Data from the 'Collectio Rerum Ecclesiasticarum' from the year 1842.

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

Data from the 'Collectio Rerum Ecclesiasticarum' from the year 1842.

The place: LEDSHAM.     Church dedication: ALL SAINTS.     Church type: Discharged Vicarage.

Area, 5,190 acres. Barkston Ash wapentake, U. D. Population, 944 *1; Church-room, 500; Net value, £397. -The Church of Ledsham was by Robert de Lacy given to the Priory of Pontefract, with one mediety of the town; the other mediety the said Religious held of the Chapter of York.

The Rectory was appropriated to the Priory and Convent of Pontefract, and Archbishop Walter Grey made an ordination, the particulars of which appear in Torre's MS.

There was formerly a Chapel at Fairburn, and Torre says, the Dean and Chapter have jurisdiction there.

Patroness, Mrs. Wheler.

The Church is valued, in Pope Nicholas's taxation, at £10, and the Vicarage at £6 las. 4d. The value of the Vicarage, in the King's books, is £7. 3s. 2d. per annum ; and in the Parliamentary Survey, vol. xviii. page 257, at £17 per annum. Synodals, 5s.; Procurations, 7s. 6d.

To this Vicarage appertain the townships of Ledsham, Newton, Fairburn, and part of Ledstone. It enjoys an augmentation of £14, per annum from the Dean and Chapter of York, who have the impropriation of Fairburn township.

The Vicarage was augmented, in 1721, with £200, to meet benefaction from Lady Elizabeth Hastings of tithes of the value of £200 and upwards.

There was an Act passed in the 53rd Geo. III. to inclose Fairburn township.

Torre gives a close catalogue of the Vicars to 1668, which is continued by Thoresby and Whitaker.

The glebe house is fit for residence. A mortgage of £1,000 under Gilbert's Act will cease in 1839.

Dr. Whitaker, in his Loid. et Elm., page 145, gives the inscriptions and an engraving of Lady Elizabeth Hastings' monument.

4th May 1662 Dame Mary Bolles, of Heath Hall, in the parish of Warmsfield, Baronetess, directed her body to be buried in Ledsham Church, and a decent tomb to be placed over her, and bequeathed £10 to an able minister for preaching her funeral sermon, and £700 to be bestowed in fine cloth and stuff for mourning, &c., and £400 more to be expended about her funeral; and the strange poor above sixteen years of age, 6d. a piece, and to the younger sort, 3d. Also £500, to be bestowed in lands, and the profits thereof to go to the binding of poor children of Warmsfield, yearly apprentices, for ever, and £200 more for the binding of apprentices of the poor of the parish of Royston, and £200 more for those of Sandall parish. Torre's MS., page 393.

The Register Books commence in 1539. Deficient from 1597 to 1606.

Charities:
Sir John Lewis's Hospital, by will, in 1670. Six single men and five single women, upwards of sixty years of age. They receive each 15s. a week, and also coals and certain clothing. Income: rent of 49a. 1r. 31p. of land ; rent-charge, £30, annual payment from Lady Elizabeth Hastings's general charity ; and dividends on £400 consols.

Dole. 10s. per annum in bread on new year's day and Good Friday.

Thomas Selby's dole. £1 per annum. Poor's Money. Interest of £70.

Rev. Walter Sellon's charity. Interest of £50, to be laid out by the Vicar in necessaries for the sick poor.

Ann Shirtliff's gift, by will, proved 23rd April 1770. Interest of £10 -Not paid since 1809.

Lady Betty Hastings's Charities. 40s. per annum for sacramental bread and wine. Charity School, for not less than 20 girls, preferring orphans. Income : £258 per annum; ditto for 20 boys, £76. 7s.; to the mistress of the school, when superannuated, 10s. per annum ; to the master of the boys' school, for reading prayers in St. John's Hospital, 40s. per annum, and 40s. more for examining the children after evening service ; to the Vicar, for books for the children, £3 per annum; to the repairs of the Church, £5 every twenty years.

Widow's charity, founded by Lady Betty Hastings. Rent of a house and 29a. 3r. 10p. of land, payable to the widow of the incumbent of Ledsham during her widowhood. When no widow living, the Vicar for the time being to receive the rent. -Vide 15th Report, page 636, and 19th Report, page 608.

Post town: Ferrybridge.

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References:
Torre's MS., page 391. Abp. Sharp's MS., vol. i., pages 92. 341. Whitaker's Loidis et Elmete, page 195. Thoresby, page 235. Mon. Ang. vol. v. page 119. Nonae Roll, page 226.

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Notes:
*1 Viz.: Fairburn, 465 ; Ledsham, 236; Ledstone, 243. In 1834, The Population was returned at 850.