Another part of this parish would seem to have been a separate demesne, Fulsby, probably a contraction of Fugels-by, or the homestead of Fugel. [100b] Here, at a later period, there was a large residence, named “Fulsby Hall” of which possibly there may be still some traces in ponds and mounds, in a field in the middle of what is still called “Fulsby Wood.”
Toft Grange also would seem to have been another distinct property; and was at a later date (as will be shown hereafter), owned or occupied by a Dymoke. The term “Grange” would imply that it was an appendage of some Religious House; and an old charter of Richard I., now in the Library of Revesby Abbey, shows that that Sovereign granted to the Monks of St. Lawrence at Revesby, the Grange of Toft, [101a] with its appurtenances, a mill at Fulsby, with lands in Tumby, Coningsby, &c.
The greater part of Tumby was, as it is still, woodland, and formed “Tumby Forest,” or “Tumby Chase,” of which old maps still show the trees. [101b]
In a Close Roll, 5 Ed. IV. (1466), there is a reference to the great wood, called “Tumbi Wode,” or “Tumbi Chase” (“Ibiden,” p. 131).
We have, thus far, three Saxon proprietors in this parish, who were, in their day, men of substance; but the incoming of the Norman was the Saxon’s doom; and while Domesday Book says, with pregnant brevity, that Ulmar, Godwin, and Gonewate “had,” i.e. formerly owned, such and such lands, it names the Normans alone as present proprietors.
In the case of Kirkby the accounts also of these Norman Lords might seem, at first sight, somewhat conflicting. For instance, Domesday Book gives Odo, Bishop of Baieux as owner of this parish, or a large portion of it; but we turn over only a few pages, and find it referred to as among the possessions of William de Karilepho, Bishop of Durham. But “hereby hangs a tale.” Odo of Baieux was half brother of William the Conqueror; being the son of Arlette, the concubine of his father, Robert, Duke of Normandy, by a Norman Noble, Herluin de Contaville. Odo’s brother was created Earl of Moretaine, his sister was the Countess d’ Aumale (which in later times became Albemarle), and he was given by the Duke, in 1049, the high position of Bishop of Baieux, in the now department of Calvados, in Lower Normandy. [102a] On coming to England in the train of the Conqueror, he was created Earl of Kent, Count Palatine, and “Justiciarius Angliœ,” and no less than 439 manors were bestowed upon him, 76 of these being in Lincolnshire. He was thus among the most powerful of the Normans in this country; he was styled “Vice-Lord of the whole of England,” and was said to be “second only to the King.” But his greatness was his ruin. Elated by his vast wealth, he aspired to the Papacy, and collecting a great amount of treasure, he was about to set sail for Rome, when William seized him and his treasure, and sent him to prison in Normandy, confiscating his estate. [102b] Thus Odo’s tenure of his lands in Kirkby and elsewhere, was only brief; and there were other grasping Norman followers of the Conqueror ready to step into his shoes. One of these was the aforenamed William de Karilepho, Bishop of Durham; who had been Abbot of St. Karilepho in Normandy, but, coming over to England, was consecrated to that Palatine See in 1082. Thus Kirkby again became the property of a scarcely less powerful prelate than Odo; for the Bishops of Durham have ranked high in the episcopate down to quite recent times; but in early days they were not only bishops, but princely nobles, whose influence almost rivalled that of the Sovereign; and this prelate again was Chief Justice of England. An indirect evidence of the Bishop of Durham’s influence in Kirkby is seen in the following circumstance. Both Ecton’s “Thesaurus,” and “Liber Regis,” state that the benefice of Kirkby formerly paid a “pension of 40s. to the Priory of St. Leonard at Stamford.” This would appear to have come about in the following manner. Oswy, the Saxon King of Northumbria, in the middle of the 7th century of the Christian era, having conquered the pagan King of Mercia, of which Lincolnshire formed a part, as a thank-offering to God, gave to Wilfred, the friend and instructor of his son Alchfrid, certain lands in Stamford, for the maintenance of 100 Monks. Accordingly Wilfred, who afterwards became Bishop of York, founded the Priory of St. Leonard at Stamford; and, having received his own education at the Monastery of Lindisfarne, in Holy Island, he gave the Priory to that Religious House. At the time of the Conquest, the Monks of Lindisfarne, were attached to the See of Durham, and thus their dependency at Stamford came under the cognizance of William de Karilepho; and as Lord of the Manor of Kirkby, he charged this benefice with this contribution to the Priory. Had the Monks of Lindisfarne not been plundered by the Danes, and so driven to Durham, Kirkby would not have had this payment to make; “40s” was, in those days a considerable sum, the whole tithes of the benefice being only £1 7s. 4¼d. The buildings of the Priory at Stamford, were plundered by the Danish rovers, but were rebuilt by William de Karilepho, partly doubtless with money from Kirkby, about the year 1082. On the dissolution of the Monasteries, in the reign of Henry VIII. that King, who was generally in need of cash, appropriated the temporalities of the benefice of Kirkby, and so became patron of the living, which is still in the gift of the Sovereign.
We now get another name of rank among the Normans connected with Kirkby. Domesday Book says, “Ilbert has here 1 caracate (120 acres), with 10 villeins (the lowest class of bondmen), and 4 bordars (the higher class of bondmen), who hold under him another carucate; also the site of a mill (a valuable possession in those times), 12 acres of meadow (probably rich grass land watered by the Bain), and 160 acres of woodland interspersed with pasture,” where the serfs would tend the lord’s herds of swine, which fattened on the acorns in their season, and where he would harbour his deer, and other animals of the chase.
In those times even a powerful noble did not disdain to be the vassal of such a princely prelate as the great Bishop of Durham, at the head of one of the three palatine counties in England; and such was this Ilbert, or, as he was otherwise called, Hildebert de Lacy.
Coming to England with the Conqueror, he was granted by William the manor of Pontefract, and 150 other lordships in Yorkshire, 10 in Nottinghamshire, and 4 in Lincolnshire. In several other parishes, [104a] Kirkby being among them, he also held lands, not absolutely “in demesne,” as his own, but under the absentee Bishop of Durham as lord paramount, to whom he paid a small yearly rent, which was exacted from his Saxon dependents. This Ilbert, or Hildebert, built the castle of Pontefract, [104b] and was one of the most powerful nobles in Yorkshire. Another of his family, also Ilbert, was a witness to the Charter of King Stephen, which secured the ecclesiastical liberties of England; and another, John de Lacy, became Earl of Lincoln, by marrying Margaret, daughter of Hawise de Quincy, sister of Ranulph, Earl of Lincoln and Chester (A.D. 1232). Their son, Henry de Lacy, held the same honours in the reigns of Henry III. and Ed. I. [104c] A John de Lacy was among the signatories of the Magna Charta, and we may add that it is not a little remarkable that, in this 20th century, the name of Ilbert is yet to the fore, Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., &c., being now Clerk of the House of Commons, and a distinguished lawyer and scholar.
By a curious coincidence, Pontefract was in Saxon times known by the name of Kirkby, and this name continued even in later times; a charter of Ilbert’s son, Robert, conveying lands to the Priory of St. John at Pontefract, mentions them as being “de dominio de Kirkby,” while another charter gives them as “de Pontefract” (Camden’s “Britannia,” p. 729.) Thus Ilbert, Lord of Kirkby-on-Bain, held two lordships in different counties, of the same name.