Two or three other documents connected with Goulceby, may be here briefly referred to:—
By a Final Concord, dated 20 June, 1202, an agreement was made between Holda, daughter of Geoffrey, on the one hand, and certain Monks of Minting Priory, who were tenants of an oxgang of land in Goutheby, by which she surrendered all claim to the land, in favour of the Monks and their successors for ever. In return for which the Monks gave her one mark.
On July 28, 1231, an agreement was made between the Master of the Knights Templars in England, and William Moysaunt and Amice his wife, by which the said William and Amice acknowledged a certain meadow in Golkesby to be the right of the said Master “to have and to hold, to him and his successors, in free, pure, and perpetual alms”; and for this the said Master gave them 2s.
By will, dated 30 May, 1617, Adam Henneage of Donynton Super Bane, Gent, left to Frances his wife “all my messuage in Goulcebie, wherein John Clarke now dwelleth”; and to his “sonne James his copyhold land in Goulcebie, in tenure of Peter Pindar and John Tomson.” Proved at Horncastle, 28 June, 1617. By will, dated 23 July, 1623, Thomas Kent, of Scamblesby, Clerk, left “to the poor people of the parish of Goulceby, 20s.,” with similar bequests to the poor of Donington and Scamblesby. Proved at Lincoln, 15 Nov., 1623.
The will of Timothy Kent, of Donington, Clerk, dated 13 Feb., 1623–4, mentions lands in Goulceby and Asterby, and leaves bequests to various relations and servants, and to the Cathedral Church, Lincoln, 2s., and to the poor of Donington, 20s. Proved at Lincoln, 28 May, 1624. Elias Kent, of Scamblesby, Gent., by will, dated 13 Feb., 1625, leaves various bequests to relatives and friends, and “to the poorest people of Goulceby 10s., to those of Donington 10s., to those Scamblesby 40s.” Proved at Lincoln, 20 Dec., 1628. (“Lincs. N. & Q.,” Vol. III., pp. 205–207).
The poor of Goulceby have an annual rent charge of £2 10s., left by Anthony Acham, which is distributed in bread. He also in 1638 founded, and endowed with £10 yearly, a school here; which was re-built in 1865, with accommodation for 130 children; the original endowment is now supplemented from other sources, and the school serves for the parishes of Goulceby, Asterby, and Stenigot.
Greetham.
Greetham is distant about 3½ miles from Horncastle, in an easterly direction, lying just beyond the parish of High Toynton, south of Fulletby, west of Ashby Puerorum and north of Winceby. The village is chiefly situated on a cross-road running north and south (and probably Roman) which unites the road from Horncastle to Tetford with that from Horncastle to Hagworthingham and Spilsby. The nearest money order and telegraph office is at Horncastle, whence the letters arrive at 9.20. a.m. The population of this village is now just over 130; but, as Isaac Taylor says (“Words and Places,” p. 1), “local names are records of the past,” and Greetham, as its name implies, was at one time a place of considerably more importance than at present. The Saxons named it Greetham, or the great village; which, as Mr. Streatfeild suggests (“Lincolnshire and the Danes,” p. 18), the Normans translated into “Grandham,” or “Granham,” as we find it in the Conqueror’s survey in Domesday Book; and which was sometimes further curtailed into “Graham,” as we find a field in High Toynton described as the “24 acres towards Graham.” (Feet of Fines, Lincoln, 9, Henry III., No. 52, A.D. 1224–25, quoted “Linc. N. & Q,” vol. iii., pp. 245–6). And not only was Greetham (or Grandham) held in demesne, i.e., as a manor, but, like the neighbouring Bolingbroke, being connected with Royalty, it became also designated an “Honour.”
In a Chancery Inquisition post mortem (21 Henry VII., No. 122) taken after the death of Henry Dawson, it is stated that “4 messuages, &c., in Tetney are held of the Lord the King, as of his Honour of Bullingbroke”; and in almost similar terms, in a Chancery Inquisition post mortem, of the same King, No. 124, taken after the death of William Quadring, Esq., it is stated that he “held a messuage in Irby, of the Lord the King, as of his Manor of Greetham, parcel of his Duchy of Lancaster.” In Domesday Book it is stated that certain lands in the Manor of Bilsby, near Alford, are “held of the Manor of Grandham”; Greetham apparently not in either of these cases being regarded as an Honour. But in an Inquisition post mortem, of John Asfordby, A.D. 1499, it is stated that the manor of this same Bilsby, with Westhalgarth, is “held of the Lord the King, as of the Honour of Greetham.” But, even as early as Domesday (1080), lands are enumerated as belonging to “Grandham,” lying in Langtune (by Spilsby), Hacberdineham (Hagworthingham), Salmundby, Tedforde, Brinkhill, Wingsby, and Clachesby Pluckacre, in all amounting to 33 carucates, or close upon 4,000 acres (3960). And, to shew the wealth of the manor at that date, compared with some others in the neighbourhood, while Scrivelsby is given in Domesday as of the value of £14, and Horncastle at £44, Bolingbroke is put at £40, but Greetham at £60, and it is further tallaged, i.e., taxed at £70. It was the “caput Honoris,” or head, of the Lincolnshire Barony of Hugh de Abrincis, or Avranches, the Conqueror’s nephew, surnamed Lupus, or The Wolf, from his many deeds of violence. He was Earl of Chester, having the whole of Cheshire assigned to him, except a small portion belonging to the Bishop; and his royal uncle further granted to him, nine manors in Berkshire, seven in Yorkshire, ten in Dorset, thirty-two in Suffolk, and twelve in Norfolk, twenty-two in Leicester, and about a score in Lincolnshire, besides smaller numbers in other counties, and sokes and berewicks beyond counting. Earl Lupus in his later years, attempted to atone for the irregularities of his early life, by becoming monk in his own Abbey of St. Werburg, at Chester. Later, the estates which he held, reverted to the crown, and were, in part, granted to the Earl of Lincoln, who was created Duke of Lancaster. His daughter and heiress, married the 4th son of King Edwd. III., who also, through his wife, became Duke of Lancaster, and was father of Henry of Bolinbroke, afterwards Henry IV. After various vicissitudes, the Honour and much of the very extensive soke of Bolingbroke, became merged in the Crown; and, in part, still remains the property of the Sovereign, the King having among his titles still the Palatine Dukedom of Lancaster. The fortunes of Greetham were more varied. It is impossible, from the sources of information available for these notes to give all the successive steps in the tenure of this manor, and of its numerous and valuable appurtenances; or to give the connection, if any, between successive owners. Fixity of tenure was by no means a feature of those times, the power of the Sovereign was almost absolute, and demesnes were seized by him, forfeited, retained, granted anew, or disposed of for money, according to the royal caprice, or the exigencies of his purse, in a most arbitrary fashion. To show the precarious nature of tenures held “in capite,” or “in chief” from the Sovereign, we will mention one or two cases, taken haphazard:—Edmund of Woodstock, 2nd son of Edwd. I., was beheaded by Edward III., in the 4th year of his reign. He had been granted the manor of Greetham only 3 years before (Dugdale’s “Baronage,” vol. ii., p. 93). At a previous period, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, died seised of the manor of Greetham. In the ordinary course of events, the manor would have remained a possession of his daughter, Alice, countess of Lincoln. Yet a Lancaster Record (class xxv. R. 8), shows that Alice granted the manor to Hugh Dispenser, 16 Ed. II., and, he being a favourite of that King, we can hardly doubt that the grant was a forced one. The historian Speed informs us that, the Earl of Lancaster being attainted, the elder Dispenser obtained a grant of some of the Lancaster property in Lincolnshire. But in 1327, the younger Dispenser, the Hugh above-named, the favourite of the King (Edward II.), fell into disfavour, and a commission was appointed to enquire what goods and chattels he possessed at the time of his banishment, in his manors of Greetham, Thorley, Wainfleet and Brattleby. He also held at that time, as shown by other records, lands in Thornton, Roughton, Wilksby, Wood Enderby, Partney, Mareham-le-Fen, &c., and a manor in Scrivelsby. But he, in his turn being banished, the attainder of the Earl of Lancaster was revoked, and the property once more reverted to the Lancaster family, in the person of his brother and successor, Henry of Lancaster.
Truly the history of many a noble family of those times was a moving and vivid commentary on the words of Holy Writ, “Put not your confidence in Princes!”