Goadby’s History of Loughborough, Chapter 8, Part 3

We pick up the story of Loughborough as presented by journalist Edwin Goady, in his serialization in the ‘Loughborough Monitor’ of which he was editor, which ran from 1864 to 1966.

As I mentioned last time, Goadby’s Chapter 8, although only listed as Chapter 8, and without any part numbers, actually appears in three issues of the ‘Loughborough Monitor’, so I shall follow suit, and split it over three blog posts, but will also give each post a Part number. This is Part 3, and the final part.

As usual, some of Goadby’s paragraphs are rather long, so in order to make reading the chapter a little easier, I have added a few spaces and created new paragraphs. This particular chapter seems fairly straightforward, so I’ve not added any notes this time. Other than that, I’ve changed nothing, so do bear in mind that this text is now about 160 years old, and may no longer be accurate, as there are many more discoveries that have been made that illuminate the history of Loughborough, and some terminology will have changed, so some of the information in this article will be wrong. I have not tried to amend these in any way, so reader, beware!

____________________________________

THE HISTORY OF LOUGHBOROUGH FROM THE TIME OF THE BRITONS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

In: ‘Loughborough Monitor’ 11 May 1865, pg.5, continued from 13 April 1865, pg.5

CHAPTER VIII. [Part 3]

A Tradition, and its Final Settlement—Henry VII.’s Progress through the Town—Its Curious Accessories—Thomas Burton, and the Wool Staple—Scarcity of Facts concerning him—His Will—His Deed of Enfeoffment, and Death.

____________________________________

____________________________________

If some of the sums of money bequeathed, as seen in our last [part], seem small in these days, it should be remembered that money was then many times more valuable than it is now, and a man or a woman might be more than “passing rich” upon considerably less than “forty pounds a year.” The latter clause in the will [of Thomas Burton] is seen to refer to the Chantry, the history of which is so intimately connected with the fortunes of the town. The terms of the bequest are somewhat vague, but very likely there was a purpose in so putting them. What the security there spoken of may mean is hardly clear, but in the following year (1495) Burton executed a deed of Enfeoffment whereby he granted all his lands and possessions in Loughborough and neighbouring villages to eight persons, and by a Letter of Attorney to Thomas Barker, of Loughborough, empowered him to enter upon them and deliver them over into the full and peaceable possession of the same.

The deed, which contains no declaration of trust, but is sufficiently intelligible when viewed in the light thrown upon it by the clause of the will especially referring to the property therein named, is as follows

“Know ye all men present, and to come, that, I, Thomas Burton, of Loughborough, in the County of Leicester, Senior, a Merchant of the Staple of Calais, have given, granted, and by this my present deed confirmed to Ralph Lemyngdon, of Loughborough aforesaid, merchant, Edward Canell, Thomas Mason, John Crosby, Thomas Colcrofte, John Podyam, James Redman, and Ralph Smythe, of the same place, all my tenements in Loughborough aforesaid, Willoobe upon the Wold, Eastleyke, Hardby, Statherne, and Thrussington, with all lands and tenements, meadows, feedings, and pastures (pratis, pascuis, et pasturis) to the same belonging. To have and to hold the aforesaid lands and tenements, with all their appurtenances, meadows, feedings, and pastures to the same adjoining, to the aforesaid Ralph, Edward, Thomas, John, Thomas, John, James, and Ralph, their heirs and assigns for ever, of the Chief Lord of that Fee by the services therefore due and of right accustomed.

And I truly, the aforesaid Thomas Burton, Senior, and my heirs, will warrant against all persons the aforesaid lands and tenements, with all lands and tenements, meadows, feedings, and pastures, with all their appurtenances, to the aforesaid Ralph, Edward, Thomas, John, Thomas, John, James, and Ralph, their heirs and assigns. These being witness, Richard Cannell, Public Notary, Thomas Spicer, and Robert Barker.

Dated the 29th day of April, in the Tenth year of the reign of King Henry the Seventh, and in the Year of our Lord, 1495.”

This deed was not signed by Burton himself, it being sufficiently valid in point of law without it. It may also be reasonably believed that this enfeoffment evaded the law relative to the alienation of lands for religious purposes which had been in force ever since the feudal system had rooted itself in England.

The will declared that the lands in question should be applied for a special purpose, but did not take them out of the family. This enfeoffment, however, by its very nature took effect at once, and so the Chantry was established without any one but the parties immediately concerned being cognizant of the nature of what high legal authorities state was then a very common proceeding.

Burton appears to have died either late in the same or early in the following year, his will being proved by his Executors on the 19th of January, 1496. He was buried just within the threshold of the old vestry, and the attendant ceremonies are already described by anticipation in his will.

If a monumental inscription were placed over his remains, as would be pretty sure to be the case, it must have either become entirely obliterated in the course of a century, or the historian William Burton could not have been shown it when he visited the church early in the seventeenth century, since he gives not the slightest hint as to its existence (in fact, never mentions Burton’s name at all in his account of the place), although he refers to two monuments of an earlier date, one 1415, and the other 1481, and expressly notices the monument to Robert Lemington, a merchant of the Staple, who in all probability was nearly related to, if not the very Ralph Lemington so prominently mentioned in Burton’s Deed of Enfeoffment, and who died in 1512.

Very likely the position of the monument would prevent it attracting his notice, but the entire omission of any reference to his illustrious namesake can only be explained by conceiving an amount of apathy on the part of the historian’s attendants and informants which it would be well if we could congratulate our townsmen had since been entirely dissipated.

A monument, however, was unquestionably in existence in the eighteenth century, but was rapidly becoming defaced. It was a massive marble block, worn away by the tread of many generations of rectors and parish clerks, and only a few words could be read at the top of the stone. It became, therefore, a question with the Feoffees of the Charity in 1793 - we quote the precise words of the minute - “wether (sic) the stone should be taken up and the letters fresh cut,” but wisely considering that the situation of the stone would always “subject ye inscription to be soon effaced,” they agreed to let the original stone, if such it were, remain in its place, and that the memory of so great a benefactor might not be “obliterated,” they ordered that the inscription should be “cut in a handsome manner on Swithland slate,” and placed on the wall of the vestry, as near as could be to the original stone.

If the original inscription were copied, which is stated to be the case, the memorial could not have been a very old one, for it refers to the uses of his charity which did not begin until nearly the close of the sixteenth century. The inscription, now removed to the northern wall of the tower, is as follows

Hic prope jacet Thomas Burton,

Maecenas nostrum primus et summus,

publicae scholae fundator,

cujus et pontium solus conservator,

pauperum dulce praesidium et nostrarum

aeternum decus, columenque rerum.

Obiit Anno xti., 1496.

 

Hoc monumentum posuit

et antiquam inscriptionem instauravit

Curator Pontium, Anno Salutis 1793.

For the benefit of English readers the above may be rendered as follows:

“Near here lies Thomas Burton, our first and greatest Maecenas, the founder of the Public School of which and the bridges he was the sole sustainer; the kindly guardian of the Poor, and our eternal ornament and head of all things. He died, the Year of Christ, 1496. This monument was erected and the old inscription restored by the Bridgemaster, the Year of our Salvation, 1793.”

The Bridgemaster for that year was Mr. J. Fry, and as no other entry can be found in the Bridgemaster’s accounts for the expenses connected with this monument, it is but fair and reasonable to suppose that they were defrayed by the voluntary subscriptions of the Feoffees themselves, assisted by the townspeople.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is remarkable to see how the town took steps in 1793 to preserve the memory of their "greatest Maecenas" by commissioning the Swithland slate memorial when the original marble was worn away. This highlights the lasting impact of his 1495 Deed of Enfeoffment, which legally established his charitable legacy while navigating the complex laws of the time.

End of Chapter 8.

____________________________________

Links to older chapters

So Who Was Edwin Goadby?

Chapter 1, Part 1

Chapter 1, Part 2

Chapter 2, Part 1

Chapter 2, Part 2

Chapter 3, Part 1

Chapter 3, Part 2

Chapter 3, Part 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5, Part 1

Chapter 5, Part 2

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8, Part 1

____________________________________

Transcribed and presented here with the kind permission of the British Newspaper Archive. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

____________________________________

Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

_______________________________________________

Thank you for reading this blog.

Copyright:

The copyright © of all content on this blog rests with me, however, you are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows:

Dyer, Lynne (2026). Goadby’s History of Loughborough, Chapter 8, Part 3. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2026/02/goadbys-history-of-loughborough-chapter_0212394646.html [Accessed 15 March 2026]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

External Links:

By including links to external sources I am not endorsing the websites, the authors, nor the information contained therein, and will not check back to update out-of-date links. Using these links to access external information is entirely the responsibility of the reader of the blog.

Blog archive and tags:

If you are viewing this blog in mobile format, you will not be able to easily access the blog archive, or the clickable links to various topics. These can be accessed if you scroll to the bottom of the page, and click 'View Web Version'. Alternatively, there is also a complete list of posts, which when clicked will take you to the page you are interested in.

Searching the blog:

You can search the blog using the dedicated search box that appears near the top of the blog when viewed in the web version. Alternatively, you can search using your usual search engine (e.g. Bing, Google, DuckDuckGo etc.) by following this example:

site: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/ “Radmoor House”

NOTE – the words you’re actually looking for must be in “” and the first of these must be preceded by a space

Thank you for reading this blog.

Lynne