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Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire

Historical Description

Canons-Ashby, a village and a parish in Northamptonshire, 1 mile N from Morton Pinckney station on the East and West Junction railway, and 6 miles W from Towcester. Post town, Byfield (R.S.O.); money order and telegraph office, Byfield. Acreage, 1830; population, 38. Here is the seat of the Dryden family, an ancient quadrangular building enclosing a court which stands in a well-stocked deer park of 37 acres. The living is a chaplaincy in the gift of Sir H. E. L. Dryden, Bart., and in the diocese of Peterborough. The church is a building of stone in the Transition style between Early English and Decorated, and it contains portions of the old monastic church founded in the time of Henry II.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyNorthamptonshire 
Ecclesiastical parishCanons Ashby St. Mary 
HundredGreens-Norton 
Poor Law unionDaventry 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Church Records

The register of baptisms and burials dates from 1708; marriages, 1755.

Ancestry.co.uk, in association with the Northamptonshire Record Office, have images of the Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts for Northamptonshire online.


Churches

Church of England

Priory church of the Blessed Virgin (parish church)

The priory church of the Blessed Virgin is a building of stone in the Transition style between Early English and Decorated, and consists of the western portion of the nave of the monastic church, together with part of the north aisle and the massive north-west tower, which is supported by ornamental buttresses, and has pinnacles at the angles: in the church are various monuments and hatchments to the Dryden family, and a brass with effigy and arms to John Dryden esq. ob. 1584; another to Sir Erasmus Dryden bart. ob. 22 May, 1632, and Frances (Wilkes) his wife, ob. 1630; a third to John Dryden esq. ob. 1631: there are mural monuments to Sir John Edward Turner Dryden bart. d. 29 Sep. 1818, to Sir John Dryden bart. d. 16 Ap. 1797, the Rev. Sir Henry Dryden bart. M.A. vicar of Ambrosden, Oxon and rector of Wooton, Warw. d. 17 Nov. 1837, and Elizabeth, his wife, d. 1851; and a flat stone inscribed to Sir Robert Dryden bart. d. 19 Aug. 1708: there are 30 sittings.


Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Canons Ashby from the following:


Land and Property

The mansion is a quadrangular building, inclosing a courtyard of 52 by 37 feet; the early part of it was erected in the middle of the 16th century, but it has undergone alterations at several subsequent periods: the hall is decorated with armour and other antiquities; adjoining the house is a picturesque park of 37 acres; well stocked with deer and containing two fish ponds.

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Northamptonshire is available to browse.


Maps

Online maps of Canons Ashby are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Northamptonshire papers online:

DistrictDaventry
CountyNorthamptonshire
RegionEast Midlands
CountryEngland
Postal districtNN11
Post TownDaventry

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