In the early 15th century William Furtho (d. 1457) appears to have been the first of the family to make larger additions to the estate, notably the lands of Henry Wikemill in 1435-9, which included the manor of Yardley Gobion, and an estate in Cosgrove bought from John Knight in 1446-8. In 1504 Potterspury tithing had land in Quarry Field and Middle Field (but not Moors Field), and in South Mead and Bidwell (or Marford) Meadow. The Quarry Field land lay partly in Furtho and partly in Cosgrove; the rest was entirely in Cosgrove.
In 1505 the demesne of the manor had 300 a. of arable and 100 a. of pasture, some of which lay in Old Stratford. The manor also had 30 a. of meadow and 12 a. of wood, shared between Furtho and Cosgrove. By the end of the 15th century, however, the whole of the manor was regarded as being held of the Duchy of Lancaster, which remained the position until 1622. These brooks have been interpreted as fishponds; alternatively one of them may have stored water for the mill which is mentioned in 1535 but was out of use by 1605. The Act of 1541 establishing the honor of Grafton annexed to it all the Crown's lands in Furtho, and in the later 16th century officials considered that the Furtho family's estate there was held of the honor, although the Act specifically reserved the rights of the Duchy of Lancaster, of which the manor had previously been regarded as parcel.
One consequence of the depopulation and consolidation was the abandonment of the water-mill on Cuttle brook, to which there appear to be no medieval references. In 1535 Anthony Furtho and Elizabeth his wife bought from Thomas Elliott of Wolverton (Bucks.) the unexpired term of 29 years in his lease of Cuttle mill in Furtho, agreeing that their tenant John Ames of Stony Stratford, cooper, would pay the rent of 26s. 8d. Bridges may be recording inaccurate folk memory of an agreement made in 1572 between Thomas Furtho and the same freeholders to whom he gave 20 acres in the common fields in exchange for their plots in the village when he inclosed the demesnes, by which the villagers released their right of passage over an ancient way leading from Cosgrove through the manor of Furtho to Watling Street. The modern road from Old Stratford to Northampton formed in two places the boundary of Furtho parish, where it is described as either 'Northampton way' or the 'highway' in 1593. Similarly, 'the Queen's highway that leads to Northampton' appears as an abuttal in the same part of the parish in 1578.
The creation of a consolidated demesne and the demolition of the houses in the village seems to have been largely complete by 1524, when the tenant of the manor was responsible for all but 8d. of the township's lay subsidy assessment of 40s. 8d. The process was probably completed by Thomas Furtho, who in 1571-2, as well as stopping up a highway through the village, acquired small parcels of land from about a dozen freeholders, who received in exchange 20 acres in the common fields of Cosgrove and Furtho. He made at least one further exchange a few years later, in 1578, and also persuaded the rector of Cosgrove, Christopher Emerson, to part with some of his glebe which lay in Furtho parish. This arrangement was confirmed by his successor William Bradshaw in 1600 but regarded as damaging to the living by the next rector in 1633. Thomas further enlarged his family's estate in both Furtho and neighbouring parishes by piecemeal purchases, including the former hermitage and chapel in Old Stratford; the former Snelshall priory estate at Brownswood Green in Passenham and Cosgrove; the adjoining woodland called Brownswood; and a capital messuage in Cosgrove bought from Robert Lee. His son Edward made yet more purchases, including what appears to have been the remainder of the hermitage estate; land in Yardley and Potterspury, where the family already owned the manor of Yardley; another capital messuage and other premises in Cosgrove; and a parcel of coppice wood alongside Watling Street called Knotwood.
The Furtho family of Furtho acquired a small estate in Passenham by piecemeal purchase during the 15th century, which at the death of William Furtho in 1504 and of his son Anthony in 1558 was said to be held of the Duchy of Lancaster and to be worth 4s. 4d. a year. Thomas Furtho made additional purchases in Passenham, Cosgrove and Furtho, including the old hermitage in Old Stratford and the former Snelshall priory lands at Brownswood Green. In the early 17th century the family's estate in Passenham was said to consist of two assarts (Hanging Sart and Coxe Stocking), a house in Old Stratford, and an acre of land in the common fields. After the death of the last Edward Furtho in 1621 the Passenham lands appear to have been allotted with the family's home manor of Furtho in the share of the estate taken by his sister Anne and her husband Anthony Staunton of Great Brickhill (Bucks.), who a few years later sold their portion to Sir Robert Banastre. The premises would thus have been merged with the manorial estate at Passenham, which Banastre acquired at about the same time.
Bridges attributed the depopulation of Furtho to inclosures carried out by Edward Furtho in the reign of James I. Bridges also claimed that as part of the process of inclosure Edward Furtho moved the line of the Northampton road, which previously ran through the village of Furtho, some distance to the east. In modern times, two footpaths left Watling Street to the north of Old Stratford, united about half a mile from Manor Farm, and ran up to the site of the village, from where a path continued northward to join the main road to Northampton about a mile from Yardley Gobion. The paths near Watling Street are presumably the 'two highways leading towards Kettering' between which in 1610 lay five closes which had once belonged to the hermitage of Old Stratford, unlikely to have been part of the main road from London to Northampton.
The church of St. Batholomew comprises a chancel, nave and west tower. The church was extensively rebuilt, especially the nave and the tower, by Edward Furtho in 1620, as an inscription on the exterior of the south side of the nave records. The basically medieval chancel has 13th- and 14thcentury windows, and internally a piscina, tomb-recess and image-brackets of similar date; its oldest feature, a plain round-headed south doorway with a double-chamfered hoodmould on crude head-stops, may be re-set. The positioning of the 1620 tower, partly within the western bay of the remodelled nave, created a curious pair of 'lobbies' to the west of the new tower arch. The nave and tower windows, the chancel and tower arches, and the nave roof are of 1620, in a simple 'Perpendicular survival' style. There is a false roof with a steeper pitch, moulded tie beams, purlins and ridge. On the north side of the chancel there is a marble monument, which once contained brass figures of a man and his two wives and probably commemorated Anthony Furtho (d. 1558), who was twice married. On the opposite side of the chancel is a monument to Edmund Arnold (d. 1676), which was renewed in 1758 and possibly at other times.
In 1625 the Stauntons sold Furtho to Sir Robert Banastre, a Crown official who had then recently purchased Passenham from the Duchy of Lancaster, which he made his home. Sir Robert settled Furtho on his son and heir apparent (by his first wife) Lawrence at the time of his marriage to Margaret, the daughter of Sir John Dynham of Boarstall (Oxon.), in 1632.
In the early 1630s, when the honor was mortgaged to Sir Francis Crane, his Potterspury rental was charged with a quit rent of 6s. 9d. due from Sir Robert Banastre for Furtho, and in the 1660s Queen Catherine's officials noted that both Thomas Furtho and his son Edward (d. 1620), as well as Sir Robert, had paid quit rents to the manor of Moor End. In 1668 Lord Maynard's son made an agreement with Edmund Arnold concerning the quit rent of 6s. 9d. due to the Crown. Edmund Arnold's will of 1675 included a bequest of 50s. to the poor of Furtho, who, as he observed, were few in number. The parish did not benefit from the endowed charity he established by his will.
John Ogilby's map of the road from London to Northampton in 1675 shows the modern route from Old Stratford to Yardley Gobion, with no hint that the road once passed through Furtho, and it was this alignment that was turnpiked in 1768. The road given up by the freeholders of Furtho in 1572 is essentially part of an eastwest route from Cosgrove to Potterspury which continues past Manor Farm to leave the parish at what was known in both 1593 and 1835 as Potterspury Field Gate. Another path branches from the bridleway to run past the entrance to the parish church, through the site of the medieval village and, following the line of Cuttle brook, ends near Potterspury church. This path was called 'Hanslope Way' in 1593, Part of the south-eastern boundary of Furtho parish was represented in the 19th century by a footpath running parallel with the Northampton road from near Dogsmouth bridge past Rectory Farm to Yardley Road, from where a motor road continues northward to Castlethorpe. Most of the land of the parish outside the village was cultivated as part of a field system shared with Cosgrove which was inclosed under an Act of 1767- much of it paralleled the main Northampton road.
In 1686 the glebe included a house, barn, stable and gardens said to adjoin the king's highway on the west. This must refer to the house on the Furtho side of Watling Street at the northern end of Old Stratford village, which appears always to have been a farmhouse, rather than a parsonage. The premises seem to have stood close to, if not on the site of, the former hermitage of Old Stratford, whose buildings were added after the Dissolution to the Furtho family's estate. There is no evidence for a medieval parsonage near the church and, although the rector conveyed some land to the Furtho estate when the demesne was inclosed in 1571-2, there is no indication that a house was lost at the same time.
The manor of Furtho, consisting of the manor house and a farm of about 290 acres, continued to be conveyed from time to time to new trustees and remained the property of the Arnold Charity at the time of writing. Of the medieval manorial buildings only a 15th-century dovecote survives near the church, in what was once the front garden of the manor house.In addition to using local limestone, Furtho was bringing stone from Weldon, near Corby, for dressing the doors, windows and chimneys.In about 1670, when the house appears to have been extensively repaired, there were three main rooms on the ground floor, with a small central room (perhaps no more than a rather wide screens passage) flanked by a hall and kitchen, behind which was a brewhouse. A range containing a stable and barn stood at right-angles to the house at its western end. Repairs to the house were carried out in 1724-5, in 1753, when a new ceiling was installed in the 'great parlour' and covered with 'stucco mortar', and in 1771, when a new brewhouse was added at the east end of the house. Until the remainder of Cosgrove and Furtho was inclosed under the Act of 1767 the glebe included land in Moors Field, Middle Field and Quarry Field, as well as common meadows and leys.
Either the same Walter or a namesake witnesses local deeds down to the early 1280s, when he was succeeded by his son Adam, who died in or shortly before 1320, when his widow Hawise de la Mare from a Dicton, Danbury Yorkshire family leased her dower in the estate to their son and heir William. He died in 1323, when he was succeeded by his brother Henry, who in 1338 settled the manor on feoffees to the use of himself, his wife Sarah, and their son William and his wife Margaret, shortly after making provision for two other daughters, Dionisia and Isabel. Both Henry and his son William evidently died in May 1349, when William's widow Margaret settled the manor on feoffees only a forthnight after her father-in-law had acted as a witness of an unrelated deed.
The manor was still in the hands of one of Margaret's feoffees, her brother-in-law John, in 1357, and in 1358 Westbury Sir Walter de Paveley was granted the wardship of William, son and heir of William Furtho. The younger William was of age by 1364 and was still alive in 1376, when his feoffees made provision for his younger son John. William must have died in 1383 or shortly before, for in July that yeare Queen Anne granted the wardship and marriage of his son and heir, also named William, to John Woodville. The younger William, who had come of age by 1389, died between 1411 and 1413 and was succeeded by a son of the same name, who in 1428 held half a fee in Furtho. In 1453 William Furtho conveyed his estates in Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire to feoffees to hold to the uses of his will, in which they were instructed to settle the Northamptonshire estate on his son William and his heirs male, with successive remainders to his younger son Thomas Furtho of Stony Stratford, John Furtho, citizen and draper of London, and John son of William Furtho of Stony Stratford. William died in London in 1457 and in the event Furtho passed to Thomas in 1472. The manor was leased out by new feoffees in 1484.
Thomas Furtho's widow Margaret Fleming died in 1499, leaving their son William as her heir. He died only four years later, leaving a widow Catherine, the daughter of William Hartwell, and a son and heir Anthony, aged 9. Catherine later married Thomas Brookesby, who paid almost the whole of Furtho's assessment to the lay subsidy of 1524 and presented to the living between 1507 and 1526; she herself, widowed again, presented in 1548 and 1552. Anthony died in 1558, leaving a son and heir Thomas, who in 1562 married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Watson of Rockingham. Two years later he was in dispute with his mother Elizabeth, who claimed that Anthony had promised her a life interest in his estate. Thomas, who was dead by 1600, was succeeded by his son Edward, who died in 1620, leaving an heir of the same name, then aged 23. The younger Edward Furtho died without issue only a yeare later, leaving two sisters as his coheirs: Anne, the wife of Anthony Staunton of Great Brickhill (Bucks.), and Nightingale, the wife of Samuel Mansel of Haversham (Bucks.). In 1623 the estate was partitioned between them, when Anne and Anthony took the manor of Furtho as part of their share, although there was a dispute the following yeare when the Mansels accused the Stauntons of carrying away plate and other goods from Edward's house in Cosgrove. Samuel Mansel had already been in dispute with Edward concerning his father's will, while Staunton had tried to prevent the younger Edward's executors paying a legacy to a woman who claimed to have been engaged to be married to him when he died. (to DYNHAM branch)
Lawrence died in 1637, leaving Furtho to trustees to sell to pay his debts. The will, however, was judged invalid, since part of his estate was held in chief. Two years later his son and heir, Dynham Banastre, died aged five, whereupon Lawrence's two infant daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth, became coheirs to their father's estate, which was already in the hands of the Court of Wards. In 1640 an agreement was reached whereby Sir Robert Banastre purchased the family's Northamptonshire estate from Dynham's heirs for a sufficient sum to raise portions for his two granddaughters. Sir Robert died in December 1649, two months after his daughter (by his third wife) Dorothy, the wife of William, 2nd Lord Maynard. By his will Sir Robert left his Northamptonshire estate to Dorothy and William's son Banastre Maynard, who in 1666 sold Furtho to Edmund Arnold, a successful civil lawyer originally from Nether Heyford. Maynard also sold at least one small parcel of freehold land separately at the same date. Arnold died without issue in 1676, leaving Furtho to his widow Mary for her life. After her death it was to pass to trustees to hold to various charitable uses, including the payment of sums to the poor and for apprenticing boys from Nether and Upper Heyford, Stowe-Nine Churches, Weedon Beck, Stony Stratford and St. Giles, Northampton; £20 yearly towards the maintenance of poor scholars at Merton College, Oxford; a similar sum towards the maintenance of a minister to preach at Stony Stratford; and £10 yearly to the incumbent of Potterspury.
The Falcon Inn stood at the north-west corner of the crossroads, where again a building existed in the early 17th century. The owner c. 1630 was Christopher Reeve, who had been succeeded by a man named Gibson by 1635. George Emmerson was the owner by 1653; either he or a namesake was still there in 1700. Between 1702 and 1707 a quit rent due to the manor of Furtho was paid by Goody Hillier, who had been succeeded by 1711 by Margaret Hillier, who died in 1715. John Hobbs was the owner by 1725; after his death in 1736 the inn passed to his widow Judith, who died in 1751, when it was inherited by Edward Forfett, a London limner, whose brother John had married the Hobbses' daughter Phyllis. During this period a fire, in May 1742, destroyed three houses standing on tofts adjoining the inn. It closed shortly before the First World War and by 1925 the buildings had been demolished to improve the road junction.
An inn whose site cannot be located (although it stood on the Cosgrove side of Watling Street) was the White Lion, bought by Thomas Penn in 1636 and sold by him to John Wooddell, a London innholder, in 1647. Two years later Wooddell conveyed the property to John Hobbs of Old Stratford, who married Thomas Penn's daughter Mary and died in 1654. The White Lion later passed to his nephew William Hobbs, who in 1688 left the property to his wife Mary and then to four sons. A house which definitely stood on the Cosgrove side of the main road is described as the Welch Harp (suggesting that it had once been an inn) between 1689 and 1717, when it belonged to the Penn and Webb families.
At the western end of the village, on the Passenham side of Watling Street, a building stood in the early 17th century on the site later occupied by the Black Horse inn, which in 1871 was said to have been licensed for over fifty years. The pub lost its licensed in 1920 and two years later the owners, Phipps of Northampton, sold the building, which was subsequently demolished, leaving the Swan inn, near the north-eastern corner of the crossroads, as Old Stratford's only pub.Of other trades and crafts, there was a potash kiln in Old Stratford in 1713 operated by Stephen Holwell; it burnt down in about 1745 and a house was built on the site. Another kiln appears to have been newly built on the Cosgrove side of Watling Street in 1758, when it was occupied by James Hall. In 1759-61 it was in the hands of William Hobbs and from 1762 until at least 1772 the occupier was John Pinfold. In the early 1830s the former Saracen's Head inn, which for several years had been a private house, became a boys' school called the Belvidere Academy (or Belvidere House), conducted initially by John Lathbury as a tenant of the Clarke family, who had owned the house since 1753.
After his death, Edmund Arnold's heir-atlaw, Thomas Arnold of Heyford, the son and heir of Thomas Arnold, who was the son of Edmund Arnold's eldest brother Thomas, challenged the will, without success. After Edmund's widow, who married Sir George Etheridge, died in 1692, the Attorney-General began an action against his surviving trustees and Thomas Arnold, alleging that they had frustrated the testator's wishes and failed to establish the charities set out in his will. In 1694 the court of Chancery barred the heir from any of the surplus income from the estate, over and above the amount given to charity in the will, ruling that Arnold intended to leave the whole of his estate to charity, and instructed his trustees to make payments as directed. The following yeare new trustees were appointed, who began to make such payments. Thomas Arnold made a further appeal to the court in 1697, which was turned down, and failed in an appeal to the House of Lords in 1698.
In the early 17th century Edward Furtho's estate in Furtho itself (presumably meaning the lands belonging to the manor), was worth about £200 a year, including the site of the manor with its orchards, gardens and closes, which was generally kept in hand. Most of the income came from about a dozen parcels of inclosed pasture and meadow, together with small sums from tithes paid to Furtho dues from Hardley Field (in Potterspury), a 30 a. farm with land in the common fields of Cosgrove and Furtho, a cottage in the village of Cosgrove which lay in Furtho parish, and the former hermitage at Old Stratford. A further £100 a yeare came from what was described as an estate in 'Cosgrove with Furtho and Old Stratford' (most of which seems to have been in Cosgrove), and smaller sums from Yardley, Potterspury and Passenham, as well as Stony Stratford, and Calverton (Bucks.), and Eaton Socon (Beds.).
In 1814-20 the farmhouse and outbuildings were extensively repaired and partly rebuilt, and several of the fields on the farn subdivided and improved, at a cost of about £2,000. By 1839 both the house and all the adjoining buildings were stone built, mostly with slate roofs, although one of the barns and some sheds were thatched, as were three timberbuilt cowhouses out in one of the fields.
Until 1883, when the area was added to Cosgrove, a small part of the village of Old Stratford formed a detached outlier of Furtho, which was said in the 1720s to contain four houses and in the 1830s two. The land of the parish of Furtho, which is covered almost entirely by Boulder Clay, rises from about 220 ft. above sea level in the south to about 280 ft. in the north and just over 300 ft. on its eastern boundary. There is evidence to suggest that in the early Middle Ages Cosgrove and Furtho formed a single estate, and that possibly such an estate had once also included the later parish of Potterspury. Old Stratford had no charities of its own but shared in those belonging to Cosgrove and Passenham.