WILKSBY.
Wilksby lies about halfway between the parishes of Wood Enderby and Moorby, at a distance of about five miles from Horncastle, in a south-easterly direction. Letters from Boston via Revesby, arrive about 10.30 a.m.
The ancient history of this parish is much the same as that of the adjoining parish of Moorby on the east, and Wood Enderby on the west. It is called in Domesday Book Wilchesbi, and Wilgesbi. At the date of that survey (1086) there were four soc-men and five bordars, who had one carucate (or 120 acres) of land, and 20 acres of woodland; while the lord of the manor had one carucate in demesne, and five villeins, with two oxen in another carucate; with 20 acres of meadow and 40 acres of underwood; so that, like the neighbouring Moor-by and Wood Ender-by, this parish also was largely of a forest character.
In this parish there was also “a Berewick of 1½ carucates” (or 180 acres); a Berewick meaning an outlying farm (from “bere” barley, and “wick” a village) belonging to another manor.
The parish was one of the estates taken by the Conqueror for himself, probably then forming part of the great Tumby Chase. He afterwards granted the manor to his steward, Robert Despenser, a powerful Norman noble, the ancestor of the Earls of Gloucester, brother of the Earl Montgomery, and of Urso de Abetot, hereditary sheriff of Worcestershire. He held 15 manors in Lincolnshire, and 17 in Leicestershire, beside others elsewhere.
Being in the Soke of Horncastle, it would be connected with that manor, as were so many other neighbouring parishes; and doubtless by a similar process, to the cases of Moorby and Wood Enderby, it belonged successively to the Brandons, Dukes of Suffolk; the Cecils, Earls of Exeter; the Howards, Earls of Berkshire; and finally, by purchase, passed to the Banks family, and through them to the Stanhopes.
Among the Assize Rolls (No. 319, m. 9 d) is a plea, made at Hertford, 10th May, 1247, in which “Joan de Leweline (with another) offered herself against Silvester, Bishop of Karlisle,” in a suit concerning “£20 of rent in Enderby, Moreby, Wilkesby and Cuningby, and the advowson of the church Moreby,” in which the bishop failed to appear. But in a Feet of Fines, Lincoln, 32 Henry III., No. 131, an agreement was made (21st July, A.D. 1248) by which the said Joan de Lewelyn (and others) did homage to the bishop, for these lands in Enderby, “Welkeby,” &c., and the advowson of “Moresby,” the bishop in turn granting to them “the homage and whole service of Ivo, son of Odo de Tymelby”; and they holding the land, &c., “in chief of the aforesaid bishop; and doing therefor the fourth part of the service of one knight.” [207b]
In another document, a Final Concord, dated 27th May, 1240, between Alan de Dauderby and Alice de Lysurs, it was agreed that Alice should
“acquit him of the service which Robert de Theleby exacts . . . of half a knight’s fee, for which she is mesne.” She further agrees that Alan and his heirs shall hold certain tenements of Alice and her heirs; to wit, 12 oxgangs and 80 acres of land, two messuages, with a rent of 12s. 8d., and two parts of a mill in Theleby, Wilkeby, Burton; and a meadow called Utemyng, for the service a fourth part of a knight’s fee; and for this Alan gave her 10 marks.
The former of these records shews that, like the other parishes connected with the Manor of Horncastle, the Bishops of Carlisle were at one period patrons of the benefice (and probably owners of the manor) of Wilkesby; but, while in the case of several other parishes, this patronage continues (only transferred to the Bishops of Manchester) to the present day, the patronage of Wilksby passed to others. According to Liber Regis in 1711 and 1720 Lewis Dymoke presented to the benefice. In 1764, by some arrangement, George Willows, Gent., presented; but again, in 1833, it was in the patronage of the Hon. the Champion, H. Dymoke, who appointed to the rectory a relative, the Rev. J. Bradshaw Tyrwhitt, one of a very old, knightly, Lincolnshire family, the Tyrwhitts of Stainfield, Kettleby, &c. A tablet to his memory is erected in the church at Scrivelsby. [208a] The patronage was subsequently acquired by J. Banks Stanhope, Esq., and is annexed to the chaplaincy of Revesby, which has no permanent endowment.
Among the List of Gentry of Lincolnshire, made at the Herald’s Visitation in 1634, and preserved at the Heralds’ College, along with the Dymocks of Scrivelsby, Haltham, Kyme and Lincoln, is Paganell Hartgrave of Wilksby. [208b]
The church, dedicated to All Saints, is a mean structure, erected in the 18th century, of brick and Spilsby sandstone, standing on the site of an earlier church, of which nothing seems to remain except the font. It consists of nave and chancel, both on a very small scale, and a wooden bell-turret, with one small bell. The north and west walls are of sandstone, the former covered with a thick coating of tar to keep out the moisture; the east wall has alternate layers of brick and sandstone. Some improvements have been made in recent years, much needed to make it even a decent place of worship. The two two-light trefoiled windows in the south wall of the nave have been framed in stone instead of wood, and filled with green glass. The east window of the chancel has wooden mullions interlaced, and it has been adorned with paper representations of, in the centre the Ascension, to the left the Saviour holding an infant in his arms, to the right the child Jesus sitting among the doctors in the temple.
The roof of the chancel is apsidal, externally, as well as the nave, covered with modern house tiles. Internally the nave has a flat ceiling of deal boards. The pulpit and seats are painted wainscot; there is a small modern oak reading desk, and a lectern to match it. The chancel arch is a plain semicircle, but on its eastern side has a pointed Early English arch. The chancel rails are of modern oak, slightly carved; and there is a deal credence table. The 14th century font has a massive octagonal bowl, with large trefoils in each face, and grotesquely carved heads at the angles; the shaft being plain octagonal. The improvements were made in 1896, at the cost of the late Mrs. Stanhope.
The register dates from 1562. In recent years the incumbency of Claxby Pluckacre, where the church had gone to ruins, has been annexed to the rectory of Wilksby, the joint value of the two being about £300 a year. They are held by the Rev. P. O. Ashby, Chaplain of Revesby.
LANGRIVILLE & THORNTON-LE-FEN.
These are modern accretions to the Soke of Horncastle, made in the early years of the 19th century. They are distant southward from Horncastle about 13 miles; situated in a tract of land called Wildmore Fen, lying about midway between Coningsby to the north, and Boston to the south. At various periods inundated by the sea, this continued, to the end of the 18th century, more or less a region of morass; available in the summer for grazing, but generally during the winter under water; when all cattle had to be removed for safety to the lands under cultivation at the homesteads of the farmers; and if by chance the farmer was behindhand in removing them, and the floods became frozen, it was a common thing for his cattle, while slipping about on the ice, to be split up, or, as it was locally termed, “screeved,” and so become helpless, and fit only for slaughter. [209]
An Act of Parliament was passed in 1787 or 1788, and commissioners were appointed, for the drainage of this and adjoining similar tracts; but little was done until 1800, when the able engineer, Mr. John Rennie, submitted his plans for the drainage to the commissioners. His first report, dated April 7th, 1800, estimated the cost of draining Wildmore Fen alone at £29,702; the total outlay, for that and adjoining fens, being put at nearly £215,000. By 1812 these operations were completed; and in that year an Act was passed making these lands parochial, and assigning the two portions above named to the Soke of Horncastle.