“H. S. E.
“JOSEPHUS BANKS Armiger ex antiqua familia apud Bank-Newton, in agro Eborac. Oriundus. Juris prudentiæ studio operam dedit illamq. feliciter exercuit.
“In honorem Dei Ecclesiam hanc vetustate collabentem, a solo restituit Vicinium Ptochotrophium in X Senum aut Mancorum subsidium a fundamentis extruxit.
“Bis ad suprema Regni Comitia Senator Grimsbeiæ in Lincolnia, et Totenesiæ in Devonia. Electus, Regi suo et Patriæ utriamque vicem fideliter inservivit.
“Maritus et Pater benignus Amicus sine fuco Pacti et Promissi sui observantissimus Annos LXII. vixit XXVII. Septemb. A.D. MDCCXXVII. obiit.
“Liberos vidit adultos Josephum et Mariam Quorum hanc Dno. Francisco Whichcote Barnto. nuptam, Patre superstite præpropera mors abripuit; Optimo Parenti superstes Ille.
“M. H. P. C.”
Near to the church are ten alms-houses, on the centre of the front of which is the following inscription:
“Joseph Banks Esq. Lord of Revesby by his Will Directed the Building of these Almshouses for Ten poor People & Endowed the Same with Fifty pounds a year. He Departed this Life the 27th of Sept. 1727 Leaving Joseph Banks Esq. his only Son Heir who in Pursuance of his Father’s Will erected this Anno 1728.”
In this parish are two tumuli, each about one hundred feet diameter, and about one hundred feet apart, which have been formerly surrounded by a fosse. Dr. Stukeley supposes them to have been either the places of sepulture of two British Kings, or places of religious worship. [79]
A fair is held at Revesby on the second Monday after old Michaelmas day annually.
In 1811, the parish contained 99 houses, and 498 inhabitants.
KIRKSTEAD.
Kirkstead, anciently called Cristed, is situated on the east bank of the Witham, in the hundred of Gartree, and is about three miles distant from Tattershall, and eight from Horncastle. Formerly it was a hamlet of Kirkby super Bane, but for many years it has been considered as a separate parish.
The manor, with that of Tattershall, was among the several estates given by the conqueror to Eudo, one of his Norman followers. His son Hugh fitz Eudo, called the Breton, founded a Cistertian Abbey here in 1139, and endowed it with his possessions in this place. Afterwards the monks, considering the situation unhealthy, petitioned Robert, the son of the founder, to allow them to remove the abbey to some other place; but though they obtained permission, yet it does not appear that the affair was proceeded in any further. The abbey had subsequently many benefactors, and acquired very extensive possessions.