Market Bosworth is seated on a pretty high hill, in a country fertile in corn and grass. It is noted for a bloody battle fought here between Richard III and Henry earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII wherein King Richard lost his life and crown. This battle put an end to the long and bloody contention between the two royal houses of York and Lancaster; which, as fame tells us, had cost the lives of eleven princes, twenty-three earls and dukes, three thousand noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, and two hundred thousand of the common people. At the town they shew several pieces of swords, heads of lances, barbs of arrows, pieces of pole-axes, and such like instruments of death, said to be found by the country people in the several grounds near the place of battle, as they had occasion to dig, or trench, or plough, the ground. The town is near three miles from the place where the battle was fought. It is thirteen miles south-west of Leicester, and one hundred and six north-north-west of London.
The market-day is Wednesday, and fairs the 8th of May and 10th of July.
The following is a list of the principal inhabitants:
Gentleman
Dixie Willoughby, Esq.
Clergy
Nicholson Rev. Mr. Curate
Right Rev. Mr. Rector
Wood Rev. Mr. Curate
Physic
Power John
Traders, &c.
Gadsby Francis, Victualler
Grimley Robert, Grocer, &c.
Holworthy James, Schoolmaster
Holyland Thomas, Butcher
King William, Maltster
Lakin Joseph, Draper
Mann Hannah, Mercer and Draper
Moxon Nathaniel, Victualler
Sargeant James, Grocer
Shenstone John, Grocer
Stevenson Edw. Carpenter and Joiner
Swinsen John, Glazier
Thorpe William, Cooper
Underwood Thomas, Smith & Farrier
White Thomas, Hosier
Source: The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce, and Manufacture 1791. Vol. 3.