A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Mr. Nicholas do bring in an ordinance for settling Mr. Uty in the said 

 living.' ^ 



Previous to this, on 1 1 June, the Northamptonshire Sequestration Com- 

 mittee recorded the appointment of Charles Newton, M.A., to the rectory 

 of Burton Latimer, which had been sequestrated from Dr. Sibthorpe ' for 

 that he hath wholly deserted the cure of the said church and betaken himself 

 to the forces raised against the Parliament.' In the same month Richard 

 Trewman, M.A., was appointed to the rectory of Church Brampton, inasmuch 

 as Mr. Canon had absented himself from the cure for ' neere a twelvemonth.* 



From the very full minutes of the County Sequestration Committee for 

 1644 we find that far the greater part of their business was concerned with 

 the estates of laymen, but that from time to time ministerial appointments 

 came before them. These half dozen Puritan county gentlemen had full 

 power to act in such cases, apparently consulting the parishioners now and 

 again, if they were of like tendencies. Their resolutions required, however, 

 the sanction of Parliament. The following are the daily matters of that 

 kind with which they dealt in 1644, there being no trace of the existence 

 of any Presbyterian classis or assembly. On 6 August they wrote to 

 Mrs. Campion, of Holcot : ' We desire you would come over to us on 

 Thursday next to treate with us about the setting of an honest and painfull 

 minister to supply the cure at Holcott.' On 14 August a certificate was 

 forwarded to the inhabitants of Castle Ashby to the effect that, ' We doe 

 approve of and appoint that William Huett shall supply the cure of the 

 parish church of Ashby, and that there be farther order given that he shall 

 have for his pains therein the same money which Michael Balls is to pay for 

 the crop of corne and hay in the open fielde there.' Mr. Hewitt evidently 

 met with some resistance, for on 1 9 September the clerk to the committee 

 sent peremptory orders to the wardens of Ashby to deliver up the key of 

 the church door to Mr. Hewitt, to give him quiet entrance, and in no way 

 to hinder him from praying, preaching, and officiating in the church. In 

 the same month Dr. Dillon's parsonage of Farthingstone was sequestrated for 

 his delinquency. In October Archibald Symmer was appointed to the rectory 

 of Boughton, in the place of John Andrews, who was alleged to have 

 deserted the cure and joined the forces against the Parliament. In Novem- 

 ber another rectory was sequestrated, because the incumbent, who had obtained 

 a licence from the Parliament to go to ' the Spawe ' for his health, was still 

 in England in disguise at the king's quarters. On an earlier occasion the 

 committee invited Mr. Rainsford to come over to treat about Guilsborough 

 vicarage, the townsmen to have notice to accompany him if they pleased. 



The Lambeth Palace library contains a most interesting series of eccle- 

 siastical documents of the time of the Commonwealth. In pursuance of 

 various ordinances of the Parliament, a complete survey of the possessions 

 of bishops and deans and chapters, as well as of all benefices, was begun in 

 1650, and continued over several years by special commissioners. The 

 original surveys were transmitted to the trustees nominated for the manage- 

 ment of this property. 



These surveys have hitherto for the most part been strangely neglected. 

 This has been the case with those for Northamptonshire, which was one of 



' Commons Journals, iii, 603. 

 56 



