Page:A History of Horncastle from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.djvu/194

Rh were to have two smocks each, and eight old people a strike of coals each per week. At another meeting Margaret Day was to have worsted for two pairs of socks for her two boys, herself to spin it; and one pair of shoes for her daughter. Robert Kemp, and his son Richard, in order to find them work were to be paid 2s. per day, to "gether" stones for the parish.

Again, Maria Day's shoes were to be mended; Mary Atkin to have a pair of blankets, and her chamber window put in and thatched. Benj. Benton one pair of shoes, Willm. Adkin a waistcoat. Mary King's family four shirts, two pairs of shoes, three frocks, three petticoats, and three dabs (i.e. pinafores). A pair of breeches for George Skipworth; Willm. Skipworth to have a spade.

Again, Mr. Thos. Kemp was "to be allowed £20 for the use of the poorhouse, to be insured for £200 by the parish, and, when given up to be left in the same state."

At a meeting on 7th August, 1820, Robert Dixon in the chair, it was ordered that all paupers receiving assistance should regularly attend Divine Service, and on their non-attendance the assistance should be stopped. Mary Todd was to receive her money (which had been stopped) having given satisfaction to the vestry for not attending the church. Mary Hobbins' boy to be put to school. "To get the Lord's Prayer, and the 'I believe,' put in the church at the parish expense."

At a meeting held 27th August, 1830, Thomas Kemp in the chair, it was agreed that £75 be borrowed of Mr. Thos. Kemp, to pay Mrs. Farmer's expenses to America, to be repaid by the parish, 30s. weekly, with legal interest. Church rates are now among the "has beens," but in 1843 a rate was passed of "1d. in the pound for the support of the church, and 10d. in the pound for the highway repairs."

In the churchyard, along the south side of the church, are a group of gravestones of the Kemp family. Eastward are several of the Marshall family, formerly numerous here, and in the neighbourhood, holding a respectable position, but now extinct. There are also a number of tombs of the Todd family, respectable small farmers, resident in the parish, from the first notice of a burial, June 24th, 1738, down to recent years. The Tebbuts and Dixons were also resident, as tenants or small owners, for many years.

Among the marriage registers, which date from 1695, is the following note: "March 23, 1779, a marriage was attempted to be solemnized; but the intended bridegroom, to the great surprise of the congregation assembled, remaining away, the ceremony, &c. ..." The rest is illegible.

We have now to speak of the church. The present edifice stands on the site of a former 14th century church, which, judging by the remains that have been found, must have been of much larger dimensions, and consisted of nave, two aisles, chancel, and bell tower; the total breadth having been 52-ft. Several fragments of stained glass have, at various times, been found in digging graves, showing that this early church, like several others in the neighbourhood, had good coloured windows. This was taken down in 1744, and from the materials remaining a small fabric was erected in its place, consisting of nave and apsed chancel, with no pretensions whatever to architectural beauty. This (as has been generally the case with badly constructed edifices of that period) became also, in turn, so decayed that the present Rector, on entering