford, near Worksop ; of Mattersea and Beauvale there are very small remains ; and of the Priory of Thurgarton nothing except a bay of the present church. Worksop Church is the nave of the abbey. Newark Church is of the dignity of a minster, and of great beauty. Retford Church is also of the first class. In two cases, namely, at Scrooby and Southwell, we have domestic buildings attached to the abbeys as residences ; the only other monastic remains left (and those of the rudest character) being that of King John's Palace, near 011erton, and of a later date the still inhabited halls of Carcolston, Shelford, and Kings- haugh, as well as the noble Elizabethan mansion of Wollaton. In modernized mansions Nottinghamshire is very rich, the principal being Newstead, Clamber, Thoresby, Welbeck, Rufford, and Serlby, all of them being grouped together within the area of Sherwood Forest." The identity, not to speak of the real history, of Robin Hood, whose name is inseparably connected with that forest, is still a matter of doubt. The Earl-of-Huntingdon theory is now generally given up as untenable, and the favourite conclu- sion is that which assigns him to the period of Henry III., and makes him one of the adherents of Simon de Montfort, who kept up a resistance in the midland forest districts of England after the battle of Evesham. Mr. Hunter believes him to be identical with a man of that name who was pardoned by King Henry during his progress in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, and received into the Royal household. Among the families which appear in the list of Sheriffs for this county in the period subsequent to the accession of Elizabeth we find (besides some of those already men- tioned) Cowper ; Molineux (of Teversham); Holies (of Houghton); Thorn hagh ; Whalley; Thorold ; North and Ascough. In the Stuart period we find Reyuer ; Sacheverell ; Perkins ; Williamson; Rea- son ; Hutchinson ; White ; Digby ; Palmes ; Goddinge ; Pusey ; Hewett ; Tercsey ; Bolles ; Mash ; and Wasteneys. The Holles family sprang from a Lord Mayor of London, and became Earls of Clare, and afterwards Dukes of Newcastle, succeeding in that title the Cavendishes, who long ruled from Bolsover and elsewhere in this and the adjoining counties. The Holles family were succeeded by the Pelhams, and these by the Clintons, who stilt are one of the great Nottinghamshire families. Their influence is balanced by that of the Bentincks of Welbeck, Dukes of Portland, the great accession to the Peerage of the Revolution period, who share with them the old Cavendish property. The Pierreponts, also (now represented through a female line), Earls of Manvers (but formerly Earls and Dukes of Kingston), have considerable influence ; and among the other leading families of the present day we may mention those of Welby (of Carlton Hall) ; Clifton (of Clifton Grove) ; Sutton ; Molyneux ; Musters ; Foljambe ; Denison ; Rollestou, &c. There is a numerous and wealthy gentry, but few of the estates rise to the highest rank of landed pro- prietorship.
Rutland has only two market towns, Oakham and Uppingham. Oakham, or Okehamn, the county town, is situated in the vale of Catmose, and is little better than a village. In Edward the Con- fessor's time, his queen, Editha, held 5 hamlets and 4 carucates within the manor, and the King 6 carucates ; while the villani and bordarii, amounting to 57, held 37f, and 20 acres of meadow ; and one priest and the church held 4 bovates. At this time there were 16 carucates of ploughed land, and a wood a mile in length and half a mile broad, valued at £40 ; besides which, one Levenot held here a carucate, containing five borates and six acres of meadow, then valued at 20s. At the time of the Norman Survey this last carucate was in the hands of Fulcherus- de Mak' Opera', or Fuicher de Maleverer. At the time of the Norman Survey Albert the Clerk held the church of Oakham, and the lands therewith appertaining, by the King's special grant and favour. The manor next passed to the Newburgh family (Earls of Warwick), thence to the Crown again by exchange, and in the reign of Henry II. to Walcheline Ferrara (a cadet of the family, who were Earls of Derby), who became Baron of Oakham. Some believe him to have built the ancient castle, part of which now forms the county hall. He was a Crusader with Richard Co' ear de Leon, and died before Acre. In the reign of John it passed, by an heiress, to Roger de Mortimer, from whom the King extorted a considerable livery-and-seisin donation on the occasion. On the heiress' death without issue the manor seems to have reverted to the Crown, and was regranted in the Royal family to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, and titular King of the Romans ; but it soon reverted to the Crown, and was granted by Edward I. to his brother, Edmund of Woodstock, with the castle and the shrievalty of the county. lie was attainted and beheaded under the ascendancy of Mortimer, Queen Isabella's favourite, and the manor with the preceding privileges was granted to William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton. In this reign (Edward III.'s), on occasion of a subsidy, it was declared on oath that there were no merchants in Oakham, nor any others who lived by agriculture or from the profits from their cattle. It passed from the Bohuns during this reign by failure of issue, and we find it at various times in the hands of Margaret (widow of Gaveston, and of the second Earl of Cornwall, and then the wife of Audley, Earl of Gloucester), and of one William Haclut. Richard II. gave it and the castle to his favourite, Robert de Vere. They thence passed successively to Thomas, of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, and to Shakespeare's Aumerle, Edward, Duke of York. On his death at Agincourt they reverted to the Crown, and were regranted by Henry VI. to Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Bucking- ham, who represented the house of Thomas of Woodstock. There were then two parks in the vicinity of Oakham, one at Flitteris and the other at Stone. Buckingham was slain at the battle of Northampton, in 1459, and after his widow's death the property came to her grandson, Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, whom Richard III. decapitated in 1481. The manor and castle (the his- tory of which forms a perfect chronicle of family misfortunes) were granted by Richard to his favourite, Henry, Lord Grey of Codnor, who managed to hold them still, after Bosworth Field, till his death without issue, when Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, recov- ered the family property. Henry VIII., however, cut off his head in 1520, and the castle and manor were conferred on Thomas Crom- well, Earl of Essex. He also lost his head on Tower Hill, but his son Gregory was allowed to retain this part of his possessions, and they remained in the family till the end of Elizabeth's reign, when the then Lord Cromwell had a licence to dispose of them to Sir John, first Lord Harrington, whose son sold them to the second George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The estates of this nobleman were all squandered away, and Oakham finally passed to Heneage Finch, Earl of Nottingham. " The gate of the castle yard and the interior of the county hall are covered with horse-shoes, the lord of the manor being authorized by ancient grant or custom to demand of every peer on first passing through the lord- ship a shoe from one of his horses, or a sum of money to purchase one in lieu of it." There is a church of chiefly per- pendicular character, and also an agricultural hall. The family of Flore (or Flower), who are said to have erected the spire of the fine church tower in the latter part of the fifteenth century, were once very prominent in Oakham. There is a trade in coal and corn through the Oakham Canal ; markets for corn and butter, and several cattle fairs. The population, which in 1851 was 2,800, was, in 1861, 2,948.
Uppingham is another village-town, seven miles soath by east from Oakham. Topographers derive the name from its being on an upper or higher ground, and some say it is called so relatively to Oakham, it being on a platform to which there is a gradual ascent from the county town, and an immediate descent on the other side of Uppingham. The place is not mentioned in the Norman Survey, but it appears in old charters as Yppingham, and it gave rise to an old saying, " Uppingham trencher," it is supposed from its having been a staple of that article. In Henry Va.'s time it was appointed " to have custody of weights and measures for Roytlanshire." In the latter part of the reign of Henry III. it belonged to the De Montfort family, from whom it had passed-to the Beauchamps (Earls of Warwick) as early as the reign of Edward II., when they possessed almost the whole of the southern part of the county. The Earl of Warwick being banished by Richard II., this manor was granted to Mowbray, Earl of Notting- ham and Duke of Norfolk, who was also banished in the same year, and died in exile at Venice. It then came back to the Bean- champs, and with their property passed to Nevill, the " King- maker," after whose death at Barnet fight the Crown again obtained the manor, and it was regranted to Elizabeth of York, who after her accession as Queen of England gave it to the Cecil family, from whom it passed to the Greys, Earls of Stamford, and from them to various other families. The town has a large church with a lofty spire, and a weekly market and two annual fairs are held here. The population, which iu 1851 was 2,068, was in 1861 2,176.
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