“Sacred to the Memory of LEWIS JONES, Esquire, of Great Hale in this County, who departed this Life May 1st 1786. Aged 71 Years.”
The rectory, united in 1741 to that of the adjoining village of Dalderby, is in the presentation of the lord of the manor.
On the inclosure of Wildmore Fen, pursuant to an act of parliament obtained for that purpose in 1801, a portion thereof was allotted to this parish, in lieu of right of common.
By the returns of 1811, this parish at that period contained 22 houses, and 126 inhabitants.
BOLINGBROKE.
SITUATION, &c.
Bolingbroke, a decayed market town, is distant about eight miles south east from Horncastle, and gives name to the soke wherein it is situated. The town is seated on a clear, rapid brook, from which the name is derived, and which runs along a peculiar deep recess of rugged sand-stone hills, which suddenly terminate at the northern border of the adjacent fen district. Embayed amid these deep declivities, and having but one narrow outlet into the level land, it is a matter of no surprize that its importance as a place of security was not overlooked in the feodal times, when it became further strengthened by a castle.
THE MANOR.
The manor appears to have been, from an early period, connected with the dignity of the Earldom of Lincoln. Ranulph, an illustrious nobleman, marrying Lucia, widow of Roger de Romara, sister, and heiress of Morcar, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland and Lincoln, delivered the estates, amongst which was this lordship, to Henry the first, for the dignity of the Earldom of Chester. Against this, William de Romara, son of Lucia by her former husband, appealed to the king, but in vain. William however strengthening by his interest the rebellion in Normandy which had been raised by Robert, the eldest son of the conqueror, and brother of the king, Henry, to appease his wrath, and obtain his favor, was in the twenty-second year of his reign, induced to restore to him the estates of his mother Lucia, and invest him with the Earldom of Lincoln. About the same time asserting the rights of the Empress Maud, in her contentions with Stephen for the throne, he greatly contributed to her early successes, particularly at the seige of Lincoln. After this, exchanging certain lands in Normandy with Robert de Tillol for the lordships of Hareby, Enderby, and Hundleby, parts of this soke, William was invited by the security of the situation, to erect his castle at Bolingbroke.