Memorials of Old Lincolnshire

by Unknown

Perhaps the Watertons may be taken as an almost solitary instance of the survival of a family which held a very high position in the county in the twelfth century. The great Lincolnshire estates, it is true, passed to the Welles family in the fifteenth century, but a junior branch continued at Walton in Yorkshire down to recent times. Walton has been sold, but the late Mr. Edmund Waterton became possessed of property in St. James Deeping, where the original manor of Waterton was, and was “of Waterton Deeping.” Still, although descended from this ancient race, his line, for many hundreds of years, was connected rather with Yorkshire than Lincolnshire.

But the Langtons, of Langton by Spilsby, are an instance, quite unique in this county, of a family retaining possession of the manor and advowson of their estate from the thirteenth century. They seem to have held a higher position then than they did in later times. Strange to say, no Langton was Sheriff of the county till 1612.

The Thorolds must be content to give up the legend of being descended from a Saxon sheriff. It is surely enough to be able to say they hold property which came to them from a Lincolnshire heiress in the fourteenth century, and led them to leave Yorkshire for Marston in Lincolnshire.

The Heneages have held Hainton since the early part of the fifteenth century, and there is no doubt they were connected with it long before. What, however, is doubtful is whether their position was quite so high as a pedigree drawn up in the eighteenth century gives them. The really great person at Hainton in 1398 was Lord de la Warr, who was lord of the manor, and who in his will, proved 1st August 1398, directs that Edward of the Hill and John Heneage should immediately after his death hold conjointly his manors of Hainton for the term of their lives, and then that the reversion of the said manors should be sold, and the proceeds distributed among the poor. He also leaves 100 marks to John Heneage for a certain mansion within his (Lord de la Warr’s) demesne. He leaves Richard Wolmer his manor of Albryghton for life, and makes him, John Heneage and others, executors. When we find the Heneages afterwards in possession of the manor of Hainton, and the Wolmers of the manor of Bloxholm (also de la Warr property) it is not unreasonable to suppose that they became possessors by purchase. The Wolmers have long since passed away.

The Massingberds held land in Sutterton as early as the reign of Edward I., but moved to Burgh, Gunby, and Bratoft later on, having married a succession of heiresses. The estates have passed by marriage to cadets of the Langton and Mundy families, and the present rector of Ormsby, who has been the historian of his parish and family, is the heir male.

The Dymokes of Scrivelsby came originally in the fourteenth century from Gloucestershire. Every one knows their peculiar tenure of that manor which carries with it the right of the Championship. Every one, however, does not know the strange vicissitudes of the family—how that before the death of the old Champion, Lewis Dymoke, in 1760, he had to choose between two branches of his family as his heirs; the one in trade in London, the other in the ranks of the yeomanry in Lincolnshire. He chose the former, which was really the junior of the two, and yet, after more than a century, it became extinct, and the yeoman branch holds Scrivelsby.

The Smyths of Elkington hold an estate which they acquired in the fifteenth century. The pedigree has not been fully worked out, but it would seem that they originally were what their name implies—“Johannes Faber,” being “John the Smith.”

The Cracrofts of Hackthorn are a genuine old Lincolnshire race. They held in early times the manor of Cracroft Hall in Hogsthorpe. Warinus de Cracroft is witness in a deed of the early twelfth century. This manor passed away late in the sixteenth century, but a junior branch held land in Burgh in the marsh at the beginning of that period, and by a fortunate marriage with an heiress of the Grantham family became possessed about 1616 of the present estate of Hackthorn. Robert Cracroft had a licence for an oratory in his house of Cracroft in 1345. The family was once one of the most widely spread in Lincolnshire, but it is now seldom to be found.

The Welbys of Denton cannot prove their descent from the Moulton Welbys, though there is very strong reason for thinking it probable. They own Welby, but it was acquired by purchase.