Records, Historical and Antiquarian, of Parishes Round Horncastle

by J. Conway Walter

Kirkby, East.

East Kirkby is situated just below the steep slope of the Wolds, near their southern extremity, between 7 and 8 miles south south-east of Horncastle, 6 miles south-west from Spilsby, and 9 miles north-east from Tattershall. From Horncastle it is approached viâ Scrivelsby and Moorby. It is contiguous, on the east, to Revesby.

This in one of the 220 odd parishes in the county which possessed a church before the Norman Conquest. At that period it seems to have been united with Revesby, since in Domesday Book (1080–86) “Cherchebi” and “Resuesbi” are given together, and it is stated that “the whole manor and all that belongs thereto is six miles long, and six miles broad.” There are 12 carucates (or 1440 acres) rateable to gelt (i.e., 2s. to the carucate); and the same extent of arable land (or 2,880 acres in all); with (in Saxon times), 54 socmen, and 14 villeins. The great Norman Noble, Ivo Taillebois, Chief of the Angevine troops of the Conqueror, was lord of this manor, through his marriage with the wealthy Saxon, Lady Lucia, heiress of the Thorolds. On his death early in life—a death not regretted by her, for the marriage had been forced upon her by the Conqueror—she re-married, with hardly a decent delay, Roger de Romara, about 1093; and by him had a son, William de Romara, who was created Earl of Lincoln. This William founded Revesby Abbey in 1142, and, by an interchange of lands, while retaining Revesby, Moorby, Wilksby, &c., as a compact property, he separated East Kirkby as a distinct domain. Among those with whom exchanges were effected was one Ivo, a priest, who held a church at Thoresby, probably standing on the site of the present Revesby church. In lieu of this, the Earl gave to Ivo the church of East Kirkby with its appurtenances, and a toft near the churchyard. In the 13th century, the family of de la Launde (represented, down to recent times, by the Kings, of Ashby de la Laund, near Sleaford) were manorial lords [121] of East Kirkby, while the Earls of Exeter (as shewn in Notes on Revesby, &c.) had the manor of Thoresby and Revesby, &c. East Kirkby, as well as Revesby, was in the soke of Old Bolingbroke, and, as parts of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Sovereign would be the superior lord of the various manors in that soke, or “Honour,” as it was named, as being connected with royalty. Accordingly, in 1604, we find that Sir V. Skinner, of Bolingbroke, was appointed by the crown keeper of Kirkby Park, the site of which is still shown on old maps; and, according to “Liber Regis,” in 1762 the Sovereign presented to the benefice, although, by some arrangement, William Ellis, Esq., had presented in 1719. The manor now belongs to R. Maidens, Esq., and Dr. T. Robinson, but most of the soil belongs to the Stanhope or Coltman families, the patronage of the benefice being in the hands of the former.

Among the Revesby charters and deeds, printed by the late Rt. Hon. E. Stanhope, is one (No. 27) of Alan Smerehorn, of East Kirkby, dated 1165, by which he gives a watermill and premises to the Abbots of Revesby, with the right to draw water through his land, from Bolingbroke to Kirkby; the Abbey thus being supplied with water. [122] He also, by another deed (No. 28), conveys to the Abbey his rights in certain lands in Kirkby, undertaking all claims and services due to the King, in return for which the Revesby Monks confirm to him certain rights in Hagnaby.

By a deed of the same period, Alan, son of Walter of Kirkby, gives his feudal rights, in certain lands in Kirkby, to the monks, with lands in Hagnaby and Engcroft in Stickford, free of all claims from the King.

A charter of Richard I. (“Dugdale,” v. 456) confirms to the Monks of Revesby, among other possessions, 620 acres of land in E. Kirkby, and part of Kirkby Wood, along the road called “Swinistigate” (No. 40 B). N.B.—There is still a Swinecote in Revesby. Various other deeds assign to the monks lands given by William son of Ivo, of Kirkby (No. 43); by Alan son of Walter of Kirkby (No. 45); by Lucy widow of Walter Faber, of Kirkby (a “Smith?”) a meadow, “to decorate and strew the monk’s choir.” (No. 56). While Henry Smerehorn gives to them his “servant Robert, son of Colsvan, with all his chattels” (No. 53); and Alan Smerehorn, of Kirkby, gives a plot “ad portam josep.” (at the Joseph gate), among several others, taking on himself all claims to the king or others (No. 58). The seal of Smerehorn is a round one with the device, a man blowing a horn. Gaufrid, son of Alan Buche, of Kirkby, gives land in E. Kirkby specially as “gate alms” for the poor (No. 68); the same Gaufrid also confirming the gift made by his brother Walter, of a meadow in Goutscroft (No. 70). N.B.—“Gout,” or, writ fully, “go-out,” means a spring issuing from a hill side, of which there are many on the Wold slopes (Streatfeild, “Lincolnshire and the Danes,” p. 174). [123a] Alan de Cuilter, of Kirkby, among other lands, gives a place (placeam) called “gayres” (No. 101); gaire meaning a triangular plot which requires ploughing a different way to the rest of the ground. [123b] A meadow in Kirkby is given by Nicholas son of Roger, of Miningsby, towards maintaining “the light before the image of St. Nicholas in Kirkby Church, every St. Nicholas’ day.” (No. 119).

There are other deeds connected with East Kirkby, but these are typical.

We give here some other records connected with East Kirkby, which are of more or less interest, taken from “Lincolnshire Wills.”

William Saltfletby, alias Massenge [123c] of “Kirkby juxta Bolingbroke,” by his will, dated 3 January, 1443, requests that he may be buried in Kirkby Church; and leaves money to the church, as well as to the Church of St. Peter in Eastgate, Lincoln; also to his daughter, his wife, and her daughter, certain lands in Kirkby, Miningsby, and West Kele; and his house opposite the Church of St. Peter, Eastgate, “called the Gryffin.” The witnesses are Robt. Drydyke, Vicar of Kirkby (N.B.—The place-name Drysykes occurs in Salmonby); John Cokeryll, chaplain of the same; and Hugh Wellys, clerk.

Richard Skepper, of East Kirkby, by will dated 26 May, 1556, requests to be buried in the church; and leaves to his sons, Thomas, George, and Edward, and daughters, Bridget and Anne, his copyholds in Kirkby, Miningsby, Bolingbroke, Waynflete, Irby, Thorpe, and Friskney. N.B.—This was a family from Durham.