In the days of ancient savage warfare, fords were important positions of defence; and especially on the Witham would a ford be important, that river being the boundary between the barbarous “Girvii,” who inhabited the wild Fen tracts, [186e] and the less warlike Saxons, who dwelt east of it. A ford also, or ferry, was a source of considerable revenue; for instance, at Stow, the lord of the manor, in 1234, let the ferry on the Trent (now of Littleborough), with the fishery, for £3 6s. 8d. yearly, a large sum in those days. Thus the staked ford, and the wood supplying the stakes, may well have been local features of sufficient importance to originate the name of Stickswold.
Of the wood formerly existing, there are still some relics, in fine oak trees of great age; one of these, nearly 20ft. in girth, is to be seen by the garden gate at the abbey farm house; another stands near the drive to Halstead Hall, in the east of the parish; and others are nearer the Witham, in fields adjoining Newstead House farm. The present Stixwould wood, or Long wood, south of the village, is of comparatively modern growth; but on the eastern border of the parish is Halstead wood, separated from Sto-bourne wood, by what, probably, was formerly a “stow,” “stoke,” or stake-marked “bourn,” or boundary stream, being a ditch of running water, which gives its name to the latter wood, which lies in the next parish; the two woods until recent years, belonging to the two different manors.
At the time of the Norman Conquest, we find only two names of Saxon landowners in this parish, viz.:—Ulviet, and Siward, who had here between them, about 720 acres. Both these would seem to have been thanes of some importance, as the former held, in demesne or otherwise, lands in at least ten other parishes, in various parts of the county; and the latter had lands in eleven parishes, also widely distributed, and further, had sufficient influence to continue as tenant, under the Norman proprietors, to whom the Conqueror transferred the lands previously owned by Saxons. [187] Of Normans, a grant of 270 acres (that amount having been previously owned by Ulviet,) was conferred by King William, upon Waldin Brito (or the Breton), a distinguished soldier, who accompanied him from Normandy. These Bretons were highly valued for their faithful services, by the Plantagenet kings, and were largely employed in court offices; Waldin also received manors in eight other parishes in this neighbourhood. Another favourite of the Conqueror, who received land here, was Alured, of Lincoln. The Domesday Survey gives him as owning 180 acres of arable, meadow, and wood land in Stixwould, with fifty-one manors in the county, beside lands elsewhere.
A still larger proprietor was Ivo Taillebois, Earl of Anjou, and nephew of the Conqueror. On him, William bestowed in marriage, the Saxon Lady Lucia, sister of Edgiva, wife of the late King Harold. Beside the lands of her father, Earl Algar, she had succeeded to the large possessions of her uncle, Sheriff Thorold, of the neighbouring Bucknall (where traditions still linger of him, and his sister, the “Lady Godiva.”) She was probably a kinswoman of the above Alured, of Lincoln, since his relative, Alan of Lincoln, is named in old deeds, as nephew of Thorold. Either through her, or by direct grant to himself, Ivo owned 1,020 acres in Stixwould, beside lands in 104 other parishes. On this Ivo Taillebois (or “Underwood” as the name signifies), we may here make a few remarks. He was commonly known as “the Lord of Holland,” through his wife’s extensive possessions in that division of the county, inherited from Thorold, her uncle, who was lord of Spalding, and he also had a fine residence at Spalding, where he lived in great state. He was, however, of a temperament fitted rather to inspire fear than affection. The chronicler, Ingulphus (“History of Croyland Abbey,”) tells us, that his dependants “supplicated him on bended knees, and did him all due service,” but, in return, he “tortured, harrassed, and daily loaded them with fresh burdens”; and by his cruelty, “compelled most of them to sell their property and seek other countries.” On the death of his patron, the Conqueror, he joined a conspiracy against William Rufus, and was banished the country. After a few years he was allowed to return, but died shortly afterwards of paralysis, in 1114. [188] Having been forced as a husband, by the Conqueror, upon the Lady Lucia, and being further of the temperament already described, we may assume that, as the saying is, there was “no love lost” between them, and we are therefore hardly surprised to find another old chronicler (Peter de Blois), saying, on the death of Ivo, “hardly had a month elapsed, when the Lady Lucia married that illustrious man, Roger de Romara, son of Gerald de Romara (seneschal or high steward of William, as Duke of Normandy), and that she lost all recollection of Ivo.”
These are the only two landowners, Saxon or Norman, mentioned in Domesday Book, as having property in Stixwould. The extent of their lands in the parish, all added together, amounted to rather less than 2,000 acres, whereas the present acreage is nearly 2,360, there is therefore a margin of between 300 and 400 acres unaccounted for; and this we may probably assume to have been waste land of bog and morass, subject to the Witham floods, and not brought under cultivation till centuries later. Accordingly, we find that the parish rate-book shows a sudden rise in value of certain land, owing to drainage early in the nineteenth century. We are not able to trace the successive landowners of Stixwould through a connected series. There would seem to be some confusion in the old chroniclers, between the Lady Lucia, who married Ivo Taillebois, and another lady of the same name, probably her daughter, who married Roger de Romara, [189a] and, on his death, married Ranulph, Earl of Chester. The eldest son of this Lady Lucia, by Roger de Romara, was William de Romara, who was created Earl of Lincoln, by King Stephen, A.D. 1140. His grandson, also William de Romara, married Philippa, daughter of John Count d’ Alencon, [189b] but died childless. His property would then pass to the descendants of the second husband of the Lady Lucia II., viz., Ranulph, Earl of Chester. The latter married his niece, the Countess Roheis, to Gilbert de Gaunt, whose grandfather was nephew of Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. He became Earl of Lincoln, and it is probable that the Earl of Chester’s property passed to him; among other such lands, being also those in Stixwould, and in this connection, it is interesting to note that, although in a less exalted position, there are still, in this twentieth century, Gaunts in this parish, whose very countenance would bespeak their Norman origin. In course of time, the lands of the Gaunts, passed, in great measure, to two families, namely, that of the Becks of Lusby, Spilsby, &c., and the Pinsons of Tattershall, &c. These two families flourished during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, and they, in turn, were succeeded by the Willoughbys, ancestors of the present Earl of Ancaster, and Lord Willoughby d’Eresby. A Court Roll, 9 Richard I., shows that Robt. Willoughby had then land in the adjoining Wispington, but there is indirect evidence to show that the Willoughbys had also property in Stixwould, since, in the twenty-second year of Edwd. III. (1348), John, the first Lord Willoughby d’Eresby, endowed the chantry of the Holy Trinity, at Spilsby, with certain lands in Stixwould, Fulletby, and other parishes (Pat., 22 Ed III); while further, in a charter of Baron Bek (circa 1300), conveying lands to Kirkstead Abbey, we find as witnesses to the deed, William de Wylcheby (i.e., Willoughby), two Beks, William de Thorp, and “Dominus,” Theobald de Hallested (“Architect. S. Journal,” 1897, p. 38); thus connecting, again, Halstead, or Stixwould, with a Willoughby, as well as his relatives, the Beks, of Spilsby, and the owners of Tattershall Thorpe.
At an earlier date than this, however, we find mention of other owners of Stixwould. In a list of landowners in Lindsey, in the reign of Henry I. (1100, 1135), we find Alan of Lincoln (already referred to as kinsman of Alured), owning six oxgangs (ninety acres), in this parish, with Gilbert Fitz-Gozelin, and Gerard as his tenants, as Siward had been under Alured; also Robert de Hay, owning here, one carucate (120 acres). (Cotton MSS., Claudius, C 5, fol. 9b., Brit. Museum, “Archit. Journ.,” 1881, p. 197.)
The de Hays were a wealthy family, owning lands in Cammerigham, Spridlington, Fillingham, Hackthorn, Owmby, Barlings and many other parishes. (Ibid, pp. 184, 185, &c.) One of them was among the Barons who signed the Magna Charter.
At the same date, we find a certain Ralph de Stixwald, holding land in Edlington, as tenant under Ranulph le Meschin; the latter being the second husband of the (second) Lady Lucy, Earl of Chester, and son of the Vicomte de Bessin, in Normandy. (Ibid., fol. 14, and “Archæolog. S. Proceedings,” 1848, p. 257).
Near the close of this 12th century (1 and 3 Richard I., 1190 and 1192), we find Roger de Stixwald (with Gerard de Camvill), Sheriff of the County. He was probably son of the above Ralph de Stixwould. (“Hist. Lincoln,” 1816, p. 200). These de Stikswalds resided at Halstead Hall, in this parish, which will be noticed hereafter under that head.
By an Inquisition, taken at Wragby (5 Richard II., 1381–2), it was shewn that Margaret, wife of John de Orbi, knight (Orby), held jointly with her husband, fifty-two acres of wood in Tattershall and Stixwold, with various other lands; and that Mary de Percy, wife of John de Roos, is their next heir; but that her brother, the Earl of Northumberland, occupied the land meanwhile. (“Linc. N. & Q.” vol. vi., No. 47). Her will was proved 29th Augt. 1394. Mentions of other owners in subsequent times are rather rare.