Lavenham (St. Peter and St. Paul)
The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £20. 2. 11., and in the patronage of Caius College, Cambridge: the incumbent's tithes have been commuted for £850, and certain impropriate tithes for £37; there are 144 acres of glebe. The church was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI., partly by the De Veres, earls of Oxford, who resided here, and partly by the family of Spring, wealthy clothiers. It is an eminently beautiful structure, in the later English style; the body is of rich workmanship, having a most elaborate open-worked parapet, and the tower is a structure of massive grandeur. The entrance is by a porch, supposed to have been erected by John, the fourteenth earl of Oxford, and much enriched; over the arch is a finely-sculptured double niche, and on each side of the niche are three escutcheons, each bearing quartered coats of arms of the De Vere family. In the church are, a curious mural monument to Allaine Dister, a clothier of the town; and another of alabaster and marble to the Rev. Mr. Copinger. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. The free school was founded in 1647, by Richard Peacock, with an endowment of £5 per annum, augmented in 1699 by Edward Colman, with £16 per annum. A national school is supported by the proceeds of a bequest of £2000 three per cent. consols. by Henry Steward, in 1806; and some almshouses, rebuilt in 1836, are inhabited by forty aged persons. The Rev. George Ruggle, author of a Latin comedy entitled Ignoramus, and other dramatic pieces, was born at Lavenham in 1575.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.