A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



against the outer wall. The arch is of a single moulded 

 order with traceried spandrels. 



The tower is of four stages divided by strings and has 

 a chamfered plinth and diagonal buttresses the height 

 of the two lower stories. The vice is in the south-west 

 corner. On the north and south sides the two lower 

 stages are blank, but in the third stage is a cusped cir- 

 cular opening. The inserted west doorway has a four- 

 centred arch in a rectangular frame, with trefoiled 

 spandrels, but the detail is coarse. Above, in the second 

 stage, is a pointed window of two trefoiled lights and 

 quatrefoil in the head. The tower arch is of three 

 chamfered orders, the innermost on half-round responds 

 with moulded capitals and bases, and hood-mould ter- 

 minating in notch-heads. The bell-chamber windows 

 are of two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil in the head, 

 and the tower terminates in a moulded string and 

 pierced parapet, with tall angle pinnacles from which 

 flying buttresses are thrown to the spire. The spire has 

 plain angles and three sets of gabled openings on its 

 cardinal faces, the lowest of three trefoiled lights with 

 quatrefoil tracery and transom. 



There is a scratch dial on the middle buttress of the 

 south aisle. 



The 18th-century font consists of a very handsome 

 circular vase-shaped bowl of highly polished fossil stone 

 on a square base. 



The wooden pulpit is modern. The sculptured tere- 

 dos and marble altar-rail date from the restoration of 

 i860. A good 17th-century communion table with 

 bulbous legs is now at the east end of the south aisle. 

 A few plain oak benches of the same period remain at 

 the west end of the nave. Below the tower is an oak 

 chest with three locks. The painted arms of George III 

 are over the chancel arch. 



The north chapel was the burial-place' of the Yel- 

 verton family from the beginning of the 17th to the 

 end of the i8th century, and contains monuments to 

 Sir Christopher Yelverton (16 12) and his wife Mary 

 Catesby^ (161 1), and to his son Henry (Jan. 1629-30) 

 and his wife Margaret Beale (1625). The former is 

 a large canopied tomb of alabaster standing in the 

 middle of the chapel, with effigies of Sir Christopher 

 and his wife, and on the base the figures of eight 

 daughters and four sons in panels upon the sides, and 

 shields of arms at the ends. The posts support a canopy 

 of two semicircular arches with coffered soffits, urn 

 ornaments at the angles, and shields of arms. The in- 

 scription is at the west end. The monument to Henry 

 and his lady stands against the north wall and is an 

 elaborate canopied structure of alabaster, the effigies one 

 above the other, with the figures of four sons and five 

 daughters below. The canopy is supported by bedesmen 

 in black gowns, and is surmounted by figures of Faith, 

 Hope, and Charity. The effigies on both tombs have 

 already been described. ^ 



In the floor are commemorated Sir Christopher Yel- 

 verton, I St baronet (1654), and his wife Ann Twysden; 

 Sir Henry Yelverton, 2nd baronet (1670), and his wife 

 Susanna, Baroness Grey de Ruthin; Charles Lord Grey 



de Ruthin (1679); and Henry Viscount Longueville 

 (1704) and his wife Barbara Talbot. 



A blue floor-slab at the west end of the chapel marks 

 the burial-place of Thomas Morton, successively Bishop 

 of Chester, Lichfield, and Durham, who died at Easton 

 Maudit 'on the morrow of St. Matthew and was buried 

 on the feast of St. Michael 1659', aged 95. The stone 

 bears a long Latin inscription, in which the bishop is 

 designated 'senex et coelebs'. On the south wall adjoin- 

 ing, below the strainer arch, are Morton's arms as 

 Bishop of Durham, and separate shields of arms of the 

 sees of Chester and Lichfield, all modern. 



In the chancel, over the priest's doorway, is an 

 achievement of the arms of Sir Charles Yelverton, Lord 

 Grey of Ruthin (d. 1679). 



At the east end of the north aisle hangs a funeral 

 achievement probably erected for Talbot Yelverton, 

 1st Earl of Sussex, in 173 1, consisting of helmet, gaunt- 

 lets, shield and sword, sustained by an angle iron and 

 cross-bar. The shield is elliptical and appears to have 

 borne the Yelverton arms. Over the achievement is 

 a large square banner, now in a very dilapidated con- 

 dition, but apparently Yelverton impaling Talbot, and 

 farther west four smaller oblong banners, two of which 

 have the Yelverton arms per pale, and the others the 

 same singly.'' There are also four Yelverton hatchments. 

 The floor of the church was elaborately tiled in 1 860. 

 Into the tiles in front of the chancel is worked a modern 

 memorial to three^ of the six children of Bishop Percy, 

 preserving the record of a former slab, and two others 

 commemorating William Elwyn, gent. (16 19), and 

 Catharine wife of Thomas Remington (1720). 



There are five bells, the first, second, and tenor by 

 John Hodson of London 1663, the third dated 1619, 

 and the fourth a recasting by Taylor & Co. in 1893 of 

 a medieval bell inscribed 'Dulcis sisto melis campana 

 vocor Gabrielis'.* 



The plate now in use consists of a silver cup and 

 paten of 1868. Five pieces of silver-gilt plate, con- 

 sisting of a cup and paten of 1630, an alms dish of 

 1661, a flagon of 1672, and an alms dish of 1676, have 

 been on permanent loan at the Victoria and Albert 

 Museum, South Kensington, since July 1927. The cup 

 and paten were the gift of Bishop Morton and bear his 

 initials.' 



The registers begin in 1539 for baptisms and mar- 

 riages and in 1561 for burials. The first four volumes, 

 extending to 1812 for baptisms and burials and to 1757 

 for marriages, are now bound up in one. From 1653 

 to 1700 the register was very carelessly kept, and there 

 are many gaps. Several perambulations of boundaries 

 are set out. There is a volume of marriages from 1757 

 to 1812. 



The church of Easton in the deanery of Higham was 

 valued in 1 291 at £c) 6s. %ti.^ In 153; the rectory 

 was returned as appropriated to the abbey of Launds, 

 and the vicarage was valued at £6 los. "jd? 



The advowson was with the manor (q.v.) in the hands 

 of John Mauduitin the reign of King John, when John 

 Mauduit made the presentation. ■" The manor being 



' There are two vaults, earlier and later, 

 one leading from the other. 



* She was the first to be buried here : the 

 last burial was that of the 3rd Earl of 

 Sussex, 1799. 



3 y.C.H. Northants. I, 415: see also 

 Hartshorne's Recumb. Mom. Effigies m 

 Northants. 73, 83. The monuments are 

 described in Pennant's yourney from 



Chester to London (1782), 319-20. 



* Assoc. Arch. Soc. Reports^ xxxvi, 84., 

 where the achievement is figured and a 

 detailed description given. The banners are 

 all very dilapidated. 



5 Ann 1760—70, Charlotte 1767-71, 

 and Hester 1772-4. 



* North, Ch. Bells of Northants. 256, 

 where the inscriptions are given. On the 



medieval bell occurred the shield bearing a 

 cheveron between three laver-pots. The 

 name of Henry Yelverton is on the tenor. 



' Markham, Ch. Plate of Northants. 

 109. 



8 Tax. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 40. 



' Valor. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 3 1 1 . 

 '» De Banco R. Hil. 34 Edw. I, m. 13. 



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