Gayton, Northamptonshire
| Gayton | |
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 Gayton Manor: A splendid Tudor manor house, built by Sir Francis Tanfield |
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 Gayton
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| Gayton shown within Northamptonshire | |
| Population | 544 (2011 census) |
| OS grid reference | SP704547 |
| • London | 69 miles (111 km) |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NORTHAMPTON |
| Postcode district | NN7 |
| Dialling code | 01604 |
| Police | Northamptonshire |
| Fire | Northamptonshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament |
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Gayton is a rural village 5 miles (8 km) from Northampton town centre in South Northamptonshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 544. It is situated on a hill close to the larger villages of Bugbrooke, Milton Malsor and Blisworth, with a linked public footpath network.
Sited near Watling Street, the ancient way from the ports of Kent to Wroxeter, Gayton was not recorded in the Domesday Book survey of 1086 but was probably the unnamed settlement in the Hundred of Towcester held by the knight Sigar of Chocques, who came from the village of that name near Béthune in the north of France. By 1162 it had passed to his relation Robert V of Béthune, being inherited in turn by his eldest son Robert VI, by his second son William II, by William's eldest son Daniel and then by Daniel's younger brother. This was Robert VII, who in 1242 sold the manor along with virtually all his other English properties to Robert of Guines. In 1248 Robert sold Gayton to Ingram of Fiennes, who in 1270 passed it to Michael of Northampton, a cleric.
Sir Philip de Gayton (d.1316), had a daughter named Scholastica de Gayton (d.1354) and she was said to have murdered her husband. She had a sister called Julianna who bore a child known as Mabila. Julianna later met her fate by burning as it was decided that she was a witch. The facts of this tale have become somewhat confused over the centuries but the de Gayton tombs are in the village church.
Sir Francis Tanfield(d.1558), governor of Lord Falkland’s Colony of Newfoundland, Canada 1623–25 built the Manor House in the village in the early 17th century and this house has some similarity to Sir Thomas Tresham's at Lyveden New Bield. It is probable that Sir Francis was the son of Clement Tanfield and his wife, Anne, of Gayton. He was born in 1565 and was knighted in July 1603 and, in September, accompanied the new ambassador, Lord Spencer, to the court of the Duke of Württemberg, now part of southern Germany. The Hughes of Gwerclas family, a Welsh family of native royal blood, resided at the Manor House during the late 18th Century.
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