Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ASHBY-ST. LEDGERS

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.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Ashby St Ledgers CP/AP       Daventry RegD/PLU       Northamptonshire AncC
Place: Ashby St Ledgers

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