Great Billing

"GREAT BILLING, a parish in the hundred of Spelhoe, in the county of Northampton, 4 miles to the E. of Northampton, its post town. The Peterborough and Northampton branch of the London and North-Western railway passes near it, and there is a station at Billing Road. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Peterborough, of the value of £495, in the patronage of the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford. The church is dedicated to St. Andrew, and contains a monument to Henry, Earl of Thomond, to whom the manor belonged, and who died in 1691. A tablet to the memory of Caroline Elwes, who died in 1812, is adorned with a bas-relief by Flaxman. A hospital was founded here by John Freeman in the 17th century, which has an income from endowment of £33 a year. There are other small charities. This village was the birthplace of Sir J. Wake, a scholar and diplomatist of the reign of James I., the rectory being at that time held by his father. Billing Paddock is the seat of the Elwes family, to whom the manor now belongs." [Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]