Bagshaw's 1846 Trade Directory of Derbyshire

WILLESLEY parish, locally situated in West Goscote hundred, Leicestershire, and scattered village of pleasant houses, 2 miles S.W. by S. from Ashby-de-la-Zouch, contains 910 acres of land, 10 houses, and 53 inhabitants, of whom 28 were males. Population in 1851, 63. Rateable value, £1,254. Sir Charles Abney Hastings, Bart., is sole owner, lord of the manor, impropriator, and patron of the church, St Thomas, a perpetual curacy, valued in the King’s books £12, now £52. Rev. George Lloyd, incumbent. The church, a small ancient structure, was repaired by the parishioners in 1844. Here is no parsonage. Thos. Abney, Esq., about 1782, settled £20 per annum on the curate, and the living has been augmented with £400 Queen Anne’s bounty. The Hall, on the north side of the church, appears to have been built about the time of Charles I. It has lately been enlarged and repaired. It is situated in a park of 140 acres, and is the seat of the proprietor. This manor was given by Wulfric Spott to the Abbey of Burton, under which it was held by the family of Ingwardby, whose heiress married Abney early in the fifteenth century. The Abneys resided here for many generations, and became eventually possessed of the manor, which after the Reformation had been granted to the Sheffield family. General Sir Chas. Hastings, Bart. married the daughter and heir of Thomas Abney, Esq., and granddaughter of Sir Thos. Abney, one of the justices of the common pleas. Sir Thomas Abney, of Stoke Newington, in Middlesex, sometime lord mayor of London and one of the first founders of the bank of England, was born at Willesley, in 1639.

Hastings Sir Chas. Abney, Bart., Hall
Bowler Wm. gamekeeper
Grainger Thomas, farmer
Knight Wm. farmer, Park
Oakhill Jas. farmer, Hill
Roberts John, land agent, Park
Smith John, farm bailiff
Sutton Rebecca, farmer, Wood

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