[145] The present writer still has in his possession, as a cherished heirloom, the sword and sash of his grandfather, the owner of Tanshelf House, Pontefract, as well as of residences at Lofthouse and Methley.
[146] Similarly the present writer has a photograph of an uncle, who was an officer of yeomanry in 1804, and lived to join the modern yeomanry in 1860.
[155] Illustrated Police News, Aug. 18th, 1883,
[159] The Boston Guardian in an obituary notice said “all who knew him esteemed him,” and the Horncastle News said “There is gone from among us one of nature’s true gentlemen.”
[160] This ready mode of disolving the bond of wedlock was not uncommon in former times, but a similar case is recorded as having occurred in or near Scarborough in recent years, and in November 1898 a case came before Mr. Justice Kekewich, in the Chancery Court, of a man, before leaving for Australia, having sold his wife for £250.
[162] For these details, as well as many others, I am indebted to family records in the possession of the late Mr. John Overton, which I have had the privilege of consulting on many occasions. J.C.W.
[165] Mr. Isaac Taylor in his Words and Places (p. 201, ed. 1873), says “I cannot discover any indication of the place where the Lincolnshire ‘Thing’ (the Saxon ‘County Council’) assembled, unless it was at Thimbleby or Legbourne.” There are, however, several parishes containing the element “thing” in their field names; for instance there is one in Welton near Lincoln; there is a Candlesby Thyng, a Norcotes Thyng, and Ravenworth Thyng, named in a Chancery Inquisition, 20 Henry VII., No. 133, &c. (Architectural Society’s Journal, 1895, p. 38.) These were probably the localities where smaller parish meetings were held.
[166a] A superior tenant, holding under Bishop Odo, was a rather important man in the county, frequently mentioned in documents of the period, as Alan of Lincoln. He also held lands in Langton and other parishes in the neighbourhood. (Survey of Lindsey, Cotton MS., British Museum. Claudius, c. 5. A.D. 1114–1118.)
[166b] Notices of Hagworthingham.
[166c] Albemarle, or Aumarle, was a town in Normandy, now called Aumale, whence the Duc d’ Aumale, of the Royal family of France, takes his title. Probably the Earl put in a claim for this demesne indirectly, because (as already stated) Adeliza, Countess of Albemarle, was sister of Bishop Odo, the former Lord of Thimbleby.