A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Taxatio of 129 1 ; one of these was for the soul of good Bishop Hugh Wells, 

 of Lincoln, who died in 1235. In the majority of cases a chantry would be 

 founded at an existing altar of the parish church, but not unfrequently the 

 east end of an aisle was rebuilt or a chancel chapel added for its better 

 accommodation. Usually chantries were enclosed within screens or parcloses, 

 and included special seats or provision for the founder and his family ; in this 

 way they were the precursors of the big ' hall pew.' Now and again 

 chantries were founded in the private chapel of the manor house. Occasion- 

 ally their foundation involved a separate building, at a distance from the 

 parish church, and such building became a regular parochial chapel, or some- 

 times, if the foundation secured immunity from all parochial control, a ' free 

 chapel.' 



It is quite a mistake, though a common one, to think that chantry priests 

 were as a rule mere mass priests ' with no parochial functions or responsi- 

 bilities.' ' The ordinations of these chantries frequently enjoin that the priest 

 or priests were to be present at the general offices of the church and to assist 

 the incumbent in sacramentals. Small schools were often attached to the 

 chantry, the priest being the parochial schoolmaster, as was the case at Aid- 

 winkle, Blisworth, Rothwell, etc. In other cases the chantry priest was the 

 chaplain of a gild or fraternity which had a temporal as well as a spiritual 

 mission to fulfil. 



The churches of the county that had definitely endowed chantries at the 

 time of their confiscation under Edward VI, were Great Addington, Aid- 

 winkle, Ashby St. Ledgers, Blisworth, Boughton, Brington, Brixworth (2), 

 Bulwick, Chalcombe, Charwelton, Clipston, Cogenhoe, Finedon, Green's Nor- 

 ton, Gretton, Harringworth, Kingsthorpe, Lowick, Marholm (2), Maxey, 

 Marston Trussell, Peterborough, Rothwell, Rushton, Spratton, Stamford Baron, 

 Towcester, and Weedon Beck, making a total of thirty chantries. In 1545 an 

 Act was passed (37 Hen. VIII, c. 4) ' for the Dissolution of the colleges, 

 chantries and Free chapels at the King's pleasure.' The reason given for 

 their suppression was that money was required for the king's wars, and that, 

 as many private patrons, availing themselves of the altered feeling of the 

 time, were seizing the property of the chantries, it would be better that 

 the money should go into the pocket of the king for the benefit of the whole 

 community.^ Only some half-dozen chantries and colleges fell under this Act, 

 two of them (the chantries at Aldwinkle and Lowick) being in Northamp- 

 tonshire. Shortly after the passing of the Act the king appears to have 

 changed his mind, for on dissolving Parliament he informed the House that 

 he intended to reform, not to destroy, the chantries. Henry died early in 

 1547, and one of the first proceedings of the new king's advisers was to pro- 

 cure the passing of a fresh Act (i Edw. VI, c. 14), handing over to the crown 

 the property of all chantries, colleges, fraternities and gilds. The reason now 

 given was an entirely new one, viz., that the saying of masses for the dead 

 was superstitious, but no promise was made for the continuance of the other 

 duties which chantry priests had discharged. The new Act was promptly 

 put in force, and the chantries were everywhere suppressed. 



' These are the words of the usually accurate historian Wakeman {Hist, of the Ch. of Eng!.). Their error 

 is obvious to every original inquirer into the subject of English chantries. See Cutts, Parish Priests, ^^.^S—j 2 ; 

 Page, Torkshire Chant. (Surtees Soc). 



* Leach, Engl. Schools at the Reformation, 6 1 . 



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