SYWELL
Sywelle (xi cent.); Sywell (xii-xx cent.).
Sywell parish covers about 2,170 acres, largely grass
and woodland. Two small streams flow through the
parish, one of which, Sywell Bottom, forms the boundary between Sywell and Mears Ashby. The land rises
on the north, the highest point, 440 ft., being in Sywell
Wood in the north-east corner of the parish. The boundaries on the west, north, and east are all on high ground
and inclose a shallow valley in which the village of
Sywell is situated. The main road connects the villages
of Mears Ashby, Sywell, and Holcot, and joins the road
from Northampton to Kettering at the western boundary of the parish. The soil is partly stiff loam and
partly red clay; the subsoil is chiefly ironstone. The
chief crops are cereals and turnips, and the population,
which numbered 185 in 1931, is engaged chiefly in
agriculture.
The village is built on both sides of the road from
Mears Ashby a little south of the point where it joins a
side road from Overstone. At the north end of the
village is a market cross, of which the shaft and base are
ancient and formerly stood at the south-east end of the
village. (fn. 1) The school was built in 1861, in which year
the entire village was rebuilt by the late Lady Overstone. Sywell Hall, the residence of Brig.-Gen. H. E.
Stockdale, stands on the north side of the village and is a
picturesque early-17th-century gabled building of three
stories with mullioned windows; the gables are surmounted by pyramidal finials. The walling is local
sandstone and there is a porch on the north side the full
height of the building in which is a panel with the
Wilmer arms and crest. (fn. 2) All the chimneys are modern,
and a gable at the east end of the north front has been
taken down.
Manors
At the time of the Domesday Survey the
Count of Mortain held 4 hides in SYWELL
formerly belonging to Osmund son of
Leuric. Two hides of this land were then in demesne. (fn. 3)
The estates of the count were forfeited by his son
William in 1106. (fn. 4) They appear to have been granted
to Niel de Mundeville, whose daughter Maud wife of
Roland of Avranches (fn. 5) in 1141 granted the manor of
Sywell and all her land there, except 4½ virgates, (fn. 6) to the
Priory of St. Andrew, Northampton. (fn. 7) This deed was
confirmed 8 years later by William of Avranches and his
son Simon. (fn. 8) Simon, Earl of Northampton, son of the
founder of the priory, confirmed the gift, (fn. 9) and when the
12th-century Survey was made the monks of Northampton held these 4 hides in Sywell. (fn. 10) In 1291 the priory
property here was worth £11 10s. 6d. (fn. 11) and in 1535
£24. (fn. 12) In 1538 Francis, Prior of St. Andrew's, surrendered the manor to Henry VIII (fn. 13) and in the same
year the monastery was dissolved. (fn. 14)
Wilmer. Gules a cheveron vair between three eagles or.
In 1543 the manor of Sywell was granted by
Henry VIII to John Mersh, a sewer of the chamber, (fn. 15)
from whom it passed in 1578 to
Anthony Jenkynson, (fn. 16) the great
traveller, who had married his
daughter Judith Mersh. (fn. 17) In
1606 the manor was alienated by
Anthony Jenkynson to Robert
Wilmer, (fn. 18) who was succeeded in
1613 by his son William Wilmer, (fn. 19)
afterwards knighted. Sir William,
who was a Royalist, had to compound for his estate; he died in
1646 (fn. 20) leaving a grandson William, a minor. (fn. 21) William Wilmer
came of age in 1654 (fn. 22) and died six years later. His son
William was in 1706 succeeded in turn by his son and
namesake. (fn. 23) William Wilmer died in 1744 and his son
Bennet died in the same year. Although he was a minor
he made a will by which he left to his aunt Dinah Wilmer
all his estate. After her death Sywell Manor passed to
another branch of the same family who were still holding
in 1791. Between this date and 1806 Sywell Manor was
alienated to Samuel Pell, (fn. 24) from whose successor Edwin
Pell the property was acquired by Lewis Loyd, father of
Lord Overstone. (fn. 25) After the death of Lady Wantage,
only daughter of Lord Overstone, the estate was sold,
and no manorial rights are exercised at the present day.
At the Domesday Survey the Countess Judith claimed
the soc of 1½ virgates of land in Sywell; from this probably originated a second SYWELL MANOR. Very
little has been found concerning the overlordship. In
1377 the Earl of Pembroke, who held part of the honor
of Huntingdon (fn. 26) was overlord in Sywell. (fn. 27) There is no
further trace of this honor, and in 1447–8 and again in
1493 this manor was held of the Prior of St. Andrews, (fn. 28)
who held the principal manor.
Henry Wardedieu in 1286 held land in the parish, (fn. 29)
and in 1347 John Wardedieu the grandson of Henry (fn. 30)
enfeoffed his son John, who had married Margaret
Latymer, of Sywell Manor. (fn. 31) In 1377 Sir Edward
Dalyngrigge and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John
Wardedieu (fn. 32) held this manor. (fn. 33) John Dalyngrigge (fn. 34)
their son held in 1394–5 (fn. 35) but died without issue. (fn. 36)
Between 1394–5 and 1440 this manor passed to the
Tresham family though the method of acquisition has
not been ascertained; in the latter year William Tresham
was granted free warren in his lands and woods in
Sywell; (fn. 37) eight years later Henry VI confirmed to him
a manor in Sywell with view of frankpledge and other
liberties. (fn. 38) In the Wars of the Roses he took the side of
the Yorkists and in September 1450 was murdered near
Sywell by an armed band which lay in wait for him
behind a hedge on the road along which they knew he
would pass to fulfil an engagement with the Duke of
York. Isabel his widow demanded satisfaction for his
murder and the arrest and punishment of the murderers. (fn. 39) William Tresham was succeeded in the manor
by his son Sir Thomas (fn. 40) who supported the Lancastrians
and at the battle of Towton was taken prisoner. In July
1461 he was attainted and his estates seized, (fn. 41) rents from
the manor of Sywell being granted in 1462 by the king
to Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers. In 1464 Tresham
was pardoned and three years later his attainder was
reversed. In 1471 Sir Thomas fought at Tewkesbury;
for this he was convicted of treason. King Edward
promised to pardon Tresham, but the promise was not
kept; he was beheaded in 1471. (fn. 42)
Sywell Manor remained in the
king's hands, for in 1480 it was
granted to Margaret wife of
William Sayer the king's servant
for her life. (fn. 43) Four years later
the manor was again granted to
Edward Brampton and his heirs
for his good service against the
rebels. (fn. 44) On the accession of
Henry VII in 1485 John Tresham son of Sir Thomas successfully requested that he might be
installed in his father's property. (fn. 45) Isabel Tresham, a
sister of John, (fn. 46) married Henry Vere, who in 1493 died
seised of this manor. Henry left four daughters all under
age. (fn. 47) The eldest daughter Elizabeth married Lord
Mordaunt; to her descended most of her father's property but there is no mention of Sywell coming to her, (fn. 48)
and its identity probably became lost after its subdivision
amongst the four co-heirs of Henry Vere.
Sywell: The Church
Tresham. Party saltirewise sable and or with six trefoils or in the sable.
Some time before her grant to the Priory of St.
Andrew, Maud de Mundeville, on the occasion of her
daughter becoming a nun at Elstow, gave to the
church there 4½ virgates of land in Sywell. (fn. 49) This land
was held by the nuns of Elstow at the time of the 12thcentury Survey. (fn. 50) After the Dissolution this small estate
became merged in the main manor (q.v.) with which it
was granted by the king in 1545 to John Mersh. (fn. 51)
In 1291 a mill in Sywell was held by the Prior of St.
Andrew's. (fn. 52) It presumably followed the descent of the
manor. There is still an old mill near the eastern
boundary of the parish on a stream now called Sywell
Bottom.
Sywell Wood at a very early
date belonged to the monastery
of St. Andrew's. In 1204 the
priory obtained licence to do
what they pleased with their
wood of Sywell. (fn. 53) It is now
a well-known covert of the
Pytchley Hunt.
Church
The church of ST. PETER
AND ST. PAUL consists of
chancel 20 ft. 2 in. by 15 ft. 6 in.
with small north
vestry, nave 35 ft.
by 15 ft. 9 in. with
north transeptal chapel at its east
end, south aisle 12 ft. wide, south
porch, and engaged west tower
16 ft. by 14 ft., all the measurements being internal. The
chancel was wholly rebuilt in
1862, and in 1870 the north
chapel, nave arcade, aisle, clerestory, and porch were almost
entirely rebuilt and a new nave roof erected, and how
far the new work reproduces the old is now difficult to
determine. The tower is open to the nave and aisle on
the east and south.
The development of the plan must remain to some
extent an open question, but a single pier of late-12thcentury date, incorporated in the modern arcade about
16 ft. from its west end, if in its original position, implies the existence at that period of a church with nave,
south aisle, and presumably a square-ended chancel.
The south doorway is also 12th-century, but was probably re-erected in its present position on the widening
of the aisle. In the 13th century a tower was erected over
the west end of the nave, its east wall being carried on an
arch springing from a pier built to the north of the then
existing arcades and from a respond opposite. About
1300 the chancel was rebuilt. The north chapel may
have been added later in the 14th century, but it retains
no ancient features except a tomb recess in the end wall.
The vestry dates from 1862.
The chancel has a high-pitched tiled roof, but all the
windows are modern with the exception of one on the
north side now opening into the vestry, which is of two
lights with forked mullion. The modern three-light east
window is of the same type and probably reproduces
the window formerly existing. A piscina and aumbry, the
latter in the north wall, have been retained. The chancel
arch is modern. From the chapel a squint is directed
through the jamb of the north window to the high altar.
The nave is lofty, with leaded roof, and clerestory on
the south side only. The arcade consists of four pointed
arches on circular pillars, copied from the existing one
of the late 12th century. All the arches are modern and
there is a third modern pier immediately to the east of
the original one, the two western arches being thus
widely separated. The 13th-century pier from which
the tower arch springs is composed of four half-rounds
with slender shafts between and has a moulded capital
and base. The respond is of similar type. The arch is
semicircular but depressed, of two orders, the inner one
moulded.
The tower externally is of two stages, the upper corresponding to two floors within, and has an embattled
parapet with angle pinnacles, and buttresses facing west
to the lower stage. The north side is almost entirely
covered with ivy and only the bell-chamber windows
can be seen. These, as on the south, consist of two
lancets under a single label, divided by a shaft with
moulded capital. On the east a mullion takes the place
of the shaft and there is no label, and on the west a later
square-headed window has been inserted. Below the
bell-chamber windows on the west is another window
of the same type, and on the west a modern projecting
vice to the ringing chamber.
The font and pulpit are modern, but the bowl and
stem of a plain octagonal font are in the churchyard.
In the east window is some good Elizabethan glass
dated 1580. (fn. 54)
The north chapel contains mural monuments to
Robert Wilmer (d. 1612), the Hon. Lady Mary
Wilmer, wife of William Wilmer (d. 1729), and tablets
(18th century and later) to members of the family of
Pell of Sywell Hall.
There are three bells, the treble by Henry Bagley of
Ecton 1701, the second dated 1766, and the tenor an
alphabet bell by Hugh Watts of Bedford 1611. (fn. 55)
The plate consists of a silver cup and paten of 1706
given by the Rev. H. Cockayne Cust, rector, in 1816,
a small paten, Birmingham make 1907–8, and a pewter
flagon. (fn. 56)
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) baptisms
1571–1677, 1683–7, marriages 1572–1677, burials
1572–1674; (ii) baptisms and marriages 1675–1747,
burials 1678–1747; (iii) baptisms and burials 1748–70,
marriages 1749–60; (iv) baptisms 1771–1812, burials
1771–83, 1787–1812; (v) marriages 1754–1812.
Advowson
The advowson of Sywell was included in the grant of Maud de Mundeville to the Priory of St. Andrew; (fn. 57)
with that house it remained until the Dissolution.
Henry VIII granted the advowson and rectory to John
Mersh in 1543. (fn. 58) It follows the same descent as the
manor (q.v.) until 1814 when Lord Brownlow obtained it in exchange for the advowson of Overstone. (fn. 59)
The Earls Brownlow were patrons until 1872 in which
year the right of presentation was transferred to the
Duchy of Cornwall. In 1923 the living was united
with that of Overstone, and the joint benefice is now in
the alternate gift of the Duchy of Cornwall and of Mr.
G. E. Stott. (fn. 60)
Charities
The Charity of Ambrose Marriott,
founded by will proved in 1736, consists of a rentcharge of £2 issuing out of
a house and 20 acres of land in the parish of Wellingborough known as Highfield Lodge. The income is
distributed in money.
Owen Pell by his will, proved at Birmingham,
3 June 1867, gave £150 to the rector upon trust to
apply the income in the distribution of flour to poor
widows two days before Christmas and two days before
Shrove Tuesday. The legacy less duty was invested in
£142 9s. 7d. Consols with the Official Trustees. The
dividend amounting to £3 11s. yearly is applied in the
distribution of flour as directed by the will to 5 poor
widows.