White's Directory of Nottinghamshire, 1853

Ossington

Ossington is a pleasant village and parish on the Carlton and Kneesall turnpike road, which was formed in 1812. The parish contains 235 inhabitants and 2,263 a 2r of clay land, of which John Evelyn Denison Esq. M.P. is lord of the manor, and owner of the whole, except about 38 acres. He resides in the hall, a handsome modern mansion, situated in an extensive park, and embowered in woods. It is built on the site of an ancient house, which was partly destroyed in the civil wars, and was for many years the seat of a branch of the Cartwright family, that ended in four co-heiresses in 1775, who sold the estate to the late William Denison, a rich merchant of Leeds, who died in 1782 after realising a fortune of £700,000, a large portion of which, it is said, he gained by one ship's cargo, which arrived at Lisbon immediately after that city had been destroyed by an earthquake. His monument in the church consists of a full length figure of marble, standing upon a pedestal, having a scroll in his hand, with his ship unloading in the haven of Lisbon.

The church, situated near the Hall, is a neat structure, dedicated to the Holy Rood, with a tower and five bells. It has several other neat monuments, particularly two belonging to the Cartwrights and Peckhams. The living is a donative. J.E. Denison Esq. is the patron and impropriator, and the Rev. Archibald George Campbell M.A. the incumbent. The Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem enjoyed this lordship, in pure alms, with all its spiritual and temporal privileges. At the suppresion of the monasteries, Henry VIII gave it to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who by licence from the same king alienated it to Richard Andrews, gent, from whom it passed to Edmund Cartwright, gent. There is an excellent school in the village, at which about 70 boys and girls belonging to this and the adjoining parishes are educated, at the expense of J.E. Denison Esq., who pays the master an annual salary of £60.

[Transcribed by Clive Henly]