A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



saints and apostles, while on the intermediates are 

 figures of angels bearing emblems of the cruci- 

 fixion. The figures appear to be, on the north, 

 St. Peter, St. Philip, St. James, St. Andrew, St. Simon, 

 and St. Thomas ; and on the south, St. Matthias, St. 

 Jude, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, St. John, and 

 St. Paul. The passion emblems are the cross, crown 

 of thorns, chalice, pincers, rod, pillar, hammer, nails, 

 spear and sponge. 



The north aisle has a plain piscina at the south- 

 east, and at the east end a two-light window of 

 c. 1350, with cinquefoiled heads and a quatrefoil with 

 flowing tracery over. In the north wall are two 

 similar windows, in the second of which are some 

 splendidly coloured fragments of fourteenth-century 

 glass, representing St. James, and west of these is the 

 blocked north door. 



West of the door is a two-light window with 

 cinquefoiled heads and tracery over of fourteenth- 

 century detail, but modern date, and in the west wall 

 is a thirteenth-century lancet. 



The south aisle has an east window of two lights 

 with modern tracery, beneath which is a thirteenth- 

 century coped stone. At the east end of the south 

 wall is a fourteenth-century piscina with a trefoiled 

 head, and west of this are three two-light windows 

 with modern tracery of fourteenth-century style, and 

 old rear arches, while the west window has been 

 blocked up. There are a few fragments of fifteenth- 

 century glass in the south windows, with the sacred 

 monogram and parts of canopies. 



The tower arch is of three chamfered orders with half 

 octagonal moulded capitals and bases, and is of mid- 

 fifteenth-century date, to which time the whole tower 

 belongs. The west window is of three lights with 

 cinquefoiled heads and modern tracery, and the west 

 door beneath it has a moulded head and jambs of two 

 continuous orders. The ground stage of the tower has 

 a ribbed stone vault without a bellway, for the reason 

 that the second stage has been used as a living-room. 

 This is reached by a stair at the south-east, and has a 

 fireplace in the east wall, and a large four-centred 

 doorway at the south-west. This opens to space, and 

 it is difiicult to see that there has ever been any ap- 

 proach to it from the outside. Its chief use seems to 

 have been to serve as a bellway, to make up for the 

 absence of such an opening in the vault. The belfry 

 openings are of two uncusped lights with four centred 

 main heads, and the tower is crowned with an em- 

 battled parapet. 



The font at the west end of the north aisle appears 

 to be a late twelfth-century circular font cut back in 

 the fifteenth century, and ornamented with quatrefoil 

 panels. The west face also bears an inscription noting 

 repairs in 1813. With the exception of the nave 

 roof, already noted, all the roofs are modern, and the 

 same applies to a large part of the seating. There 

 are, however, about eight rows of old seats with linen 

 pattern panels in the front and ends of sixteenth- 

 century date, and in the north aisle some seventeenth- 

 century seats of a similar style, but plainer, into which 



a few bits of fifteenth-century tracery, probably the 

 remains of a screen, have been worked. On the north 

 wall of the chancel have been fixed the remains of the 

 brasses of two former rectors, one, a very interesting 

 specimen of early black letter smalls, to Philip de Lee 

 c. 1360, and the others, with a half-effigy in mass 

 vestments, to Richard Bray, c. 1 370. There is also an 

 uninscribed brass, with the figure of a civilian, c. 1 400. 



There are eight bells, three being by Bowell of 

 Ipswich, 1904, three by Newcombe, 1604, one by 

 Russell of Wootton, 1743, and the tenor of 1699. 

 The plate consists of a cup of 1635, a standing paten 

 of 1849, and a plated flagon bought in 1824. 



The first book of the registers contains all entries 

 from 1558 to 1724, and the second those from 1724 

 to 1779. The third book runs from 177910 1813. 

 There are also churchwardens' accounts from 1782, 

 and a parish book from 1 797. 



Barton church is not mentioned in 

 ADFOJVSON Domesday, and the first reference to 

 it occurs in 1 178, when Pope Alex- 

 ander III confirmed the manor with the church to the 

 abbey of Ramsey." Probably, therefore, the advow- 

 son had been in the gift of the abbey for some time 

 before that date. The right of presentation continued 

 vested in the abbey until the Dissolution," when it 

 was transferred to the crown. It had been previously 

 exercised by the crown in 1349, ''"' ^^'* ^^^ merely 

 temporary, and occasioned by the voidance of Ramsey 

 Abbey .° In 1291 the value of the church was 

 /12," which by 1535 had increased to £z6<)s. 6d.^ 

 The abbot of Ramsey received a pension of 

 20/. from the church, which was confirmed by 

 Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, at the end of the twelfth 

 century, and afterwards by Richard, bishop of Lincoln, 

 in 1262, and by Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, in 

 1319.^' The pension continued to be paid till the 

 Dissolution," and even for a short time afterwards 

 when the advowson belonged to the crown." From 

 the reign of Henry VIII to the present day the right 

 of presentation to the church and rectory has belonged 

 to the crown, which has always presented with one 

 exception, in 1660, when the bishop of Ely col- 

 lated.=» 



In 1638 the rector, Dr. Moore, was recalled to 

 personal residence at the parsonage,™ and in 1645 he 

 was again absent about a year ; " he was suspected of 

 delinquency, but the charges against him were not 

 proved, although he was called a delinquent in 1648." 

 On his death in 1652 Richard Norton, who had 

 purchased the manor, conceiving the advowson to be 

 appendant, presented his son John to the rectory," 

 but William Slater, a schoolmaster, petitioned the king 

 in 1660 for the rectory, on the ground that it had 

 been vacant since Dr. Moore's death." It is not 

 known how the dispute was settled, but the rectory 

 was given to a third person, for in 1662 Thomas 

 Crawley was presented," and it was probably on this 

 occasion that the bishop of Ely collated. 



There are Baptist, Wesleyan, and Primitive Metho- 

 dist chapels in the parish. 



" Cartul. Man. Ramesei. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 

 136. 



^2 Ibid, i, 277, 474 i ii, 202. 



«8 Pat. R. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 2. 



" PopeNich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 35. 



»' Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 211. 



" Cartul. Man. Ramesei. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 

 180-1, 183, 



»7 Pofie Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 35 ; 

 Cartul. Mon, Ramesei. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 207, 

 2H ; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 212, 

 272. 



"^ Bacon, Liber Regis, 476. 



" Inst. Bks. P.R.O. ; Blaydes, BeJs. 

 N. atidQ. ii, 193. 



" Cal. S.P. Dom. Add. 1625-49 p. 596' 



312 



^' Cal. of Com, for Advance of Money, 

 663. 



?' Cal, of Com. for Comp. 1853. He must 

 have had good reason for keeping awaj, 

 as he had left with a large sum of money, 

 ;f 700, owing to him by William Brazier. 



?» Cal. S.P. Dom. 1 660-1, p. 182. 



'■* Ibid. 126. '' ibid. 1 661-2, p. 459. 



