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After
the dissolution of monasteries under Henry VIII, the manor of Woodnewton
was passed to Edward lord Clinton who immediately sold all his rights
to Walter Milday who effectively owned the whole area. From
then onwards the manor follows the same descent as the neighbouring
manor of Apethorpe. The amalgamation of the two manors appears to
have led to a dramatic reduction in the number of copyhold lands.
The 21 shown in 1551 reduces to 14 by the time of the the enclosure
map of 1771. This may have been due to a policy of producing bigger
copyhold farms.
Analysis of the Hearth Tax returns and court rolls shows that the
village appears to have been socially depressed by the 1670s. The
returns show a high proportion of single hearth houses and hardly
any with two hearths or more. My own Culpin Family History
reflects this pattern. In the mid 1600s they were recorded as Copyholders
and served as Jurymen on the Manorial court but by 1670 were simply
labourers and were not listed with their own copyhold again until
the later part of the century. Hearth Tax returns for 1551 show
53 families and 70 for 1673 showing that despite this the village
was growing.
An extensive number of manorial records for the manor of Woodnewton
still exist and are kept at the Northamptonshire Record Office.
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