Page:A History of Horncastle from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.djvu/186

Rh the Willoughby family from the Gaunts, and about 100 years later (circa 1213, Survey, as before) William de Willoughby succeeded to these estates, including the demesne of Thimbleby. He was ancestor of the present Earl of Ancaster, and Lord Willoughby de Eresby, who now represents this division in Parliament. How long the estates, in whole or in part, remained with the Willoughbys is not clear; but we have evidence of their connection with Thimbleby nearly 100 years later, in a document dated 1302, concerning a dispute as to lands in Thimbleby, Langton, Woodhall, and several other parishes, between John de Bec and Robert Wylgherby, the two families being related; in which the said Robert surrenders to the said John all property in dispute, for his lifetime, on condition that, after his decease, the whole shall revert to the said John Willoughby, and his heirs, for ever.

From this time we find other names connected with the parish. Indeed prior to this, in a charter of Bardney Abbey, dated "at the Chapter of the Convent, on Sunday next after the Ascension of our Lord" (22nd May) 1281; we have among the witnesses, along with others belonging to Edlington, Wispington, and Baumber, "Master Bartholomew of Thimbleby," and John Crayck of the same, the former being probably the Rector. This charter refers to certain lands and tenements, the gift to the abbey of "Walter, son of Gilbert, de Bolingbrog," i.e. Walter, the son of Gilbert de Gaunt, already named. In another Bardney charter, dated four years later (30th Sept., 1285), we find again the same Thimbleby witnesses, with Alured of Woodhall, and others.

Three years later than this, in an official inquiry, held at Lincoln, as to certain knights' fees, which belonged to Elyas de Rabayn and his wife Matilda (12th Nov., 1288), the jurors declare that "Robert de Rothwell holds in Thymelby and Horncastre," certain "rents of assize, to be paid at the Feast of St. Michael, the Nativity of the Lord, Easter, and St. Botulph" (June 17), amounting to 12s.

A more interesting record is the following. We may premise that the Norman noble, St. Quintin (so named from a town of France, in the department of Aisne, the Augusta Veromanduorum of the Romans), came over among the followers of William the Conqueror, and his name appears in the famous "Battle Roll" of 1066. A Final Concord, of date A.D. 1293, states that on the Quindene of the purification of the Blessed Mary (i.e. the 5th day after), a dispute having arisen between Herbert de St. Quintin on the one part, and Ascelina de Waterville and Matilda de Diva on the other part, the two latter being tenants of 3½ carucates of land (i.e. 420 acres) in Thymeleby; it was settled that the said Ascelina and Matilda should acknowledge the said land to be the right of Herbert; and for this Herbert granted them, as his tenants, all the said lands, except six oxgangs (i.e. 90 acres) which were occupied in separate parcels, by Baldrick, Hogge, Alfsi, Godric, Walfric, and others; and for this the said Ascelina and Matilda gave him, in acknowledgment, 40 marks.

A few years after this date it would appear that the Bishop of Carlisle exercised a kind of ecclesiastical lordship over this parish. Thimbleby was in the soke of Horncastle, and Ralph de Rhodes, the former Lord of the demesne