Kirkby, East.

East Kirkby is situated just below the steep slope of the Wolds, near their southern extremity, between 7 and 8 miles south south-east of Horncastle, 6 miles south-west from Spilsby, and 9 miles north-east from Tattershall.  From Horncastle it is approached viâ Scrivelsby and Moorby.  It is contiguous, on the east, to Revesby.

This in one of the 220 odd parishes in the county which possessed a church before the Norman Conquest.  At that period it seems to have been united with Revesby, since in Domesday Book (1080–86) “Cherchebi” and “Resuesbi” are given together, and it is stated that “the whole manor and all that belongs thereto is six miles long, and six miles broad.”  There are 12 carucates (or 1440 acres) rateable to gelt (i.e., 2s. to the carucate); and the same extent of arable land (or 2,880 acres in all); with (in Saxon times), 54 socmen, and 14 villeins.  The great Norman Noble, Ivo Taillebois, Chief of the Angevine troops of the Conqueror, was lord of this manor, through his marriage with the wealthy Saxon, Lady Lucia, heiress of the Thorolds.  On his death early in life—a death not regretted by her, for the marriage had been forced upon her by the Conqueror—she re-married, with hardly a decent delay, Roger de Romara, about 1093; and by him had a son, William de Romara, who was created Earl of Lincoln.  This William founded Revesby Abbey in 1142, and, by an interchange of lands, while retaining Revesby, Moorby, Wilksby, &c., as a compact property, he separated East Kirkby as a distinct domain.  Among those with whom exchanges were effected was one Ivo, a priest, who held a church at Thoresby, probably standing on the site of the present Revesby church.  In lieu of this, the Earl gave to Ivo the church of East Kirkby with its appurtenances, and a toft near the churchyard.  In the 13th century, the family of de la Launde (represented, down to recent times, by the Kings, of Ashby de la Laund, near Sleaford) were manorial lords [121] of East Kirkby, while the Earls of Exeter (as shewn in Notes on Revesby, &c.) had the manor of Thoresby and Revesby, &c.  East Kirkby, as well as Revesby, was in the soke of Old Bolingbroke, and, as parts of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Sovereign would be the superior lord of the various manors in that soke, or “Honour,” as it was named, as being connected with royalty.  Accordingly, in 1604, we find that Sir V. Skinner, of Bolingbroke, was appointed by the crown keeper of Kirkby Park, the site of which is still shown on old maps; and, according to “Liber Regis,” in 1762 the Sovereign presented to the benefice, although, by some arrangement, William Ellis, Esq., had presented in 1719.  The manor now belongs to R. Maidens, Esq., and Dr. T. Robinson, but most of the soil belongs to the Stanhope or Coltman families, the patronage of the benefice being in the hands of the former.

Among the Revesby charters and deeds, printed by the late Rt. Hon. E. Stanhope, is one (No. 27) of Alan Smerehorn, of East Kirkby, dated 1165, by which he gives a watermill and premises to the Abbots of Revesby, with the right to draw water through his land, from Bolingbroke to Kirkby; the Abbey thus being supplied with water. [122]  He also, by another deed (No. 28), conveys to the Abbey his rights in certain lands in Kirkby, undertaking all claims and services due to the King, in return for which the Revesby Monks confirm to him certain rights in Hagnaby.

By a deed of the same period, Alan, son of Walter of Kirkby, gives his feudal rights, in certain lands in Kirkby, to the monks, with lands in Hagnaby and Engcroft in Stickford, free of all claims from the King.

A charter of Richard I. (“Dugdale,” v. 456) confirms to the Monks of Revesby, among other possessions, 620 acres of land in E. Kirkby, and part of Kirkby Wood, along the road called “Swinistigate” (No. 40 B).  N.B.—There is still a Swinecote in Revesby.  Various other deeds assign to the monks lands given by William son of Ivo, of Kirkby (No. 43); by Alan son of Walter of Kirkby (No. 45); by Lucy widow of Walter Faber, of Kirkby (a “Smith?”) a meadow, “to decorate and strew the monk’s choir.” (No. 56).  While Henry Smerehorn gives to them his “servant Robert, son of Colsvan, with all his chattels” (No. 53); and Alan Smerehorn, of Kirkby, gives a plot “ad portam josep.” (at the Joseph gate), among several others, taking on himself all claims to the king or others (No. 58).  The seal of Smerehorn is a round one with the device, a man blowing a horn.  Gaufrid, son of Alan Buche, of Kirkby, gives land in E. Kirkby specially as “gate alms” for the poor (No. 68); the same Gaufrid also confirming the gift made by his brother Walter, of a meadow in Goutscroft (No. 70).  N.B.—“Gout,” or, writ fully, “go-out,” means a spring issuing from a hill side, of which there are many on the Wold slopes (Streatfeild, “Lincolnshire and the Danes,” p. 174). [123a]  Alan de Cuilter, of Kirkby, among other lands, gives a place (placeam) called “gayres” (No. 101); gaire meaning a triangular plot which requires ploughing a different way to the rest of the ground. [123b]  A meadow in Kirkby is given by Nicholas son of Roger, of Miningsby, towards maintaining “the light before the image of St. Nicholas in Kirkby Church, every St. Nicholas’ day.” (No. 119).

There are other deeds connected with East Kirkby, but these are typical.

We give here some other records connected with East Kirkby, which are of more or less interest, taken from “Lincolnshire Wills.”

William Saltfletby, alias Massenge [123c] of “Kirkby juxta Bolingbroke,” by his will, dated 3 January, 1443, requests that he may be buried in Kirkby Church; and leaves money to the church, as well as to the Church of St. Peter in Eastgate, Lincoln; also to his daughter, his wife, and her daughter, certain lands in Kirkby, Miningsby, and West Kele; and his house opposite the Church of St. Peter, Eastgate, “called the Gryffin.”  The witnesses are Robt. Drydyke, Vicar of Kirkby (N.B.—The place-name Drysykes occurs in Salmonby); John Cokeryll, chaplain of the same; and Hugh Wellys, clerk.

Richard Skepper, of East Kirkby, by will dated 26 May, 1556, requests to be buried in the church; and leaves to his sons, Thomas, George, and Edward, and daughters, Bridget and Anne, his copyholds in Kirkby, Miningsby, Bolingbroke, Waynflete, Irby, Thorpe, and Friskney.  N.B.—This was a family from Durham.

John Ballet, parson of Nether Toynton, by his will, of 17 April, 1558, leaves his “gown, that the Bishop of Ely gave him,” to Mr. Goodryke, of Kirkby [123d] and a gold ring; he also leaves money to repair the roads between Fulletby and Horncastle.

Connected with the Goodricks, by marriage, were the Littleburies, descended as is shown elsewhere [124a] from a very ancient knightly family, originally seated in south Lincolnshire, and hence we find the following will of Humphrey Littlebury, of East Kirkby, dated 1 Sep., 1568, by which he leaves all his lands in Hagworthingham to his son John, who is to pay to his brother Edward xx^li a year “for his exhibition,” [124b] during the widow’s lifetime; the annuity to cease when the said Edward becomes a “counsaler,” and able to provide for himself.  He bequeaths his lands in Hareby, East Keal, Keal Cotes, and Raithby, to his daughter Ann, “if she will be ordered by her friends, Sir John Kersey and John Littlebury,” and if she will not, then “never a penny.”  It would rather appear, from this testamentary provision, that the said daughter Ann was somewhat of a wilful “hussy.”  Sir John Kersey would be one of the family who came in for a share of the Revesby estates after the extinction of the direct line of the Dukes of Suffolk.  To his daughter Dorothy he leaves “one hundred marks” with a like proviso.  To his son John he leaves a “ring with the seal,” i.e., the family signet; also “one silver salt, vi. silver spoons, 1 silver goblet, gilt, a flat silver piece, and 1 of my silver pots I bought in London.”  Reference is then made to an Inventory of Lyon Goodricke, deceased, which was bequeathed to testator’s wife, Winifred, and Edward Goodricke, her son.  The testator had married (1) Ursula, co-heir of Sir John Kersey, k^nt., of Grove, co. Notts, and (2) Winifred, daughter of Henry Sapcote [125a] of Lincoln, and widow of Lyon Goodricke, of East Kirkby.

We have noticed, above, a Richard Skepper, of East Kirkby, whose will was dated 26 May, 1556.  We find later, the will of George Skeeper, of Boston, evidently the same name, of date 28 Sep., 1606, in which he desires to be buried “in y^e parish church of East Kirkby.”  The name still survives in this neighbourhood.

Another name still occupying a position in the county is that of Booth, and we find that William Booth, of East Kirkby, by will dated 31 Oct., 1584, left property to his brother George’s children in Cheshire, to his brother Edward’s children, of Rand, to George Booth of Thorpe, and to Thomas Booth, his brother’s son; appointing as his executors, Sir Thomas Scales and John Scales, his sons-in-law.

We have named, above, Edward Goodrick, of East Kirkby.  He died in 1615, and by his will, of 16 August in that year, he left the bulk of his property to his son Lyon, but £35 from lands in Suffolk to his daughter Washbourne, besides £400, in the hands of Sir Thomas Jenney, as her portion; “a best bed” to another daughter; and “bedsteads of those in Suffolk,” to four other daughters, all married, “2 Jacobuses to each as a token of my love.”  Small sums are bequeathed to his cousin, Richard Palfreyman, [125b] and his godson, Nathaniel Palfreyman; to his servant John Tupholme 20^s. besides his wages 13^s. 4^d.  His “grandson John Godricke to have the manor of Stickney when 22 years old,” and his cousin Richard Palfreyman to have it meanwhile; paying “a penny a year to Lyon Godricke.”  The will was proved at Horncastle by Lyon Goodrick and Richard Palfreyman, 25 Oct., 1615.

A name which we cannot omit to notice in connection with East Kirkby is that of Silkstone; there being a monumental slab in the parish church of Robert de Silkeston, who died in 1347.  Among 14 documents in the possession of Porter Wilson, Esq., of Louth, this Robert is a principal party in 13 of them; by which lands are conveyed to him by Ranulphus, son of Baldwin de Thorpe, in Ireby; by Robert, son of Philip de Kirkeby, in Kirkby; by Walter de Kirkby, in Kirkby; by Hugo de Hatton, lands in Kirkby; by Walter, son of Robert de Langena, lands in Kirkby; Robert, son of Adam Pertrich, of Bolingbroke; Alan, son of Walter de Kirkeby, and William, son of Henry de Kirkeby, give him other lands in Kirkeby; Beatrice, widow of William Wriht, of Miningsby, gives him lands in Miningsby; John de Waynflet gives him lands in that parish; and Robert de Swylington, Thomas de Marketon, Rector of Hareby, and Robert de Miningsby, chaplain, grant to him lands in “Kirkby, Winthorpe, Thorp, Waynflet, Irby, ffriseby (Firsby), Boston, Leek, Wrangel, Stepying, frrisseneye (Friskney), Bolynbrok, and Menyngesby,” by Deed, given at Kirkebi, 26 Dec., 29 Ed. III. (1355).  Robert de Silkeston thus became a proprietor of large estates.  At a later period Sir Robert Sylkeston had issue Alicia, who was “maryed to Robert Grynne.” [126]  A large portion of the property passed to that family, and through them to the Skeppers already mentioned; and from them, by marriage, to the Loddingtons; one of whom, Thomas Loddington, was Vicar of Horncastle in the early years of the 18th century; his name being on one of the church bells with date 1717.

Sir John Browne, knight, resided here for several years, holding lands in East Kirkby, conveyed to him by Lionel Goodrick in 1616, and on a dispute arising between him and the Skeppers, already mentioned, an agreement was made, 20 May, 1619, by which Sir John granted to Richard Skepper certain property, for 2,000 years, at a peppercorn rent, Richard Skepper in return granting to Sir John, other lands for a like term and consideration.  (Mr. R. W. Goulding, “Linc. N & Q.,” vol. v. p. 75).

Another family, with a good old Saxon name, connected with East Kirkby, were the Elands (Ea-land or Eyland), representatives of whom have lived in this parish within quite recent times; the last of them being William Fawcett Ealand residing at the High Hall in 1860–70.  The name means Island-land, or water land. [127a]  Sir William de Eland was constable of Nottingham castle in 1330, and M.P. for the county in 1333 (Baily’s “Annals,” vol. i. p. 223).  They possessed the “Honour of Peverel.”  In Baumber church there is a slab of John Ealand (obiit 1463) and his two wives, in the north aisle. [127b]  A branch of the family resided at Raithby near Louth.  Toward the close of the 16th century, one of them resided at Cawkwell, and had that manor and the advowson of the benefice. [128]  Others had estates, and lived at various places in Yorkshire.

In the latter part of the 17th century another family, the Webberley’s of Addlethorpe, resided at East Kirkby.  They intermarried with the Amcotts family, now represented by Colonel Cracroft Amcotts, of Hackthorne Hall, Lincoln.  John Webberly, who was born here, was a strong partizan of Charles I., in his contentions with the Parliament.  He did not die for his King on the field of battle like his compatriot Hallam, possibly of Bolingbroke (see “Notes” on Bolingbroke); but his support of the King, and his religious opinions (Socinian), subjected him to persecution, and, in 1648, to much suffering from imprisonment.  He was afterwards expelled from Lincoln College, Oxford.  (Weir’s History, Ed. 1828, vol. i. p. 415).

The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is pronounced by Mr. Jeans to be “one of the most interesting in this district, though sadly patched with brick, and defaced with ugly windows.”  It is no longer used for services, a small modern church having been recently erected more conveniently near the village.  The varied colouring of the edifice, from the combination of grey-green crumbling sandstone, with the red tone of the bricks, surrounded as it is also by lofty trees, render it a pleasing study for the artist, but its decayed condition inspires the fear that, unless tenderly dealt with, this interesting relic, may soon go to decay.  It is to be hoped in the interest of archæology that this may be averted.

The original Saxon church was mostly replaced by a later fabric, but now ancient, of the 14th century.  It consists of nave, aisles, chancel and tower, having two bells; this tower probably dating from early in the 13th century, occupies an unusual position, being attached to the south aisle towards the west end of it.  Its lower storey forms a groined porch, having a head of the Saviour, rather rudely carved, as the central top of the vault.  It has some early features, especially the window in its eastern face, but, we quote the late Precentor Venables, in a description given by him on the visit of the Architectural Society in 1894.  Like the rest of the fabric, it has been patched and repaired at various periods, and most of the remains are debased.  The battlemented upper storey is Perpendicular, the fabric generally being Decorated, of the 14th century.  Of the windows, however, there are few surviving of that period, the west being the most noticeable.  It is of two lights, beautifully designed, the mask heads of the hood moulding being remnants of an earlier style.  The side windows, both of nave and chancel, were square-headed.  One remains, to the west of the tower, portions of others remaining among modern degradations.  The eastern windows of both aisles have flamboyant tracery, but now blocked and partly destroyed.  The blocked arch of an entrance to a north chantry which has been removed, is seen in the north aisle wall.  It must have been filled in at an early date, as the window inserted is of the Tudor period.  The piscina of this chantry altar, with a square basin, is still to be seen outside the church.  In the north wall of the chancel, a small two-light window is worth attention as an excellent example of the purest Decorated.  The south chancel wall has three-light windows, with segmental heads and super-mullioned tracery of Perpendicular date; one of these has been removed to form a poor east window, in place of a good 14th century window, destroyed a few years ago.  The eastern gable is surmounted by a good cross and saddle stone.  The windows of the south aisle are of the meanest type.  There is an arcade of four bays, with Decorated arches supported on very slender octagonal piers, which are too tall and slender, and which drive up the arches too high.  The moulded brackets which serve as responds, being elaborately moulded, deserve notice.  The roofs are very poor, being of a later period; one of the beams bears the date 1583.  The chancel arch has been decapitated and blocked by boarding, but the rood-screen below is an unusually good specimen of Perpendicular.  It has five bays, the centre being double the width of the others, and having still its panelled doors.  It is 12ft. 4in. wide, and nearly 18ft. high. [129]  (Dr. Mansel Sympson, “Architect. S. Journ.,” 1890, p. 209).

Parts of the parclose which formerly enclosed the chantries at the ends of the aisles, still remain.  The Silkstone chantry on the south retains its decorated trefoil piscina.

The chantry on the north side of the church formerly existing, was called the Jesus Chapel.  Here was buried William Goodrick, father of the Bishop of Ely, at his own request, by his will dated 20 March, 1517, to be buried “in the chapell of Jhus in my p’ysh church of Saint Nicholas.” [131]  “On the viij. Kal. Nov., 1344, Robert de Silkestone presented” Thomas West, of Mucton, priest, to this chantry (then newly founded), and on Kal. June 1346, he presented “Rob., son of John Fowler, of Mithingsby, priest, to the same chantry.”  (“Linc. N. & Q,” 1896, p. 51, note).

Lusby.

Lusby (called in Domesday Book Lodeby and Luzebi), is distant from Horncastle about 6 miles, in an easterly direction, being 1 mile beyond Winceby.  Prior to the Norman Conquest, the Saxon Thane, Tonna, held lands here, as well as in other parishes in the neighbourhood, his property here being 3 carucates, or about 360 acres (Domesday).  Other owners of land were Almer, and his brother John, and his son Mauger.  These, at the Conquest, were mostly superseded by Normans.  William the Conqueror gave to his nephew Gilbert de Gaunt, son of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, whose sister was William’s Consort, 113 Manors in Lincolnshire, besides several in other counties, among them being Lusby, the adjoining Hagworthingham, and Grantham (Greetham), &c.  The property would seem, however, to have been only held by the Gaunts for three generations.  In 1223 we find Simon de Kyme instituting a suit in the King’s Court to recover certain lands in Lusby, as being the descendant and lawful representative and heir of the aforesaid Almar.  He failed, however, to establish his case.  (Curia Regis, Roll No. 82, Hilary, 7 Henry III.)  He still, however, held lands in Langton and Sausthorpe; and he must also have had other lands in Lusby, as we find that in the 9th year of King John he granted the fee of 1 knight to Walter de Bec, “to have and to hold of the same Simon and his heirs for ever.”

In the old documents called “Final Concords,” p. 80., under date “17 May, A.D. 1208,” we find Walter Bec, named as “tenant of one knight’s fee in Lusceby.”  In 1300 A.D. Sir John Bek, like his father, was Constable of Lincoln Castle, but also holding the additional office of Constable of Bristol.  He made a grant to the Priory of Bullington, near Wragby, which is worthy of notice, as its terms are peculiar.  It runs as follows:—“I, John son of Walter Beck, of Lusceby, have granted, &c., for ever to prior and convent of Bolington, for the safety of my soul, and the souls of my ancestors, two selions of land, &c., which formerly, Simon, merchant of Burgh, held of me for one pair of white gloves.”  We have mention, in the case of High Toynton, of land, held by the tenure of a pair of spurs, presented annually to the lord, as rent; here we have a no less singular tenure, by the gift of a pair of gloves.  The knightly gauntlet was probably in those days a more costly article than a nineteenth or twentieth century glove.  In illustration of the above peculiar tenure, we may notice the legacy of Baron Bec’s “gauntlets” to Kirkstead.  This John, son of Walter, was created first Baron Bec of Eresby; he obtained a license to fortify his castle at Eresby, 1295.  By his will, dated July 20, 1301, he ordered his body to be buried at Kirkstead, whereunto he gives his best horse, his mail coat, “gauntlets,” harness of iron, lance, targe and other accoutrements.  His daughter married Sir William Willoughby.

Most of the property of the Lusby Beks passed, a generation or two later, to another branch of the family, the Becks of Eresby; whose descendant, John Willoughby, through the marriage of Baron Bec’s daughter to Sir William Willoughby, in the reign of Edwd. III., held the manors of “Hareby, Lusceby, Ester Kele, Wester Kele,” &c.; and thus the property passed to the ancestors of the present Earl of Ancaster, and Lord Willoughby d’ Eresby.  We still, however, find (by Feet of Fines, Lincoln, file 69) that in A.D. 1302, John Bek had “the rent of 6 quarters of salt, [133] in Wispington, Marton next Horncastle, Langtone, Wodehalle, Thymelby, Scrivelsby,” and other parishes, “with advowson of the church of Wispington.”  “Henry Bek, of Pusseby (Lusby), sold to Lord Stephen de Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, lands and tenement in ffowlestow; which same bishop gave the said manor to Beatrice, his sister, who was married to Alan de Normanby.”  (Lansdowne MSS. 207, cf., 453).  For these details of the Becks, I am chiefly indebted to a paper, by Rev. W. O. Massingberd, in the “Architect. Soc. Journal,” for 1897.

We now come to speak of the church, dedicated to St. Peter.  At the date of Domesday Book, this was one of the 222 parishes in the county which possessed a church.  A priest is also there named, doubtless one of the 131 only resident presbyters in the county; many of the churches being served by the “Religious” of the convents.  There is also mention of a mill, worth 3s. yearly. [135]

There was thus at Lusby a church at that early period, and it, as well as Winceby, paid a pension to the Bardney Monastery, probably through the connection with Gilbert de Gaunt, that Norman noble being one of Bardney’s most generous patrons, and the re-founder of that institution after it had been in a state of decay for some 200 years.  Ecton’s Thesaurus gives the pension as 30s., a fairly large sum in those days.

The present very interesting church is, in parts, so very ancient, that it is more than likely that some portions of the original fabric of that day still remain.  Only a few years ago the building was in a state of squalid neglect and architectural disfigurement; but it was restored by the Commissioners in 1892, and re-opened by the Bishop of Lincoln on January 17, 1893, the work having been done with great care and judgment; and the former flat-ceiled, white-washed room has given place to a structure church-like in all its arrangements.  It is nevertheless of a somewhat conglomerate character, windows, and other objects, breaking out, as it were, in all sorts of unexpected positions; and thus making it a study of curiosities.  We quote here some of the remarks of the late Precentor Venables made on the occasion of the visit of the Architectural Society in 1894, “of the original Norman fabric, itself of more than one date, and which was shortened at the west end, there are several relics, especially in the charming narrow doorway in the north wall of the nave, now built up, the arch of which is surrounded with zigzag moulding; and a very remarkable little ‘key-hole’ window, high up in the north wall of the chancel.  An incised line which runs round the head of this ends in volutes, and above it is a small incised cross.  Holes in the jamb of the shutter indicate that this widow was originally unglazed.  Opposite the north doorway are traces of another Norman doorway in the south wall, also now blocked, having above it a cross with round medallions.”  Eastward in this same south wall of the nave is a two-light early English window with quatrefoil above, in the eastern splay of which, inside the church, is a small, but “singularly fine corbel head, crowned.”  Immediately eastward of the chancel arch in the south wall of the chancel is a small square window, possibly a squint; and east of this a very narrow small “lancet window has been opened,” and still east of this, at a different elevation, there is a good two-light decorated window.  The chancel arch is round-headed and plain; on either side of it are a pair of Norman pillars, with the capitals hacked away; those on the north side partly retain their rounded columns.  There is a perpendicular screen across the chancel arch of three compartments above with ogee arches and richly carved finials, the central compartment being open; and below are two panels on either side the central open compartment, having ogee arches within semi-circular rims.  On the north side of the chancel arch is a niche for a figure.  In the north wall of the chancel is an aumbrey, and an oblong one above it; and in the south wall a square one corresponding.  In the south wall, under the easternmost window, is an easter sepulchre a plain semi-circular arched recess, probably marking the tomb of the founder.  In the north wall of the nave is a similar, but rather larger recess.  The east window has three lights, quatrefoiled, with trefoiled compartments above, and a quatrefoil above these.  The west door is square-headed with a low arch within; over this a three-light quatrefoiled widow with square-headed moulding above; and over this, in the gable, a square, slit widow, above which hangs the one bell in a large turret.  The font on the north side of the west door, is modern, circular, massive, of Caen stone.  The sittings are of deal; the pulpit, lectern, and chancel sedilia, of modern oak; the roof throughout of pitch pine.  There is a small brass tablet of date circa 1600, with eight English rhyming lines, forming a dialogue between a deceased wife and her surviving husband.  The stones of the walls are of all sizes and shapes, and the massive western buttresses are 5ft. thick.  The benefice, a rectory, is now held with that of Hagworthingham, and is in the incumbency of the Rev. G. R. Ekins, who resides at the latter place.

Asgarby, which is ecclesiastically annexed to the benefice of Lusby, lies about six miles south-east of Horncastle, being about a mile south by east of Winceby, by which it is reached from Horncastle, and about a mile west of Lusby.  Letters, via Spilsby, arrive at 8.30 a.m.  The nearest money order office is at Old Bolingbroke, and the nearest telegraph office at East Kirkby, about 5 miles distant.  The whole parish comprises about 760 acres, divided into two farms, the property of Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and occupied respectively, Asgarby Hall farm by Mr. M. Dunham, and the Asgarby House farm by Mr. W. H. Robinson, both these residences being substantial structures of considerable age.  It has been asked “What’s in a name?” yet the name Asgarby would seem significant.  Its elements are “as” (or Aes), “gar” (guard or garth), [137] and “by”; the first of these implying the presence of “water,” the second meaning, “an enclosure”; and the third “a building”; thus we have, as the meaning of the whole, “a water-enclosed building,” or moated residence.  The hall stands on an elevation, commanding an extensive view, and there are various hollows and banks still existing, which probably indicate the moat which at one time surrounded a more important building than the present hall.  This is confirmed by the stews, or fish-ponds, lying westward below the hall, which imply that the establishment required an extensive fish diet, on the numerous Romish fast days.  The demesne is given in Domesday Book, along with Hareby, Mavis Enderby, Raithby, and many others, which became the property of Ivo Taillebois, by his marriage with the Lady Lucia, daughter of the powerful Saxon Earl Alfgar, father-in-law of King Harold.  It probably passed at a later period to the Bishops of Durham, who held many lordships in the neighbourhood; and ultimately came to the Bishops of Lincoln, who were lords of the manor, until the transference in 1862, of episcopal property to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who have since that time, owned the estate.

The Benefice, now worth £40 a year, is described in Liber Regis, as a curacy.  It, however, gives its name to a prebendal stall in Lincoln Cathedral.  The church, dedicated to St. Swithin, is an unpretending structure, of no architectural merit; but since it was re-seated, with deal fittings, in 1882, it has been kept, to say the least, in a neat condition.  It is doubtless one of the smallest parish churches in the kingdom, the nave being slightly over 20ft. in length, and the chancel about 9ft.  The east window has two lights, in debased style.  There is a three-light debased window in the north wall, and a corresponding one in the south wall.  The pulpit is of modern oak.  There is a tablet on the south nave wall in memory of Sarah, wife of John Parkinson, “greatly admired for her virtue, frugality, and charity,” who died 17 May, 1816; also in memory of John Parkinson, her husband, who died May 15, 1821.

In the time of the Conqueror, this manor belonged to his nephew, Ivo Taillebois, through his marriage with the Lady Lucia, the rich heiress of the Saxon Thorolds.  It is stated in Domesday Book to comprise 6 carucates of land rateable to gelt (i.e., 720 acres), worked by thirty-six soke-men, eight villeins, and 4 bordars, who had also 40 acres of meadow, [138] which is several acres in excess of the present measurement.

Miningsby was connected with Spalding Priory in the following manner.  That monastery was founded by Thorold de Buchenale (i.e., Bucknall, near Horncastle), A.D. 952; and the Lady Lucia, his niece and heiress, in conjunction with her husband Ivo Taillebois (who was Lord of Spalding), added largely to the original endowment from her uncle.  The churches of Bolingbroke, Stickney, and other parishes, with “half the Church of East Keal,” were given to the priory; also tithes from Claxby, Edlington, Minting, Gautby, &c., and “temporalities” from Haltham, Bolingboke, Miningsby, &c., the latter including two carucates (or 240 acres) of land in Miningsby.  On the Dissolution of the Monasteries, by Henry VIII., several of these properties passed to the crown, and became connected with the Duchy of Lancaster, and the “Honour of Bolingbroke.”  We mention in the Notes on Revesby, and other parishes, how those and other lands, passed, through the Lady Lucia’s son (by her 2nd husband), William de Romara, to the Abbey of Revesby, and at a later period to the Stanhopes, and, by a parallel process, although through a distinct channel, the Stanhopes are now lords of the manor of Miningsby, and own most of the soil.

Frequent mention is made of Miningsby in the ancient Revesby Abbey charters. [139]  By charters No. 1 B. and C., William de Romara conveys to the abbey, 23 acres of land in Miningsby, as well as common pasture in the same.  Among the witnesses to the latter, is Baldric de Cheles, a name still represented in the neighbourhood, by the family of the Rev. Alan Cheales, rector of Friskney, and owner of land in Hagworthingham, &c.  By charter No. 7 C., Hugo Wac confirms to the Abbot of Revesby “two oxgangs (or 30 acres) of land in Miningsby with right of pasturage and the hermitage, which Ranulph the Monk made in Halton marsh.”  This Hugo Wac, would seem to be a representative of the ancient Lincolnshire Saxon family of the Wakes, whose most distinguished member was “Hereward the Wake,” lord of Bourne, the last hero of Anglo-Saxon independence, whose “Camp of Refuge” for some time defied the Conqueror, and whose exploits have been celebrated in prose and verse.  By charter No. 39, Alan son of Ranulph, of Miningsby, gives 2 perches of meadow in “Sud Bec” (south beck) in Miningsby, free of all service and claims (temp. Henry II. or Richard I.)  We may mention here that this Miningsby beck is now the chief feeder of the reservoir which furnishes Boston with its water supply.  By charter No. 40 B., Richard I. confirms to the monks of Revesby certain lands and possessions in Miningsby, Kirkby, Claxby, Mareham, &c.  This is witnessed by Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert de Harecourt and others.  By No. 41, a plot of land in Miningsby is given “for the use of the gate-monk, and for gate alms,” at the abbey, by William, son of Roger de Bikinghesby (Wilksby?) temp. Richard I. or John.  By No. 59, William Helle, of Miningsby, gives the right of pasturage for 60 sheep in Miningsby, free of all claim.  By No. 63, William, son of Ivo, of Kirkby, gives land adjoining the place from which the sand was taken for building Miningsby church, near “Crosbesich.”  By No. 115, William, son of John Barette, of Stickney, residing at Miningsby, gives one perch of meadow, “for the maintenance of two candles always burning in the Abbey Chapel.”  (Date Henry III. or Ed. I.)  By No. 119, Nicholas, son of Roger Herod of Miningsby, gives “one meadow, free of all claims,” and stipulates that “the monks shall pay annually one penny towards maintaining the light before the image of St. Nicholas, in Kirkby church, every St. Nicholas Day.”  By No. 131, Alan of Miningsby, gives “one selion, [140] and four akerheveds” of land in Miningsby, in two places, called “Hankes” and “Claxby dale,” free of all claim (date, Ed. I.)  By charter No. 150 B., the King, Henry VIII., grants to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, all rights and property, hitherto belonging to the monastery of Revesby, in Miningsby, Moorby, Wood Enderby, Wilksby, East Kirkby, and many other places, “having come into our hands by reason of the dissolution of the said monastery.”  The Duke’s title is to date from March 1, in the 29th year of our reign, A.D. 1538.  (British Museum, additional MSS. 24805, fol. 32).

Among “Lincolnshire Wills,” we find Richard Skepper, of East Kirkby, in his will, dated 26 May, 1556, mentioning among other land, which he devises, certain copyhold lands in Miningsby.

By will, dated 22 Dec. 1615, Robert Hustwait, of Great Grimsby, makes his brother, Edward Hustwait, of Miningsbye, and his cousin, Tristram Smith, of Awdbee Grange, supervisors, and gives them twenty shillings each.  The Husthwaites were above the yeoman class, but not important enough to appear in the Visitations of the Heralds; they intermarried with the Wrights of Grimsby and Smyths of Audby, and lived at Little Coates and Bradley.

By a Deed, dated 19 May, 24 Henry VI. (1446), Henry the King orders that certain rents for lands in Est Kirkby, Menyngesby, &c., which had been unlawfully withheld by Alice Browne, shall be duly paid to John Grynne, and Richard, his son, “they being at the time of acquisition, men (i.e. bond-tenants) of our manor.”  “Given under our seal of our Duchy of Lancaster at our palace of Westminster.”  (“Linc. N. & Q.” vol. v. p. 89.)

The Church, dedicated to St. Andrew, consists of nave, chancel and a double bell-gable at the west end.  It was restored at the expense of J. Banks Stanhope, Esq., in 1878, when nearly the whole fabric was taken down by the architect, the late Mr. James Fowler, of Louth, and carefully reconstructed so as to preserve its most interesting features.  The stone then employed is already (1901) showing signs of decay.  The south wall of the nave retains portions of an earlier Norman building, viz., one Norman window and a semi-circular headed doorway, set flush with the wall, enclosing a later pointed arch, also set flush. [142a]  The chancel is early English, with lancet windows, in the east end and side walls; there is also a lancet window in the north wall of the nave.  There was formerly a chantry in the north side of the church, the arch of which is now blocked.  In the west wall are two tall trefoil windows.  The font is perpendicular, with octagonal embattled bowl, supported by four columns with square flowers in the capitals.  The chancel is separated from the nave by a good open rood screen, containing portions of the original.  The whole interior presents a well-ordered church appearance. [142b]  The object, however, of special interest here, is a so-called “Runic” stone, covered with the involuted “knot,” or “figure of eight” pattern.  Not many years ago it formed the threshold of a door, but was rescued by the Rev. G. Maughan, rector of East Kirkby, when he had charge of this parish, who had it placed against the north wall of the chancel.  It is fortunately still in a very fair condition, with the exception of a portion gone from one end, and a crack towards the other end.  There are, or were recently, two other specimens in the neighbourhood, one, a fragment at Lusby, and the other at Mavis Enderby.  The Lusby fragment is said to have been Norman.  (“Linc. N. & Q.” vol. iv. p. 225).  That at Mavis Enderby, now used as a church door step, and the pattern, consequently much defaced, is, like this at Miningsby, said to be of pre-Norman style, though not necessarily pre-Norman date.  The former, however, is coped, while the latter is flat.  The Rev. G. Maughan believed that there was another similar stone within the same chancel wall, but, as that part of the fabric was not taken down by the architect, it was not exposed to view.  (“Linc. N. & Q.” vol. iii. p. 157.)  The frill border of the Miningsby stone is decidedly Saxon in character.  It is 44 inches long, by 19½ wide, and 6in. thick.  These stones are specially interesting and far from common.  Interlaced work was an ancient Hittite ornament, as shewn in a seal, engraved in the “Archæological Journal,” vol. xliv. p. 348.  Specimens are found, however, in Italy, Greece, France, as well as similar patterns in Saxon, Lombardic, and Spanish MSS.  The stones are more common in Ireland than in England.  Several are found like the Iona cross in Scotland, probably imported from Ireland, by the missionaries of St. Columba.  There is an excellent sketch of the Miningsby stone, by the Rev. J. A. Penny, vicar of Wispington, in “Lincolnshire Notes and Queries,” vol. iv., p. 225.

There is a modern commodious house, occupied by the present rector, who has 170 acres of glebe; but it is remarkable that about 100 acres of glebe are missing; the award made by the commissioners in lieu of tithe being largely in excess of the land now attached to the benefice.  This parish also contains about 100 acres of charity land belonging to Stamford school.

In Domesday Book it is also called Oxetune, in which the suffix “tune,” or “ton,” is the later Saxon for inclosure, implying a secluded farmstead, where some Saxon Thane’s cattle were housed.  In that record of the Norman Conqueror, of which the date for Lincolnshire is about 1085 A.D., this parish is mentioned twice, once, as connected with the manor of Fulletby, which was among the lands conferred by William the Conqueror, on the Bishop of Durham, William de Karilepho, a Norman, who was a favourite with that king, and was appointed by him Chief Justice of England; and once among the possessions of the Norman noble, Hugh de Abrinchis (or Avranches), who was nephew of the Conqueror, and, besides being endowed by him with the Barony of the whole county of Chester, held also nearly one hundred and fifty manors in this County and elsewhere.  He was surnamed Lupus or “The Wolf” (as has been stated in other of these records) from the many deeds of violence, for which he was famed; and for which he endeavoured to atone in the closing years of his somewhat lawless life, by becoming a monk in the Abbey of St. Werberg, at Chester, which he had himself founded.

Hugh de Abrincis left one son, who succeeded to his estates; but, as we have elsewhere observed, the tenure of land was, in those unsettled times, very precarious, and we have evidence that lands in Oxcombe, at an early date, passed into other hands.  The land became in part the property of Bullington Priory, which was an off-shoot of the Gilbertine Priory, of Sempingham, famous for the severity of its monastic rules.  Bullington Priory was founded by Simon Fitzwilliam, [145a] in the reign of Stephen, and endowed with various lands in the neighbourhood.  These endowments were augmented by William de Kyme, a member of another powerful family in the county, who had also lands at Sotby, and elsewhere; and further additions were made by the Crevecœurs, [145b] a family of much importance from the time of the Norman Conquest, Sir Hamon de Crevecœur succeeding to the barony of the Abrincis, located in Kent, with the title of Barons of Folkstone; while in this immediate neighbourhood, they held the lands in Somersby and Bag Enderby.  A few old records exist showing ownership in Oxcombe, at an early date, by several other parties.

By an agreement made under date, 15 June, 1202, between Matilda, wife of Richard de Ormsby, on the one part, and Walter Futenglaz, tenant of certain lands in Oxcombe, the said Walter, on his part, acknowledged the said lands to be the right and inheritance of Matilda; and in return Matilda granted them to Walter, to hold to him and his heirs, of the said Matilda, and her heirs for ever, by the service of 12d. by the year; and for this grant, the said Walter gave her ½ mark.  (“Final Concords.”)

Another document introduces a member of an important family holding considerable possessions in Yorkshire and elsewhere.  It is an agreement, dated 26 April, 1214, between Robert de Malo Lacu and Emma his wife, on the one part, and Robert de Oxecumbe and others, among them being Walter Bec, on the other part, concerning the right to certain lands which Walter Bec “acknowledges to be the right of the said Robert de Malo Lacu, and Emma, his wife,” &c.  In return for which they grant to the said Walter, 12 oxgangs of land, here and elsewhere, “to have and to hold to him and his heirs for ever, doing the service of five parts of a knight’s fee.”  This Walter Bec would appear to have been a member of the wealthy family who are mentioned in the Records of Spilsby and Lusby, as holding large property in those parishes and elsewhere, and as being ancestors of the Lords of Willoughby.  The de Malo Lacu family, otherwise de Mauley were powerful Normans; the head of the race, Peter de Malo Lacu being born at Poictou in France.  He, coming over to England in the reign of Henry III., built the castle of Mountgrace, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.  Camden, states that there were eight Peters in succession who held these estates, the last of them leaving two daughters, one of whom married Bigot, a member of the family of the Earl Marechal, of England; the other married a member of the knightly family of Salvain, and the de Mauley estates were divided between these two families.  The arms of the Lords de Malo Lacu were a bend, sable, on an escutcheon, or.  (“Hist. of Meux Abbey,” quoted Camden’s “Britannia,” pp. 751, &c.)

By deed, dated 25 November, 1218, in a dispute between the same Matilda, wife of Richard Ormesby, and William, Prior of Bolinton, concerning the advowson of the church of Oxecumb, the said Prior recognised the advowson to be the right of Matilda, and for himself and his successors surrendered it to the said Matilda and her heirs for ever, an unusual act of grace, as it was rarely that any property passing into the possession of a religious house left their grasp again, until the time came when they had finally and for ever to disgorge their acquisitions, not seldom questionably obtained.  On 12 May, 1240, in a dispute between Robert, son of Osbert, and Matilda de Marton, concerning land in Oxecumbe, Matilda admitted the said land to be the right of Robert, “to have and to hold to him and his heirs for ever, he rendering 4s. by the year, and doing foreign service.”  Truly, it would seem, from these various disputes all occurring within less than the first half of the 13th century, [147] there must have been something in the atmosphere of Oxcombe which rendered its people peculiarly litigious.  Could the confined position, we are almost inclined to ask, have narrowed their ideas, and, shut out as they were from the larger world beyond, the “combe,” have given them an undue sense of their own importance?

A gap now occurs of many years before we find further records of this little lordship.

Among the Chancery Inquisitions in the reign of Richard III. and Henry VII., is one (No. 246), held at Lincoln Castle, 28 January, 1504–5, by which it appears that Thomas Welby, a member of another prominent Lincolnshire family, who held the manor of Halstede, in Stixwould, in this neighbourhood, and manors or lands in nearly 30 other parishes in various parts of the county, had lands in Oxcomb, and the adjoining Ruckland.  He, by charter, granted these possessions to Edward Burgh, knight, George Taylbois, knight, and others, to administer his will, on behalf of his son and heir, Thomas Welby, then of the age of 16.  (“Architect. Soc. Journal,” 1895, p. 68.)

After the dissolution of the monasteries, in the following reign, the lands connected with the priories of Sempringham and Bullington, in Oxcombe, would pass into other hands, and accordingly we find new names among the owners.  By will, dated 14 June, 1535, John Gedney, of Bag Enderby, Esquire, leaves lands in Bag Enderby, Oxcombe, Winceby, Langton, and Somersby, to his sons John and Andrew, a witness to the will being George Musgrave, parson of Oxcombe.  Oxcombe evidently fell to the share of the latter of these two sons, since a few years later, Andrew Gedney of Bag Enderby [148] (in 1562) presented Robert Brown to the benefice of Oxcombe, vacated by the death of Roger Barry, (“Architect. S. Journal,” 1897, p. 8.)

The tenure of the Gedneys, however, in due course went “the way of all flesh.”  They had apparently inherited considerable property from the old family of the Crevecœurs, already mentioned.  They had made good connections, this Andrew himself having married Dorothy, daughter of Sir William Skipwith, of South Ormsby, but they probably got into difficulties at the time of “the Lincolnshire Rising” in 1536, in which Andrew was involved.  In 1579, Andrew Gedney sold Oxcombe Grange to John Copledyke, who obtained Queen Elizabeth’s pardon for making the purchase without her license, which was then required by law, as a royal prerogative and source of revenue; and the following is the next notice we find of the family:—By will, dated 1 April, 1613, Richard Gedney, of Bag Enderby, Esq., leaves 10s. to the poor of Oxcombe; but William Morton, of Oxcombe, and Thomas Cheales of Hagworthingham, are requested to manage his manor of Oxcombe, and pay his debts out of it.  This was the beginning of the end, and the Gedneys in due course disappeared from the landed gentry of Lincolnshire.  The name, for a time, revived in the second half of the 19th century, in the person of a relative of the present writer, who owned Candlesby Hall, but it was only “a flash in the pan,” and they are gone.

Another name now comes to the fore.  Henry VIII. granted extensive lands, which had been connected with the rich monasteries, to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who was grandson of William Brandon, standard bearer to Henry VII., who was slain at the battle of Bosworth.  The Duke died leaving two sons by his 4th wife, Catherine, who was daughter and heiress of the Lord Willoughby d’ Eresby of that day.  (Dugdale “Baronage,” ii., 300.)  These both died of “the sweating sickness,” while quite young, and thereupon the descendants of Sir William Brandon’s daughters were declared to be the heirs.  One of these, Eleanor, married John Glemham, of Glemham Parva, Co. Suffolk.  Their descendants, by marriage, or otherwise, acquired the manors of Burwell, Calceby and Mareham-le-Fen, and at later periods, lands in Goulceby, Donnington-on-Bain, Belchford, Walmsgate, Fairforth, and several other parishes, and in 1641, Sir Thomas Glemham sold most of these to Matthew Lister, Esq., of St. Martins-in-the Fields, Co. Middlesex; among the lands then disposed of, Oxcombe is named with the above neighbouring parishes, though we do not find it specified before.  It is supposed that Sir Thomas, who was a warm supporter of the unfortunate King Charles I., effected this sale in order to aid his sovereign.  Be that as it may, Oxcombe passed from the Glemhams to the Listers.  For nearly 200 years this family continued to hold the bulk of this property, but, in their turn, the Listers also fell upon evil times, and their estates gradually came under the hammer.  The patronage of the benefice was vested in the Langtons, of Langton-by-Spilsby, in 1677, 1717, and 1762 (Liber Regis), and, according to Noble’s “Gazetteer,” also as late as 1833, and they were probably owners in part, of the soil.  In 1799, John Grant died lord of the manor, and three members of his family held it in succession.  In 1842, the benefice was held jointly with that of Belchford, by the Rev. Egremont Richardson, B. Grant, Esq., being patron.  Since then it has been held singly by three successive incumbents, the Rev. John Chalmers, the Rev. Goulding Saunders, and the Rev. James Clarke, but since 1898 the two have been again held together by the Rev. R. H. Domenichetti.  In 1863, David Briggs, Esq., was lord of the manor.  On his death, in 1876, it was bought by T. Ross, Esq., who died in 1885, when it was again sold to the late Spedding Whitworth, Esq., of Wath-upon-Dearne, Co. Yorke, whose son, Harrie Whitworth, is the present owner.  The whole parish is now occupied and farmed by Mr. Henry Meanwell, who resides in the manor house, a substantial residence, built in Elizabethan style, in 1845–6, surrounded by extensive grounds, well-kept, and a well-wooded park of some 50 acres.

This sequestered place is approached by a road, worn, probably by usage through long ages, to a depth of several feet below the ordinary level of the ground, the high banks on each side of it being covered with neatly-trimmed shrubbery, and the whole has the appearance of a well-cared-for estate, all the buildings being substantial and in excellent order.  Some of the fields still retain names which tell of by-gone ages.  To the north are fields named “Scotland Deepdales,” and “Scotland Walk,” which may possibly refer to the old parochial taxation, “Scot and Lot” (Saxon, sceat and lot), which was levied upon all subjects according to their ability, for the poor, church expenses, village watchman, &c., the right of voting for members of parliament and other officials, being vested in those who paid “scot and lot.”  One field is named “Mill Walk,” indicating where the manorial lord once had that valuable source of revenue, the mill, at which all the bordars and villeins were bound to have their corn ground.  One part of the ground is named “Groves’ Walk,” a plantation so-called from a poacher, Groves, who was shot in a night skirmish many years ago.  In a wood in the Farford direction, adders are said to have been numerous.  There is an extensive pasture named the “Intake,” probably recording its first inclosure from the common land.  Two arable fields are called the “Near” and “Far” “Gaire”; gaire, garing, or geira, being a very ancient term for a section of land ploughed in a different direction from the rest, as these are still at the present time.  While ploughing a part of this manor in the year 1818, a labourer found a small silver casket, containing 46s. of the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, which were scarcely injured by the lapse of time.  (“Hist. Linc.,” by J. Saunders, vol. ii., p. 177.)