Page:A History of Horncastle from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.djvu/222

Rh from 1552 to 1575, and he and his son Francis jointly sold it to Thomas Cecil, Lord Treasurer Burleigh. He held it from 1575 to 1598, when it passed in succession to the 1st and 2nd Earls of Exeter, and to Elizabeth, Lady Howard, wife of the Earl of Berkshire, in 1640, and so in 1658 to Henry Howard; in 1663 to his cousin Craven Howard, who built the former residence at Revesby; and, after his death, the property was sold by the daughters of Henry Howard to the Banks family; whence the manor has descended to the present proprietors of Revesby.

The manor, like that of Moorby and other parishes already named, would at one time belong to the Bishops of Carlisle, and they were till recently patrons of the benefice; the patronage, within late years, being transferred to the Bishops of Manchester, after the creation of that See in 1848.

At an earlier date, being an appendage to the Manor of Horncastle, this demesne would be owned at one period by Gerard and Ralph de Rhodes; and this is shewn by the following records among the Final Concords, date 3rd Feb., 1224-5, whereby an agreement was arrived at between Henry del Ortiay and Sabina his wife, on the one part, and Ralph de Rhodes on the other part, as to certain lands in Moorby, Enderby, Horncastle, and other parishes, that the said Henry and Sabina should recognise the said lands as belonging to the said Ralph; he, on his part, granting to them other lands there, specially designated, they rendering to him "therefor by the year, one pair of gilt spurs, at Easter, for all service and exaction." This agreement was settled "at the court of the Lord the King at Westminster on the morrow of the purification of the blessed Mary, in the 9th year of King Henry III.

In the old records, Testa de Nevill (circa 1326-28), it is stated that "the churches of Horncastre, Askeby (West Ashby), Upper Thinton (High Toynton), of Meringes (Mareham-on-the-Hill), and of Hinderby (Wood Enderby), are of the gift of the lord; and Osbert, the parson, holds them of King Richard."

In Domesday Book it is stated that at the time of the Conqueror, there were "400 acres of wood pasturage" in the parish, a sufficient reason for its designation. Like Moorby, it was among the manors seized by the Conqueror, for his portion of the plunder taken from our Saxon forefathers. In Saxon times the Thane, Siward, had land here; which was given by the Conqueror to his steward, Robert Despenser, brother of the Earl Montgomery.

This is a large village, about 8 miles from Horncastle, in a southerly direction. It is bounded on the north by Tattershall Thorpe, on the west by Tattershall, on the south by Wildmore, and on the east by Tumby and Merham-le-Fen. Its area is 3,442 acres, including the hamlet of Hawthorn Hill; rateable value £5,160; population 1,192. Apart from a limited number of shops and three inns, the people are engaged mainly in agriculture. The soil is mostly a light sand, with a subsoil of gravel deposits and clay. The nearest railway station is at Tattershall, distant about 1½ miles.