The village of Ashby Magna is in south Leicestershire, around 12 miles south of the county town and 5 miles north of Lutterworth.
In 1669 it was reported that a conventicle of Presbyterians or Independents was meeting in the village, and unlawful assemblies were held there by Matthew Clarke, the ejected minister of Narborough, Mr Southam and Mr Shuttlewood, also ejected ministers ‘on Sundaies & other daies and nights’. Around 100 people ‘of all sorts’ were said to meet in the houses of Edward Pratt and Matthew Hubbard (a husbandman), and their children were being baptised by these ejected ministers and not at the parish church.[1]
In 1672 Richard Southall was licensed to preach at a Presbyterian meeting in Ashby Magna, in the house of Matthew Hubbard.[2]
By 1706 most of the dissenters appear to have been in Ashby Parva, about two miles away, rather than Ashby Magna. Two families of Presbyterians were noted in 1706, and one of Presbyterians and two of Baptists in 1709, but there was no meeting house.[3]
No meetings were held in 1829,[4] and no congregations were recorded in 1851.
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[1] R.H. Evans, ‘Nonconformists in Leicestershire in 1669’, Trans LAHS, 25 (1949), p. 133
[2] Cal. State Papers Domestic.
[3] J. Broad (ed.), Bishop Wake’s Summary of Visitation Returns from the Diocese of Lincoln, 1706-1715 (Oxford, 2012), II, p. 837
[4] ROLLR, QS 95/2/1/2