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 A HISTORY OF RUTLAND APPENDIX ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS The county of Rutland from the 13th century until 1876 was a single rural deanery within the archdeaconry of Northampton. The Dean of Rutland, called also ' decanus patrie,' is found in 1263 claiming criminous clerks on behalf of the Bishop of Lincoln ;^ and he appears again, under the title of ' Dean of the Christianity of Oakham,' in 1285.' In 1291 it included forty-four parishes.' This number remained unchanged in 1534 ;* seven years later the whole archdeaconry passed to the diocese of Peterborough.' In 1 85 1 the first Clergy List gives forty-one parishes; Ketton, Liddington, and Empingham were still prebendal churches, and arc therefore left out ; and Pickworth had been united with Great Casterton. Horn^ and Martinsthorpe, though they had long been sinecures, were still reckoned as separate parishes. In 1867 the deanery was divided into four portions, the first containing eleven parishes, the second ten, the third ten, and the fourth twelve. Empingham, Ketton, and Liddington were now included in the lists, having in the meantime ceased to be peculiars. The next important change was on 29 June 1875, when the county was united with part of Northamptonshire to form the archdeaconry of Oakham,' and divided into three deaneries. The first deanery now included fourteen parishes, the second thirteen, and the third fifteen. This arrangement still continues ; the only important recent changes being the union of Martinsthorpe with Manton in 1886, and the erection of Braunston into a separate parish in the same year. ' Assize R. 721, m. 9d. ' Ibid. 722, m. 11. ' Poft NkL Tax. (Rec. Com.). ♦ Falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.). * Dioc. Hist, of Line. (S.P.C.K.), 243. ' Horn ceased to be a separate parish in 1870, upon the death of Leland Noel, instituted in 1832 : ex inf. V. B. Crowther-Beynon. For all details which follow, see C/ergy Lists. ' Lot! J. Gaz. Of the 138 parishes in Oakham archdeaconry 96 are in Northamptonshire. is8