POLEBROOK HUNDRED 



OUNDLE 



nominated by the abbots till the Dissolution, and 

 by the Crown (except possibly during the lease to 

 Mildmav mentioned above) until 1 869, when this 

 advowson was exchanged with the bishop of Peter- 

 borough for that of Harpenden, Herts. 



The Rectory manor has been noticed above. 

 In 1535 the vicar had £1^ 6s. M. a year ; and there 

 were two cliantry priests, each receiving loSs. 8d. 

 (8 marks).'- Lights in the church had an endow- 

 ment of i8r/.'' 



In 1636 Walter Kirkliani of Fincshade left £10 a 

 year, charged on his estate at Elmington, to maintain 

 daily service at Oundle at 7 in the morning and 5 in 

 the evening ; but the service was not rendered and 

 the money ceased to be paid.'* 



Henry Bedell, vicar of Southwick, in 1692, was son 

 of ' Captain Bedell of Oundle, who died in 1693 •'•n'^ 

 left an estate in reversion to the value of ^£140 a year 

 (after the death of his son) to remain in perpetual 

 augmentation of the vicarage of Oundle, on condition 

 of paying ;^I5 a year to his sister for her life and ^^300 

 to other relatives. ''■> 



In 1710 the vicar had the 20 marks from Mr. 

 \Valcott,the impropriator; also^^io for reading prayers 

 on Wednesdays and Fridays, and £30 under the will 

 of the late Sir E. Nichols." 



Jesus Church was built in 1879 at the west end of 

 the town by the late Mr. Watts Russell on or near 

 the site of the chapel of St. Thomas of Canterbury. 

 It was designed by Sir A. W'. Blomfield, and is in plan 

 a Greek cross with central octagonal tow^er or lantern 

 with pointed roof. It possesses a silver cup, paten 

 and flagon of 1878. 



There were chapels at Ashton, Elmington and 

 Churchfield in 1189,'^ but the two latter have dis- 

 appeared without leaving any history. In later 

 times, as already stated, there was a chapel at the 

 west end known as St. Thomas's ; its origin is un- 

 known, but it is mentioned in the rental of 1400,'* 

 and Leland records its new title of St. Mary, after 

 Henry VIII's prohibition of the ' traitor Thomas.' 

 What remained of it about 1700 is described by 

 Bridges." 



' John parson of Aston ' attested a local charter 

 next after John parson of Oundle, in 1248,-" but 

 may have been rector of some other church. The 

 chapel of St. Mary M.agdalen (.') was still in use in the 

 time of Henry \ III, as appears by a suit quoted above, 

 in which the small tithes of the township were shown 

 to have been given to the priest who served it. It 

 was desecrated shortly afterwards, and in 1548 the 

 cemetery and chapel of Ashton in Oundle, and the 

 cemetery and chapel of Oundle (probably St. Thomas's) 

 were sold by the crown to Francis Samwell, to be held 

 in socage as of the manor of Green's Norton.^' The 

 site is said to be that of the Manor House. A new 

 chapel and schoolhouse was built in 1708, under the 

 will of Jemima Creed, daughter of John Creed of 

 Oundle. 



Joan Wyot, widow of Robert Wyot, obtained the 



king's licence in 1499 to found a gild of St. Mary in the 

 parish church of Oundle, and endow it with lands to 

 the value of £10 a year for the maintenance of one 

 or more chaplams to celebrate for the soul of Robert 

 Wyot and for Joan herself and the members of the 

 gild, who might be both men and women.*^ Jqj,, 

 died in or before 1507, when her executors obtained a 

 further licence to alienate 32 messuages, 16 acres of 

 land and 10 acres of meadow in Oundle for the en- 

 dowment.^' The gildhouse stood in the churchyard 

 of Oundle, and was admired by Leland ; it was later 

 used as the home of the grammar school and alms- 

 house. In the time of I'hilip and Mary a rent of 10;. 

 came from the Gildhall, which abutted on a bake- 

 house called the Cornhill on the east, the churchyard 

 of St. Mary on the north, and lands of Lord Bedford 

 and — Rudston on the south and west. Before the 

 suppression of the gild certain poor folk had lodging 

 and allowances, and afterwards they were maintained 

 by the charity of the people. The executors of Sir 

 William Laxton desired to make a perpetual foundation 

 there, and in 1557 Lady Laxton agreed to pay £20 for 

 the building.2' The rest of the lands had been sold 

 in 1550.25 



Of the religious history of the place there is little 

 to be told. Among the presentments to the bishop 

 in 161 3 was one against Henry Wortley, who had 

 maintained that ' women had no souls but their shoe- 

 soles,' but recanted ; and another against William 

 Wortley for allowing a wizard to come into his house 

 to tell fortunes. 2* The vicars seem to have been 

 Puritans, Eusebius Paget being deprived for that 

 reason in 1573.^' His successor 'found the people 

 in a state of the most deplorable ignorance and pro- 

 faneness, living in the constant profanation of the 

 Lord's day by Whitsun ales, morris dances and other 

 ungodly sports. '2* At the archbishop's visitation in 

 1635 the church and churchyard were found to be 

 very much out of order. The schoolmaster (Mr. 

 Cobbes) was admonished for using a wrong catechism 

 and for expounding the Ten Commandments out of 

 the writings of a silenced minister; he refused to 

 bow at the name of Jesus. The ministers of the 

 deanery appearing, were, in general, canonical in their 

 habits, except those of the peculiars, of whom there 

 was but one in a priest's cloak.^' The Quakers were 

 no more welcome here than elsewhere to the estab- 

 lished Presbyterians ; a document of 1655 names 

 William Butler of Oundle among ' those now in 

 commission who have all along given the power unto 

 the Beast and have fought with the Lamb, and to 

 this day think they do God service in imprisoning 

 His servants.'** It does not appear that there was 

 ever a Quaker meeting-house here. 



At the Restoration the vicar, Richard Resbury, 

 retired, but ministered in his house. He was 

 licensed in 1672 as a Congregationalist, and Robert 

 Wild and Thomas Fownes as Presbyterians ; the 

 house of Mary Breton at Oundle was licensed for 

 meetings. '1 



" falor Ecd. (Rec. Com.) iv, 290. 

 "Charity Ccrtlfs. 35-+0. 

 '* W. Smalley Law, op. cit. 79. 

 '* W. Kcnnet Case of Impropriaton 

 (1704), 337; quoted by Bridges, ii, 



472- 



'• Bridget, Hisl. Nortbanlt. ii, 408. 

 " Cal. Chart. R. iv, 274. 



" Cott. MS. Nero, C. vii, f. nod. 



" Iltsi. Xonhatils. ii, 405. 



»J Add. Chart. 5888. 



= ' Cal. Pat. 1547-8, p. 311. 



" Ibid. 1494-1509, p. 173. 



'Mbid. 518. 



" Harl. MS. 607, f. Sid. 



»^ Cal. Pat. 1550-53, p. 23. 



99 



'» \orlhaiils X. and Q. i, I 58. 

 =' T. Coleman, Indep. Churches 1 

 .\orthants. 250. 

 " Ibid. 252. 



" S. P. Dom. Chas. I, 293, n. 128. 

 " Cal. S. P. Dom. 1655-6, P- 64. 

 " Ibid. 1672, pp. 473, 475, 578, 678. 



