Earl Shilton - Peg-Leg Watts and The Stocks

Peg-Leg Watts and The Stocks

In 1705, the payment by the Reeve for Shilton manor was £34 8s 6¼d. The Reeve was voted into office annually by the freeholders of the parish. There were 61 freeholders who voted in 1719, but this number had dropped to 28 by 1785.

The Overseer of the manor had various facets to his job. Daniel Marvin Overseer in 1755, made charges of 5shillings for ale at the burial of a pauper.

In 1760, Alderman Gabriel Newton, of Leicester gave to Earl Shilton and Barwell £20 16s from his charity, for the educating of 20 poor boys from each village.

James Perrott was a successful surgeon who worked in Earl Shilton. He married the widow, Lady Ann Sharpe, and they lived in the village for over 40 years, until she died 1791, at the age of 62 years.

Famous for his prowess as a wrestler Samuel Marvin also lived in Earl Shilton.

The last soul to be incarcerated in the Earl Shilton stocks was a man called ‘Peg-leg Watts’. What crime this local ‘ne’re do well’ had committed we have no idea, but the stocks were situated opposite the old churchyard. Also in the vicinity there was the village round house or gaol. Unfortunately all traces of the old lock-up have now disappeared.

An Act of Enclosure was passed in 1778. Earl Shiltons’ open fields, meadows and 1,500 acres (6 km²) of heath land were all enclosed. Thomas, Viscount Wentworth, was entitled to all small tithes vacarial dues in Shilton.

Scrymshire Boothby had the entitlement of the great tithes, payment in lieu of tithes, hay and meadow lands in Hall fields and Breach field. The following year Scrymshire Boothby sold Tooley Park to John Dod, and the remainder of the estate was divided.

Shilton Heath, famed for over a century for its steeple chasing, was gone for good.

Viscount Wentworth also had his lands in Elmsthorpe enclosed, including an extensive rabbit warren. He exchanged these after 1778 for 2 acres (8,100 m2) of land in Shilton parish.