| The Shelford/Caxton Line |
| Hardwin’s
son Richard de Scalers (c.1070-1140) was Lord of
the Manor of Shelford, which included Caxton.
Their manor house was on the western bank of the
River Cam. The present house on the site looks
18th century. Several estates held land in
Shelford as witnessed by a number of surviving
moats and earthworks. |
| Despite
Richard’s adopted title, the major seat of
this branch of the family was at Caxton. In fact,
Hugh and Richard were both born in Caxton, so
presumably Hardwin had moved there before about
1070. All of Richard’s descendants were also
born there. The manor house at Shelford was
probably not much used by the family; it may have
been occupied by a bailiff for the estate. The reason for locating at Caxton
may well have been that the Roman Road Ermine
Street passes through the village,
connecting the estate with the other de Scalers
domains to the south at Whaddon and Reed, and
with London. |
| Richard's
son Stephen (c.1102-1168) married Gillian and was
succeeded by their son William (c.1122-1199), who
married Sybil. They in turn were succeeded by
their son William (c.1148-1222) and his son
Richard (c.1172-1231), who married Alice. Richard
was the last male bearer of the Scalers name in
this line. His heiress was his daughter Lucy de
Scalers (c.1205-1256). |
| Linked
with the Shelford/Caxton line by a cadet branch
of which there are no further details was John de
Scalers (c.1223-1312) of Caxton. He was Sheriff
of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire
intermittently between 1246 and 1264. |
| Caxton Moats |
| A
complex of moated enclosures known as Caxton
Moats exists about a mile to the north-west
of the present village of Caxton. The site has traces of Saxon or
Norman occupation and parts may have formed the
castle of the Domesday holder of the estate;
other parts are thought to date from the mid 12th
century. It
is almost certainly the seat of the de Scalers
family in Caxton, though the earliest clear
documentary evidence dates from 1312, when it was
occupied by the de Freville family, descendants
of Lucy de Scalers and her husband Sir Baldwin de
Freville. The expanded complex, with its moated
enclosures, additional islands, fishponds and
warren, may derive from this later period and the
need to create a more prestigious dwelling
reflecting the increasing status of the family at
that time. Google Earth shows the site
in some detail. |
| The Churches of All Saints and
St. Andrew |
| The
Saxon church that became All Saints in Little
Shelford had belonged to the monks of Ely before
it was seized by Hardwin de Scalers. Part of the nave north wall,
including a doorway and window, survives from a
12th-century building, though much of the present
structure dates from the 13th and 14th centuries. The stalls in the
church bear the arms of the de Freville family
(see below), who were again sponsors, and there
are early 14th to early 15th century carvings and
brasses of some of them. |
| A church had
been established in Caxton by c. 1145 when
Stephen de Scalers granted it to Lewes Priory.
Not much survives of the original church except
for some loose carved stones inside, a few
fragments re-used in the aisle wall and possibly
the thick west wall of the nave. Much of what
became the
church of St. Andrew dates from around the time
of Lucy and Baldwin de Freville (see below) and
their immediate successors and the de Frevilles
were presumably patrons. |
| Lucy de Scalers and the de
Freville Family |
| In
1230 Lucy de Scalers, heiress of the Scalers of
Shelford and Caxton, married Sir Baldwin de
Freville (d.c.1257) from a prominent
Cambridgeshire family, who had a short time
before paid 200 marks
for her marriage and the custody of her land. Lucy's death in 1256
marked 7 generations and some 200 years of this
branch of the Scalers family. |
| The de Frevilles of Shelford
and Caxton Manors |
| Lucy
and Baldwin de Freville's son Richard (d.1299)
had three known sons: Baldwin, John and
Alexander. Baldwin, the eldest, died without
issue and the Manors of Shelford and Caxton
passed to his younger brother John (d.1312). |
| The
earliest clear documentary evidence of the
family's occupation of the Caxton Moats site
dates from the year of John's death. The Shelford
manor house was first recorded in the late 13th
century. By 1349 it included a chapel and in the
1520s a hall, two parlours, and a great and
little chamber. |
| Shelford
and Caxton Manors descended in a not entirely
straightforward manner to John de Freville's
great-great-grandson William (d.1460). In 1424,
William handed over Caxton Manor via a quitclaim
to John Burgoyne of nearby Dry Drayton, who held
half a knight's fee at Caxton (for military
services rendered). The manor changed hands many
times over the succeeding centuries. From the
current OS map, it appears that the manor moved
to a new site to the south-east, near the church,
at some stage. |
| William
presumably concentrated his interests on Shelford
Manor. The manor stayed in the de Freville family
until William's great-great-grandson George, a
judge and baron of the Exchequer, sold it in 1577
to one John Bankes. It subsequently changed hands
many times down to the present day (it was sold
again a few years ago). |
| The de Frevilles of Tamworth
Castle |
| Lucy
and Baldwin de Freville's youngest grandson
Alexander (1250-1328) married Joan de Cromwell,
heir to the prestigious Norman Marmion family
through her mother Mazera de Marmion, in 1291.
The Marmion family had had their seat at Tamworth
Castle since the early 12th century and this now
passed into Alexander's hands. He fought in the
Scottish wars in the time of Edward I and Edward
II and at the start of Edward III's reign in 1327
was summoned to parliament as Baron de Freville. |
| Alexander's
grandson Baldwin (1317-1375) had accumulated land
in Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire,
Staffordshire, Wiltshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. He
served in the wars with Gascony with Edward the Black
Prince, so he would have been there with his
distant cousin Robert 3rd Baron Scales (see later
on this site). |
| This
Baldwin's great-great-grandson Baldwin (and there
were plenty more of that name) died without issue
in 1418 and there this de Freville line ended.
The vast estate was split between his three aunts
Elizabeth, Margaret and Joyce, who all made
prestigious marriages. Elizabeth married Sir
Thomas Ferrers, son of William 5th Baron Ferrers
of Groby (near Leicester), and acquired Tamworth
Castle and lands in Warwickshire, Herefordshire
and Staffordshire. Margaret married Sir Hugh
Willoughby and then Sir Richard Bingham and
acquired lands in Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire
and Herefordshire. Joyce married Roger Aston and
acquired lands in Surrey, Wiltshire and
Warwickshire. |
| From
the de Ferrers, Tamworth Castle passed by
marriage to the Shirleys of Chartley in 1688,
again by marriage to the Comptons, Earls of
Northampton, in 1715, and finally to the
Townshends of Raynham in 1751, with whom it
remained until 1897. |
