FERRERSWilliam de Warda, who appears as claiming a knight's fee in Burton in or before 1177, may have been an under-tenant holding land at Burton Overy under the Earl of Leicester, for the de la Warde family were certainly under-tenants there in the 13th century. In 1204 the church of Burton Overy belonged to the Norman monastery of St. Evroul (Orne), which may originally have obtained it from Hugh de Grentemesnil, one of the monastery's founders. At the partition of the honor of Winchester in 1277 the NOVERAY manor at Burton was allotted to Elizabeth, wife of the Earl of Buchan. In 1277 Ellen, wife of Alan la Zouche, obtained as her share of the Winchester inheritance at Burton Overy only 2 virgates held by William de la Hay. In 1301 Simon of Wigston was granted a licence to alienate in mortmain to a chantry at Wigston Magna property which included 40s. rent from 2 virgates in Burton Overy held from Alan la Zouche. There is no later reference to land held by the Zouche family at Burton. Between 1264 and 1277 the de Noveray lands at Burton had for a time been held from Margaret de Ferrers, Elizabeth's sister and co-heir. In 1279 John de Noveray, son of the Robert de Noveray who was mentioned in the partition of 1277, was holding 5 carucates and 2˝ virgates in serjeanty at Burton Overy. The de Noveray family were associated with the village well before 1277, and in 1260 it was already known as Burton Noveray. In 1317 it was stated that the lands of Theobald de Verdon, then deceased, included ˝ knight's fee in Burton Overy, held by the heirs of Robert de Normanville.
St. Evroul retained the advowson during the 13th and 14th centuries since the monastery's knight founder, presentations to the benefice being usually made by the Prior of Ware, a cell of St. Evroul in England. A pension was paid by the rector to St. Evroul or to Ware Priory. In the 14th and early 15th centuries the advowson, like other English possessions of French religious houses, was for long periods in the king's hands, and from 1339 onwards the king repeatedly presented to the living.
Robert de la Warde, who appears as a vassal of Margaret de Ferrers at Burton in 1277, was already holding lands there from the honor of Winchester in 1271. In 1279 his lands in Burton Overy were said to be one knight's fee. Margaret de Ferrers transmitted the overlordship of the holding to her second son William de Ferrers; Robert de la Warde was said in 1307 to have held a manor in Burton from William's son as two-thirds of a knight's fee. When Robert de la Warde died in or before 1307, his heirs were his two daughters Joan, wife of Hugh de Meynill, and Margaret. Both obtained portions of their father's holding at Burton Overy. Margaret, daughter of Robert de la Warde, may be identified with the Margaret Nevill, kinswoman and heir of Robert, who was holding land at Burton from the Ferrers family in 1371.
The overlordship of the Noveray manor was held by the earls of Buchan until the death in 1308 of John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, whose lands descended to his niece, the wife of Henry de Beaumont. The Beaumonts remained overlords of the manor until at least 1432, when John, Lord Beaumont, was seised of it. Under the Beaumonts the manor was held by the de Noveray family, who were probably the tenants in demesne. The overlordship continued to be held by the Verdons until 1360, when it descended to William de Ferrers, son of Henry de Ferrers and Isabel, daughter of the last Verdon lord. From 1360 onwards the overlordship descended in the same way as that of the other Ferrers holdings at Burton Overy. Under the Verdons the tenement, or part of it, was at one time held by Thomas de Basingges, who was dead by 1360, and subsequently it was held by John Basingges. Half a knight's fee in Burton Overy held by the heir of John Basingges is mentioned in 1457–8, but the holding is not subsequently referred to.
According to Nichols, Richard's lands at Burton Overy fell to his eldest daughter Joan, who married first John Staunton of Staunton Harold, and secondly Thomas Clinton. Ralph Shirley, who appears in 1428 as holding one knight's fee in Burton Overy formerly held by the Meynills, was Joan's son-in-law, and presumably owed his holding to this connexion, though as Joan was still living long after 1428 it is not clear what Shirley's position was. Joan, by her will dated 1453, left her property to be divided between her grandsons Thomas Francis and John Shirley. John Shirley certainly acquired some of his grandmother's lands at Burton Overy, but does not seem to have been the lord of a manor there, and in 1557 the Shirley property at Burton was sold to John Bale of Carlton Curlieu, who amassed considerable property in Burton and the adjacent parishes. The Francis family also seem to have acquired some property at Burton, perhaps including the manor. The fate of the Ferrers manor after 1453 is obscure, and, divided between various owners, it seems to have ceased to exist, the only surviving trace of it being the vague rights at Burton Overy held by the Grey family.
After 1432 there is no further record of any connexion between it and the Beaumonts. The de Noveray family seem to have lost control of it by 1409, when it was alleged that Isabel, relict of John Walssh, and others had disseised Robert Abbot, Agnes his wife, and John Overy of a manor at Burton, which Isabel was holding in dower. In 1440 Thomas Walssh of Wanlip, brother of Isabel's husband John, was holding a manor at Burton, and it seems probable from the case of 1409 that it was the manor formerly held by the de Noveray family.
The overlordship of this holding was possessed by the Ferrers family, and then by the family of Grey of Groby, which succeeded to the Ferrers lands, until after the death of Edward (Grey), Lord Ferrers of Groby, in 1457. There is no later reference to the Greys as overlords of the manor, but it is probable that they retained their rights until Henry (Grey), Duke of Suffolk, was attainted in 1554, when his property was forfeited to the Crown, for in 1607 it was said that certain lands at Burton were held directly of the king by reason of the duke's attainder. A fee in Burton Overy held by Margaret Nevill from the Ferrers overlords is mentioned in 1445 and in 1457. The lands inherited from Robert de la Warde by his daughter Joan continued to be held by her descendants, the Meynill family, until the death in 1376 of Richard Meynill. Richard's widow Joan held his manor at Burton until her death in 1398. Richard Meynill left no male heirs, and his lands were divided amongst his four daughters.
In 1415 Henry V granted all the possessions of Ware Priory to the new Carthusian monastery at Sheen (Surr.), which retained the advowson until the Dissolution. In 1552 the advowson was granted to Lord Clinton and Saye. In 1576 a presentation to the rectory was made by William Warde, yeoman, and after Warde's death the advowson descended to his daughter Anne, wife of Francis Hodges. From Anne and Francis Hodges the advowson passed in 1599 to William Burditt. It was still in the hands of the Burditts in 1660, though during the Interregnum their possession of it seems to have been disturbed. (fn. 38) Subsequently the advowson changed hands repeatedly in a short period; Thomas Grey, for one turn only, presented in 1667, and three persons— Abbot, Sherard, and Yates—in 1710. In 1753 the rector, Paul Southworth (d. 1768), acquired the advowson for himself, and in 1758 settled it on his daughter on her marriage with John Lee who was immediately presented to the living.
The Walssh family retained the manor until the death of Thomas Walssh, nephew of the Thomas Walssh previously mentioned, when his possessions were divided between his two granddaughters. An agreement of 1526 about the manor seems to have left it in the hands of Sir Thomas Pulteney of Misterton, husband of one of the granddaughters, for in the 18th century it was known as PULTENEY'S manor. It is not known when the manor passed out of the hands of Pulteney or his heirs, but in 1605 it was held by Francis Hodges, who in 1618 sold it to John Nedham. The Nedham family were still in possession of the manor in 1673, but by 1724 it had passed to Sir Geoffrey Palmer. In 1877 one of the Palmer family was still lord of a manor at Burton Overy, but after that date the Noveray manor seems to have been allowed to disappear.
The church of ST. ANDREW consists of chancel, nave, north aisle, a large chapel to the north of the chancel, west tower of three stages, and south porch. The building is of ironstone with limestone dressings, and there has been a considerable amount of re-facing in limestone ashlar, particularly to the porch and to the upper part of the tower. The tower dates from the late 13th and early 14th centuries and is without buttresses. At some period the walls have been tied in with iron bands. The narrow tower arch has moulded capitals and bases. The rest of the church also appears to have been rebuilt from c. 1300 onwards, although some mixed rubble masonry near the west end of the north aisle may be part of an earlier building. The aisle has a 14thcentury north doorway and a west window with forking tracery. Two buttresses, probably of similar date, have been removed from the outer wall, which has been raised in height. The arcade of three bays has circular piers with moulded capitals and pointed arches of two chamfered orders. At the eastern respond the arch rests on a grotesque corbel-head. A low clerestory was added above the arcade in the 15th century and the south porch is of similar date. The chancel contains a 14th-century piscina and three sedilia with ogee heads, but the whole of the east end of the church was remodelled and raised in height when the north chapel was added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
In 1718 there were reported to be 6 Presbyterians and 8 Independents at Burton Overy. A house at Burton belonging to one of the Coleman family, who were then prominent in the village, was licensed in 1716 for the worship of Protestant dissenters, whose denomination is not recorded. In 1726 Daniel Woodruffe's house in the parish was similarly licensed. A Congregational chapel was built in 1855, a red-brick building with stone dressings, having a central porch flanked by Gothic windows with interlacing tracery. It stands in a small graveyard.
The registers begin in 1575 but there are gaps in baptisms from 1645 to 1653, in burials from 1787 to 1790, and in marriages from 1753 to 1755 and 1759 to 1761. In 1777 John Weston gave a chalice, paten, and almsdish, the cost of the almsdish being met partly by the sale of the existing communion plate. The plate also includes a silver dish of 1852 and a 19th-century flagon, both given by a number of parishioners. There are three bells: (i) 1632; (ii) 1616; (iii) 1616. The second was recast and all three were re-hung in 1956.