Records, Historical and Antiquarian, of Parishes Round Horncastle

by J. Conway Walter

The Lady Lucia, marrying as her 3rd husband the Norman noble, Ranulph, he delivered some of her estates to the King, Henry I., in return for the dignity of the Earldom of Chester. Against this, William de Romara, her son by her late husband, Roger de Romara, protested, but in vain. Some years later, however, Henry I. restored to him some of his mother’s property, and made him Earl of Lincoln; and later still, by the exchange of some lands in Normandy with Robert de Tillot, he acquired the lordships of Hareby, Hundleby and Mavis Enderby. By his wife Maud, daughter of Richard de Redver, he had a son William, who married Hawise, daughter of Stephen, Earl of Albemarle. The last of the Romaras dying without male issue, the property passed to Gilbert de Gaunt, who married his daughter, who also succeeded to the Earldom of Lincoln. Robert de Gaunt forfeited the property by rebelling against King John, and the estates were conferred upon Ranulph de Meschines, surnamed de Blundeville (i.e., of Oswestry), Earl of Chester, A.D. 1100–1120. He died with issue, but assigned to Hawise, one of his sisters, the Earldom and manors. She married Robert de Quincy, son of the Earl of Winchester, whose daughter Margaret, married John de Lacy, a descendant of the Barons of Pontefract. His son Edmund, left issue Henry (and others), who, dying without surviving issue, bequeathed his property to the heirs of Edmund Plantagenet; after various changes the property again came to a Gaunt, John, afterwards Duke of Lancaster, and father of Henry of Bolingbroke, who later on succeeded to the throne as Henry IV. [88] In the course, however, of the these changes, Hareby, and some other manors, had become separated from Bolingbroke, and had passed to the Willoughby family, since we find that in the time of Edw. III., father of Henry of Bolingbroke, John Willoughby, held “the manors of Wester Kele with Hareby, Lusby, Easter Kele, &c.” (Chancery Inquisition, 46 Ed. III. No. 78). The family of Willoughby, although originally holding lands under the Becs, who were lords of Spilsby, Eresby, &c., &c., subsequently inter-married with that family, and thus succeeded to some of their property, and were the ancestors of the family of the present Lords Willoughby d’Eresby, and eventually acquired very large possessions in these parts, much of which they still retain.

We find, however, at different periods, various other parties holding lands in, or connected with, Hareby.

In a Revesby Charter (No. 28, collection of the late Right Hon. E. Stanhope), conveying the right of lands in East Kirkby to Revesby Abbey (temp. Henry II. or Richard I.) the first witness is Alan, Dean of Hareby, others being, Aschetill, priest of Keal, Alan, priest of Asgarby, &c.

By another Charter (No. 53 temp. Richard I. or John), Henry Smerehorn of East Kirkby, gives his home-born (“nativum”) servant, Robert, son of Colvan, with all his chattells to Revesby Abbey, and receives in return “one silver mark from Peter, the monk of Hareby.” This monk of Hareby would therefore seem to be a nominee of the Abbot of Revesby.

And this connection is confirmed by another charter (No. 92, temp. Henry III.), by which the Abbot and monks of Revesby lease certain lands in Stickney to Bricius, son of Roger, clerk of Stickney, to which deed the witnesses are Walter of Hareby, at that time Prior of Revesby; Reginald the cellarer, John of Moorby, Alan of Horncastle, &c., so that it would seem the former priest, or dean, of Hareby, was promoted to the Priorate of Revesby.

By another charter (No. 129, temp. Ed. I.), Alan son of Richard atte Grene (or, as we should now say, Richard Green) gives certain lands in East Kirkby to the Abbey, the monks paying in return, “one farthing a year” to Alan, son of William, son of Roger Palmer, of Hareby, and his heirs, at the feast of St. Botolph, for all claims on the land.

By another charter (150 B.), lands in Hareby, Bolingbroke, West Keale, &c., formerly belonging to Revesby Abbey, are conveyed by Henry VIII., on the dissolution of the monasteries, to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.

Another name, once well-known in the neighbourhood, is found connected with Hareby, in the 15th century. In a Chancery Inquisition, 32 Henry VI., 1453, taken at Horncastle, the witnesses on oath are Walter Tailbois, Esq., William Dalison, of Hareby, and others. The Dalisons (doubtless originally d’Alencon), were a very old Lincolnshire family, seated at Laughton, probably of Norman extraction. In the 16th century Sir Francis Ayscoughe a member of another very old county family [90a] married, as his 2nd wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Dighton, Esq., of Stourton, and widow of Sir William Dalyson.

In 1635 Robert Bryan died, at Bolingbroke (March 7th) seized of lands in Bolingbroke and Hareby, which he held of the Crown, a captain Bryan being governor of the Castle in the time of the Commonwealth, and a few years later, (1663), a grant of leases in reversion of demesne land was made in favour of the widow of Thomas Blagge, groom of the bedchamber [90b] (“Architect. S. Journal,” 1865, p. 57).

We have mentioned this manor as formerly being the property of the Plantagenets. Of this there exists a curious piece of evidence. One Alan de Cuppledyke, [90c] was appointed by Edward II. governor of Bolingbroke castle, and his steward’s accounts still exist. In one passage he says that “the open woods of Hundleby, Kirkby and Hareby Thorns cannot be agisted (modern Linc. ‘gisted,’ i.e., let to be stocked with cattle), on account of the new coppice, planted by the late Earl,” i.e., Thomas Plantagenet, the recent owner, the King’s cousin, but who had forfeited his property, by stirring up a rebellion. This probably may be said to be the only wood in England which can be proved to have been planted by a Plantagenet (“Arch. S. Journ.” 1865, p. 43).