BLAKESLEY, a parish in the hundred of GREEN'S-NORTON,
county of NORTHAMPTON, 4 miles (W. N. W.)
from Towcester, containing, with the hamlet of Woodend,
752 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage,
in the archdeaconry of Northampton, and diocese
of Peterborough, rated in the king's books at
£9.. 17. The King, for that turn, was patron in 1828.
The church is dedicated to St. Mary. A free school
was founded by William Foxley, in 1669, and endowed
with property now producing about £ 85 per annum; it
is open to all boys whose parents reside in the parish.
A Sunday school is endowed with a bequest of £200
by Sir John Knightley, Bart. There are also charities
called Cleave's charity, the Foxley and Bidford charities,
and others, some of which Blakesley enjoys in
common with other parishes. Blakesley Hall is stated
to have been anciently occupied by a fraternity of the
order of St. John of Jerusalem.