Nicholas Longford, II

'Sir Nicholas Longford II'

was born around 1334 and married Alice Deincourt, daughter and coheir of Sir Roger Deincourt of Knapthorpe, Nottinghamshire and Park Hall, Derbyshire, the last male of a cadet line of the Barons Deincourt, and Matilda, daughter of Ralph Bugge31 and sister of Richard de Bingham of Nottinghamshire (Foulds, 1994). Unusually, their mothers negotiated the contract for the marriage of Nicholas and Alice because their husbands were serving in France with Edward III. By the terms drawn up on 29 September 1346, Alice was to bring land in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, to be held at a rose rent, as her marriage portion, and the couple was married by 3 April the following year (Jeayes, 1906, Nos.1107, 1108). When her father died about 1351, from a lingering illness which caused him to be relieved of the office of sheriff in 1348, the inheritance consisting of the manors of Knapthorpe, Park Hall in Morton, Hasland, Gildeford, Boythorpe, North Wingfield with the advowson, and lands elsewhere, was divided between Alice and her sister, Joan, wife of Sir Robert Neville of Scotton and Grimsthorpe, Lincolnshire. In 1371 Sir Nicholas and Alice arranged to lease for 40 years, to their niece Maud Neville, sole heir of her parents, and her ill-fated first husband Sir William de Cantelupe32, “their purparty of Le Parkhall manor with appurtenances; saving all manner of rents, advowsons, profits of courts, their purparty of mills and the woods and pastures of their parks, and their purparty of Colebotirley, Asshouere, Chestirfeld, Aluy Wod, Grayhirstmore, Brampton Wode, and Molotgroue, of lands and tenements, rents and services in le Peek and of the reversion of Boythorp manor with appurtenances; rent, 66s. 8d. p.a., payable at the two terms of the year” 33.

Following family feudal obligations, the year of his father’s death saw Sir Nicholas serving in the retinue of Henry, Duke of Lancaster in Brittany, and again serving under him in France in 1359 in Rheims, Burgundy and Paris (Wrottesley, 1887, p.102). During the years 1369 and 1370 Nicholas returned to France, this time in the retinue of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, supporting the Black Prince in Guienne (Wrottesley, 1887, p.112/113). In 1372, receiving £40 p.a., Nicholas was one of Gaunt’s highest paid retainers (Walker, 1990, p.273) Alice and Nicholas may have favoured their property in Withington, their most valuable single estate, for in 1360 the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield granted them an oratory there. The manor certainly had the luxury of a deer park, because in 1352 Nicholas I had accused Sir John Daniel and another for breaking into the park and carrying off the deer34. Nicholas died on 23 May 1373, leaving a son and heir Nicholas aged 22 years, and a son William, for whom he had enfeoffed Deincourt tenements in

Bakewell, Darley, Rowsley, Stanton, Lee, Calton, and Chatsworth worth 105s. 2d. annually35. A Roger de Longford, possibly another son, also appears on records in connection with an assault on Sir Peter de la Pole in Derby36. Nicholas’ widow, Alice, remarried Oliver de Barton, another of Gaunt’s retainers who had served overseas in 1369, 1370 and 137337. He was party to an agreement over her dower made with her son in 1376 in a third part of the manors of Longford, Hathersage, Withington, and Ellastone and a moieties of the manors of Barlborough and Killamarsh. Oliver and Alice granted and quitclaimed to Nicholas and his heirs all their right in a third part of these estates, which they held for Alice’s life as dower, for which Nicholas gave them 200 marks for the concession, and 85 marks annually (Wrottesley, 1890, p.192). Oliver appears to have put this income to good use for in 1380 he bought a third of the manor of Ensor for 100 marks, the manor of Ash for £100 in 1383, and in 1387 he bought a messuage in Derby for £20 (Garratt, 1985, Nos.946, 953, 964). Alice and Oliver probably spent their remaining years on the Deincourt estates, for in January 1385 Alice is known to have been in residence at Park Hall38 and most of her property dealings were concerned with her inheritance. Both Alice’s husbands presented rectors to her advowson of North Wingfield church – Sir Nicholas in 1360 and Oliver in 1378 (Cox, 1879, Vol.4, p.485).

Alice was still living mid 1385 when she was named in a settlement of the Deincourt estates with her niece, Maud Neville, and Maud’s third husband John Bussy (Garratt, 1985, No.955). Around this time Oliver acted as a feoffee in the manor of Harthill for Sir John Cokayne (Garratt, 1985, No.961), and the following year he was given power of attorney with his stepson, Nicholas, over the affairs of Philip Okeover, their neighbour in Okeover, Staffordshire, while he served in Spain with John of Gaunt (Wrottesley, 1893). This trust is strongly indicative of a family tie, which will become evident further into this study. In 1388 Oliver was one of the commissioners investigating the damage caused by the flooding of the river Idle, with a brief to effect dredging of the waterway39, and he was still living in 1390 when he acted as a feoffee for Nicholas III40, and this would suggest that they were on friendly terms.

http://fmg.ac/phocadownload/userupload/foundations1/issue4/211Longf...

Sources

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Farrer and Brownbill, 1911, VCH Lancaster, Vol.4, p.310n.

31 Son of Ralph de Nottingham. Manchester University: Crutchley Muniments CRU/23.

32 Maud and her lover are said to have murdered Sir William Cantelupe in 1375 (Roskell, 1992, Vol.2, pp.449-450).

33 Manchester University: Crutchley Muniments CRU/18.

34 Farrer and Brownbill, 1911, VCH Lancaster, Vol.4, p.289n.

35 Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol.13, No.256 (HMSO, 1952).

36 PRO C 1/7/179.

37 Between 1374-1382 he was paid a fee of £20 p.a (Walker, 1990, p.263)

38 Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol.18, No.999 (HMSO, 1987).

39 http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/piercy1828/idle.htm

40 When Nicholas’ wife, Margery, came into her Sulney inheritance.

41 Nicholas IV, his son and heir, was born around 1373.

42 Nicholas witnessed a grant by feoffees to Alfred de Sulney in 1369 (Jeayes, 1906, No.1865).

43 Jeayes (1906) No.1873.

44 Calendar of Papal Letters, Vol.5, p.483 (HMSO, 1893-1989).

45 This name is seen in contemporary record as Alvredus, Alured, Alvred or Avery.

46 Derbyshire Record Office: Okeover of Okeover D231M/E451. Nicholas Fitzherbert subsequently married Alice, daughter of Henry Booth, and they had eight sons and five daughters.

47 Manchester University: Crutchley Muniments CRU/163.

References

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Deincourt-17
• Derbyshire Visitation Pedigrees, 1569 and 1611. 1895. p 57. GoogleBooks
• Foulds, Trevor. The Thurgarton Cartulary. Paul Watkins, Stamford, 1994. p. cxvii. Table 2: Deyncourt Secondary Branch. link