An Inquisition in the reign of Henry VII.[1] (A.D. 1502) shows that Thomas Fitz-William held the manors of Mavis Enderby, Maidenwell and Mablethorpe. The list of magistrates for the county in the reign of Henry Vlll.[2] contains the name of George Fitz-William along with Lionel Dymoke, Lord Willoughby, and others; while an Inquisition held five years later[3] shews that Thomas Fitz-William held the aforementioned manor of Ulceby, by the "service of 1 falcon annually to the King." Sir William Fitz-William in the same reign[4] was Lord High Admiral. John Fitz-William is named in the Herald's list of county gentry in the 16th century as residing at Skidbrook, a hamlet of Saltfleet Haven,[5] and William Fitz-William, Esq., supplied "one lance and two light horse" when the Spanish Armada was expected to invade England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.[6] William Fitz-William of Mablethorpe[7] married, in 1536, Elizabeth daughter of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, of Kettlethorpe, a member of a very old Lincolnshire family, still owning property in this neighbourhood; and in 1644 Sir William Wentworth,[8] a scion of a younger branch, married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Savile, of Wakefield, whose family we have already mentioned as connected with Horncastle.
In 1620 the head of the Fitz-William family was created an Irish Peer; in 1742 the 3rd Baron was made Baron Milton in the peerage of Great Britain; and, 4 years later, Earl Fitz-William. In 1782, on the death of his uncle, the last Marquis of Rockingham, the Earl of that day succeeded to the Yorkshire and Northamptonshire estates of the Wentworths, and in 1807 they took the name of Wentworth as an affix. In the early part of the 19th century the name became again connected with Horncastle, when Earl Fitz-William, grandfather of the present Earl, hunted the local pack of foxhounds, which were kept in Horncastle, in what is still called Dog-kennel Yard, at the back of St. Lawrence Street. An old friend, formerly practicing as a Doctor in Horncastle, but lately deceased, has told the writer that he remembered seeing the Earl's hounds breaking cover from Whitehall Wood, in the parish of Martin.
There is one more Carlisle document deserving of quotation as it is of a peculiar nature. A Patent Roll of the reign of Elizabeth,[9] A.D. 1577, records that a "pardon" was granted to "Sir Thomas Cecil, Knt., for acquiring the manor of Langton (by Horncastle) with appurtenances, and 30 messuages, 20 cottages, 40 tofts, 4 dove-cotes, 40 gardens, 30 orchards, 1,400 acres of (cultivated) land, 100 acres of wood, 100 acres of furze and heath, 200 acres of marsh, 40s. of rent, and common pasture, with appurtenances, in Horncastle, Thimbleby, Martin, Thornton and Woodhall, from Philip Tylney, Esq., by fine levied without licence." This was a somewhat extensive acquisition. We have already recorded a more than questionable transaction in the transfer of land by Richard Thymelby and Robert Savile, A.D. 1564, and this trans-
- ↑ Chancery Inquisition, 18 Henry VII., No. 34, taken at East Rasen, 26 Oct., 1502.
- ↑ Commission of Peace, 13 July, 15 10, quoted Lincs. Notes & Queries Jan. 1896, p. 15.
- ↑ Inquisition post mortem, 6 Henry VIII., 20 Jan., A.D. 1515. Old Lincolnshire vol. i, p. 221.
- ↑ Circa A.D. 1536. Architectural Society' s Journal, 1895, p. 14.
- ↑ Architectural Society's Journal 1894, p. 192.
- ↑ Architectural Society's Journal 1894» p. 215.
- ↑ Architectural Society's Journal 1894, p. 221.
- ↑ Architectural Society's Journal 1879. Pedigree of Fitz-Williams p. 44, &c. A Douglas Tyrwhitt of this family, daughter of George Tyrwhitt, Esq., in 1703 left a dole of 10/-, charged on land at Belchford, to the poor of Horncastle.
- ↑ Patent Roll, 19 Elizabeth, pt. iv, m. 13, a May, 1577.
