ers, the manor was superseded as the principal residence on the estate by a new mansion in the park built by Charles Hosier after his purchase of Wicken in 1716. (fn. 179)
The Manor of Wick Hamon to 1587.
In 1086 Maino held three virgates in Wick which in King Edward's time Siward held freely. (fn. 180) In Henry I's reign Mainfelin held two hides at Wick of the fee of Wolverton (fn. 181) and in 1166-7 the sheriff accounted for half a mark from Hamon, son of Mainfelin, from Wick. (fn. 182) Hamon son of Hamon son of Mainfelin held land in Wick in 1185. He was then aged 20; his father had died in May that year and his mother Maud was aged 46. (fn. 183) Wick had briefly come into the king's hands and in 1185 the sheriff accounted for 40s. from the manor. (fn. 184) Hamon was involved in litigation over land in Wick in 1194. (fn. 185) His son William was returned as lord of Wick in 1208, 1235 and 1242, (fn. 186) and in 1213 was acquitted from the service of castle guard at Northampton (by which he held his barony of Wolverton) for the previous year. (fn. 187) William died early in 1248 leaving his brother Alan as heir. (fn. 188) Alan died later the same year, leaving his son John as heir, when the manor was held in dower by Hawise, William's widow. (fn. 189) In 1265 Sir John son of Alan was found to have demised to Michael Tony a fourth part of a knight's fee in Wick, worth £8 a year, for two years. (fn. 190) John held Wick Hamon, as the manor had by then become known, in chief in 1276. (fn. 191) He was dead by 1284, when Ralph de Ardern and Isabel his wife held the manor for the fourth part of a knight's fee, in right of her dower as John's widow. (fn. 192) John and Isabel's son and heir was also named John. He in turn had a son of the same name, who in 1290 was granted licence to reinclose the park at Wicken. (fn. 193)
In 1312, when John de Wolverton (the surname the family had adopted by that date) was allowed to settle the manor of Padbury (Bucks.) on his son John and his first wife, it was found that among the lands that would remain to the father were those in Wick. (fn. 194) The elder John de Wolverton was returned as lord of Wick Hamon in 1316, (fn. 195) and in 1331 settled the manor, held in chief by the payment of 2s. 6d. yearly to the ward of Northampton Castle, on his son John and his second wife Joan in tail male at the time of their marriage. (fn. 196) Sir John Wolverton the elder died in 1341 (fn. 197) and five years later his son, also Sir John, was returned as holding Wick Harnon for the fourth part of a knight's fee as parcel of the barony of Wolverton. (fn. 198)
The younger Sir John died in 1349, leaving by his first wife four daughters, Joan, Sarah, Cecily and Constance, and by his second wife a son and heir Ralph, aged two. (fn. 199) Ralph died two years later, when his two sisters, Margaret the wife of John Hunt of Fenny Stratford (Bucks.), aged 19, and Elizabeth, aged 17, were found to be his heirs. (fn. 200) In 1365, following the death of Margaret and Elizabeth, an inquisition established that under the entail of 1331 the reversion of the manor, in the absence of surviving male heirs of John and Joan, lay with the heirs of the elder John de Wolverton. Accordingly the manor was divided into five parts, three going to the representatives of the surviving daughters of the younger John's first marriage (Constance being dead) and two to the heirs of the elder John's daughters. (fn. 201) Two years later all five heirs sold their shares to Richard Woodville of Grafton and his son John. (fn. 202) In 1382 John Woodville was able to bar the entail of 1367 and settle the manor on himself and his wife Isabel in tail male. (fn. 203) In 1442 Richard and Joan Woodville were fined 40s. for taking a conveyance of the manor from William Furtho, who had been enfeoffed by Richard's father. (fn. 204) In 1449 Richard purchased the adjoining manor of Wick Dive and both Wicken estates thereafter descended with the Woodville's home lordship of Grafton until the sale in 1511 to John Spencer. (fn. 205)
There appears to be no tra