[137] I may, perhaps, here explain that “non-jurors” were those persons who considered that James II. was unjustly deposed, and who refused to swear allegiance to William III. and his successors. Non-jurors were subjected to double taxation, and obliged to register their estates (1723); and from the first were excluded from any public office. I may also here state that the Sir Richard Morrison who is named in this epitaph was a man of great learning, and employed by Henry VIII. and Edward VI. in several embassies to the greatest princes in Europe (Camden’s “Britannia,” p. 302). He was also appointed “President of Mounster in Ireland.” He had a brother, Fynes Morrison, who was fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, who obtained from his college permission to travel, and spent eight years in foreign parts. On his return he went to Ireland and became secretary to Sir Charles Blount, the Lord Lieutenant. There he wrote an account, in Latin, of his “Travels through the twelve dominions of Germany, Bohemia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, England, Scotland and Ireland.” These he afterwards translated into English, but they were not published till three years after his death, which occurred in 1614. His works are a treasury of old-time information, and he is named in the second volume of “Magna Britannia” among the learned men whom our county has produced.
[138] It is a coincidence which seems to merit a note, that on the very day on which these lines were penned it was the writer’s duty to unite in the bonds of wedlock a young woman whose mother’s maiden-name was Fynes, to her cousin, Charles Fynes: their common grandfather, Charles Pelham Fynes, a fine sample of the old English yeoman, having been, as well as two of his sons, the tenant of land held under the writer, and under his father before him, during many years.
[139] This font which is old Norman, plain, but massive, was, some years ago, taken away from its position at Poolham, and, by way of rescuing it from destruction, was placed as an ornamental relic in the garden of Whispington Vicarage, by the late Rev. C. P. Terrot who was, in his day, one of our greatest antiquaries. When the writer restored Woodhall Church, in 1893, the font in that church being of no architectural value, he obtained the gift of this ancient font and restored it to its original religious purpose, where it now stands, supported by four handsome columns of serpentine, the gift of the Rev. J. A. Penny, the present Vicar of Whispington. The gravestone here referred to was taken away some years ago, and now forms the sill of a cottage doorway in Stixwould.
[142a] He sold Tetford to George Anton, Esq., through whose daughter Elizabeth, married to Sir Edward Hussey, that property passed to the Hussey family, the head of which was Lord Hussey of Sleaford, who, for his treachery at the time of the Lincolnshire Rebellion, was attainted and beheaded by Henry VIII., as were also the Abbots of Kirkstead and Barlings, and many more. He sold Somersby to George Littlebury (to whom there is a memorial tablet in the church), a younger son of Thomas Littlebury of Stainsby. These Littleburys, again, Sir John of Stainsby, with Humphrey of Hagworthingham, and Robert his brother, were all mixed up with the Lincolnshire Rising; so, also, was their relative, Andrew Gedney, “lord of Oxcombe and of Bag Enderby” (of whom, and his wife Dorothy, there is a mural monument in the church), who married a daughter of Sir William Skipwith of South Ormsby; so, also, were the Dightons, Robert of Stourton and Thomas of Waddingworth, all in this neighbourhood; so, also, was William Dalyson, of a very old family (D’Alencon) of Laughton; with scores more: John Savile of Poolham, Vincent Welby of Halstead Hall, Stixwould; several Dymokes, Heneages, Massingberds, Tyrwhitts, &c., &c. But these are mentioned here because the Littleburys, the Gedneys, the Dightons and the Dalysons, were connected, in one way or another, with the family, on one side, of the present writer. He may further add here, in connection with the Saviles, that when the first Napoleon was expected to invade England, a Company of Volunteer Grenadiers was raised in the loyal town of Pontefract, of which a Savile, Lord Mexborough, was Colonel Commandant, and the writer’s grandfather, George Pyemont, of Tanshelf House, of Methley and Rothwell, was Major. The Major’s sword hangs on the dining-room wall at Langton Rectory.
[142b] Thoroton’s “Hist. of Notts.,” vol. iii., p. 360.
[142c] “Collin’s Peer.,” vol. i., p. 207. This Denzil Hollis, or Holles, is mentioned in the list, given at the “Spittle Sessions,” March 1, 1586–7, of those gentry who supplied “launces and light hors,” as furnishing ij. horse, being “captaine”; John Savile of Poolham furnishing “ij. launces and ij. horse.”
[142d] “Illustrations of English History.”
[143a] “Lansdown MSS.” 27, Art. 41.
[143b] This would be the present Halstead wood, on the western side of Stobourne; the ditch, or sto-bourne, running between the two is the bourne or boundry of the two parishes, Woodhall and Stixwould (or Halstead), where the Welbys lived at that time. The first syllable of Sto-bourne would be “stow” or “stoc” a “stake” or post, marking the boundary; oftener used as a suffix than a prefix, as in Hawkstow, Chepstow, Woodstock, &c.
[143c] Thomas Metham of Metham. The chief seat of the Methams was Bullington Priory. A George Metham was executor, with Andrew Gedney, to Sir William Skipwith’s will proved 31st March, 1587. Metham’s letter, quoted above, is given in the “Lansdown MSS.” 27, Art. 32.