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CHAPTER IV.
The history of the Rectory.
In the Domesday Record there is a church and a priest at Leake. Before the Conquest the priest was, no doubt, maintained by the lord of the manor, Siward, to whom, in a certain sense, the Church belonged, and at the time of the Record by his Norman successor. The usual form of maintenance was by tithes of produce.
With the extension of the parish, and the separation of the West Leake manor, there came about a division of the parish into the two parishes of East and West Leake; each lord of a manor wishing to have his own church and priest. But in 1206 we find that “the Church of Leke”1 was held in two equal parts. Gilbert de Riggeby was the patron of one part.
It is most likely that some of the grants made to various monastic foundations were made at the expense of the Rectory. We have an instance in the grant of a pension of forty shillings, in 1227, out of the Rectory, to Repton to relieve its poverty.
In 1280 the advowson of the living was determined to belong to the Prior of Repton, notwithstanding the claims of John de Benningworth, Elias de Staunton, and Galfred, son of Ralph Bugg. The value of the benefice at that time was £30 per annum.
In 1291 (Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV.) “the Chapel of Tuttesbury” had a charge of £5 on the Rectory of Leake. The living is taxed at 57½ marks, or £38 6s. 8d.
In 1306 Sir Henry Sutton was Rector of St. Leonard's of Lek, indicating that the parishes of East and West Leake were held separately at that time, as in 1317, when Cardinal Reymund de Fargis was “Parson of Great Leke.”
In 1340 the 9th sheaf, fleece and lamb were worth £20. In addition to this the church property was two carucates (i.e., 240 acres or thereabouts) of plough land and ten acres of meadow—this glebe being worth ten marks or £6 14s. 4d. The tithe of hay was worth 40/-, and the altar offerings 14½ marks, or £9 13s. 4d., making a total value of £38 7s. 8d.
In 1376 Galfred Bugge, Lord of Leyk, made a feoffment of all his lands to the Parson.
In 1535 “Leke Rectory” is valued thus :—House in West Leake with glebe 40/- per annum; a messuage with glebe in East Leake 16/- per annum; oblations 26/8; tithes and Easter dues 46/-; tithes of wool and lambs £8; tithes of sheaves and hay £13 6s. 8d.; tithes of flax, hemp, little pigs, pigeons, chickens, and eggs 20/-; a total of £28 14s. 4d. gross.2 The outgoings were ; To the Archbishop of York for synodals 6/-; to the Archdeacon of Nottingham for procurations 7/6; to the Prior of Repton, pension £2 ; to the Prioress of the Minoresses, without Aldgate, annual portion 17/4. The net income being £25 3s. 6d.
The Parliamentary Commissioners, of 1650, reported the benefice to be of the annual value of “ one hundred four score and five pounds.”
The terrier of church lands in 1748 is printed in the appendix.
In 1795 the net value was “about £300,”
The allotment made in 1801 in lieu of Glebe and Tithes may be seen in the appendix.
In 1835 the net value was £719.
The net value of East Leake when separated from West Leake in 1882 was £350 without a Rectory house. In 1901 it was £396 with house.
In order to make a true comparison of values, there must be due regard paid to the continuous changes in the purchasing power of money. Roughly speaking, the value of money was fairly stationary between 1291 and 1535, at, say, twelve times its present value.
GRANTS OF LANDS TO MONASTERIES.
Alan de Lec, with the consent of his son and heir, Henry, gave certain lands in West Leake to the Canons of Calc (Calke) somewhere about 1161. Other gifts soon followed from Leke (East Leake), for, later, the same Alan, and Harald and Richard, his son, are found to have confirmed “the Church of Leke” to those Canons—the land then being one carucate or 120 acres in extent.
The same Harald gave three acres of meadow to Calke.
About the same time—cir. 1175—William Earl Ferrers, as Earl Robert had done before him, gave to Bredon (which had been founded by Earl Robert) 20/- out of West or Jordan de Toc’s Leke.
Harald of Leke and Alan his son (second of the name) must have given lands to Garendon about the time when Harald confirmed the grants to Calke, for William (the first Earl of that name) de Ferrers is found confirming the gift of Harald de Leca, and Alan his son.
About 1220 Philip de Cortingstoke granted all his lands in Leke field at a place called Chanoynes hokes to Garendon Abbey. The document is preserved,3 and is as follows:—
“Philip of Cortingstoke to all sons of holy Mother Church who see or hear this charter, greeting. Be it known that I have given and by this present charter confirmed (as a gift) to God and the Church of the Blessed Mary of Garendon and to the Monks there serving God, for the well being of my soul and the souls of all my ancestors and heirs in simple and perpetual charity all the land which I had in Leke field in the place called Chanoynes hokes. It is that which I bought of Hugh de Lokele.
I give it to be held and had free and quit from every secular service and claim. Even so that no charity could be given and held more free and quit. And I Philip and my heirs will vouch for the said land to the said monks as our special gift, against all men for ever. In testimony of this act I confirm these presents with the impression of my seal. With these as witnesses—Robert son of Umfrey de Leke, Nicholas son of Henry, William the Smith, Roger son of William, Ganfred Godebert, Robert Rosel and many others.”
In 1276 Repton held nine bovates of the fee of Ferrers by the gift of Lucy Montgomery.
An exchange of land may be noted, the Canons of Repton giving two virgates and one bovate of land at West Leake for the equivalent at Sutton, and Sutton Bonington. “Robert of Nottingham” was the other party to this exchange.
In 1291 the “Chapel of Tuttesbury” had a charge of £5 upon the Rectory of Leake, “which the nuns of the Minories without Aldgate, London, held.”4
At the same time Dale Abbey had property in West Leake; and Repton in both East and West Leake.
St. Mary de Pratis Priory extra Northampton at the same time had land value 10/- in Leake.
A charter of King Edward II. of the date 1325 confirms the gift of Harald of Leke to the monks of Calke "now serving God at Repton.”
In 1535 Garendon held 16/- rents of meadow land in Great Leke.
At “The great Pillage” these lands in East Leake belonging to Garendon were granted by Henry VIII. to Thomas Earl of Rutland. The Repton lands were granted to Sir John Porte, from whom they passed by marriage to the Hastings. The advowson of the Rectory passed to that family, together with the lands.
THE PATRONAGE OF THE CHURCH.
A description of the church as a Rectory so early as Domesday would be incorrect. Up to that time the Anglo- Saxon land-owners presented a clerk of their own choice. The patron of a mediety of the Rectory in 1206 was Gilbert de Riggeby, the other mediety being in all likelihood in the patronage of the Prior and Convent of Repyngdon, or Repton as it is now called. Gilbert had not been able to exercise his patronage, as the following document under King John's seal will show. “The King to all etc. . . . . . Know that we have granted to Gilbert de Riggeby patron of a mediety of the Church of Leke that he twice yielded to our petition that mediety viz once to Sir J. de Well' now elect Bp : of Bath, and on another occasion to W. de Gray our Chancellor, and that we will not again ask him (for the patronage) when the next vacancy occurs. He many confer it on any one. And in testimony of this .... In the presence of P. Bp: of Winchester and J. Bishop elect of Bath. Given at . . . . the 9th day of May in the 7th year of our reign.”
The Prior and Convent appear alone as patrons until 1308. In 1280 this right of patronage was challenged by John de Beningworth, Elias de Staunton, and Galfred, son of Ralph Bugg, but upheld.
During the vacancy in the office of Prior, Edward III. presented. In 1387 Thos. de Sutton was patron, and in 1404 John Manners, but probably only of a mediety, as the Prior and Convent of Repton are found presenting in 1441, 1458, and 1462. John and Richard Fitzherbert present in 1473, and as their nominee was William Fitzherbert, it looks like a case of purchasing the next presentation for a relative whom they wished to serve.
Repton presents again in 1476, and in 1517 for the last time.
At the suppression of Monasteries, Sir John Porte received the Repton lands at West Leake and the advowson of the two parishes. He presented once only, in 1554. In 1567 the Archbishop of York (? through lapse) presented,5 but the advowson, which came into the family of Hastings by marriage, remained with them until purchased by the Rev. John Bateman, with the exception that in 1662 Gervas Pigott, of Thrumpton, presented. The next presentation appears to have been bought in at least one instance, when Frances Stanhope presented her son Michael.
Mr. Bateman sold the advowson in two portions in 1876,6 that of West Leake to Lord Belper ; that of East Leake to the Rev. G. A. Sneyd. East Leake within a few years passed successively to Walter Evans, Esq., the Rev. G. B. Atkinson, and George Henry Angrave, Esq., in whose hands the patronage remains.
(1) This implies that there was then only one church, but two Rectors. Apparently the second church was erected later.
(2) The living had declined more than 25 per cent, since 1291. Most English livings also declined at that time.
(3) British Museum M.SS., Campbell xv. 14.
(4) Curtis, “Topographical Account, &c.”
(5) Nottinghamshire was in the Archdiocese of York until 1837.
(6) London Gazette, 4th April, 1876.