Part 14 (1/2)
A peculiar entry in the parish account book is ”Mary Would overseer of ye poore gave up hir accountes” (1707 Ap. 15). We are now, at the beginning of the 20th century, admitting women to a limited number of public offices, yet the people of Roughton were evidently in advance of the times, and forestalled us 180 yeans ago. One or two curious instances of spelling may here be given, showing that the schoolmaster was not then much in evidence:-”1703 Beuerils, &c.”; ”1705 Bearths, Robert ye son of bniamen hehuhinson (Benjamin Hewinson) and jane his wife was borne ye 15 day of january.” ”Burial. John Snow, Inn-holder, July 3d., 1765”; ”1707 Rebekah Leach was beureid July the 10”; ”1708 John Bouth and Doryty his wife”; ”Rebekah Langcaster 1725, the douter of Joseph Langcaster.” ”John Swingo the sun of John Swingo and Ann his wife howous (was) Baptized the 17 of Aprill 1709.” This name, in another entry, 1733, is given as Swinsgo; the modern spelling is Swinscoe.
The names of some good families appear, as ”An the wife of Will Hennag was buered ye 9 of Feberery, 1729”; ”Madame Elizabeth fines was buered May ye 29, 1730”; ”George soun of Mr. Clinton Whichcote 1624”; and, later, ”Mary the wife of John Gaunt, and Anthony, son of John Gaunt, were buried Dec. 16, 1803.” The Hall, not an ancient moated mansion, like so many described in these pages, but yet one of some antiquity, has been occupied at different times, by members of several leading county families, as Fynes, Whichcote, Heneage, Dymoke, Pilkington, and Beaumont.
It has belonged to the Dymokes, as also the patronage of the benefice, although Sir H. M. Hawley is lord of the manor.
In the reign of Elizabeth a family of Eastwoods was located here, as the Records shew that Andrew Eastwood of Roughton was among the gentry who contributed 25 each to the Armada Fund for the defence of England.
{208a} By a Chancery Inquisition, post mortem, 22 Richard II., No. 13, taken at Market Staynton, the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist (1399 A.D.), before William Bolle, escheator, it was shewn that ”Ralph de Cromwell, chivaler, held jointly with his wife Matilda, besides other property, the manor of Tumby with appurtenances in Rughton, Wodehall, Langton,” etc. And again, in a later Inquisition, post mortem, 13 Henry VII., No. 34, taken at Burwell, it was shewn that ”the said Matilda Willughby died seised in fee tail of the manor of Kirkeby upon Bayne, and lands in Roughton, Woodhall, Langton,” &c. {208b}
In Domesday Book, the powerful Robert Despenser is named as having in Roughton twelve oxgangs rateable to gelt, with three sokemen, and a half sokeman holding two carucates of land with three draught oxen; also fifteen acres of meadow land, a fishery worth 2s. yearly, and forty acres of woodland, containing pasturage in parts. The name is there given as ”Roc-stune,” whether from any Druidical boulder, or sacred stone, or landmark, does not appear to be known.
From Roughton, going eastward by a ford on the river Bain, or returning to Horncastle and taking the main road south-eastward, we arrive, a little over two miles distant, at Scrivelsby, a village which is unique in the kingdom, since there is but one King's Champion, and he is ”Lord of Scrivelsby.” As we approach Scrivelsby {208c} Court, by a road shaded by stately trees of h.o.a.r antiquity, with the well-wooded park on our left, and fields, nicely timbered and interspersed with copses, on our right, we pause, after a slight ascent, at a point where three ways meet.
Before us stands the ”Lion gateway,” a substantial arched stone structure with sculptured Lion ”pa.s.sant” surmounting it; the Royal beast indicating the official hereditary honour of the head of the family as the Sovereign's Champion. On our right, in a humbler position of less prominence, under the shade of trees, and green with age, still survive the parish stocks. Thus the emblems of civil and military power confront each other. The Court itself, standing some 150 yards from this gateway, is approached through another arch in the wall of the Courtyard. The present building is not one of large proportions, the chief part of the old baronial residence having been destroyed by fire about 130 years ago; to replace which modern additions were made, on a smaller scale, early in the 19th century. Of the portion destroyed a chief feature was a very large hall, with wainscoted panels, on which ”were depicted the arms and alliances of the family through its numerous and far-traced descents.”
{209a} The chief features of interest now remaining within are some of the suits of armour worn by Champions, and a collection of ”Champion Cups.” The collection of armour was much finer a few years ago, but, on the extinction of the line of the late Sir Henry Dymoke, most of these were dispersed by sale, and the Cups were bequeathed to the Queen, although Her Majesty, through the intermediation of the late Right Honourable E. Stanhope, most graciously restored them to the father of the present Champion. On the wall of the ”Lion gateway,” to the right of the arch, is a rebus, or ”canting” device, formed of a rude representation of a tree dividing in a Y shape referring to an old-time emblem of the family. As the Plantagenets had their ”planta genista,”
the broom; so the Dymokes would seem to have had their ”oak.” {209b} The descent of the early Dymokes may be briefly given thus:-Scrivelsby, forming part of the Soke of Horncastle, of which the Conqueror held the manor, was given by William to Robert Dispenser, his steward, whom we have several times named in connection with other neighbouring parishes.
From him it pa.s.sed, by some process unknown, to the Marmions. The last Lord Marmyon died in 1292, and the Lincolns.h.i.+re portion of his estates,-for Sir Walter Scott describes him as
”Lord of Fontenay, Of Lutterworth and Scrivelsbay, Of Tamworth tower and town.”-
pa.s.sed to his younger daughter, Joan, whose granddaughter, Margaret de Ludlow, married, in the reign of Edward III., Sir John Dymoke, who acted as Champion at the coronation of Richard II., and from that time, more than 500 years, the Dymokes have acted in that capacity for their respective Sovereigns, down to the last century, the ceremony, however, having been dispensed with, to the regret of many, on the accessions of William IV., Queen Victoria, and our present Most Gracious Majesty King Edward VII.
As this, formerly, State ceremony was so imposing, and of such antiquity, it deserves more than a pa.s.sing notice. We here give a description of it, as observed at the coronation of Queen Mary, from the account of Planche, in the Royal Records. ”At the close of the second course of the Coronation Banquet, the Champion, Sir Edward Dymoke, entered Westminster Hall, riding on a roan destrier (war horse) trapped in cloth of gold, with a mace in one hand and a gauntlet in the other. He was escorted to the upper end of the hall by the Lord High Constable, and the Earl Marshall, and the Herald of the Queen with a trumpet; and after he had made obeisance to the Queen's highness, he turned him a little aside, and with a loud voice made proclamation, 'If there be any manner of man, of what estate, degree, or condition soever he be, that will say, and maintain, that our Sovereign Lady Queen Mary, this day here present, is not the rightful, and undoubted, heretrix to the Imperial Crown of this realm of England, and that of right she ought not to be crowned Queen, I say he lieth as a false traitor, and that I am ready the same to maintain with him, whilst I have breath in my body, either now at this time, or at any other time, whensoever it shall please the Queen's highness to appoint; and thereupon the same I cast him my gage.' Then he cast the gauntlet from him, the which no man would take up, till that a herald took it up and gave it to him again. Then he proceeded to another place, and did in this manner, in three several places in the said Hall. Then he came to the upper end, and the Queen drank to him; and after sent to him the cup, which he had for his fee, and likewise the harness and trappings, and all the harness which he did himself wear, and then he returned to the place from whence he came, and was gone.” On the last occasion, when this ceremony was observed, viz., at the coronation of George IV., the rightful champion being in Holy Orders, his son Henry, afterwards Sir H. Dymoke, Bart., was allowed to act for his father, who was the eighteenth of the hereditary champions of his family. Sir Walter Scott was present, and, writing to a friend, says, ”Young Dymoke is a fine-looking youth, but bearing perhaps a little too much the appearance of a maiden knight to be a challenger of the world.” But he adds, with the eye of an antiquary, ”His armour was in good taste, except that his s.h.i.+eld was out of all propriety, being a round 'Rondache,' or Highland target, impossible to use on horseback, instead of being a three-cornered, or leather, s.h.i.+eld, which, in the time of the Tilt, was suspended round the neck. However, on the whole . . . the Lord of Scrivelsby looked and behaved extremely well.” {211}
One _contre-temps_, however, occurred on this occasion, which Sir Walter, perhaps, thought it polite, or politic, not to mention; others have not had the same scruples, and hence an incident is recorded which may have had something to do with the future omission of the ceremony. The Duke of Wellington, as Lord High Constable, had to ride by the Champion's side, with the Deputy Earl Marshal on the other side. It was part of the observance that, in withdrawing from the Sovereign's presence, the riders should back their horses, keeping their heads towards the King. The Duke, in his anxiety that all should go without a hitch, had hired a horse from Astley's circus, which had been specially trained for that part of the ceremony; but, unfortunately, the intelligent animal chose the wrong stage in the ceremony for the performance, and most conscientiously and obstinately persisted in turning tail and backing _towards_ the King instead of from him, and was with difficulty slewed round by the attendants. {212a}
It were much to be desired that this picturesque and interesting relic of feudal custom's might be restored. The present may be an age of new-born energies, and even revolutionary ideas, but the spirit of ”Reverentia Cani” is by no means extinguished, and the interest in old inst.i.tutions seems ever widening and deepening in the general sentiment.
As a curiosity I will give here a bill, sent in by Sir Edward Dymoke to Sir William Cecil (he spells it ”Syscell”) for the cost of some of the articles necessary to him as Champion at the coronation of Mary, which he seems to have had a difficulty in getting paid, although he was, by custom, ent.i.tled to them.
Stuff yt Phyllyp Lenthall have delyvered to Sir Edward Dymocke.
Item for a showrde (_a_) and gerdyll (_b_), and scabbart (_c_) of velvet . . . xls
Item for ij pardeynzyns (_d_) gylte (_e_) . . . xls
Item for a poll (_f_) ax . . . xxs
Item for a chasynge (_g_) staff . . . vis viiid
Item for a gylte payre of spowres (_h_) . . . xvis
Sm total VI .. IIs .. VIIId. {212b}
It may strike us as singular that so high an official as the King's Champion should perpetrate such spelling as the above; but those were days in which many a baron bold found it easier to inscribe his name on the scroll of fame, by dint of his trusty sword, than by the clerkly crowquill.
The church of Scrivelsby was thoroughly restored in 1861, and further improvements made in 1876, the previous structure being a poor one. Sir Henry added, at his own cost, a spire. The most interesting features of the former building were carefully retained. There is an aumbrey, in a curious position, near the north-west door. The font is octagonal, on pedestal, apparently modern, the faces having poppy head and other simple devices. There is a tomb, of Lewis Dymoke, under the reading desk, in the nave; in the north aisle, having Early English columns of three bays, and eastward two bays with Norman columns, there are rec.u.mbent figures of a knight and lady (supposed to be Sir Philip Marmion and wife), the male figure with s.h.i.+eld, delapidated, the female entire. At the east end of the same aisle is the tomb of Sir Robert Dymoke, ”upon whose soule Almightie G.o.d have m'ie. Amen.” There is a good rood screen in the chancel. In 1899 a beautiful window was given, of coloured gla.s.s, by Mrs. Dymoke, of the Court, in memory of her husband, Francis Scaman Dymoke, the Hon. the Queen's Champion. The subjects ill.u.s.trated are (1) Our Lord preaching the sermon on the Mount, and (2) in the act of blessing little children, under the former of which are the words ”Blessed are the pure in heart,” and under the latter ”Suffer little children to come unto me.” In the chancel is also a rich mural monument to Lewis Dymoke, ”who performed the service at the coronation of George I. and George II. He was the youngest son of Sir Charles Dymoke and Eleanor eldest daughter of the first Lord Rockingham.” There are two other tablets, on the north and south walls, of Dymokes, and others in the floor; also a tablet to John Tyrwhitt, Esq., of Pentre Park, and his wife Sophia, a Dymoke; and another of the Rev. I. Bradshaw Tyrwhitt, of Wilksby. In the churchyard are also tombs of Dymokes, one a ma.s.sive structure opposite the east window, containing the remains of the late Sir Henry Dymoke, Bart., and Emma his wife. There are also many tombstones of the Gilliat family. Some years ago, when repairs were being made in the church, the flooring was removed, and a skeleton was discovered without a head, a block of clay lying in place of the skull.
This was supposed to be the remains of Sir Thomas Dymoke, who, with his relative, Lord Welles, was beheaded by Edward IV., in London, at the time of the Battle of ”Loosecoat field,” near Stamford, 1470, when the fugitive rebels threw off their coats to expedite their flight.
Among the privileges of the Champion family was the right to hold a market and fair at Scrivelsby, first granted, 42 and 43 Henry III., to Philip de Marmyon, to which he proved his claim in the 9th year of Edwd.
I.; also the right of free warren over the Manor of Scrivelsby, and to erect a gallows for the punishment of felons at Scrivelsby. Where the gallows were erected is not known.
Sir Edward Dymoke, Sheriff of Lincolns.h.i.+re 27 Henry VIII., and also 1 Ed.
VI. and 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, married Anne, sister and coheir to Gilbert, Lord Taillebois of Kyme; by which alliance the castle and manors of North and South Kyme came to the Dymoke family, and members of the family resided there until it was sold, about 1730, to the Duke of Newcastle. This Sir Edward had issue Sir Robert Sir Charles, and a daughter Elizabeth, who married Henry Ascough, a member of a very old and distinguished family. Sir Robert Dymoke, Champion to James I., married well, the daughter of Edward Clinton, Lord Clinton and Saye, afterwards created Earl of Lincoln and a K.G. Her mother had been the widow of Gilbert, Lord Taillebois, previously a mistress of Hen. VII., by whom she had a son, created Duke of Richmond.