Lyson

Lyson’s Magna Britannica

Cambridgeshire Volume, pages 262-263, 1820.

Return to Swaffham Prior Genealogical and Historical Records

SWAFFHAM-PRIOR, in the hundred of Stane, and deanery of Camps, lies about four miles weft of Newmarket: it contains two parishes, St. Mary and St. Cyric. There was formerly a market at Swaffham on Fridays, granted in 1309, together with a fair for five days, at the festival of St. John the Baptist, to the prior of Ely (1).

The manor of Swaffham-Prior was obtained for the convent of Ely, by Brithnoth the first abbot (2); was one of those assigned to the monks, by Bishop Hervey; and now belongs to the dean and chapter.

There are several manors in the two parishes of Swaffham-Prior, besides that which belongs to the church of Ely. The manors of Baldwins (3) alias Lees (4), and Knights, were purchased by their late owner, John Peter Allix, Esq. of the representatives of William Finch, Esq. who died in 1779 : the manor-house is occupied by a farmer. Swaffham-house, the feat of Mr. Allix, lately deceased, was purchased and rebuilt by his grandfather. Dr. Peter Allix, Dean of Ely : it had been for more than a century the property and residence of the family of Rant.

The manor of Totehill, or Totehall, fo called from an ancient family of that name (5), was at a later period for tome time in the family of Ellys, and is now the property of John Stevenson, Esq. whose mother was a daughter of Sir John Ellys. The manor of Shadworth (6) belongs to the master and fellows of Queen's College, in Cambridge, having been purchased in the year 1478, with money bequeathed for that purpose, by John Collinson, Archdeacon of Northampton. One of the above-mentioned manors, but it is uncertain which, was in the reign of Edward II. in the family of Gosfield (7): a manor which might have been either Tothill or Shadworth, those names being of later date, was held in farm by William Pulteney, in 1349 (8), granted to Robert de Corby, in 1361 (9), and aliened to Evesham, in 1376 (10). Another manor, which had been in the family of Brigham, belonged to Peter-house, in 1378 (11). St. Clere's manor, held by the family of that name under the prior of Ely, the Earl of Oxford, William Att-Lee, John Shadworth, and Joan Tothill, in 1408 (12), pasted to coheirnes in 1439 (13), and appears to have been in the Chamberleyne family in 1497 (14): we have not seen any mention of it in records of later date, nor does its name appear to be now known.

The church of St. Cyric, having been for some years dilapidated, is now rebuilding : the old tower, which is square below, and octagonal at top, remains: the church of St. Mary has been pulled down, but the tower remains ; in this church was the monument of Sir John Ellys, mailer of Caius College, who died in 1716, in the eighty-sixth year of his age.

The benefices of Swaffham-Prior-St. Cyric and Swaffham-Prior-St. Mary, were united by aft of Parliament in 1667 ; the patronage of the one having been in the bishop of Ely, and of the other in the dean and chapter, the presentation is now alternate: the two parishes together are called the township of Swaffham-Prior. The impropriation is vested in the dean and chapter, the vicarage-house is at pre-sent occupied by Sir Charles Watson, Bart.

Some fen-lands having been allotted, under the draining-act, in 1663, for the benefit of the poor, the sum of 51. per annum was appropriated as a salary for a schoolmaster, who teaches ten poor children (15): there is a good house for the master, near the church-yard gate. Some cottages are allotted for the poor, but they have no endowment.

The hamlet of Reach is principally in this parish (16): it lies about a mile to the north of Swaffham-Prior.

NOTES:

(1) Cart. 3 Edward II

(2) Bentham's Ely, p. 149

(3) This manor took its name from the family of Baldwin, to which it belonged in the 13th century. Hundred Roll

(4) William Att-Lee had a manor in Swaffham-Prior, in 1408. Escheat Roll

(5) Joan Totehall had a manor in Swaffham-Prior in 1408. Escheat Roll, Hen. V.

(6) John Shadworth had a manor at the fame date. Ibid.

(7) Nomina Villaniin

(8) Escheat Roll Edward III.

(9) Pat. 35 Edward III. p.2

(10) Escheat Roll.