Jane Leeson

Mrs. Jane Leeson spinster, by her will bearing date 27 Maii 1646, founded here a free-school for the benefit of Abthorpe and Foxcote, and settled on the master a salary of eight pounds per annum.

Abthorpe School - the left hand section was built and endowed by Jane Leeson in 1642

To the poor of the same place she gave a yearly benefaction of three pounds, and xxiil. to be annually distributed amongst the poor of several other towns in the neighbourhood. Her estate and lands in Abthorpe are settled for the payment of these charities, under the management of certain feoffes, and their successors, appointed by her will.

This gentlewoman was born at Francton in Warwickshire where Thomas Leeson her father, or ancestor, was Lord of the Manor. She died on the first of April 1648, and was buried near the pulpit of the chapel of Abthorpe.

The subsequent installation of a wooden floor has covered most of what is probably J ane Leeson's gravestone at the end of the north aisle, near the pulpit in Abthorpe church. A small rectangle of grey stone with a few indecipherable markings is all that is now visible.

The Leeson Trust operated for about three hundred and fifty years. For a significant part of that period it was responsible for the maintenance of the school at Abthorpe.

To see the sort of repairs it funded, click here