[196a] “Monasticon,” p. 45.
[196b] “History of the House of Marmion,” p. 18.
[197a] Berewick is a hamlet or minor manor attached to a larger. The word strictly means cornland (bere, or barley). This Dispenser, as his name (Latin Dispensator) implies, was steward to the Conqueror. His descendants were the Despensers, Earls of Gloucester. He was brother to the Earl Montgomery. Being a powerful man, he forcibly seized the lordship of Elmley from the monks of Worcester. At the time of Domesday he held 15 manors in Lincolnshire, seventeen in Leicester, four in Warwickshire, &c.
[197b] Maddison’s “Wills,” series i., p. 360, No. 96.
[198] In a note on the Will, Mr. Maddison says, “The testator was the second son of Robert Dighton (of Sturton), by his wife, Joyce St. Paul (a lady of another very old and well-connected county family).”
[199a] Land Revenue Records, bundle 1392, file 79, Pub. Rec. Off.
[199b] North’s “Church Bells of Lincolnshire,” p. 497, ed. 1882.
[200a] There are still Willoughbys in the neighbourhood, and one living in Langton.
[200b] There are, however, several modern spires since this saying came into vogue, two—at Horsington and Wispington—being within sight from Woodhall, and a third at Sausthorpe near Spilsby, a very fine one, designed by Mr. Stephen Lewin, who was the architect of St. Andrew’s Church, Woodhall Spa.
[201] Gov. Geol. Survey, “Country round Lincoln,” p. 205.