AT the death of Sir John of Drayton, Simon his Son and Heir was nine years old, King Edward the First then reigning in his twentieth Year, who sent Precepts to the Sheriffs of those Countries wherein he had Lands, to seize them into his hands till he should give other directions. We hear no more of this Simon until the Fifteenth of King Edward the Second, at which time we find him in possession of his Lordship of Drayton by a Fine he suffered in that year, whereby he acknowledged the right thereof to be in one Robert le Penitour Clerk; which Robert yielded the same Mannor again to the said Simon and Margaret his Wife, to hold of our Lord the King by the services due during their times: and after their decease to remain to John, Son of the said Simon, and the Heirs of his Body begotten; and for default of such Issue, to remain to the Heirs of the Bodies of the said Simon and Margaret: and for default of such Issue, then to the right Heirs of the said Simon.
We find him afterwards possessed in the beginning of King Edward the Third, of the Lordships of Luffwick, Islipp, and Slipton; that he had Lands in Irtlingborow, in Sudbo∣row, and in Brigstock, in the County of Northampton; how he held the Lordships of Bot∣tlebridge, Stoke-Goldington, Overton, Longville, and Molesworth in Huntingdon-shire; and that he had also fair Possessions in Luton, and Flamstead in the County of Bedford: In most of which that he might have free Warren, and the priviledges thereof, King Edward the Third granted him a Patent to that effect in the first year of his Reign.
He had been Seneschal to Queen Isabel, the Kings Mother, in all her Forests between Stamford and Oxford, as appears by a Brieve directed to him by the King for the tenth of all the Venison that should be taken in the County of Northampton, to be delivered to the Abbot of Peterborow, according as had been granted by his Ancestors.
He was pardoned by that same King, with his Son John, William the Son of Thomas Seymar, Richard Molesworth, Simon his Squire, and other of his friends, for his breach of the Kings peace, and the death of John of Overton Longville, whom he had slain in a Quarrel, with other circumstances that certifie the particular favour was born him by that Prince.
He was afterward with one SrWilliam Nocton, as being one of the most eminent Knights in the Bishoprick of Ely, joined with Sir William Shareshull, Sir Henry Greene, and Sir William Thorpe, in the Kings Commission, to hear and determine of the felony and misdemeanour of Thomas Lild, Bishop of that Diocess, who was not only esteemed accessary to the death of William Holmes, Servant to the Lady Wake of Lydell, that was killed by his Offi∣cer Ralph Carcless, She being a Princess of that time eminent for great birth as well as Beauty, and rare Qualities, and the Daughter of Henry Plantagenet Earl of Lancaster; but that moreover stood in great and exemplary Contempt against the King himself. For the demeanor of Sir Simon in which matter in his duty and compliance to the Kings Commands and Interest, he incurred with the rest of the Commissioners, the several censures and indignation of the Pope, which proceeded even to Excommunication, and other great Penalties, from which his merit towards the King by his Conduct in that Affair, nor the Power of so great a Prince was able to protect him.
He did finally give and grant, in the eighteenth year of King Edward the Third, unto Robert, the Prior of the Church of Saint Maries of Pavenston, and to the Covent of that place, two parts of his Mannor of Stoke-Goldington, with the Advowson of the Church of that Town, out of Devotion to God and the Blessed Virgin, and for the good of his Soul to be there prayed for, and for the Souls of his Ancestors and Bene∣factors. His Wife was Margaret Daughter to Sir John and Sister to Sir Gilbert of Lindsey. Their Issue,
* Sir John of Drayton.
