The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

582 LEAKE.
In Cancello in MAuro australi.
Tumulus lapidem cum effigie militis tibiis in crucem transversus. —-Leak, ut dicitur.
Altera effigies alabastrina in medio cancelli. Th/amworth, ut dicitur..... Quondam rector ecclie de Leek et Fundator istius chori, qui obiit Ano Dni 1332.
Depicta sup. Murum.
Q Arg. a fesse dancett6 betw. 3 cockatrices' heads I T-hnmworth.
Quarterly. erased, sa.
G. 3 garbs arg. a border sa. bezanty. —(Clement, ut opinor.)
Eadem insignia sepius sup. sedulum ex sinistra cancelli cum pluribus fascibus Liliorumn
Circumscript. ME PLEST BENE.
Ex opposito sedula Leek, et supra depict.
Arg. a chief gu. over all, a bend engrailed az.- Leake of Leake.
In Fenestra australis naccis.
Empaled. Quarterly. France and England, Naples.
In Campanili.
Arg. a saltier, on a chief G. 3 escallops of the first. — Tailboys.
Arg. a chief G. over all a bend az. Cromwell.
Chequy. Or and G. a chief ermine.- Tateshall.
Benefactores ad construccoem ejusdem.'
"An old tomb, with the following inscription, appears to have escaped the observation of
Colonel HOLLES:"' Agnes fil. Dni. Humfridi de Patrington quonda vicarii istius ecclie, qui obiit XVI. Kal.
Septemb., Ano Dni mccc. nonagesima." 2
There are several memorials of the Darby and Gilbert families in the floor of
the chancel.
The church of Leake was valued at 501. in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica of
Pope Nicholas, 1291.3 In 1341, William, vicar of the church of Leake, paid a
fine of 20s. to the King for
"License to concede certain tenements in Leake which William de Prentise de Leek,
chaplain, held for his life, to discharge the said William after his decease, and to remain to
the said chaplain."4
In 1362 (36 Edward III.), Joan, the widow of Nicholas Cantelupe, and
certain others, gave forty marks for license to give seven acres of meadow in
Leake, and the advowson of the church of Leake, to the Dean and Chapter of
the choir of St. Mary at Lincoln.s TANNER says the church of Leake was
given, in 1366, to the college of priests celebrating before the altar of St.
Nicholas in the Cathedral at Lincoln.6 This is incorrect; the gift was made in
1362; but the deed by which the gift was confirmed was signed at Bugden by
John Beckingham, bishop of Lincoln, on the 6th of June, 1366.7 This deed
fixed the endowment of the vicar of Leake at forty marks sterling yearly, and a
convenient and sufficient house to reside in. Thomas Paynson, who was vicar
in 1535, when the Valor Ecciesiasticus was taken, received only 131. 6s. 8d.,
or forty nobles, just half the amount settled by the above-mentioned deed of
H6arleien MSS., British Museum, 6829, p. 210 i 4 Abbrcviatio Rot. Orig., vol. ii. p. 149.
and 211. 5 Ibid. p. 274. Notitia, p. 285.
2 LincoInshire Churches. Holland.-LEAKE. 7 This deed is given at length in the account of
3 Tar. Ecclesiastica, p. 62. Leake Church.-See Lincolnshire Churches.