EVERTON
Eureton, Evretune (xi cent.).
Everton is a parish on the Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire borders with an area of 1361 acres, of
which 604¼ are arable land, 367¾ permanent grass,
and 32½ woods and plantations. (fn. 1) The eastern half
of the parish is on the high ground bounding the
valley of the Ouse, and the western in the valley, the
lowest point being 60 ft. above the ordnance datum,
and the highest 224 ft. The greater part of the parish is
devoted to agriculture; the soil in the high lands is
sand, and the subsoil sand rock, in the low lands clay
to an unknown depth.
The chief crops are corn and roots of various kinds.
The parish is crossed from east to west by a road
from Potton to Tempsford, and from south to west
by a second road from Sandy to Tetworth. The
village of Everton itself stands at the edge of the
high ground which forms the eastern boundary of the
valley of the Ouse, at the junction of these roads. A
small detached portion, which includes the church of
St. Mary, and the site of the ancient manor-house of
Everton, is by schedule M. of the Act 2 and 3
Will. IV, cap. 64, declared to be part of Huntingdonshire, and is therefore included in the parish of
Tetworth. In the north-east of the parish lie Biggin
Wood, in which is a moat, and also Little Biggin
Wood. The Great Northern Railway passes through
the parish, the nearest station being at Sandy, 2½
miles off. Everton was inclosed by Act of Parliament
in 1807, and the inclosure award, including a plan, is
kept at the Public Record Office. (fn. 2)
The following place-names have been found in
Everton:— Pondennellehul and Boresleile in the thirteenth century, (fn. 3) and Sibbesyard, Wendewod, Grogones,
Ballardes (a messuage) and Gores in the fifteenth. (fn. 4)
Manors
Two entries with regard to Everton
occur in the Domesday Survey. The
Bedfordshire inquisition states that a
manor of 5 hides in EVERTON, which had formerly
belonged to Earl Tosti, now belonged to Potton, the
manor of Countess Judith, of whom Rannulf, Ilger's
brother, held it. (fn. 5) The history of this manor, of
which no further trace has been found in Everton,
may probably be identified with one of the sub-manors
in Potton (which lies contiguous to Everton), held of
this honour of Huntingdon.
In the second entry, which is to be found in the
Huntingdonshire inquisition, mention is made of
7 hides of land in Everton, held of the king in
chief, formerly belonging to Ingewar, but now to
Rannulf, the same probably who held of the Countess
Judith. (fn. 6) By 1140 this property had passed to Gilbert
earl of Pembroke, who in that year granted the church
to St. Neots. (fn. 7) The Pembrokes, and through them
the Norfolks, continued to be overlords of Everton,
Everton manor being held as of the manor of
Weston. (fn. 8) The last mention that has been found of
the overlordship is in 1626, when the manor was
held of Sir Thomas Puckeringe as of his manor of
Weston. (fn. 9)
In the thirteenth century Roger Burnard was holding, as under-tenant of the Earl Marshal, land in Ever
ton which ultimately became known as EVERTON
MANOR. (fn. 10) In 1247 Odo Burnard acquired 40 acres
of land in Everton from Michael Burdet for which he
paid 10s. rent, (fn. 11) and in 1263 Nicholas Burnard and
Felicia his wife alienated a messuage and a carucate of
land with appurtenances to Thomas D'Espaigne. (fn. 12) Between this date and 1307 this property passed to Walter
Langton, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, who in that
year obtained a grant of a market and fair in Everton
manor, here first definitely so called. (fn. 13) He held the
manor at his death in 1322, when its extent included
a capital messuage, with garden, 275 acres of arable
land, rent from free tenants amounting to £6 10s.
yearly, rents and works of other tenants value 7s. 6d.,
and fines and profits of court. (fn. 14) Everton manor passed
on the death of the bishop to his nephew Edmund
son of Robert Peverel, (fn. 15) and he left a son John from
whom the manor passed to a sister Margaret wife of
William de la Pole, who held the manor in 1354. (fn. 16)
Their son John de la Pole, married to Joan daughter
of John de Cobham, had succeeded by 1359, (fn. 17) and
his daughter Joan, suo jure Baroness Cobham, was,
together with her second husband Sir Reginald Braybroke, in possession of Everton manor in 1403, (fn. 18) and
held it till her death in 1433. (fn. 19) Her daughter Joan
married Sir Thomas Brooke, and died about 1442,
and her granddaughter Elizabeth Brooke, who married
Robert Tanfield, was in possession of Everton manor
at her death in 1503. (fn. 20) Her grandson William, then
aged fifteen, was her heir, and held the manor till
1530, (fn. 21) when he was succeeded by his son Francis,
whose son Clement died seised in 1587, (fn. 22) and in
1615 William Tanfield his son conveyed the manor
by fine to Sir Humphrey Winch, one of the justices
of the King's Bench. (fn. 23) From Sir Humphrey Winch,
who died in 1624, (fn. 24) the manor passed through Onslow,
his son, who was holding in 1652, (fn. 25) to his grandson
Humphrey, who in 1659 alienated the manor to
Philip Story. (fn. 26) In 1693 Philip Story still held the
manor, of which no further trace has been found; (fn. 27)
the Inclosure Act of 1807, whilst enumerating other
manors in this parish, makes no mention of this
property. (fn. 28)
Tanfield. Argent two cheverons sable between three martless sable.
Winch. Party azure and gules a scallop or.
The origin of EVERTON MOSBURY MANOR
is to be found in a grant made some time previous to
1284 to the abbey of Stratford Langthorne in Essex.
It originally formed part of the 7 hides held by
Rannulf at the time of the Survey. (fn. 29) From the Pembrokes the overlordship passed, as in the case of a
moiety of Edworth (q.v.), to the Talbots. The first
mention is found in 1322 when it was held by Richard
Talbot, (fn. 30) and after 1537, when it was still held of the
Talbots, earls of Shrewsbury, no further mention has
been found. (fn. 31)
No trace has been found of the original grant of
this manor to Stratford Abbey, but it must have
occurred before 1284 when the abbot already rendered feudal service in Everton, (fn. 32) and this manor remained the property of the abbey until, in 1322, the
abbot conveyed it to John Morice and Agnes his wife.
In 1362 Sir John Morice enfeoffed John Colyn, vicar
of Everton, of Everton manor to the use of William
de Weston, master of St. Leonard's, Bedford. Ten
years later, the latter transferred the manor in fee
simple to Thomas le Dale or Fulthorpe, who guaranteed in return to appropriate to St. Leonard's a church
of the value of £20 per annum. (fn. 33) Courts of the
manor were held by John Martyn, Hugh Lotrell, and
others in 1418–19, (fn. 34) probably as trustees for one of
the Fulthorpes, for in 1428 Thomas Fulthorpe rendered service for two parts of a half-fee in Everton
'formerly held by John Morice.' (fn. 35) From 1428
until the death of William Dale in 1537 Everton
manor follows the same descent as Little Barford (q.v.).
William Dale left Everton Mosbury to his daughter
Joan wife of William Wollascott. (fn. 36) Their son William
died seised of Everton Mosbury in 1618, and was
succeeded by a son William, who, dying in 1640,
left a son also named William, as heir. (fn. 37) In 1653
he was in possession of Everton Mosbury manor, (fn. 38)
but between that date and 1689 it had passed to
Walter Cary, (fn. 39) who retained it until 1714, when he
alienated it to William Astell. (fn. 40) Richard son of
William Astell held the manor in 1738, (fn. 41) and on his
death, without issue, in 1777, was succeeded by his
nephew William Thornton,
who assumed the name of
Astell. (fn. 42) He died in 1847,
and of his two sons, William
the elder died unmarried in
1864, and John the younger
succeeded to the Everton property. He died in 1887, and
was followed by a son William Harvey Astell who, at
his death in 1896, left a son
Richard Astell, born in 1890,
who is the present representative of the family. (fn. 43)
Astell. Gules a lion passant party or and crgent between four crosslets argent.
No mention has been found
of a third manor in Everton—that of EVERTON
BIGGIN—prior to the late fifteenth century; it
appears to have been an off-shoot of Everton manor of
which it was held when it first appears in 1480. (fn. 44)
The last mention that has been found of the overlordship occurs in 1640, when William Wollascott
held Everton Biggin of Onslow Winch, lord of
Everton. (fn. 45)
In 1480 John Dale, who also owned Everton Mosbury, died seised of this manor (fn. 46) and from that date
Everton Biggin has followed the same descent as
Everton Mosbury (q.v.). (fn. 47) It did not, however,
become immediately absorbed in the larger manor,
but preserved a separate identity certainly down to
the late eighteenth century. (fn. 48)
In 1307 Walter Langton, bishop of Coventry and
Lichfield, obtained a grant of a market to be held
every Wednesday at his manor of Everton, and also
of a three-days fair yearly on the feast of St. Bartholomew (24 August), (fn. 49) but no further trace has been
found of the exercise of these privileges in Everton.
At the same time a charter of free warren was granted
to the lord of the manor, (fn. 50) who also possessed the
right of holding a three-weekly court baron, (fn. 51) and
of a view of frankpledge within the manor. (fn. 52) The
owner of Everton Mosbury also received a charter
of free warren in 1331, (fn. 53) and the privilege was still
claimed in the eighteenth century. (fn. 54)
About 1140 Gilbert earl of Pembroke granted land in
Everton, together with the advowson of the church,
to the prior of St. Neots, (fn. 55) who in the thirteenth
century claimed a view of frankpledge here, (fn. 56) and also
rendered feudal service from 1284 to 1428. (fn. 57) At
the time of the Dissolution the temporalities of the
priory in Everton were valued at £12 11s. 10d., (fn. 58)
and together with the rectory and advowson (q.v.),
they were granted to Clare College, Cambridge. (fn. 59)
Sawtry Abbey was the recipient of various small
grants of land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
from the Burnards and St. Neots Priory. (fn. 60) At the Dissolution these lands were
granted to Richard Cromwell, (fn. 61) who, in 1538, received
a licence to alienate them to
John Burgoyne. (fn. 62)
Church
The church of
ST. MARY
stands at the
north end of the village, west
of the road between Sandy and
Tetworth, and consists of a
chancel 29 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft.,
a nave 47 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft.,
north and south aisles 7 ft. 6 in.
wide, and a western tower
13 ft. by 12 ft. 6 in.
Clare College, Cambridge. Or three cheverons gules for Clare impaled with Or a cross gules for De Burgh in a border sable with drops or.
The chancel appears to be
the oldest part of the church, its eastern quoins, in
large stones irregularly bonded, looking very much like
pre-Conquest work. The absence of anything else of
the same character in the chancel makes the matter
doubtful, but as other details of the chancel belong
to the first half of the twelfth century, the earlier
date is not impossible. The chancel, being of the
full width of the nave, should in the ordinary course
of development be the successor of a narrower chancel,
but in this instance the process seems unlikely, and it
is just possible that, as elsewhere, the present chancel
was the early church, to which a nave and aisles as at
present were added in the twelfth century.
The existing nave arcades belong to c. 1140–60,
the north arcade appearing to be of somewhat earlier
detail than the south. The only alterations in plan
of a later date are the addition of a west tower and of a
south porch in the fifteenth century. The nave
clearstory is also of this date.
The building has undergone much repair and all
roofs except that of the nave are new, all being covered
with red tiles.
The east window of the chancel is modern, and the
gable over it has been rebuilt. In the north wall are
two plain round-headed lights with a small outer
reveal, the heads being worked in a single stone, and
in the south wall are two corresponding to them;
they belong to the first half of the twelfth century.
The external stonework is in the same shelly oolite as
the eastern quoins of the chancel, but does not show
the tendency to long and short work which suggests
an early date for the latter. At the west of the
chancel are north and south windows of two lights,
c. 1500, and the chancel arch, with shafts and halfoctagonal capitals to the inner order, is probably contemporary with them. The traces of a blocked doorway are to be seen on the south side of the chancel;
it is shown open in a plan of 1837 preserved in the
library of the Society of Antiquaries. The nave
arcades are of three bays, with round shafts and
scalloped capitals, those of the south arcade being of
somewhat later type. The arches are semicircular,
of a single square order, and the date of the north
arcade is c. 1140, the south being probably twenty
years later. At the west end of the north aisle is a
twelfth-century round-headed light, probably not in
its original position, while at the east is a squareheaded two-light window of the sixteenth century.
In the north wall are two three-light windows, one
modern and the other perhaps of early sixteenthcentury date, and between them is a north door with
a fifteenth-century outer arch, but semicircular rear
arch.
The south aisle has a fifteenth-century east window
of two lights and two south windows in modern
masonry. Between them is the south doorway,
c. 1160, with an arch of two orders, the outer one
moulded, with scalloped capitals, and ringed shafts in
the jambs. Over it is a late fifteenth-century porch of
good detail, with a panelled plinth and parapet with
projecting gargoyles; it has two-light windows on
north and south. The west wall of the aisle has been
rebuilt, and its window, a small twelfth-century light,
reset. The nave has a late fifteenth-century clearstory with three quatrefoiled openings on the north,
and on the south three square-headed windows, two
of four lights and one of two, the former probably
of the second quarter of the sixteenth century, and
replacing earlier and smaller lights.
The tower is of four stages with a modern embattled parapet and two-light belfry windows, with a
stair in the south-west angle kept within the line of
the walls, while the three-light west window of the
ground stage is set out of centre to make room for it.
The whole seems to be a fifteenth-century addition,
and has an eastern arch of that date.
The woodwork in the church is modern, but there
are some fifteenth-century stone corbels to the nave
roof, while others, of wood, have the classical egg-andtongue moulding, and are probably of seventeenthcentury date. The former arrangements of the church,
as shown in the plan of 1837 already referred to, are
worth recording as a fine example of the 'preachinghouse' ideal.
At the west end of the nave was a children's gallery
on four wooden pillars, and immediately in front of it
the pulpit, reading desk, and clerk's desk, facing eastward. Round them were grouped a few benches
which were the free seats, while the rest of the nave
was taken up with square pews. The pulpit and
desks seem to have been before this time set against
the south arcade, about midway in the nave, and facing
northwards. The chancel arch was blocked by a great
faculty pew, or rather gallery, as it appears to have
been reached by a staircase in the chancel, and the
east end of the north aisle was the vestry or robingroom. The font stood in the west bay of the south
arcade as at present.
The only monument of interest beyond the matrix
of a large fifteenth-century brass 6 ft. 9 in. by 3 ft. 8 in.,
at the east end of the nave, is that of Sir Humphrey
Winch, 1624, on the wall above the pulpit at the
north-east of the nave. It is of alabaster and coloured
marbles, a very well-designed and effective composition,
having in the middle a recess containing a half-effigy
in judge's robes, the face keen and life-like, and
above it a pyramidal design of two stages surmounted by the arms of Winch. The inscription
implies that Sir Humphrey is buried in the wall,
and at the back of the monument a masonry projection has been added which seems to give grounds
for the statement.
There are five bells, the treble and second by
John Keene, 1630, the third by Richard Oldfeild,
1611, the fourth by John Dier, c. 1590, inscribed
'Johannes Dier hanc campanam fecit,' and the tenor
by Christopher Graye, 1681, recast 1894 by Mears
& Stainbank.
The plate includes a cup of Elizabethan type without hall-marks, probably of local make, having a shallow
bowl with spreading lip, and a roughly-engraved band
of ornament. On it is the word 'Everton.' The
paten, with no other mark than that of the maker,
'E. S.' in a dotted oval, is likewise undated, but may
by the mark be connected with the London smith
who made in 1652 a silver-gilt porringer noted by
Cripps (Old English Plate, 374). The flagon is of
1694, given 1695, and has an inscription within
a border of feather mantling, recalling the type in
fashion some twenty years before.
The registers begin in 1656, a few earlier entries
from 1650 being copied in, and the first book
ends in 1738, containing a list of briefs, 1659–1705. The second book, of burials in woollen, runs
from 1678 to 1706, and contains briefs, 1723–9.
The third, 1727–1813 (marriages to 1754), was
given by the Rev. Robert Greene, who wrote a
long and laudatory account of himself in a somewhat overloaded Latinity on the flyleaf. The fourth
book, with printed forms for marriages, runs from
1769 to 1819.
Advowson
The Domesday Survey mentions
the existence of a church and priest
in Everton. (fn. 63) This church was given
about 1140 by Gilbert, earl of Pembroke, (fn. 64) to
St. Neots Priory, which continued to hold it down
to the Dissolution, (fn. 65) when it passed to the crown, from
whom it was purchased in 1544 by Clare College,
Cambridge, to whom the advowson at present
belongs. (fn. 66)
Charities
Poor's Money or the Carey Fund.—In 1764, legacies amounting together to £160 left by the wills of
Walter and Elizabeth Carey were received by the
vicar and churchwardens. The legacies are now represented by £174 London and North Western
Railway £3 per cent. debenture stock with the
official trustees, the annual dividends of which,
amounting to £54s. 4d., are distributed in coals
among the poor of Everton and Tetworth.
Under the Everton Inclosure Act (fn. 67) 1 a. 2 r. of land
was awarded to the parish officers with the right to
take gravel for the repair of the highways, and 3 a. 1 r.
31 p. in lieu of tithes, in respect of which an annual
sum of £1 16s. is received by the churchwardents and
applied in aid of church expenses.