Ashby St. Mary / Ascebei / Asebei / Assebei

This Ashby has five entries in the Domesday Book [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TG3202/ashby-st-mary/] [accessed 14 February 2014], but there is no mention of a church or cleric in any of them. Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "The Church of Ashby is a rectory, dedicated to St. Mary [...] and the rector had a manse, with 30 acres of land, land, in the reign of Edward I [i.e., 1272-1307] [...] and Sir Thomas de Helgeton was lord and patron. [...] Henry de Len, rector"; this last name given sine data but quite likely towards the 1290s, as the next rector, Roger de Breton, took over in 1301. The present font and its cover are noted in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "Font. Octagonal. With its elementary geometrical motifs it could be of the 1660s.-- Fontcover. Jacobean, with simple strapwork." Knott (2005), however, writes: "The font is the great curiosity - as at nearby Thurton, it is a late 17th century replacement, probably after the original was removed from the church during the Commonwealth. Oddly, the apparently Jacobean font cover is nothing of the sort, but a Victorian confection. It is interesting, though perhaps a little unlikely, that the Ashby Victorians were happy to match an existing item when the style of it must have been anathema to them." [NB: the fabric of the church goes back to Norman times, but we have no information on the earlier font(s) of this church]