Goulceby lies in a northerly direction, about 7 miles from Horncastle, some two miles further on than Scamblesby, and barely a mile west of Asterby, to which parish it is now ecclesiastically annexed; the joint value of the two benefices, the former a vicarage and the latter a rectory, being about £380 a year, now held by the Rev. J. Graham, J.P., who resides at Asterby. Goulceby was probably, in Saxon times, the more important of the two places, since it was one of the 222 parishes in the county (according to Sir Henry Ellis) which possessed a church before the Norman Conquest, and one of the 131 which had a resident priest.
Letters arrive via Lincoln at 10 am., and are despatched at 3.55 p.m. The nearest money order office is at Scamblesby, the nearest telegraph office at Baumber; but, by arrangement, telegrams can be sent from the Donington-on-Bain station, on the Lincoln and Louth railway, which is distant about 2 miles.
The village lies in a valley which is watered by a branch of the river Bain. The patronage of the benefice has been in various hands. In pre-reformation times it belonged to the Preceptory of the Knights Templars at Willoughton; in 1605 it was held by Christopher Pickering (“Liber Regis”), later by a Mr. Hatley (Ecton’s “Thesaurus”); then by the Listers of Burwell Park, who presented as late as 1837; from whom the patronage, with the manor, was acquired by the Bagnell family; whose representative now presents to the united benefice, alternately with the Traffords, as Lords of the Manor of Asterby. At what period the original church perished does not appear to be recorded; but, according to Weir (“History of Lincolnshire,” ed. 1828) there was in 1821 only a small modern church, dedicated to all Saints. This fell into decay, and in 1855 was succeeded by a small brick and stone structure; which, in turn, has more recently been taken down; and the church at Asterby now serves for the two parishes.
Historic references to this parish are “few and far between,” yet by bringing them together, with a moderate degree of assumption from given premises, we can make out a fairly connected catena of its ownership. The name itself can hardly be said to give a certain sound. It has been variously spelt, as Golsby, Goldesby, Gouthesby, Golksby, Colceby, and, in Domesday Book, Colchesbi. We can only conjecture that it may have been the “Buy,” i.e., Byre, or farmstead of a Saxon Thane, named Col, Kol, or Golk, the two former being common as contractions of Colswen, or Colegrim, and not uncommon in the neighbourhood. [58]
According to Domesday Book, this, like many other parishes in the neighbourhood, was among the possessions of the Norman noble, Ivo Taillebois, acquired through his marriage with the Lady Lucia, the wealthy Saxon heiress of the Thorolds, and connected with the Royal line of King Harold. He (or she), had here 3 carucates of land (or 360 acres), rateable to gelt; with 16 socmen and 2 villeins, occupying 6 carucates (or 720 acres); a mill worth 4s. yearly; a church and priest, and 120 acres of meadow. As I mention in notices of other parishes (Bolingbroke, Scamblesby &c.), the tenure of these demesnes was not of long duration, and in a few years they were dispersed among the descendants of the Saxon heiress. Goulceby would seem to have become an appurtenance, with Belchford, Donington and several others, of the superior manor of Burwell. It would thus be granted, originally, by Henry I. to the Norman family of De la Haye, one of whom, in the 13th century, founded the Benedictine Alien Priory of Burwell, as a dependency of the Abbey of S. Mary Silvæ Majoris, near Bourdeaux, and endowed it with some of his own demesnes. This family held these possessions for 150 years. The last of them, John De la Haye, in the reign of Edward I., having enfeoffed Philip de Kyme of the same, continued for the remainder of his life to hold the lands, under the said Philip, by the peculiar (nominal) “service of one rose.” (Chancery Inquis., post mortem, 21, Edward I., No. 33). For some years the Kymes held the property, being called to Parliament as Barons, and doing other service for their sovereigns; until in 12 Edward III. (Dugdale’s “Baronage,” i., 621) William of that name died without issue; and his widow married as her second husband, Nicholas de Cantelupe (whose ancestors had been Earls of Abergavenny), who thus succeeded to these demesnes. He dying also without issue, on the subsequent death of his widow, the property reverted to Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus, who had been enfeoffed of it by his uncle, the above William. Gilbert, again, died without issue, and his widow married Henry Percy, created at the coronation of Richard II., the 1st Earl of Northumberland, who thus in turn acquired the property. He, however, rebelled against Henry IV. (Camden’s “Britannia,” p. 547); and on his attainder that sovereign granted the manors to his son John, afterward. Duke of Bedford (Patent Rolls, 6, H. iv., p. 2., m. 16s) He dying without issue, the property reverted to the crown, and Henry VI. granted it to Ralph, Lord Treasurer Cromwell. (Patent Roll 18, H. vi., pt. 2, m. 19).
Before this period, however, the Cromwells were connected with Goulceby, since it is shewn, by an Inquisition in the reign of Henry V. (post mortem, No. 72, A.D. 1419), that Matilda, the wife of Sir Ralph Cromwell, Knight, held lands in Roughton, Wodehall, Langton, Golseby, Belcheford, Donington, etc., [59] and that Sir Ralph Cromwell her son was the next heir. When the Lord Treasurer founded at Tattershall, the College of the Holy Trinity, on the 17th Henry VI. (1439), he endowed it with portions of many of these manors, as had also been done in the case of Burwell Priory, centuries before; Goulceby doubtless being one of them. On the dissolution of Religious Houses by Henry VIII. a great number of the lands connected with them in this neighbourhood were bestowed by that sovereign on Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, among these being Goulceby, Belchford, ffulletsbye, etc. [60a] He died 24 August, 1545, leaving two sons, Henry and Charles, by his wife Catherine, daughter and heiress of William Lord Willoughby de Eresby. They, while at St. John’s College, Cambridge, died of the epidemic, called “the sweating sickness,” 16 July, 1551 (Cooper’s “Athenæ Cantabridgenses,” i., 105); whereupon the descendants of the daughters of their great grandfather, Sir William Brandon, were declared the rightful heirs. One of these, Eleanor, had married John Glemham, of Glemham Parva, Suffolk, and their great grandson succeeded Thomas Glemham, Burwell, and a considerable portion of these demesnes. [60b] He died about the 14 year of Queen Elizabeth, and was succeeded by his son Henry, afterwards Sir Henry Glemham, Knight, who married Lady Anne Sackville, daughter of the Earl of Dorset. [60c] He settled upon his wife, Burwell, with appurtenances; and documents connected with the Lister family (subsequently owners of Burwell, etc.), now in the possession of Porter Wilson, Esq., shew that, in 1602, the farm rents included those from “Goulsby, Belchforde, Donington super bayne,” etc. We now proceed a step further to another change of ownership:—In 1641, Sir Thomas Glemham, of Burwell, was a strong supporter of Charles I., being Colonel of the King’s 4th Regiment, and successively, Governor of York, Carlisle, and Oxford. [60d] He, probably in order to raise funds for his royal master, sold for £15,000, the Burwell estate and its many appurtenances, to Sir Matthew Lister, Knight, of St. Martin in the Fields, co. Middlesex, and Martin Lister, of Thorpe Arnold, co. Leicester, his brother. It is somewhat curious that in the list of manors, which then changed hands, although Belchford, Oxcombe, ffaireforth (i.e. Farforth), and Walmesgate, all in the near neighbourhood of Goulceby, are named, no mention is made of Goulceby itself, yet down to as recently as 1863 the patronage of the benefice was vested in them (Morris’s “Gazetteer,” 1863). It appears, however, from a deed of settlement, dated 10 Jan. 1656–7 (or about 15 years after the sale), that Sir Martin Lister, of Thorpe Arnold, was possessed of Belchford, Colceby, &c.; and after his death, his children were to divide his property, and the trustees were “empowered to sell, if necessary, Belchford, Colceby,” &c. It is possible that by this “Colceby,” Calceby may be intended, which was annexed to Driby and Ormsby; but it certainly looks as if Goulceby formed a part of the share of the property originally bought by Sir Matthew Lister’s brother Martin. The Listers continued to be owners of Burwell, doubtless at different periods parting with various of the subsidiary “appurtenances” down to a few years ago; intermarrying with the Dymokes, Alingtons, Gregorys of Harlaxton, Lord Deloraine, members of the families of Sir Robt. Barkham, Knollys, Sir Edward Boughton, and forming other good connections. Only in 1883, was the property finally parted with by the late Matthew Henry Lister, eldest son of Matthew Bancroft Lister, High Sheriff in 1800, to the present owner, William Hornsby, Esq., High Sheriff in 1898. We may add that Matthew Bancroft Lister claimed descent from Philip of Kyme; whose family, we have seen, were owners of Goulceby, in the reign of Edward I., and in 1840 he petitioned the Queen for a revival in his person of the Barony of Kyme; but that dignity still remains in abeyance. Of the Matthew Lister who married Eleanor, daughter of the Hon. Sir Charles Dymoke, Knight, champion of James II. (Circa 1683), it is recorded that he had a son “Martin, baptized 1 October, buried in woollen 30 Nov., 1693.” [61] For these particulars as to the ownership of Goulceby in the past, I am largely indebted to a paper in the “Architectural Society’s Journal” for 1897, by Mr. R. W. Goulding, entitled “Notes on the Lords of the Manor of Burwell.”
The present owners of Goulceby are Colonel Bagnell, Lord of the Manor, Earl Manvers, Thomas Falkner Alison, and various small proprietors.
The following particulars of the Listers are worthy of mention.—Sir Matthew Lister, M.D., was fellow of Oriel College, Oxford; Physician to Queen Anne, Consort of James I.; and Physician in Ordinary to Charles I., by whom he was knighted in 1636 (Woods’ “Fasti Oxon.,” 3rd ed., 1815, i., 307–8), he died at the age of 92. The entry of his burial is as follows, “Matthew Lyster, Kt. & cheefe lord of Burwell, &c., was buried December the 19th, 1657.” Among the bequests in his will, dated 18th August, 1656, are the following:—To his wife all his household stuff . . ., all “the jewells she usually weareth, and hath in her custodie”; also his “coach and coach-horses, if he should have any at his death.” “Item, I give to be divided between her and my neece, Sir Martin Lister’s wife, all that poure remnant of Plate which is left me since these troubles.” To his “son in law George Banfield, and to his sister, the Ladie Cobham, £10 for a remembrance.” To his “servant John Mitchele, £50 . . ., and if he bee with me at my death all my wearing apparel, except one fringed sattin gown lyned with furre called ffitches (i.e., Marten skins), which I desire my wife may have.” We may assume that this was some official, or court, robe worn by Sir Matthew on occasions of ceremony. He was President of the London College of Physicians, and even in our own day, members of a College wear the “gowns” of their degree or office.
Another member of the family, Martin Lister, M.D., F.R.S., was one of Queen Anne’s Physicians, an eminent zoologist, and author of books on various branches of Natural History. His most important work was his “Historia sive, synopsis Methodica Conchyliorum.” Various plants and animals have been named after him.
Two or three other documents connected with Goulceby, may be here briefly referred to:—
By a Final Concord, dated 20 June, 1202, an agreement was made between Holda, daughter of Geoffrey, on the one hand, and certain Monks of Minting Priory, who were tenants of an oxgang of land in Goutheby, by which she surrendered all claim to the land, in favour of the Monks and their successors for ever. In return for which the Monks gave her one mark.
On July 28, 1231, an agreement was made between the Master of the Knights Templars in England, and William Moysaunt and Amice his wife, by which the said William and Amice acknowledged a certain meadow in Golkesby to be the right of the said Master “to have and to hold, to him and his successors, in free, pure, and perpetual alms”; and for this the said Master gave them 2s.
By will, dated 30 May, 1617, Adam Henneage of Donynton Super Bane, Gent, left to Frances his wife “all my messuage in Goulcebie, wherein John Clarke now dwelleth”; and to his “sonne James his copyhold land in Goulcebie, in tenure of Peter Pindar and John Tomson.” Proved at Horncastle, 28 June, 1617. By will, dated 23 July, 1623, Thomas Kent, of Scamblesby, Clerk, left “to the poor people of the parish of Goulceby, 20s.,” with similar bequests to the poor of Donington and Scamblesby. Proved at Lincoln, 15 Nov., 1623.
The will of Timothy Kent, of Donington, Clerk, dated 13 Feb., 1623–4, mentions lands in Goulceby and Asterby, and leaves bequests to various relations and servants, and to the Cathedral Church, Lincoln, 2s., and to the poor of Donington, 20s. Proved at Lincoln, 28 May, 1624. Elias Kent, of Scamblesby, Gent., by will, dated 13 Feb., 1625, leaves various bequests to relatives and friends, and “to the poorest people of Goulceby 10s., to those of Donington 10s., to those Scamblesby 40s.” Proved at Lincoln, 20 Dec., 1628. (“Lincs. N. & Q.,” Vol. III., pp. 205–207).
The poor of Goulceby have an annual rent charge of £2 10s., left by Anthony Acham, which is distributed in bread. He also in 1638 founded, and endowed with £10 yearly, a school here; which was re-built in 1865, with accommodation for 130 children; the original endowment is now supplemented from other sources, and the school serves for the parishes of Goulceby, Asterby, and Stenigot.
Greetham is distant about 3½ miles from Horncastle, in an easterly direction, lying just beyond the parish of High Toynton, south of Fulletby, west of Ashby Puerorum and north of Winceby. The village is chiefly situated on a cross-road running north and south (and probably Roman) which unites the road from Horncastle to Tetford with that from Horncastle to Hagworthingham and Spilsby. The nearest money order and telegraph office is at Horncastle, whence the letters arrive at 9.20. a.m. The population of this village is now just over 130; but, as Isaac Taylor says (“Words and Places,” p. 1), “local names are records of the past,” and Greetham, as its name implies, was at one time a place of considerably more importance than at present. The Saxons named it Greetham, or the great village; which, as Mr. Streatfeild suggests (“Lincolnshire and the Danes,” p. 18), the Normans translated into “Grandham,” or “Granham,” as we find it in the Conqueror’s survey in Domesday Book; and which was sometimes further curtailed into “Graham,” as we find a field in High Toynton described as the “24 acres towards Graham.” (Feet of Fines, Lincoln, 9, Henry III., No. 52, A.D. 1224–25, quoted “Linc. N. & Q,” vol. iii., pp. 245–6). And not only was Greetham (or Grandham) held in demesne, i.e., as a manor, but, like the neighbouring Bolingbroke, being connected with Royalty, it became also designated an “Honour.”
In a Chancery Inquisition post mortem (21 Henry VII., No. 122) taken after the death of Henry Dawson, it is stated that “4 messuages, &c., in Tetney are held of the Lord the King, as of his Honour of Bullingbroke”; and in almost similar terms, in a Chancery Inquisition post mortem, of the same King, No. 124, taken after the death of William Quadring, Esq., it is stated that he “held a messuage in Irby, of the Lord the King, as of his Manor of Greetham, parcel of his Duchy of Lancaster.” In Domesday Book it is stated that certain lands in the Manor of Bilsby, near Alford, are “held of the Manor of Grandham”; Greetham apparently not in either of these cases being regarded as an Honour. But in an Inquisition post mortem, of John Asfordby, A.D. 1499, it is stated that the manor of this same Bilsby, with Westhalgarth, is “held of the Lord the King, as of the Honour of Greetham.” But, even as early as Domesday (1080), lands are enumerated as belonging to “Grandham,” lying in Langtune (by Spilsby), Hacberdineham (Hagworthingham), Salmundby, Tedforde, Brinkhill, Wingsby, and Clachesby Pluckacre, in all amounting to 33 carucates, or close upon 4,000 acres (3960). And, to shew the wealth of the manor at that date, compared with some others in the neighbourhood, while Scrivelsby is given in Domesday as of the value of £14, and Horncastle at £44, Bolingbroke is put at £40, but Greetham at £60, and it is further tallaged, i.e., taxed at £70. It was the “caput Honoris,” or head, of the Lincolnshire Barony of Hugh de Abrincis, or Avranches, the Conqueror’s nephew, surnamed Lupus, or The Wolf, from his many deeds of violence. He was Earl of Chester, having the whole of Cheshire assigned to him, except a small portion belonging to the Bishop; and his royal uncle further granted to him, nine manors in Berkshire, seven in Yorkshire, ten in Dorset, thirty-two in Suffolk, and twelve in Norfolk, twenty-two in Leicester, and about a score in Lincolnshire, besides smaller numbers in other counties, and sokes and berewicks beyond counting. Earl Lupus in his later years, attempted to atone for the irregularities of his early life, by becoming monk in his own Abbey of St. Werburg, at Chester. Later, the estates which he held, reverted to the crown, and were, in part, granted to the Earl of Lincoln, who was created Duke of Lancaster. His daughter and heiress, married the 4th son of King Edwd. III., who also, through his wife, became Duke of Lancaster, and was father of Henry of Bolinbroke, afterwards Henry IV. After various vicissitudes, the Honour and much of the very extensive soke of Bolingbroke, became merged in the Crown; and, in part, still remains the property of the Sovereign, the King having among his titles still the Palatine Dukedom of Lancaster. The fortunes of Greetham were more varied. It is impossible, from the sources of information available for these notes to give all the successive steps in the tenure of this manor, and of its numerous and valuable appurtenances; or to give the connection, if any, between successive owners. Fixity of tenure was by no means a feature of those times, the power of the Sovereign was almost absolute, and demesnes were seized by him, forfeited, retained, granted anew, or disposed of for money, according to the royal caprice, or the exigencies of his purse, in a most arbitrary fashion. To show the precarious nature of tenures held “in capite,” or “in chief” from the Sovereign, we will mention one or two cases, taken haphazard:—Edmund of Woodstock, 2nd son of Edwd. I., was beheaded by Edward III., in the 4th year of his reign. He had been granted the manor of Greetham only 3 years before (Dugdale’s “Baronage,” vol. ii., p. 93). At a previous period, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, died seised of the manor of Greetham. In the ordinary course of events, the manor would have remained a possession of his daughter, Alice, countess of Lincoln. Yet a Lancaster Record (class xxv. R. 8), shows that Alice granted the manor to Hugh Dispenser, 16 Ed. II., and, he being a favourite of that King, we can hardly doubt that the grant was a forced one. The historian Speed informs us that, the Earl of Lancaster being attainted, the elder Dispenser obtained a grant of some of the Lancaster property in Lincolnshire. But in 1327, the younger Dispenser, the Hugh above-named, the favourite of the King (Edward II.), fell into disfavour, and a commission was appointed to enquire what goods and chattels he possessed at the time of his banishment, in his manors of Greetham, Thorley, Wainfleet and Brattleby. He also held at that time, as shown by other records, lands in Thornton, Roughton, Wilksby, Wood Enderby, Partney, Mareham-le-Fen, &c., and a manor in Scrivelsby. But he, in his turn being banished, the attainder of the Earl of Lancaster was revoked, and the property once more reverted to the Lancaster family, in the person of his brother and successor, Henry of Lancaster.
Truly the history of many a noble family of those times was a moving and vivid commentary on the words of Holy Writ, “Put not your confidence in Princes!”
In a list of military tenures (temp. Henry II.), while Norman d’Arcy, the Earl of Britanny, Alan de Percy, Stephen of Albemarle, and several others, are named as holding various of the manors in the neighbourhood, the Duke of Lancaster is given as “Lord” of Greetham, Winceby and Hameringham (“Old Lincolnshire,” by G. H. Burton, 1885, vol. i. pp. 214–215). These, as we have seen, had been very extensively added to, and further additions are named in various records, some of which we will here give, as they show the importance of Greetham. We should, however, observe that because a great Baron held the manor of a demesne, it did not at all follow that he owned the whole parish. This applies to Greetham, as follows:—In an Assize Roll, at Lincoln, of 9 Edward I. (A.D. 1280), a certain Robert de Kyrketon, and his wife Beatrix, demand (and their claim is admitted), certain rents of lands in “Askeby next Gretham (i.e., Ashby Puerorum), Stavenesby (i.e., Stainsby), Bag-endreby and Little Gretham,” at a time when the Earl of Lancaster was lord of the manor. An Inquisition of the Earls of Kent (2nd son of Edwd. I., beheaded. 4 Edward III. and at that time, as we have already stated, holding the manor of Greetham), shows that lands in Huttoft, Theddlethorpe, Wainfleet and Thoresby, as well as in Bratoft and Mablethorpe (the two latter also given in Domesday), were held under the manor of Greetham in addition to those already named in the more immediate neighbourhood, of Bratoft and Mablethorpe, appurtenances of Greetham at the time of Domesday (1080) and continued to be so as late as 1552 (“Linc. N. & Q.” vol. iv. p. 122).
We will now look at the evidence of Greetham being an “Honour” as well as a manor. The two properties of Bolingbroke and Greetham, eventually, after various changes, passed under the same ownership; both forming parts of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Honour of Bolingbroke, was also called the Honour of Richmond, from the Earl and Countess of that name, the parents of the future Henry IV. of England, the only Sovereign of England born in Lincolnshire. The manor of Greetham is sometimes called the “Honour of Lancaster,” par excellence, but it is quite clear that Greetham is then intended, and though united, even under one common management, they were legally regarded and treated as distinct “Honours.” In a bailiff’s account of Rents of Assize, and of Court Perquisites (now in the possession of John Sykes, Esq., F.S.A., of Doncaster, quoted “Linc. N. & Q.” iii. p. 82), it is specified, that beside the Bolingbroke Rents, there “is nothing, because the others are given in the accounts of the Honour of Lancaster,” i.e. of Greetham; and the same distinction is observed in the “Perquisites of Courts,” where we find, “13s. 6d. from two views and Courts of the Honour of Bolingbroke, and one view and Court of Honour of Lancaster” (Greetham). Although the two accounts were thus kept distinct, the Court Rolls of the year (10 Richard II), show that the Court of both Honours were at that time “holden together by order of Thomas Hungerforde, Knight, Chief Steward.” In the earlier of these Records, Greetham was necessarily described merely as a manor, because it was not yet connected with royalty, and therefore was not then an Honour. But in later documents it is frequently referred to as such; for instance, in a Chancery Inquisition post mortem taken at Alford, 22 July A.D. 1506 (21 Henry VII. No. 121), we find it stated that “Thomas Rygge Gentylman, held certain lands, with their appurtenances, in Westyrkele and Langton, of the lord the King, of his Honour of Greteham” (“Journal of Architect. Society,” 1895, pp. 42–3). It is further stated that “John Afforby held the manor of Bilsby, of the Lord the King, as of the Honor of Gretham, of his Duchy of Lancaster” (quoted “Lincs. N. & Q.” iv. p. 108).
Besides the places already named as belonging to the demesne, or soke, of Greetham, I find “Lecheburne” (i.e. Legbourne), Swaby, Elgelo (i.e., Belleau), Claythorpe, Totele (i.e., Tothill), Withern, Haugh, Calceby, Dalby, Dexthorpe, and many more.
Enough has, however, been said to shew the extent of the soke, or jurisdiction, of the lords of Greetham, and its rank as an “Honour” connected at different periods with royalty.
Its subsequent history, down to the present century, is almost a blank. The Manor, although still, in our Directories (see Weir, Kelly, etc.), styled “a parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster,” has dwindled much in importance; and the inhabitants are apparently becoming fewer. In 1821 they numbered 148, in 1843 they were 152, in 1883 they were 147, in 1891 they had dropped to 131. The total acreage is 1250. A few stray notices, connected with by-gone Greetham, are the following:—In Gibbon’s “Early Lincoln Wills” (p. 67), Richard de Ravenser, Archdeacon of Lincoln, by Will, dated “15 May, 1385,” bequeaths a legacy to Walter de Gretham. Who the latter was, we have no means of learning. The Ravensers were of a good family. In Maddison’s “Wills of Lincolnshire” (1500–1600), p. 26, No. 68, we find that Richard Newcomen, of Nether Toynton, by will, dated “3 Sep., 1540, left xx pence to the poor of Greetham.” The Newcomens were among our oldest families, originally seated at Saltfleetby, where their names appear in the registers, for many generations. One of them, John Newcomen, “of Sallaby,” was involved in the Lincolnshire Rebellion of 1536, along with Monsons, Massingberds, Heneages, Maddisons, and many other members of leading families. This Richard, above-named, settled at Low Toynton early in the 16th century, and his grandson Samuel, “of Nether Toynton,” married Frances, daughter of Thomas Massingberd, of Bratoft Hall, Esq., M.P. Several of them are mentioned in the Herald’s “Lists of Gentry” in 1634 and 1666, as residing at Hagnaby, Withern, Bag Enderby, &c. They have now disappeared from Saltfleetby and “their place knoweth them no more.” Their pedigree is given in the “Architectural Society’s Journal” for 1897. Another old record (from the same source) is “John Dighton of Minting, by Will dated 17 December, 1606, leaves to Thomas Page of Greetham vj £.” Who Thomas Page was is unknown; but the Dightons were a well known family, of mercantile origin at Lincoln; the founder having served as Mayor and Sheriff; one of them, Thomas resided at Waddingworth, another at Minting; the chief member, Robert, owned and occupied the Hall at Stourton Magna, of which traces still remain in mounds and moats. He also was involved in the Lincolnshire rebellion. A daughter of Dighton of Stourton married Edward Clinton, Esq., of Baumber, who afterwards became Earl of Lincoln, and his descendants Dukes of Newcastle, whose burial place, for some generations, was at Baumber. “The fashion of the world changeth” the Dightons are gone, the Clintons, renovated in blood, remain.
A tradition remains to this day, that Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Stratford, in the reign of Charles I., and one of his Sovereign’s most faithful adherents, owned the manor of Greetham. I cannot find any positive proof of this; but it seems not at all unlikely, since a lease dated 14 Nov., 1685, was granted to Sir William Wentworth, Knight, of Ashby Puerorum, who was a son of Sir William Wentworth, who fell at Marston Moor, fighting for Charles I; and from him descended the first Earl of Stafford, of the second creation. [69] It is proved by the award that Thomas, Earl of Stafford was Lord of the Manor in 1785.
We pass on to the present century. About the year 1830, John Fardell, Esq., of Lincoln (who represented that City in Parliament for a brief period, being unseated on petition) became owner, by purchase, of the Manor of Greetham, the rest of the parish, except the Rectory farm of 48 acres, being purchased by the late Mr. Robert Dennis, who built in 1830, a commodious residence, Greetham House, where his two daughters now reside. The manor, and about half the parish, was sold by the Fardell Trustees to F. Wormall, Esq., whose present representative is his grand-daughter, Lady Garden of Templemore Abbey, co. Tipperary; whose father was Colonel Valentine Baker, one of a family distinguished as sportsmen, travellers, and soldiers. We have said that the road, or street, on which the village houses cluster, was probably originally Roman; and some years ago, the neck of a Roman urn was found near it. Along this road, to the North is a quarry in which many ammonites and other fossils are found, in the gravel lying above the white clay. The age of “Praise God Barebones” and his Puritanical allies, has long since passed away; but something of the Puritan Spirit seems to survive in the names of the villagers, given in the registers, which date from 1653. My informant had herself known, within recent years, the names Mordecai, Naomi, Keziah, Solomon, and Bridget shortened into Briggy. There are also some curious field names. A boggy field is called the “Waddles”; a similar field in the almost adjoining parish of Salmonby is called “Wallows,” both probably referring to a slough of mire, and the awkward ducklike gait involved in traversing it. A grass field is named “Thunker,” as locally pronounced, which may embody the Norse Thing-garth, or Council enclosure of the great hamlet. Another meadow is named “Kirtle,” probably the Kirk-dale; while two fields, one ploughed and the other meadow, are called “the Gousles,” which Mr. Streatfeild (“Lincolnshire and the Danes,” p. 174.) considers to mean the first slopes of the Wolds. “Gaut,” or “gout” (go-out) means an outlet from a drain; and throughout the whole range of the Wolds, there are numerous springs, issuing from their base, not uncommonly possessing medicinal properties. Greetham is situated on the first spur or projection, of the Wolds in this locality, and these gousles may have been the goutsleys, or meadows, in which were the sources of local springs.
N.B.—In East Kirkby, at the foot of the Wolds, is a field named Goutscroft.
There is also a field, named “Cross Close,” from which the poor receive a yearly dole of 10s., bequeathed by Elizabeth Somersby, in 1733. Here is a name which would seem to embody ancient history. We can picture to ourselves, the Saxon “rude forefathers of the (great) hamlet,” gathered round that sacred symbol, the village cross, before a church existed, to listen to the itinerant man of God, awakening in their hearts a simple faith in a welcome Saviour. These fields all, or most, of them lie in the western part of the parish, the property of the Misses Dennis.
Of the Church, dedicated to All Saints, little can be said. It is a poor fabric, of Spilsby sandstone, with square wood-framed windows, one in each side and end. A “three-decker” pulpit, reading desk, and clerk’s seat, square pews, a west singing gallery, a very meagre rood screen of apparently modern poor carving, all painted wainscot colour. The roof a flat, white-washed ceiling inside, is covered externally over the nave with lead, which, from the decay of the supporting timbers is now almost flat, and probably not in a very safe condition. The chancel roof is slated and pointed. The font is plain octagonal, with octagonal shaft, and square basin, within the bowl being a pewter christening basin, with date “1821.” The single bell hangs in a shabby bell turret, surmounted by a cross. A slab records the death of a former Rector, the Rev. Thomas Jesset, in 1837. The inscriptions on the grave-stones in the churchyard would imply that the inhabitants are long-lived, and the place healthy, as it should be, from its elevated and well-drained position. The Rector has a good residence, built in 1852.
Addendum.—The above remarks on the Church were written in the year 1900. We have much pleasure in adding, in the year 1903, that the present Rector, the Rev. T. Hoole, has succeeded in effecting a thorough restoration of the old fabric, at a cost of about £1,650, towards which sum, the Misses Dennis, of Greetham House, contributed £500 each. The Architect was Mr. Hodgson Fowler, of Durham; the contractors for the work were Messrs. Bowman & Co., of Stamford. The only features of interest in the former mean structure were a 13th century cross, and doorway, and the south respond of the chancel arch. The restored fabric has been constructed in harmony with this respond. It is throughout of a simple, but effective, late 15th century design. The chancel, vestry, bell-turret, and porch are new, and the screen has been restored; the nave has new windows, a well-repaired roof, and new flooring, all the internal fittings being of oak.
In the course of the work, other features of interest were discovered, namely, the responds of a south aisle, a north door, and a Norman entrance into a former tower. All these were effectively utilised by the architect, with his accustomed skill, and now the Church, though small, is large enough for the parish, and a worthy edifice for divine worship, a result which must be gratifying to all concerned.
Hagworthingham is a considerable village, at a distance of 6 miles east of Horncastle, and 4½ north-west of Spilsby, on the road from Horncastle, via High Toynton and Greetham, to Partney. Letters via Spilsby, arrive about 9 a.m. It has its own Post Office, Money Order Office, and Savings Bank; the nearest telegraph office being at Spilsby. Of this parish there are several notices in Domesday Book. It is described as comprising six manors. These were owned, at the date of the Norman Conquest, by Thanes named Sivert, Elric, Swen, Swave, Holinchetel, and Adestan. The Conqueror apparently removed all these original proprietors, to provide for his own followers. Few places shew to a greater degree than this parish the insecurity of tenure which marked those times of trouble, transition, and lawlessness, when might was right. The survey of the country, made by order of the Conqueror, in Lincolnshire in 1085, was called by the Saxons “Domesday Book,” because it recorded their “doom,” or their almost universal expropriation from their rights, in favour of the Normans, who flocked into the country with William. But the “doom” was not confined to the Saxon. The Norman intruder, in many cases, found his possessions even less secure than had been that of those whom he superseded, and the Norman Lords of these demesnes succeeded each other with such rapidity, that, at this distance of time, it is beyond our power to trace their connection, in every case, with each other, or the causes of the changes. Doubtless, in many instances, having acquired possession through violence to others, violence again led to the confiscation of what they had acquired. The first-named of these is Alan, Earl of Britanny, on whom the Conqueror had conferred his daughter Constance in marriage. Famed for his valour and martial spirit, he had held an important command at the Battle of Hastings; and for his services the Conqueror conferred upon him, firstly, all the lands in the North Riding of Yorkshire, forming the district called Richmondshire, which had belonged to the powerful Saxon Earl Edwin, who was now dispossessed. From this gift he derived the title of Earl of Richmond, as well as of Britanny. Dugdale tells us that, altogether he held, by grant from the Conqueror, 450 Manors, 101 of these being in Lincolnshire. He seems however, in himself, to have been not unworthy of so great a position; since, though so great a warrior, the Chronicler, Ordericus Vitalis, states, that he was “ever studious for peace, a great lover of the poor, an especial honourer of the religious”; and that “his death, without issue created no little sorrow to all good people.” Such was one of the first Norman Lords of Hagworthingham. He was succeeded by his brother, also named Alan. His chief residence, probably, being in Yorkshire, when not in attendance on the King, he was represented at Hagworthingham, by his vassal, Eudo, who occupied his land here, to the extent of 3 carucates (or 360 acres), with dependents, in whose hands were 5 carucates (or 600 acres) more. Before proceeding to speak of other Norman Lords connected with this place, let us notice the name itself of the parish. It has 3 elements: “Haugh,” (says Streatfeild, “Lincolnshire and the Danes”), “is low, meadow land, bordering on a stream, and frequently overflowed”; a kindred form, “Hagi” he says also means a meadow. [73] Anyone standing in the churchyard at Hagworthingham will see below him westward, just such a low-lying meadow, traversed by a beck. The second element in the name is “Worthing.” Here we seem to have the Saxon “Weorthig,” which enters into many a place-name as “Worth”; (compare Waddingworth, and Benniworth in the neighbourhood); which is derived from the old Saxon “Warian,” to ward or protect. Hence these two elements mean the warded, or fenced, meadow, and “Ham,” the last element, also is Saxon, and means a place hemmed in; but especially the residence, the “home,” or the collection gathered round the one house, now forming the “hamlet.” What could give a more speaking description of the locality? It is the homestead, and afterwards the residences of the villagers gathered round it, whose position was on the higher ground, because they wished to be above the low-lying enclosed meadow, liable to be flooded by the brook, which runs through it, when swollen by the rain. Even in these days of drainage universal, the fox-hunter, in crossing that grassy valley, may still find his steed “boggled” in the slough of quagmire. In connection with this we may mention, that even in modern times, this dampness has not been forgotten.
In a note to Chap. ii. vol. i. of Smiles’ “Lives of Engineers,” it is stated that, when Dr. Whalley was appointed to the Rectory of this parish, it was with the singular proviso, that he should not reside in it, as the air was fatal to any but a native (Letters and Correspondence of T. S. Whalley, D.D.)
Another Norman soldier, named in Domesday as having a grant of land in Hagworthingham from the Conqueror was Drogo de Bevere. He was a Fleming by birth, and for his services in the cause of the King had many lordships given him in Lincolnshire and other counties. Among others, he had the lordship of all Holderness, in which was Beverley, whence he had the title of “Terrius de Bevere.” He was however of a very grasping and overbearing disposition. Not content with the lordship of Holderness, he wished further to seize lands given by the King to the Church of St. John at Beverley. Camden says that, as a mark of royal favour, he received in marriage the Conqueror’s niece; but that he got rid of her by poison; and then fled the country to escape the punishment he deserved. He was succeeded (his estates being probably confiscated) by Odo, Lord of Albemarle, in Normandy (Camden “Britannia” p. 742, Ed. 1695.)
To this Drogo was granted all the land in Hagworthingham, which at the conquest had belonged to the Saxon Thane, Adestan, including “a hall, with sac and soke” (or the right to hold a court of justice for the trial of misdemeanours), with 8 villeins occupying considerable lands under him, and a mill of the value of 18d. yearly. As his chief residence, when not in attendance on the King, would probably be in Holderness, he was here represented by one Robert, who was his vassal.
Another name mentioned as having property in this parish, is Gozlin, son of Lambert, of whom little is known. This was one of the 222 parishes in the county which had a church before the Conquest; and Domesday Book states that he had the church here, as well as a mill; but as it is added that “the soke” (or jurisdiction) belonged to Gilbert de Gaunt, the latter was evidently the superior lord. Gozlin had lands in 39 parishes in Lincolnshire, besides those in other counties; but Gilbert de Gaunt had 113 Manors in this county, besides 41 in other counties.
It has been mentioned that, on the flight of Drogo de Bevere, after poisoning the Conqueror’s niece, his estates were transferred to Odo, Earl of Albemarle. [75] Accordingly we find the old record, Testa de Nevill, p. 336. (Circa 1213), stating, “the Earl of Albemarle” holds of the King (land) in Hagworthingham, which Gilbert de Langton holds, as his vassal.
About the same time the same old record states that the Earl of Chester, besides other neighbouring possessions, held land of the King in Hagworthingham, which the same Gilbert de Langton held under him, as his vassal. This Earl was the only son of Hugh d’Abrincis (or Avranches), one of the most important among the followers of the Conqueror, who was his uncle. William gave to him numerous manors in this and other counties, and especially the earldom of Chester. He was surnamed Lupus, or the Wolf, for his daring deeds. It was supposed that he was granted the county of Chester, that he might restrain the incursions of the neighbouring Welsh people, the stubborn descendants of the old Britons; and this he did with a vengeance, for, in conjunction with Hugh Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, he took the Isle of Anglesey from the Welsh. Later in life, to make up for his tyrannous proceedings, he became a monk of the Abbey of St. Werberg, of his own establishment in Chester, and died there, in 1101. The Earl of Chester held in Lincolnshire about a score of manors, besides more than that number in Leicester, 32 in Suffolk, many in other counties, and the whole of Cheshire. At this stage the successive, or contemporary Lords of these manors become too complicated a tissue to unravel here. Some of the manors became merged in the superior manor of Richmond or Bolingbroke; some, in that of Greetham. The Earl of Chester enfeoffed before his death, William de Hardyshall, of certain land in Hagworthingham, where his descendant resided in the 14th century. A Gilbert de Langton held land here as a vassal of Alan de Mumby; his son John, held the same lands under a de Quincy. Hawise de Quincy, Countess of Lincoln in her own right, had a daughter Margaret, who married John de Lacy, and the de Lacies thus became Earls of Lincoln. At one period, members of two different families were at the same time Earls of Lincoln. After a succession of steps, John of Gaunt became Earl of Lincoln, and ultimately Duke of Lancaster, and held many of these manors.
Walter de Gant gave land in Hagworthingham to Bardney Abbey. The Abbot of Bardney (“Placito de Warranto,” p. 409), claimed the right to have a gallows in Hagworthingham, as well as in Edlington and other places. Other owners were Laurence de Dikeby, who died 1270, Robert de Altomonte, 1274, William de Saxill, in 1280. Gilbert de Hagworthingham is named in an Assize Roll (No. 478, John A.D. 1202), Walter de Hagworthingham and his son Philip, are named in an Assize Roll, 5 Ed. III. 1331. In the 14th century the Cupledyke family had land in Hagworthingham, viz., Roger de Cupledyke, who died 1324, and Alexander who died, 1335. In the 15 century, Thomas Blunt held a manor here, of the Duchy of Lancaster, dying in 1468. [76] The great family of Welles, also connected with the Dymokes, acquired lands here, which were forfeited after the battle of Loose-coat field, when Sir Robert Welles was attainted and executed at Doncaster, for espousing the Lancastrian cause, 1470. In the next century the old county family of the Hansards held a manor here, by Knight’s service, of the Honour of Bolingbroke. Sir William Hansard died 1520, leaving as his heir his granddaughter Elizabeth. Robert Marbury, in 1545 died, seized of a third part of a manor in this parish, which he left to his son William. Humphrey Littlebury, of East Kirkby, died Nov. 3rd, 1558, seized of a manor here, which was connected with the superior manor of Herby (probably Hareby, and equivalent to the Honour of Bolingbroke), which he held of the Queen (Elizabeth) by fealty. He also held another manor here, of the Queen’s manor of Greenwich, which had belonged to Bardney Abbey; the gift, as stated above, of Walter de Gaunt.
John Littlebury, of Hagworthingham, Esq., by will, dated 20 June, 1535, requests that he may be buried in the parish Church “before our Lady of the Rood.” He seems to have been a man of large property, for he bequeaths “to my wife £40, due to me from Mr. John Hercy; £4 of land in Somersby, Tetford, Skegness and Orby, to bring up my children in their nonage.” This she is to have for life; and then Somersby and Tetford are to go to his son George and his heirs male; Skegness and Orby to his son Peter and heirs male, and failing them, to his son Humphrey, and his heirs. “My sheep gate called Thorpe in the Mires (I leave) to my wife for her life, and then to my son Humphrey and Ursulay his wife, according to the indenture between me and Mr. Hercy. To my three daughters, my brother Humphrey Myssendyne 10s. a year for life, out of my copyhold held of Lord Willoughby.” His wife is to have the “putting in of the priests at Langton,” i.e., the presentation to the benefice for her life, and after her death, the “first avoidence of one priest” is to go to his son Humphrey, the other to his son Thomas. To his son Thomas his lands in Kealcotes. To his wife he leaves “my copyholds held of Lord Willoughby; and the farm of my son Langton, as long as the lease lasteth.” Also “if my wife be in decay in her widowhood, I will that she give no peny to her daughters, of the £40 that is appointed to every of them, and if they be not rewled by her in their marriage they are to have nothing. Item. I will all my children be contente with the lands which was assigned to me by my brother, and the feoffe of my father’s purchased lands; and if they, or any of them, be interrupted of the parts assygned to them by my neve Thomas, or his heires, I wyll they restate their tytyll of Richmonde fee, wych is the moyty of 360 akers, as it apperyth by a customar booke remaynyng with my wyfe, and a crosse set at the hede of it by Sir John Lyttlebury my grandfader’s fader. I appoint my brother John Eland supervisior, and my wyfe ex’x.” Witnesses, William Langton Gent, Sir Malmaduke Myssendyne and Sir Richard Cheles, of Ashby Puerorum. Various other wills show that Thomas Littlebury had lands at Hagworthingham in 1589, that Humphrey, of East Kirkby, held land in Hagg in 1568, and that Margaret Littlebury, of Stainsby, held land there in 1582.
The will of John Gedney, of Bag Enderby, mentions his lands in Hagg in 1535. The Gedneys were an old family in this neighbourhood. In the church at Bag Enderby, there is a stone mural monument, commemorating Andrew Gedney and Dorothy his wife, with their two sons and two daughters kneeling before prayer desks, date 1591. There is a slab of John Gedney in the floor, date 1535. [78] Andrew Gedney married Dorothy, daughter of Sir William Skipwith, of South Ormsby, in 1536. Within recent years Arthur P. H. Gedney, a cousin of the writer, owned Candlesby Hall, near here.
The will of John Gannock, of Boston, shews that he also was a landowner here, in 1583.
In 1572, Francis Bountague, died seized of a manor in Hagworthingham, which he held of the King, as of the manor of Greetham, of the Duchy of Lancaster.
John Littlebury, gent., of Hagworthingham, by will dated 27th March, 1594, bequeaths to Mr. William Wray, “the ring that it pleased my lady, his mother, to give me.” The Lady Wray, would be the wife of Lord Chief Justice Wray (temp. Elizabeth), whose residence was at Glentworth—he died in 1592; they were an old Durham family. The fine house at Glentworth continued to be the family residence of the Wrays, until Sir Cecil Wray, Bart., erected “Summer Castle” at Fillingham, in 1760, so called from Esther Summers, Lady Wray. Mr. John Littlebury also leaves to Sir George St. Poll, “my half part of the hawks,” with bequests to other relatives. Sir G. St. Poll or St. Paul, or Simpole, was a member of a good Lincolnshire family, their chief residence being at Snarford. Mr. John Saintpole was compulsively mixed up with the Lincolnshire Rising in 1536. The grandson, George, was created a Baronet in 1611. They were connected with the Hansards, already mentioned as having land in Hagworthingham.
Yet one more will of a Littlebury concerns us. John Littleburye (28 Sep. 1611), requests to be buried in Hag church. He leaves to the poor 20s.; to his son John, his land in Raithbye, for his life, and for his “bringing up in learning.” £100 to his daughter Bridgett, “soe that shee be ruled by mye wief her mother in marriage,” with £200 to be paid her when married. “To my wief Anne the lease of Orbye from Mr Massingberd, alsoe my stocke and cattle, with all my plate and furniture.” As the children are young he confirms an indenture previously made with Richard Gedney, and others, to act as trustees.
Sir John Langton, of Langton, by will dated 25 Sep. 1616, also left to the poor of Hagworthingham 10s., and like bequests to other places.
(These particulars are taken from “Lincolnshire Wills,” by Canon Maddison).
Among “Final Concords,” there are agreements about lands in Hagworthingham, under date 26 Oct. 1208, between Thomas de Winceby and Gilbert and Osbert of Hag, under date 20 Jan. 1213–14, between Mary, the wife of Hugh, son of Robert, Ernald de Dunham acting for her and Hugh de Harrington, appertaining to her “reasonable dowery;” and under the same date between the same Mary, and John de Bardney, as to land called “Sigwardes Croft,” in “Hacworthingeham, which Mary surrenders to John de Bardney and his heirs,” he for this giving her 2 marks.
We have already mentioned that in the 14th century, Roger de Cupledyke who died 1324, and Alexander, who died in 1335 had land in Hagworthingham. We also find that John Copledyke of Harrington, by will dated Palm Sunday, 1408, left to his sons lands in Hagworthingham, and other places.
In the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. a certain John Parker of this place became somewhat notorious as a religious and political turncoat. He made a public declaration “of the manner in which he had been drawn from the service of God to become a Papist,” dated 12 December, 1580; but in 1605, evidence was taken against him at Enderby, as to his making certain seditious speeches, and he was pronounced to be a Recusant (“Domestic State Papers” James I. vol. xv. “Architect. S. Journal” 1865 p. 55).
At the present day the only one of the old families of proprietors in this parish is the Rev. Alan Cheales above named, descended from Sir Richard Cheales who lived as far back as 1535. At the present time Earl Manvers is Lord of the Manor; Sir Henry D. Ingelby, Bart., the trustees of the late Rev. W. A. Bathurst, and the Wingate family are the principal landowners, the larger portion belonging to Mr. Cheales. We now proceed to the Church. It is beautifully situated on the slope of a steep hill commanding a view along a deep valley to the west, of fertile soil varied by copse and whin; and it is surrounded by a beautifully kept God’s acre. The Church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, consists of tower, nave, south aisle and chancel. In the tower are 8 melodious bells. The Church was carefully restored and largely rebuilt in 1859; but still retains several of its original Early English features. The tower, of green sandstone, being much decayed, had new belfry windows inserted, but still retains its patched appearance by a mixture of brick: the green and red tints blending harmoniously. Towards the west end of the north wall is one of the old Early English pilaster buttresses; and at the east bay of the same wall is an original low-side window. Within, the aisle arcade of four bays is supported by circular-shafted pillars, having rudely-designed caps; the arches above being not sufficiently massive to correspond, and their junction clumsy. These low arches produce a sort of “dim religious light.” The aisle itself is entirely new; as are also the seats and fittings generally. The early English font has a plain octagonal bowl, supported upon a central shaft, and unengaged subsidiary shaftlets. The east windows are modern, but may be reproductions of the old. That in the east end (of three lights) is filled with coloured glass by Wailes, in memory of the Cheales family. There is a modern brass on the north side of the chancel, commemorating the Rev. Henry Cheales sometime Vicar of Burton Pedwardine, “and for sixty-six years a landowner of this parish,” 1870.
N.B.—The Parish Registers contain a large numbers of names of this family. The earliest mention of them is in the Church Book Topographical Collection of Sir Joseph Banks, 1786, where Hugh Cheales is given as one of the Churchwardens, 25 Henry VIII. (1534).
The window in the north wall is by Clayton and Bell, that in the south wall by Powell. They commemorate the families of the late Rector the Rev. F. Pickford, and his wife’s relatives, the Listers of Burwell Park; one also being in memory of the late Prince Consort. “The whole effect,” says the late Bishop Suffragan, Dr. E. Trollope, one of our greatest authorities, “is most pleasing and appropriate.” Gervase Holles the antiquarian says that, when he visited the Church (temp. Chas. I.) there was in the Chancel this fragmentary inscription, “Hic jacet . . . Redilston quondam Rector istius Ecclesiæ.” He says also, “on a gravestone of blue marble in ye body of ye Church is pourtrayed in brasse one in compleate armour, bearing upon ye manches of his coate of arms, on either side, 2 crescents. Between his feet a right hand couped. The rest is defaced.” (Harleian MSS., No. 6829.) The benefice was formerly in the gift of the Bishop of Ely (see Ecton’s “Thesaurus” p. 188); the patron is now the Bishop of Lincoln.
In the Registers were formerly some curious entries of “Briefs,” or Royal Letters, issued for various charitable objects, among 65 which were publicly read in Church in the 14 years from 1653 to 1667, 24 were for relief in cases of loss by fire; others were for various purposes; one being “For the Church of Lithuania being under persecution” (1661). [82]
Walter de Gaunt gave the manor, benefice, and six oxgangs of land, and “a view of frankpledge” in this parish to Bardney Abbey (Dugdale’s “Monasticon,” 1682, p. 143).
In sinking a well in 1897, on the property of Mr. Cheales in this parish, there were found at a depth of about 45ft. fragments of “Brinkhill gold” and fossilized wood. The gold has also been found in the churchyard. It is pronounced, chemically, to be a form of silicate of aluminia. Iron pyrite is also found, abounding in small fossils. The rectory is now held by the Rev. G. R. Ekins. The rectory house was built in 1841, a very commodious residence, at a cost of about £2000, by the late Rector the Rev. F. Pickford, the memory of whose family still remains in the parish, and many miles round it, as “a sweet smelling savour.”
There is a rent charge of £8 for the poor paid out of the estate, about 700 acres, of the Cheales family.
The Rev. William Dales also in 1667 left land, the rent of which was for the poor and the bell-ringers.
Hameringham is about 4 miles from Horncastle, in a south-east direction, the road passing through Mareham-on-the-Hill. The marriage register dates from 1744, those for burials and baptisms from 1777. Letters, via Horncastle, arrive at 10 a.m.
We know little of the early history of this village; it is not named in Domesday Book, but in a list of military tenures, of the reign of Henry I. about A.D. 1108, the “Hundred of Hamringeheim” is mentioned, and “Count Richard,” probably the Norman Earl of Chester, is said to hold there eleven carucates and four oxgangs, or nearly 1400 acres, and Gilbert Fitz Gocelin had four oxgangs, or about 60 acres (“Old Lincolnshire,” vol. i. pp. 213, 214).
In the year 1208 Henry, son of Geoffrey, granted to Ralph, Abbot of Revesby, and his successors, an oxgang of land and a messuage in Hameringham; the said Ralph giving to the said Henry 20s., in consideration thereof.
In the year 1529, Jane Sheffield, widow, of Croxby, in her will dated 7 January, refers to a deed of feoffment, dated 4 June, 8 Henry VIII., whereby Sir John Sheffield, Parson of Hameringham, and others are feoffed of certain lands, for her life; Sir John Sheffield and Alexander Amcotts, Gent., being supervisors. (“Lincolnshire Wills,” page 6, No. 14).
In 1540 John Angevin of Ashby by Horncastle, by will, dated 10 Oct. makes his wife Margaret, executrix, and confirms to her lands in Ashby and Hameringham, to remain in her hands “unto suche tyme, as all suche goods as I am bownden, and myne heyres, in covenants by indenture to Sir Rycherde Warde, and to Sir Robert, be fully paid.” To which is added, in a different hand, “I Robert Awngeven agreed to this wyll.” The Angevins disappear in the 17th century; but one of the family held land in Hameringham in the reign of Henry VIII. (“Lincolnshire Wills,” p. 28, No. 72). By will, dated 20 April, 1545, Robert Angevin, of Langton by Horncastle, leaves his land in Hameringham to his son William. (Ibidem p. 36, No. 96). [83]
By will, dated 10 Sept. 1612, George Litilburie, of Somersby, leaves to his nephew Jeffery Litelburie all his apparell, and lands in Winceby and Hameringham. He wishes his armes to be “sette in the walle (of the church) as my grandfather’s was at Ashby (Puerorum).”
Among the Revesby charters is one, of date 1198, whereby Richard I. grants and confirms to the monks of Revesby certain lands in Hameringham, Enderby, and elsewhere (Dugdale v. 456).
By a deed in the reign of Richard I., or John, William, son of Gaufrid, clerk, of Hameringham, gives to the monks of Revesby 9 acres of arable land in Hameringham, a meadow called “Baldvinegaire [84a] and pasture near the 9 acres, and other lands; free of all service,” save that the monks are to pay to the donor annually “two spurs of the cost of one nummus,” at Michaelmas.
By a deed early in the 13th century Symon, son of Hugo, of Dunsthorpe, gives to the monks one toft in Hameringham, and 10 acres, and one selion in a place called Thyrne, and 2 selions in Pesedalegate, [84b] free from all claims.
In the reign of Henry III. Juetta, daughter of Alan, of Hameringham, gave to the Abbey of Revesby, 4 acres of arable land, for the purpose of gate-alms. In the reign of Edwd. I. Robert Cressaunt of Tuluse gave his rights and claims on lands in Tuluse, Hameringham, and elsewhere, to the monks of Revesby, on condition that they pay to him and his heirs annually 8s. Alicia the daughter of William, son of Alward of Hameringham, in the same reign, gave a half toft for the Revesby almsbox; with pasturage rights for 26 sheep and 4 cattle and 4 pigs in Hameringham; the monks to pay to her 6d. annually.
Sir Lionel Dymoke, by will, dated 15 Ap. 1512, bequeathed “for churche walke in hameringham xxd. to John Sheffield parsone of hameringham, . . . to pray for me, my wyf Anne, and my wyf Jane deceased, and for all christen soules.” “Linc. N. & Q.” iv. p. 12.
On the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. that sovereign granted to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, in consideration of his “acceptable and long service,” “all manner of houses, messuages, &c.,” along with the lands, hitherto belonging to the monastery of Revesby, including property in Hameringham, and nearly 50 other parishes, to be held of the crown, on payment of the fifth part of one soldier’s service, and an annual payment of £28 to the Court of Augmentations every Michaelmas, the duke’s title to date “from March 1, in the 29th year of our reign (1538).”
[These different documents are among the Revesby charters, printed by the late Right Honble. E. Stanhope, M.P.]
The benefice of Hameringham was formerly charged with a pension of 6s. to the Prior of Bullington. In the early part of the 18th century, the Chaplin family would seem to have been proprietors here, as Mr. Thomas Chaplin presented to the benefice in 1712 and 1720. The manor now belongs to the Coltman family, who are also patrons of the benefice; and there are several smaller proprietors.
Scrafield, which has now no church, is united to Hameringham. Some of the communion plate is ancient, being Elizabethan, the rest is modern, being presented by the late Rector, Rev. Joseph Coltman.
Hameringham church, All Saints, stands appropriately on almost the highest ground in the vicinity, so that the parishioners may look, and wend, upward to it. It was restored by the present Rector, the Rev. Brice Smith, in 1894, the architect being Mr. Hodgson Fowler. It now consists of nave, chancel, and south aisle. It has, doubtless, gone through vicissitudes at various periods, as is evidenced by remains and records. In 1800 there was no chancel in existence. In 1820 a chancel was built by the then Rector, the Rev. Joseph Coltman. There was at one time a much larger edifice, of which the foundations were discovered by the present Rector, in preparing for the restoration. The chancel arch is Early English. The west window is modern, perpendicular in style. In the north wall of the nave is one window, perpendicular, of three lights, near the pulpit. The pulpit is of plain oak, with the old hour glass frame still affixed to it, and containing an ancient hour glass, recovered from a villager. These remnants of the days of long discourses are now very rare. There is still one in the church at Cowden, near Edenbridge, Kent. The arcade of the south aisle is of the 13th century, renewed in the 14th century with Lincoln stone. It consists of three bays, with two octagonal pillars having carved capitals; the eastern-most support is a circular, single, small shaft, apparently Norman, with carved capital, different from the others; where the moulding of the two eastern arches meet, the corbel is a King’s head; these two arches are considerably broader than the western one, which is pointed. This western pillar is the original 13th century one. The south wall is of the late 12th century, and the south porch arch is the original. In the south wall are two windows east of the porch, and one west of it, each having two lights, and a quatrefoil above, style perpendicular. There is a piscina near the door. The roof of the restored nave is of modern pitch pine. The chancel roof is considerably below the chancel arch. It is apparently of wood, and has formerly been divided into panels. The chancel is so long, that the communion table is placed 7 or 8 feet west of the east wall, and the space behind, shut off by drapery, forms a vestry. The east window, in perpendicular style, is of 3 lights, with six smaller lights above, within the arch. The font is a very old and interesting one, octagonal, on an octagonal shaft; the devices, quatrefoils, &c., on the faces of the bowl are much mutilated, those on the shaft are perpendicular mouldings on 5 sides, and on the three other sides are grotesque figures, much mutilated, the centre one being winged, and supposed to represent St. Michael. It stands on a plain oblong slab. There is one good medieval bell, the other being the “Sanctus bell,” re-cast in the Jubilee year 1887, as it had become cracked. The entire church is built of Spilsby green sandstone, faced in the porch with red Dumfries stone.
The visitor to Hameringham from Horncastle, looking south and westward, will see some beautifully wooded scenery, around Scrivelsby Park, Haltham, and beyond towards Revesby, Tattershall, &c. the view extending even beyond the Fens; with the spires of Heckington and other churches towering up in the dim distance, twenty miles or more away, a most delightful prospect. Conspicuous among these objects is the magnificent tower, with its lantern, of what is commonly called Boston Stump.
Hareby is situated about 7 miles, in an easterly direction from Horncastle, is about 1 mile west of Bolingbroke, and 4½ miles from Spilsby. From the first place it is approached by the old Roman road from Horncastle to Waynflete, as far as the cross-roads at Lusby, turning to the right for half-a-mile and then to the left. It is a small parish, of less than 40 inhabitants, and comprising about 740 acres. Letters, via Spilsby, arrive at 8.30 a.m. The nearest money order office is at Bolingbroke, the nearest telegraph office at Spilsby. Hareby Manor House, the property of Messrs. Ramsden and Taylor, stands on a steep hill-side, commanding extensive views over Bolingbroke, West Keal, and southward, far away to the waters of “The Wash.” It has been said that the name of Hareby, and probably also that of Eresby—the older name of Spilsby—is derived from the hares, which formerly abounded on these hills and valleys of the Wolds, the “South Wolds,” as we might here call them, of Lincolnshire. [87] We are only able to recover fragmentary particulars, “disjecta membra,” of the past history of this parish. From Domesday Book we gather, that, like Miningsby, Bolingbroke, and many other neighbouring parishes, it was once the property of Ivo Taillebois, through his marriage with the Lady Lucia, heiress of the Saxon princely family of the Thorolds, whom the Conqueror bestowed upon him. They were married in A.D. 1072, and on his death, without male issue, in 1114, the Lady Lucia married Roger de Romara, who thus, through her, became Lord of Bolingbroke, with other manors in the soke of that demesne. At that period the parish would seem to have been more populous than it is at the present day; the Domesday survey, giving the acreage as four carucates (or 480 acres), rateable to gelt; adds, that thirty-three socmen, five villeins and five bordars had another four carucates, and 100 acres of meadow.
The Lady Lucia, marrying as her 3rd husband the Norman noble, Ranulph, he delivered some of her estates to the King, Henry I., in return for the dignity of the Earldom of Chester. Against this, William de Romara, her son by her late husband, Roger de Romara, protested, but in vain. Some years later, however, Henry I. restored to him some of his mother’s property, and made him Earl of Lincoln; and later still, by the exchange of some lands in Normandy with Robert de Tillot, he acquired the lordships of Hareby, Hundleby and Mavis Enderby. By his wife Maud, daughter of Richard de Redver, he had a son William, who married Hawise, daughter of Stephen, Earl of Albemarle. The last of the Romaras dying without male issue, the property passed to Gilbert de Gaunt, who married his daughter, who also succeeded to the Earldom of Lincoln. Robert de Gaunt forfeited the property by rebelling against King John, and the estates were conferred upon Ranulph de Meschines, surnamed de Blundeville (i.e., of Oswestry), Earl of Chester, A.D. 1100–1120. He died with issue, but assigned to Hawise, one of his sisters, the Earldom and manors. She married Robert de Quincy, son of the Earl of Winchester, whose daughter Margaret, married John de Lacy, a descendant of the Barons of Pontefract. His son Edmund, left issue Henry (and others), who, dying without surviving issue, bequeathed his property to the heirs of Edmund Plantagenet; after various changes the property again came to a Gaunt, John, afterwards Duke of Lancaster, and father of Henry of Bolingbroke, who later on succeeded to the throne as Henry IV. [88] In the course, however, of the these changes, Hareby, and some other manors, had become separated from Bolingbroke, and had passed to the Willoughby family, since we find that in the time of Edw. III., father of Henry of Bolingbroke, John Willoughby, held “the manors of Wester Kele with Hareby, Lusby, Easter Kele, &c.” (Chancery Inquisition, 46 Ed. III. No. 78). The family of Willoughby, although originally holding lands under the Becs, who were lords of Spilsby, Eresby, &c., &c., subsequently inter-married with that family, and thus succeeded to some of their property, and were the ancestors of the family of the present Lords Willoughby d’Eresby, and eventually acquired very large possessions in these parts, much of which they still retain.
We find, however, at different periods, various other parties holding lands in, or connected with, Hareby.
In a Revesby Charter (No. 28, collection of the late Right Hon. E. Stanhope), conveying the right of lands in East Kirkby to Revesby Abbey (temp. Henry II. or Richard I.) the first witness is Alan, Dean of Hareby, others being, Aschetill, priest of Keal, Alan, priest of Asgarby, &c.
By another Charter (No. 53 temp. Richard I. or John), Henry Smerehorn of East Kirkby, gives his home-born (“nativum”) servant, Robert, son of Colvan, with all his chattells to Revesby Abbey, and receives in return “one silver mark from Peter, the monk of Hareby.” This monk of Hareby would therefore seem to be a nominee of the Abbot of Revesby.
And this connection is confirmed by another charter (No. 92, temp. Henry III.), by which the Abbot and monks of Revesby lease certain lands in Stickney to Bricius, son of Roger, clerk of Stickney, to which deed the witnesses are Walter of Hareby, at that time Prior of Revesby; Reginald the cellarer, John of Moorby, Alan of Horncastle, &c., so that it would seem the former priest, or dean, of Hareby, was promoted to the Priorate of Revesby.
By another charter (No. 129, temp. Ed. I.), Alan son of Richard atte Grene (or, as we should now say, Richard Green) gives certain lands in East Kirkby to the Abbey, the monks paying in return, “one farthing a year” to Alan, son of William, son of Roger Palmer, of Hareby, and his heirs, at the feast of St. Botolph, for all claims on the land.
By another charter (150 B.), lands in Hareby, Bolingbroke, West Keale, &c., formerly belonging to Revesby Abbey, are conveyed by Henry VIII., on the dissolution of the monasteries, to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.