A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



or shipwreck. Each gild member, in contributing to the funds of the fra- 

 ternity, felt that he was providing for himself against a rainy day. 



Gilds increased rapidly in numbers and popularity in the fourteenth and 

 fifteenth centuries, and at the time of their suppression every town church of 

 any note possessed several, and a very large number of the county churches 

 boasted one or more of these associations in which religion, thrift and good 

 fellowship were usefully blended. Thus the little village church of 

 Dallington, near Northampton, possessed two gilds — those of Our Lady 

 and of the Rood. All Saints', Northampton, had seven. ^ With the gilds, 

 chantries, and colleges there disappeared also the ' free-chapels ' at Ashton 

 in Oundle parish, Sutton in the parish of Weston by Welland, the chapel 

 of St. James at Higham Ferrers, and others ; while a specific endow- 

 ment for Teeton, which was a chapel of ease to Ravensthorpe, was also 

 seized by the crown. 



In this county, as elsewhere, the suppression of the gilds very seriously 

 crippled the resources of religion. The incumbents of the larger parishes 

 found it next to impossible, without the aid of the gild chaplains, to provide 

 adequately for the services ; while the church fabrics speedily fell into dis- 

 repair, the funds which for generations had been lavishly supplied for their 

 maintenance being suddenly cut off. It was chiefly owing to these losses that 

 Northampton borough, which had within its walls at the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century twelve parish churches (in addition to the various monastic 

 churches), retained at the end of the century only four. 



Economically, the suppression of the gilds deprived the members at one 

 blow of the provision that they had been laying up all their lives for sickness 

 or old age, destroyed a valuable social machinery, and greatly increased 

 pauperism.* 



In 1552 a further confiscation of Church property took place. Com- 

 missioners were sent round from parish to parish with instructions to make 

 an exact inventory of the vestments, sacred vessels, and ornaments in the 

 various churches, with a view to their appropriation by the crown. The 

 commissioners' returns with regard to the town of Northampton have been 

 lost,^ but a large number of those relating to the country churches are 

 still preserved at the Public Record Office, and show that Northamp- 

 tonshire was not a whit behind other counties in the beauty and value 

 of its church furniture and ecclesiastical vestments.* There is no evidence 

 that the proceeds of the plunder were actually used for any rehgious or even 

 national purpose. 



The condition of the diocese of Peterborough in the reign of Mary 

 presents several features of interest. Whatever the feeling of the laity may 

 have been, it is worthy of note that the Marian policy was accepted by the 

 clergy with far greater equanimity in the diocese of Peterborough than in 

 England at large. The average proportion of deprivations for conscience 



' For a full account of the gilds of this church see R. M. Serjeantson, Hisl. of All Saints', 40-6. 



■ The late Mr. J. Toulmin Smith, one of the greatest authorities on gilds, and a Nonconformist, describes 

 the suppression of the gilds and the confiscation of their property as 'a case of pure wholesale robbery and 

 plunder done by an unscrupulous faction to satisfy their greed under cover of law' (Eng/. Gilds, p. xlii). 



' It is true that one is still extant relating to the church of St. Edmund, but this is probably of a slightly 

 earlier date. 



* A graphic account of the general work of the commissioners is given in Dr. Augustus Jessop's Before 

 the Great Pillage. 



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