A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE died in 1618, was thought wonderfully generous because of his bequest of 16 IOJ. to charitable purposes.* 89 A few gifts of plate were made during the Laudian revival ; " Sir Henry Hudson of Melton Mowbray restored to the Church some part of his impropriate tithes for the building of a hospital ; M1 the good deeds of Sir Robert Shirley have been already noted. But the benefactions of the second half of the century were many and generous. Those who were well-to-do founded or endowed free schools and almshouses, 862 where children were to be instructed in Church doctrine, and the aged provided with the consolations of religion. The revived use of sacred symbols, monograms, crosses, and emblems of the passion, upon the vessels offered for use at the altar, is worthy of notice ; showing that the old dread of popery and idolatry, though still alive, was at any rate a little more limited in its sphere of operation. 888 It was indeed still alive, as the troubles of the ' Popish Plot ' revealed. Two sons of a Leicestershire vicar m who had both entered the Society of Jesus were among the victims of the alarm raised by Titus Gates and his friends in 1678-9 ; one of them, Father Anthony Turner, was executed in London in June, j<)? M and the other died in prison two years later. The oath of allegiance was administered to many recusants at this time, in terms which some of them could not reconcile with their consciences ; an aged lady, Dame Mary Smith of Sproxton, com- plained that she had been imprisoned with her three children in Nottingham Gaol for some weeks on this account, ' to the ruin of her estate and the decay of her health.' m But the Bill for disarming Papists brought forward at this time shov/s only thirteen well-known families in Leicestershire who adhered to the Roman obedience. 267 The short reign of James II served to show that, however false the statements of Titus Gates, the fear of popery was not altogether groundless ; "' Nichols, Lelc. ii, 617. 60 These may be found in Trollope's Church Plate of Leicestershire, where a full description is made of ale gifts, of which memory is preserved. 11 This was in 1638 ; see Nichols, Lelc. i, preface, for account of Charities existing in the reign of George III. Other benefactions of this period were : an almshouse for four poor widows, founded 1620 by Dr. Fleming, rector of Bottesford, and his sister ; a free school at Wymondham by Sir John Sedley in 1637. a The bishop of Peterborough in 1690 left ,240 to endow a prize of tot. yearly to twenty poor families which could say the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments without missing a word. Dr. Humphrey Babington in 1 686 founded a hospital at Barrow-upon-Soar ; Thomas Rawlins a free school at Woodhouse, 1691 ; Thomas Palmer of Loughborough a free school in 1677 ; Valentine Goodman left 200 in 1684 for the benefit of the 'most indigent and decrepit paupers' in Hallaton and the neighbourhood. The smaller gifts and additional endowments are too many to quote ; ibid. The last benefaction here mentioned, that of Valentine Goodman, was made quite in the old spirit. He had purposed to leave his estate to his brother Everard, but the latter said to him, ' Brother, you have more need of it for your own soul's good than I.' Hill, Hist. ofLangttm, 219. 163 See Trollope, Ch. Plate of Lelc. With the single exception of the gifts of Sir Charles and Sir Robert Shirley, marked with the crown of thorns, the winged heart, and other like symbols, not a single piece of the church plate of Leicester before 1660 has any ornament except coats of arms and conventional foliage. Some of the finest gifts of the Restoration period are those at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, presented by different members of the Hastings family, in 1676-7 and 1701-2 ; others were given later. Almost all the altar plate given after 1700 has some sacred emblem upon it.
- Nichols gives the name of Toby Turner as vicar of Little Dalby, 1613-49 ; which fits in well enough
with Foley's statement that Fr. Edward Turner entered the Society in 1650. He and his brother are said to have been brought up under Roman influences by their mother, who had been ' reconciled ' by one of the Jesuits stationed in the Leicestershire district ; Foley, Rec. of the Engl. Province, iii, 308 ; iv, 472-5. 164 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. p. 472.
- Lords' Journ. xiii, 485. She was released on bail with one of her daughters.
167 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. p. 236. Some of the old names are found here Turville, Fortescue, Eyre, and those who had married the daughters of Sir Thomas Beaumont. The same names are found again in the list of Papists who registered their estates in 1716 ; Add. MS. 15629, fol. 29. 390
