Wispington is situated about 4 miles from Horncastle, in a north-westerly direction; adjoining Edlington on the east, Baumber on the north, Waddingworth on the west, and Horsington and Edlington on the south. Letters arrive from Horncastle at 9 a.m. The nearest money order office is at Horncastle, and telegraph office at Baumber.
Like two of the parishes just mentioned as contiguous, the name of Wispington contains the Anglo-Saxon patronymic “ing.” A Saxon settler named Uisp, or Wisp, probably took up his residence here; his children formed the “family” of Uisp, or Wisp-“ing”; and the settlement or enclosure, which they occupied, was the Uisp-ing-town, or Wispington. [231] Under the ruthless rule of William the Conqueror, these early occupants would be displaced, and their land given to some favourite of that King; under whom possibly the late Saxon thane, and his family, might, at least, be allowed to labour as serfs. Accordingly we find, in the great survey made for the Conqueror, called “Doomsday Book,” because it recorded the doom of so many, whom he subjugated, or dispossessed, two mentions of this parish. The first of these, places it amongst the possessions of William de Karilepho, who had been Abbot of St. Vincent, but was promoted by the Conqueror to the Bishopric of Durham, as well as being made Chief Justice of England. Old Chroniclers say that he was a man of great determination, but regulated by judgment; and he ingratiated himself with the King, who gave him large possessions in Lincolnshire, and other counties; a quarrel, however, with the succeeding King, Rufus, so wounded his pride, that he died of chagrin. He held of the King, a large part of this parish, viz., 4 carucates (or 480 acres), 2 carucates of which were rateable to the tax called “gelt” (2s. to the carucate, or 120 acres). Wispington is there said to be “in the soke” of Great Stourton, and Kirkby-on-Bain, i.e., within the liberty, or under the jurisdiction, of those parishes. There was no resident proprietor at that date, but 9 sokemen (or free tenants) and 6 bordars worked the land under their “Mesne or Lord” the land being his “de-mense” or domain, i.e., Lordship. The second mention of the parish in Domesday gives its whole extent as 8 carucates (or 960 acres), divided between the above-named Bishop and another of the Conqueror’s favourites, not seldom named in these records, viz., Eudo, son of Spirewic, Lord of Tattershall, who claimed, over the Bishop, the lion’s share, namely, two thirds of the parish.
How long the Bishops of Durham continued in possession does not appear, but in the “Lindsey Survey” (circa A.D., 1114) Ranulph, Bishop of that See, had 9 carucates of land (or 1080 acres) in Wispington, Kirkby, and two other parishes; and, according to the old record, “Testa de Nevill” (p. 335), the Bishop of that day still held the same (circa 1214, A.D.); while in the 46th year of the reign of Edwd. III. (A.D. 1373), on the death of John Willoughby of Eresby, it is stated that he held all his manors, among which Wispington is named, “of the Bishop of Durham, by the service of being his steward, and carrying to the table the messes of meat, on the day of his consecration, and on the feasts of Christmas and Whitsuntide,” so that, at that date, the Bishop would seem to have been still the superior Lord of Wispington, as of the other connected Manors. (“Fragmenta Antiquitatis”; quoted “Linc. N. & Q.,” July 1896, p. 38).
After this period the ownership is not quite clear. But this we can state. We have seen that Eudo, son of Spirewic, owned two thirds of Wispington, by gift from the Conqueror. His son, Hugh Fitz Eudo, commonly called Brito, founded Kirkstead Abbey, in 1137, A.D., and that religious house, at a later period, became possessed of land in Wispington, and the benefice thereof. But meanwhile the ownership changed more than once. From the Lansdowne M.S. (207 e., f. 455) in the British Museum, we find that Walter Bek, [233] who had come from Flanders, late in the 12 century, married Agnes, daughter of Pinso, and became, through his wife, Lord of Spilsby, Eresby, Lusby, Wispington, and other parishes; so that Eudo, and his later representatives, seem to have passed from the scene, and the successors of his quondam companion in arms, Pinso, to have taken their place.
By a Court Roll (9. Richard I., A.D., 1198), it appears that Philip, son of Robert, “put in a plea against Henry Bek, for a Knight’s fee,” i.e., a certain portion of land “in Tattershall, Wispington, and Kirkby.” (“Architect S. Journ,” xxiv. pt. i. p. 39).
We further find, from “Testa de Nevill,” (p. 335, “Wapentake of Horncastle,”) that Simon de Driby, held, “of the Fee of Tattershall,” (circa A.D. 1215), lands in Kirkby, Waddingworth, Wispington, and other places under Robert of Tattershall; the Wispington portion, therefore, was probably that formerly held by Eudo.
When Walter Bek’s sons succeeded to his property, the eldest, Henry, received as his portion the manors of Spilsby, Scrivelsby, Wispington, etc. (Harleian MS., 3720, f. 23.)
With the beginning of the 14th century, another prominent family is found connected with this parish. Sir William Willoughby married Alice, daughter of John Bek, Lord of Eresby; and a “Feet of Fines,” of date A.D. 1304, (Lincoln, file 69, 31 Edwd. I.) shows that a law-suit arose between John Bek, plaintiff, and Robert Willoughby, defendant, as to the possession of lands in Wispington, Thimbleby, Langton, Woodhall, etc., and the advowson of Wispington, which ended in a compromise, Robert granting the lands and advowson to John, for his life-time, but to revert, on his decease, to Robert and his heirs for ever. (“Architect S. Journal,” xxiv. p. 52). The manor and advowson of Wispington thus passed to the ancestors of the Lords of Willoughby. In the next century, we find these transferred to Kirkstead Abbey, as shown by the following entry, in the “Kalendar of Patent Rolls 1399–1401”:—“1401, April 20. Licence paid in the hanaper for Philip de Dispenser, Knight; James Roos, knight; Eudo de Zouche, clerk; Richard de Wynnewick, clerk; Richard de Chesterfield, clerk; Henry Malbys, parson of the Church of Wylughby; and Thomas Fitz William of Mablethorpe, to grant in mortmain a toft and 4 bovates of land, in Wyspyngton, and the advowson of the Church of the same town, not held in chief, to the Abbot, and Convent of Kirkstede, in aid of their maintenance.” (p. 477). [234]
This was further confirmed, A.D. 1401, May 2, with the addition that the “Abbot and Convent of Kirkstede” might “serve the Benefice by a Chaplain, Monk, or Secular” (pp. 278, 279).
We are, after this period, unable to give (as has been done in the cases of some other parishes), a connected series of proprietors. There are however, various scattered records of individual owners, which possess some interest. In a Bardney Abbey Charter, lately recovered by the Rev. J. A. Penny, the present Vicar of Wispington, Thomas Sely of Wispington, and Henry son of Andrew, of the same place, are witnesses to a deed, of date May 22, 1281, signed in the Chapter House of that Monastery, “on the Sunday next after the Ascension of our Lord,” by which the Abbot of that House gives up for himself and his successors, all claim to his bondman, William, son of Peter Hardigray, with all his goods and chattels, in favour of Thomas Thorley of Gautby. It is worthy of notice, that, by another charter, this same Thomas Thorley, of Gautby, grants to the above William Hardigray, no longer a bondman, but Rector of Mareham, certain lands and tenements in the adjoining parish of Edlington. The two were, therefore, evidently close friends. This deed is witnessed by Henry, son of John, of Wispington, Simon Francis, of Edlington, William son of Master Bartholomew, of Thimbleby, and others.