BRAUNSTON, a parish in the hundred of FAWSLEY,
county of NORTHAMPTON, 2 miles (N. W.) from
Daventry, containing 123 inhabitants. The living is a
rectory, in the archdeaconry of Northampton, and
diocese of Peterborough, rated in the lung's books at
£31. 2. ll., and in the patronage of the Principal and
Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford. The church, dedicated
to St. Giles, is a spacious handsome edifice, with
a fine octagonal crocketed spire, one hundred and fifty
feet high. There are places of worship for Baptists
and Wesleyan Methodists. The Grand Junction and
Oxford canals unite in this parish. Near the upper
extremity of the village is an ancient cross, the shaft
of which is composed of a single block of stone, eleven
feet high., William Makepeace, in 1733, gave land, now
producing about £30 a year, which, together with voluntary
contributions, is applied towards the support
of a National school, A considerable portion of this
lordship is held by the following tenure:- on the death
of a copyholder, his widow is obliged to appear at the
succeeding manorial court, and there present a leathern
purse, containing a groat, whereby she becomes'tenant
for life, subject to a renewal of her appearance every
court day. Dr. Edward Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich,
and an able polemical writer, was curate of this parish
for several years.