Historical and descriptive sketches of the town and soke of Horncastle [1822] / in the county of Lincoln and several places adjacent

by George Weir

THE MANOR.

Shortly after the conquest, the lordship of Tattershall, together with the hamlet of Tattershall Thorpe, and several other estates, was given by King William to Eudo and Pinço, two Norman nobles, who had attended him into England, but who, though sworn brothers in war, were not otherwise related. On the division of the estates between these chieftains, this manor became the property of Eudo, who fixed his residence here. Upon his death his estates descended to his son, Hugh Fitz Eudo, who, in the year 1139, founded an abbey for Cistertian monks at the neighbouring village of Kirkstead.

Hugh was succeeded by his son Robert, who left issue a son named Philip. Philip, after serving the office of sheriff of Berkshire in the seventh year of the reign of Richard the second, and also of Lincolnshire in the eighth, ninth, and tenth years of the same king, was succeeded by his son Robert, the second of that name, who, in the year 1201, procured from King John, by means of a present of a well-trained goshawk, a grant to hold a weekly market on Thursday, on this manor. Robert was followed by his son of the same name, who about the year 1230, obtained from Henry the third a licence to build a castle at this place, together with a grant of free warren in all his demesne lands. The male line of Eudo was continued in regular descent, by Robert the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh; upon the death of the latter of whom in his minority, it became extinct, and the inheritance was divided between his three sisters. Tattershall became the portion of Joan, one of the co-heiresses, who married Sir Robert Driby, and who had issue by him a daughter and heiress Alice, afterwards married to Sir William Bernack. John, the son of this latter marriage, was succeeded by William, who died a minor, and left his sister Maud his heiress.

The Fitz Eudos, from the place, assumed the cognomen of Tateshall, and by that title had summons to parliament among the great barons of the realm.

Maud, the heiress of the Bernack family, married Sir Ralph, afterwards Lord Cromwell, who, in her right, became lord of this manor; and upon his death, which happened on the twenty-seventh day of August, in the year 1398, left his son Ralph his heir, who died in 1416, and was succeeded by a son of the same name. In the year 1433, this latter Ralph was by Henry the sixth appointed Treasurer of the Exchequer. He died without issue on the fourth of January, 1455; whereby his two nieces, the daughters of his sister, the wife of Sir Richard Stanhope, became his co-heiresses.

It does not appear into whose hands the Tattershall estate fell after the death of the Lord Treasurer Cromwell, until the year 1487, when Henry the seventh granted the manor to his mother, Margaret Countess of Richmond, and in the following year entailed it on the Duke of Richmond. The Duke dying without issue, Henry the eighth in 1520, granted it to Charles Duke of Suffolk, by letters patent, which were confirmed by Edward the sixth, in the year 1547.

On the death of the two infant sons of the Duke of Suffolk, who survived their father only a short time, this manor again came into the possession of the king, as one of the heirs general of the family. By letters patent, dated the fifth of September, 1551, Edward the sixth granted the castle with the manor, in fee, to Edward Lord Clinton and Saye, afterwards Earl of Lincoln. The Earl dying in 1584, was succeeded by his son Henry, who died in 1616, leaving issue a son and heir Thomas, who survived his father only two years, and was followed by his son Theophilus, who died in 1667. The next possessor was Edward, who was the grandson of Theophilus, and who died at Tattershall in 1692; in him terminated the male line of the Clinton family. Upon his death, without issue, the Tattershall estate became the property of his cousin Bridget, who married Hugh Fortescue, Esquire, by whom she had a son and heir Hugh, created in 1746, Baron Fortescue, and Earl Clinton. Upon his death in 1751, his half brother Matthew succeeded him, but dying in 1785, the Tattershall estate descended to his eldest son, Earl Fortescue, the present possessor.

Besides the liberties of the parks, chases and free warrens, belonging to the castle and manor of Tattershall, it also appears in the several grants of Henry the third, Henry the fourth, Henry the seventh, Henry the eighth, and in the grant of the liberties of Richmond fee, whereof the castle and manor of Tattershall is a part, that to the said castle and manor also belong the liberties of stallage, tolls of markets and fairs, together with the privilege for all tenants and inhabitants of Tattershall to be discharged of any tolls in fairs and markets abroad; also the sole liberties of fishing, fowling, hawking, and hunting, in all the said manor, chases and the precincts of them; also suits of courts baron, waifs, estrays, treasure trove, goods and chattels of felons, fugitives, men outlawed, and felones de se, deodands, bondmen, villains, with their sequels; and also that neither the sheriff of the county, nor his bailiff shall arrest within the said manor, and that no distress taken therein shall be delivered, nor replevins granted by the sheriff, but only by the steward of the lord of the said manor.