Leicestershire Parish Councils

16th Century Blaby

The Abbey and Convent of Leicester suffered dissolution in 1538 along with all other major religious houses, and the patronage of the living of Blaby was then vested in the Crown until the middle of the 19th century. John Tyffyn was the last rector to be appointed by the Abbot. He continued in office until 1545 when King Henry VIII appointed John Legh, who survived the reigns of Edward VI and Mary Tudor and all the politico-religious struggle of those times.
Registers of baptisms, marriages and burials were kept at Blaby from 1564 when there were 30 families in Blaby and 18 in Countesthorpe. The names of curates of Blaby appear so frequently in the first registers that it seems evident that they were in virtual charge of the parish. The first record of a rector being buried in Blaby is that of William Goddell in 1590.

17th Century Blaby

In 1626 a scourge swept through Blaby carrying off a very large number of inhabitants. 82 burials took place between the months of April and August; the average at that time being not above 10 in any one year. The whole of the large family of George Rogers, the rector, seems to have escaped harm. Did they go away? We do not know, but the rector was on the spot.
An interesting feature of the church is the roof over the south aisle which dates from 1630 and was the work of a local carpenter, Rob Biggs, whose two sons, Thomas and Robert, were baptised in Blaby Church. Letters inscribed on the cross-beam to the west of the main entrance of the church read as follows: "WHID (Who Hath it Done) 1630 Rob Biggs".
In 1650 Mr. Bosse, so we read, was engaged with a Mr. Swayne and a Mr. Stephens of Fenny Drayton in a dispute about infant baptism against Mr. Robert Everard and other Baptists. (There is a gap of 20 years at this time in the Church registers.) He himself had to give up the living at the Restoration of Charles II but continued to live in Blaby with his family and to attend the church. The King appointed John Reynolds whose brother Edward Reynolds was Bishop of Norwich. We know nothing of him except that he later became Archdeacon of Norwich.
The next rector, John Moore, appointed in 1676, later became Edward Reynolds's successor as Bishop of Norwich. At the time of his coming to Blaby the population was said to be 285 persons, of which number "the majority were said to be faithful to their fathers' church, though there were 40 of so who would attend an ana-baptistical meeting" (what we would now call Baptists).
Richard Duke, Prebendary of Gloucester, a poet and wit, and one of Queen Anne's Chaplains, was the next rector of Blaby. It was said that "in his sermons, besides liveliness of wit, purity and correctness of style, and justness of argument, were many fine allusions to the Antigents, several beautiful passages handsomely incorporated in the chain of his own thoughts, and, to say all, in a word, classical learning and a christian spirit". The Queen ordered the publication of some sermons which Richard Duke had preached before her. Others were published posthumously. One wonders how his sermons went down in Blaby!