UPPER AND LOWER SHUCKBURGH
Upper Shuckburgh
Acreage: 1,169.
Population: 1911, 51; 1921, 40; 1931, 30.
Lower Shuckburgh
Acreage: 985.
Population: 1911, 102; 1921, 103; 1931, 77.
Upper and Lower Shuckburgh are small parishes
on the Northamptonshire border half-way between
Southam and Daventry, each being about 5 miles
distant. The main road between these towns runs
through Lower Shuckburgh, as does also the Oxford
Canal, which has a wharf by the bridge carrying the
main road. The River Leam divides Upper Shuckburgh from Staverton (Northants.) for a short distance,
and the Great Central main line of the former L.N.E.R.
crosses the eastern corner of this parish. The ground
slopes steeply from south to north, Beacon Hill in
Upper Shuckburgh reaching 678 ft. as compared with
slightly under 300 ft. on the northern edge of Lower
Shuckburgh. The beacon which gave the hill its name
was decayed early in the 17th century, and in 1640
Richard Walter, one of the chief constables of Knightlow Hundred, was reimbursed £8 10s. by the county
for providing a new one. (fn. 1)
The Shuckburghs were early inclosed parishes; at
the inquisition of 1517 the Prioress of Wroxall was
stated to have inclosed 30 acres of land in Upper
Shuckburgh, and Thomas Catesby 1 messuage and
20 acres, and Thomas Shuckborough 1 messuage and
14 acres of land in Lower Shuckburgh; (fn. 2) the last-named
also inclosed 40 acres of land, with 2 messuages,
according to the inquisition of 1518, (fn. 3) and was alleged
to intend to lay the whole township to pasture. (fn. 4) A
general Inclosure Act for 880 acres of Shuckburgh
Fields was passed in 1778. (fn. 5) The resulting depopulation
has been very considerable, the present figure of 107
for the two parishes being only half the highest recorded
total (213 in 1821), (fn. 6) and the number of houses stated as
existing in 1730, 10 in Upper and 39 in Lower Shuckburgh, (fn. 7) implies a still larger population at that date.
Much of Upper Shuckburgh parish is taken up by
the park and grounds of Shuckburgh Hall, the seat of
the family of that name. The layout was considerably
changed in the early 19th century, after the place had
acquired notoriety through the murder of a daughter
of the house by her admirer, who afterwards committed
suicide. (fn. 8)
While Upper Shuckburgh was always in Knightlow
Hundred, Lower Shuckburgh was in Kington Hundred, but the two are here treated together as they have
always been intimately connected. There was some
uncertainty about the boundary between the two
parishes in 1637, when it was stated that some houses
of Upper Shuckburgh village were in Lower Shuckburgh parish and vice versa. It was agreed that the
existing system of each village maintaining its own
poor regardless of parish boundaries should continue. (fn. 9)
Celia Fiennes passed through on her way from
Warwick to Daventry in 1697. (fn. 10) 'Nether Shuzar' she
found 'a sad village, we could have no entertainment',
but Sir Charles Shuckburgh came to the rescue and
entertained her at the Hall, which she considered 'very
handsome built of brick and stone' and (a little ungrammatically) 'all things were very well as any private
Gentleman has whatever'. She noted that the deer
were so tame as to come up to the courtyard gate: Sir
Charles asked one of his daughters to give Celia a
souvenir 'a Curiosity they dig up in most part of the
hill thereabout, they call them Arms its just like
Mullets that they have in an Eschuteon to difference
the third son from the first and second in a family'
(apparently a fossilized starfish).
Among place-names found in ancient deeds are
le Fallyndedoune, (fn. 11) Colinscroft, (fn. 12) Waterlayres, (fn. 13) and
Tappecrofte. (fn. 14)
Manors
In 1086 the Count of Meulan held
4 hides in (UPPER) SHUCKBURGH,
and Herleuin of him; and Alwin held half
a virgate of Turchil of Warwick. In the time of
Edward the Confessor Lewin and Ulwin respectively
had held these estates freely. (fn. 15) Like so many estates
of these two chief tenants in Domesday, Shuckburgh
passed to the Earl of Warwick, from whom in 1166
Robert de Alvers held 3 knights' fees in Warwickshire
de vetero feffamento. (fn. 16) That these fees included Upper
Shuckburgh is proved by the confirmation by Robert,
about 1150, (fn. 17) of a grant by his tenant Robert 'de
Succheberga' to the nunnery of Wroxall of the church,
4 virgates, 20 acres of land called Hunger Hill, and a
croft in Shuckburgh. (fn. 18) This grant was confirmed by
Roger, Earl of Warwick, (fn. 19) who died in 1153. In 1236
the tenants of the Earl of Warwick were Osbert, who
held three parts of a knight's fee, and Oliver (onetwentieth part of a knight's fee); (fn. 20) and in 1242 William
de Cantilupe held three parts of a knight's fee of
Eustace de Mortun, who held of Guy son of Robert,
and he of Guy de Dive, who held of the Earl of
Warwick. (fn. 21) Two parts of a knight's fee were held of
the Earl of Warwick in 1316 by John Eyre, (fn. 22) and in
1437 a similar portion by Joan, widow of William
Beauchamp, Lord of Bergavenny, when it is described
as the manor of Shuckburgh late of John Dyve and
John Shuckburgh and was held of Joan by Guy de
Mancetter. (fn. 23) William Beauchamp was the cousin
(son of a sister of the grandmother) of John Hastings
(died 1389), (fn. 24) whose family had acquired an intermediate tenancy in Shuckburgh by the marriage of
Henry de Hastings with Joan de Cantilupe, the elder
sister of George de Cantilupe (died 1273). (fn. 25) Of the
three parts of a knight's fee held by William in 1242,
one-quarter of a fee was held of his son George by
William de Shuckburgh in 1273. (fn. 26) In 1313 the
holding, which had come to John de Hastings the
elder, was reckoned as one knight's fee, and described
as that held by Simon de Shuckburgh and Ralph
Chater; (fn. 27) these, however, are the names of the Prior
of Coventry's tenants in 1242 (see below) and there
seems to be some confusion. The yearly value of this
fee was stated as £20 in the order to John Abel, the
escheator, to deliver it to Isabel, John Hastings's
widow, in the same year. (fn. 28) It was again reckoned as
one fee in 1375, held of John Hastings, 12th Earl of
Pembroke, by [the heirs of] Simon de Shuckburgh and
Ralph Chater, (fn. 29) and in 1397 it was ordered to be
delivered by the escheator to Philippa, widow of
Richard, Earl of Arundel, (fn. 30) whose previous husband
had been John, 13th Earl of Pembroke. (fn. 31) The last
mention of the Bergavenny connexion is in 1561,
when Thomas Shuckburgh, who died the previous
year, was said to have held the manor of Over Shuckburgh of Lord Bergavenny. (fn. 32)
During the anarchy of Stephen's reign Robert de
Shuckburgh's son William, who was a knight, was
killed in battle. Whereupon Warin de Walcote, 'a
knight errant', who had fallen in love with Robert's
daughter Isabel, came with armed force and carried
her off against her will. When
Henry II succeeded and enforced
peace, Warin, having no income
except from robbery, continued
his evil course until he was
caught and executed. Isabel,
who had had by him an illegitimate son Warin, returned home
and married William [de Budebroc], (fn. 33) by whom she had a
son Henry de Shuckburgh. (fn. 34)
Robert, who, as already mentioned, held the fee under Robert de Alvers, left two
other daughters—one being the mother of William
de Leminton, the other of Robert de Shuckburgh—and his lands were divided between the sons of the
three. (fn. 35) William de Leminton left two daughters, of
whom Maud was in 1246 wife of Ralph Chater, (fn. 36)
who shared the fee with Simon de Shuckburgh in 1242.
The pedigree of the Shuckburgh family in its early
generations is obscure. (fn. 37) In 1202 William de Suckeberg was granted ½ virgate of land in Shuckburgh by
Osbert son of Simon. (fn. 38) William and Osbert de
Shuckburgh, the latter perhaps the Osbert holding
three parts of a knight's fee in 1236, (fn. 39) were witnesses
to a feoffment. (fn. 40) In the early 14th century John de
Shuckburgh was a coroner for the county of Warwick. (fn. 41)
In 1347 John de Shuckburgh held a third part of a
knight's fee of the Earl of Pembroke, (fn. 42) and in 1400
another John, described as lord of Shuckburgh, his
brother Thomas, and others made a grant of land in
Burycote. (fn. 43) They were collectors of taxes in Warwickshire in 1404. (fn. 44) In 1431–2 John Shuckburgh was
stated to hold a manor by the service of a quarter of a
knight's fee. (fn. 45) William Shuckburgh was appointed to
collect a subsidy in Warwickshire in 1428 (fn. 46) and 1432, (fn. 47)
and at his death in 1433 was a coroner for the county. (fn. 48)
In the reign of Henry VII Thomas Shuckburgh was
Justice of the Peace from 1502 onwards (fn. 49) and commissioner for jail delivery in 1503 (fn. 50) and 1505. (fn. 51)
Shuckburgh. Argent a cheveron between three molets sable.
Richard Shuckburgh (1606–56) was M.P. for
Warwickshire; (fn. 52) he was knighted by Charles I and
fought at the battle of Edge Hill, and after defending
his ancestral seat against the Parliamentary troops was
taken prisoner, having to compound heavily for his
liberty. (fn. 53) His son John was created a baronet in 1660
by Charles II in recognition of his father's services, (fn. 54)
and the family estates have descended to Sir Charles
Gerald Stewkley Shuckburgh, the 12th baronet.
In 1353 Margaret, widow of Richard Hastang and
heiress of the Dyve family who had been immediate
sub-tenants of the Earl of Warwick in 1242, granted
her manor in Shuckburgh to William Catesby and
John his son. (fn. 55) At the same time John Beauchamp of
Holt and his wife Joan (FitzWyth), heiress of the Guy
son of Robert who was another of the mesne tenants
in 1242, also released their rights. John de Catesby
held manorial courts in 1398, (fn. 56) and his widow Emma,
her son, and their heirs were granted free warren in
their demesne lands in Shuckburgh and elsewhere in
1412. (fn. 57) The Catesbys were also lords of Wavers
Marston in Bickenhill, and this estate in Shuckburgh
was passed by Richard Collyng of Merston in 1540
to Thomas Shuckburgh. (fn. 58)
Besides the estate of Wroxall Nunnery mentioned
above, other religious houses held portions of land in
Shuckburgh. Between 1155 and 1170 Osbert de
Leminton granted 1 bovate to Leicester Abbey, (fn. 59)
which was fairly soon leased by that house to Thomas
son of Oliver de Shuckburgh and his heirs at an annual
rent of 9s., reduced in the late 15th century to 2s. (fn. 60)
In 1221 William de Leminton had a life tenancy from
the abbot of Leicester of ½ virgate. (fn. 61)
Coventry Cathedral Priory, which held the adjoining manor of Priors Marston, had lands in Shuckburgh
from an early date; in 1236 half a knight's fee was held
of the prior by Joan sister of Alice de Harecurt, (fn. 62) and
in 1242 two half-fees, one by Simon de Shuckburgh
and the other by Ralph Chater. (fn. 63) Simon's portion
seems to have passed to Thomas Oliver, who held
7 virgates in 1279. (fn. 64) John Oliver afterwards alienated
the half-fee to William Passenham, who in 1345 with
the king's licence (fn. 65) gave it to the priory, including a
messuage in Lower Shuckburgh, and a plot of land
called Southalfethemore on either side of the Ruggewey. (fn. 66) The other half-fee, comprising 8 virgates, was
held in 1279 by William Chater, (fn. 67) and about 1410 by
John Chater. (fn. 68) He and his tenants had to attend the
courts leet at Priors Marston; and the two yearly great
leets there had also to be attended by all John
Catesby's tenants in Upper and Lower Shuckburgh. (fn. 69)
The Wroxall lands were granted after the Dissolution to Sir John Williams, (fn. 70) and those of Coventry
Priory, in the tenure of Richard Hill, to Williams and
Anthony Stringer; (fn. 71) they were alienated in 1541 (fn. 72) and
1547 (fn. 73) respectively to Thomas Shuckburgh, whose
family was already in occupation of the Leicester Abbey
holding. John Shuckburgh, Thomas's grandson, and
his wife Margery leased the manors of Over and Nether
Shuckburgh in 1628 to Walter Hanslappe and William
Masters, (fn. 74) and settled them on his son Richard on
marriage. (fn. 75) Richard's son John, the 1st baronet, was
vouchee in a recovery of the manors in 1656. (fn. 76) They
remain in possession of the family.
At the Domesday Survey Richard the Forester held
½ hide in [LOWER] SHUCKBURGH, which in the
time of King Edward had been held freely by Edric. (fn. 77)
This holding is described in the Book of Fees as one of
3 virgates, worth 4 marks annually. (fn. 78) It descended
from Richard the Forester, or Cheven, through William
Crok to Robert de Broc, who enfeoffed Roger de
Bentley of the whole, (fn. 79) and in 1300 John de Bentley
held 1 hide of Richard de Loges, grandson of Robert
de Broc. (fn. 80) In 1316 Lower Shuckburgh was reckoned
as a hamlet of Weston in Long Compton, under the
overlordship of the Prior of Coventry. (fn. 81) William de
Bentley in 1363 granted his lands in Shuckburgh to
John Catesby. (fn. 82) Lower Shuckburgh had already
passed into the hands of the Shuckburghs by 1428,
when it was assessed at one-third of a knight's fee,
lately in the hands of John de Shuckburgh; (fn. 83) and in
1514 Sir Thomas Cheyney held this manor of Thomas
Shuckburgh. (fn. 84) From 1560, when Thomas Shuckburgh
died seised of Nether as well as Over Shuckburgh, (fn. 85)
its history is as that of Upper Shuckburgh.
Churches
The church of ST. JOHN THE
BAPTIST, (fn. 85a) Upper Shuckburgh, is
situated in the park of Shuckburgh
Hall on the south side of the Southam-Daventry road,
and stands on a knoll, a little south of the Hall, surrounded by a small churchyard in which there are
cedar trees of great size. The church, except the base
of the tower, has been completely rebuilt within recent
times and consists of a chancel, nave, north and south
chapels, tower, and a north porch. It is built of roughly
coursed sandstone rubble with worked dressings and
the roofs are tiled. Some old materials were re-used
in building the porch, which has a pointed-arch
entrance with a deep moulded splay and hood-mould.
The doorway has a pointed arch concealed by a
wooden door frame. Built into a recess in the north
wall of the north chapel there is an infant's coffin lid
of the 14th century, carved with a floriated cross; and
in a similar position in the south chapel a rectangular
panel carved with a skull, cross bones, and hour-glass;
above, in the gable there is a similar panel, probably
early-18th-century. The tower rises in three stages,
the lower stage 13th-century, the upper stages rebuilt
in the 18th century, with a plain parapet and pinnacles
at each corner. It is lighted by a tall, partly restored
lancet window on the west and has a clock face on the
north. The belfry windows have pointed arches with
two trefoil lights and a pierced cinquefoil, the arches
supported on attached shafts with moulded capitals
and bases. Built into the south-west corner at the
junction of tower and nave there is a circular stair
turret, probably added when the tower was rebuilt.
The chancel (23 ft. 6 in. by 16 ft. 6 in.) has a carved
and traceried hammer-beam roof and its floor is paved
with large memorial slabs surrounded by borders of
coloured tiles, with the matrices of brasses filled in
with cement. The brasses from these and another slab
outside the porch have been let into slate slabs (fn. 86) and
are now fixed on the walls. It is lighted on the east by
a pointed tracery window of three lights and by a twolight on the south. The south wall has two marble wall
memorials of the 17th and 18th centuries, and two
16th-century brasses in slate slabs: one a man in
armour and a woman in the dress of the period with the
Shuckburgh arms above, but no inscription; the other
to Anthony Shuckburgh, died 1594, and Anne his wife,
with two coats at the top and inscription below,
another coat in the centre and a row of eight children
of diminishing size at the bottom. On the north wall
are two modern tablets.
The north chapel (12 ft. 6 in. by 9 ft.) has a trussed
rafter roof and is paved with stone. Fixed to the north
wall are two 16th-century brasses in slate slabs: one to
Thomas Shuckburgh, died 1560, and Elizabeth his
wife, has a man in armour and a woman in the dress
of the period with coat above; the other has an inscription referring to Margaret daughter of Thomas
Shuckburgh and wife of John Cotes, with coat above
and the lower part of the figure of a woman, completed
by incising the missing portion in the slate slab. On
the west is an 18th-century marble memorial.
The south chapel (12 ft. 6 in. by 9 ft. 2 in.) is
similar to the one on the north. Against the east wall
is a large marble memorial to Richard Shuckburgh,
died 1656. It has a classic pediment with the Shuckburgh coat in the tympanum, surmounted by three
urns, and below a portrait bust flanked by angels with
trumpets holding back curtains. Underneath there is
a carved panel with inscription, under a pediment of
scrolls with a skull on either side. It rests on a carved
splay and a moulded base, with a block in the centre
of the moulding on which is placed a skull, below it
the name Pet. Bennier. Occupying the whole of the
south wall is a large 17th-century monument to John
Shuckburgh, died 1631, and Margery his wife, died
1629. It is a table tomb with effigies, the man in armour
and the woman in a dress with ruffles; the front
panelled, with three shields, canopy above supported
on marble corinthian columns and entablature surmounted by a cartouche with an achievement of arms,
pinnacles over the columns, both with shields. At the
back is a semicircular recess containing an inscription
with three shields, and two shields in the spandrels.
The underside of the canopy and the soffit of the arch
over the recess are panelled in small squares. The
whole monument is decorated in gilt and colours
except the two effigies. In the floor there is a recent
brass tablet.
The nave (32 ft. 6 in. by 20 ft.) has a hammer-beam
roof and plastered walls, and is lighted by three-light
trefoil windows with flat heads, one on each side, and a
similar window, but with two lights, on the south.
This window has two panels of 16th-century stained
glass with four coats of the Shuckburgh family, dated
1593. The south window has some modern coloured
glass coats of Edward I, Ferrers, Shuckburgh, Denys,
and Holt. On the walls there are fourteen mural tablets
to the Shuckburgh family and another in the tower.
The tower (6 ft. 10 in. by 6 ft. 7 in.) has a deep
splayed recess with a pointed rear-arch to the window.
The tower arch is a modern one, pointed, of three
moulded orders, and supported on short shafts with
floriated capitals. The font is placed in the tower and
has an hexagonal basin supported on an hexagonal stem
with a moulded capital and a splayed base.
There are four bells: (fn. 87) the first, by Henry Bagley,
was given by Sir Richard Shuckburgh in 1651 but
recast in 1864 by J. Taylor & Co., who in that year
cast the second (given by Sir Francis Shuckburgh,
8th baronet). The other two are by Henry Bagley,
1640 and 1651.
The registers of marriages begin in 1757, and of
baptisms and burials in 1781. (fn. 88)
The church of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, Lower
Shuckburgh, on the north side of the SouthamDaventry road, stands in the centre of a small churchyard, the paths planted with avenues of yew trees.
Before 1860, when it was completely rebuilt, the
church consisted of chancel and nave, apparently of
the late 13th century, a low west tower, perhaps contemporary, crowned with a pyramidal cap, and a
south porch. (fn. 89) The small modern church is built in
what can best be described as a Moorish gothic style.
The church consists of chancel, nave, north and south
aisles, vestry, tower, and west porch. Externally it is
built of a mixture of light and dark sandstone with
limestone bands and outlines to all the arches. Inside
it is of red and blue bricks with stone dressings. The
only evidence of an earlier church is a 13th-century
font, a stone tablet in a moulded frame with the
initials G.H.O. 1620 in the vestry, and an altar table
of the late 17th Century. There are gables to the east
ends of the chancel, north and south aisles, further
gables to the aisles, two to each, and at the west end a
gabled double porch. The windows throughout are a
nondescript form of tracery. At the south-west angle
there is a small hexagonal tower in two stages surmounted by a short hexagonal spire pierced on each
face with quatrefoils and trefoils. All six sides have
gables filled in with blue stone chippings. It is lighted
by three single-light pointed windows and has a door
on the south side.
The chancel (25 ft. 8 in. by 14 ft. 6 in.) has a tiled
floor and is lighted by a three-light window on the
east and single lights north and south. The roof is
vaulted in two bays with chamfered arches resting on
responds of red and blue brick with stone capitals, the
vault decorated with a red and yellow diaper. The
walls have a dado composed of bands of red and blue
bricks.
The nave (42 ft. by 15 ft. 3 in.) is paved with stone
and has a roof of hammer-beam type. The arcades
consist of three bays of pointed arches with an inner
splayed order of stone and outer orders of dog-toothed
red brick, and an outer band of blue bricks. They rest
on square pillars set diagonally, built of red brick with
bands of blue brick and stone. It is lighted by a rose
window in the west gable with a row of five cinquefoil
lights below.
The north aisle (42 ft. by 14 ft.) has a vestry at the
east end and is lighted by tracery windows, one threelight and two two-light, with a single light at the west
end. The south aisle (42 ft. by 13 ft.) has an organ
chamber at the east end and the tower at the west.
It is lighted by two pointed three-light windows and a
single light at the west end.
The tower (7 ft. 6 in. square) forms a lobby to the
south entrance and is vaulted with dog-toothed red
brick ribs filled in between with red and yellow diaper.
It is lighted by three single pointed lights. The arches
to the vestry and organ chamber and the rear-arches
to the windows are all of dog-toothed red brick, blue
brick, and stone.
The font, placed at the west end of the north aisle,
dates from the 13th century and has a slightly tapered
circular basin with eight sunk panels with pointed
heads, a deep lead-lined basin, and a square stem of
modern bricks.
The plate includes a silver chalice and cover of 1574.
There are three bells, (fn. 90) two by Hugh Watts, 1601
and 1628, and the other by Thomas Newcombe.
The registers begin in 1678 but the early years are
imperfect.
Advowsons
The church of Upper Shuckburgh
was granted by Robert de Succheberga, and confirmed about 1150 by
Robert de Alvers, to the nunnery of Wroxall. (fn. 91) After
the Dissolution the advowson was granted, in 1541,
to Sir John Williams, (fn. 92) who in the same year obtained
licence to alienate it to Thomas Shuckburgh, (fn. 93) since
when it has followed the descent of the manor. The
living is now a donative, and held with Lower Shuckburgh.
This church is not mentioned in the Taxatio of
1291; its value in 1535 was £8 6s. 8d., (fn. 94) and there is
no mention of any payment to the officiating priest.
Lower Shuckburgh was a chapelry of Priors
Hardwick, (fn. 95) which church was appropriated to
Coventry Priory by Bishop Molend in 1260. (fn. 96) After
the Dissolution the advowson was in the hands of the
Over family of Coventry. (fn. 97) By 1604 it had come into
the possession of Robert Spencer, 1st Baron Spencer
of Wormleighton, (fn. 98) whose descendants later became
Earls of Sunderland, and in the 18th century to the Earls
Spencer. In the latter part of the 19th century Lower
Shuckburgh was separated from Priors Hardwick, and
it is now held with Upper Shuckburgh, being in the
gift of Sir C. G. Shuckburgh, bart. (2 turns) and
J. S. Thompson, esq. (1 turn). (fn. 99)
Charity
William Smith's Charity founded by
will dated 23 August, 10 Queen Anne.
The share of this charity applicable for
the parish of Lower Shuckborough consists of a yearly
payment of 4s. which is applied by the churchwardens
for the benefit of the poor of the parish.