John Bridges

The Lordship of Cosgrave, as appears from Belchiérs collections, consists of about twelve hundred and forty acres of land; three hundred and twenty of which belonged to Sir Arthur Throckmorton, at that time the chief Lord of the Manor; four hundred and twenty to Mr Fortho, who was also Lord of a Manor here; and five hundred acres were divided amongst eight other freeholders. Mr Rigby and Mr Longueville have each a mansion-house and a considerable estate at Covesgrave.

At the time of the Conqueror’s survey, the Earl of Morton held four parts of half an hide at Covesgrave. The arable land was one carucate, which was there with three villanes. It had been valued at vs, but was then rated at ivs, and had been the freehold of Godwin. The same Earl held here also five parts of an hide, whereof the soke lay in Passenham. The arable land was one carucate and an half; and there was one carucate and an half with three cottagers. There were ten acres of meadow and two furlongs of small wood. The whole was valued at xxs and had been the freehold of Ailric.

By the same survey Winemar held of the King half an hide and the fifth part of one virgate in Covesgrave. The arable land was one carucate and an half. In demesne was one carucate with three cottagers. There was a mill with the yearly value of xxxs and five acres of meadow, with a wood three furlongs in length, and two in breadth. The whole had been rated at xs, but was then rated at xxs. This had been the freehold of Alden.

In the reign of Henry II, Robert Ryvel was certified to hold in Covesgrave eight small virgates, William de Brun six small virgates and one Adam nine small virgates.

In the twenty fourth year of Edward I, Walter de Furtho was found to hold here thirty one virgates of the small fee of Morteyn, John de Cumlenton twenty one virgates of Roger de Lewkenor; Ala de Brune five virgates at the rate of xs per annum of the Earl of Warwick, with four virgates of the heirs of Patrick Chaworth; the heirs of Peter de Cheney five virgates of the heirs of Geoffrey de Lucy; and the Knights Templar to hold six virgates of the Earl Ferrars.

In the ninth of Edward II the Lordship of Covesgrave was in the hands of Henry de Spigurnell. This gentleman was found by inquisition in the second year of Edward III to die seized of the Manor, with divers other lands and tenements in Covesgrave, which he had jointly purchased with Sarah his wife, upon whose death they were settled by fine upon Thomas Spigurnell his son and his heirs. These lands and tenements were held of several superior Lords. The site of the Manor, ten messuages, eight acres of arable land, four acres and a half of meadow, twelve acres of wood, and a rent charge of xis in Covesgrave and of xxis. Viiid in Covesgrave and Pokesle, were held of the heir of the Earl of Warwick, as of the Manor of Hanslap, by the service of an eighth part of one Knight’s fee and suit and service at his court of Hanslap. A fee farm of somewhat more than ten acres and a half called Pokesle Stokking was held of the King in capite. Four messuages, one virgate of arable land, three acres of meadow, and an annual rent of xxs were held of the Crown, as of the honour of Berkhamstede. One messuage, twenty seven acres and one rod of arable land, three acres and an half of meadow, and a rent of iv d. in Covesgrave and Fortho were held of Hnery de Fortho. One virgate of arable land, four acres of meadow, and twelve acres of wood in Covesgrave and Fortho were held of the Lord of the Manor of Fortho. Six messuages, four virgates of arable land, and ten acres of meadow in Covesgrave, with fifty acres of wood in Pokesle were held of Thomas de Lewknore. Five messuages, six virgates of arable land and two acres of meadow were held of John de Blount the Lord of Passenham. One messuage, half a virgate of arable land and one acre of meadow were held of Adam Coombemartyn, the Lord of Stoke Bruerne. And one acre of arable land and one acre of meadow were held of the Prior of St John of Jerusalem, as of the Templars fee. These descended to Thomas Spigurnell, his son, who within a few years after sold them to Henry de Burghershe or Burgherst, Bishop of Lincoln. It was this Bishop of Lincoln who in the preceding reign was sent as a commissioner by the rebel Lords to King Edward II and by his menaces and persuasions prevailed upon him to resign the government.

In the nineteenth year of Edward III, Sir Walter de Pavely released to Adam de St Philbert and Richard le Forester all his right in the Manor of Covesgrave; and in the twenty first of the same reign the said Walter “ released to Richard le Forester and his heirs all right  in the Manor of Covesgrave excepting the assart called Spigurnell’s Stokking.

In the twenty first of Richard II, upon the imprisonment of Thomas Earl of Warwick in the Tower of London, he was found by inquisition to be seized of the Manor of Covesgrave which was then valued at xxx l. This Lordship with divers others belonging to the said Earl was given away to Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, and then made Duke of Surrey; but upon the revolution, which soon after followed, was restored to him, together with his title and liberty in the first year of Henry IV. He died in the year following, possessed of the manor of Covesgrave, which he left to Richard his son and heir, a minor nineteen years of age.

From Richard Earl of Warwick, in the seventeenth of Henry VI the Lordship of Covesgrave passed to Henry his son and heir, a minor fourteen years old, who in the twenty second year of the same reign, in consideration of his own and his father’s merits, was created Duke of Warwick, and dying the year after without issue male, his inheritance descended to Anne his only daughter, an infant about two years of age; and upon her decease in the twenty seventh of this reign, devolved upon Anne his sister, wife of Richard Neville, eldest son to the Earl of Salisbury, and in right of his wife advanced to the Earldom of Warwick.

In the sixth year of Edward IV, Richard Neville Earl of Warwick levied a fine of the Manor of Covesgrave. This Earl was a principal instrument in the restoration of the house of York; but in the seventh of Edward IV upon some discontent falling off to the interest of the house of Lancaster he passed over into France, joined himself to Queen Margaret, and returning to England so increased in power that he drove King Edward out of the realm, delivered King Henry from the Tower, and set him again upon the throne. But within the revolution of one year King Edward landing again, and the two armies meeting, they came to a decisive battle in Barnet-field, where this Earl with many others of the nobility lost his life.

Upon this defeat his Countess was exposed to great difficulties and obliged to take sanctuary in the abbey of Beaulieu. Her estate was seized, and by act of parliament given by her to her two daughters, Isabel, the wife of George Duke of Clarence; and Anne the wife of Richard Duke of Gloucester. In the third year of Henry VII, her daughters being then dead, it was restored to her; and in the same year by a special feoffment and a fine thereupon, it was conveyed to her by the King, and entailed upon the heirs male of his body, with remainder to herself and her heirs.

By this means the Manor of Covesgrave came into the hands of the Crown, and continued there until the time of Edward VI, in the fifth year of whose reign it was granted to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. In the twenty fourth of Queen Elizabeth a fine was levied of it between Sir Francis Carewe and William Throckmorton Esq. And in the second year of Charles I, Sir Arthur Throckmorton was seized of it at his death, and left it with the rest of his estate to be divided amongst his daughters.

The present Lord of this Manor is William Gurney, a lieutenant in the Irish Service.

The Knights Hospitallers of the order of S. John of Jerusalem had here, as we have seen, some small possessions, which had belonged to the Knights Templar before them. In the third year of Edward III, the Prior was summoned by a writ of quo warranto to shew cause why he claimed ot have view of Frankpledge of all his tenants in Covesgrave, to which he pleaded prescription. Upon the suppression of the religious houses, these lands were taken from them, and restored in the fifth year of Queen Mary.

In the eighteenth year of Queen Elizabeth, John and William Mershe obtained a grant of a parcel of meadow, called Trymnell’s-mead and Browns-wood-green, in Covesgrave, which had belonged to the Priory of Snelshall in Buckinghamshire. And in the same year a wood called Barnefield or Brounewood was given to John Dudley and John Ayscoughe in exchange for lands and tenements in other places. Both these were afterwards purchased by the family of Fortho and descended to Edward the son and heir of Edw. Fortho in the nineteenth year of James the first.

The church, dedicated to S. Peter and S. Paul, consists of a body and north aisle leaded, and a chancel tiled. At the west end is an embattled tower, with a stair case at one angle of it; in the tower are five bells. On the south side the church is a porch tiled. The length of the church and chancel is seventy six foot; the breadth of the body and aisle is thirty three foot three inches; the height of the body of the church to the coping is twenty two foot. The length of the tower is fourteen foot nine inches; the breadth eleven foot; and the height of it to the top of the battlements is sixty one foot. On the coping of the church, facing the south, is cut in stone this date 1586; and the same date is on an ordinary stone within side, near the west end of the body of the church. The register is dated in 1558. This church in 1254, 38 Hen. III as also in 1291, 19 Edw I was valued at ten marks, the right of patronage being at that time in the hands of the order of St John of Jerusalem. In 1535, 26 Hen. VIII the rectory was valued at xv l. Is. viii d. out of which was allowed x s. vii d. for synodals and procurations.

In 1551, 5 Edw. VI the advowson of the rectory of the religious orders was granted to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton. In 1640 the right of presentation was said to be in the Lord Dacres. The Lord Maynard is the present patron. The living is in the Deanery of Preston.

Monumental inscriptions [recorded as in Bridges]

On the north side of the chancel upon a small brass plate within a stone compartment fixed in the wall, is this inscription in capitals;

GVILELMI BRADSHAWE CONJUNX, HIC BARBARA CUJUS
PULCHRA FUIT PIETAS: NOBILE STEMMA, JACET 
OBIJT 25. SEPTEMBRIS: ÆTATIS SVÆ 21 1595

At the entrance into the chancel, upon a brass plate on an ordinary stone, under a pew is the following inscription in capitals;

HERE LYETH BURIED MR WILLIAM BRADSHAW
BATCHELER OF DIVINITIE, A MOST DILIGENT 
AND FAITHFUL PREACHER OF GOD’S WORD 
AND LATE PARSON OF COVESGRAVE, WHO DEPARTED 
THIS MORTALL LIFE THE 13^TH OF NOVEMBER 
ANNO DOM 1601.

Upon a brass plate on a common stone in the midst of the chancel, near the rails of the communion-table in capitals;

H.S.E.

CHRISTIANÆ RESURRECTIONIS AURORAM

EXPECTANS

DIGNISSIMUS VIR JOHANNES WHALLÆUS A.M. ET HUJUS ECCLESIÆ DE COSGRAVE PROPE XX ANNOS FIDELIS RECTOR; HIC IN EJUSDEM LOCI COMMODUM DUAS DOMOS CONJUNCTIM ÆDIFICAVIT; DENIQUE PIETATE, CANDORE, CHARITATE, CLARUS ET CÆLO MATURUS CARNO EXUVIAS POSUIT 24^TH MARTII A. SALUTIS 1659. ÆTATIS SUÆ 49.

MEMORIA PII ÆTERNA

Upon a brass plate on an ordinary stone, within the rails of the altar in capitals;

HEARE LYETH CHRYSTOFER EMERSON PARSON 
OF FORTHOW AND COVESGRAVE BEINGE OF 
THE AGE OF 68 YEARES AND DEPARTED THIS 
WORLD THE 5. DAYE OF IANUARYE 1592.

Adjoining to it on a like brass and stone in capitals;

HERE LIETH THE BODY OF SUSANNA WHALLEY,
THE RELICT OF JOHN WHALLEY, 
B. IN D. AND MINISTER OF THIS PARISH, 
WHO HAD ISSUE BY HIM 3 SONS, AND 2
DAUGHTERS, VIZ. JOHN, LATE MINISTER 
OF THIS CHURCH; ARTHURE, & THOMAS; 
ANNE, & KATHARINE; SHE WAS A LOUING
WIFE; & A MOST INDULGENT MOTHER: 
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE (IN THE 74th YEARE OF 
HER AGE) THE 19th OF APRIL 
1661

Painted board as photographed in 2013

Against the fourth wall of the chancel on a board painted with gold, within a black frame is the following inscription in black letters;

M.S.

DEPOSITUM GEORGE WELSTEAD HUJUS ECCLESIÆ DE COVESGRAVE PSTORIS FIDELISSIMI, QUI CADUCUM CORPUS IMMORTALI POSTHABENS ANIMÆ (FELIX TRANSFUGA) A MEDICIS DEFICIT AD THEOLOGOS, ET NON SUIS MODO SED TOTI VICINIÆ INDIES CHARIOR, PER TRIENNIUM SINGULARY PRUDENTIA NEC MINORI PIETATE PREDICAVIT EVANGELIUM, DONEC INDEFESSO LABORE FATISCENTUM MAGNUS ANIMARUM EPISCOPUS ÆTERNA DONAVIT REQUIE 8^TH. ID. SEPT. A. VERBI INCARNATI 1667.

Scire Viator aves hac quis mandaverit offa,

Hac quis relliquias valle jacere fuas?

Clericus & Medicus, duo maxima munera cœli,

Pulpita qui Morbum, cui dedit Ara necem

Proh! Duplici damno mactamur, quipped cadente

Presbytero, ipsæ animæ siq quoc; vulnus habent;

Olim Corporibus metuenda hoc crimine fati

Atropos humanum læsit utrinq; genus

Primogeniti Pietas posuit.

Over Mr Longueville’s seat on a black tablet of wood is inscribed in letters of gold;

Here lies the body of Henry Longueville late of this Parish Esq. son and beir of Francis Longueville Esq. one of the sons of Sir Henry Longueville of Wolverton, which Francis married one of the two daughters of Edward Fortho of Fortho Esq. and coheirs of Edward his son, by whom he had this son only.

ob. Oct 11. 1713.

John Whalley, rector of this parish, who dyed in 1659, and whose descendents have here an estate, built two houses which he gave to the town, one as a dwelling for a poor widow, and the other for a town-servant.

A house and piece of ground in Covesgrave are settled on the poor of Stony-Stratford.

The wake follows the feast of St Peter.