Biography of William "Pincerna aka Butler" D'Aubigny 1064-1139

A History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume 5 Gartree Hundred: Horninghold. Horninghold [Map] lies seven miles north-east of Market Harborough [Map] and four miles south-west of Uppingham [Map]. The parish, which is 1,217 a. in area, extends over the Middle Lias clays which underlie the hills on the borders of Rutland. The soil is chiefly clay and largely devoted to pasture. The road from Hallaton to Uppingham [Map], on which the village stands, crosses the parish from west to east; it is joined at the east end of the village by a road from Great Easton. There are two field tracks, one to Blaston, and one which crosses the road from Hallaton to Allexton and continues to Keythorpe.

Before the Conquest Horninghold [Map] was one of a group of estates apparently held by four thegns, Osulf, Osmund, Roulf, and Levrick. In 1086 the vill was said to be held by Robert de Todeni, lord of Belvoir, though it may have been given before this date to Robert's priory of Belvoir, which had been founded in 1076. At the beginning of the 12th century it was farmed by William D'Aubigny. Horninghold formed part of the original endowment of the priory and remained in its possession until the Dissolution. It was confirmed to the priory at various times during the Middle Ages.

Note A. the Dissolution the manor [Map] passed to the Crown, and in 1545 Henry VIII licensed Edward Elrington and Humphrey Metcalfe, to whom he had previously sold it, to alienate the manor and the rest of the former priory's property in the parish to John Beaumont and Henry Alycock. There was a lease of the manor outstanding for 41 years from 1531 which had been made by Belvoir Priory to Anthony Bewell, the priory's bailiff. On Beaumont's forfeiture the manor once more passed to the Crown, and in 1553 it was purchased for £566 by Edward Griffin, the Attorney-General, whose family owned the nearby manor of Gumley. In 1590 William Turpin of Knaptoft, whose father had owned land in Horninghold, purchased the manor from Edward Griffin's heir. Turpin was knighted in 1603 and died in 1617; his widow held the manor until her death about the end of 1633, and was succeeded by her daughter Elizabeth, who married Sir John Pretyman of Loddington (age 64).

The estate was settled upon their eldest son John and his wife Margaret on their marriage in 1649. John Pretyman died in 1658 leaving his widow as owner of the estate, which she brought to her second husband Sir John Heath, the second son of Sir Robert Heath of Brasted Place (Kent) and M.P. for Clitheroe (Lancs.) from 1661 to 1679. She died in 1676 and the available evidence suggests that Horninghold manor did not descend to her daughter and heir. It appears to have been sold by Heath to Sir Edward Hungerford (age 43), who was in possession by 1676 and presented to the living. Thereafter the manorial descent is lost. Sir Edward Hungerford died in 1711, but it is by no means certain that he could or would have retained the manor of Horninghold for more than a few years, for his extravagance was notorious and he is said to have disposed of more than thirty manors during his lifetime.