son Spencer (1673–1743) was a favourite of George II. and in 1728 was created earl of Wilmington, a title which became extinct at his death.
See the article in the Dict. of Nat. Biog. by C. H. Firth; E. B. G. Warburton’s Life of Prince Rupert: S. R. Gardiner’s Hist. of England and of the Civil War; Thomason Tracts, E 99 (18) [Hopton Heath and Northampton’s death], E 103 (11) [elegy], E 11 (11), E 110 (8) 1642 [Proceedings at Banbury], E 83 (47) [speech].
NORTHAMPTON, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough and the county town of Northamptonshire, England, 66 m. N.W. by N. from London by the London & North Western railway; served also by a branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1891) 75,075, (1901) 87,021. It lies in a slightly undulating district mainly on the north bank of the river Nene. The main roads converging upon the town meet near the centre in a spacious market-place, where stands a fountain on the site of the ancient cross destroyed by the fire of 1675 which levelled a great part of the town. There were formerly seven ancient parish churches, but only four remain. Of these All Saints church was rebuilt after the fire of 1675, but retains its Decorated embattled tower, with which the style of the later building scarcely harmonizes, the principal feature being the fine Ionic portico. The church of St Giles was originally a cruciform structure of the beginning of the 12th century, but has been greatly changed, and besides a rich Norman doorway contains specimens of Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular work. St Peter’s, near the site of the ancient castle, is supposed to be of the same date with it, and its interior is a fine specimen of Norman architecture. St Sepulchre’s, one of the four round churches still remaining in England, may have been built by the Knights Templars at the close of the 11th century. There are several modern parish churches. Northampton is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, and there is a pro-cathedral, designed by A. W. Pugin (1864). In the neighbourhood of the town there were a Cluniac priory of St Andrew, a house (Delapré) for nuns of the same order, and one for Augustinian canons dedicated to St James; but the first has disappeared, the site of the second is occupied by a modern mansion, and of the third there are only slight fragments. Some portions of the castle were re-erected on a new site after their destruction when the Castle station was built by the London & North Western Railway Company. In the populous parish of Hardingstone, S. of the town, is one of the original Eleanor crosses, of which only three remain out of twelve erected by Edward I. to mark the resting-places of his queen’s body on its way from Harby (Nottinghamshire) to burial at Westminster. The chief public buildings of Northampton are a town hall, county hall, county council room, corn exchange, antiquarian and geological museum, free library and barracks. The free grammar school was founded in 1552; the Northampton and county modern and technical schools were incorporated with it in 1894. There are a Roman Catholic convent with schools, and various charity schools. The charitable foundations include St John’s hospital, founded in the 12th century; St Thomas’s hospital, founded in 1450 in honour of Thomas à Becket, an infirmary, asylum, dispensary, &c. There is a race-course north of the town. The staple trade is the manufacture of boots and shoes, which is very large. There are also considerable currying and tanning works, breweries, iron foundries, and brick and tile works. The cattle market is extensive. The county borough was created in 1888. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 8 aldermen and 24 councillors. Area, 3469 acres.
British and Roman remains have been discovered near Northampton (Hamtune, Northantone), and it became the chief settlement of the Angle tribes who pushed their way up the Nen in the early part of the 6th century. It was occupied by the Danes in the reign of Edward the Elder and is said to have been burnt by Sweyn in 1010. In the reign of Edward the Confessor there were 60 burgesses in his demesne, and, although the number had decreased to 47 in 1086, a new borough containing 40 burgesses had been formed. The burgesses rendered yearly to the sheriff £30, 10s. “which belonged to his farm,” and was probably the beginning of the fee farm which they were allowed to pay directly to the king in 1185 and which was then increased from £100 to £120. Forty marks of this farm were pardoned by Richard III. in 1484 because “the town had come to such ruin” that the bailiffs had to pay more than £53 from their own goods. The mayor was the chief officer in the 13th century, and Henry VI. granted the incorporation charter in 1460 under the title of mayor, bailiffs and burgesses. The town has been represented by two members since 1395. Tanning was an industry of Northampton in the time of Edward I. and in 1675 a law was made by the corporation forbidding strangers to purchase hides in the town except on fair-days. Boots and shoes are known to have been made here in the reigns of John and Edward I., although probably only for the use of the townspeople, and by the 17th century Northampton was one of the most noted places in England for their manufacture.
Northampton has been the meeting-place of several important councils and parliaments. In the wars between John and his barons the castle withstood a siege by the latter, but in 1264 it was occupied by the barons under the earl of Leicester. In the Wars of the Roses it was the scene of the battle in which Henry VI. was defeated and taken prisoner in 1460. During the Civil Wars of the 17th century it was held for the parliament by Lord Brooke. In 1675 the town suffered severely by fire, 600 houses being destroyed.
See Victoria County History, Northampton; C. H. Hartshorn, Historical Memorials of Northampton (1848).
NORTHAMPTON, ASSIZE OF, a short code of English laws issued in 1176, is drawn up in the form of instructions to six committees of three judges each, which were to visit the six circuits into which England was divided for the purpose. Though purporting to be a reissue of the Assize of Clarendon (1166), it contains in fact many new provisions. As compared with the earlier assize it prescribes greater severity of punishment for criminal offences; arson and forgery were henceforth to be crimes about which the jurors are to enquire; and those who failed at the ordeal were to lose a hand as well as a foot. In what is perhaps the most important section we may probably see the origin of the possessory action of mort d’ancestor, an innovation scarcely less striking than the institution of the novel disseisin in the winter of 1166. The justices were also ordered to try proprietary actions commenced by the king’s writ for the recovery of land held by the service of half a knight’s fee or less. In their fiscal capacity they were to enquire into escheats, churches, lands and women in the king’s gift. The royal bailiffs were to answer at the exchequer for rents of assize and all the perquisites which they made in their offices, and apparently the duty of enforcing this provision was entrusted to the justices. As a result of the rebellion of 1173–1174 it was provided that an oath of fealty should be taken by all, “to wit, barons, knights, freeholders and even villeins (rustici)”, and that any one who refused should be arrested as the king’s enemy, and the justices were to see that the castles whose demolition had been ordered were completely razed.
Authorities.—Sir F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland, History of English Law before the Time of Edward I. (Cambridge, 1898); W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England (Oxford, 1895). The text of the Assize occurs in Cronica Rogeri de Howden (Rolls Series), ii. 89, and Gesta Henrici Regis Secundi (Rolls Series), i. 108. It has been reprinted from the latter by W. Stubbs in Select Charters (Oxford, 1895). (G. J. T.)
NORTHAMPTON, a city and the county-seat of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., situated on the Connecticut river, about 16 m. N. of Springfield. Pop. (1910 census) 19,431. The city has an area of 35·3 sq. m. The chief village, Northampton, is on the New York, New Haven & Hartford, and the Boston & Maine railways. It lies on the border of the meadow-land, and with its irregular, semi-rural streets, and venerable trees is considered one of the prettiest villages in New England. About 2 m. S.E. of Northampton is Mount Holyoke (954 ft.), which may be ascended by carriage road and mountain railway, and the summit of which commands a magnificent view. The city is the seat of a state hospital for the insane;
