LUTTERWORTH, a market-town and parish, in
the hundred of GUTHLAXTON, county of LEICESTER, 13
miles (R. by W.) from Leicester, and 89 (N. W. byN.) from
London, on the high road to Lichfield, Chester, and
Liverpool, containing 2102 inhabitants. This place was
formerly noted for the peculiar vassalage of the tenants
of the manor, who were obliged to grind their corn at
one particular mill of the lord, and their malt at another,
so lately as theyear 1758, when they obtained a decision at
the Leicester assizes empowering them to erect mills,
and to grind where they pleased. The town is situated
on the small river Swift, which falls into the Avon. It
is regularly built, and consists principally of one main
street, from which some minor ones diverge; it is lighted
by subscription, and paved by means of the proceeds of
an ancient benefaction of land, now producing about
£200 per annum, and under the management of two
officers, called "Town Masters," who are annually chosen
at the manorial court leet. The cotton and tammy manufactures
were formerly carried on to a considerable
extent, but the latter has been discontinued for many
years, and the former declined about the year 1816; the
present staple manufacture is coarse worsted hose, and
a few ribands are also made. The market is on Thursday;
and fairs are held on the Thursday after February
19th, April 2nd, Holy Thursday, and September 16th,
for horses, cattle, and sheep; the last is also for cheese.
The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Leicester,
and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's books
at £26, and in the patronage of the Crown. The church,
dedicated to St. Mary, is a spacious and handsome
structure, with a nave, aisles, and a chancel separated
from the nave by a beautiful screen; the tower was
originally surmounted by a spire, which fell down about
a century ago, when four pinnacles were substituted.
This edifice was repaired, beautified, and paved with
checquered stone, about the year 1740, and the whole
interior renovated, with the exception of the pulpit,
which is a fine specimen of the early English style, of
an hexagonal shape, composed of thick oak planks, with
a seam of carved work in the joints, and possesses great
interest, being the same in which the great reformer
Wickliffe preached, he having been rector of this parish
from 1374 to 1387, when he died, and was interred in
the church; but, in the year 1428, his bones were disin
terred by a mandate from the Pope, and publicly burnt,
and the ashes thrown into the river. His portrait is
preserved in the church, as well as the chair in which
he died, and the communion cloth used by him, which
is of purple velvet trimmed with gold. The Hon. and
Rt. Rev. Henry Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry,
and formerly rector of this parish, in 1814, appropriated
a library for the use of the parishioners, to be
deposited in the church, with an allowance to the clerk
to keep it in order. There are places of worship for
Independents and Wesleyan Methodists. A free school
and almshouse were founded and endowed by means
of a bequest of £200 from the Rev. Edward Sherrier:
the master receives a salary, and four almsmen 7*.
each per week. A charitable benefaction from Robert
Boles, for educating and apprenticing six poor boys,
amounts to about £57 per annum; and one from Margaret
Bent, for educating four boys, to about £14 per
annum. Richard Elkington, of Shawell, by will dated
May 29th, 1607, devised to the mayor, bailiffs, and
burgesses of Leicester, as trustees, the sum of £50, to
be lent, in sums of £10 each, to five tradesmen of Lutterworth,
for the term of one year, at the rate of five
per cent., the interest to be divided among certain poor
persons; in default of applications, the money was
vested in land some years since, which was recently
sold, under a decree of the court of Chancery, and produced
£ 1000, that sum being now lent, in sums of £50,
for three years, at three per cent. In the reign of John,
an hospital for a master and brethren, dedicated to St.
J ohn the Baptist, was founded and endowed by Roise
de Verdon and Nicholas her son: at the dissolution it
was valued at £26. 9. 5. per annum. There is a small
petrifying spring in the vicinity.