CONINGSBY.
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 Mareham-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.
The owners of over 50 acres are Lord Willoughby de Eresby, M.P., Lord of the Manor; Sir H. M. Hawley, Bart., J.P.; F. Sherwin; J. Rodgers; J. Burcham Rogers, J.P.; Mrs. Evison; the rector, Rev. Canon A. Wright, M.A., J.P., Rural Dean and Canon of Lincoln. Smaller owners, about 50. The only gentleman’s seat now existing is the hall, the residence of J. B. Rogers, Esq., J.P.
The old custom of ringing the pancake bell on Shrove Tuesday is still kept up. The annual feast is held in the week after St. Michael’s Day, the patron saint. The “Ignitegium,” or curfew, was rung within the last 35 years, but has been discontinued, the parish being now lighted by gas.
There are a few field names, indicating the former “woodland and waste” [204] character of the locality. The Ings, or meadows, so common throughout the district; Oatlands; Scrub Hill, scrub being an old Lincolnshire word for a small wood; Reedham, referring to the morass; Toothill, probably a “look-out” over the waste; Langworth, probably a corruption of lang-wath, the long ford; Troy Wood, may be British, corresponding to the Welsh caertroi, a labyrinth or fort of mounds. The hamlets are Dogdyke, a corruption of Dock-dyke (the sea having once extended to these parts); Hawthorn Hill, Scrub Hill. There is an enclosure award in the possession of the clerk of the Parish Council.
The parish register dates from 1561. The church plate is modern, chalice and paten dated 1870; the flagon is older and more massive, but has no date. The Earl of Ancaster is patron of the benefice, a rectory, with good house, enlarged about 30 years ago, and 500 acres of glebe.
The National School was built by subscription and government grant in 1836, at a cost of about £230, exclusive of the site, which was given by the late Sir Gilbert Heathcote. It was enlarged in 1875 at cost of £300. The master has £3 per annum, left by the Rev. R. Kelham in 1719, also the dividend of £100 3½ per cent. reduced consols, bought by the bequest of the Rev. Mr. Boawre, Rector, in 1784.
The charities are Banks, viz. £2 a year from land in Haltham, for bread for the poor; Metham’s, for poor widows, from houses and land in Wisbech, left by Geo. Metham in 1685; Lawrence’s, for coats for poor men, from land in Leake, left by Robt. Lawrence in 1721.
The Horncastle canal traverses the parish, but is now a derelict.
There was formerly a castle in this parish, the residence of a family of the name of Coningsby, but no traces of it remain, unless it be in an ancient dovecote, placed among some fine trees to the east of the village.
The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a large, and originally a fine, church, consisting of nave, with north and south aisles, an apsidal modern chancel, and a massive western tower. This latter is of Perpendicular date, very plain, but of excellent ashlar work; it has a clock and six bells. The ground stage has open arches to the north and south, with a groined roof above, and a thoroughfare through it. In the eastern wall of the south porch is a stoup, which was formerly open, both within the porch and outside it. Over the porch is a parvis or priest’s chamber. Outside the church, near the top of the wall of a cupola-shaped finial of the rood loft turret is an old sun dial. The interior of the nave has a massive heavy roof of beams somewhat rudely cut, with traces of former colouring.
The four western bays of the arcade are Early English, with low arches,
the easternmost bay seems to have been added at a later date, the arch higher and wider. The moulding between two of the north arches terminates in a head, on each side of which an evil spirit is whispering. Another terminal is the head of a woman wearing the “branks,” or “scold’s bridle.” On the south side of the chancel arch is a rood loft staircase turret, of which both the lower and upper door remain.
At the restoration in 1872 the clerestory windows were spoilt by being reduced in height; externally their original design remains. In the centre of the nave are two large sepulchral slabs, once bearing brasses, which are now gone, representing two civilians and their wives. The apsidal chancel is quite out of keeping with the rest of the fabric. There are some remains of the old carved oak screen, and south of the communion table is an Early English capital, with piscina behind it.
The Notes on Churches, by Gervase Holles, shew that in his time (circa 1630) the windows of this church abounded in coloured glass, of which not a vestige remains. He gives, among the devices, the arms of Marmyon, Dymoke, Hillary, Welles, Hattecliffe, Umfraville, Willoughby, Ros, Tateshale, Bernake, Crumwell, Huntingfield, Rochfort, Beke, Boucher, Waterton, Hebden, Deyncourt, France and England, &c. [205]
Among the rectors of this parish have been two poets, one the laureate of his day (1718), the Rev. Laurence Eusden, who died 1730. The other, John Dyer, was born 1700, appointed to the benefice in 1752, by Sir John Heathcote,
was the author of Grongar Hill, The Fleece, and The Ruins of Rome; he was honoured with a sonnet by Wordsworth.
A congregation of Baptists was formed here under the Commonwealth, with an endowment for a minister. The society still exists, their present chapel being erected in 1862; they have also a day school, built by Mr. John Overy in 1845. The Wesleyans have a chapel, built in 1825, and others at Hawthorn Hill, Haven Bank, Moorside, and Meer Booth. The Primitive Methodists have a chapel, built in 1854, and others at Reedham Corner and Scrub Hill.
Of the early history of this parish we have scattered notices in various documents. In Domesday Book we find that Sortibrand, son of Ulf the Saxon, who was one of the lagmen of Lincoln, held a Berewick in Coningsby. Land here is mentioned among the Conqueror’s possessions. The powerful favourite of the Conqueror, Robert Despenser, laid claim to a fishery and lands in Coningsby; and the juryman of the wapentake of Horncastle decided that his claim was good, because Achi, his Saxon predecessor, had held the same in the time of Edward the Confessor. From the same source we find that two other powerful Normans held land here, viz. Hugo d’ Abrincis, surnamed “Lupus,” or “The Wolf,” from his fierce character; and Drogo de Bruere, who had the Conqueror’s niece to wife.
As with other parishes in this soke, we find from a Feet of Fines, 9 Henry III., No. 52, that Ralph de Rhodes then held lands here. Subsequently the Marmyons, Dymokes, and Taillebois, all connected in the blazonry of the former memorial windows (as before mentioned), held property in the parish. [206a] By a Chancery Inquisition post mortem, taken 31st May, 10 Henry VII., No. 72 (A.D. 1495), it was found that Robert Taillebois, Knt., with John Gygour, Warden of the college of Tateshale, was seized of the manor; while, further, in a Feet of Fines, 19 Henry VII. (1503), John Mordaunt is acknowledged by Sir Edward Poynings, Sir Thomas Fynes, and others, to be the owner of lands in Coningsby, and elsewhere in the soke. He held at least four other manors, and lands in many other parishes. Also a Feet of Fines, 21 Henry VII. (1505), it was agreed before Humphrey Coningsby, Sergeant at Law, Sir Giles Daubeney, and others, that the Bishop of Winchester held certain property here.
The Dymokes were patrons of the benefice; Sir Charles Dymoke presenting in 1682, after which the patronage passed to the Heathcote family (Liber Regis and Ecton’s Thesaurus). But an earlier connection with the Dymokes is shewn by a tombstone commemorative of “Anna, daughter of Thomas Dymoke, and his wife Margaret, que obijt . . . Ao Dni 1462.”
In connection with the Humphrey Coningsby, named above, we have already mentioned that a castellated residence in this parish belonged to a family of that name. This Humphrey was Judge of the King’s Bench, and bought Hampton Court, co. Hereford, of Sir Thomas Cornwall, about 1510; where was preserved a painting of the old mansion at Coningsby. [206b] Thomas Coningsby was knighted by Elizabeth in 1591. Sir Fitz-William Coningsby was Sheriff of the county, 1627; and for his loyalty to Charles I. his estates were confiscated by the Puritans. His son was rewarded with a peerage by Charles II.; and saved the life of King William at the battle of the Boyne;
but his two sons dying early, and he having no further issue, the title became extinct.
In the List of Gentry of Lincolnshire, made at the Herald’s Visitation in 1634, we find the name of Clinton Whichcote, of Coningsby, a member of an old county family, still occupying a good position. [207a]