WYMERSLEY HUNDRED 



BLISWORTH 



is square-headed and of three trefoiled lights, apparently 

 a I 5th-centur)- insertion, and that at the west end is 

 also square-headed but of two lights, and it has been 

 altered and the lower part blocked. The small pointed 

 window in the north wall west of the porch is of two 

 trefoiled lights with double-chamfered jambs and hood- 

 mould, but the muUions of the two larger ones east of 

 the porch have been renewed. The late- 13th-century 

 pointed doorway has a continuous moulding. The east 

 end of the aisle is screened off for a vestry. 



The porch has a high-pitched roof with a coped 

 gable at each end, standing above the aisle roof, and a 

 pointed outer arch with continuous mouldings; in the 

 gable above is a stone inscribed 'a.d. 1607, w.d., cm.' 



The clerestory has three widely spaced four-centred 

 windows of two cinquefoiled lights on each side, placed 

 without respect to the arches below. The modern 

 timber roof of the nave is of six bays. 



The tower is of three stages divided by strings, with 

 moulded plinth and pairs of four-stage buttresses at 

 its western angles reaching to the top of the second 

 stage, above which there are small diagonal buttresses. 

 In the bottom stage is a restored pointed west window 

 of two trefoiled lights, but the north and south sides 

 are blank. The middle stage has a small trefoiled open- 

 ing on each side, that on the north now covered by a 

 clock dial, and the pointed bell-chamber windows are 

 of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head. 

 The tower terminates in a battlemented parapet with- 

 out pinnacles. There is no vice. The pointed arch to 

 the nave is of two continuous chamfered orders with 

 hood-mould on the east side and a single order on the 

 west. 



The font is ancient and consists of a plain circular 

 bucket-shaped bowl' on a cylindrical pedestal and base, 

 and octagonal step.^ 



The wooden pulpit is modern. The royal arras of 

 George III (before 1 801) are over the tower arch. 



There are portions of medieval glass in the tracery 

 of the north-west window of the chancel.^ 



The table tomb of Roger Wake (d. i 503-4) and 

 his wife Elizabeth Catesby is below the south window 

 of the chapel, in front of the arched wall recess, and is 

 of freestone with a Purbeck marble slab on top. The 

 sides are panelled with shields of arms. On the slab 

 are the brasses of Roger and his wife, with groups 

 of seven sons and three daughters below, a shield in 

 each angle, and a brass inscription round the verge as 

 follows: 'Here lyeth Roger Wake Esquyer Lorde of 

 BIysworthe in the countie of Northampton and Elyza- 

 beth his wyffe . . . which Roger decessyd the xvj day 

 of March the yere of our Lord God M" ccccciij, on 

 whose soule Ihu have m'cy.'* 



' It diminishes about 3 in. in diameter 

 in a height of 15 in. 



' The base or pedestal is equal in 

 diameter to the bottom of the bowl and 

 is 14^ in. high over all, on a 3 in. step. 

 The font stands against the west side of 

 the north-west pillar of the nave. One of 

 the staples remains. The cover is modem. 



^ They include a figure of the B. Virgin 

 and four others (all imperfect), fragments 

 of lettering, and some tabernacle work. 

 Bridges (c. 1720) says that in the north 

 windows of the chancel were small por- 

 traits of the tw-elve apostles, 'four of which 

 still remain complete' ; Hiii. of S<.rikanli. 



'. 337- 



* F. Hudson, Braiiet of Sortkantt. 

 Both figures hold their hands in the atti- 



tude of prayer. The man is bareheaded, 

 with long hair and in plate armour; the 

 woman in a pedimental cap with veil, and 

 tight-bodiccd full skirted gown. 



' She was the wife of Lyonell Blackey, 

 esquire, one of the Serjeants of arms to 

 Queen Elizabeth and King James. The 

 inscription records that 'she lived a maid 

 eighteen years, a wife twenty and a widow 

 sixty-one, and dyed the 20"' of JanV 1673 

 in the 99*** year of her age'. 



* North, Ch. Belli of Nortlianii. 194, 

 where the inscriptions are given. The 

 former treble bell was by Bartholomew 

 Atton 1626, and the tenor by Henry 

 Bagley I 1663. In Bridges' time there was 

 a priest's bell dated 1635. In 1552 there 



In the chancel are wall monuments to Margaret 

 BlackeyS (d. 1673) and Rebeckah Yates (d. 1679), 

 wife of Jonathan Yates, rector. In the nave is a memorial 

 to twenty-three men of the parish who fell in the war 

 of 1914-18. 



There is a scratch dial on the west jamb of the low- 

 side window on the south side of the chancel. 



There is a ring of five bells, the second and third 

 by Bartholomew Atton of Buckingham 1624, the fourth 

 by Henry Bagley III 171 3, and the first and fifth by 

 Thomas Eayre of Kettering 1758.* 



The plate consists of a cup of 1570, a 17th-century 

 paten (f. 1636), a cup and paten of 1845, an alms dish 

 of 1846, and a flagon of 1870.' 



The registers before 1 81 2 are as follows: (i) all 

 entries i 545-January 1703-4; (ii) baptisms and burials 

 Sept. 1705-71, marriages till 1753; (iii) marriages 

 1754-181Z; (iv) baptisms and burials 1772-1812. 

 The entries in the first volume are imperfect till about 



1557- 



On the north side of the church, by the path leading 

 to the porch, are the steps and socket-stone of a church- 

 yard cross.' 



The right of presentation to the 

 ADVOWSON church was granted to William Bri- 

 werre by the Earl of Derby, and con- 

 firmed by King John in 1199. The advowson passed 

 with the manor to Sir Baldwin Wake on the death 

 of Joan Briwerre. When his son John conveyed the 

 manor to his uncle Hugh Wake he retained the ad- 

 vowson and the rent of ^10 from the manor. The 

 advowson and rent passed to his sister and heir 

 Margaret, wife of Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of 

 Kent, whose son John Earl of Kent died seised of them 

 in 1352.' His heir was his sister Joan, 'the Fair 

 Maid of Kent', wife of Sir Thomas de Holand and 

 secondly of Edward Prince of Wales. She died in 

 1385 seised of the rent and advowson,'" which passed 

 to her son Thomas de Holand, Earl of Kent. He died 

 in 1397," and his son Thomas was charged with high 

 treason in 1399. The advowson had, however, been 

 assigned to his mother Alice in dower in 1398 and she 

 died in possession of it in 1416.'- Her heirs were her 

 five grand-daughters; one of these was Eleanor Countess 

 of March, who predeceased her, leaving as heir a son 

 Edmund Earl of March, who died seised of one fifth 

 of the advowson in 1425 leaving three co-heirs;" 

 but Joan, widow of Thomas Earl of Kent, died in 

 possession of the advowson in 1442, held in dower 

 by assignment of the heirs of Alice. Her heir was 

 Humphrey Earl of Stafford, her brother's son.'* 

 The advowson probably reverted to the crown when 

 his great grandson Edward Duke of Buckingham, 



were three great bells and a sanctus bell. 



' Markham, Ch. Plate of N(jrlkanis. 35. 

 The modem cup, paten, and alms dish 

 were given by the Rev. William Barry, 

 rector, in 1846. 



» Markham, Stout Croiui of Ncrtianli. 

 20, where it is figured. The cross consists 

 of a calvary of four steps, 7 ft. square at 

 bottom, and a socket-stone 2 ft. square. 

 There was at one time a sundial erected 

 in the socket, but it has been removed. 

 ' Cat. Inq. p.m. X, pp. 53-4. 



'" Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Ric. II, no. 54. 



" Ibid. 20 Ric. II, no. 30. 



'» Ibid. 4 Hen. V, no. 51. 



'1 Ibid. 3 Hen. VI, no. 32. 



'« Ibid. 21 Hen. VI, no. 36. 



227 



