In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Tosti, one of the king's thegns, held 3 hides and 3˝ virgates of land, which may be identified with the manor of Sawtry Beaumes. He is said to have bequeathed them to the Abbey of Ramsey, who were to have possession after the death of his brother Eric and his sister. Eric apparently survived him and held the land till his death, but after the Norman Conquest it was seized by Eustace the Sheriff. It is not clear whether the Abbey had ever obtained possession of the bequest or not, but Eustace kept the manor, and after his death it passed with his other lands to the Lovetots and formed part of their barony. The overlordship was sold in 1258 by Nigel de Amundeville, one of the heirs of Nigel de Lovetot, to Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and was held of the earl's descendants till the execution of Edward, Duke of Buckingham, in 1521. In 1534 the manor of Sawtry Beaumes was held of Henry Norres, as of the manor of Southoe (q.v.), which had descended similarly to the Duke.
Eustace the Sheriff subinfeudated the manor before 1086 to his knight Walter de Beaumes, who also temporarily held another half-hide in Sawtry. The manor was held by the family of Beaumes by the service of one knight's fee till the end of the 14th century. The immediate successors of Walter de Beaumes seem to have borne the same name, which appears c. 1150, 1166, 1175–6, and 1198.
Azure six wheatsbeaves or.
The last Walter was living in the early years of the reign of Henry III, but in 1220 Sawtry had passed to Robert de Beaumes. He was probably the Robert de Beaumes who died seised of the manor in 1263, when his son and heir Reginald was 40 years old. The latter was living in 1273, but had been succeeded by Sir Robert de Beaumes, kt., in 1276. In 1295 Sir Robert's son William was a minor, in the wardship of Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, who assigned tenements in Sawtry to Margery, Sir Robert's widow, in satisfaction of her dower. William was apparently of age in 1301. His heir was his son John, who abandoned the use of 'de' in his surname, and had succeeded to the manor before 1333. It was settled on himself and his wife Juliana for their lives, with remainders to their sons and daughters. John, the eldest son, died childless, and the manor passed to his brother Robert, who was probably in seisin by 1386. Robert's son and heir, Nicholas, died as a minor in 1390 or 1391, and his heir was his cousin Thomas atte Hethe or Grendall of Fenton, the son of Cecily, daughter of Margaret, sister of William de Beaumes. Grendall in 1391 granted the manor to Sir William le Moyne, lord of Sawtry Moyne, and his wife Mary, and also granted him the arms of the Beaumes family. In 1393, however, he brought a successful action to recover two-thirds of the manor from the Moynes, the remaining third being presumably held in dower by the widow of one of the Beaumes, but they seem finally to have settled the transfer of the manor in 1395. Mary, wife of Sir William le Moyne, had been in the service of Queen Philippa, and was a Hainaulter by birth. Sawtry Beaumes manor was settled in 1395 on William and Mary and their heirs and assigns. He died in 1404, and she succeeded to the manor. By various settlements, she granted first the reversion and then the manor itself to Roger Louthe, the husband of her kinswoman Mary, another Hainaulter. She had two daughters by her first husband, Thomas de Alberton, who died before 1371, when the king granted her their wardship and marriage, but Mary Louthe was more probably her niece. John Louthe, Archdeacon of Nottingham, in the 16th century claimed that his ancestress was a relative of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, but of this there is no evidence. In 1411 Roger Louthe obtained a ratification of the estate from Henry IV, necessitated by the foreign birth of his wife and her kinswoman. He had acquired land in Sawtry as early as 1400, and the Louthes settled at Sawtry Beaumes.
Sable a leaping wolf argent with a crescent argent in the quarter for difference.
He held the manor in 1428, but apparently died soon after 1441, and was succeeded by his son Lionel, who died seised of the manor in 1471, his heir being his son Thomas. The latter lived till 1533, when he must have been about eighty-six, and had survived both his eldest son Edmund and his grandson Lionel. The manor passed to Lionel's little daughter Margaret Edmund had died at Sawtry in 1522 from injuries received in a quarrel with the Skeltons, tenants of the Abbey of Sawtry. Many years afterwards, his youngest son John, then Archdeacon of Nottingham, sent an account of the quarrel in a letter to Foxe, containing material for the 'Book of Martyrs,' and implicated the abbot and monks as the instigators. He represented his family as the champions of Protestantism and morality, and attributed the fact that the murderers were never brought to trial to ecclesiastical influence. There is apparently no other evidence as to the origin of the quarrel, but from the Archdeacon's own evidence his family were not without influence at Court, and his father was hot-tempered and quarrelsome, while old Thomas Louthe had been sued by his rector for tithes. Edmund's eldest son Lionel appears to have settled at Cretingham, in Norfolk, which he inherited from his grandmother, Anne Mulso, who died in 1526. At the end of his life, Thomas Louthe had married a young wife, named Thomasina, on whom he settled the manor of Sawtry Beaumes. In 1546 she sued the heiress Margaret, who had married Richard Cornwallis, for possession. The action was continued by Thomasina and her second husband, John Villiers. They were probably successful, since in 1554 they presented to the church of Sawtry St. Andrew, of which the advowson (q.v.) belonged to the lords of Sawtry Beaumes. In 1551, however, settlements of the manor had been made on Margaret and Richard Cornwallis, and the former was in seisin of the manor, as a widow, in 1582. In that year she and her son and heir, John Cornwallis, sold 174 acres of pasture and 66 acres of wood belonging to the manor to Sir Henry Williams, alias Cromwell who was lord of both Sawtry Moyne and Sawtry Judith (q.v.) at the time. She died in 1603, and in 1619 Thomas Cornwallis, her grandson and successor, sold Sawtry Beaumes to John Cotton, who died there in 1636. It passed to his great-nephew, Sir Thomas Cotton, bt., whose direct male descendants held it till the death of Sir John Cotton, the fourth baronet, in 1731. His heir was his sister Frances, who married William Hanbury. Their daughter and heir Mary married the Rev. Martin Annesley, who died in 1749. The manor, however, came into the possession, before 1762, of his nephew Arthur Annesley, of Lincoln's Inn, and Bletchingham Park (Oxon). It passed to the Cavendish family, and has since followed the descent of Sawtry Moyne. Mr. John Norman Heathcote is the principal landowner.
The manor of Sawtry Beaumes did suit, either once or twice a year, to the court of the Barony of Lovetot at Southoe, the value of the pleas of the court in 1263 being 20s. a year. In 1278, however, complaints were made that the bailiff of the Earl of Gloucester forced the tenants to do suit at the three-weeks court as well as at the honour court. About 1236, the lord of the manor owed one suit a year to the county court, and this in 1278 was performed by the tenants of a certain virgate of land, while the suit to the Hundred of Norman Cross for the whole fee was performed by another tenant. In 1263 a yearly payment of 2s. for view of frankpledge was made by the Earl of Gloucester, but in 1275 he had withdrawn his tenants from the sheriff's tourn and no longer made the payments due to the sheriff. His successors held the view of frankpledge at Sawtry until the attainder of Edward, Duke of Buckingham, and the view for the tenants at Stilton, Folksworth, Winwick and Wood Walton was also held at Sawtry. After 1521 the view of frankpledge was not finally alienated by the Crown until James I granted it to James Whitmore in 1611. The Earl of Gloucester also claimed to have gallows, trebuchet and the assizes of bread and ale in Sawtry in 1275. A grant of free warren in the demesne lands of Sawtry was made in 1333 to John de Beaumes. In 1278, a windmill was attached to the manor. At the same date Robert de Beaumes held certain assarts, for which he paid 24s. yearly to the king, while another 5 acres had recently been reclaimed from the fen.
Victoria County History: Huntingdonshire Printed 1932
