A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



stages, with a plastered brick parapet, of no great age, 

 and belfry windows of two cinquefoiled lights with a 

 quatrefoil over, which date, with the rest of the 

 tower, from the first half of the fifteenth century. 

 The west window is of three lights with modern 

 tracery, but its jambs are old and the rear arch has 

 engaged shafts with moulded semi-octagonal capitals 

 and bases. The east arch of the tower is four-centred, 

 of two moulded orders, its section showing a hollow 

 between a double ogee, and an ogee and a hollow 

 chamfer springing from semi-octagonal moulded 

 capitals. The jambs, after a fashion not uncommon 

 in the district, have small shafts between two chamfers 

 which terminate below the capitals without any cor- 

 responding member in the arch. The bases are 

 hidden by woodwork or cut away. 



There is a modern north door to the tower, and a 

 newel stair in the south-west angle. The material 

 is small coursed rubble, and the whole tower has 

 been plastered externally. 



The roofs of the church are modern and slated, the 

 line of a previous roof being visible on the tower wall 

 just above the present one. 



There is one bell dated 1808. 



The plate consists of a modern cup, paten and 

 flagon. 



The registers previous to 1 81 2 are included in 

 those of Campton, the church having been until 

 recently a chapel of ease to that living. 



The church of Campton was given 

 ADFOWSON to Beaulieu Priory in Bedfordshire, a 

 cell to the abbey of St. Albans." 

 Neither the date of the gift nor the name of the 

 benefactor is on record, but it is probable that Robert 

 D'Albini, who founded the priory in 1150, and 

 endowed it with 20 acres of land in his demesne of 

 Campton, also bestowed upon it the advowson.** 

 Beaulieu Priory was certainly presenting to the church 

 before 1220,*^ and in 1245 Richard, a deacon of 

 Campton, was presented by the prior." The value 

 of the church in 1291 "* was £^ 6s. 8<j'., and the pen- 

 sion of the prior amounted to £z, but by 1341 the 

 value had diminished to ^^3 13/. 4(/.," and this reduc- 

 tion was accounted for hy the fact that 40 acres of 

 arable land and 30 acres of meadow in the gift of the 

 church, included in the assessment of 1291, were 

 exempt in this later one. 



Beaulieu Priory was annexed to the abbey of 

 St. Albans in 1428,°' and the right of presentation 

 was then transferred to the abbey, together with the 

 pension of £2. The church remained in the gift of 

 the abbey until the Dissolution, when it was taken 

 into the hands of the king ; it was worth ^^i i gs. 6d. 

 in 1535,** and was granted with the rectory to Thomas 

 Lord Seymour in 1547.*' After his execution in 

 1548-9, Richard Snowe received a grant of it, and 

 died seised of the advowson in 1553,'° when it passed 

 to his son Daniel, who was patron in 1566." The 

 latter probably alienated it to Daniel Goldsmith, who 

 had the right of presentation in 1605,°' and was 

 rector in 1644,°'' while George Noble was patron for 

 that turn. In 1685, Sir John Osborn, bart., owned 

 the advowson,'* and since that date it has remained 



in his family, being vested at the present day in 

 Sir Algernon Kerr Butler Osborn, bart.°' 



The church at Shefford was a chapel of ease to 

 Campton. In 1567 it was granted to Hugh Councell, 

 Robert Pisen, and their heirs, °° but from 1685 the 

 presentation belonged to the Osborn family. In 

 1903, however, Shefford was created an ecclesiastical 

 parish, and the vicarage is in the gift of the archdeacon 

 of Bedford and the rectors of Campton and Clifton " 



There is a Roman Catholic Chapel in Shefford, 

 erected in 1884 at the cost of Mrs. Lyne-Stephens 

 of Thetford, attached to an orphanage called St. 

 Francis's Home, and a seminary of St. Thomas 

 Aquinas. There are also a Union chapel built in 

 1825, a Wesleyan chapel built in 1835, and 

 Salvation Army barracks. 



Poor's Land. — The parish is in 

 CHARITIES possession of a small piece of land 

 in Clifton Fields, conveyed in 1730 

 by John Kelyng unto Sir Daniel Osborn and others 

 on trust to apply the rents and profits towards the 

 relief of poor and indigent persons in satisfaction of a 

 bequest of zs. a year to the poor left by the will of 

 his father Antelminelly Kelyng. The land is let at 

 ^3 a year, which under the title of the Gunpowder 

 Charity, is applied on 5 November with the other 

 charities for the benefit of the poor. 



The Poor's Stock consists of ^^ 103 5/. consols (with 

 the official trustees), representing the benefactions of 

 Dr. Thomas Osborn and Daniel Goldsmith, the 

 trusts of which were by a deed dated 23 June, 1812, 

 declared to be for distribution of the income among 

 the poor inhabitants. 



Thomas Kentish's Charity, Will, 1 7 1 2. — The sum 

 of I OS. a year, formerly paid out of an estate known 

 as the Bury Farm in this parish (see St. Albans), 

 is now represented by £20 consols with the official 

 trustees. In 1904 the rent of ^^3 was distributed 

 in shares of 5/. each to twelve poor widows, and the 

 dividends on the stock, amounting to ^^3 1 is. 4^., were 

 applied in gifts of money among seventeen aged people. 



Township of Shefford : The Feoflinent Estate — or 

 the Charity of Robert Lucas. — ^This estate was vested 

 in and under the direction of feoffees chosen from the 

 freeholders and principal inhabitan.s of Shefford, and 

 was originally settled by Robert Lucas, gent., in the 

 second year of Queen Elizabeth in trust ' for the yearly 

 repairing, maintaining, and keeping the bridges, cause- 

 ways, and highways within the town of Shefford in 

 good and sufficient repair ; the overplus to be employed 

 and given to the poor people dwelling and inhabiting 

 within the town of Sheftbrd.' 



The property has been considerably improved by 

 exchanges and alterations, and now consists of 1 2 acres 

 in Meppershall, 2 a. 2 r. 1 1 p. in Shefford, 3 a. 3 r. 3 5 p. 

 in Clifton, dwelling-houses and cottages at Sheffbrd, 

 two public-houses, and 9 a. i r. 1 2 p. grass land and 

 cottage at Arlesey. The official trustees hold a sum 

 °f X3'7 '6/. 3</. India three per cents, arising from 

 sale of a house in North Bridge Street. The income 

 from all sources averages about ^^210 a year. The 

 administration of the trust is regulated by a scheme 

 of the Charity Commissioners, dated 28 June 1 904, 



81 V.CJI. Beds, i, 315, note 3. 



^ Dugdale, Mon. iii, 276. 



^ Soc. Cantuar. Jan. 1905. 



»< Harl. MS. 6950. 



86 Pope Nkh. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 42. 



8' In J. Non. (Rec. Com.), 17. 



87 Dugdale, Mon. iii, 275. 



88 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 195. 



89 Pat. I Edw. VI, pt. 2. 

 ^^ Chan. Inq. p.m. I02 (4). 



91 Blaydes, Bed!. N. and Q. ii, 193. 



92 Ibid, ii, 330. 



270 



"8 Ibid, ii, 197. 

 " Inst. Bks. P.R.O. 

 9' Clergy List, 1907. 

 »« Pat. 10 Eliz. pt. 6. 

 W Clergy List, 1907. 



