Lutterworth (St. Mary)
The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £26, and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £585. The church is a spacious and handsome structure, with a tower surmounted by four lofty pinnacles; it was repaired and beautified about the year 1740, and the whole interior renovated, with the exception of the pulpit, which is a fine specimen of the early English style, and possesses great interest, being that from which the reformer Wycliffe first openly promulgated his doctrines. He was rector from 1375 to 1384, when he died, and was interred in the church; but in the year 1428, his bones were disinterred pursuant to a decree by the council of Constance, and publicly burnt, and the ashes thrown into the river. His portrait is preserved in the church, as well as the chair in which he died, also the purple-velvet communion-cloth used by him; and a handsome monument has been erected of late years in honour of the great reformer. The late Dr. Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, who was rector from 1801 to 1814, appropriated a library for the use of the parishioners, to be deposited in the church; where is a tablet to his memory. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. A free school and some almshouses were founded and endowed by means of a bequest of £200 from the Rev. Edward Sherrier; a school for girls was endowed with £12 per annum, by the late bishop, and another, called "Mr. Pool's," is partly supported by endowment. Richard Elkington, of Shawell, by will dated May 29th, 1607, devised the sum of £50, afterwards vested in land which on sale produced £1000, now lent in sums of £50 to tradesmen. The union of Lutterworth comprises 36 parishes or places, 30 of which are in the county of Leicester, 5 in that of Warwick, and one in that of Northampton; the whole containing a population of 16,039. In the reign of John, an hospital for a master and brethren, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, was founded and endowed by Roise de Verdon, and Nicholas, her son: at the Dissolution it was valued at £26. 9. 5. per annum.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.