PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



MAXEY 



chamberlain of the abbey which had formerly belonged 

 to William de Goldingham,' and from land in Nunton 

 he assigned a few years later rents to the chapel of 

 St. Mary in Maxey.' Nunton from henceforth 

 probably followed the descent of the manor of Maxey ; 

 the name occurs frequently in accounts referring to 

 that manor,' and it is now in possession of Mr. George 

 Fitzwilliam, lord of the manor of Maxey.* 



The advowson originally belonged to 

 jIDFOIVSON Roger de Torpel, or was claimed by 

 him, for in 1 190 he released to the 

 abbot of Peterborough all right in the church of 

 Maxey.' The vicarage of Maxey was ordained in 

 1 191, and the church assigned to the office of almoner 

 of the monaster)' for the maintenance of hospitality.' 

 During the abbacj' of Acharius there was a petition of 

 the parishioners of Maxey, headed by Geoffrey, son of 

 Ralf of Lolham, against the use of Maxey churchyard 

 as a road for the carts and animals belonging to the 

 almoner, and the churchyard was in consequence 

 enclosed at the expense of the parishioners.' The 

 advowson was granted to the present patrons, the dean 

 and chapter, in 1541,* and they appear to have 

 generally leased both the right of presentation and 

 profits of the rectory until the beginning of the 19th 

 centur)'.' 



The church hall on the south boundary of the 

 churchyard was the house belonging to the rectory. 

 In 1 65 1 it was sold to Charles Skipwith by the 

 commissioners for the sale of bishops' lands, having 

 been in the tenure of John Hatcher, to whom it had 

 been leased by the dean and chapter with the tithes . 

 of the rectory.'" 



It has contained a hall, parlour, and kitchen, with 

 chambers over, and belongs in part to the 15th cen- 

 tury, though now divided into three cottages. The 

 old vicarage house forms part of the present vicarage, 

 which stands in the village at some distance from the 

 church. It is a small 15th-century building, measur- 

 ing 39 ft. by 20 ft. over all. 



There was a chantry in the chapel of St. Mary at 

 Maxey founded at the end of the reign of Edward III 

 by Sir Robert of Thorpe." The chapel of St. Mary of 

 Maxey had been endowed in 1277 by Geoffrey de la 

 Mare with land in Maxey and Northborough ; " this 

 grant probably accounts for the statement in the 

 certificate of I 548 that the chantry was founded by 

 Geoffrey de la Mare and Robert of Thorpe," though 

 there is no mention of a chantrj' in Geoffrey's grant. 

 In I 548 it was served by William Brughe, 'unlearned, 

 and with no other living,' and people were houseled 

 to the number of 180." 



There appears to be another chantry in this parish 

 in a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin half a mile 

 from the parish church,''' and near the old manor 

 house, with which it was closely connected, for the 



salary of the chaplain is mentioned in the ministers' 

 accounts of Maxey." There is no record of the 

 foundation of this chapel, and no trace of the build- 

 ings now remains. In I 549 a grant was made by the 

 king to William Cecil of 'a site and capital messuage 

 of the former chantry of Maxey,' and a ' small chapel 

 and the cemetery in which the chapel stands,' and 

 various lands and rents in Maxey and the surround- 

 ing districts." It appears possible that the posses- 

 sions of the two foundations may have been granted 

 together in this patent. 



The church of St. Peter and St. Paul " 

 CHURCH has a chancel with north chapel and south 

 vestry, nave with aisles and south porch, 

 and west tower overlapped on the south side by the 

 aisle. The tower is the oldest existing part of the 

 church, probably not later than I 1 10, and was 

 attached to an aisleless nave, of which the western 

 angles still exist. A north aisle was added about 1125, 

 and a south aisle and clearstory some forty years later. 

 Of the early chancel no traces remain, but the present 

 chancel was begun about 1 2 1 0—20, a north chapel 

 being added to it late in the same century, and about 

 1280 its south wall was rebuilt a little to the south of 

 its former line, and a small vaulted vestry added at the 

 south-east angle. Both aisles of the nave were 

 rebuilt in the 14th century, and the north chapel 

 probably at the end of the same centur)-. The latest 

 addition is the belfry stage of the tower, which belongs 

 to the 15th century ; the west window of the tower 

 and a vice in the north-west angle were built at or 

 about the same time. The present clearstory was 

 added in the 15 th century, and the south door of the 

 nave belongs to c. 1 500. The church underwent 

 'restoration' in 1863. 



The chancel has a late I jth-century e.ist window 

 of three cinquefoiled lights inserted in an early 13th- 

 century wall, which retains the springing of a high- 

 pitched gable, destroyed when the roof-pitch was 

 lowered in the 15th century. The original angle 

 buttresses are now destroyed, but a central dwarf 

 buttress below the east window and an external string 

 at the level of the sill have survived unaltered. Inside 

 there is a string in a similar position, and to the south 

 of the window a late 1 3th-century piscina, placed here 

 because its normal position at the east end of the south 

 wall is taken up by a doorway to the vestrj-. 



In the north wall is a 14th-century arch of two 

 moulded orders, having filleted shafts in the responds 

 and moulded capitals and bases. In the south wall of 

 the chancel are two two-light windows, that to the 

 east, r. 1280, having trefoiled lights and a six foiled 

 circle in the head with a wide inner splay and pointed 

 segmental rear-arch with 3 label ; the other has tre- 

 foiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head, and filleted 

 shafts in the jambs with foliate capitals of early 14th- 



^ Snc. Antiq. MS. No, 381, fol. 57^. 

 ' Close, 46 Edw. Ill, i.zJ. 

 » Mins. Accts. 3-+ Hen. VIII, No. 84 

 ct scq. 



* A little land in Maxey, with some in 

 Northborough, formed a manor held by 

 Peterborough Abbey. For history see 

 Northborough. 



5 Soc. Anticj. MS. No. j8, foL 44. 



* S'wapham^ pp. 77-78. 

 ^ Ibid. p. 103. 



' Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 14-17. 



' Account dated 27 Hen. VIII, in 

 custody of the dean and chapter of 

 Peterborough j Feet of F. Northants. 



Trin. 23 Chas. 11 ; Ibid. East, i Geo. I ; 

 Sweeting, Maxey^ p. 5. 



>» Close, 1651, pt. lii. No. 3. 



" Pat. 41 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 9 ; Harl. 

 Chart. 56, I 32 ; Line. Epis. Reg. Uuck. 

 86. 



" Harl. Chart. 43, G 27. 



" Chant. Cert. 35, No. 34. 



'' Ibid. It is stated in the l-'alar Eccl. 

 (Rec. Com. p. 286) that this chantry was 

 founded by Henry, duke of Richmond, 

 but this does not appear to have been the 

 case. 



" Chan. Cert. 36, No. 19. 



" Mins. Accts. 27-8 Hen. VIII, No. 

 10. 



'7 Pat. 2 Edw. VI, pt. V, m. n-18. 



^ The full dedication appears to have 

 been St. Peter and St. Paul. Ronald 

 Malison in IJIJ left his body to be 

 buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and 

 St. Paul in Maicy (Bk. A, fol. 158). 

 John Bum (1537) mentions the church- 

 yard of the * Apostulls Peter and Paul in 

 Maxsey' (Bk. F, fol. 65. Wills in North- 

 ampton Probate Office). In the Peter- 

 borough records, however, St. Peter alone 

 is mentioned as the patron saint. 



64 



