A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



died in 1618, was thought wonderfully generous because of his bequest of 

 16 IOJ. to charitable purposes.* 89 A few gifts of plate were made during 

 the Laudian revival ; " Sir Henry Hudson of Melton Mowbray restored to 

 the Church some part of his impropriate tithes for the building of a 

 hospital ; M1 the good deeds of Sir Robert Shirley have been already noted. 

 But the benefactions of the second half of the century were many and 

 generous. Those who were well-to-do founded or endowed free schools and 

 almshouses, 862 where children were to be instructed in Church doctrine, and 

 the aged provided with the consolations of religion. The revived use of 

 sacred symbols, monograms, crosses, and emblems of the passion, upon the 

 vessels offered for use at the altar, is worthy of notice ; showing that the old 

 dread of popery and idolatry, though still alive, was at any rate a little more 

 limited in its sphere of operation. 888 It was indeed still alive, as the troubles 

 of the ' Popish Plot ' revealed. Two sons of a Leicestershire vicar m who 

 had both entered the Society of Jesus were among the victims of the alarm 

 raised by Titus Gates and his friends in 1678-9 ; one of them, Father 

 Anthony Turner, was executed in London in June, \6j<)? M and the other 

 died in prison two years later. The oath of allegiance was administered to 

 many recusants at this time, in terms which some of them could not reconcile 

 with their consciences ; an aged lady, Dame Mary Smith of Sproxton, com- 

 plained that she had been imprisoned with her three children in Nottingham 

 Gaol for some weeks on this account, ' to the ruin of her estate and the decay 

 of her health.' m But the Bill for disarming Papists brought forward at this 

 time shov/s only thirteen well-known families in Leicestershire who adhered 

 to the Roman obedience. 267 



The short reign of James II served to show that, however false the 

 statements of Titus Gates, the fear of popery was not altogether groundless ; 



"' Nichols, Lelc. ii, 617. 



60 These may be found in Trollope's Church Plate of Leicestershire, where a full description is made of ale 

 gifts, of which memory is preserved. 



11 This was in 1638 ; see Nichols, Lelc. i, preface, for account of Charities existing in the reign of 

 George III. Other benefactions of this period were : an almshouse for four poor widows, founded 1620 by 

 Dr. Fleming, rector of Bottesford, and his sister ; a free school at Wymondham by Sir John Sedley in 1637. 



a The bishop of Peterborough in 1690 left ,240 to endow a prize of tot. yearly to twenty poor families 

 which could say the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments without missing a word. Dr. Humphrey 

 Babington in 1 686 founded a hospital at Barrow-upon-Soar ; Thomas Rawlins a free school at Woodhouse, 

 1691 ; Thomas Palmer of Loughborough a free school in 1677 ; Valentine Goodman left 200 in 1684 for 

 the benefit of the 'most indigent and decrepit paupers' in Hallaton and the neighbourhood. The smaller 

 gifts and additional endowments are too many to quote ; ibid. The last benefaction here mentioned, that of 

 Valentine Goodman, was made quite in the old spirit. He had purposed to leave his estate to his brother 

 Everard, but the latter said to him, ' Brother, you have more need of it for your own soul's good than I.' 

 Hill, Hist. ofLangttm, 219. 



163 See Trollope, Ch. Plate of Lelc. With the single exception of the gifts of Sir Charles and Sir Robert 

 Shirley, marked with the crown of thorns, the winged heart, and other like symbols, not a single piece of the 

 church plate of Leicester before 1660 has any ornament except coats of arms and conventional foliage. Some 

 of the finest gifts of the Restoration period are those at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, presented by different members 

 of the Hastings family, in 1676-7 and 1701-2 ; others were given later. Almost all the altar plate given 

 after 1700 has some sacred emblem upon it. 



** Nichols gives the name of Toby Turner as vicar of Little Dalby, 1613-49 ; which fits in well enough 

 with Foley's statement that Fr. Edward Turner entered the Society in 1650. He and his brother are said to 

 have been brought up under Roman influences by their mother, who had been ' reconciled ' by one of the 

 Jesuits stationed in the Leicestershire district ; Foley, Rec. of the Engl. Province, iii, 308 ; iv, 472-5. 



164 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. p. 472. 



* Lords' Journ. xiii, 485. She was released on bail with one of her daughters. 



167 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. p. 236. Some of the old names are found here Turville, Fortescue, 

 Eyre, and those who had married the daughters of Sir Thomas Beaumont. The same names are found again 

 in the list of Papists who registered their estates in 1716 ; Add. MS. 15629, fol. 29. 



390 



