Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire
Historical Description
Grafton Regis, a village and a parish in Northamptonshire. The village stands on the verge of the county, near the river Tove and the Grand Junction Canal, 3½ miles S of Roade station on the L. & N.W.R., and 4 ESE of Towcester, had formerly a weekly market and two fairs, and gives the title of Duke to the Fitzroy family. It has a post office under Stony Stratford; money order and telegraph office, Potterspury. Acreage of the civil parish, 1415; population, 157; of the ecclesiastical, 280. The manor with most of the land belongs to the Duke of Grafton, and it once belonged to the Woodvilles or Widevilles, one of whom, Sir John Woodville, was created by Henry VI. Baron Rivers, Grafton, and De la Mote, and was father of the wife of Edward IV. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory of Alderton, in the diocese of Peterborough; joint gross value, £262 with residence. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church consists of nave, chancel, N aisle, and chapel, with western tower, was restored in 1889, and contains an altar-tomb of Sir Richard Wideville.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Northamptonshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Grafton-Regis St. Mary | |
Hundred | Cleley | |
Poor Law union | Potterspury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1584.
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with the Northamptonshire Record Office, have images of the Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts for Northamptonshire online.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is an edifice of stone in mixed styles, consisting of chancel with north chapel, clerestoried nave, north aisle, south porch, and an embattled western tower containing 4 bells: the chapel, formerly the burial place of the Fitzroy family, dukes of Grafton, is now used as an organ chamber: at the west end of the north aisle is an altar tomb of fine freestone, on the upper slab of which is incised a recumbent figure of Sir Richard Wideville, father of Elizabeth Wideville, queen (1st May, 1464) of Edward IV.; the effigy is in full armour, and around the verge of the slab is an undated inscription; in the same aisle is a slab, under a low sepulchral arch, and another panelled altar-tomb, both of which are believed to have been erected to members of the Wideville family: against the south wall of the aisle is an elegant monument by Flaxman, with symbolical figures of Faith and Hope, to Charlotte Maria, Countess of Euston, d. February 8, 1808, and there are numerous mural monuments to the Fitzroy family: the stained east window is a memorial to the Rev. Barwick John Sams M.A. rector 1837-85, presented by his family, and there are three other windows in the north aisle: the church was repaired and repewed in 1840, and again repaired in 1889.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Grafton Regis from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Grafton-Regis (St. Mary))
- Kelly's Directory of Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Northamptonshire, 1914
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northamptonshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Grafton Regis are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Northamptonshire papers online: