THE HUNDRED OF NEWPORT
Containing The Parishes Of
Astwood; Bletchely with Fenny Stratford and Water Eaton; Bradwell; Bow Brickhill; Great Brickhill; Little Brickhill; Broughton; Calverton; Chicheley; Clifton Reynes; Cold Brayfield; North Crawley; Emberton; Gayhurst; Hanslope with Castle Thrope Gayhurst; Hanslope with Caste Thrope; Hardmead; Lathbury; Lavendon; Great Linford; Little Linford; Loughton; Milton Keynes; Moulsoe; Newport Pangell; Newton Blossomville; Newton Longville; Olney with Warrington; Ravenstone; Shenley (fn. 1) ; Sherintgton; Simpson; Stantonbury; Stoke Goldington; Stoke Hammond; Stony Stratford; Tyringham with Filgarve; Walton; Wavendon; Weston Under Wood; Willen; Wolverton; Great Woolstone; Little Woolstone; Woughton On The Green
Of the places enumerated above, Astwood, Bletchley, Fenny Stratford,
Cold Brayfield, Castle Thorpe, Newton Blossomville, Stony Stratford, Filgrave,
Walton, Warrington and Willen are not mentioned in the Domesday Survey,
while Caldecote and Tickford in Newport Pagnell have separate entries. (fn. 2)
Newport Hundred includes the hundreds of Sigelai, Bonestou (fn. 3) and Moulsoe (fn. 4)
which were grouped in the latter part of the 13th century as the three
hundreds of Newport. (fn. 5) Sigelai contained Bletchley, Bradwell, Calverton,
Great Linford, Loughton, Newport Pagnell, Newton Longville, Shenley
(part of), Simpson, Stantonbury, Stoke Hammond, Stony Stratford, Willen,
Great and Little Woolstone, Wolverton and Woughton on the Green. In
Bonestou Hundred were Cold Brayfield, Castle Thorpe, Gayhurst, Hanslope,
Haversham, Lathbury, Lavendon, Little Linford, Olney, Ravenstone, Stoke
Goldington, Tyringham with Filgrave, and Weston Underwood; the remaining parishes were in the hundred of Moulsoe. In 1086 Sigelai Hundred
was assessed at 148 hides 2¾ virgates (including 7 hides 1¼ virgates in
Tyringham, ½ virgate in Hardmead, and 2 hides 3 virgates in Wavendon),
Bonestou at 9 hides ¼ virgate, Moulsoe at 111 hides 2½ virgates (including
5 hides in Tickford afterwards found in Sigelai). (fn. 6)
The three royal hundreds of Newport were attached to the honour of
Ampthill in the middle 16th century, (fn. 7) and payments were made to the
bailiff of this honour, instead of to the sheriff of the county. (fn. 8) In this and
the following century they were usually assessed as a group, (fn. 9) but sometimes,
as in 1563 (fn. 10) and 1607, (fn. 11) under each hundred separately. These hundreds
were leased in 1614 to Sir Francis Fortescue and his sons John and William
for their lives in survivorship, (fn. 12) and their rights were claimed by John, then
Sir John Fortescue, kt., in 1651. (fn. 13) In 1663 a lease was granted to Thomas
Catesby of Hardmead for twenty-one years. (fn. 14) The three Newport hundreds
were assigned to Queen Katherine in dower in 1665, (fn. 15) and she leased them
in 1682 for thirty-one
years to the Earl of Ailesbury. (fn. 16) On the expiration
of this term no grant was
made until 1736, when a
lease for a similar term
was made to Thomas
fourth Duke of Leeds. (fn. 17)
In 1830 George Thomas
Wyndham had the hundredal rights, but by 1855,
when the "Manor of the
Three Hundreds of Newport" was for sale, all
privileges appear to have
lapsed. (fn. 18)
Index Map to the Hundred of Newport
An increase in the
fee-farm rents of the hundreds of Sigelai, Bonestou
and Moulsoe, formerly £5
yearly, was taken by the
sheriff after the battle of
Evesham. (fn. 19) In 1651 these
rents, called certainty
money, amounted to
£23 8s. yearly, the profits
of the court and other
perquisites yielding an
additional £14 14s. 4d. (fn. 20) At this date the court leet and the three weeks
court were held at the customary times. (fn. 21) They were usually called at
Bunsty, but (the steward being able to adjourn them at will to any place
within the hundreds) kept at Newport Pagnell. (fn. 22)