At the period of Richard the second, Roger le Scrop and Margaret his wife, with Robert Tibetot and Eve his wife, heirs and descendants of Gerbald le Escald, appear to have advanced a claim to this manor, and to have succeeded in obtaining letters patent, confirming to them homage and service from the ecclesiastical possessor. [8b] At that time also when the border contests had laid waste the see of Carlisle, and divested the bishops of their seat of Rose Castle in Cumberland, they were necessitated to take up their residence at Horncastle, which continued for some time to be their principal place of abode.
In the twenty-fifth year of Henry the sixth, that monarch confirmed the several charters granted to the bishops as lords of this manor, by Henry the third, and also conferred on them numerous other privileges. [8c]
The manor continued in the possession of the Bishops of Carlisle, until the reign of Edward the sixth, when under the authority of a licence from the crown, it was sold by Bishop Aldrich to Edward Lord Clinton, who, during the time he held it, compounded with the copyhold tenants, and enfranchised their estates; but after Mary had ascended the throne, he was compelled to re-convey his purchase to the see of Carlisle, to which, since that time, it has continued to belong. [8d] Bishop Aldrich died at this place in March, 1555, the second year of the reign of Queen Mary: from which it appears, that the estate had either been restored previous to his decease; or, in the conditions of the sale he had reserved to himself the privilege of residing in the manor house. [8e]
In the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles the second, the several charters which had before been granted to the possessors of this manor were again acknowledged, and the privileges further extended. [9a]
Queen Elizabeth had a lease of this manor from the then possessing bishop, in which she was succeeded by James the first, who assigned it to Sir Edward Clinton, knight; but owing to a neglect of enrollment, it proved void. [9b] For nearly a century the lease was held by the late Right Honorable Sir Joseph Banks, Baronet, and his ancestors, and it is now held in trust for the benefit of his devisees.
The large tract of fen land, situated between this place and Boston, at a very early period belonged to the lords of this manor, in conjunction with the lords of the manors of Bolingbroke and Scrivelsby; but by the grants which they gave to the neighbouring abbies at Revesby and Kirkstead, their right therein became comparatively small. [9c] On the enclosure of these fens, pursuant to Act of Parliament, in 1801, about six hundred acres were annexed to the parish of Horncastle, eighty-one acres of which were allotted to the lord of the manor; the remainder to the owners of common-right houses.
The parochial extent of Horncastle, exclusive of the fen allotment, is about one thousand three hundred acres, two hundred and fifty of which are contained in the manorial estates.
The house where the bishops used to reside, a spacious structure, but destitute of architectural merit, was situated at the north-west corner of the ancient fortress. It was demolished about the year 1770, when the present manor house was erected on its scite.
HORNCASTLE DURING THE CIVIL WARS IN THE
REIGN OF CHARLES THE FIRST.
Notwithstanding that in this part was born that individual of the family of Plantagenet, whose assumption of the throne plunged the country, for half a century, into the civil wars which nearly exterminated the ancient nobility; yet had the soil here been unstained by the blood so profusely shed. Partaking, in common with all, the miseries of the land, it seemed peculiarly exempted from beholding those contentions of the houses of York and Lancaster, which sprung from the elevation of Henry of Bolingbroke to the sovereignty of England. It was however otherwise when the usurpation of unlimited power on the part of Charles the first had urged a war between the people and the king. As peculiar circumstances of policy and interest had brought the military operations into these parts, it will be necessary in their detail to revert to the conduct of the parties opposed in the opening of the war.