Part 27 (2/2)
This was the 2nd year of the reign of Queen Mary, of ill memory.
Doubtless the offence of the ejected predecessor was that he was married, which was contrary to the papistic ideas, revived in that brief reign.
Numbers of beneficed clergy were deprived at that time for this offence.
A few old records of some interest are preserved connected with Moorby, of which we give two or three samples here. First we have a family of the name of Moreby, of whom more than one mention is made. Roger Moreby, by will dated Sat.u.r.day after the Feast of St. Botolph, 1394, commends his soul to St. Mary and all the saints; he requests that his body may be buried in Croyland parish church; he leaves 40s. to be given to the poor on the day of his burial, and money to provide torches and wax for the church, and the altars of St. Katharine, St. John the Baptist, and Holy Trinity; he bequeaths 10 of silver to his wife, and other items. Again, by will dated the Feast of St. Thomas the apostle, 1368, Gervase de Wylleford bequeaths 100s. to John Moreby his cousin.
The family of Ayscough, formerly so widely represented in the county, were connected with Moorby. By will, dated 16th Nov., 1601, Henry Ascoughe, Gent., desires to be buried in the parish church of ”Morebie,”
leaving to his sister ”Elizabeth Aiscoughe (his) hereditaments in Morebie for life, then to go to his brother Matthew.” His sister is also to have lands which he had leased to Sir Henry Glenham, Knight. {201a} He further leaves to her, as executrix, ”10 to be good and to my poor sister Margarette.” To his brother Simon he bequeaths ”the best apparrell of my bodie, with riding furniture, and my baie gelding, rapier, dagger, and pistol,” and further bequests. The testator was son of Christopher Ayscough, of Bliborough, and married, apparently without issue, Margaret, daughter of Symon Battell, of Denham, Suffolk.
Like the not very distant Wildmore Fen, in which it now has a modern allotment of 14 acres of glebe land. The name of Moorby tells of its condition at the time when it acquired that designation, which means the ”by,” _i.e._ ”byre,” or farmstead on the moor. {201b} The moorland has now entirely disappeared under the plough, and only young plantations represent its former wild, woodland character.
WOOD ENDERBY.
Wood Enderby lies about four miles south by east from Horncastle.
Letters _via_ Boston arrive at 10.30 a.m.
The church, dedicated to St. Benedict, consists of nave, north aisle, and chancel, a low tower, with graceful broach spire, containing one bell, and small vestry. It is built of a warm-tinted green sandstone, with free stone dressings; the style of its architecture is a combination of the early English and Decorated periods. It was almost entirely rebuilt in 1860, at a cost of about 1,000. The south door, which is in the tower, has an Early English arch of five mouldings. There is a plain trefoiled window above in the tower; the lower part of the spire having two lancet windows, with a circle above them, and a small single-light window on each side, half way up. In the west wall of the tower is a three-light window, with two trefoils and a quatrefoil above. This is filled with coloured gla.s.s, having the texts ”I am the way, the truth, and the life,” ”Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them,” and ”No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” There are similar windows, but without coloured gla.s.s, in all four faces of the tower. At the north-west angle of the tower is a staircase turret. Within the south door, against the west wall, is an old stone coffin, with broken lid, ornamented with an incised floriated cross; this was discovered at the time of the restoration.
The arcade of the north aisle is of three bays, being part of the old church, in Early English style, with plain arches, supported on one octagonal pier and one shafted pier, with dog-tooth ornament, the former having foliage on the capital. In the north wall of the nave are three square-headed windows of three lights, with trefoils above, the gla.s.s being plain, except a border of red, purple, and yellow. In the south wall are three two-light windows, with trefoil and circle above; the gla.s.s being modern, with various coloured scripture texts.
The sittings are of deal, with plain poppy-heads. The pulpit is of modern oak, of five panels, each panel being divided into two trefoiled arched part.i.tions; the central panel having a trefoil above, and below it a square piece of carved old oak, representing Elijah blessing the cruse of oil for the widow of Zarephath. The vestry, at the east end of the north aisle, has one small trefoiled window. The tower and the spire were added at the restoration. The chancel has a decorated east window of three lights, with three quatrefoils above. It is filled with modern coloured gla.s.s, the subjects being, in the centre the Saviour risen from the tomb, on the left an angel seated at the tomb, and on the right the Magdalen. There is an inscription, ”Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my G.o.d and your G.o.d. John xx, 17.”
The north and south chancel walls have each one two-light trefoiled window, with quatrefoil above; plain gla.s.s, except the coloured band. In the south wall is a curious square projecting Norman piscina, with fluted basin, and fluted sides. In the north wall is an arched sepulchral recess. The chancel arch is plain Early English. The roof, like the sittings, is of pitch pine. The font has a plain octagonal large bowl of Barnack stone, its upper rim being modern, the shaft plain quadrilateral, with plain square columns at the angles; base and pediment octagonal.
The register dates from 1561. It begins with the note ”The Register booke of Woodenderbye, containing herein ye names of all such as have been married, burried, and christened, from Michaelmas 1561, to Michaelmas 1562.” The first five or six entries are illegible, and the others contain nothing of special interest. The benefice, a vicarage, is consolidated with the rectory of Moorby, and is now held by the Rev. R.
C. Oake.
As the name of Moorby indicated the character of the locality in former times, when that name was first acquired, so Wood Enderby means the ”bye,” _i.e._ ”byre,” or farmstead ”at the end of the wood,” as it borders on what was once the forest tract of ”Tumby Chase”; Haltham wood, near at hand, being a relic of that former wild region. {202}
W. H. Trafford, Esq., is Lord of the Manor. The Hon. Mr. Stanhope owns a large part of the land; and portions belong to the Rev. G. Ward, and other smaller owners. The late Miss Trafford Southwell founded an infant school in the village; the older children attending the Moorby school.
The poor paris.h.i.+oners receive 6d. each at Christmas, left by an unknown donor, out of the farm now owned by Rev. G. Ward, of Mavis Enderby.
The ancient history of Wood Enderby is much the same as that of Moorby.
It was one of the minor demesnes, within the Soke of Horncastle, and attached to that manor; as were also West Ashby, High Toynton, Mareham-on-the-Hill, and other parishes. It would thus also be among the estates of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and when his main line became extinct, and the property was divided among collateral branches, Wood Enderby, with Wilksby and Revesby, fell to the share of Mr. John Ca.r.s.ey, or Kersey; his wife, the daughter of Sir Thomas Lovell, Knight, being grand-daughter of Margaret, sister and co-heir of the Duke of Suffolk. He owned the property from 1552 to 1575, and he and his son Francis jointly sold it to Thomas Cecil, Lord Treasurer Burleigh. He held it from 1575 to 1598, when it pa.s.sed in succession to the 1st and 2nd Earls of Exeter, and to Elizabeth, Lady Howard, wife of the Earl of Berks.h.i.+re, in 1640, and so in 1658 to Henry Howard; in 1663 to his cousin Craven Howard, who built the former residence at Revesby; and, after his death, the property was sold by the daughters of Henry Howard to the Banks family; whence the manor has descended to the present proprietors of Revesby.
The manor, like that of Moorby and other parishes already named, would at one time belong to the Bishops of Carlisle, and they were till recently patrons of the benefice; the patronage, within late years, being transferred to the Bishops of Manchester, after the creation of that See in 1848.
At an earlier date, being an appendage to the Manor of Horncastle, this demesne would be owned at one period by Gerard and Ralph de Rhodes; and this is shewn by the following records among the Final Concords, date 3rd Feb., 12245, whereby an agreement was arrived at between Henry del Ortiay and Sabina his wife, on the one part, and Ralph de Rhodes on the other part, as to certain lands in Moorby, Enderby, Horncastle, and other parishes, that the said Henry and Sabina should recognise the said lands as belonging to the said Ralph; he, on his part, granting to them other lands there, specially designated, they rendering to him ”therefor by the year, one pair of gilt spurs, at Easter, for all service and exaction.”
{203a} This agreement was settled ”at the court of the Lord the King at Westminster on the morrow of the purification of the blessed Mary, in the 9th year of King Henry III. {203b}
In the old records, Testa de Nevill (circa 132628), it is stated that ”the churches of Horncastre, Askeby (West Ashby), Upper Thinton (High Toynton), of Meringes (Mareham-on-the-Hill), and of Hinderby (Wood Enderby), are of the gift of the lord; and Osbert, the parson, holds them of King Richard.”
In _Domesday Book_ it is stated that at the time of the Conqueror, there were ”400 acres of wood pasturage” in the parish, a sufficient reason for its designation. Like Moorby, it was among the manors seized by the Conqueror, for his portion of the plunder taken from our Saxon forefathers. In Saxon times the Thane, Siward, had land here; which was given by the Conqueror to his steward, Robert Despenser, brother of the Earl Montgomery. {203c}
<script>