Draycott

THIS MANOR and village is situated on the bank of the river Derwent, about a mile north-west of Church Wilne, just off the A6005 road near Breaston. It was until recently the property of the Earl of Harrington. As happened with many of the towns and villages in this area, the original small agricultural settlement expanded greatly during the Industrial Revolution and served the Nottingham cotton and lace industry. A renowned early industrialist, Mr Towle, founded the first cotton mill here in 1800 and at one time there was a silk mill.

The Lordship is grouped with Sawley and Hopwell in Domesday Book, compiled in 1086 as an “inventory” of lands and owners in England. William the Conqueror wanted to know what he had and who held it. The Domesday commissioners, therefore, listed lands in dispute, for Domesday was not only a tax assessment. To the King’s grandson, Bishop Henry of Winchester, its purpose was that every “man should know his right and not usurp another’s”, and because it was the final authoritative register of rightful possession “the natives called it Domesday Book, by analogy from the Day of Judgment” — the “Last Trump of Doom”. Domesday Book describes Old English society under new management in minute statistic detail. Foreign lords had taken over but little else had changed. The chief landowners and those who held from them are named, and the rest of the population was counted. Most of them lived in villages, whose houses might be clustered together, or dispersed among their fields. Villages were grouped together in administrative districts called hundreds, which formed regions within shires or counties which survive today with minor adjustments. The local assemblies, though overshadowed by Lords great and small, gave men a voice, which the commissioners heeded. Many holdings were described by the Norman term manerium (Manor) and varied greatly in size and structure, from tiny homesteads to vast holdings.

In the present case, the Lordship was held by the Bishop of Chester who, after the King, was one of the biggest landowners in Derbyshire. Domesday records that the Bishop had three ploughs of his own, while 29 villagers and 13 smallholders had 13 ploughs between them. There was a priest and there were two churches. There was a mill, worth 20 shillings, a fishery, and 30 acres of meadow. There was woodland pasture measuring three furlongs by one furlong (approx 330 yards by 110 yards) and there was a small water meadow. The population was perhaps about 200, quite large for the time.

It is uncertain whether Draycott passed to the Prebent of Sawley, along with the Manors of Sawley and Wilne, when the income from these Lordships was awarded to the Treasurer of Lichfield Cathedral in 1255, but it certainly remained under the control of the Bishop of Chester. At the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII (1509–47), Draycott was allotted to the new Protestant Bishops of Chester in whom it remained until the Civil War in the 1640s when the (Puritan) Parliament ordered the sale of all episcopal lands for the Commonwealth. Known to history as the Long Parliament, it was this body that prosecuted the “English Revolution” and brought Charles I to a Martyr’s death in 1649. The Royalist members withdrew in 1642 and the so-called Presbyterian “right-wing” were purged by Colonel Pride in 1648. The remaining members of this Parliament, known as the Rump, legislated until they were purged by Cromwell a year later. Surviving members reassembled in 1659 and negotiated the restoration of Charles II in May 1660 to much national rejoicing.

Draycott was sold with other local Manors to Nathaniel Hollows and was sold by his family to the Earl of Harrington in the 18th century. The Harringtons are descended by Sir John Stanhope, half-brother of the 1st Earl of Chesterfield. He died in 1638. His great grandson, William Stanhope, held various diplomatic posts in the reign of George I (1714–27) and the first half of the reign of George II (1727–60), becoming Secretary of State for the North (ie Foreign Secretary) in 1740 when he was raised to the Earldom of Harrington, Viscountcy of Petersham of Petersham, and Barony of Harrington. The 8th Earl, Charles Wyndham Stanhope, was aide-de-camp to King Edward VII and King George V, whose mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Lucas de Pearsall, of Wartensee Castle, Switzerland. He died in 1917. The descent of the Stanhopes lies on the following pages.

In the adjacent Lordship of Sawley is Sawley church, the mother church of the area and probably one of the two mentioned in Domesday Book. It has many fine tombs, including that of John Bothe, Treasurer of Lincoln Cathedral who died in 1496.

Rights, customs and incidents

To the King’s grandson, Bishop Henry of Winchester, its purpose was that every “man should know his right and not usurp another’s”, and because it was the final authoritative register of rightful possession “the natives called it Domesday Book, by analogy from the Day of Judgment” — the “Last Trump of Doom”.
The Royalist members withdrew in 1642 and the so-called Presbyterian “right-wing” were purged by Colonel Pride in 1648.

Associated manorial documents / archive references

• Court rolls: undated — Belvoir Castle

Source notes

Catalogue gifted & transcribed for the archive by the Lord of Finchingfield - a friend to learning

The lordship was held by the Bishop of Chester in the medieval period and remained under episcopal control. It was associated, though not certainly, with the Prebend of Sawley after 1255. Following the sale of episcopal lands during the Commonwealth, Draycott was sold with other local manors to Nathaniel Hollows. Hollows's family later sold it to the Earl of Harrington in the eighteenth century. It was subsequently held by the Harrington family until recently, according to the supplied record.