Bourne Archive: Bourne: Foster

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The Bourne Archive


C.W. Foster’s Introduction to his Transcription of the Parish Register of Bourne Abbey (1921)


Originally published by Lincolnshire Record Society


This document was transcribed from a book lent by the Lincolnshire County Library Service, to which I offer my thanks.


The wapentake of Aveland, in which Bourne is the principal town, is a part of Lincolnshire which has not yet found a historian 1 i ; and there seems to be but little hope that the projected Victoria County History, of which a volume appeared in 1906, will be continued.

Although it is beyond the scope of a short introduction like the present to tell the history of Bourne, with its abbey, its chapels, its castle, its barony, its manors, and its principal families, it seems desirable to mention a few facts which may lead to a better understanding of the part of the parish register which is now printed for the members of the Lincoln Record Society.

The parish of Bourne contains the hamlets of Cawthorpe and Dyke. In the time of Henry VIII, 2 Egate or Eagate, on the eastern side of the town or, in other words, the part of the town which lay to the east of the Car Dyke, was reckoned as a hamlet or district. The name is evidently derived from the Bourne Ea, 3  the stream which rises in the town, and flows eastward to join the River Glen at Tongue End. This district is now known as Eastgate, and its chief street is called by the same name; but certainly in the former connection, and probably in the latter also, the name is a corruption of the ancient Eagate.

The parish church of Bourne with several other churches, and land in Bourne and elsewhere, was given in 1138 by Baldwin son of Gilbert to Gervase abbot of Arrouaise, in Artois, in the Diocese of Arras, for the foundation of a monastery. The house, according to the evidence of the earliest charters and of its conventual seal, was dedicated to Saint Peter, but in later times it had the double dedication of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, 4 which persists to the present day. The inmates were canons sent from Arrouaise, and members of the Arrouaisian congregation which was a sub-division of the Augustinian order. After a time the connection with Arrouaise was lost, and the canons came to be regarded as members of the order of St. Augustine. The canons used the quire or eastern part of the church for their offices, and the inhabitants of Bourne had the nave as their parish church.

To provide for the religious needs of the parishioners a vicarage ii was constituted early in the thirteenth century, and endowed with a stipend of six marks a year. The vicar was to have his victuals as a secular vicar at the canons’ table; his groom likewise was to be maintained; and the abbey was to provide forage for his horse. Whenever the vicar travelled on the church’s business he was to have a portion of meat and drink (prebendam) according to the means of the house. For his raiment he was to be allowed twenty shillings a year: and he was to have the oblations iii on the greater festivals, and a penny for espousals, and a penny for a corse-present (pro corpore presenti5), and the secundum legatum ; and further he was to have a toft iv within the abbey, near the gate. 6

After the dissolution of the abbey in 1539, v the nave continued to serve its original purpose, while the monastic quire also seems to have been used for parochial purposes. In a report on the state of the churches in the county of Lincoln, in August 1602, it was stated that both church and chancel were well repaired and decently kept. 7 Edmund Lolley, vicar of Bourne, was buried in the chancel in 1632. Later, the quire fell into decay, and in 1807 the present chancel was built, ancient materials being in large measure used for the purpose. vi

At the time of the suppression of the house, the community consisted of an abbot and twelve canons. On 12 February, 1536-7, Richard Riche, of London, grocer, received from the Court of Augmentations a lease of the rectory for twenty-one years, and Richard Cotton, of Bedhampton, in Hampshire, a similar lease on the site and demesne of the abbey. 8 vii On 31 December, 1538, Cotton and his wife Joan obtained a grant from the Crown of the reversion of these two leases, and a grant of the church, steeple, and churchyard, with the demesne and other lands of the abbey. 9 In June 1553, they conveyed to the Crown the manors of Bourne and Morton, the site [of the abbey] or capital messuage of Bourne, 200 messuages, lands, tenements, and rents in Bourne, Cawthorpe, Dyke, Westgate, Wilsthorpe, Morton, and Hanthorpe, the rectory of Bourne with its tithes, and the free warren and view of frankpledge of Bourne. 10 An indenture, dated 24 June in the same year, shews that the grantors received from the Crown in exchange the Dee mills and fishings near Chester. 11 Sometime in the earlier part of the seventeenth century the manor, including the site of the demesne of the abbey, came into the possession of the Trollopes. Against the baptism of Robert son of Thomas Trollope, someone has written in a late hand, ‘Robert Trollope of Bourne Abbey 156912.’ viii The remark is more imaginative than accurate, for it places the Trollopes’ ownership too early; and moreover the Robert Trollope in question died when he was only three years old. This manor was the monastic manor, ix and it must be distinguished from the Wakes’ manor which is spoken of below. x It was devised by William Trollope in 1658, under the name of the manor of Bourne Abbots, to his nephew William, son of Sir Thomas Trollope, baronet. 13 From him it passed through several generations of his family to his descendants, the Pochins, and it is now owned by Mr. George William Pochin, of Barkby, co. Leicester. xi

The rectory and grange of Bourne, which are mentioned above as having been reconveyed to the Crown by Cotton and his wife, were granted by the Crown, 11 May, 1608, to Francis Phelips and Richard Moine, 14 soon after which date the church seems to have come into the possession of the Browne family, xii for we find members of that family presenting to the vicarage from 1613 until the middle of the eighteenth century.

Baldwin son of Gilbert, the founder of the abbey, left a daughter and heiress, Emma, who was married to Hugh Wake, the ancestor of the noble family of that name. By this marriage the Wakes became patrons of the abbey, and lords of the castle and manor of Bourne. 15 xiii

On the death of Thomas, the second Lord Wake, the barony of Wake passed through his sister and heiress, Margaret, countess of Kent, and widow of Edmund [Plantagenet] of Woodstock, earl of Kent, into her husband’s family, whence it was carried by Joan Plantagenet, the Fair Maid of Kent, the mother of Richard II, into the family of Holland, earls of Kent. With the barony descended the castle and manor of Bourne and the advowson of the abbey. 16 Joan, the widow of Thomas earl of Kent, died 5 October, 1442, seised of the manor and advowson. 17 In 1512-13 the manor was held by the King. 18 xiv In 1563-4, the famous William Cecil, chief secretary to Queen Elizabeth, and afterwards Lord Burghley, was plaintiff, and Sir Edward Fynes, K.G., Lord Clinton and Saye, high admiral of England, and Elizabeth his wife, defendants, in a final concord made touching the castle and manor of Bourne alias Brunne, and tenements in Bourne, Dyke, Cawthorpe, Morton, and Hanthorpe, three fairs in the year, and a market every Saturday at Bourne, and free fishery in the waters of Bourne. 19 Cecil, who was born at Bourne, at the house of his grandfather, acquired other property there20; and his descendant, the Marqess of Exeter, is now lord of the manor.

The opportunity may be taken here of mentioning another famous native of Bourne Robert Mannyng, or Robert de Brunne (who flourished 1288-1338), the poet, who describes himself as of ‘Brunne wake in Kesteuene.’ He was not a canon of Bourne, as is sometimes stated, but was connected with the Gilbertine houses of Sempringham and Sixle. Members of his family are found making gifts to Bourne abbey: Thomas Maning’ of Brunne who gave land to the chapel of Saint Mary of Brunna, and Thomas son of Geoffrey Mannyng of Brunne who gave two selions in the shot called ‘Ediswonk’ in the field of Bourne. 21 Robert Mannyng’s works consist of: (1) Handlyng Synne, (2)  Chronicle of England, (3) Meditacyuns of þe Soper of our Lorde Ihesus; and also of hys Passyun; and eke of þe peynes of his swete moder, Mayden Marye þe whyche made yn Latyn Bonaventure Cardynall. Dr. Furnivall speaks of him as a language reformer, who helped to make English flexible and easy. 22

By the time at which the parish register begins, Bourne Castle was a ruin. xv When Leland made his “laboriouse journey and serche .. .. .. for Englandes Antiquitees,” circa 1535-1543, he tells us that

There appere grete diches, and the dungeon hil of an auncient castel agayne the west ende of the priori, sumwhat distant from it as on the other side of the streate bakwarde: it longgid to the Lorde Wake, and much service of the Wake fe is done to this castelle; and every feodarie knowith his station and place of service. 23

Peak’s account of the towns in Kesteven, which Marrat24 printed, shews that the buildings, though ruinous, had not disappeared as Leland’s account seems to imply. xvi A note in the parish register says:

Memorandum that the Garryson at Bourne Castle begun vpon the 11th of October Anno Dom. 1645. 25 xvii

It is difficult to interpret this entry, but it is possible that the castle was manned on behalf of the King, for a local tradition says that Cromwell caused the castle to be dismantled because of the town’s loyalty to the royal cause. On October the 11th, the day mentioned in the note, Charles was at Newark, and his outlook was desperate. The next day he marched northward, and was at Welbeck on the 13th, but events obliged him to return to Newark on the 14th. 26 Two other entries in the Register remind us of the civil war: the one in 1643, records the burial of ‘Elizabeth Gee shott by the souldgiers27xviii; the other, on 6 September, 1644, records that of ‘a soulgiere of ye Earle of Manchesters Regim’t27.’ Manchester had come to Lincoln after the battle of Marston Moor, and was there during August. On 4 September he set out from Lincoln, and was at Huntingdon on the 8th. 28

A few particulars may be given about vicars of Bourne during the period covered by the present volume.

Thomas Baxter was instituted 7 May, 1562, on the Queen’s presentation. 29 xix In 1569 he held another benefice in plurality, 30 and we may conclude that this was the rectory of Draughton, co. Northampton, which he certainly held in plurality in 1576. 31 On 27 March, 1573, he was instituted to the vicarage of Thurlby, 32 and thus vacated Bourne. In a Liber Cleri of 1576 it is recorded that he was ordained priest by the Bishop of London, 1 February, 1561-2; was aged 42, and married; resided at Draughton; performed the holy mysteries prescribed by public authority; had some little skill in Latin; was well versed in sacred learning; and was licensed to preach within the diocese of Peterborough.33  He resigned the vicarage of Thurlby about 1586, 34 and is found no more in he records of the diocese of Lincoln.

The vicarage is entered as vacant in 1576, 35  and no institution is recorded until 1581. Meanwhile Richard Fowler, who describes himself as minister or curate, signs the bishops’ transcripts in 1577 and 1578. 36 On 28 July, 1581, Richard Foster was presented by the Queen to the vicarage of Bourne, and instituted at Buckden, 5 September. 37  He was ordained priest by the Bishop of Peterborough, 20 September, 1561. 38 He resigned the vicarage about November, 1585, and was instituted to the rectory of Folkingham, 11 November, 1585. 39 In 1590 he contributed a light horse to the ‘subsidy of armour and warlike furnitur’ provided by the clergy within the diocese of Lincoln. 40 Leaving Folkingham he was instituted to the rectory of Scremby, 29 December, 1591, and again on 6 July, 1612 41; and to the vicarage of Skendleby, 21 April, 1593, 42 which he resigned in 1605-6. 43 He signs the bishops’ transcripts of Scremby register until Ladyday, xx 1622; and the transcript for the next year is missing. Another clerk signs in the following year.

John Jackson was presented by the Queen to the vicarage, 15 November, 1585. 44 In 1590 he contributed a bow to the subsidy of armour. 45 The Liber Cleri of 1603 records that he had a preaching licence from Bishop Wickham, and that there were then nine hundred communicants in the parish.46  He was one of the small and dwindling band of about eighteen clergymen in the extensive diocese of Lincoln were proceed against for nonconformity in the early years of the seventeenth century. The bishop, as the diocesan records shew, treated these men with extreme patience and consideration. Jackson’s is a case in point. In October, 1603, he and others appeared before the bishop, being cited ‘for not wearinge the surplisse and not conforming themselves to the use of the ceremonies of the Churche in the celebrac’on of divine service and administrac’on of the sacramentes, etc., according to the booke of common praier.’ They confessed that the article objected against them was true, and craved time to deliberate; whereupon the bishop admonished them to conform themselves by the end of October. Jackson, after several subsequent appearances extending over two years, was at length dismissed by the court ‘in hope of his conformity,’ until he should be cited again.47 In the Liber Cleri or 1611,48 he is returned as being of ‘good behaviour saueing he nowe stands suspended being presented for vnconformitie.’ He died 30 January, 1612-13, and was buried at Bourne two days later. 49

On 2 March, 1612-13, at Buckden, Edmund Lolley, M.A., of Magdalen College, Oxford, was instituted to the vicarage, on the presentation of John Browne, of Stamford, esquire,50 and inducted on 3 April following. At that time he was about 28 years of age, having been ordained deacon and priest by the Pishop of Peterborough, 22 May 1608, and licensed as a preacher by the Archbishop of Canterbury.51 He died 11 July, 1632, and was buried the next day in the quire of the church.xxi

 In his will, which is dated on the day of his death, he charges his gossips, me. Thomas Browne and Mr. James Swifte, to sell his books and apparel for the benefit of his only son Edmund, and to ‘bring him up at the schoole.’ xxii The will was proved at Lincoln, 23 May 1633.52

Richard Titley or Titlow was presented to the vicarage, 6 August 1632, by Winifred Browne, widow, instituted at Westminster, 23 November, and inducted 18 December.53 He signed the bishops’ transcript as vicar at Ladyday, 1640.

William Clarke was vicar as early as July, 1642, and as late as August 1647. From the minutes of the Committee of Plundered Ministers we learn that on 19 August, 1646, forty pounds a year was sequestered to him from the impropriate rectory of Heckington, since ‘the vicarage in the best times was worth but thirty pounds a year54,’

Richard Milward began his ministry at Bourne 19 August, 1649, as we are told by entries in the register55; and his name occurs in the register in connexion with the baptism of his daughter Anne in 1651 and with her burial in 1655.56

After the Restoration, no vicar was appointed for many years, and the church was served by curates, as the bishop’s transcripts shew.

‘Ed[wardus] Blithe vic. de Bourn 1710 [sic]’ occurs as a note on folio 183 of the register. He was instituted 24 July, 1712, on the presentation of the Queen.57

Another note at the end of the burials of 1641, states that William Dodd succeeded Edward Blithe as vicar of Bourne in 1727.58 He was instituted on 23 October in that year,59 and held the vicarage until his death in 1756. His son William, who was born at Bourne, and baptized there 23 May, 1728, was the versatile but unhappy Doctor William Dodd who was convicted of forgery in 1777, and hanged in spite of the labours of Doctor Samuel Johnson and others to obtain a reprieve.60 xxiii

The leading families in the part of the register which is now printed were the Trollopes, the Fishers,61 the Mores or Moores,62 and the Sharpes.63 The first of the Trollopes to be found at Bourne was Thomas Trollope of Cawthorpe, in 1543.64 His grandson, William Trollope, of Bourne, Thurlby, and Casewick, by his will, dated 16 November, 1636, and proved 7 July, 1637,65 provided for an endowment of thirty pounds a year for the maintenance of an honest, learned, and godly schoolmaster in a school built by himself, xxiv which he wished to be a free grammar school incorporated by royal charter, and to be called ‘The Free Grammar School of King Charles in the town of Bourn and county of Lincoln of the foundation of William Trollop, gentleman.’ He also provided for the foundation of a hospital containing almshouses for six poor men of the town.66 Trollope’s eldest son Thomas was created a baronet, 5 February, 1641-2, and the seventh baronet was raised to the peerage as Baron Kesteven, 14 April, 1868. The peerage which was limited to the heirs male of the first Lord Kesteven, became extinct on the death of Thomas Carew, the third baron, a captain in the Lincolnshire Yeomanry, who died in a French military hospital at Oran in Algiers, on 5 November, 1915. from wounds received two days previously during the shelling of the transport ‘Mercian’ by a German submarine in the Mediterranean Sea. The baronetcy passed to Lord Kesteven’s cousin, the present Sir William Henry Trollope.

By a deed of feoffment, dated 20 May, 1620, William Fisher endowed a tenement in Watergang Street67 as a hospital containing almshouses for six poor women; and appointed that a chamber in the same house should be used as a lodging for the schoolmaster.68

The Register 69 shews that there was a very high rate of mortality in 1634, 1638, and 1639, and we may suspect that this was caused by the plague which was constantly breaking out in England from the time of the Black Death to the date of the Fire of London. xxv The numbers of burials for ten years are as follows:

1633       63     1637  60     1640 44

1634      100   1638  126    1641  46

1635       37      1639  91      1642 47

1636      48

The first volume of the register contains various notes besides those already mentioned. Some of them relate to public events such as the death of Queen Elizabeth and the accession of James I70 ; the death of James and the accession of Charles I 71; the execution of Charles I 72; and the Gunpowder plot.73

Other entries relate to catastrophes:

1605 A most lamentable fyre happened upon the 23rd of August (see below, p. 44).

1636 A most feareful and terrable wind on the fourth of November in the nyght tyme (see below, p. 199).

1637 A most feareful fire in the Eagat, May 25 (ibid.).

One relates to the church plate:

Memorand’ the new siluer Cupp and the plate for the administrac’on of the Lords Supper were bought by John Hotchkine when he & John Smyth Alexander Lea & Thomas Hardwicke were Churchwardens in the yeare of our Lord 1658 (inside the back cover).

Others relate to the parish clerk:

John Harrison parish clarke of Bourne entered September 26th, 1652 (Register, f. 191d.).

William Fracy parish clarke of Bourne entered May 31th, 1703 (ibid.).

One, which is added to the burial of Thomas Gibson, 23 May, 1629, states that he was

as worthie a Shoolemaster as ever taught in Bourne (see below, p. 189). xxvi

Others concern private persons or relate to business:

Humphrie Baker sonne of Humphrie Baker was baptized in the parrish church of St. Michael in Coventry the xxixth of October, 1589. [Signed] William Stenton, vicarius, Rich. Master, gent., Joseph Asshe, churchwardens; John Launder, keeper of the Regest: (Register, f. 192).

Martin Lacey the sonn of John Lacey was borne but not baptized heare, 18th day of February, 1664 (ibid., f. 70d.).

I came to this house at our Ladie Day Anno Dom. 1618 (see below, p. 114).

Slaine by a carter (ibid., p. 192) xxvii

The 7th of July 1631 Edw. Hill of Swinsted paid charges for suites in lawe to Mrs Bay: her husband not com from London (Register, f. 192).

My son Edward went with Corporall Lathorpe to London vppon the 24th of November 1649 (ibid., f. 191d.).

The register contains the following list of collections made in the parish church in response to briefs, xxviii letters patent, and letters of request:

Folio 249

1660 xxix

£

s.

d.

Sept.

30

for losse by fire in Fakenham, co. Norf.

1

0

5

Oct.

7

for Tho. Vrye of HorneCastle vppon lettres patents for loss by fire

1

5

0

Mar.

10

for Georg Sharpe and Eliz: Nutt, widd’, of Potter Hanworth

 

15

10

 

 

1661

 

 

 

Oct.

6

for Rippon church, co. York

 

15

8

Apr.

7

for losse by fire at Milton Abbas, co. Dorset

 

16

4

May

10

vpon letters patents for losse by fire at Illminster, co. [Somerset]

2

0

4

Apr.

4

for Pontefracte church

 

17

4

June

2

for Rob’te Newham & Edward Peake of South Berlingham, co. Norf.

 

14

0

 

2

vpon a briefe for the building of the church of [blank] co. [blank]

 

14

0

 

23

towards the relief of John Dauyes

who formerly had been a Capt’ in the King’s armye

 

11

 

30

towards the reliefe of Dalby Challcombe, co. Leic.

 

13

4

July

7

towards a losse by fire at Little Melton, co. Norf.

 

14

2

Aug.

25

for James Cooke of Rockland, co. Norf.

 

9

0

 

25

for Edward Thorneton of Mountsorrel, co. Leic.

 

5

0

 

4

for Beighton, co. Derby

 

14

6

 

30

for Great Drayton, co. Salop

1

16

5

July

13

for Southwolds co. Suff

 

17

9

Dec.

22

for the protestants in Lythuania

 

12

8

Jan.

5

for Oxford

 

15

9

Feb.

16

for Condouer church, co. Salop

 

13

0

 

23

for the towne of Elmeley Castle, co. Worc.

 

11

0

Mar.

2

for Mr. James Dalby of Kirton in Linsey

 

10

3

 

6

Collected of Thomas Dutton of Chester

 

14

1

 

 

1662

 

 

 

June

1

for Ann Walter of Redriffe, co. Surrey

 

13

0

Folio 249d.

 

 

 

 

June

1

Given to Millicent Gansby of Pinchbecke

 

3

0

Sept.

21

for John Woolrich of Creswell, co. Staff.

 

6

8

 

for Markett Harborrow

 

4

11

 

28

for Simon Gray of Rihall

 

11

11

Feb.

1

for William Wallton of Witham on the Hill

 

15

1

 

2

for Mistress Ayres of the Iseland of Bofine

 

10

3

Mar.

16

given to Eliz: Smyth wife of Thomas Smyth of the Isle of Aris

upon a lettre of request granted to the said Smyth and John Boswell

 

2

6

 

 

1663

 

 

 

June

7

for Heighington in the parish of Washingborough

 

16

4

Aug.

2

for Henry [blank] of Gosbertowne vpon a letter of request for losse by fire

 

14

6

 

for losse by fire in an inn in Holbourne, London about

 

16

0

Nov.

1

for losse by fire at Grantham

 

15

1

Oct.

11

towards repaireing Harwich church

 

11

0

 

17

for Hexam in Northumberland

1

8

5

Jan.

3

for Great Grimsby Hauen

 

9

7

 

31

for John Ellis of Milton co. Camb.

 

12

11

Feb.

28

for Sandwich church

 

13

10

Mar.

13

for Witham church, co. Sussex.

 

10

4

 

 

1664

 

 

 

Apr.

17

for Edw: Christian of Grantham

 

12

6

Folio 250

 

 

 

 

Sept.

4

for repairing the church in Cromer aliis Shipdon, co. Norf.

 

11

1

 

25

for Thrapson bridge, co. North’ton

 

7

1

Oct.

2

for James Winfeild and James Young of the Isle of Geron

 

10

0

 

for losse by fire in Bassingham in the parts of Kest

 

5

3

 

23

for John Wayle of Ilford, co. Essex

 

9

11

Nov.

6

for Baseing church, co. South’ton

 

9

7

 

13

for Weedon co. North’ton

 

7

9

 

27

for Henry Lisle of Gisbrough, co. York

 

7

0

 

for Laurence Holder, co. Essex

 

5

3

Feb.

13

given to a letter of request out of the Isle of Skiddypoint

to Ann Baley and others

 

3

0

 

 

1665

 

 

 

Apr.

16

for St. Maryes church in Chester

 

9

9

May

14

for losse by fire at Floockburg, co. Lanc.

 

11

3

 

28

for repaireing Tinmouth church

 

9

5

June

11

for losse by fire at Bidford, co. Warw.

 

10

10

July

23

for Stillingfleet, co. York, for loss by fire

 

[blank]

 

30

for Wm. Shuter of Tanworth, co. Warw.

 

8

7

Dec.

10

for Hartley poole, co. Durham

 

7

4

Jan.

14

for Clunn church, co Salop

 

9

1

Folio 250d.

1666

 

 

 

Oct.

28

for Edward Goldsmith of Acton Trussell, co. Staff.

 

5

0

 

for Roger Rogers of Douer, co. Kent

 

8

7

Nov.

11

for Melcombe Regis, co. Dorset

 

7

11

Dec.

6

for John Osbourn, a Russia merchant

 

9

1

Feb

17

for losse by fire at Workshopp, co. Nott.

 

11

3

 

 

1667

 

 

 

Apr.

7

for loss by fire at Pooll, co. Mountgomery

 

8

2

 

for loss by fire at Hinxton, c. Camb.

 

6

2

 

 

1671

 

 

 

July

16

for losse by fire att Yar74[blank], co. York

 

12

0

 

 

1700

 

 

 

Aug.

8

by virtue of brief for the redemption of slaves in Machane75 xxx

1

10

11

The first volume of the parish register, of which the earlier part is printed in the following pages, is a large volume consisting of 250 parchment leaves, and measuring seventeen inches in height and seven inches in breadth. It contains:

Baptisms,

1563-1663,

on folios

1-82d.

1666-1716,

222-248d.

Marriages,

1564-1715,

84-112d.

Burials,

1562-1716,

113-191 and 193-221d.

Memoranda

191d-192d.

Collections upon Briefs

249-250d.

The cover, which is brown calf of the year 1660, is worn and tender. Many of the leaves are loose, and it is very desirable that the volume should be re-bound. The leaves are numbered by an ancient hand from 1 to 184, and remaining folios have been numbered in pencil by the present writer. Folios 222-250 come between folios 82 and 83. A note on the inside of the front cover says:

An addition to this Register Booke was putt in and also the same was new bound in the yeare of our lord 1660: Charles Bagshaw gent’ Tho: Willoughby Esq. Rob’te Hardwicke gent’ and Will’m Hardwicke iuxxxi being Churchwardens.

The entries down to the end of 1600 have evidently been copied from an earlier register in accordance with the constitution of the convocation of the province of Canterbury, made 25 October, 1597, and approved by the Queen under the great seal; and each leaf is signed by John Jackson, who was vicar at that time. The following note on the inside of the front cover, in a hand which resembles that of one of the bishop’s officers: ‘Exhibitum xxvij die Julii 1601,’ suggests that the new book was produced to the ecclesiastical authorities.

For the years 1663 to 1667 inclusive the register contains only a very few entries with large spaces between them. For 1663 and 1664 the bishops’ transcripts supply the deficiency, but there are no transcripts for the years 1665, 1666, and 1667. A memorandum on the inside of the front cover says: ‘There is not any register kept for the years 1663-4-5-6-7.’

The register has been collated with the bishops’ transcripts preserved in the Lincoln Episcopal Registry, and differences of reading are given. A schedule76 shews what transcripts are extant. A note on the inside of the front cover of the Register says, ‘The Register from [16]48: to [16]61: was transcribed Anno 1661 and retourned into the Court at Lincoln’; but this transcript has not been found.

It only remains for the writer to thank the Vicar and Churchwardens of Bourne for placing the register at his disposal. He also wishes to acknowledge the patient help which in a long and laborious task he has received from his clerks, Miss F. E. Thurlby and Miss E. Kettleborough.

C. W. Foster.                    

Timberland Vicarage,

Lincoln,

11th September, 1920.


Foster’s Footnotes.

[The reference ‘see below’ refers to the main part of the Bourne Parish Register, of which the present transcription is of Foster’s introduction. (RJP)]

1.     For accounts of Bourne abbey and castle, see Dugdale, Monasticon (ed 1817-30), vi, 370-2 ; Associated Architectural Societies’ Reports, vol. vi, pp. vii-x; vol. xx, pp. 1-19; vol. xxxii, pp. 329-32; Victoria History of the County of Lincoln, ii, 177-9. For episcopal visitations of the abbey, see A. Hamilton Thompson, Visitations of Religious Houses, L.R.S., vii. 8-10; xiv. 36-8.

2.      P.R.O. Lay Subsidy Rolls, 137/410, mem. 1, 2; 137/427, mem. 1.

3.       The word represents the Old and Middle English éa=a river. Here and elsewhere in Lincolnshire it is now generally written eau, as if it was adopted from the French eau=water.

4.    P.D., 1505, no 69. Valor Ecclesiasticus, iv, 103.

5.       The corse-present was an oblation or present made at the funeral. The secundum lagatum was the mortuary due to the church as a composition for tithes forgotten or withheld. The principale (sc. legatum) was strictly the heriot due to the lord of the fee; while the secundum legatum went to the church. The term principale, however, is often used of the mortuary. The provincial constitution quoted by Ducange s.v. mortuarium), which he attributes to Langton, but which is now more generally quoted as Winchelsey’s, defines the mortuary of a person who has three or more beasts as secundum melius animal, which supplies a gloss upon secundum legatum. The reason for the specification of these fees in the ordination of the vicarage is doubtless that, as the parish altar was in the conventual church and marriages and burials took place within the precincts, the abbot and convent could claim such dues as their right, but waived them in perpetuity in favour of the vicar. The writer is indebted to Mr. A. Hamilton Thompson, M.A., F.S.A., for information about these fees.

6.    A. Gibbons, Liber Antiquus Vicariarum tempore Hugonis Wells, 61.

7.       Lincoln Diocesan Registry, State of the Churches, f. 1.

8.    Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. xiii, part i, p. 579.

9.    Ibid., part ii, no. 1182 (25).

10.     P.R.O., Feet of Fines, 7 Edward VI, Trinity, no. 4.

11.   Associated Architectural Societies’ Reports, xx, 19.

12.     See below, p. 128 and note.

13.     Trollope, The Family of Trollope, 13, 14.

14.   Certificate, dated 11 May, 1608, attached to a presentation deed (P.D., 1642. no. 49).

15.     Calendar of Inquisitions, ix, pp. 202, 205.

16.     Calendarium Inquis. Post Mortem, iii, 32, 78, 298.

17.     Ibid., iv, 214.

18.     P.R.O., Inquisitions Post Mortem, Exchequer Inquisitions, series ii, file 548, nos. 12, 23.

19.     P.R.O., Feet of Fines, 6 Eliz., Easter, no. 33.

20. P.R.O., Feet of Fines, 4 Eliz. (divers), Easter, no. 10; 5 Eliz., Trinity, no. 11; 8 Eliz. (divers), Easter, no. 14; 9 Eliz. (divers), Trinity, no. 2; 20 Eliz., Easter, no. 7; 33 Eliz., Hilary, no. 14; 39 Eliz., Hilary, no. 7.

21.   Calendar of the Charter Rolls, iv., 16, 33.

22.    Dict. Nat. Biog, xii, 965.

23.    The Itinerary of John Leland, ed. Toulmin Smith. i, 25.

24.    History of Lincolnshire.

25. Folio 191d.

26. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War (1893 edition), ii, 360, 367-72.

27.    See below p. 209.

28.    Gardiner, op. cit., iii, 26.

29.    Lincoln Episcopal Register, xxviii, folio 131.

30.    P.R.O., State Papers Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. 76.

31.   L.R.S., ii, 212-13.

32. Ibid., 8.

33.     L.R.S., ii, 212-13.

34.    P.D., 1586, no. 32.

35.     L.R.S., ii, 209.

36. See below, p. 217.

37.     P.D., 1581, no. 41. L.R.S., ii, 29.

38.    Lincoln Episcopal Registry, Liber Cleri, 1585, folio 7.

39.    P.D., 1585 no. 21.

40.    Muniments of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, A/2/10, f. 2d.

41.   P.D., 1592, no. 20; 1612, no. 58.

42.    P.R.O., Bishops’ Certificates.

43.    P.D., 1606, no. 48.

44.    P.D., 1585, no. 29.

45.    Muniments of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, A/2/10, f. 3.

46. Liber Cleri, 1603, f. 38.

47.    The State of the Church at the time of Elizabeth and James I, as illustrated by documents in the Lincoln Diocesan Registry (a volume by the present writer which is now in the press), pp. 363-8.

48.    Lincoln Episcopal Registry, Liber Cleri, 1611, f. 1.

49.    See below, p. 170.

50.    P.D., 1613, no. 38.

51.   P.D., 1613, no. 38.

52.    Lincoln Consistory Court, book 1633, f. 378, and book D, no.56.

53.     P.D., 1632, no. 11.

54.    See below, pp. 94, 207. W. E. Foster, The Plundered Ministers of Lincolnshire, 19, 20.

55.     See below, pp. 96, 122, 214.

56. ff. 77d, 190.

57.     Lincoln Episcopal Register, xxxvi, p. 133.

58.    Page 207.

59.    Ibid., xxxviii, p. 172

60.    Dict. Nat. Biog.

61.   Maddison, Lincolnshire Pedigrees Harlian Society, volumes l-liii, i, 352-3.

62.    Ibid., ii, 687.

63.    Ibid., iii, 867-8.

64.    P.R.O., Lay Subsidy Roll, 137/393.

65.    Perogative Court of Canterbury, Goare, 109.

66. Trollope, op. cit. 14, 15; see below, p. 209.

67.    Now called South Street.

68.    Report of the Charity Commissioners, 1839, 32-part iv, p. 315.

69.    See below, p. 203.

70.    See below, p. 161.

71.   See below, p. 184.

72.    See below, p. 214.

73.     Register, f. 191d.

74. Query Yarm. [Grid ref. NZ4112 (RJP)]

75.     Query for Mahomet.

76. See below. p. 216.


Commentary

This is a summary made by a thoroughly competent historian, of the results of his study of Bourne, particularly of the Parish Register. It was published in 1921 but broadly, what he has to say summarises what is known today, from historians’ techniques, of the period he covers. Since he wrote, archaeology has developed considerably. By combining the reading of historians’ documents with a reading of archaeologists’ artefacts, including the use of such documents as maps, it is possible to say more about the questions of the ruin of the abbey chancel and of the castle. It is very easy to dismiss evidence which seems incongruous but that evidence is very often the key to a better understanding if one takes the trouble to learn which pattern it fits. Where Foster is puzzled, he has the good sense to accept the fact and put the problem aside for further work, perhaps using techniques for which he had not been trained.

 i.       That Foster should have discounted Moor’s Account of Aveland (ref.) is perhaps understandable. It would not have been up to his 2oth century professional standard.

ii.       This was the appointment of a priest as vicar, rather than the vicarage house.

iii.     The oblations are the congregation’s gifts (the collection), to be the vicar’s when made at services on the major festivals, such as Easter Day.

iv.      A homestead (OED).

v.       This year was when the greatest monastic houses in England were dissolved. The small ones such as Bourne Abbey, will have been dissolved first, in 1536.

vi.      The decay seems to have arisen from Cromwellian reforming zeal shortly before Elizabeth Gee was buried on 12 December 1643. This conclusion can be drawn from an archaeological reading of the building in the light of historical information. See the notes on Bourne Abbey Chancel.

vii.     This supports the view taken in note v. If the abbey had not been dissolved before 1537 (new style), the king would not have had the property available for letting to Cotton.

viii.    The dwelling house, Bourne Abbey, which was on the site of the west range of the cloister and is nowadays referred to as Abbey House, was not built until 1764. (Birkbeck p. 71)

ix.      The manor of Bourne Abbots.

x.       The manor of Bourne. This had appertained to the castle as opposed to the Abbey. By this time, it was in the hands of the Cecil Family and it would become part of the Exeter Estate. It is almost certain that the two manors had been separated when Baldwin fitz Gilbert had founded the abbey, with its charter of 1138.

xi.      Barkby is now in the north-eastern fringe of Leicester. Grid reference SK6309.

xii.     This does not refer to the secularized property, originally let to Cotton. The ‘ownership’ manifested itself primarily in the advowson, the right to present new vicars. See Wikipedia: parish. The family’s monument in the church forms a key to the archaeological understanding of events there in the first half of the 17th century.

xiii.   Though many would express doubts about this, a close reading of de gestis Herwardi chapter xxxvi, it appears that on his reconciliation with William I, apparently late in 1086, Hereward had recovered his father’s property in Bourne. The property was then owned by a succession of heiresses, beginning, it seems, with Hereward’s daughter, Torfrida (named after her mother) and the woman in question here was his great, great granddaughter, Emma. It was by this means that the property descended from the pre-Conquest earl of Mercia, Leofric, Hereward’s father, by Edith, his wife by Danish custom, to Hugh Wake. One may assume that it was in this way, that the Wake family was able to associate itself with Hereward’s kudos by adding the family name to Hereward’s, so that Charles Kingsley was able to write about Hereward ‘the Wake’ (1866). In a later generation, it was probably Baldwin Wake’s finding himself on the losing side in the Second Barons’ War (Platts, pp. 28-30), that left us with the unfinished Early English west end of the Abbey, stitched onto the Norman nave.

xiv.    This king was the young Henry VIII. When his father, Henry Tudor took the crown at Bosworth Field (1485), he had also taken the manor of Bourne.

The countess of Kent mentioned, was Margaret Wake, owner of Bourne. Her daughter, Joan was her heiress, who became the princess of Wales, the wife of the Black Prince.  He died just before his father did and their son became Richard II. The property thus came into the hands of the Crown in 1385, when she died.

xv.     This process happened over a long period, by neglect and periodic demolition. It seems to have begun when Lady Blanche Wake died. Her will was proved in 1380. It then passed to Joan Princess of Wales, who died in 1385, when it passed into the Holland family. By 1445, it belonged to Margaret Beaufort who had many interests in the area. Henry Tudor, who made himself Henry VII by winning the Battle of Bosworth Field in October 1485, was her son. Thus, the castle fell into the hands of the crown. Henry had more than enough castles and would have been generally disinclined to let them get into other people’s hands for fear of their being used against him. The slighting process will have proceeded sufficiently to have rendered the castle useless as a stronghold before he allowed it to pass into the Heckington family. It seems too, to have been rendered uninhabitable, since in 1520, Jane Heckington’s son, William Cecil was born, not in the castle but in a house in the Market Place. Henry Tudor is known to have been a very canny man and surplus castles could also be means of raising money when used as sources of scrap metal and stone. It is clear from Leland’s description that, by about 1540, when he saw it, the process was well under way. Though the inner bailey gatehouse appears to have been demolished only in the early 19th century (Moore). Also, some at least, of the weathered pisé cores of the curtain walls which gave rise to references to ramparts, were not pushed into the moats until later in the century, perhaps to level the ground sufficiently to allow mechanical hay-cutting.

xvi.    Evidently, Peak was writing before the 1540 period, in which Leland was working. Moore (pp. 4-5) tells us that it was in 1380. The best guess for the date of the stripping of the castle is while it was in the hands of the Tudors: after 1485 and before it was handed to the Cecils, a little before 1520. Most people quote Marrat’s quotation of Peak, though Moore published it a few years earlier (1809 as opposed to 1816). The matter of where Moore found Peak’s manuscript seems obscure.

xvii.   This was in order to counter a perceived threat of Royalist attack after the fall of Leicester. At the time, the king was on the loose in the Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire area and Parliamentarians would have needed to take precautions against the eventuality of his striking eastwards to cut Lincolnshire and Hull off from the east of England and London. While the Great North Road was blocked by the garrisons at Belvoir and Newark, Bourne lay astride the current main road north and south. Observation of the work in question shows that it was never completed. The tradition of a Royalist fortification will have arisen after the Restoration of the Monarchy, when it would have been wiser to have been on the ultimately winning side.

xviii. The burial was on 14th December 1644. Early in the month Cromwell’s troops were in the Sleaford area and on 7th January they were in Bedford. (See chronology for refs.) Bourne lies on the direct road between those two places, significantly nearer to Sleaford than to Bedford.

xix     Elizabeth had come to the throne in 1558.

xx      Lady Day, 25th March, was New Year’s Day. The modern start of the UK tax year, on 6 April, originated as the Gregorian calendar’s equivalent of the Julian calendar’s Lady Day.

xxi     The burial in the quire gives a date after which the use of it was abandoned. It was rebuilt in 1807 (See details).

xxii    The old Grammar School building was erected in 1626. Major repairs were done in 1738, so its present form is not quite that of 1632 (See details).

xxiii The elder man’s grave stone is in the Abbey, near the font, though the burial is unlikely to have been in this position (see details). See details of the son.

xxiv   The founding had already been done: there had earlier been a grammar school and whether or not it had become defunct, a new building was provided by Trollope in 1626. See also note xxvi.

xxv    1348 to 1666.

xxvi   The interest in this entry lies in the fact that the school building, parts of which remain today was erected in 1626 and this burial was conducted in 1629. Either the clerk was being ironical or the school had been running for a significant time in the clerk’s remembrance before the building was put up.

xxvii It is not clear whether this is concerned with a road accident or whether the carter and the deceased got into a fight, for example.

xxviii Brief sb. 3. A Letter patent issued by the sovereign as Head of the Church, licensing a collection in the churches throughout England of a specific object; a Church Brief or King’s Letter. (OED)

xxix   This was the year of The Restoration of the Monarchy. Charles II returned from his exile, landing at Dover on 25th May. The system of raising money for deserving causes by the use of briefs appears from this list, to have got under way by September.

xxx    In the 17th century, there were raids made by Moorish pirates on the coasts of south-west of England and southern Ireland. People like fishermen, who worked off-shore were particularly exposed and numbers were captured for enslavement. The slavers would return to the Morocco coast. In 1700, the capital of Morocco was Meknes, which, although it is a little removed from the coast, is likely to have been where the sort of diplomatic dealing needed for freeing the enslaved people was done.

xxxi   Junior.


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