“Dns. John Hunter.
“Dns. Hugo Walters.”
This entry is followed by—
“Sirre Thomas Benson curate” who witnesses a will in 1563; and in 1569 we have “Master John Benson Rector.” In 1645 we have a “Mr. Benson” doing the duty as rector during the Commonwealth, and in 1646 we have “Sir Christopher Rawling,” who had probably served as curate for some years, as he is, at his child’s baptism in 1641, styled “Clericus.” Clearly this word “Sir” is here the translation of the Latin “Dominus,” and the previous entries bear out the statement that the prefix ‘Sir’ here betokens the lower order of clergy who had not graduated at either university. But that this was not a plan universally followed is made quite clear from the monuments at Bardney, where we find a rector and an abbot and a soldier all called “Dominus.” Perhaps in neither of these cases is it necessary to translate the word by ‘Sir,’ why not leave it at “Dominus”? From a letter in The Times, May, 1913, I gather that this word “Dominus” is responsible for the title “Lord Mayor.” The words “Dominus Major” are first found among the City of London Records for 1486, in an order issued for the destruction of unlawful nets and coal sacks of insufficient size. The words only meant “Sir Mayor,” but in course of time they came to be translated “The Lord The Mayor,” which easily passed into “The Lord Mayor,” a title which did not come into general use till 1535.
BARLINGS ABBEY
Barlings Abbey stood a mile west of the Benedictine nunnery of Stainfield, which was founded by Henry Percy in the twelfth century. The abbey was founded about the same time by Ralph de Hoya for Premonstratensian canons. This term is derived from the “Premonstratum” Abbey in Picardy, i.e., built in a place “pointed out” by the Blessed Virgin to be the headquarters of the Order. This was in 1120, and the Order first came to England in 1140. At the dissolution they seem to have had thirty-five houses here, Tupholme Abbey being one of them. The canons lived according to the rule of St. Augustine, and wore a white robe. In the revolt against the suppression of the smaller houses, known as “the Lincolnshire Rebellion,” or “the Pilgrimage of Grace,” in 1537, the prior of Barlings, Dr. Matthew Makkerell, a D.D. of Cambridge, took a prominent part, and under the name of Captain Cobbler, for he took that disguise, he led 20,000 men. They were dispersed by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and the prior was hanged at his own gate.
The abbey is sometimes called Oxeney, because the founders removed the canons from Barling Grange to a place called Oxeney in another part of the village, but the name followed them and Oxeney became Barlings.
Barlings and Stainfield are both near Bardney to the north, and Tupholme and Stixwould just as near on the south. Tupholme, like Barlings, has a Premonstratensian house, founded 1160. A wall of the refectory with lancet window, and a beautiful stone pulpit for the reader during meals is all that is left. It is close to the road from Horncastle to Bardney.
