Is it Haunted?...

Don't be silly, of course it is -all castles and old manor houses in England are haunted. England has a fine tradition of being the favored hangout of ghosts for centuries. In fact, it has been said that more people see ghosts in the British Isles than anywhere else in the world; however, it is also unclear how big a role the consumption of alcohol might play in these sightings. Although Northborrough Castle is said to be haunted, unlike Muncaster Castle, which is haunted by *Thomas Skelton -a macabre, murderous rascal of a man who was jester to the Pennington family in the 1500s, the Claypoole Manor House ghost is far more distinguished, being none other than Oliver Cromwell. * Click here to read about Thomas Skelton, the jester

Oliver Cromwell

“The Gatehouse is a most impressive structure and has two large outerarches. A wall would have extended from either side of the gatehouse all around the property, which seem to have been sufficient protection at Northborough where the house is adjacent to village defences. The Claypoles have vanished from the scene, but their Manor House and monuments in the church a Northborough are still with us.”
–M. Urick Smith, “Northamptonshire Past & Present,” Vol. I, p. 33

The early complex of manor hall and gatehouse is the most complete and unaltered of its period in England and the dovecote nicely rounds off the medieval scene. The manor was probably built by Roger de Norburgh, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry from 1322 to 1360. (De Norburgh merely indicating that he came from that place and not as a surname.) The wall around the Bishop's manor house was joined to wall around the village around 1330. A portion of this wall survives including the medieval gatehouse.

The creation of this wall caused the main road to be diverted from the straight line it had followed. Bishop Roger was appointed King's Clerk in 1310 and Keeper of the Great Seal from 1312 to 1316.

He was a favorite of Edward II, took part in his expedition against the Scots and was captured, along with the Great Seal, by Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314. In 1320 he was appointed Chancellor of Cambridge University until 1326.

When Roger was appointed Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, he replaced a very popular man. That plus his position with Edward II, an extremely unpopular king, made him a very unpopular man with his people.

Archeological evidence suggests that the manor was built about 1333-34 and that, for some reason, work suddenly stopped during the course of the original building.

The house was completed by relatively unskilled people. The original architect was William de Eyton, Master Mason and Architect for the Chapter of Lichfield. The stone the house is built from came from Barnack quarries. This means that the Barnack masons would have to have assisted de Eyton. During the winter of 1336-37, de Eyton died. It is possible that this is the reason for the work stoppage.

[left] In 1502, Northborough came into the hands of Sir William Fitzwilliam.

The price for all the lands bought was 1200 marks (about 1000 pounds). In 1572, a deed records a sale of the Manor to James Claypole (Cleypole) of King's Cliffe. He paid 500 pounds for the manor, a rather large sum, but he was a wealthy man, contributing towards the defense of the country against the Spanish Invasion. When the Claypoles first came to the Manor, the main part of the building was the Great Hall, a large room that reached 2 stories to the beamed ceiling.

There are records of him buying more land in 1572 and 1598 and his son John bought more land in 1600. It is believed that James Claypole had the dovecote built.

Timber Beams in the Great Hall

The ceiling was built without a center beam, held together by a precise balance of the cross beams.One foot square oak beams, six feet in length, now more than six centuries old, help hold up the roof of the great hall, set in place with only oak pegswithout the use of a single nail.

Depiction of the Civil War that Cost
Charles I His Throne and His Life

Sir John Claypole married Mary Angell in 1622. He was a lawyer of Gray's Inn and a friend of Oliver Cromwell. In 1642, the Civil War broke out. The Claypoles were staunch supporters of the Parliamentary cause.

In 1643, the Royalists were at Crowland, only 7 miles from Northborough.

It is probable that this is when the wall of the stable block was pierced by musket fire. There is no account of actual fighting in the vicinity however.

King Charles I of England

At the Ceremony to inaugurate the Protectorate in 1653, John, the younger, led Cromwell's horse, a signal honor. He was elected to Parliament from Carmarthen in 1654 and for Northampton in 1656. In 1654, he moved with his family to Whitehall.

Cromwell gaved him the titles of Lord of the Bedchamber, master of the Horse and Ranger of Whittlewood Forest. In 1657, when a new upper house was created, John was called to serve.


Richard Cromwell

On the only occasion that Oliver Cromwell's son Richard opened Parliament, John Claypole carried the mace. Elizabeth Claypole died just before her father in 1658. She was buried in the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey, where she remains. When Cromwell died, his son proved ill-suited to govern the unruly English.

Because he lacked his father's strength and vision, London and the surrounding townships plunged headlong into riotous anarchy -England was not yet ready to become a true republic and democracy.

Richard Cromwell's enemies called the hapless son of the Protectorate, Tumble Down Dick. In the end, the people who had so readily taken the life of their King and handed his thone to Cromwell, cried out to restore the Monarchy, knowing full well the long term implications of such a decision.

Unlike his father, Richard was not held accountable for the death of King Charles I.

He retired to obscurity, going into exile on the Continent under the soubriquet of "John Clarke", but returning in 1680 to live out the remainder of his life in Britain.

In addition, for some inexplicable reason, the loud, furious objections of his mother notwithstanding, King Charles II permitted Sir John Claypole to return to Northborough Manor. He took with him his mother-in-law Elizabeth Cromwell.

Sir John Claypoole died in 1664. Elizabeth died at Northborough Manor on 19 Nov 1665, supposedly in the small room above the porch. She was buried in the Parish Church of St Andrew in Northborough. After the Restoration, Lord John married again, this time Blanche, widow of Lancelot Staveley, a merchant of London . This wife bore him three more children. However, he left her and took up with Anne Ottee to whom he left his estate. He only left his wife and surviving daughter Bridget 10 shillings to buy mourning rings.

Blanche brought an action in Chancery, but did not recover much. The Deed of Sale of the Manor to Lord Fitzwilliam in 1681 records that of the 5600 pounds which the estate bought, Lord John Claypole only received 835 pounds which he had to share with Thomas Percival. The estate was heavily mortgaged and he had given up possession to his creditors. For the rest of his life, this incautious infidel was described as being "of the City of London," and Northborough Manor would never again belong to the Claypooles.

And his baby brothers? Well, in that they were not first born, they could not inherit their wealth, so they had to go out in the world to seek it. In 1683, Edward, James, and Norton left England, bound for foreign shores. When the passengers of the Concord saw New York Harbor, Ellis Island was just an unattractive, barren lump of land, New York was not really a city yet, and the Statue of Liberty had yet to be dreamt of. America would have to wait another 180 plus years for Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi to make it the most easily recognized image in the world. It was here that the younger Claypooles would make their fortune and eventually participate in one of the most daring political experiments ever attempted, the making of a nation -a true democratic republic.

--Taken in part from Northborough Manor: an historical and archaeological account by Andrew Woodger.