Greetham.
Greetham is distant about 3½ miles from Horncastle, in an easterly direction, lying just beyond the parish of High Toynton, south of Fulletby, west of Ashby Puerorum and north of Winceby. The village is chiefly situated on a cross-road running north and south (and probably Roman) which unites the road from Horncastle to Tetford with that from Horncastle to Hagworthingham and Spilsby. The nearest money order and telegraph office is at Horncastle, whence the letters arrive at 9.20. a.m. The population of this village is now just over 130; but, as Isaac Taylor says (“Words and Places,” p. 1), “local names are records of the past,” and Greetham, as its name implies, was at one time a place of considerably more importance than at present. The Saxons named it Greetham, or the great village; which, as Mr. Streatfeild suggests (“Lincolnshire and the Danes,” p. 18), the Normans translated into “Grandham,” or “Granham,” as we find it in the Conqueror’s survey in Domesday Book; and which was sometimes further curtailed into “Graham,” as we find a field in High Toynton described as the “24 acres towards Graham.” (Feet of Fines, Lincoln, 9, Henry III., No. 52, A.D. 1224–25, quoted “Linc. N. & Q,” vol. iii., pp. 245–6). And not only was Greetham (or Grandham) held in demesne, i.e., as a manor, but, like the neighbouring Bolingbroke, being connected with Royalty, it became also designated an “Honour.”
In a Chancery Inquisition post mortem (21 Henry VII., No. 122) taken after the death of Henry Dawson, it is stated that “4 messuages, &c., in Tetney are held of the Lord the King, as of his Honour of Bullingbroke”; and in almost similar terms, in a Chancery Inquisition post mortem, of the same King, No. 124, taken after the death of William Quadring, Esq., it is stated that he “held a messuage in Irby, of the Lord the King, as of his Manor of Greetham, parcel of his Duchy of Lancaster.” In Domesday Book it is stated that certain lands in the Manor of Bilsby, near Alford, are “held of the Manor of Grandham”; Greetham apparently not in either of these cases being regarded as an Honour. But in an Inquisition post mortem, of John Asfordby, A.D. 1499, it is stated that the manor of this same Bilsby, with Westhalgarth, is “held of the Lord the King, as of the Honour of Greetham.” But, even as early as Domesday (1080), lands are enumerated as belonging to “Grandham,” lying in Langtune (by Spilsby), Hacberdineham (Hagworthingham), Salmundby, Tedforde, Brinkhill, Wingsby, and Clachesby Pluckacre, in all amounting to 33 carucates, or close upon 4,000 acres (3960). And, to shew the wealth of the manor at that date, compared with some others in the neighbourhood, while Scrivelsby is given in Domesday as of the value of £14, and Horncastle at £44, Bolingbroke is put at £40, but Greetham at £60, and it is further tallaged, i.e., taxed at £70. It was the “caput Honoris,” or head, of the Lincolnshire Barony of Hugh de Abrincis, or Avranches, the Conqueror’s nephew, surnamed Lupus, or The Wolf, from his many deeds of violence. He was Earl of Chester, having the whole of Cheshire assigned to him, except a small portion belonging to the Bishop; and his royal uncle further granted to him, nine manors in Berkshire, seven in Yorkshire, ten in Dorset, thirty-two in Suffolk, and twelve in Norfolk, twenty-two in Leicester, and about a score in Lincolnshire, besides smaller numbers in other counties, and sokes and berewicks beyond counting. Earl Lupus in his later years, attempted to atone for the irregularities of his early life, by becoming monk in his own Abbey of St. Werburg, at Chester. Later, the estates which he held, reverted to the crown, and were, in part, granted to the Earl of Lincoln, who was created Duke of Lancaster. His daughter and heiress, married the 4th son of King Edwd. III., who also, through his wife, became Duke of Lancaster, and was father of Henry of Bolinbroke, afterwards Henry IV. After various vicissitudes, the Honour and much of the very extensive soke of Bolingbroke, became merged in the Crown; and, in part, still remains the property of the Sovereign, the King having among his titles still the Palatine Dukedom of Lancaster. The fortunes of Greetham were more varied. It is impossible, from the sources of information available for these notes to give all the successive steps in the tenure of this manor, and of its numerous and valuable appurtenances; or to give the connection, if any, between successive owners. Fixity of tenure was by no means a feature of those times, the power of the Sovereign was almost absolute, and demesnes were seized by him, forfeited, retained, granted anew, or disposed of for money, according to the royal caprice, or the exigencies of his purse, in a most arbitrary fashion. To show the precarious nature of tenures held “in capite,” or “in chief” from the Sovereign, we will mention one or two cases, taken haphazard:—Edmund of Woodstock, 2nd son of Edwd. I., was beheaded by Edward III., in the 4th year of his reign. He had been granted the manor of Greetham only 3 years before (Dugdale’s “Baronage,” vol. ii., p. 93). At a previous period, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, died seised of the manor of Greetham. In the ordinary course of events, the manor would have remained a possession of his daughter, Alice, countess of Lincoln. Yet a Lancaster Record (class xxv. R. 8), shows that Alice granted the manor to Hugh Dispenser, 16 Ed. II., and, he being a favourite of that King, we can hardly doubt that the grant was a forced one. The historian Speed informs us that, the Earl of Lancaster being attainted, the elder Dispenser obtained a grant of some of the Lancaster property in Lincolnshire. But in 1327, the younger Dispenser, the Hugh above-named, the favourite of the King (Edward II.), fell into disfavour, and a commission was appointed to enquire what goods and chattels he possessed at the time of his banishment, in his manors of Greetham, Thorley, Wainfleet and Brattleby. He also held at that time, as shown by other records, lands in Thornton, Roughton, Wilksby, Wood Enderby, Partney, Mareham-le-Fen, &c., and a manor in Scrivelsby. But he, in his turn being banished, the attainder of the Earl of Lancaster was revoked, and the property once more reverted to the Lancaster family, in the person of his brother and successor, Henry of Lancaster.
Truly the history of many a noble family of those times was a moving and vivid commentary on the words of Holy Writ, “Put not your confidence in Princes!”
In a list of military tenures (temp. Henry II.), while Norman d’Arcy, the Earl of Britanny, Alan de Percy, Stephen of Albemarle, and several others, are named as holding various of the manors in the neighbourhood, the Duke of Lancaster is given as “Lord” of Greetham, Winceby and Hameringham (“Old Lincolnshire,” by G. H. Burton, 1885, vol. i. pp. 214–215). These, as we have seen, had been very extensively added to, and further additions are named in various records, some of which we will here give, as they show the importance of Greetham. We should, however, observe that because a great Baron held the manor of a demesne, it did not at all follow that he owned the whole parish. This applies to Greetham, as follows:—In an Assize Roll, at Lincoln, of 9 Edward I. (A.D. 1280), a certain Robert de Kyrketon, and his wife Beatrix, demand (and their claim is admitted), certain rents of lands in “Askeby next Gretham (i.e., Ashby Puerorum), Stavenesby (i.e., Stainsby), Bag-endreby and Little Gretham,” at a time when the Earl of Lancaster was lord of the manor. An Inquisition of the Earls of Kent (2nd son of Edwd. I., beheaded. 4 Edward III. and at that time, as we have already stated, holding the manor of Greetham), shows that lands in Huttoft, Theddlethorpe, Wainfleet and Thoresby, as well as in Bratoft and Mablethorpe (the two latter also given in Domesday), were held under the manor of Greetham in addition to those already named in the more immediate neighbourhood, of Bratoft and Mablethorpe, appurtenances of Greetham at the time of Domesday (1080) and continued to be so as late as 1552 (“Linc. N. & Q.” vol. iv. p. 122).
We will now look at the evidence of Greetham being an “Honour” as well as a manor. The two properties of Bolingbroke and Greetham, eventually, after various changes, passed under the same ownership; both forming parts of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Honour of Bolingbroke, was also called the Honour of Richmond, from the Earl and Countess of that name, the parents of the future Henry IV. of England, the only Sovereign of England born in Lincolnshire. The manor of Greetham is sometimes called the “Honour of Lancaster,” par excellence, but it is quite clear that Greetham is then intended, and though united, even under one common management, they were legally regarded and treated as distinct “Honours.” In a bailiff’s account of Rents of Assize, and of Court Perquisites (now in the possession of John Sykes, Esq., F.S.A., of Doncaster, quoted “Linc. N. & Q.” iii. p. 82), it is specified, that beside the Bolingbroke Rents, there “is nothing, because the others are given in the accounts of the Honour of Lancaster,” i.e. of Greetham; and the same distinction is observed in the “Perquisites of Courts,” where we find, “13s. 6d. from two views and Courts of the Honour of Bolingbroke, and one view and Court of Honour of Lancaster” (Greetham). Although the two accounts were thus kept distinct, the Court Rolls of the year (10 Richard II), show that the Court of both Honours were at that time “holden together by order of Thomas Hungerforde, Knight, Chief Steward.” In the earlier of these Records, Greetham was necessarily described merely as a manor, because it was not yet connected with royalty, and therefore was not then an Honour. But in later documents it is frequently referred to as such; for instance, in a Chancery Inquisition post mortem taken at Alford, 22 July A.D. 1506 (21 Henry VII. No. 121), we find it stated that “Thomas Rygge Gentylman, held certain lands, with their appurtenances, in Westyrkele and Langton, of the lord the King, of his Honour of Greteham” (“Journal of Architect. Society,” 1895, pp. 42–3). It is further stated that “John Afforby held the manor of Bilsby, of the Lord the King, as of the Honor of Gretham, of his Duchy of Lancaster” (quoted “Lincs. N. & Q.” iv. p. 108).
Besides the places already named as belonging to the demesne, or soke, of Greetham, I find “Lecheburne” (i.e. Legbourne), Swaby, Elgelo (i.e., Belleau), Claythorpe, Totele (i.e., Tothill), Withern, Haugh, Calceby, Dalby, Dexthorpe, and many more.
Enough has, however, been said to shew the extent of the soke, or jurisdiction, of the lords of Greetham, and its rank as an “Honour” connected at different periods with royalty.
Its subsequent history, down to the present century, is almost a blank. The Manor, although still, in our Directories (see Weir, Kelly, etc.), styled “a parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster,” has dwindled much in importance; and the inhabitants are apparently becoming fewer. In 1821 they numbered 148, in 1843 they were 152, in 1883 they were 147, in 1891 they had dropped to 131. The total acreage is 1250. A few stray notices, connected with by-gone Greetham, are the following:—In Gibbon’s “Early Lincoln Wills” (p. 67), Richard de Ravenser, Archdeacon of Lincoln, by Will, dated “15 May, 1385,” bequeaths a legacy to Walter de Gretham. Who the latter was, we have no means of learning. The Ravensers were of a good family. In Maddison’s “Wills of Lincolnshire” (1500–1600), p. 26, No. 68, we find that Richard Newcomen, of Nether Toynton, by will, dated “3 Sep., 1540, left xx pence to the poor of Greetham.” The Newcomens were among our oldest families, originally seated at Saltfleetby, where their names appear in the registers, for many generations. One of them, John Newcomen, “of Sallaby,” was involved in the Lincolnshire Rebellion of 1536, along with Monsons, Massingberds, Heneages, Maddisons, and many other members of leading families. This Richard, above-named, settled at Low Toynton early in the 16th century, and his grandson Samuel, “of Nether Toynton,” married Frances, daughter of Thomas Massingberd, of Bratoft Hall, Esq., M.P. Several of them are mentioned in the Herald’s “Lists of Gentry” in 1634 and 1666, as residing at Hagnaby, Withern, Bag Enderby, &c. They have now disappeared from Saltfleetby and “their place knoweth them no more.” Their pedigree is given in the “Architectural Society’s Journal” for 1897. Another old record (from the same source) is “John Dighton of Minting, by Will dated 17 December, 1606, leaves to Thomas Page of Greetham vj £.” Who Thomas Page was is unknown; but the Dightons were a well known family, of mercantile origin at Lincoln; the founder having served as Mayor and Sheriff; one of them, Thomas resided at Waddingworth, another at Minting; the chief member, Robert, owned and occupied the Hall at Stourton Magna, of which traces still remain in mounds and moats. He also was involved in the Lincolnshire rebellion. A daughter of Dighton of Stourton married Edward Clinton, Esq., of Baumber, who afterwards became Earl of Lincoln, and his descendants Dukes of Newcastle, whose burial place, for some generations, was at Baumber. “The fashion of the world changeth” the Dightons are gone, the Clintons, renovated in blood, remain.
A tradition remains to this day, that Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Stratford, in the reign of Charles I., and one of his Sovereign’s most faithful adherents, owned the manor of Greetham. I cannot find any positive proof of this; but it seems not at all unlikely, since a lease dated 14 Nov., 1685, was granted to Sir William Wentworth, Knight, of Ashby Puerorum, who was a son of Sir William Wentworth, who fell at Marston Moor, fighting for Charles I; and from him descended the first Earl of Stafford, of the second creation. [69] It is proved by the award that Thomas, Earl of Stafford was Lord of the Manor in 1785.
We pass on to the present century. About the year 1830, John Fardell, Esq., of Lincoln (who represented that City in Parliament for a brief period, being unseated on petition) became owner, by purchase, of the Manor of Greetham, the rest of the parish, except the Rectory farm of 48 acres, being purchased by the late Mr. Robert Dennis, who built in 1830, a commodious residence, Greetham House, where his two daughters now reside. The manor, and about half the parish, was sold by the Fardell Trustees to F. Wormall, Esq., whose present representative is his grand-daughter, Lady Garden of Templemore Abbey, co. Tipperary; whose father was Colonel Valentine Baker, one of a family distinguished as sportsmen, travellers, and soldiers. We have said that the road, or street, on which the village houses cluster, was probably originally Roman; and some years ago, the neck of a Roman urn was found near it. Along this road, to the North is a quarry in which many ammonites and other fossils are found, in the gravel lying above the white clay. The age of “Praise God Barebones” and his Puritanical allies, has long since passed away; but something of the Puritan Spirit seems to survive in the names of the villagers, given in the registers, which date from 1653. My informant had herself known, within recent years, the names Mordecai, Naomi, Keziah, Solomon, and Bridget shortened into Briggy. There are also some curious field names. A boggy field is called the “Waddles”; a similar field in the almost adjoining parish of Salmonby is called “Wallows,” both probably referring to a slough of mire, and the awkward ducklike gait involved in traversing it. A grass field is named “Thunker,” as locally pronounced, which may embody the Norse Thing-garth, or Council enclosure of the great hamlet. Another meadow is named “Kirtle,” probably the Kirk-dale; while two fields, one ploughed and the other meadow, are called “the Gousles,” which Mr. Streatfeild (“Lincolnshire and the Danes,” p. 174.) considers to mean the first slopes of the Wolds. “Gaut,” or “gout” (go-out) means an outlet from a drain; and throughout the whole range of the Wolds, there are numerous springs, issuing from their base, not uncommonly possessing medicinal properties. Greetham is situated on the first spur or projection, of the Wolds in this locality, and these gousles may have been the goutsleys, or meadows, in which were the sources of local springs.
N.B.—In East Kirkby, at the foot of the Wolds, is a field named Goutscroft.
There is also a field, named “Cross Close,” from which the poor receive a yearly dole of 10s., bequeathed by Elizabeth Somersby, in 1733. Here is a name which would seem to embody ancient history. We can picture to ourselves, the Saxon “rude forefathers of the (great) hamlet,” gathered round that sacred symbol, the village cross, before a church existed, to listen to the itinerant man of God, awakening in their hearts a simple faith in a welcome Saviour. These fields all, or most, of them lie in the western part of the parish, the property of the Misses Dennis.
Of the Church, dedicated to All Saints, little can be said. It is a poor fabric, of Spilsby sandstone, with square wood-framed windows, one in each side and end. A “three-decker” pulpit, reading desk, and clerk’s seat, square pews, a west singing gallery, a very meagre rood screen of apparently modern poor carving, all painted wainscot colour. The roof a flat, white-washed ceiling inside, is covered externally over the nave with lead, which, from the decay of the supporting timbers is now almost flat, and probably not in a very safe condition. The chancel roof is slated and pointed. The font is plain octagonal, with octagonal shaft, and square basin, within the bowl being a pewter christening basin, with date “1821.” The single bell hangs in a shabby bell turret, surmounted by a cross. A slab records the death of a former Rector, the Rev. Thomas Jesset, in 1837. The inscriptions on the grave-stones in the churchyard would imply that the inhabitants are long-lived, and the place healthy, as it should be, from its elevated and well-drained position. The Rector has a good residence, built in 1852.
Addendum.—The above remarks on the Church were written in the year 1900. We have much pleasure in adding, in the year 1903, that the present Rector, the Rev. T. Hoole, has succeeded in effecting a thorough restoration of the old fabric, at a cost of about £1,650, towards which sum, the Misses Dennis, of Greetham House, contributed £500 each. The Architect was Mr. Hodgson Fowler, of Durham; the contractors for the work were Messrs. Bowman & Co., of Stamford. The only features of interest in the former mean structure were a 13th century cross, and doorway, and the south respond of the chancel arch. The restored fabric has been constructed in harmony with this respond. It is throughout of a simple, but effective, late 15th century design. The chancel, vestry, bell-turret, and porch are new, and the screen has been restored; the nave has new windows, a well-repaired roof, and new flooring, all the internal fittings being of oak.
In the course of the work, other features of interest were discovered, namely, the responds of a south aisle, a north door, and a Norman entrance into a former tower. All these were effectively utilised by the architect, with his accustomed skill, and now the Church, though small, is large enough for the parish, and a worthy edifice for divine worship, a result which must be gratifying to all concerned.