LIDDINGTON
Lidenton (xi cent.); Lidentona, Lidington (xii
cent.); Lydinton, Lydyngton (xiii cent.); Ledyngton,
Luddington (xvii cent.).
Liddington covers an area of 2,127 acres of good
loam and clay land mostly under grass. From the
north-west part of the parish, where the land is over
500 ft. above the Ordnance datum, the ground falls
towards the River Welland, which forms the southeast boundary, where it is 150 ft. above the Ordnance
datum.
The long, straggling village is built on both sides
of the road from Gretton to Uppingham, from which
latter place it is about 2 miles distant. It contains
a number of picturesque, though in many cases sadly
dilapidated, stone houses chiefly of 17th and 18th
century date, and for the most part built of local
ironstone and covered with thatch or stone slates.
Opposite the lane leading to the church, a muchmodernised house, known as the Priest's House,
retains an inscribed stone with the motto 'Coelum
patria Christus via,' and the initials of Richard Rudd,
vicar, 1626. (fn. 1) At the south end of the village is a
house with mullioned bay windows and thatched roof,
and panel inscribed 'e.a. 1656,' and on the kneeler of
the gable of a cottage are the initials and date 'k.w.,
e.w. ano. dmn. 1619.' A good two-story gabled
house farther to the north is inscribed 'L P S 1674'
and other houses are severally dated 1741, 1744 and
1767.
The lower part of the shaft of the old market cross,
which stood on the village green till 1837, (fn. 2) was reerected near to its original site in 1930. The shaft,
which is about 3 ft. 6 in. high and has vertical grooves,
is apparently of 13th-century date; it now stands on a
specially prepared mound.
The Bishop of Lincoln had a house here as early as
the time of King John, who gave licence to the Bishop
to enclose a park. The house was frequently in
occupation until the 16th century. This manor
house, converted into a hospital or almshouse in 1602
by Thomas Lord Burghley, stands on the north side
of the church, its principal front overlooking the
churchyard. It is a long rectangular two-story
building of ironstone rubble with grey ashlar dressings,
having its main axis from north-east to south-west, (fn. 3)
and consists of three separately roofed blocks, that
in the middle containing the hall and great chamber
on the upper floor, with kitchen and offices and rooms
for servants beneath. The entrance is on the north
side from a penthouse cloister. The rooms in the
eastern portion, now occupied by two almswomen, (fn. 4)
were formerly used by the bishop's clerks and guests,
while those in the western block, which projects
about 5 ft. from the main building, were probably
used by the bishop, or occupied by his chaplain. The
north side of this western block, which on the ground
floor is separated from the rest of the building by a
passage, (fn. 5) has been pulled down.
Liddington Bede House: Plan of First Floor
No part of the building appears to be older than
the middle or latter half of the 15th century, in which
period the whole house was probably rebuilt, though
it is possible that some parts of the stonework may
be earlier. (fn. 6) Bishop Burghersh had licence from
the Crown to extend his park in 1331, and in 1336
a further licence to crenellate his house, (fn. 7) but there
are no architectural features of this period in the
present building. It seems most likely that the
15th-century rebuilding was in the main the work of
Bishop William Alnwick (1436–49), whose arms and
motto occur in the glass of the windows of the hall
and great chamber, though from its subsequent rearrangement it is not certain that Alnwick's glass was
intended for its present position. If it were, and the
conclusion is not unreasonable, the actual rebuilding
must have taken place before Alnwick's death in 1449,
a date with which the older architectural features
of the fabric would agree. Subsequently, however,
extensive alterations appear to have been made to the
hall by Bishop William Smith (1496–1514), whose
coat of three roses (fn. 8) occurs on a small stone shield
over the fireplace. His later coat (argent a cheveron
sable between three roses gules) is in the glass of
one of the windows of the hall, (fn. 9) on the wooden
cornice above the bay window, and also on a gardenhouse. Smith appears to have inserted the cheveron
after the founding of Brasenose College, Oxford, in
1509, and if this is so it follows that the glass and
ceiling in the hall and chamber, and the erection of
the garden-house, belong to the last five years of his
episcopate, the alterations to the fabric (as shown by
the shield over the fireplace) having been begun
between 1496 and 1509.
Alnwick. Argent a millrind cross sable.
Smith. Argent a cheveron sable between three roses gules.
Many changes were made in the building in 1602,
when it was converted into a hospital, the kitchen and
offices on the ground floor being divided into small
rooms for the inmates, and new windows and doorways
inserted where necessary; the staircase also was
altered. The upper part of the hall chimney as
then rebuilt still bears the date 1602. There were
further alterations in the 18th century, the south
front of the eastern block having apparently been
rebuilt or refaced in 1767. (fn. 10) The building generally
is in a somewhat dilapidated condition, the eastern
block alone being occupied. (fn. 11)
The long south front (fn. 12) facing the churchyard is a
very good example of the domestic architecture of the
15th century, with tall chimneys, buttresses, and
large square-headed transomed windows to the
principal apartments on the first floor. These
windows are symmetrically placed, two on each side
of the bay window of the hall, the latter being corbelled
out from a rectangular base. On the ground floor
are four small two-light square-headed windows.
Except in the west block and in the bay window there
are no stringcourses, and ornament is sparingly used,
being confined to the windows and to the cusped
triangular heads of some of the buttresses. In the
refaced eastern block, which has a chimney-gable and
tall three-stage buttress breaking the roof-line, the
old design appears to have been followed. The
smaller size of the windows and the large wall surfaces
of the end blocks are in striking contrast to the almost
continuous fenestration of the hall and chamber.
The roofs are covered with stone slates. The north
elevation is more diversified, being well broken up
with chimneys and dormer windows.
The ground-floor rooms are entered on the north
side by doorways opening from a covered walk, or
penthouse cloister, which covers nearly the whole
length of the building, (fn. 13) and is reached from the
churchyard from the passage before mentioned. The
penthouse is stone slated and supported by oak
posts on a dwarf wall; (fn. 14) the floor is flagged. Three
of the original four-centred doorways are moulded,
but most of the windows on this side appear to be
17th-century insertions. From the cloister a stone
stair, remodelled in the 17th century (fn. 15) and contained
in a gabled rectangular wing projecting from the
north wall, (fn. 16) leads to a landing at first-floor level from
which two pointed doorways give access to the staterooms and the east wing respectively. The staircase
is lighted by a four-centred transomed window of
three cinquefoiled lights, which closely corresponds
in design with the windows in the aisles of the church
and was evidently made at the same time. (fn. 17) The
doorways at the head of the stairs are of stone set
within rectangular moulded frames with blank shields
in the spandrels, and the original nail-studded oak
doors still remain.
The hall is 47 ft. long by 20 ft. 3 in. in width,
lighted by three four-light transomed windows and a
shallow bay (fn. 18) in the south wall. The upper openings
of the windows are cinquefoiled, but below the
transoms there is no cusping. The walls are plastered
and the floor is of stone cement. The fireplace, a small
rectangular moulded opening, is in the middle of the
north wall, and above it is the shield with three roses
already mentioned. The hall is entered at its northeast angle, the doorway being protected by an oak
windscreen, apparently of 16th-century date; there
is a panelled inner oak door. The beautiful flat
wooden ceiling is divided into small rectangular
panels by moulded ribs and has an elaborate coved
cornice decorated with tracery in imitation of fan
vaulting. The small shield of Bishop Smith over
the bay window in the running vine-pattern which
fills the lower member of the cornice has already
been mentioned; it dates the ceiling from the early
part of the 16th century, when probably the hall was
newly roofed and the space above the ceiling converted
into attics lighted by new windows set in gables on
the north side. At the east end of the hall is a recess,
about 3 ft. above the floor.
The hall is separated from the great chamber at
its west end by a studded partition, the doorway in
which has a four-centred oak frame with carved
spandrels. The chamber is approximately square, (fn. 19)
with a four-light window in the south wall, but a deep
cupboard against the partition reduces its size. The
ceiling is similar to that of the hall upon a smaller
scale, and the fireplace, which is in the west wall, is
of stone, with moulded four-centred opening, blank
shields and cusped circles. Beyond the chamber,
and above the ground-floor passage, is a small vestibule lighted by a little window set obliquely in one
angle, and communicating with a garde-robe. A
small room at the end of the west block, entered from
the vestibule, was probably a bedroom; it has a
square-headed window of four trefoiled lights in the
south wall, and a panelled ceiling like that of the great
chamber but without the cornice. From beyond this
room a ladder stair gives access to the attics in the
west block and over the hall; the great three-light
dormer windows are now blocked. The curved
principals and wind braces of the roof are quite plain.
The eastern end of the building has two rooms
on the first floor, with a passage on the north side and
stair to the attics. Each room is lighted by a squareheaded two-light window in the south wall, and the
end room by another window on the east. All the
ground-floor rooms are now disused.
It remains to notice the beautiful quarry glass in
the windows of the hall and great chamber. Some
of this, as already stated, is of Alnwick's time. His
motto 'Delectare in Domino' occurs on quarries
in the upper lights of the first, or easternmost, window
of the hall, and in the same position in the window
of the great chamber, (fn. 20) in each case in conjunction
with the bishop's coat of arms—argent, a cross moline
sable—in the alternate oblong spaces of the border;
the words also occur singly in one of the lower lights
of the westernmost window of the hall. The upper
part of the great chamber window is full of Alnwick's
glass, and contains a kneeling figure of a bishop
(probably Alnwick himself) with remains of scrolls
inscribed with Latin prayers to the Blessed Virgin. (fn. 21)
The greater, if inferior, portion of the glass, however,
consists of small quarries with Bishop Smith's motto
'Dominus exaltatio mea' repeated in small letters
on scrolls, or in large letters of a Roman type on
diagonal bands. In one or
other of these two forms the
words occur on all four windows of the hall (fn. 22) and in the
lower lights of the great
chamber window.
Alnwick. Argent a millrind cross sable.
Bishop Smith's shield, already referred to, is in the
upper part of the easternmost
window of the hall, and in the
westernmost window is a shield
with the traditional arms of
St. Hugh. (fn. 23) A crowned red
rose in the bay window may safely be assigned to the
reign of Henry VII.
The wall which encloses the garden west of the
house and church is in great part old. At its southwest corner, at the junction of the main road and the
road leading to the church, is a projecting octagonal
turret with pointed roof, the upper part of which,
approached by steps from a raised walk, was used as a
garden-house, the lower part being pierced for the
public footpath. The four single-light windows are
now blocked, and the upper doorway is covered by a
slightly projecting porch. The arms of Bishop
Smith, already referred to, are above one of the windows on the west side within a quatrefoiled circle. (fn. 24)
Some earthworks situated in a field north-east of the
church were originally the fishponds belonging to the
manor house of the Bishops of Lincoln. (fn. 25) There are
ironstone pits in the west of the parish and building
stone is abundant in the lighter land. A turf maze is
said to have existed at Prestley Hill on the eastern
side of the parish, but there is no reliable evidence concerning it. (fn. 26) About a mile north-west of the village,
in the part of the parish which projects north of Stoke
Dry and west of the Kettering Road, is Liddington
Park Lodge. A small Wesleyan chapel was erected
in 1849, to the north of the church. The town evidently diminished in importance when its connection
with the bishopric ceased; in 1684 Wright says 'it was
formerly much more considerable than at present,' (fn. 27)
and about a century ago its population was nearly
double its present figure of 322.
A detached portion of Thorpe-by-Water was transferred to Liddington by Local Government Board
Order in 1885.
In 1799 an Inclosure Act was passed for Liddingtonwith-Caldecott and Uppingham, when tithes were
extinguished and 3,200 acres were inclosed. (fn. 28) Rights
of common in Beaumont Chase appertaining to
messuages, etc., in Uppingham, Liddington, Stoke Dry,
Wardley and Ayston were ascertained and compensated.
Bishopric of Lincoln. Gules two leopards or and a chief azure with the Blessed Virgin holding the Child or seated therein.
Manor
The manor of LIDDINGTON before
the Conquest was held with soc and sac
by Bardi, a Lincolnshire thegn whose
chief holding was at Sleaford. (fn. 29) Bardi's lands were
seized by William I and Liddington was given as an
endowment to the new see of Lincoln founded in
1085. In the Domesday Survey (1086) it appears in
Gisleburg Hundred and a Half in Northamptonshire.
Walter was entered as holding 2 hides here, worth
£8, of the Bishop of Lincoln, to which there pertained
Stoke Dry, Snelston, and Caldecott. There was
woodland 3 furlongs in length and 2 in width. (fn. 30)
Between 1154 and 1159 Henry II had granted to
Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, 20 acres of assarts at
Liddington, by a charter witnessed by Richard de Humez,
the Constable. (fn. 31) In 1189
Henry, Bishop of Lincoln, was
granted 25 acres more of ancient assart by Richard I. From
King John he had licence to
inclose his park at Liddington, (fn. 32) and, in 1215, confirmation of the grants of woodland. (fn. 33) Henry III confirmed
the licence to inclose the park,
and in 1229 issued a mandate
concerning it; (fn. 34) he also granted
deer-leaps to Bishop Hugh. (fn. 35)
Writs were dated at Liddington in the opening years of the reign of Edward I. (fn. 36)
In 1286 Oliver, Bishop of Lincoln, proved his right to
view of frankpledge by prescription in Liddington,
Stoke Dry, Snelston and Caldecott. His claim to
market, pillory and tumbril was challenged as they
were not mentioned in the charters of the King or his
ancestors. (fn. 37) Edward I stocked the bishop's park
with deer and in 1291 the park was broken and the
deer carried away. (fn. 38) In 1321 John Hakluyt, Keeper of
the Forest, complained that he and his servants were
assaulted at Liddington. (fn. 39)
Henry, Bishop of Lincoln, obtained a grant of free
warren in his demesnes of Liddington in 1329. (fn. 40)
It was possibly as a reprisal against steps taken by
the bishops to procure the suppression of a rival
market of the Montforts at Uppingham (fn. 41) that in
1366 an armed force invaded the fair held every year at
Michaelmas in Liddington, killed William Warde,
assaulted the sheriff William Beaufoy and the servants
present with him according to custom to keep the
peace, and drove away the merchants exhibiting
wares. (fn. 42) The Itinerary of Robert Grosseteste shows
that he frequently visited Liddington, and subsequent
bishops often stayed there, particularly in the days
preceding the surrender of the manor to the king in
1547. (fn. 43) Letters patent were dated here in the close
of the fifteenth century, (fn. 44) and a privy council was held
here in 1541. (fn. 45)
Cecil, Marquess of Exeter. Barry of ten argent and azure six scutcheons sable each charged with a lion argent.
In 1548 a grant of the manor and park for their
lives in survivorship was made to Gregory Lord Cromwell (son of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex) and to
his wife Elizabeth, the king's aunt, sister of Edward
Duke of Somerset. (fn. 46) Lord Cromwell's death at
Laund, in 1551, was followed by a grant (fn. 47) of the
reversion in fee of the manor
after the death of Lady Elizabeth to Sir William Cecil and
his wife Mildred for a rent
of £27 17s. 4½d. From this
date the manor has followed
the descent of Barrowden
and belongs to the present
Marquess of Exeter. (fn. 48)
Two mills were mentioned
in the Domesday Survey, and
mills continued to be held
with the manor. (fn. 49) In 1650
a water mill, a windmill and
a horse mill were leased
for 85 years with Liddington
Park, High Park and Great Park, by George Sheffield
and Mary his wife and William Cave and Andrew
Burton to Robert Pelsant, John Cave, clk., Everard
Falkener, jun., and Hugh Banner. (fn. 50)
It is said that the custom of Borough English prevails in the manor and that the lord claims to be lord
of the Hundred of Wrandike. (fn. 51)
Edward Watson, secretary to three Bishops of Lincoln, died in 1530 seised of messuages and lands in
Liddington, and was survived by his wife Emma, three
sons, Henry (his heir), Kenelm and Edward, and a
daughter Margaret. (fn. 52) In 1620 the property was held
by Anthony Watson, who was succeeded by his son
Francis. His wife Elizabeth afterwards married Sir
Francis Brown. (fn. 53)
Church
The church of ST. ANDREW (fn. 54) consists of chancel 45 ft. 8 in. by 20 ft. with
vestry on the north side, clearstoried
nave of five bays 60 ft. by 17 ft., north and south
aisles 12 ft. 3 in. wide, and west tower 12 ft. square,
all these measurements being internal. The tower is
surmounted by a short broach spire. The width
across nave and aisles is 46 ft. There was formerly a
south porch. (fn. 55)
The building throughout is of ironstone rubble
with ashlar dressings and low-pitched leaded roofs.
There are plain parapets to the nave and aisles, but the
lead of the chancel roof overhangs. The vestry was
built in 1849 and has a stone-slated roof. In 1890 the
church was restored, (fn. 56) the roofs of the nave and aisles
being entirely renewed and the plaster stripped from
the walls of the chancel. (fn. 57) The tower was restored in
1902.
No portion of the building is earlier than the 14th
century, in the first half of which the existing chancel (fn. 58)
and the tower (fn. 59) and spire were erected. The nave and
aisles were rebuilt during the latter part of the 15th
century and are a fine example of the work of that
period. The north and south doorways, in the west
bay of each aisle, have been blocked, the only entrance
to the nave now being by the tower doorway.
The chancel is divided externally into two bays
and has a moulded base and scroll string at sill level.
There are pairs of two stage buttresses at the eastern
angles. The pointed east window is of four lights
with reticulated tracery, and in the south wall are two
three-light windows with good Decorated tracery, one
in each bay. In the corresponding positions in the
north wall the windows are of two lights, with a quatrefoil and triangular trefoil in their respective heads.
All these windows have trefoiled lights, moulded
jambs (fn. 60) and mullions and hood-moulds with headstops; internally they have moulded rear-arches with
hoods and shafted jambs with moulded capitals and
bases. In the south wall is a continuous moulded
doorway and at its west end a pointed single-light
trefoiled window, the transom forming a low-side
opening 21 in. high. (fn. 61) Internally the chancel levels
have been raised and the piscina (fn. 62) and triple stepped
sedilia, which form a single architectural composition
of four trefoiled moulded ogee arches below the
easternmost window, are now not far above the
floor: the piscina has a fluted bowl. In the east wall,
north and south of the altar, are two plain rectangular
recesses, (fn. 63) and in the north wall, below the easternmost window, is an oblong aumbry, which retains its
original wooden door-frame. (fn. 64) There is a scroll string
at sill level along the east wall. On each side of the
chancel, below the wall-plate, is a series of holes
apparently made for acoustic jars. (fn. 65)
Plan of Liddington Church
The chancel arch was rebuilt with the nave and is
of two moulded orders, the inner springing from tall
half-round responds with half-octagonal moulded
capitals, (fn. 66) the outer dying out: there is no hoodmould. The stair to the rood-loft remains in a very
perfect state on the north side of the arch, contained
in a projecting angle turret (fn. 67) at the east end of the
north aisle: the lower doorway has a four-centred
arch, but the upper opening is square-headed. The
loft no longer exists, but the screen is a handsome
piece of 15th-century work, the lower panels of which
show outlines of painted figures of saints, with considerable traces of colour in the ground of each panel. (fn. 68)
The symmetrical plan and the uniformity of design
and detail in the 15th-century nave and aisles make
the interior of the church one of much dignity and
beauty. The arches of the arcades are of two moulded
orders, with hood-moulds toward the nave and south
aisle, springing from lofty pillars composed of four
clustered columns divided by hollows, and from
responds of the same character; the columns have
separate octagonal moulded capitals and tall circular
moulded bases on octagonal plinths. A piscina
remains in the usual position at the east end of each
aisle, that in the south aisle being perhaps from an
older building, (fn. 69) the other of oblong shape with rectangular trough. There is also a stoup with circular
bowl adjoining the pointed north doorway; the south
doorway was four-centred and had a niche above on
the outside.
The aisles are set out in five bays corresponding
with the nave arcades, divided by two-stage buttresses, two of which on the north side and one on the
south have triangular heads. There is a moulded
plinth, but no sill string, and the angle buttresses are
placed diagonally except at the south-west. The aisles
are lighted by tall, four-centred, transomed windows,
one at each end and four on either side, (fn. 70) of uniform
design. They are of three cinquefoiled lights above
and below the transom, with hollow-moulded jambs,
returned hood-moulds and chamfered rear arches.
The clearstory windows, five on each side, are of the
same character but without transoms, and the hoods
have head-stops. The grotesque corbels supporting
the aisle roofs and some of the moulded roof timbers
are ancient, but in the main the roofs are modern,
though following the old pattern. The high-pitched
roof-table of the 14th century nave remains above the
tower arch.
The massive west tower is of four stages, with
moulded plinth, pairs of buttresses set back slightly
from the angles, and battlemented parapets. There is
a vice in the north-west angle. The pointed west
doorway is of two moulded orders on shafted jambs
with moulded capitals, and flanked by small pinnacled
buttresses which may be later additions: a finial and
part of a crocketed hood-mould appear to be insertions. Above the doorway, in the second stage, is a
pointed window of two trefoiled lights with quatrefoil
in the head, and in the third stage, on all three faces,
a single-light, trefoiled pointed opening. The two
lower stages north and south are blank. The bellchamber is lighted on each side by a pair of pointed
two-light windows with quatrefoil in the head. The
spire is very short and has plain angles and two tiers
of gabled lights in the cardinal faces. Internally the
tower opens into the nave by a lofty pointed arch
of four continuous orders, alternately chamfered and
with wave moulding. (fn. 71) Above the arch is a pointed
chamfered opening within the line of the old roof.
The stone vaulting (fn. 72) above the second stage was
restored in 1902 and a ringing chamber made above it.
The font has a plain square bowl, moulded on the
underside, on a modern stem and base. Its date is
uncertain, but it has a good Jacobean spire cover
with ball termination. The wooden pulpit is modern.
The altar is entirely surrounded by communion
rails made in 1635, but has been moved eastward from
the position it occupied when the rails were set up.
This very unusual arrangement is due to the puritanism of the vicar, Richard Rudd, whose initials are
on the rail, backed up by Bishop Williams of Lincoln,
who, it is said, bade the vicar fence in the table not as
Laud intended, on three sides, but on four, thus
keeping it separated from the east wall. (fn. 73) The rails
form a square of 13 ft., with turned balusters and
angle posts, on one of which is the date of erection
and on another the wardens' initials. (fn. 74)
The wall above the chancel arch was painted with
a representation of the Doom, or Last Judgment,
traces of which still remain. The painting probably
extended to the tympanum, or board filling the upper
part of the arch, and to the clearstory walls on each
side. There are now no traces of the tympanum
and portions only of the painting over the arch can
be distinguished beneath a superimposed painting
of post-Reformation date, but the jaws of Hell, represented by the open mouth of a great whale, or fish,
are clearly visible on the south wall of the clearstory. (fn. 75)
Black-letter texts painted upon the walls in the
16th or 17th century are still partly discernible in
places. (fn. 76)
Two fragments of 15th-century glass, with the
heads of a bishop and a king, are in the tracery of the
middle window of the north aisle.
A beautiful coped coffin lid with floriated cross, of
the later part of the 13th century, (fn. 77) and another of
early 14th-century date with the head and shoulders
of a man sunk within an ogee-shaped recessed canopy
are now at the west end of the south aisle. (fn. 78)
In the floor of the chancel are two marble grave
slabs with brasses, one a small figure of Helyn Hardy,
wife of Robert Hardy, gentleman (d. 1486), (fn. 79) the
other, of about the same period, with the figures of
a man and woman. (fn. 80) This latter slab, of which the
surrounding inscription is gone, was used in the early
part of the 16th century over the grave of Edward
Watson, of Liddington (d. 1530), surveyor-general
to the bishops of Lincoln and a nephew by marriage
of Bishop Smith; a brass plate with a set of Latin
elegiacs in his memory was fixed upon the stone. (fn. 81)
In the north aisle is a memorial to seven men of
the parish who fell in the war of 1914–19. (fn. 82)
There is a ring of five bells by Toby Norris (II) of
Stamford 1694–5, but the third was recast in 1861
by Taylor of Loughborough. (fn. 83)
The plate consists of a cup with baluster stem
made in 1761–2, and a paten with ornamented rim
made in 1803–4. (fn. 84)
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) all
entries from about 1562 to 1624; (ii) baptisms and
marriages 1626–1725; (iii) burials 1678–1724; (iv)
baptisms 1725–57, marriages 1725–50, burials 1725–53;
(v) baptisms and burials 1757–91; (vi) baptisms and
burials 1792–1812; (vii) marriages 1754–90; (viii)
marriages 1791–1812. (fn. 85) There are churchwardens'
accounts 1627–1725.
Advowson
The church of Liddington is not
mentioned in the Domesday Survey,
but it was confirmed to the Dean
and Canons of Lincoln by Pope Alexander III in
1163, when it was assigned in the place of the prebend
of Canwick (co. Linc.). (fn. 86) Bishop Gravesend ordained
the vicarage in 1276. (fn. 87) The rectory and advowson
of Liddington formed part of the endowment of the
prebendal stall in Lincoln Cathedral; and the presentation to the vicarage from this date was made by the
prebendary down to about 1881, when the patronage
of Liddington, with the chapelry of Caldecott, passed
to the Bishop of Peterborough, who is the present
patron. (fn. 88)
The rectory was held by the prebendary who, from
time to time, leased the Prebendal House in the village
and the prebendal estate consisting of several parcels
of land in Liddington and Caldecott. The estate
was leased to trustees in 1629 at a rent of £40 for
the lives of Henry, Eusebius and Robert Pelsant, (fn. 89)
sons of William Pelsant of Market Bosworth (co.
Leic.), prebendary of Lincoln (d. about 1634), (fn. 90) and
Judith his wife. Henry was a fellow of Trinity Hall,
Cambridge; Eusebius was knighted in 1642 and was
living at Liddington in 1681, and Robert, of Gray's
Inn, died unmarried. To the last of these, the Parliamentary trustees under the Act for abolishing deans
and chapters, etc., sold the prebendal estate in 1650
for £599. (fn. 91) At the time of the Inclosure the prebendal
estate consisted of the prebendal house, a homestead
and 209½ acres. (fn. 92)
Charities
John Moore by his will gave to the
churchwardens of Scalford and the
churchwardens of Liddington 7 roods
of meadowland upon trust to apply the yearly rent
in the purchase of bread to be distributed equally
among the poor of the parishes. The meadowland
is let at a rental of £2 7s. per annum and the half of
this sum is distributed in bread to the poor of Liddington.
Liddington Hospital was founded by Sir Thomas
Cecil, Kt., Lord Burghley, in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, by deed bearing date 6 November 1600,
for the relief and setting to work of certain poor and
needy people. It was directed that it should be
called Jesus Hospital in Liddington and that the same
should consist of one warden and twelve poor men
and two women who should be called sisters of the
hospital. The endowment consists of an annual
charge of £116 upon the park or enclosed ground
called Cliffe Park in Northampton. For some time
past the amount distributed among the inmates has
been £151 3s. 4d. per annum, it being understood
that the excess amount over the £116 is provided by
the Marquess of Exeter, who acts as treasurer to the
hospital.
Elizabeth Mary Jeyes, by her will dated 11 May 1858,
bequeathed a sum of money for the poor people of
the parish. The endowment now consists of a sum
of £53 19s. 10d. 3½ per cent. Conversion Stock,
producing in dividends £1 7s. per annum. The
charity is administered by the vicar and two trustees
appointed by the parish council, who distribute the
income among ten poor persons.
Thomas Stevenson, by his will proved at Leicester
on 10 September 1907, gave the sum of £200 to the
vicar and churchwardens, the income to be applied
in augmentation of the salary of the organist of the
parish church. The money was invested in
£219 3s. 7d. India 3 per cent. stock, producing in
dividends £6 11s. 4d. per annum.
The sums of stock are with the Official Trustees.