Ashby St Ledgers, Northamptonshire Family History Guide

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Ashby St Ledgers is an Ancient Parish in the county of Northamptonshire.

Parish church: St. Mary and St. Leodegarius

Parish registers begin:

  • Parish registers: 1554
  • Bishop’s Transcripts: 1706

Nonconformists include: Independent/Congregational

Adjacent Parishes

Ashby St Ledgers Parish Registers

These records include digitized records of baptisms, marriages, banns, and burials including images and indexed transcriptions.

Ashby St Ledgers, Northamptonshire Bishops Transcripts 1706-1812

Ashby St Ledgers, Northamptonshire Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1554-1813

Parish History

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ASHBY-ST. LEDGERS, a parish in Daventry district, Northampton; near Watling-street and the Oxford and Grand Junction canals, 2 miles W of Crick r. station, and 4 N of Daventry. It has a post office under Rugby. Acres, 2,050. Real property, £3,605. Pop., 300. Houses, 63.

The distinctive name St. Ledgers is taken from the patron saint of the church. Ashby Manor-house, a substantial old mansion, belonged to the Catesbys, passed to the Jansons, and is now the property of W. Senhouse, Esq.; and a small room in one of its offices was the place where Robert Catesby and his fellow conspirators concocted the gunpowder plot. Ashby Lodge is another chief residence. The parish is a meet of the Pytchley hounds. The endowed charities in it amount to £44.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Peterborough. Value, £130. Patron, W. Senhouse, Esq. The church is an edifice of nave and aisles, with tower and spire; has screen, rood-loft, and three piscinas; and contains an altar-tomb of William Catesby and his wife, of date 1493. This Catesby was the favourite of Richard III., fought for him at the battle of Bosworth, and was captured there and beheaded at Leicester; and he is “the cat” of the trinmvirate while Richard Ratcliffe is “the rat,” Lord Lovel “the dog,” and Richard III. “the hog,” in allusion to his crest of the boar-named in the satirical distich

The rat and the cat, and Lovel the dog,
Do govern all England under the hog.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

ASHBY ST. LEDGER’S (St. Mary and St. Leodegar), a parish, in the union of Daventry, hundred of Fawsley, S. division of the county of Northampton, 3½ miles (N.) from Daventry; containing 257 inhabitants. This parish, which comprises 1902a. 2r. 4p., is bounded on the east by the Roman Watling-street, and situated near the London and Birmingham railway and the Union canal.

The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £6. 13. 4., and in the patronage of the Senhouse family; net income, £130, which arises from 66 acres of glebe. The church is in the later English style; it contains a richly ornamented screen and rood-loft, and in the windows are some remains of ancient painted glass. Sir William Catesby, favourite of Richard III., and owner of the manor, was buried within the altar-rails, under a marble slab with a rich brass in fine preservation; and Robert Catesby, the conspirator, of the time of James I., resided here, where he had property.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Historical Directories

Kelly Post Office Directory of Northamptonshire 1869 – Google Books

Kelly Post Office Directory of Northamptonshire 1885 – Archive.org

Administration

  • County: Northamptonshire
  • Civil Registration District: Daventry
  • Probate Court: Court of the Archdeaconry of Northampton
  • Diocese: Peterborough
  • Rural Deanery: Daventry
  • Poor Law Union: Daventry
  • Hundred: Fawsley
  • Province: Canterbury