On the Dissolution of the Monasteries, by Hen. VIII., that sovereign in 1541, gave the lands of Stixwould Priory in this parish, to Robert Dighton. The Dightons had amassed considerable wealth, as merchants in Lincoln. A Robert Dighton was Mayor in 1494, and again in 1506, and William Dighton was Sheriff in 1533. The Robert Dighton, who thus became a landowner in Stixwould, resided at the old hall of Stourton Parva, in the parish of Baumber, dividing the ownership of that parish with the Earls of Lincoln, afterwards Dukes of Newcastle. He married Joyce, daughter and heiress of William St. Paul; the St. Pauls being a good family, later represented by Sir George St. Paul, Bart., who died in 1613. Robert Dighton’s daughter, married first, Judge Dalison, and secondly, Sir F. Ayscough, Bart. (“Archit. Journ.,” 1891, p. 16). Members of both these families took part in the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536, along with John Heneage, Edwd. Dymoke (Sheriff), William Willoughby, Thimblebies, Massingberds, and many others. (“State Papers,” Henry VIII., vol. ii. p. 971, “Architect. S. Journal,” 1894. pp. 174, &c). A daughter of Thomas Dighton married Edwd. Clinton, second son of the first Earl of Lincoln, of that line (temp. Elizabeth.)
Another family, here comes on the scene, viz., the Thimblebys, who resided at Poolham, a hamlet of the adjoining parish of Edlington; and for some generations owned land in Stixwould. Their chief residence was at Irnham, near Bourn, where Richard Thimbleby Esq., in 1510, built the hall, a fine mansion, standing in a well-wooded deer park; having acquired the property by marriage with an heiress of the Hiltons, whose ancestor, Sir Geoffrey Hilton, again, had obtained it by marriage with an heiress of the Luterels; that family having also succeeded to it in the person of Sir Andrew Luterel, who married an heiress of the Paganels, on whose ancestor, the Norman, Ralph Paganel, it had been bestowed by the Conqueror. The pedigree of the Thimblebys is given in the Herald’s Visitation of 1562. They owned property in Claxby, Normanby, Tetford (manor with advowson), Haltham, High Toynton, Horsington (with moiety of advowson), and many other parishes. They doubtless took their name from the proximate parish of Thimbleby, as we find them first designated as John, Thomas, &c., “de Thimbleby.”
By a Chancery Inquisition post mortem, of date, 1333 (7 Ed. III.), taken on Friday after the feast of St. Matthew (Sep. 21), at Haltham, it was shewn that Nicholas de Thymelby held certain land in Haltham, of the right of his wife Matilda, with lands in Thimbleby, under the Bishop of Carlisle, and lands in Stikeswold, of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln. He was succeeded by his son John, who married Isabel, daughter and co-heir of Sir William Fflete, knt., and his successor, William Thymelby, Esq., apparently married Joan, daughter of Sir Walter Taillebois, one of the family connected with Stixwould, through the Lady Lucia, already named, nearly 400 years earlier; Sir Walter was grandnephew of Gilbert Umfravill, Earl of Angus. (“Architect. Journ.,” 1896, pp. 297–8).
Again (nearly 200 years later), by a Court of Ward’s Inquisition (3, 4, 5, Ed. VI.,) it was shown that Matthew Thimbleby, who married Anne, daughter of Sir Robert Hussey, was seised of lands in Styxwolde, Horsington, Edlington, Thymylby, Buckland (i.e. Woodhall), &c., inheriting them from his father (Ibid. p. 258). His widow married Sir Robert Savile, knt., of Poolham, and through her, he died in 1585–6 (Jany. 24), seised of the same land in Stixwolde, &c.
We now pass over eighty years, during which another change in the ownership has taken place.
In 1665, and again in 1685, Sir John Coventry, K.B. presented to the benefice, and was probably lord of the manor. At the beginning of the 18th century, Sir Thomas Keate had succeeded as patron (Ecton’s “Thesaurus,” p. 183) and his widow, Agnes Keate, was owner in 1704. (Liber Regis, p. 424). This name is written Kyte, in the “Histories of Lincolnshire,” by Weir, and by Saunders. They are said to have been a Warwickshire family; the last of them, Sir William, squandered a large fortune, and, in a fit of despair, set fire to his fine mansion in the Cotswold hills, and himself perished in the flames. The manor of Stixwould had been previously sold by him to Lord Anson, the distinguished Naval Commander, and Circumnavigator, Lord High Admiral of England, &c., who presented to the benefice in 1753. On his death, in 1762, his son, Thomas Anson, Esq., of Shuckborough, Co. Stafford, succeeded to the property, and presented to the benefice in 1767.
In 1763, Mary Lister, fourth daughter of Matthew Lister, Esq., of Burwell Park, near Louth, married (19 May), Thomas Elmhirst, Esq., of Stixwould (Parish Register of Burwell, quoted “Archit. Soc. Journal,” 1897, p. 92). He was probably at that time tenant of the Abbey Farm House. Matthew Lister, her father, had married Grace, widow of Sir Edward Boughton, Bart., daughter, and co-heir of Sir John Shuckborough, Bart., of Shuckborough, at which place also resided the above-named Thomas Anson, son of Lord Anson.
The whole estate of Stixwould was afterwards purchased by Edmund Turnor, Esq., of Stoke Rochford, who first presented to the benefice in 1778, his nominee, as Vicar, being a member of a very old Lincolnshire family, Bernard Cracroft, who also held the Vicarage of Bardney. A former Sir Edmund Turnor was knighted by Charles II., in 1663, as a reward for services rendered to that king’s martyred father. The property still remains with this family. Among the gentry of Lincolnshire named at the Heralds’ Visitation in 1634, is Edwd. Broxholme “of Stixwould,” who seems to have had relatives at Lincoln, North Kelsey, Grimsby, Nettleham, and elsewhere among the county gentry; one of them, John of Otbye, contributing £25 to the national loan for defence against the Spanish Armada. (“Linc. N. & Q.” ii., pp. 9 and 134). Whether this Edward Broxholme was a landowner in Stixwould, or a tenant, does not appear. He resided at the Priory.
We now give a brief notice of Stixwould Priory, dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary. This was founded by the Lady Lucia (i.e., the second of that name), and her two sons, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, and William de Romara, Earl of Lincoln (Leland “Collect.,” vol. i., p. 92), in the reign of Stephen. The Rev. Thos. Cox, in his “Lincolnshire” (of date, 1719), ascribes the foundation to Galfred de Ezmondeys. [194] Doubtless, at different periods, additions and augmentations were made to the original institution, entitling the benefactors to be numbered among the “fundatores”; but the general testimony of Leland, Dugdale, and others, is in favour of the Lady; whose uncle, Sheriff Thorold, was a benefactor to Croyland Abbey, and founded Spalding Priory, his sister, the Lady Godiva, also (as the Chronicler Henry of Huntingdon tells us), spending much of her vast wealth in building monasteries and churches, while her descendant, William de Romara II., founded Revesby Abbey. By an Inquisition taken 3 Edwd. I. (1275), it was found that the lands held by the Priory, given by these and other benefactors, had been so held for 100 years (Dugdale’s “Monasticon” i., p. 56, No. 486); and further, by an Inquisition at Stamford, in the same reign, it was found that the Priory had certain lands at Huntingdon, from divers benefactors (“Ibid.” ii., p. 223, No. 809), one of these being Alexander Creveceur, a member of a distinguished Norman family, who owned lands in Somersby, circa A.D., 1242, and in several other parishes in this neighbourhood; the name also appearing in the Battle Roll. They are now represented by the de Courcy’s whose chief, Lord Kinsale, is premier Baron of Ireland, and entitled by royal warrant to the singular privilege of keeping his hat on in the Sovereign’s presence. Besides the Huntingdon property, the Priory possessed house property in Lincoln, 900 acres of land in Honington, 120 in Bassingthorpe, 120 in Bucknall, 42 in Wyberton, 249 in Stixwould, with the advowson of the Church; smaller amounts in Westby, Waynfleet, Horkstow, Wymondham, Low Toynton, Tupholme, the advowson of Waynfleet benefice; 2 tofts in Horsington, to provide candles for the altar, and a pension from Alford; while the Prioress also received as lesser perquisites, obits, mortuaries, Easter offerings, “shot for wax,” “Lincoln farthings,” “Assize of bread and beer,” and various “fines and amerciaments.” (Oliver’s “Religious Houses,” pp. 65, 6.)
As to the particular ecclesiastical order to which this Priory belonged, authorities differ. In Thomas Coxe’s “Lincolnshire” (already referred to), it is called a Gilbertine Institution; Stukeley (in his “Itinerarium Curiosum,” vol. i., p. 88), calls it Benedictine; while Dugdale, in his “Monasticon,” vol. i., No. 486, places it among the Benedictines, and in vol. ii., No. 809, gives it as Gilbertine; while Noble and others call it Cistercian. The Cistercians, however, were only a stricter sect of the Benedictines. The early training of Gilbert had been mainly Cistercian, and we shall therefore probably be right in saying that Stixwould Priory was at first a Gilbertine, and afterwards changed to a Benedictine establishment of the strictest order. As to the strictness of the regulations, we gather full evidence from the accounts given by Dr. Oliver, in his “Religious Houses on the Witham,” from which we here make a few quotations. We may premise that, although the sisterhood consisted nominally of a Prioress and Nuns, there was a resident male “Master of the Nuns” (Court Rolls, 6 Richard I.); and, at times, at least, according to Leland (“Collect.,” i., p. 92), there were also “Brothers” (fratres), as at the Sempringham House, which Gilbert founded. The time of the nuns was chiefly spent in works of charity, reading legends of the Saints, solitary meditation and prayer (a perfunctory repetition of devotions, which must too often have been deadening, rather than invigorating, to spiritual life), and needlework, such as the embroidery of altar cloths, &c. [196a] They were not even allowed to converse with each other, except on permission from the Prioress; they could only converse with friends from outside through a grating “of the length of a finger, and barely a thumb’s breadth,” and with a veil over it, in the presence of two “discreet sisters”; and all letters were inspected by the Prioress. The Convent was so shut in by walls, as “scarcely (it was said) to leave an entrance for birds,” and, during divine service, the door of the choir, where they sat, was closed, so that they could not see, or be seen by, strangers. The diet was of the plainest, and if a nun was disobedient, it was reduced to bread and water. They were not allowed to go beyond the Priory walls except to visit the sick, or attend funerals; and even in the Priory garden, usually a resort for monastic recreation, but an indulgence only granted to these sisters on Sundays and festivals, they were allowed to pluck only jessamine and violets, except by special permission. These rules, however, were occasionally relaxed; they were permitted to cultivate music and dancing, and even to attend the village sports (Oliver, p. 67, note 8); and the Prioress, who by charter had free warren over the Priory lands, is said to have indulged in hawking and hunting (Placit. de quo Warranto, 22 Edwd. I.) [196b] This house was dissolved with more than 600 other monastic establishments by Henry VIII. in the 27th year of his reign (A.D. 1536); a year later he founded in its place, and with the same revenues, “for the good of his soul, and that of his Consort Jane,” a Premonstratensian house, which, however, only continued two years, when it, in turn, was abolished. The last Prioress under the old regime was Helena Key; the first and only Prioress, under the new regime, being Mary Missenden (Dugdale “Monast.,” iii., No. 81.) The estates, as already mentioned, were bestowed, on the final dissolution of this house, upon Robert Dighton. According to Speed, the historian, the value of the estates was £163 1s. 2½d., which was in those days a considerable sum. The steward for some of the Lindsey estates of the Priory was John Heneage, brother of Sir Thomas Heneage of Hainton; for others of the estates in the same division, Sir Robert Dymoke; for the estates in Kesteven, Sir Robert Hussey, a younger brother of Lord Hussey, of Sleaford; these two brothers having between them no less than 23 stewardships for religious houses, that post being one of no small emolument.