[26b] To show the extent of the soke, we find from “Inquisition post mort. 41, Ed. III., No. 47,” that in 1367 it was decided that Ralph de Nevill holds “a fee in Ulceby, as of this Manor.” Yet Ulceby is distant several miles.
[27] The Tenor bell was also re-hung at her expense.
[28] The present writer had the charge of that excursion, and twice visited the church in company of the Precentor, to examine its details, which he has done again at a more recent date.
[29] That there was a chantry here is proved by the fact, that at the Lincolnshire Rising in 1536, the Bishop’s Chancellor Dr. Rayner, was seized while being ill in bed at the house of the Chantry Priest, and afterwards murdered. Arch. S. Journal, 1894, p. 195.
[30a] Proceed. Archæolog. Inst. Lincoln. (1848, p. 188).
[30b] She was given in marriage by William the Conqueror to his nephew, Ivo Taille-bois, Earl of Anjou; but he dying early to her great relief, she married secondly Roger de Romara, son of Gerald, who had been Seneschall or High Steward to William as Duke of Normandy, before the conquest of England. For third husband she married Ranulph, Earl of Chester.
[30c] A tradition still lingers in the parish of Bucknall, that the place was in some way connected with the Lady Godiva; and here we get the connection. Her brother, and therefore doubtless her father, was Lord of the Demesne of Bucknall. The Lord (Saxon “Laford”) and Lady (Saxon “Lafdig”) were esteemed for the loaf (Saxon “Laf”) dealt out to the hungry dependants, and their memory still lingers like a sweet savour behind them.
[31a] The Lady Lucia conveyed, and the conveyance was confirmed by King John, the church and benefice of Bolingbroke to the Priory of Spalding (Dugdale Monasticon ii., 381); and, according to Liber Regis, it paid to the Priory a pension of £3 6s. 8d.
[31b] The Thorolds were also men of position in Normandy. The name is on the ancient Bayeux tapestry; and it also still survives in the old family residence, the Hotel de Bourgthorould, in Rouen.
[32] The Head Office of the Duchy is now in London at Lancaster-place, Strand; but two courts are held at Bolingbroke in May and October for all copyhold accounts.