Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire

by W. F. Rawnsley

Scrivelsby.

The manor which carried with it the title for its possessor of “Hereditary Grand Champion of England,” was a very interesting old house till the year of the Coronation of George III., when it was destroyed by fire. An arched gateway remains near the house, where once a moat, drawbridge, and portcullis protected the courtyard. The picturesque Lion Gateway at the entrance to the park from the Horncastle road, opposite to which under some trees are seen the village stocks, was set up by Robert Dimoke about 1530. It is built of rough stones but has a fine stone lion, passant and crowned, above it, and a rebus of an oak tree (Dim oak) carved at the side of the archway. The manor with this peculiar privilege attached was given by the Conqueror to his steward “Robert the Dispenser,” Lord of Fontenaye and ancestor of the De Spencers and the Marmions.

Sir Walter Scott speaks of the Marmion of his poem, though he was an imaginary character and of much later date, as—

“Lord of Fontenaye

Of Lutterward and Scrivelbaye

Of Tamworth tower and town.”

MARMIONS OF SCRIVELSBY

DYMOKES OF SCRIVELSBY

In the Scrivelsby parish church of St. Benedict is a mutilated recumbent stone figure clad in chain-mail with sword and shield, and by his side a lady in the severe costume of the time, with muffled chin and plain head-dress. The warrior is Philip Marmion, the last of the Marmions of Scrivelsby, who died 1292, the family having acted as champions from the time of William the Conqueror to Henry III. Together with the championship, Philip Marmion had the right of free-warren and gallows at his manor at Scrivelsby.

The Lion Gate at Scrivelsby.

Philip having no son, his estates were divided among his four daughters. His second daughter, Mazera, married a Ralph Cromwell, ancestor of the Lord Cromwell who built Tattershall Castle, and the Scrivelsby estate fell to Joan, the youngest, who married Sir Thomas Ludlow. His son, Thomas, left one daughter, Margaret, who married Sir John Dymoke and brought the Championship in 1350 into the family, which has held it now for upwards of 560 years. It was probably their son John who married the daughter of Sir Thomas Friskney, whence descended the Dymokes of Friskney and Fulletby.

At the coronation of Edward II., 1307, and Edward III., 1327, the Championship appears to have been in commission, but at that of Richard II., 1377, Sir John Dymoke claimed it in right of his wife. Baldwin Freville counter-claimed as Lord of Tamworth, but the office was awarded to Sir John.

There are many Dymokes buried both in the church and churchyard, the most notable monument being an altar tomb in the chancel with a brass on it of Sir Robert Demoke. Edward IV. had beheaded his father along with Lord Welles after he had taken them under pledge of safety out of sanctuary at Westminster, and he tried to make amends by heaping favours on the son, who lived in five reigns—Edward IV., Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., and Henry VIII.; and acted as Champion at the coronation of the last three, in 1483, 1485, and 1509. The brass presents him in armour and spurred, but bareheaded and with short neck, long flowing hair, and a huge beard; he stands on a lion, and the inscription runs thus:—

“Here liethe the body of Sir Robert Demoke of Scrivelsby Knight and Baronet who departed out of this present lyfe the XV day of April in ye yere of our Lord God MDXLV upon whose sowle almighte god have m’ci Amen.”

The words “Knight and Baronet” have puzzled many, but in spite of the fact that Sir Brien Stapilton at Burton Joice, Notts., and Sir Thomas Vyner at Gautby, Lincolnshire, 1672, are described as Knight and Baronet, and though they may have been first Knights and then Baronets, in this case of Sir Robert Dymoke, of 1545, it can hardly have been so, for the title baronet was not in use until after 1603, and we must suppose that the words were originally “Knight Banneret,” a distinction which was conferred on Sir Robert by Henry VIII., and that the present wording was probably a correction by an ignorant restorer in the seventeenth century, after damage done in the civil wars. The eldest son of the Champion who had been so unjustifiably put to death by Edward IV., was Lionel, who died before his father, and whose brass in Horncastle church represents him kneeling on a cushion in full armour, holding a scroll in his hand, date 1519. The figure is kneeling in a stiff attitude, armed and spurred, and bareheaded, a scroll from his mouth says:—

“S’cta Trinitas Unus Deus Miserere nob:”

The inscription on the brass is:—

“In honore S’cte et individue Trinita̅s orate p’ ’aia Leonis Dymoke milit’ q’ obijit xvij die Me’se Augusti ao D’ni M’cccccxlx: cui ai’e p’ piciet’ DE’ Amen.”

Below on either side were figures of two sons and three daughters. The sons are now missing.

THE CHAMPION

Lionel’s brother Robert was only ten when he obtained the title. He was succeeded by his son Edward, who performed the office of Champion for the three children of Henry VIII. His son Robert, though never acting at any coronation, deserves mention as a martyr, in Elizabeth’s reign, to his religious convictions. This queen, always dreading a Romish reaction in favour of her rival, Mary Queen of Scots, allowed a Puritanical bishop to persecute any Catholic in his diocese, and Robert, though in feeble health, was stout of heart and kept firm to his faith and died a prisoner at Lincoln, 1580.

The mother of Edward Dymoke who was Champion to Charles II. was buried at Leverton in 1640. Sir Edward was summoned in 1660 before the Parliamentarians at Westminster and accused of “delinquency” because he bore the Royalist title of King’s Champion. He was fined £7,000, an enormous sum for the time, and he had to pay between four and five thousand. Hence the impoverishment of the Dymoke family. He lived to see the Restoration, and officiated for Charles II. in 1660, dying in 1663. He was knighted in 1661 “for his loyalty and great sufferings both in person and estate.”

A brass plate commemorates his son, Sir Charles Dymoke, who died in 1686. He officiated at the coronation of James II. in 1685, and getting off his horse in order to walk up to kiss the king’s hand he fell full length. Whereupon the queen said, “See, love, what a weak Champion you have!” He was buried at Scrivelsby, November, 1686.

WESTMINSTER HALL

Of other memorials there is a marble bust to Lewis, the Champion to George I. and II., in 1714 and 1727, who died in 1760, Ætat. 90. His widow Jane endowed a school at Hemingby “to teach the children of the poor of the parish to read, write, spin and card wool.” Finally, there is a memorial to John, Champion in 1761 to George III. Henry Dymoke who acted for his father, a clergyman, on the accession of George IV., 1821, was the last who rode into Westminster Hall in bright armour and flung down his glove and dared to mortal combat any who disputed the right and title of the king. Then, having backed a little, he turned his horse and rode out, holding in his hand the gold cup in which the king had pledged him and he had in turn drunk to the health of his majesty. Since then the quaint historic ceremony has fallen into abeyance, but the title of “the Hon. the King’s Champion” remains, and at the coronation of Edward VII. he was appointed to carry the royal banners. Sic transit gloria mundi.

THE CEREMONY

The following is a description of the championship ceremony at the banquet in Westminster Hall written at the time of the coronation of George IV., 1821, and taken from Allen’s History of the County:—

“Before the second course was brought in the deputy appointed to officiate as King’s Champion (this was the son of the champion, who was himself disqualified, being a clerk in holy orders), in his full suit of bright armour, mounted on a horse richly caparisoned, appeared under the porch of the triumphal arch, at the bottom of Westminster Hall. Everything being in readiness, the procession moved in the following order:—

“Two trumpeters with the Champion’s arms on their banners,

“The Sergeant Trumpeter with his mace on his shoulder,

“Two Sergeants-at-Arms with their maces on their shoulders,

“The Champion’s two Esquires, in half armour, one on the right hand bearing the Champion’s lance, the other on the left hand with the Champion’s target and the arms of Dymoke depicted thereon.

“A Herald, with a paper in his hand, containing the Challenge.

“The Deputy Earl Marshall (Lord Howard of Effingham) on horseback, in his Robes and Coronet, with the Earl Marshall’s staff in his hand, attended by a page.

“The Champion (Henry Dymoke, Esq.) on Horseback, in a complete suit of Bright Armour, with a Gauntlet in his hand, his Helmet on his head, adorned with a plume of feathers.

“The Lord High Constable (The Duke of Wellington), in his Robes and Coronet and Collar of his Order, on Horseback, with the Constable’s Staff, attended by two pages.

“Four Pages richly apparelled, attendants on the Champion. At the entrance into the Hall, the Trumpets sounded thrice, and the passage to the King’s table being cleared by the Knight Marshall, the Herald, with a loud voice proclaimed the Champion’s Challenge, in the words following:—

“‘If any person of what degree soever, high or low, shall deny or gainsay our sovereign Lord King George the fourth, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, son and next heir to our Sovereign Lord King George the third, the last King, deceased, to be the right heir to the Imperial Crown of this United Kingdom, or that he ought not to enjoy the same, here is his Champion, who saith that he lieth, and is a false traitor, being ready in person to combat with him, and in the quarrel will adventure his life against him on what day soever he shall be appointed.’

“Whereupon the Champion threw down his gauntlet: which having lain a short time upon the ground, the Herald took it up, and delivered it again to the Champion. They then advanced to the middle of the Hall, where the ceremony was again performed in the same manner.

“Lastly they advanced to the steps of the throne, where the Herald with those who preceded him ascended to the middle of the steps, and proclaimed the challenge in the like manner; when the Champion having thrown down his gauntlet and received it again from the Herald, made a low obeisance to the King: Whereupon the Cupbearer, having received from the officer of the Jewel-house a Gold Cup and Cover filled with Wine, presented the same to the King, and his Majesty drank to the Champion, and sent to him by the Cupbearer the said Cup, which the Champion (having put on his gauntlet) received, and having made a low obeisance to the King drank the Wine; after which, making another low obeisance to his Majesty and being accompanied as before, he departed out of the Hall, taking with him the said Cup and Cover as his fee.”