Records, Historical and Antiquarian, of Parishes Round Horncastle

by J. Conway Walter

Lusby (called in Domesday Book Lodeby and Luzebi), is distant from Horncastle about 6 miles, in an easterly direction, being 1 mile beyond Winceby. Prior to the Norman Conquest, the Saxon Thane, Tonna, held lands here, as well as in other parishes in the neighbourhood, his property here being 3 carucates, or about 360 acres (Domesday). Other owners of land were Almer, and his brother John, and his son Mauger. These, at the Conquest, were mostly superseded by Normans. William the Conqueror gave to his nephew Gilbert de Gaunt, son of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, whose sister was William’s Consort, 113 Manors in Lincolnshire, besides several in other counties, among them being Lusby, the adjoining Hagworthingham, and Grantham (Greetham), &c. The property would seem, however, to have been only held by the Gaunts for three generations. In 1223 we find Simon de Kyme instituting a suit in the King’s Court to recover certain lands in Lusby, as being the descendant and lawful representative and heir of the aforesaid Almar. He failed, however, to establish his case. (Curia Regis, Roll No. 82, Hilary, 7 Henry III.) He still, however, held lands in Langton and Sausthorpe; and he must also have had other lands in Lusby, as we find that in the 9th year of King John he granted the fee of 1 knight to Walter de Bec, “to have and to hold of the same Simon and his heirs for ever.”

The superior lord, however, of all these parties, would seem to have been the Bishop of Durham, a powerful and wealthy prelate. Early in the 12th century (circa 1114) we find that Ranulph, Bishop of Durham, held in chief, lands in Lusby, and several other parishes in the neighbourhood, and one Pinson was tenant under him at Lusby, holding by the service of acting as the bishop’s bailiff. Whether this Pinson was the same as Pinso, sworn brother in arms of Eudo, the Norman lord of Tattershall, is not clear; but it seems likely, as the Bishop of Durham, his over-lord, also held lands in Tattershall. (N.B.—The author of “The History of Spilsby,” Rev. H. Cotton-Smith, says that he was; p. 24). But through the Pinsons, Lusby, Winceby, and other manors passed to another family, already named, which for some time held an important position in the county, the Beks or Becs. There is some confusion in the different records of the earlier generations of this family. Walter de Bek was the scion of a family of Norman blood, whose ancestor, according to Sir William Dugdale in his “Baronage,” had “a faire inheritance in Flanders,” but came over with the Conqueror. This Walter de Bec married Agnes, daughter of Hugh Pinson, the steward, and had by her five sons, Hugh, Henry, Walter, John, and Thomas. Of these, Henry succeeded to the manors of Eresby, Spilsby, Scrivelsby, and Wispington; and Walter became “Lord of Lusceby, Wynceby, Neuton (i.e. Wold Newton) and ffoulstow (Fulstow).” (Lansdown MSS. 207, cf., 453). The Becs were a family of great influence. Of two brothers, one, Anthony, was Bishop of Durham, the other, Thomas, was Bishop of St. David’s, and another Anthony, was Bishop of Norwich, his brother being Bishop of Lincoln, in days when Bishops were statesmen and even soldiers, as well as proud prelates. Walter was Constable of the Castle of Lincoln (Harleyan MSS, f. 23).

In the old documents called “Final Concords,” p. 80., under date “17 May, A.D. 1208,” we find Walter Bec, named as “tenant of one knight’s fee in Lusceby.” In 1300 A.D. Sir John Bek, like his father, was Constable of Lincoln Castle, but also holding the additional office of Constable of Bristol. He made a grant to the Priory of Bullington, near Wragby, which is worthy of notice, as its terms are peculiar. It runs as follows:—“I, John son of Walter Beck, of Lusceby, have granted, &c., for ever to prior and convent of Bolington, for the safety of my soul, and the souls of my ancestors, two selions of land, &c., which formerly, Simon, merchant of Burgh, held of me for one pair of white gloves.” We have mention, in the case of High Toynton, of land, held by the tenure of a pair of spurs, presented annually to the lord, as rent; here we have a no less singular tenure, by the gift of a pair of gloves. The knightly gauntlet was probably in those days a more costly article than a nineteenth or twentieth century glove. In illustration of the above peculiar tenure, we may notice the legacy of Baron Bec’s “gauntlets” to Kirkstead. This John, son of Walter, was created first Baron Bec of Eresby; he obtained a license to fortify his castle at Eresby, 1295. By his will, dated July 20, 1301, he ordered his body to be buried at Kirkstead, whereunto he gives his best horse, his mail coat, “gauntlets,” harness of iron, lance, targe and other accoutrements. His daughter married Sir William Willoughby.

Most of the property of the Lusby Beks passed, a generation or two later, to another branch of the family, the Becks of Eresby; whose descendant, John Willoughby, through the marriage of Baron Bec’s daughter to Sir William Willoughby, in the reign of Edwd. III., held the manors of “Hareby, Lusceby, Ester Kele, Wester Kele,” &c.; and thus the property passed to the ancestors of the present Earl of Ancaster, and Lord Willoughby d’ Eresby. We still, however, find (by Feet of Fines, Lincoln, file 69) that in A.D. 1302, John Bek had “the rent of 6 quarters of salt, [133] in Wispington, Marton next Horncastle, Langtone, Wodehalle, Thymelby, Scrivelsby,” and other parishes, “with advowson of the church of Wispington.” “Henry Bek, of Pusseby (Lusby), sold to Lord Stephen de Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, lands and tenement in ffowlestow; which same bishop gave the said manor to Beatrice, his sister, who was married to Alan de Normanby.” (Lansdowne MSS. 207, cf., 453). For these details of the Becks, I am chiefly indebted to a paper, by Rev. W. O. Massingberd, in the “Architect. Soc. Journal,” for 1897.

To show that the Becs were not confined to the neighbourhood of Eresby and Lusby, I may mention that, not only are their armorial quarterings found, as was to be expected, in Spilsby church, but according to Gervase Holles’ “Notes on Churches,” they formerly existed in windows in the churches of Coningsby and Langton-by-Horncastle, and probably many others. (Harleyan MSS., 6829.)

Of later proprietors of Lusby, I am not able to give any, except that, in a List (given in the Melbourne Hall MSS.) of Gentry, of the 16th century, who furnished launces and light horses, when the country was preparing to give a warm reception to the expected Spanish Armada, I find that Mr. Palfreyman of Lusby, gent., attended the muster at the Horncastle Sessions in 1586, and furnished 1 launce and 1 light horse, when his neighbour, Mr. Langton, of Langton, and Augustine Cavendish, of Orby, furnished each 1 light horse, but no lance; John Littlebury of Hagworthingham, furnishing 2 light horses and no lance. Mr. Maddison explains that this Mr. Palfreyman would be a descendant of William Palfreyman, who was Mayor of Lincoln in 1536. (“Arch. Soc. Journ.” 1894, pp. 214, 220).

In Liber Regis we also find the names of those who presented to the benefice, and therefore were in some way connected with the place; George Davenport in 1699, Carr Brackenbury in 1720, and Robert Carr Brackenbury in 1780. In recent times the bishops of Lincoln seem to have inherited the position formerly held by the bishops of Durham, as owners of the soil and lords of the manor; and these are now in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissions.

We now come to speak of the church, dedicated to St. Peter. At the date of Domesday Book, this was one of the 222 parishes in the county which possessed a church. A priest is also there named, doubtless one of the 131 only resident presbyters in the county; many of the churches being served by the “Religious” of the convents. There is also mention of a mill, worth 3s. yearly. [135]

There was thus at Lusby a church at that early period, and it, as well as Winceby, paid a pension to the Bardney Monastery, probably through the connection with Gilbert de Gaunt, that Norman noble being one of Bardney’s most generous patrons, and the re-founder of that institution after it had been in a state of decay for some 200 years. Ecton’s Thesaurus gives the pension as 30s., a fairly large sum in those days.

The present very interesting church is, in parts, so very ancient, that it is more than likely that some portions of the original fabric of that day still remain. Only a few years ago the building was in a state of squalid neglect and architectural disfigurement; but it was restored by the Commissioners in 1892, and re-opened by the Bishop of Lincoln on January 17, 1893, the work having been done with great care and judgment; and the former flat-ceiled, white-washed room has given place to a structure church-like in all its arrangements. It is nevertheless of a somewhat conglomerate character, windows, and other objects, breaking out, as it were, in all sorts of unexpected positions; and thus making it a study of curiosities. We quote here some of the remarks of the late Precentor Venables made on the occasion of the visit of the Architectural Society in 1894, “of the original Norman fabric, itself of more than one date, and which was shortened at the west end, there are several relics, especially in the charming narrow doorway in the north wall of the nave, now built up, the arch of which is surrounded with zigzag moulding; and a very remarkable little ‘key-hole’ window, high up in the north wall of the chancel. An incised line which runs round the head of this ends in volutes, and above it is a small incised cross. Holes in the jamb of the shutter indicate that this widow was originally unglazed. Opposite the north doorway are traces of another Norman doorway in the south wall, also now blocked, having above it a cross with round medallions.” Eastward in this same south wall of the nave is a two-light early English window with quatrefoil above, in the eastern splay of which, inside the church, is a small, but “singularly fine corbel head, crowned.” Immediately eastward of the chancel arch in the south wall of the chancel is a small square window, possibly a squint; and east of this a very narrow small “lancet window has been opened,” and still east of this, at a different elevation, there is a good two-light decorated window. The chancel arch is round-headed and plain; on either side of it are a pair of Norman pillars, with the capitals hacked away; those on the north side partly retain their rounded columns. There is a perpendicular screen across the chancel arch of three compartments above with ogee arches and richly carved finials, the central compartment being open; and below are two panels on either side the central open compartment, having ogee arches within semi-circular rims. On the north side of the chancel arch is a niche for a figure. In the north wall of the chancel is an aumbrey, and an oblong one above it; and in the south wall a square one corresponding. In the south wall, under the easternmost window, is an easter sepulchre a plain semi-circular arched recess, probably marking the tomb of the founder. In the north wall of the nave is a similar, but rather larger recess. The east window has three lights, quatrefoiled, with trefoiled compartments above, and a quatrefoil above these. The west door is square-headed with a low arch within; over this a three-light quatrefoiled widow with square-headed moulding above; and over this, in the gable, a square, slit widow, above which hangs the one bell in a large turret. The font on the north side of the west door, is modern, circular, massive, of Caen stone. The sittings are of deal; the pulpit, lectern, and chancel sedilia, of modern oak; the roof throughout of pitch pine. There is a small brass tablet of date circa 1600, with eight English rhyming lines, forming a dialogue between a deceased wife and her surviving husband. The stones of the walls are of all sizes and shapes, and the massive western buttresses are 5ft. thick. The benefice, a rectory, is now held with that of Hagworthingham, and is in the incumbency of the Rev. G. R. Ekins, who resides at the latter place.