Domesday
In the Domesday Book Hooton Roberts is listed with Denaby among the property of Roger de Busli. Before the Conquest three Saxons, Wulfheah, Ulfketill and Ulfketill, had held lands here. Domesday records a mill site here but it is not possible to say whether this was at Hooton or Denaby. In the late 13th century the manor was in two halves, held by the families of Tinsley and de Hooton. The “Roberts” portion of the name probably derives from Robert de Hooton, father and son, who held half the manor in the 13th century. The two families were later united and, in the reign of Edward 11, Isabella de Tinsley married William de Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse. From this marriage the manor descended in a direct line to the Earls Fitzwilliam.
14th Century
In the 1379 Poll Tax returns, the resident lord of the manor was James Clarel, esq. He was assessed at 40d. There were two substantial tradesmen among the 57 tax payers; William de Hoton, husbandman and draper, and Thomas de Wyntworth, husbandman and mercer, assessed at 12d. The presence of these two plus William Webster, weaver, shows that there was then a woollen industry in the village.
Earl of Strafford
For several centuries the house at Hooton Roberts was the dower house of the Wentworth family, where the widow would retire when he son inherited the main house at Wentworth. The last of the Wentworths to live at Hooton was the widow of Thomas, Earl of Strafford. She retired to Hooton after her husband’s execution in 1641, living there quietly with her daughter until her death in 1688. She was buried in Hooton Roberts church, having, by her will, forbidden any monument to be erected to her. Her husband’s body was reputed to have been returned to Wentworth after his execution and buried in the church there.
In 1895, however, an examination of his tomb revealed that it had never contained a body. In the early years of the present century, during excavations for a drain in the chancel at Hooton Roberts, a coffin was found containing the skeleton of a man. Examination showed that one of the vertebrae had been severed. The same excavations also uncovered two female skeletons, and elderly woman and a teenage girl. These discoveries led to speculation that the Countess had secretly had her husband’s body interred at Hooton and that both she and her daughter had been buried next to him.
Church
Although Hunter refers to “Saxon capitals” within the parish church, the foundation seems to date from c1100. The structure was badly damaged by fire in 1700 and the surviving north wall was incorporated in the new church. The fire also destroyed the parish registers and other records. Within the church are memorials to Charles Newby (d.1701) and to members of the Kent family. The church plate includes a 16th century silver chalice from Mexico or Peru. This was purchased by Rev. R.A. Gatty. Rev. Gatty had an extensive collection of Jacobean and earlier oak furniture in the Rectory which was sold by auction after his death in 1914.
As late as the 1960s all the buildings in the parish, with the exception of the church, rectory and school, belonged to the Wentworth Estate.
Population
The population reached a peak of 241 in 1861. Thereafter the population declined, apart from a brief climb in the 1930s, to a low of 103 in 1981. Recent building in the village, including the conversion of barns into houses, has seen the population rise again to 156 in 1991.
(Extracted from:- R.M.B.C, Patchwork of parishes, 1997)
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