■■■■

942.53019
N884r

ljn<i<HH}J4AHM<H«l'{J«41«liiM^lH3K.Uili}j4Ht<HM?

m

M. L

Gc

942.53019
N884r
1368271

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

COUNTY PUBUC I'BBARY

3 1833 00718 8300

Binder:

Please add call number to
spine as shown in red on
title page. Thank you-

for tbcs an& fiicbc fokr ^ jyanng bntSfeg fg>s,s>gg~^-3.g«€ .

tr%«,r,/^,/>w, „ ■'il,:,/.,!?/,:,/^ ,„ //>^0;„U e^urrA ^'9iiv£^n£itm^y ,„ tic (2t»

PARISH MEMORIALS

RELATING TO

NORTON DISNEY

IN THE

DIOCESE AND COUNTY OF LINCOLN

5/0

By a Country Vicar.

NEWARK:

Printed and Published by S. Whiles, Stodman Street.

1338271

PREFATORY NOTE

y^ 'T^HESE 'Parish Memorials' originally appeared in another

1 form. Since then the text has undergone careful re-

I vision, and new matter thrown into the Appendix, especially

J the Abstracts of the Disney Wills, for which we are indebted

to the recent researches of the Rev. A. R. Maddison, and

A. Gibbon, Esq., Lincoln. The subject has also been divided

into sections, with a short analysis or table of contents

prefacing each chapter. In the second chapter the editor, in

accordance with the view taken by more recent interpreters of

Domesday book, has adopted carucata in preference to canica

represented in the Latin entry by the abbreviated formula

"car.'"; and although his interpretation does not remove

all difficulties, he hopes to have succeeded in making the

constitution of a Norman manor, and its entry in the

> above-named venerable record, more intelligible to the non-

. professional or ordinary reader. A narrative of succession,

^ or notes of history and biography, relative to those who

} from early times have succeeded to this anciently entailed

estate, occupy the remaining chapters, supplemented by a

brief description of the parish church and its ancient

monuments.

Should an apology be due from the editor in sending his
MS. to press, it is that local or parish histories are few
compared to the numerous publications in other branches of
literature; he therefore may readily be excused who ventures
to add one more to the number, however poor or deficient
the performance.

G. R.

The Vicarage,

Norton Disney, 1893.

HEADS OF CHAPTERS,

I. — Introductory.

H. — Explanatory remarks on the Domesday entry
of NORTON.

III. — Historic Notices of its feudal owners, the
Disneys.

IV. — A continuation of the pedigree and history
of the Disneys of NORTON.

V. — The life and parentage of Christopher Monk,
second Duke of Albemarle.

VI. — The Parish Church, and its ancient
monuments.

I.

INTRODUCTORY.

CONTENTS.

ATORTON — its situation, soil, and general aspect. —
^ Diversified with wood, hill and dale. — Near the site
of a Roman station, and their military road, the Foss. —
Vestiges of an entrenched camp. — Conjectured to be the
original from whence the present village derives its name
and genesis. — Norton, as the name of a place, suggestive
of a Saxon settlement. — Argument in favour of that
hypothesis.. — Assumed to have been of sufficient importance
and growth to have formed a separate parish towards the
close of the seventh century. — First mentioned by name as
such in the Domesday book, or that portion of it relating
to Lincolnshire, aiw. 1086.

CHAPTER I,

li'Nl

ORTON, otherwise Norton Disney, is
a small, obscure parish in the vale of
the Witham, distant eleven miles s.w.
by s, from Lincoln, on the border of
the county in which it is situated,
and contains according to the Tithe Commissioners
2,305 acres in all. One end runs up to the river
Witham, the other to the Roman Foss and the
'Shire Dyke,' which separate it from the Newark
Hundred in Nottinghamshire. Between the Trent
and the Witham there is a long narrow slip of
land known in the several townships through
which it passes as the ' moor,' for the most part
now enclosed and cultivated. This moory barren
tract, which during the Heptarchy formed the
border land between Mercia and Northumbria,
takes a clean sweep through this lordship, imparting
to its soil more or less the character of land so
situated. The soil differs, however, considerably.
In some parts the gravel crops up to within a
few inches of the surface. In others, especially
at its lower or eastern end, it changes to a strong

6 PARISH MEMORIALS.

loam, which in the course of ages has been swept
down and deposited in its present site, by the
constant flow and scour of the river Witham. At
this lower end, slightly raised above the flood-line
of the Witham, lies the village proper, a cluster
of thatched cottages, overlooked by the manor
house and the village church. Here also stood
the inaison forte, or moated mansion of the Disneys,
the feudal lords of the domain. Eight centuries
ago the adjacent river flowed up the little brook,
which divides Norton from Stapleford, forming a
long narrow sheet of water, which supplied the
moat and protected their castle from any hostile
attack. At that time half the lordship was probably
wood, shrub, and open moor, the latter being
admirably adapted for the diversion of hawking, or
the purposes of the chase, of which, of every kind
and description, the Normans were passionately
fond. The fields and enclosures adjoining the
manor house retain to this day the name of the
'parks,' and from Overseers' accounts — a few
extracts from which we hope to give at a later
page — the badger, fox, and otter abounded down to
the middle or close of last century. But excepting
the fox, which occasionally pays us a midnight
visit, these carnivora, or small animals of prey, are
now extinct.

An old man named Cont, whose death is entered
in our parish Register under the year 1839, aged
92, remembered as a lad going from Norton to

PARISH MEMORIALS. 7

the Newark races then held on Langford moor,
when, according to his account, there was neither
gate nor fence intervening between Norton and
the Sleaford road. Though now enclosed, a few
acres lie still uncleared, growing nothing but ling
and gorse, the natural product of a moory soil
when left to itself, and various kinds of coarse
sour grasses, their botanical names being unknown
to the writer. The same remark applies to the
adjoining parish of Stapleford, on portions of
which it may be safely said no plough-share has
ever yet driven a furrow. Waste land of this
description is perhaps an eyesore to political
faddists, but they who love to roam unfettered by
care, amidst pink flowering broom, will here find
a few spots congenial to their choice, and rejoice
in the solitude and stillness around.

But though this lordship cannot compete with some
others in depth and richness of soil, it is pleasantly
diversified by wood, hill, and dale. The ground
rising by a gradual ascent from the river, affords
charming views of the ' Cliff Row ' and the Witham
valley. At its upper or western end the eye
takes in from various standpoints a wide sweep
of country, reaching miles across the Trent into
Nottinghamshire, while from the brow of the hill
overlooking Stapleford woods, are to be seen in
the far distance the baronial residence of the
Duke of Rutland, the tapering spire of Newark
Church, with others of more humble pretensions

8 PARISH MEMORIALS.

in the vale below. The high ground from whence
we get these panoramic views is locally known as
the ' Brills,' an abbreviation of Brough hills, at
the foot of which, within a short mile, once stood
a Roman town or station named by the Saxons
' Burgh ' or ' Brough,' a term applied indiscrimi-
nately by them to any stronghold or fortified place.
Stukeley, the antiquary, who was a native of
Lincolnshire, says it remained entire down to the
reign of Edmund Ironside, when it was sacked
by the Danes, and the materials carried away for
building purposes.

Be this as it may, this locality was known to
the Romans, as the proximity of the above station
and their military road, the Foss, clearly show,
though the site of the present village at the time
was probably all forest. Between their departure
and the Norman invasion six centuries elapsed,
and the only foot-print or tell tale impression
of that period is a small entrenched camp or
enclosure, which we take to be the fans d origo
of Norton. It lies between the church and the
river, in a field called the 'hill-close,' and as a place
of refuge and defence not inaptly chosen. There
at all events it stands, a silent witness of a pre-
historic age. The escarpment is thrown down,
but of sufiicient height still to give name to the
field where it is situated. It is only here and
there that these small but ancient enclosures are
found. Time and the plough-share have levelled

PARISH MEMORLILS. g

most of them. To their construction the origin
of many towns and villages is traceable, and
that this village or township owes its name
and genesis to a similar source is by no means
improbable. The four cardinal points were well
known to all the Teutonic tribes, and, on their
occupation of this country, were adopted both by
Dane and Saxon, to denote the relative position of
places and settlements. Then again, as the
suffix ton in place-names is a characteristic feature
in Saxon terminology, we infer that this village
was originally planted by an Anglo-Saxon rather
than by a Scandinavian or Danish colony. Neither
tradition nor history, however, throw light on the
circumstances which first led to the selection of
this particular spot for a village settlement. The
early Saxon colonists, as a rule, are said to have
settled, where feasible, as near the margin of a
navigable river as possible, and the inducement
in this, as in so many other instances, may have
been the adjacent river Witham, w4iich in ancient
times flowed apparently in a much wider and
deeper channel than at present.

However, when towards the close of the seventh
century England came to be parochially divided,
we may reasonably assume a village community
was settled here of sufficient growth and im-
portance to form a separate parish, and that it
bore the same name, and possessed much the
same boundaries as at present. Still we have no

10 PARISH MEMORIALS.

specific information of it, as such, until a few
years after the Norman Conquest, when the
Conqueror, for reasons of his own, resolved on
taking a general survey of his newly-acquired
possessions. The outcome or result of that
enquiry was carefully embodied in writing, and
known to all students of archaeology as ' Domesday
book,' from which, with the exception of the four
Northern counties, * N(jrthumbria, Cumberland,
Westmoreland, and Durham' (i.), which have no
place in Domesday as shires, the status, or ancient
condition of nearly every parish in the kingdom,
can still be ascertained. And to that venerable
Record we next turn for the description of this
particular manor, which, with our comment and
exposition thereon, will form the subject of a
separate chapter.

G\ ^ ^d

II.

EXPLANATORY REMARKS
ON THE DOMESDAY ENTRY OF NORTON.

e." ^ ^^

CONTENTS

TREASONS for supposing the Latin entry a mere abstract.
— Certain items omitted common to other entries. —
The term silvce iiiumtoe explained. — On the mode of taking
the measure of the assessment, showing how the "XII car'"
were obtained, and their probable contents in modern acreage.
— The word ' carucate ' supposed to be a compound term,
the same formula being used to express the measure of the
assessment, and the plough-lands on which the assessment
was based. — The m.easure of the assessment determined
by the number and quality of the plough-lands, and not
by the number of ploughs, or plough-teams kept. — Each
plough-land had meadow and pasture necessarily appurtenant
to it, constituting the Saxon hide, or Norman carucate. —
The measure of the assessment not necessarily co-terminous
with the modern acreage. — Its valuation, and assessment
to the scutage tax. — Remarks on the apparent cheapness
of land in feudal times. — The labourer's lot compared with
the Saxon serf. — The farmer's life one of freedom and
independence.

CHAPTER 11.

E now enter on a period when written
documents become available, and the
first to claim our attention is Domesday
book, which, excepting the four before-
named counties, gives particulars more
or less full of almost every town, village, and
hamlet throughout the kingdom. It is with one
only, however, out of many thousand entries, we
are here concerned, the one namely for this
parish, which in that ancient Record is thus
described : —

S. In NORTUNE XII car', tre ad gld. Tni
VII car'. Ibi ht Judita VII soch, et XI
vill, cu V car',, et XII acs pti. Silvoe
min : VI gz Ig, et I lat.

( Translation.)
Soke. In NORTON there are XII carucates of
land to tax. The land is VII carucates.
Judith has there VII sochmen, and XI
villains with V carucates, and XII acres of
meadow. There is lesser-wood VI furlongs
long", and I in breadth. • ■

i6 PARISH MEMORIALS.

Reasons for supposing the foregoing a mere
abstract : —

The preceding description is probably the
abridgment of a fuller and lengthier report. Its
triple valuation — of which we shall have more to say
further on — is not s;-iven. Then as^ain, with a river
frontage a full mile, reference to a mill and fish-
ponds, two of the most useful appendages of a
Norman manor, might reasonably be expected. As
these items formed an essential part of the official
enquiry, there must have been some reason with
which we are now but imperfectly acquainted to
account for their omission. But in speaking of mills
we refer to water-mills, as there is no genuine
evidence of wind-mills being: used in Eno;land
before the first crusade. MoIcb jumentarice, or mills
turned by oxen, were in common use at the time
of the survey, and are occasionally referred to.
As to water-mills, although a great source of
revenue to the owner, or lord of the manor, they
were costly things to erect, and in those days
tenants could not everywhere be found of sufficient
capital to take to a mill, hence the frequent
mention in Domesday of "half a mill," "one
third," and " one fourth," which is to be under-
stood of two or more persons carrying on the mill
for the benefit of the community within the same
or adjoining manors. Some writers have thought
a considerable portion of the Domesday book was
derived from ancient manorial Court Rolls. And

PARISH MEMORIALS.

17

if so, it is not unreasonable to suppose that in
remote districts, where the art of transcribing
was but Httle practised, many small manors un-
connected with a royal burgh, or monastery,
would have no such written records to produce,
and this possibly may account for their omission
here. Moreover, as statistical returns 800 years
ago had not the accuracy they now have, it is
just possible during their laborious and monotonous
task of transcribing, the scribes, in arranging and
compressing their matter, may have overlooked or
withheld certain items of information which, in a
topographical essay of this kind, it would now be
desirable to know.

The silvce ^ninutce explained.

Claiming our attention next is the silvce niintitce,
which means ' lesser,' or ' under-wood,' described
as 'six furlongs long by one in breadth.' Although
record is silent, it is not improbable that this
locality was all forest when the Romans, the
earliest pioneers of civilization into western
Europe, constructed their military road, the Foss.
But owing to the ravages of time, to the growing
requirements of each A. — Saxon 'mark' or settle-
iment; to the waste and demolition under the
I Heptarchy; and especially during the two centuries
"of incessant warfare with the Danes, this primeval
forest had become reduced to a mere skeleton of
its former self. Detached portions, however, were
c

i8 PARISH MEMORIALS.

still found standing, of less or greater extent, in
almost every lordship, at the time of the Survey.
These woods were, by the Normans, divided into
two general classes, 'pasture-wood,' and 'under-
wood,'— a distinction invariably observed in Domes-
day— the former being by far the more valuable,
not for the bark and timber, but ad pascua porcorum,
for the acorns and beech nuts they yielded to the
numerous herds of swine and cattle then kept. In
later writings woods are sometimes called loca
sylvafica, which, freely translated, means ' deer
ranges' or 'swine walks,' in contradistinction to
silvcB minutce, or silvce infructuoscE, woods of smaller
dimensions and growth, which yielded little or no
such provender. Under a recent Act, woods and
plantations are now assessed, the estimated extent
of which, in this lordship, is 390 acres, 23 perches :
in the Conqueror's Survey, however, woods,
although carefully registered, are never assessed,
whereas mills and fisheries were, and the absence
of the latter confirms our previous impression
that the present entry is a mere abstract, or
abridgment of a fuller and lengthier report.

The XII car\ or carucates, and their

PROBABLE contents IN MODERN ACREAGE.

We now come to the most important part of
our enquiry, viz : The measure of the assessment,
or the "XII car'"' for which Norton answered to

PARISH MEMORIALS. 19

the geld, or public tax of those times, and we
purpose showing, though with much diffidence,
how they were obtained, and their probable
contents in modern acreage. The way in which
the Conqueror's Survey was taken has been often
told, the jnodiis operandi adopted to elicit the
information required in one manor, being much
the same in all. Commissioners appointed by the
Crown (Icgati regis) were sent into every county,
and in each hundred (2) juries were summoned
from every order of freeman, from baron and belted
knight down to the smallest farmer, with no less
ithan six villains from each ville or manor, who,
iike the Spartan helots, being bred and born on
the estate and daily engaged in husbandry, would,
as such, be fully acquainted with everything per-
taininsf to the nature and character of the soil
they tilled. Indeed, as the Norman nobles and
their sub-vassals were men of the sword, and
knew confessedly more of the art of war and hard
fighting than agriculture, — regarding the latter
beneath the notice of a gentleman, — it was chiefly
on this class of witnesses, in the absence of
imanorial or Court rolls, the Commissioners mainly
Irelied for much of their information in regulating
ijthe measure of the assessment, or number of
carucates to tax.

Of the various questions submitted to the jury
(3) none required more consideration than those
relating to the arable, or plough-lands. They

20 PARISH MEMORIALS.

everywhere formed the main difficulty, necessitating j
on the part of the Commissioners careful scrutiny, i
as being that part of the investigation in which a ■
conflict of opinion and interests was most likely
to arise, and which accounts, we think, for so many
villains being summoned from each ville, in case
their depositions were required. We must bear in
mind, too, that when the Conquerer issued his
Commission there was no statutory or fixed
standard for the measurement of land; every calcula-
tion in reference to it was consequently more or less
defective. Moreover, its general treatment was on
the rudest scale, and of the most primitive fashion.
With all their boasted superiority over the Saxons,
the Normans had made no advance or improve- !
ment on the old and cumbersome method of
measuring land by the ox-gang, and its multiple :
the plough-gate or plough-land. Some years
elapsed before they adopted a simpler mode of
assessment, by transferring the ancient Danegeld,
or imperial taxation of the country, from each hide
or carucate, to the * knights fee,' a term we shall '\
have occasion to use later on. The only innova- i
tion on their first arrival was to introduce a few !
new phrases more congenial to their language, as ij
'bovate' for ox-gang; a 'carucate' for plough-gate I
or plough-land ; a ' virgate ' for a quarter plough-
land, and so on. Any other method of measuring ;;
land and getting at results had not, as yet,
occurred to their inventive faculty. What the

PARISH MEMORIALS. 21

Commissioners then did, to elicit the required
information, was to formulate certain questions,
and from the answers given make their estimate :
thus, with regard to the arable : —

' How much land could an ox-team plough in a
year, about ? ' Also, ' The number of ploughs, or
plough-teams, for which it furnished work ? '

As the object of these questions was to enable
I the Commissioners to form some idea of the
I character of the soil, and the quantity under
I plough in each lordship, it was essential that the
j answers or sworn returns should, as nigh as was
I attainable, be truthful and accurate, inasmuch as
I the carucata or 'plough-land' — which, it is needless
to say, consisted of so many bovats, or ox-gangs
— was everywhere the unit, or ratal basis for
i computing the measure of the assessment. And
this being so, it follows there could be no calcula-
tion towards fixing the measure of assessment,
until the number and quality of the carucates
proper, or plough-lands, were first ascertained.
Hence the two following questions were, at the
same time, invariably put —

' How many plough-lands were there ? ' And —
'How many in the hands of the lord ?'

Here we have brought before us the two-fold
character of a Norman manor, of which one
portion, the demesne (4), was invariably reserved
or set apart for the sole use and benefit of the
■lord and his household: the other, usually the

22 PARISH MEMORIALS.

largest, was let out to different classes of tenants,
under certain conditions and obligations. Thus,
the "VII caf denote, in our humble opinion,
not the number of ploughs or plough-teams
{carucoe) employed, as some writers contend, but
the number of plough-lands [cariicat(£), of which
two at the time of the Survey were ' demesne '
{ifi dof7iinio), the profit of which went to Judith,
whose fee it was, and for whom it was farmed by
the forced labour of her serfs, or land slaves ; the
remaining "V c^r" being tenemental, in the hands
of 7 sochmen and ii villains.

Meadow and Pasture necessarily appurtenant

TO THE PLOUGH-LAND.

Then again, as no land under tillage could
possibly be carried on from year to year without
meadow and pasture, a certain amount of meadow
is always found in the description of a Domesday
manor, which of course varied according to the
agricultural conditions of each manor or parish.
But besides meadow-land, strictly so called, the
tenants had everywhere an inalienable right of
pasture for their cattle or plough-teams employed
in the cultivation of the arable. And by pasture is
meant the 'commons,' or 'common-pasture,' open
for purposes of grazing to the whole community,
and which, though not expressed by any specific
measurement, is always implied in the Domesday

PARISH MEMORIALS. 23

book. The owner, whoever he might be, was
bound to concede this as a common right, insepa-
j rably incident to the grant of his lands. In other
I words, each plough-land had meadow and pasture
necessarily appurtenant to such tillage, that being the
great land measure so often repeated in Domesday,
which the Saxons called a * hide,' the Normans
a 'carucate'; and which is supposed to have
contained, on an average, about six score acres
each. Assuming then, merely for argument's sake,
six score, or 120 acres to the carucate (5) — the
measure invariably used in this county — and,
multiplying those figures by the number of caru-
cates at which this manor was rated to the geld,
or public tax, we obtain at once 1,440 acres as
the measure of the assessment. (12 x 120 = 1440.)
Now these figures leave a large deficit to be
accounted for, between its ancient and modern
acreage (see p. i) : but we must bear in mind that
woods and waste land — two most comprehensive
terms eight centuries ago — were never included in
the measure of the assessment. There were, no
doubt, lordships where the area of land under
cultivation was co-extensive with its modern
acreage : but there were others also — perhaps the
majority — with a margin of uncultivated ground
for future take in, of no rateable value at the
time of the Survey. This "unknown quantity,"
together with wood-land and the uncertain contents
of a carucate, are, in the writer's opinion, sufficient

24 PARISH MEMORIALS.

to account, not in this only, but in other lordships
similarly situated, for any discrepancy between
the ancient and modern acreage. The inference,
therefore, we draw, is that a Domesday manor
need not necessarily correspond with its modern
acreage, as no land would be included in the
measure of the assessment that was not under
cultivation, or from which, in the opinion of the
Commissioners, an annual profit might reasonably
be expected to accrue to the owner of the fee.
And assuming, as we said before, 120 acres to
the carucate, we get 1,440 acres, more or less, as
the contents of the "XII car''' at the time of the
Survey.

NORTON, ITS VALUATION.

As already observed, certain items common to
most other entries are, for some reason or other,
omitted by the scribes in their account or description
of this particular manor, and among these is its
valuation. There can be no doubt a return was
made, for the Commissioners were bound by the
terms of the King's precept to send in a triple
return : —

( 1 ) In the reign of the Confessor.

( 2 ) When King William granted it.

(3) And at the time of the Survey.

Its omission, however, is not so much to be
regretted, as there is an estimate of its value for
the scrutage tax taken, 3 Edw : I, 1275, or two

PARISH MEMORIALS. 25

hundred years later. The King's Justiciaries then
valued Norton and Stapleford — so often associated
with this manor in the early Records — at ;f 15 a
year respectively : — ■

"They" — that is, the men of the Hundred,
who formed the Jury in those days — "say the
" King has two knight's fees in the townships
" of Norton and Stapleford, and that each
" fee is worth _£" 15 a year."

Himd : Rolls, vol. i, p. 284.

How long these figures represented its yearly
value, we cannot say. Its valuation would, no
doubt, vary with the times. When money was
scarce and dear, land, like every other commodity,
would be proportionably cheap. Indeed, long after
the date of the above Inquisition, Bishop Latimer,
preaching before the boy-king Edward the Vlth,
tells him "that his father was a yeoman, and had
"a farm of £^ or £^ a year, and that he tilled
" so much land as kept half-a-dozen men. He
"had walk for a hundred sheep, and his mother
"milked thirty kine. Out of this he was able, and
" did find the king a harness," — that is, a horse
soldier fully equipped — "with himself, and a harness.
" On the marriage of his daughters, they received
"twenty nobles [^ £S') a piece, so that he
"brought them up in godliness and fear of God,
" and kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and
"some alms he gave to the poor, and all this he
"did out of the same farm."

26 PARISH MEMORIALS.

From this little episode, which gives go pleasing
a glimpse of English rural life 350 years ago, our
friend the reader, should he belonq; to the o;reat
and important agricultural class, must not run
away with the idea that ancient rentals were
disproportionately low, or that land in those days
was letting below its commercial value; for if the
price of an ox ready for the shambles was ^f i .6.8
in Henry the Eighth's reign (6), and its selling
price now £2^ or £30, old Latimer's farm may
have been as dear to him at those few pounds as
a rental of ;r 300 or ;f 400 a year at the present
time. Notwithstanding, therefore, the beautiful
simplicity of pastoral life as here exhibited, none
but an anchorite or recluse would, we imasfine,
prefer going back to those apparently cheap times,
or exchange for them the comforts, refinement,
and cultivated taste, of the century in which we
are now livingf.

The Serf and his Employer.

But, mark how great in the interval has been
the progress of civilization ! What incalculable
benefits have been conferred on all classes, from
the coronetted peer to the humblest peasant, since
the Norman William with his mail-clad knights
first landed on the Sussex coast. No class,
perhaps, has benefitted so largely by recent legis-
lation as agricultural labourers, and, by comparison,

PARISH MEMORIALS. 27

a thousand-fold better is their present lot than the
hopeless bondage of the wretched serfs, who were
ground down beneath the iron heel of Norman
tyranny and misrule. The same may be said of
their employer, the farmer, who represents the
sochman, or freeman proper of the Norman Survey.
In feudal times the lord of the soil claimed a
regality, or the right of inflicting capital punish-
ment within the confines of his domain. This
power, or privilege, was at first conceded to none
but the more powerful barons and ecclesiastics,
but owinc: to the weakness of the executive under
the long and feeble reign of Henry the Third,
many petty lords of manors usurped a privilege to
which they could show no license. In this small
obscure parish, one of its ancient owners claimed
this privilege, as the following quo warranto Writ
shows : —

" They " — the Jury — " say that William D'Iseny,
"of Norton, claims to have gallows (furcas)
"at Norton, and has had them X years, and
" his father set them up, but by what Warrant
" they know not."

Rot. Hund : vol. i, p. 286.

In the exercise of this power the sochman, or
tenant in soccage, had nothing to fear, still the
suit and service he had to render for his holding
were most arbitrary, vexatious, and exacting ;

28 PARISH MEMORIALS.

while his only court of redress at hand was the
Hall-mote, or Court of the Manor, over which
his lord sat as president and judge. How different
is his condition now I Out of 365 days in the
year, two only (they say) disturb his digestion,
which is usually pretty good, or ruffle the equanimity
of his temper. He breathes the fresh air of heaven,
lives a life of freedom and independency. Happy
they, whose lines have fallen in such pleasant
places, if — a very important factor in the calcu-
lation— they would but think so : —

" 0 fortiinatos nimium sua si bona norint Agricolas.'"

Virsfil's Gcor^ics.

GA__- .. ^ rs

III.

HISTORICAL NOTES,

RELATING TO ITS FEUDAL OWNERS,

CONTENTS

JUDITH, the Conqueror's niece, first owner by name. —
Marries Waltheof, Saxon Earl of Huntingdon. — The
Earl charged with conspiracy against the King's life, is
sentenced to death. — Extracts from book of Feudal Tenures
of knight's fees, belonging to the barony of Huntingdon
in CO : Lincoln.— -Norton held by Judith's descendants, as
chief-tena.nts, down to the extinction of the barony in 1237.
— Extracts from the same Record, in reference to the Disneys
as lender-tenants of the baronial House of Huntingdon. — ■
Their early connection with the manors of Norton and
Stapleford, shown by the term " old feoffment." — Its meaning,
as applied to land tenure. — On the name ' Disney,' and from
whence derived.— Lambert, a Norman knight, in the train
of the Conqueror, said to be the ancestor of the Disneys
of Norton. — A geneological list of his descendants. — Historic
notices of five feudal lords in succession, named William,
concluding with John D'Iseny, slain at the battle of Towton
Field, 1461.

CHAPTER III.

( K;;^
1 -my

m

HERE are few lordships with so
unbroken a line of succession and
descent as the one on which we are
now engaged. Of its feudal owners, and
their connection with this particular
manor, our National Records convey the earliest and
most authentic information. Some of these historic
notices and reminiscences will be unavoidably short,
others fuller as our narrative expands, and we
lapproach nearer to our own times. The first of
|whom we have any account by name is Judith, the
iCountess, who as already stated was owner at the
time of the Survey. She was the Conqueror's
niece, and bestowed by him on Waltheof, Earl of
Huntingdon, a distinguished nobleman of English
birth, who being drawn into a plot against the
King's life, was basely betrayed. Some say by his
iNorman wife Judith, who was inclined to a second
husband. Be this as it may, Waltheof was brought
to trial and doomed to die, the sentence of death
being carried out at the hour of midnight, outside
the walls of Winchester, in 1076, and with Judith's

34 PARISH MEMORIALS.

..-.ocendnnts by the English earl this manor con-
tinued for about 150 years, until the extinction of
the Barony. (7.)

That Norton was one of the fees of inheritance
appertaining to the barony of Huntingdon, and
held /// capitc of the Crown by her descendants, is
proved by the Inquisitions of Feudal Tenures,
known by the title of Testa dc Ncvil, the principal
object of which was the better levying of the
scutage tax on all land held by military service.
These Inquisitions, so valuable to a local historian,
range from the commencement of Henry the Third's
reign to the close of Edward the First, from 12 16
to 1307. The following extracts have reference to
this and the adjoining parish of Stapleford during
King Henry's reign : —

Fol. p. 30. Fees of Huntingdon. Com : Line.
No. 408.
William D'Iseny holds the fee of one knight in Stapleford.
The same William holds one knight's fee in Norton.

From the same collection of Inquisitions we extract

the following, which like the preceding refer to

tenures held during the same prolonged reign : —

Fol. p 36. Wappentake of Graffoe. Com : Line :

William Dyseny (sic) holds in Stapleford, the fee

of one knight, which is of the old feoffment of Ralph

Basset, and the same Ralph Basset of earl David of

the Honour of Huntingdon, and he of my lord the

King.

William Dyseny holds in Norton one knight's fee,
which is of the old feoffment of Ralph Basset, and
he of earl David, and the earl of my lord the King.

m

PARISH MEMORIALS. 35

On the death of Earl David's only son JoJin Ic Scot
in 1237, ^^^ earldom of Huntingdon expired for want
of male issue, when the vast estates comprising the
Barony (including the following knights' fees in this
county — Bassingham, Carlton, Norton, Stapleford,
Coleby, Ponton Magna, Ponton Parva, and Suthwime.
Test, de Nevil, p 30,) were divided among his four
sisters, but to whom in the sub-division this lordship
fell has eluded our research. Refer to Burke's
Peerage, Kings of Scotland. Art. David, the First,
and his descendants. i 36827^"*

We now revert to the actual occupiers, the
Disneys with whom these pages are more directly
concerned, and with whose fortunes this and the
adjoining lordship of Stapleford became closely
connected for several centuries. This connection
certainly commenced at an early date. Unfortu-
nately there is a blank in our National Records for
more than a hundred years after the Conquest, and
the link in the chain that connects the owners of
estates in Domesday with those who held them
in King John's reign is often hard to find. Still the
above extracts from the book of Feudal Tenures,
coupled with the expression "old feoffment" — an
expression never used except where there had been
a long previous settlement in the same place and
family — afford strong presumptive evidence that they
were settled here as s//6-vassals, or under-tenants
|of the baronial house of Huntingdon, very shortly
fter the Conquest. That they were of Norman

36 PARISH MEMORIALS.

extraction may be inferred from the name de Isignc,
a small burg or township near Bayeux in Normandy,
from whence they came, now softened down to
' Disney,' and which they afterwards adopted as
their patronymic or family surname. And this
account is confirmed by Leland in his Itinerary,
when in enumerating the gentry of Lincolnshire in
Henry the Eighth's time, he mentions " Disney, d/ms
" de Isigny, he dwelleth at Disne, and h^'s name
"and line be gentlemen of Fraunce."

Genealogists, whose lines we follow, place Lambert
(surnames being unrecognised) at the head of the
genealogical tree, as the reputed ancestor of the
family settled in England. He was most likely
sans terrc, one of those needy, lack-land adventurers, |
or penniless soldiers of fortune, who helped to swell:
the motley host of the Norman Invader. But of him.
and his immediate successors to the end of King!
John's reign, beyond their names and marriages asj
given in the annexed pedigree, nothing appears to!
be known —

" Their swords are rust, their bones are dust,
And their souls with saints we trust."

The hope expressed in the last line we heartily
endorse, for it is an admitted fact that for loo years'
or more after the Conquest these mail-clad knights,
over whose deeds romance has thrown so fictitious
a gloss, were men of unbridled passions, violaters
of innocent women, and the tyrannical oppressors

PARISH MEMORIALS. 37

of a down-trodden people, whose castles, instead of
affording protection to the weak and helpless, were
a terror and a curse to the locality where they were
situated. See n. 22. We gladly, therefore, leave
them to the oblivion to which history itself consigns
them, and come straight to —

Sir William D'Iseny, Knt., the third on the
roll-call answering to the name of "William," to
whom, as next in order of time, the subjoined
extract from the Hundred Rolls refers : —

Fol. Vol I. p 284. Com : Line.

WAPENTAKE de GRAFOW in KESTEVEN in
the county of LINCOLN in the 3rd year of King
Edward the son of Henry.— INQUISITION made
before my lords the king's JUSTICIARIES, William
de St. Homez, & Warren de Chaucombe by a Jury
of XII men of the WAPENTAKE de GRAFOW. (8)

They say that the king has two

knights' fees in the townships of NORTON
& STAPLEFORD, & that each fee is worth
£■15 a year, & that William D'Iseny holds
the aforesd fees in fnesne of Richard Basset,
knt, by knight's service, & pays scutage, & the
same Richard holds these two fees in mesne
of Alexendar Bardolp by knight's service &
scutage, but by what Warrant they know

38 PARISH MEMORIALS.

As this was the first Inquisition of Edward the
First after ascending the throne, and held expressly
to rectify abuses which had crept in during the long
and feeble reign of his father Henry the Third, we
may fairly assume the Under-tenant here named was
living in both reigns, and is the same military or
feudal knight who claimed at this same Inquisition
the right of setting up the furca or gallows, as noted
on a previous page (p. 27.) He was knight of the
shire for Lincolnshire, and summoned as such to
attend Parliament held at York, Whitsuntide, 25
March 26 Edw. ist. He married Joan Dive or
de Dyve of Kingerby in co. Lincoln, and through
this marriage the manor of Kingerby — of which
more hereafter — came with other lands in the
neighbourhood of Market Rasen into the Disney
family, (g). She survived her husband. This fact
is ascertained by a Writ of Summons served in her
name 28 Edw. I. to appear at Carlisle on the Feast
of the Nativity of John the Baptist, 24 June, 1300;
and again the following year at Berwick to attend ,
the king in his expeditions against the Scots (Writs
of Military Summons fol. Vol. i. p 334) ; and also by
a second marriage with a Sir Ralph de Trehampton.
In those days ladies inheriting large possessions
were bound either to marry again on the plea that
females were incapable of performing the military
services by which their lands were held, or pay the '
king a heavy fine for the privilege of remaining
single. This widow lady preferred the former I

I

PARISH MEMORIALS. 39

alternative. She is supposed to have built the
mortuary chapel on the north side of the parish
church, where within an arched recess her effigy
still remains : for a description of which refer to
No. I, Disney monuments, chap. vi.

The next on the roll-call to inherit the family
honours was another ' Sir William,' who, from the
fact of the above Writs being served in his mother's
name, was most probably a ward at the time of his
father's death. He married Joan the daughter of
' Sir Nicholas de Landford,' as we gather from the
inscription on her tomb in Norton church. The
family to which she belonged was a junior branch
of the Greys of Codnor Castle, Derbyshire, who
took their name in accordance with the custom of
those times from the place of their nativity or abode,
Langford (ex antiquo Landford) near Newark, Notts.
The proximity of Langford to Norton probably led
to an inter alliance of the two families, between the
lord of Norton and a daughter of the House of
Grey. The Langford estate, as we gather from the
same author (Thoroton's History of Notts. Vol. i,
4to. ed. p. 368,) passed to the Leeks, a Nottingham-
shire family of some repute in former days, with
whom also, as will presently be shown, the Disneys
formed a matrimonial alliance. We catch one other
glimpse of the feudal lord of whom we are here
speaking, as a Commissioner of Sewers 6 Edward
HL to report on the state of the Witham between
Claypole and Beckingham. The three Commission-

40 PARISH MEMORIALS.

ers empowered to act were the above Sir William
D'Iseny, Sir Hy. de Fenton, and Thos. de Sibthorpe.
Cal. of State Papers, Domestic Scries. The appoint-
ment shows that the Disneys were a family of
opulence and distinction in these parts, for as a
writer observes, "the keeping of drains and sewers
in good repair in those early times was considered
an object of prime importance, and no one was
thought to be a proper judge of what repairs might
be wanting whose interest was not intimately
connected with the prosperity of the district under
his control." Oldfield's History of Waiiiflect, 8vo.
1829, P 189- This worthy knight and his wife Joan
are supposed to lie by the side of each other in
Norton church, beneath separate monuments, for
which turn to Nos. 2 and 3 in the last chapter of
this volume.

The next member of this knightly family to whom
we revert as we glide down the stream of time is
again a ' Sir William ' For some reason, in honour
perhaps, or admiration of the Conquerer, ' William '
was evidently a cherished name in this Norman
family, for all the Pedigrees show no less than five
in succession who bore this baptismal name — the
cause of much confusion and perplexity, especially
where date of death and succession is wanting.
The only reference we find of this feudal lord is
in an Inquisition 13 Henry IV. {ano. 1413, )
taken most probably towards the close of his life,
wherein he is styled 'Chl'r' {chevalier), a courtly term

I

PARISH MEMORIALS. 41

applied chiefly to gentlemen of Norman or Angevin
descent. He married Eustacia, the daughter of
Roger lord Grey de Ruthyn, and is registered as
holding lands in Evington, Oadby, and Thurnby, in
the county of Leicester, in right of his wife Eustacia
(so named in the Inquisition) with the manors of
Norton, Stapleford, and Kingerby, in the county
of Lincoln. Cal. Inqiiis' ad quod damnum, p. 363.

And here at this stage occurs a break in the order
of succession hitherto unnoticed. Recent research
among the ancient Wills and Administrations in
the Episcopal Registry, Lincoln, has brought to
light the Will of John Hamsterly, who was one
of a family which in the 14th and 15th centuries
possessed property at Elston and Stoke-on-Trent, in
the county of Notts. His father William Hamsterley
was connected by marriage with the Stauntons, of
Staunton, near Newark, and is mentioned by name in
a rhyming pedigree of that family. John Hamsterley
himself is shown by his Will (see Appendix A.) to
have married Elizabeth, the daughter and sole
heiress of the above William Dysney, and to have
had possession of Norton, where he resided, and of
the other Disney estates. The probability is that
'William Dysney' relinquished them in favour of
his son-in-law, who had married his only child,
while he himself took up his abode on one of his
Leicestershire manors, brought him by his wife
Eustacia, Be this as it may, John Hamsterley
certainly had a life interest in the Disney estates,

42 PARISH MEMORIALS.

with remainder to Elizabeth his wife for the term of
her natural life ; but though issue male is mentioned
in his Will, after their deaths they again reverted to
the main line in the person of another Sir William,
the last of those who bore in succession this knightly
dignity, from whom (finding no particulars) we pass
to—

JOHN D'ISNEY, Esq., the next on the roll-call to
inherit the family estates, and who was one of the
body-guard, or gentlemen esquires, attendant on the
person of William, lord Bardolph, second Viscount
Beaumont, at the battle of Towton Field, fought
Palm Sunday, March 2gth, 1461. This 'unnatural'
and deadly conflict, the last between the houses of
York and Lancaster, the issue of which placed King
Edward IV. on the English throne, is too well
known to need a repetition here. We shall only
observe that scarcely a House of ancient standing
escaped the loss of a father, son, or brother, on
that ever memorable day. (10) Among the slain
on the Lancastrian, or losing side, fighting under
the banner of the aforesaid nobleman, (afterwards
attainted by Parliament 4th November, i Edward
IV.) was the above John DTseny, the representative
in chief of the Disney family. His wife belonged
to the Leeks of Langford, " different branches of
which (to quote a late historian) were settled in
various places within and about the county of
Nottingham, and especially in the neighbourhood
of Newark, all of them in respectable, and not a few

I

A PEDIGREE OF THE DISNEYS, OF NORTON DISNEY.
( Section 1.)

Lambert = d. of

Sir Jordan de Iseny ^^ d. of Sir Geoffiy de Friskney.

J

Sir Gilbert de Iseny = d. of Lord Bardolph.

Sir Anthony de Iseny = d. of Thos. Ropsley, Esq.

Sir John de Iseny = d. of Sir Gregory Auke.

Sir John de Iseny = Ann, d. of Sir Wm. Skipwith.

Sir William de Iseny = Christiana, d. of Thos. Chelden, Esq.

Thomas de Iseny, Esq. -— . . d. of Geoffry Peynell, Esq.

Sir William de Iseny = Berthsheba, d. of Thos. Ormsby, Esq.

living tein : Henry HI. |

Sir William de Iseny == Johaanna, d. and co-heir of Sir Wm.

tem : Henry HI. & Edw. I., 1275 | de Dive of Kingerby, co : Lineoln.

Sir William de Iseny = Joan, d. of Sir Nicholas Grey of

living Edw. II. & Edw. III. | Langford, co : Notts.

Sir William de Iseny - Eustacia, d. of Roger, Lord Grey de

living 13 Henry IV., 141 1 | Ruthyn.

Sir William de Iseny = Lucy, d. of Sir Wm. de Fenton.

John de Iseny, Esq. ;= Katherine, d. of Sir John Leeke of

occisus in pralio 1461 | Langford, co : Notts.

John DTseny — Margaret, d. of Thos. Nevil, Esq., of

living c;>c; 1461 — 1485 | Rolleston, Newark, Notts.

John DTseny, Esq. - Margaret, d. of Thos. Crossholme, Esq.

living c/>c .• 1485 — 1515 I

William John

\^See Section 2 for continuation of Pedigree. ]

PARISH MEMORIALS. 43

of them in dignified situations." Dickenson's History
of Nru'cirk, ed. 1816, p. 212. By her John Disney
had, besides male issue, a daughter wedded to the
eldest son of Sir Thomas Staunton, of Staunton
aforesaid, which union is thus referred to in the
rhyming pedigree of that family: —

" Next Thomas with Elizabeth had
Five sons, I can them name,
Wilyam, George, Wilyam, Thomas, John,
Then AHce, their sister came.

"The elder Wilyam, Katherine wedde.

Whose daughter can you telle ?
The Lorde of Norton disne sure

By proofe I know it well,
Who tho' with welthe they did abounde

Off-spring they both had not."

Of this unfortunate squire we find no further
particulars, nor of his two immediate successors
who bore his baptismal name. See Pedigree,
Section I. A close search into the great Record
Depositories would probably bring to light other
items of information additional to those already
mentioned; but where no library of reference worthy
of the name is at hand, a writer of local history
must be content to carry on his researches, not as
his wish inclines, but as opportunity occurs. A
continuation of the narrative down to the time the
Disneys sold this estate will occupy the pages of
the next chapter.

IV.

THE HISTORY OF THE DISNEYS

CONTINUED.

QJ ^^

CONTENTS.

jV/TEMORIALS of William and Richard Disney, Esquires.
— Their services commemorated on a brass plate in
Norton church. — -The first named obtains the manor and
advowson of Swinderby. — Notice of a junior branch at
Carlton-le-Moorland. — The main line carried on by Daniel
Disney, Esq. — Lines in quaint verse on his daughter
Elizabeth Staunton. — Memorials of Sir Henry Disney, kt.—
Disputes his grandfather Richard Disney's Will. — Marries
twice. — Greets James the First as he passes through Newark
to takes possession of the English throne, 1602. — Anecdote
of King James in reference to Lady Disney. Settles the
manor and advowson of Swinderby on the issue of his second
marriage.— 'Norton on his only son by his first wife, the
reputed builder of the present Manor-house. — Memorials of
Molineux Disney. — Raised to the rank of colonel in the
Parliament's army. — Holds a civil appointment under the
Commonwealth. — Takes advantage of the Indemnity Act. —
Receives a Commission to raise troops for Charles the
Second.— Sells Norton to Christopher Monk, second duke of
Albemarle.— His only surviving son, William, implicated in
' Monmouth's rebellion.' — His trial and confession before
death.— Concluding remarks.

CHAPTER IV.

•, E resume our notes on the ancient
owners of this lordship whom Burke
styles "a knightly race of high station
and influence intermarrying with the
lords Bardolph, Grey de Ruthyn,
Fenton, Nevilles, Skipworths, Ormsbys, Dives, and
Husseys." Seventeenth in direct line from the
founder was--

WILLIAM DISNEY, Esq., the shire reeve, or
sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1532, whose name appears
on the foundation deed of Grantham Collegiate
School, which was built and endowed by that learned
and munificent prelate Dr. Richard Fox, bishop of
Winchester. Bishop Fox, who was born at Ropsley,
near Grantham, knowing the advantages of a liberal
education, and not unmindful of the tie connecting
him with the locality of his birth, founded the
Grammar School there, naming in an Indenture
Deed 20 Henry VIII. (1528), the above William
Disney as one of the trustees for carrying out his
instructions in reference to the school in question,
and which in due time bore excellent fruit, for at

48 PARISH MEMORIALS.

this seminary the immortal Newton received the
rudiments of his education, "the greatest genius (to
borrow the words of his biographer) ever bestowed
by Providence for instructing mankind in the frame-
work of the Universe, and the laws by which it is
governed."

But we are straying from our subject. Among
the memorials of the Disneys in Norton church is
a quaint but interesting old brass in memory of
this William Disney, and his son Richard, which
informs us that the first-named was in wedlock
joined to Margaret Joiner, and certainly if the
lady answered to her baptismal name, a 'pearl' she
was, and precious, for nine bright jewels crowned
their happiness. The inscription further adds that
he, " and Richard Disney, his sonne, were trewe
and faithful to their Prince and countre," but fails
to specify in what way, or on what particular
occasion they signalized their loyalty and patriotism.
Read however by the light of contemporary history
there can be little doubt the expression refers to
the Lincolnshire rebellion in 1536, when 20,000
men rose up in insurrection to protest against the
spoliation of the monasteries, which Henry the
Eighth, with the consent of a servile Parliament, had
lately suppressed. That the Disneys acquiesced
in the measure and policy of their sovereign Prince
there can be no question, and we venture to think
that it is to the part they took in quelling that
formidable revolt the words above quoted refer.

THE DISNEY PEDIGREE

( Section 2.)

Willm. Disney, = Margaret Joiner.
Sheriff of I
^Lincolnshire, 1532.

John Disney, = Eliza: Walcot of
Carlton-le-Moorland. ( Walcot, co : Lincoln.

Thomas.

James. Anthony.

I I I I I I I I
I w. Nell, = Richard Disney. = 2 w. Jane, 8 other children.
I. of Sir Wm. Hussey of ] M.P. for Grantham, d. of Sir Wm. Ayscouge, knt.
Jeauvale Priory, Notts. | Ph : & Mary, 1554. of South Kelsey, co : Lincoln.

Daniel Di
Iheriff of Lincolnshire,
ied 29 Eliz : 15S7.

I w. Barbara, =
. of Tho. Thornhaugh,
'enton, near Retford.

ney,
:5S2,

= Mary, d. of
I Sir Edvv. Molineux
of Hawton, Newark.

Sir Hen. Disney

= 2 w. Eleanor,

d. of Tho. Grey, Esq.,
Langley Priory, Leic :

I I I I I I I I I I I
II other children,
(names of sons cut
out of brass tablet.)

rri

Elizabeth.

Anne.

Hesther.

William Disney = Bridget, d. of
juilt the Manor House, 1625, I Edw. Molineux, Esq.,
lied during the Commonw'lth. | of Thorpe, Newark.

I I

John. Thomas.

( see Burke's Commoners,
art: ' Disneys of Swinderby.')

I

i Molineux =

|)ld Norton in 1674
iD Christopher
|[onk, duke of
Ibemarle.

Mary,

d. of Sir Robt.

of Carltor

Lincoln.

I

Daniel:
Monson
, near

Eleanor,

d. of Visct. Beaumont,

Stoughton Grange,

Leic.

I
Richard^ Jane, d. of

Issue all died in infancy.

William Disney, Esq.,
involved in the duke
of Monmouth's re-
bellion. Sus : per coll.
ana. 1685.

5 other sons,
all died in
infancy.

I I I I I I I
7 daughters, Mary,
Diana, Catherine,
Bridget, Eliza:
Sarah, & Penelope.

T. Weightman,
Stoke-upon-
Trent, Newark,

Notts.

William Disney, Gent.,
died, s.p. in 1722. With him the
male line of William Disney, who
built the Manor House, became
extinct.

Richard Disney, Rector of
Bloxholme, near Sleaford,
though twice married,
left co-heiresses only.

Arms — 3 fleurs de leys on a fess. crest, a lion statant guardant.

50 PARISH MEMORIALS.

Be this as it may, both Wilham Disney and a
younger brother John became, in the great scramble
for Church lands which took place shortly after,
territorially large gainers ; the former of the manor
and advowson of Swinderby, with the extra-parochial
hamlet of Morton annexed, the property of the
knights Hospitallers of Eagle Hall ; the latter
(Appendix B.) of the manor of Carlton-le- Moorland,
an ancient appanage of the abbots of Thornton, but
whether by grant or purchase the assignment was
made is unknown to the compiler of these notes.
The elder brother, whose Will bears date " i6th
Dec. 1540" (Appendix C.) was succeeded by —

RICHARD DISNEY, his eldest son, already
named, who was burgess for Grantham conjointly
with Thos. Hussey, Esq., in the first year of the
Popish reaction under Philip and Mary, ano. 1554.
Turner's History of GrantJiam, ed. 1806. He was
twice married —

1st — Nele, the eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir
William Hussey, of Beauvale Priory [now
Beval], Southwell, Notts., the son and heir
apparent of John, lord Hussey, of Sleaford,
who taking part in the aforesaid rebellion
was executed at Lincoln, 1537, his children
attainted, and the Barony of Hussey with
all its manors forfeited to the Crown. (11.)

2dly — Jane, the widow of George St. Paul, of
Snarford, Esq., (whose maiden name was
Ayscoughe) the youngest sister of Anne
Ayscoughe, or ' Ascewe,' the Lincolnshire
martyr, who for her noble avowal and
adherence to the Protestant faith was burnt
at Smithfield in 1546, when, as Fuller
quaintly expresses it, " she went to heaven
in a chariot of fire."

PARISH MEMORIALS. 51

By his first wife Richard Disney had twelve
children, seven of one sex and five of the other; but
none by the second, who, surviving him retired to
South Kelsey her native place, preferring, like the
Shunamite woman of old, to dwell among her own
people. The Wills of both are preserved in the
Probate Court, Lincoln, and as some of the
bequests are, according to modern ideas, curious
and antiquated, they will be found given under
letters D and E in the Appendix. Unfortunately
disputes arose soon after Richard Disney's death,
respecting the settlement of the family estates, to
which we shall shortly recur. In the meanwhile
we pass to the eldest of the testator's seven
sons —

DANIEL DISNEY, Esq., whose name appears
on the roll-call of sheriffs for Lincolnshire in the
year 1582. His wife was the daughter of Sir
Edward Molineux, knight, of Hawton, near Newark,
by whom he had issue a son and three daughters.
The eldest, on her marriage with the son and heir
of Sir William Staunton, of Staunton, had for her
marriage dower ^300, a large sum in those days,
as Thoroton, the county historian of Notts., must
have thought by notifying the fact ; not that the
young lady's fortune was her sole recommendation,
since she excelled in all the usual accomplishments
of her age and sex, as we gather from an old
rhyming pedigree of the Staunton family, where
her accomplishments are thus set forth : —

52 PARISH MEMORIALS.

This Wilyam married Elizabeth,
(God graunt them still acorde )

Daughter to Daniel Disney, 'Squire,
Of Norton Disney Lorde.

An house of great antiquitie,
As many that I can name,

And when she a mayden was
All did commend her fame :

Most virt'uslie she was brough up

According to her age,
On instruments she can well plaie,

Modest she is and sage.

Both booke and needle she can use,
And Romaine write full well.

With qualities moe she is indu'de
Which were too long to telle.

In Romaine letters capitalle
Thy Stauntons Posy trust,

En Dien maffoye write first above.
Which Christians follow must.

The Disney Posy not forgete,

Which is * Sufferance dothe ease,'

Then without doubt for to be toulde
Few folks you may displease.

Now fare-well Wilyam with thy Spouse
God graunt worship encrease.

And Nestors years to live on earthe.
And your love not to seace.

God graunt you off-springe to your joye,
God graunt you have his grace,

God graunt that I may see in heaven
You all look face to face :

And all that know you sale, ' Amen,'
No other cause ye have :

If any thing be done amisse
Free pardon I doe crave.

PARISH MEMORIALS. 53

Finis then, Qd., a freende of yours,

And servaunt in his trade,
Which writeing wrought, and verse alsoe,

His name is Robert C. d. e.

These verses, if they cannot claim a laurel crown,
may surely, for their archaic diction, find a place
in these parish memorials. Perhaps it may not be
amiss to observe here that out of fifty-four entries
of the Disney name and family in the Norton
Registers, the entry of Daniel Disney's death stands
\ first in the month and year of Grance *' February
3rd, 1587." His Will is still extant, which shows
perhaps the character of the man, and how fond
I he was of field sports, especially hawking, the
I favourite pastime of country gentlemen in those
I days. Appendix F. And yet it was not all pastime,
I for he could well remember the Marian persecutions,
that fiery ordeal through which England passed,
when the fires of Smithfield were so oft applied to
those who braved a martyr's death, rather than
subscribe to formulas of faith to which, from a
religious regard to Truth, they could not conscien-
tiously assent. Towards the close of his life,
however, the principles of the Reformation had
taken firm hold of the public mind, as the inscription
on the ' Disney brass,' which we owe to his filial
piety, amply proves. At the time of his death he
left, besides daughters, an only son, a minor, to
lament his loss, namely: —

54 PARISH MEMORIALS.

Sir henry DISNEY, knight, bom March ist,
1569, and buried at Norton, October nth, 1641,
aged 72 years. During his minority family disputes
arose which led to a Chancery suit, the object of
which was to set aside Richard Disney's Will
respecting the manor of Kingerby, and other lands
in Norton, to divers uses. The parties to this suit,
or suits, were the above Henry Disney, Francis
Molineux, Esq., David Harby, gent., and Hester
Disney, sister to the principal plaintiff; and Cyrus,
otherwise Syriacus Disney, the defendant. Chancery.
Proceedings temp. Elizabctlict' vol. i, 42 and 52, p. 232.
In connection with these proceedings, we feel bound
to take note of the omission of the names of the
testator's seven sons, which are clean cut out of'
the tablet known as the 'Disney brass,' as if by
design. When the production of written evidence
lay within more confined limits, it was neither
impossible nor improbable to defeat the ends of
justice by the defacement of a monumental tablet.
Even in our own times the erasure of a name, or
names, from a parish Register has been attempted
more than once. It is for the reader to form his
own opinion, however, as to the conclusion to
which the above fact may point. Owing to the
love of the marvellous, another reason has been
discovered for this act of Vandalism, which will
be noticed at a later page. In the meanwhile we
proceed to chronicle the next noteworthy event in
connection with the history of this parish and its
ancient owners.

PARISH MEMORIALS. 55

Various anecdotes are related of James the
First, and Sixth of Scotland, during his progress
to London, on his accession to the English throne
in 1862. Among others, it is said, that at an
entertainment given by the Corporation of Newark,
during his stay at the Castle, the King, seeing
Eleanor, the wife of Sir Henry, in a splendid
dress, is reported to have asked in broad Scotch,
''Wha be that lady i.'ith a lordship on her bock?''
This anecdote, which we owe to Echard the
historian, shows that, whatever his feelings may
have been at the loss of Kingerby, Sir Henry did
not let disappointment interfere with the sentiment
of loyalty which sways the breast of every true
Englishman. On James' coronation a few months
later Sir Henry, unsolicited on his part, was
selected by the Crown to receive the honour of
knighthood, originally a feudal honour conferred
on those only whose estates yielded £i[o a year
and upwards, and which our English Soloman, to
his lasting shame, made saleable. The table of
genealogy (Sec. 2) shows that Sir Henry married
twice : —

ist — Barbara, the d. of John Thornhaugh, of
Fenton, near Mansfield, Notts., leaving by
her issue male, and an only daughter md.
to James Williamson, Esq., of Gate
Burton.

2ly — Eleanor, d. of Thos. Grey, of Langley
Priory, Diseworth, Leicestershire, from
which union the Disneys of Swinderby
derive their descent.

56

PARISH MEMORIALS.

As we are chiefly concerned with the senior or
main Hne in its connection with Norton, we must
refer the reader for particulars of the Swinderby
branch to Appendix G. All we need observe here
is that the family property became still further
dissevered. Sir Henry executed a Deed by which
the advowson and manor of Swinderby ciun mcnibris
were settled on the issue of his second marriage
(12); while Norton devolved on his only son by
his first wife —

WILLIAM DISNEY, Esq., of whom we hoped
to have gleaned some trait of character or biograph-
ical particular in connection with the great Civil
War. Unfortunately we are unable to connect his
name with any of the great movements and party
struggles going on at the time (13.) He has
the credit of having built the present manor house,
if tradition, and a small stone tablet let into the
north gable end, with the following date and initials,
can be relied on : —

Whether a medieval structure or the old moated
castle supplied the materials, is now of little
moment. Not a vestige remains of either. Ipsce

PARISH MEMORIALS. 57

pcricre ruina\ Excepting a few mutilated stone
effigies in the weather-beaten Httle church close by,
and the protuberant lines marking the site of
their ancient castle, not a memento is left above
ground to recall the pomp, pride and power, of
the former owners. Indeed, for some years before
the Civil War broke out, the main line, through
litigation, second marriages, and other causes, had
become greatly reduced. They were no longer
magnates, but fast losing rank and county in-
fluence. The subject of this scant notice left, by
Bridget, the daughter of Edmund Molineux, Esq.,
of Thorpe, near Newark, both sons and daughters.
The latter were suitably married. The former
were as follows : —

I. — Mollineux.

2. — Daniel, m. to Eleanor, the d. of Visct.
Beaumont, Stoughton Grange, near
Leicester. He died anno 1661, and lies
buried at Norton with Eleanor his wife,
and three infant children. Norton Registers.

3. — Richard, m. to Jane, d. of John Wightman,
Stoke-upon-Trent, by whom he had issue,

(i) William, who died unmarried, August
25, 1722. — the last of his name and
line buried at Norton.

(2) Richard, rector of Bloxholme, near
Sleaford, who (though thrice married)
left co-heiresses only.

William Disney — whose male line became extinct
in 1722 as above — died towards the close of the

58 PARISH MEMORIALS.

Commonwealth, in the year of our Redemption
1656, aged 67. We now revert to his eldest son —

MOLINEUX DISNEY, the last of his name
who succeeded to this anciently entailed estate.
He married June 24, 1633, the youngest daughter,
and co-heir of Sir Robt. Mounson (sic) of Carlton,
near Lincoln, and by her had the unlucky number
of thirteen children- -six sons and seven daughters.
Of the six sons one only reached the age of
manhood, and he by a sad fate was condemned
to die a felon's death by the hands of the common
hangman. Although unable to show what part
his father took in the great Civil Strife "which
brought ruin on so many families, and caused so
much bloodshed throughout the kingdom," we can
prove beyond doubt that in the great struggle for
supremacy between Charles and his Parliament,
his eldest son Molineux made common cause with
those who sought to check the arbitrary exactions
of the King. He may not have been a very active
partizan, still his services were undoubtedly at the
disposal of those who took up arms against their
sovereign.

More considerations than one influenced his
choice. His wife's relatives, the Monsons, belonged
to the Commonwealth party, among whom was
William Monson, created by Charles the First
' Viscount Castlemain,' who, being instrumental in
bringing his royal master to the block, was after-
wards degraded and deprived of his honours in

PARISH MEMORIALS. 59

1660. (14) Another relative was Colonel Francis
Thornhaugh, of Fenton, near Mansfield, burgess
for Retford, and a most strenuous opponent of the
King's measures in that neighbourhood. Pierce's
History of Retford. To say that Col. Thornhaugh
was one of 'old Nolls'' preaching colonels would
be a gratuitous assertion, but that he was the near
neighbour and bosom friend of Colonel Hutchinson,
of Outhorpe, the puritanical regicide, and, like him,
looked on Church ritual as an abomination, and a
Commonwealth as the highest type of human
government, there is ample proof. The sword
being once drawn from its scabbard, a man of
Thornhaugh's ardent temperament was not long
hesitating as to which of the two great parties he
should espouse. He threw in his lot with Cromwell
and the Sectaries, and had not his military career
been cut short his name might have occupied a
prominent place in the annals of those sad times.
For among other qualities he certainly possessed
the rare art, or tact, of winning the confidence and
affections of his men, to judge by the fierceness of
their anger, and the loud cry of lamentation raised
on the battle field when they saw their beloved
colonel fall. (Appendix H.) Of him it may be
truly said, as was said of one of England's greatest
heroes who died in the arms of victory —

" where'er he fought

He put so much of heart into his act
That his example had a magnet's force,
And all were swift to follow whom all loved."

6o PARISH MEMORIALS.

Being thus connected by family ties with the
Commonwealth party, Molineux Disney espoused
the same side as his cousins, and so obtained the
military rank and title by which he was known
down to Cromwell's death, and the collapse of
those principles which upset the ancient constitution
of the realm. The following from our Baptismal
Register prove inter alia that previous to the Civil
War he was simply styled 'esq.'; during that
disastrous struggle 'Coll:' and from 1649 to
1658, while the Protectorate lasted, 'The Right
Worshippefulle Coll.'

EXTRACTS.

1635. Mary, ye doughter of Molineux Disney, Esq.,
and Mary his wife was baptized ye 17th daie
of March.

1646. Dianna, daughter of Coll: Disney and Marie
his wiffe was Baptized at Lincoln ye first
daie of September 1646. [The line drawn
under ' Lincoln ' is ours.]

1650. Katherine, ye Doughter of ye Right Wor:"^
Molineux Disney, and Mary his wiffe was
baptised ye 8th daie of November 1650.

^^55- John, ye Sonne of ye Right-wor:^""^ Molineux
Disney, and Marie his wiffe was born ye
6 daie of Jnne, 1655, and ye sd. John was
Baptized ye 2nd daie of July, 1655."

By a comparison of dates and occurrences we find
Lincoln city and castle taken by storm 6th May,
1644, by the earl of Manchester, for the Parliament;
whereas Newark town and castle held out for the
King two years longer, its garrison being a source

I

PARISH MEMORIALS. 6i

of terror and annoyance for miles round to the
Parliamentarians, down to the very day King Charles
the First delivered himself up to the Scotch Com-
missioners at Southwell, May 6th, 1646. Now Norton
village being midway between Newark and Lincoln,
it is highly probable, if it does not amount to an
absolute certainty, that Colonel Disney had during
those two years removed his wife and family for
safety to Lincoln, where (as the underlined extract
shows) his daughter ' Dianna ' was baptized.

What the duties of a " Right Worshippfulle Coll"
were we need not stay to enquire. At the Restora-
tion this high-sounding title was prudently dropped.
After serving Parliament, and the ' Lorde Protector,'
we find our ' Right Worshippfulle Coll ' next taking
service under Charles the Second. We glean this
information, oddly enough, from an old parchment
cover of one of our parish Registers authorising
him to raise troops for the King, and constituting
him Captain or Major of a regiment. We subjoin
a copy of his Commission, the signature to which
at the foot of the document is in the hand-writing
of Arlington, a member of the notorious ' Cabal,'
or Council of Five, into whose hands the King had
entrusted the administration of the kingdom. The
document to which we refer is verbatim, as follows:

" CHARLES by ye GRACE of GOD king of

INGLAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE & IRELAND,
DEFENDER of ye FAITH, &c. To OUR trusty

& well-beloved Major Molineux Disney

. . GREETING. WE have thought fit to constitute

62 PARISH MEMORIALS.

& appoint you to be Major of ye Regiment of Foot
to be raised for OUR service whereof our RIGHT
TRUSTY & WELL BELOVED COUSIN,
CHRISTOPHER, DUKE of ALBEMARLE is
COLLONELL you are carefully to discharge ye
DUTY of Major by exercising ye said REGIMENT
in ARMS, both officers & soldiers, keeping them in
good order & discipline. And they are hereby
commanded to obey you as their MAJOR, & We doe
further constitute & appoint you to be CAPt. of a
COMPANY in OUR sd. REGIMENT, which
COMPANY you are likewise to exercise & keep in
good order both Officers & Soldiers; & they are
hereby commanded to obey you as their CAPTAIN,
and you from time to time to follow & observe such
ORDERS & directions as you shall receive from US
yr. said COLLONELL, or other yr. Superior Officer
according to ye RULES & DISCIPLINE of
WARRE in pursuance of ye trust reposed in you . .
Given at OUR Court of WHITEHALL this 26th
daie of January in ye 24 yeare of OUR REIGN E
i67§.

By HIS MAJts. COMMAND

ARLINGTON.

The above Document, intrinsically of no value, is
so far locally interesting in that it reveals, for the
first time, the name of the party with whose
fortunes this lordship was in future to be connected.
It is well known the Civil War was the cause of
many lordships changing hands. Country gentlemen
became impoverished, estates neglected, some for
want of owners, others through forced sales, and
the disputes of doubtful claimants ; from these and
similar causes arose the belief around here that
NORTON was lost or confiscated during the

PARISH MEMORIALS. 63

confusion of those unhappy times. A touch of the
marvellous was only wanting to give colour to the
report, which was that ' the names of Richard
Disney's sons were cut out of the memorial brass
to prevent all trace of descent and claim to the
estate.' Either local ingenuity invents, or there is
sometimes a substratum of truth underlying reports
of this kind, but in this instance the story is wholly
devoid of foundation, and could only have found
credit long after the family had parted with the
estate. Gough, in his edition of Camden's Brittania,
Vol. II, p. 244, states that " Norton was sold by
Molineux Disney to Christopher Monk, duke of
Albemarle in 1674," which would be the year
following the one in which he received his com-
mission of Captaincy — after continuing, with one
brief exception, (p. 41) in the same family name for
nigh 600 years.

It is no part of our task to enter into the circum-
stances or motive which induced the owner to part
with the ancient patrimony of his family. Norton
having changed hands, our narrative of the Disneys
properly terminates, and will very shortly be
diverted into another channel. Still, we cannot
forbear detaining the reader a brief while, in order
to relate the untimely end of the last owner's only
surviving son, to whose premature death allusion
has already been made, viz : —

WILLIAM DISNEY, Esq., who, having attached
himself to the Duke of Monmouth, a natural son

64 PARISH MEMORIALS.

of Charles the Second, and becoming one of his
partizans, shared the unhappy fate of all those
who in any way promoted or abetted that ill-advised
rebellion. How he became involved, and at whose
instigation, whether he was a pliant tool in the
hands of others, or the motive he had in furthering
the Duke's cause, cannot now be ascertained.
Evidently he promoted Monmouth's interests more
by his pen than his sword. For the principal
indictment against him was his having circulated
certain libellous pamphlets of which, on his own
showing, he was the author, and in which he
expresses himself in words favourable to Monmouth,
as more likely to uphold the Protestant religion
than James; and also, his avowed belief that the
Duke's mother, Lucy Walters, had — although
clandestinely, yet legally — been married to Charles
the Second, an allegation which, could it have
been proved, would have made Monmouth the
legitimate heir to the throne, and James the
Second an usurper. (15.) Unable at his trial to
substantiate these grave charges, sentence of death
was passed upon him, which was carried out on
Kenington Common, Surrey, June 29, 1685, his
head being affixed to a spike over one of the city
gates, in accordance with the barbarous custom of
those times. The chaplain's account of the closing
scene of his life is too long to appear in the body
of the text, but a copy taken from the State Trials
of that period will be found in extcnso under letter

PARISH MEMORIALS. 65

I., and will amply repay perusal. Of his father,
' Col. Disney,' little remains to be told. For some
time he had been busily engaged in prosecuting
his claim to the Barony of Hussey (Appendix J.)
when the above calamitous event apparently stayed
all further proceedings. He himself survived his
unfortunate son a few years only, as shown by
the entry of his death, which runs thus in our
parish Register ; —

"MOLINEUX DISNEY, Esq., Buried Apr. ye 30th, 1694 "

and with his obituary, the last of a long line of
owners, we close our narrative of the Disneys
of Noyton.

G^ rD

V.

THE LIFE AND PARENTAGE OF

CHRISTOPHER MONK,

SECOND DUKE OF ALBEMARLE.

CONTENTS.

pHRISTOPHER MONK, second Duke of Albemarle,
succeeds by purchase to this estate. — His father, the
first Duke, marries clandestinely Ann Clarges. — Reveals the
secret of his marriage on being told of the birth of a son.^
His only child, Christopher, the object of extreme solicitude
to his father. — The young Duke receives several marks of
royal favour from Charles the Second. — Resides at Newhall,
Essex. — Buys Clarendon House, the costly mansion of Lord
Chancellor Hyde. — Enters on a course of extravagance. —
Incurs James the Second's displeasure for his conduct in the
matter of Monmouth's rebellion. — Sent out as Governor of
Jamaica. — Shows his arbitrary ideas of kingly power and
prerogative. — Receives an unexpected addition to his fortune,
— Dies in Jamaica, in the prime of manhood, without issue.
— An episode in the career of his widow. — Her singular
delusion and remarkable longevity. — Sir Walter Clarges, as
devisee under Duke Christopher's Will, succeeds to this
estate, on the death of the Duchess.— A pedigree, with
continuations, of the Clarges' family, showing their suc-
cession.— Concluding remarks.

CHAPTER V.

T has been said of some of our titled
nobility that they owe their rise as
much to accident as merit, and that
in some particulars their history is so
uncommon-place as to possess all the
elements of romance. Whether this remark applies
to the subject of this historictfe, or short memoir, we
leave others to decide. As already stated, Norton
found a purchaser in the person of Christopher
Monk, Duke of Albemarle, the only son of ' General
Monk ' — the man to whom of all others the royal
House of Stuart was most indebted for their
restoration to the English throne. The particulars
of Duke Christopher's parentage are somewhat
exceptional. Opposite Somerset House, London,
stands a church, on the site of which in former
days stood the Strand May-pole, a circumstance
Pope refers to in the following lines —

Amid that area wide she took her stand,

Where the tall May-pole once o'erlook'd the Strand,

But now, so Anne, & Piety ordain,

A church collects the saints of Drury lane.

Dunciad : Bk. II. line 23.

yo PARISH MEMORIALS.

One stormy, starless night, the Strand May-pole
was blown down, whereupon the parish authorities
sent for a blacksmith named Clarges, living in
Drury lane close by, to brace it up with iron
stays. Beauties of Eiig : & Wales, vol. x. p. igi.
Strictly speaking, Clarges was not a blacksmith
in the common acceptation of that word, but an
army farrier, in which capacity he had spent a
considerable portion of his life. This man had
a daughter, in whose life there are passages
transcending the conceptions of romance — -passages
which read more like a page taken from some
marvellous story or fictitious narrative, than sober
fact and truth. But truth — and the aphorism will
bear repeating — is stranger than fiction ; at all
events it was complete in her case. No creature
born, perhaps, was ever so unromantic in her
ideas, so plain in person, and so destitute of wit,
if what writers say of her is true. Yet, notwith-
standing these disadvantages of person and position,
by a strange catena of events, which no human
sagacity could foresee, Ann Clarges, the blacksmith's
daughter, became ' Duchess of Albemarle,' in rank
and dignity next to royalty itself.

In alluding to her somewhat equivocal connection
with General Monk before marriage, it is from no
desire to cast reflections on the dead. The motto
de mortuis nil nisi bonum, excellent though it be,
if too strictly enforced, history would lose half
its charms, and posterity many a wholesome

PARISH MEMORIALS. 71

lesson. That General Monk was a great man
in his line no one disputes, but, like some other
great men, his character was not spotless, or
without blemish, as Pope says —

" Defects through Nature's best productions run,
Our friend had spots, and spots are in the sun."

To borrow the words of a well-known writer, ** he
married a person who had lived with him for
some years in a less reputable way, Anne Clarges,
a milliner, the daughter of a blacksmith in Drury
lane, and had by her an only child." Lodge's
Portraits of Illustrious Persons of Great Britain. This
"interesting event," in newspaper phraseology,
took place during the reign of the sainis under
the Commonwealth in the year 1652, at the time
England was at war with our maritime rivals the
Dutch, and it so happened that while the General
was on board the fleet, news was brought him of
the birth of this child. " Her brother, Thomas
Clarges," says Lodge, "came a-ship-board to
General Monk and told him his sister was brought
to bed. 'Of what?' said he :— ' Of a son.' 'Why
then,' said he, 'she is my wife.'" And a wife
assuredly she was, but whether her first husband
was not living at the time she married General
Monk gave rise to a long and painful litigation,
on the death of their son Christopher, whose birth
is here announced in so abrupt and laconic a
manner.

72

PA RISH MEMORIALS.

It is a curious coincidence, worthy of note, that
the death of both parents and his , own marriage
took place within a few days of each other. The
old Duke was buried in Westminster Abbey, and
it was while his remains were lying in state, pre-
paratory to a public funeral, the Duchess departed
this life, and was buried in the same vault, 'ere
it was closed upon her husband. "At the time of
this domestic calamity," says Lodge, "Christopher
their son was but i6 years old when summoned
to attend the death bed of his father, in whose
bed chamber he had been married (i6) two days
before to the eldest daughter of Henry, Lord
Ogle," — who afterwards took his seat in the House
of Lords as Duke of Newcastle of the Cavendish
line.

Such was the parentage of Christopher, second
Duke of Albemarle, and under circumstances so
unusual his marriage took place. We will now take
up the main thread of our narrative, and in brief
outline relate the short-lived career of this favoured
child of fortune. Being an only son and an only
child, the heir moreover of a dukedom, we can
readily imagine how this darling boy would be to
his parents, of all earthly treasures, the supreme
and ever constant object of their thoughts and
affections. To ensure his happiness, the old couple
contrived to make ample provision for upholding
his future rank and dignity. Bishop Burnet, in the
History of his own time, says, "Monk, as well as

PARISH MEMORIALS. 73

his wife, were ravenous, and both asked and
sold all that was within their reach, till he
became so useless little personal regard could be
paid to him." Vol. i 8vo. Oxford ed. p. 168. This
is strong language, but other writers confirm what
this cantankerous prelate here says respecting
the penurious habits of the duke and duchess in
their old age. In his carking care and overweening
anxiety to procure, what he thought a suitable
provision for his only child, the old duke has left a
stain upon his memory, of which his enemies at the
time were not slow to take advantage. Still it is
strange no two writers agree as to the sum he died
worth: for while some compute Monk left behind
him, besides his great possessions in land, person-
ality approaching ;^''40o,ooo sterling; others state
that his son Christopher fell in at once for ^60,000
ready cash, and a rent roll of ^^ 15,000 a year — a
sum equivalent to ^^50,000 per annum present
value. The latter computation is probably nearest
the mark.

Born with generous impulses and a warm heart,
this young sprig of nobility, in his inexperience of
the world, thought, like many a young fellow before
him and since, he should never see the end of his
wealth. But he had yet to realize the truth of the
scriptural metaphor that "riches take to themselves
wings and fly away." Already he was the possessor
of princely estates — some by inheritance, others by
purchase. Among the latter, as already stated,

74 PARISH MEMORIALS.

was this lordship, the ancient patrimony of the
Disneys, and of which he became the owner at the
age of twenty-two ; yet young as he was, owing to
his father's extreme sohcitude he had ah-eady been
married six years. No local tradition survives of
his ever having lived here. In fact, the Manor
House of the Disneys was barely adapted for ' a
squire of good degree,' much less for a nobleman
reputed to be one of the richest in the kingdom,
and on whom Charles the Second, in gratitude to
his father's memory, had conferred many marks of
his royal favour. In addition to the numerous titles
irdierited, he was made Master of the Horse; Lord
Lieutenant of Devon ; sworn a member of the Privy
Council; and only two years previous to the purchase
of this estate had been admitted with more than
usual pomp to the Order of the Garter (17); the
oldest and highest order of chivalry an English
sovereign can bestow upon a subject.

His principal residence was at Newhall, Essex, to
which, from the pleasantness of its situation, Henry
the Eighth, who had occasionally resided there,
gave the name of Bcaulicii. And in this mansion,
which his father greatly modernised and enlarged,
the inheritor of his titles and wealth lived. But
the old duke being dead, and consigned to the tomb
of the Capulets, his son and successor must needs
have, like his compeers, a 'town house' as well. It
so happened that there was a residence for sale every
way suited to his rank and pretensions. This was

PARISH MEMORIALS.

/D

the historic mansion of Lord Chancellor Hyde,
whose folly in building so costly and palatial a
residence — for there are contradictions in the
character of the greatest men — is said to have
been engraven on his heart at the day of his death.
Well, this celebrated but ill-fated mansion was, as
we have said, in the mart for sale. "On the gth
Dec. 1674, the Lord Chancellor died: on the loth
July following his son sold the house to Christopher
Monk, and in this mansion the young Duke of
Albemarle resided for a few years with his Duchess
in princely splendour and magnificence, until, his
extravaijances increasinor with his difficulties, he was
obliged to part with his newly-made purchase to
Sir Thomas Bond, who pulled it down, and raised
'Bond Street,' and 'Albemarle Buildings,' on its
site " ; so writes Alan Cuningham to whose History
of London Past and Present we are indebted for the
above topographical remark.

Evelyn in his Diary has the following entry : —
"Sep. 18, 1683. — After dinner I walked to survey
the demolition of Clarendon House, that costly and
only sumptuous palace of the late Lord Chancellor
Hyde. The Chancellor gone and dying in exile, the
Earl, his successor, sold that which cost ^50,000
building to the young Duke of Albemarle for ;f 25, 000,
to pay debts which, how contracted remains yet a

mystery However, this stately pile is

decreed to ruin, to support the prodigious waste the
young Duke of Albemarle had made of his estate

76 PARISH MEMORIALS.

since the old man died. He sold it to the highest
bidder, and it fell to certain bankers, who gave for it
and the ground about it ;f 35,000. See the vicissi-
tudes of earthly things ! " Well might the author
of Svlva moralize on the mutibility of ' earthly
things,' for according to D'Israeli, the elder, in his
Curiosities of Literature, the two Corinthian pilasters
each side the ' Three Kings Inn ' gateway in Picca-
dilly were all that remained in his day of this once
sumptuous and stately pile. But no less strange
was the vicissitude which befell its last occupant,
Christopher Monk, than whom no English nobleman
perhaps ever commenced a career so pregnant
with bright promises. His minor dignities were so
numerous we care not here to enumerate them ;
while his wealth, as already stated, was for those
times almost fabulous. Yet he contrived in an
incredibly short time to get rid of it, to sully the fair
name he inherited ; and incur the royal displeasure
as well.

In 1685 — two years after the above date in
Evelyn's Diary — an event fraught with many sad
reminiscences occurred, which gave to the hero of
our story ample opportunity of doing the State good
service, and adding fresh laurels to the name of
Monk. We allude to the Duke of Monmouth's
manifesto as heir to the English throne, known in
history as ' Monmouth's rebellion,' in which William
Disney, the heir to this estate as before shown
(p. 63) forfeited his life. This insurrection broke

PARISH MEMORIALS. 77

out in one of the western counties, and on the Duke
3f Albemarle as Master of the Horse, and Lord
Lieutenant of Devon, the responsibility devolved of
crushing the rebellion in its initial stage. But,
unfortunately, either from natural indolence, or the
difficulty of getting the militia together, the Duke
Drocrastinated from day to day, each day's delay
jeing of service to the rebels. At last he crawls out
of Exeter at the head of 4,000 militia, wath the full
intent of giving battle, and gets as far as Axminster,
where the insurgent forces lay, when, beginning
to suspect disaffection among his own men, he
tamely withdrew without striking a blow. Such,
in brief, was the part played by Christopher, Duke
of Albemarle in this tragic aftair, and whose incapa-
city or vacillation — call it what you will — cost so
many innocent lives.

But we need not pursue this subject further, nor
follow him through his wild career of extravagance.
The closer we draw the veil the less injury we inflict
on the moral sense of the community at large. His
life, however, is not without its moral. To quote
the words of another writer, "his career affords a
striking instance of the instability of human greatness.
Gratified with the hicjhest rewards a sovereign could
bestow on a subject, the possessor of a dukedom,
the garter, and immense riches, he was driven at
last by vice and extravagance to the necessity of
imploring bread from James the Second, who to get
rid of his importunities gave him the government

78 PARISH MEMORIALS.

of Jamaica." Brian Edwards' History of the West
Indies. Vol. I. ed. Svo. Book II.

And in Jamaica the scene of our story next lies.
To this gem of our West Indian Dependencies the
Duke set sail in 1686-7, accompanied by his Duchess
and one Father Thos. Churchill, a Roman Catholic
priest, the one to take the reins of government, the
latter to convert the natives to Popery. What
success Father Thomas had in his own line
deponent doth not say : the only act on record of
the Duke's administration is his having ordered a
member of the House of Assembly to be placed
under arrest and fined ;f 600, because in the heat
of debate he quoted the time honoured maxim salus
popiili suprema lex, which means ' the chief object of
legislation is the public good,' whereas the ' public
good,' as the public well know, is too often made
subservient to private interest and party ends, as
this speaker probably insinuated in reference to the
duke's own appointment. At all events the utterance
of a sentiment so trite and outspoken was not to be
tolerated by his Excellency, with his arbitrary ideas
of kingly power and prerogative, as the unnamed
but unlucky member of the House of Assembly
found to his cost.

The above account referring to the Duke of
Albemarle's departure and assumption of govern-
ment will be found substantially correct. Indeed
one can scarcely understand how he came to accept
an appointment so uncongenial to his habits and

PARISH MEMORIALS. 79

former pursuits. Colonial life and society in those
days was not such that a nobleman, nursed in the
lap of luxury, would greatly covet. What then
could his object or motive have been ? Did it
proceed from a laudable ambition to show his tact
and powers of statesmanship ? Was it to restore
health to a shattered and broken down constitution ?
or like some of the viceroys of Spanish America,
the successors of Cortz and Pizarro, to replenish
an exchequer which a wild career of extravagance
had reduced to the lowest ebb ? If the latter, then,
most singular to say, this favourite and plaything
of fortune had his wishes gratified in a way, and
much sooner than he, in the wildest freaks of his
imagination, could conceive. For scarcely had he
been established Governor than as if to verify the
old saying, "'tis better to be born lucky than rich,"
the following incident occurred. A Spanish galleon
containing "six and twenty tons of silver," which
had gone down into deep water some five and forty
years before, was, after an infinity of pains and
repeated failures, raised from the briny deep with
the whole of its valuable contents on board, of
which ;jr5o,ooo fell to the duke's share as partner
in the venture, though Evelyn, who has a note of
the transaction, thinks ";rgo,ooo" much nearer the
mark. Evelyn's Diary, Brady's ed. Vol. i., p. 641,
So elated was his Grace with this unexpected
windfall that in the exuberance of his joy he gives to
the wife of the man, to whose skill and perseverance

8o PARISH MEMORIALS.

the venture was mainly due, a gold vase valued at
a thousand guineas. At the same time he ordered
a medallion to be struck bearing the King and
Queen's likenesses on one side, with the following
quaint mottoes round the rim, semper tibi pcndeat
hajiiiis, that is ' let your hook always hang,' or to
give its English equivalent, ' always keep your eye
on the hook, and you'll something catch ' : on the
obverse was a ship at anchor with boats fishing up a
wreck, and the motto, naufragia reparata, 'shipwrecks
are repaired,' in allusion to the recovery of his own
shipwrecked fortune. The Duke, however, was not
destined to appropriate this immense treasure trove
to his own personal use. A tropical climate, though
congenial to some constitutions, was ill-suited to
one of his jovial habits and free way of living. At
all events death, who makes no distinction between
peer or peasant, abruptly cut short his career, to the
relief of the colonists, and the House of Assembly
over whose deliberations he was sent out to watch.
To borrow the words of a writer already quoted,
"after having squandered in a life of scandalous
profligacy the immense fortune left him by his
father, and lost the credit which he owed to his
name, he died in Jamaica in the flower of his age,
without issue, in the year 1688." Guizot's Life of
General Monk. An Historic Study.

On the death of the Duke this lordship fell to
his widow (18) whose unhappy fate forms a fitting
accompaniment to the preceding remarks. This

PARISH MEMORIALS. 8i

unfortunate lady, who boldly ventured to share the
vicissitudes of colonial life with her husband, was
known in her day as 'the mad duchess of Albemarle.'
Her alarm, which was only too well founded, of a
conspiracy to seize and carry off her person (ig) ;
her nervous excitement respecting the safety of her
treasure ; with the prospect moreover of having
once more to face the perils of a long sea voyage
across the billows of the stormy Atlantic, proved
too severe a test for her sensitive nature to bear !
The strain was too great, the silver cord snapt :
and scarcely had the ship in which she embarked
touched the English shore, than she began to
manifest unmistakable signs of insanity. The
delusion the Duchess laboured under was 'that the
Emperor of China, having heard of her immense
riches, was coming to pay his addresses to her.
She even, it is said, made magnificent preparations
i for his reception, of which a needy peer was adroit
enough to take advantage. At all events it was
confidently reported at the time that she married
her second husband Ralph, Earl of Montague, under
the impression that he was his celestial majesty,
which it is said formed the ground-work of Colley
Cibbey's Play, 'The Sick Lady Cured.' Her Grace
jsurvived her husband, the pretended Emperor, many
jj^ears. Her delusion, however, clung to her to the
last, and it is said she was served on bended knee
as the Empress of China down to the day of her
death, which occurred in 1734, at the very advanced

82 PARISH MEMORIALS.

age of g6. (See List of Patrons and Vicars, under
the years 1701 and 1724.)

On the death of the Duchess the succession to
this estate devolved on Sir Walter Clarges, Bart.,
as devisee under Duke Christopher's Will, and with
his descendants Norton continued for the next
hundred and fifty years. (Appendix K.) Of their
connection with Norton we can recall no event of
local interest. A small augmentation of the Living
survives as the only memento to connect their name
with the past history of the parish. Beyond that
there is little to be said. No member of the family
lies buried here, and it is equally certain they never
lived here. The last Baronet died unmarried about
the year 1830, leaving his landed estates (including
Norton, Bitchfield, and Sutton-on-Derwent, near
York) to General Richard Goddard Hare, K.C.B.,
an old Peninsular officer, who assumed the name
of Clarges on his accession to the property. After
his death these several manors passed in accordance
to the testamentary injunctions of the last Baronet
to the Jervis family — Viscounts St. Vincent — in
right of their descent from Mary Clarges, the only
daughter of the second Baronet. ( Vide Pedigree
of Clarges.) The late Viscount, whose military
services are set forth on a marble monument in the
chancel of Norton Church, received his death wound
at the battle of Abu-Klea in the Soudan {vide
Appendix L) and was succeeded by his next brother
in 1885 — the first owner to establish a residential

THE CLARGES PEDIGREE, FROM DEBRETT'S BARONETAGE,

Ed. 1828.

John Clarges

d. of — Leaver.

T. Ratford = Ann Clarges = Geo. Monk,
I cr. duke of
Albemarle.

Tho : Clarges
knighted by
Charles II.

Christopher = Elizabeth, d. and one of the co-heirs
the second and last duke of Henry Cavendish, lord Ogle,
of Albemarle, ob:s./. 1688. afterwards duke of Newcastle.

Mary, d. of
Edw. Proctor,
Esq., Norwell
Wo odhouse,
co: Notts.

Jane
d. of Sir Dawes
Wymondsell, knt.

Sir Walter,
ist Baronet,
cr. ano. 1674.

= Jane, d. of
James Herbert,
3rd son of the 4th
Earl of Pembroke.

Jane = Anthony Hammond,
md. 1694. Somersham Place,
co: Hants, M.P.

Elizabeth, d. of
Sir — Gould, knt.

Sir Thomas Clarges
2nd Bart. ob. 1750.

I I I M M II

Issue 7 sons and 2 daughters.
Berbara, d. and co-heiress of
John Berkeley, Visct. Fitzhardinge.

Tho. Clarges, Esq.

= Ann, d. and co-heir

ob: in vita patris, 1753. | of John Shute, Visct. Barrington.

Sir Tho. Clarges = d. of — Skrene, Esq.
succ : his g. father as 3rd Bart. |

Mary Clarges = Narbonne

Sir Thomas Clarges,
4th and last Bart, died s.p. at Brighton, circ. 1830.

Vincent, Esq.

Honble. William Jervis
the eldest son of the 2nd Visct.
St. Vincent, oh: in vitd patris.

Sophia Vincent,
died 8th Nov. 1828.

Carnegie — Robert — John.
succ : his g. father as 3rd Visct.

William Monk.

Caroline.

Note. — For Pedigree of Jervis, see Burke's Peerage, art: ' St, Vincent.'

84

PA RISH ME MORI A L S ,

connection since the Disneys sold the lordship in
1674.

Having thus traced the transmission of this
anciently entailed estate to the, present time, our
task would seem incomplete without a brief descrip-
tion of the parish Church wherein lie the ashes of
several of those feudal lords who have long since
passed out of living memory, and whose names only
exist in stow-away records of the distant past.

I

-^

VI.

THE PARISH CHURCH AND ITS ANCIENT
MONUMENTS.

"vf)

I

CONTENTS

CHRISTIANITY on its first promulgation of a missionary
character. — Its localisation by the building of churches
encouraged by King Athelstane. — Norton parish Church
a 13th century structure with later additions. — Erected by the
Disneys for their retainers, and as a burying place for the
family. — Its dimensions, general features, and interior
fittings. — The ancient monuments of the Disneys described
consecutively, according to their supposed age. — The Rectory
and its pre- Reformation endowment. — Its early appropriation
to Sempringham Priory. — Its value in the Liber Ecclesiasticus
and the items of which it was then composed. — The
ordination of the Vicarage: its ancient endowment and
more recent augmentation. — A list of Vicars from the book
of Institutions. — The Vicarage house. — The Disney bequest.
■ — Curious extracts from Churchwarden and Overseers'
accounts.

CHAPTER VI.

T what time a church was first erected
in this parish no record exists to show.
Christianity, on its first promulgation
in this country, was necessarily of
a missionary character until, at the
suggestion of Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury,
England was divided into parishes, when it became
more localised, (20.) Towards the close of the
seventh century many Saxon proprietors built
Oratories, or small houses of Prayer, for the use
of the tenantry on their respective estates. The
advantage of this arrangement being seen, Athel-
stane, one of the most powerful and sagacious of
our Saxon kings, granted the title of thane, lord,
or gentleman, to any proprietor w^ho would build
a church and adequately endow it : by virtue of
which act the patronage, or right of nominating
a minister, became henceforth vested in him or
his representatives. And hence the saying —
Patronum faciunt Dos, Edificatio, Fundus, "Tithe,
Glebe, and a Church constitute a Patron." Of
these primitive edifices no whole or perfect specimen

go

PARISH MEMORIALS.

perhaps is now in existence. The decay, incident
to all structures raised by the hand of man, would
scarcely account for this ; rather the true principles
of ecclesiastical construction were unknown, or but
imperfectly understood by the early Saxon builders.
At the time, however, of the Norman invasion
many of these Ecclcsiolcr, or little primitive edifices,
mostly of wood, a few of stone, were found
standing, of which frequent mention is made in
the Conqueror's Survey. The adjoining parish
of Stapleford, so often mentioned in the preceding
pages, had then a priest, and a church with an
endowment of sixty acres of land — ibi pbr et eccla
cu dim car\ says that ancient Record. No mention
however is made of any kind of ecclesiastical
structure at Norton, though the silence of the
Survey on this point is by no means conclusive
evidence that none existed.

The present fabric, which is dedicated to God
in honour of the apostle Peter, was erected most
probably by the Disneys for the use of their
retainers, to which was added later on a Mortuary
chapel on the north side of the chancel proper.
Unfortunately the body of the church has suffered
considerably from neglect and the want of judicious
repair. One prominent feature which helps to
disfigure and render the interior dark and gloomy
is a low lath and plaster ceiling, extending over
the whole length of the nave. This hideous eye-
sore will, we hope, at some future restoration be

PARISH MEMORIALS.

91

swept away. The structure, as it now stands,
consists of a west end tower surmounted by eight
handsome crocketted pinnacles ; a nave ; south
transept (Appendix M.); a double chancel, lately
re-roofed by the St. Vincent family; and north
aisle, at the east end of which a semi-circular
arch, without imposts or abacus of any kind, opens
into the aforesaid mortuary chapel, where lie the
ancient monuments of the Disneys. The dimension
of the church from inner wall to inner wall is 75ft.
by 68ft. The subjoined diagram conveys a suffic-
iently correct idea of the ground plan, and of the
position of the tombs within : —

w

III IT-d.
i23 • •

,^"1

There is reason to infer it had once a south aisle
corresponding to the one on the north, which was
probably removed to make way for * the chapel '
referred to in John Hamsterley's Will. (Appendix
A.) The only portions of the original or early
English structure now remaining are the two bays
of the northern arcade to the west, which exhibit
the obtusely-pointed arch supported by short round

92 PARISH MEMORIALS.

pillars ; the tower archway opening into the nave ;
and portions of the north aisle. The other sections
belong to later periods, each addition following
the architectural style prevailing at the time, down
to the Jacobean, or debased Tudor. If we exclude
the upper story of the bell tower, surmounted by
an embattled parapet; about a score grotesque
figure-heads, or monsters doing duty as gargoyles,
or water-spouts ; a good bold octagon specimen of
the old immersion font ; and four or five ancient
effigies, sculptured

"When Art was still Religion;"

there remains little to note, or attract attention.
Indications, however, are not wanting to show
that the chancel windows were at one time em-
bellished with stained glass bene ct bonis coloribus
(21); that carved screen work separated the
mortuary chapel from the chancel proper ; while
the only vestige now remaining of the rood loft —
invariably the principal feature of demarcation
between the nave and chancel in pre-Reformation
times — is a stone staircase with an upper and
lower doorway embedded within the thickness of
the wall, which is supposed to have led to it.
These, with other minor marks of defacement,
prove beyond doubt that this edifice received, like
so many others in different parts of the kingdom,
much rough usage either at the Reformation or
afterwards by the Puritans, who frequently destroyed

PARISH MEMORIALS. 93

that which the reverential feehngs of the Reformers
had allowed to remain.

CHURCH FURNITURE AND FIXTURES.

I The above heading includes a few solid rough
hewn oak stalls down each side the middle aisle;
a plain oak pulpit, deep and lofty, with a sounding
board above ; a carved wood screen, of Elizabethan
date, beneath the chancel arch ; a massive oak
communion table with oak rails to match ; the
Decalogue on two plain lettered panels with royal
arms between ; a cojfre fort, or strong iron safe in
which are kept the parish Registers, numbering
seven volumes, and commencing with the year
1579; a richly embroidered super altar cloth, pre-
sented by a member of the St. Vincent family;
and Communion service, comprising:

(i) A chalice or cup w^ith moveable lid, silver,
date 1573, much worn.

(2) Flagon, silver, modern. On one side is a
brock or badger for crest, in allusion to the name
of the donor, with inscription beneath :

" Presented by John Brocklebank, Gent., of Bassingham,
in Memory of his father, Vicar of this Parish from
ano. dni. 1799 to 1851."

(3) Alms-plate, silver, by same donor: date and
initials within an ornamental border.

(4) A flagon with flap lid, pewter, large size,
ancient.

94 PARISH MEMORIALS.

THE BELFRY. I

The campanile or bell-tower contains three ting-
tongs having in raised characters the following
inscriptions :

ist Bell. ^GOD SAVE THE CHYRCH 1631.

2nd „ >J<GOD SAVE THE CHVRCH 1606 Jl"^©.

3rd ,, f^ mitria birgo assumijta est in cehim.

The one with the legendry inscription in Latin is
used for sounding the 'passing' bell, that excellent
memento mori to the living, which custom prevailed
long before the Reformation to give notice of a
soul departing or passing out of this world, and
to procure prayers for its happy passage. The
canons enjoin three peels, or tollings, but for what
purpose the third we are unable to explain. Leaving
this question unsolved, we conduct our reader next
to the mortuary Chapel, in which lie the ancient
tombs of the Disneys. Of these only four now
remain, which we shall describe consecutively
according to their supposed age and order. They
are all of early date, and though sadly defaced, still
retain in their original design and execution, many
points of interest to the artist and architectural
student.

THE DISNEY MONUMENTS.

No. I is the effigy of a lady in full length within
a recess on the north side of the church, beneath

PARISH MEMORIALS. 95

a low plain round arch, which forms an integral
portion of the chancel wall. Monuments so placed
are usually referred to founders or re-founders, and
on this supposition the effigy is most likely coeval
with the edifice where it is placed. Exposed to the
effacing hand of Time for nigh 600 years, the
features (though mutilated) still retain a placid
marble-like expression of sleep in death —

" A. perfect form in perfect rest."

Around the head and drawn tightly under the chin
are the coiffe and whimple. The arms to the
elbows, encased in long-sleeved gloves, recline upon
the breast, with hands uplifted and pressed together
in show of prayer — a posture usual to most pre-
Reformation monuments. The drapery falls in
tasteful folds to the feet, against which is placed
a dog collared and chained, the folds of the skirt
fringing the bottom of the dress being so arranged
as to resemble a chain fastened to the collar round
the dog's neck. Excepting two rudely carved stone
shields let into the main wall beneath the arch
which spans the monument, charged with 3 lions
passant gardant (the coat armour of the Amundevills
of Kingerby, which the Disneys for a time adopted)
there is neither date nor inscription to indicate the
person commemorated. The costume, however, of
the figure points to the first half of the 14th century,
and iv« supposed to be the monumental effigy of
Joan DTseny, " the g. daughter of Sir Peter de

g6 PARISH MEMORIALS.

Amundevill of Kingerby, co. Lincoln, whose only
daughter Ermetruda married Sir VVm. de Dyve."
Thoroton's Hist, of Notts, vol. i, p. 360.

No. 2. On a coffin-shaped tomb, broader at one
end than the other, and raised about 18 inches from
the ground, lies the recumbent effigy of a lady cut
out of a solid block of stone, which forms the ledger
or lid to the tomb beneath. At the head is a hori-
zontal canopy carved in bold relief in the shape of
an elliptic arch, and within the recess so formed,
on a thin flat cushion, rests the head of the figure,
with lappets reaching to the shoulders. The arms
in long drawn sleeves ( now barely visible ) recline
in the usual fashion on the bosom, with hands
uplifted as in prayer. These several parts or sections
comprise the upper half, or dciny-^^agy. The lower
half of the design, instead of drapery represents a
large bold floriated cross, three-and-a-half feet in
length, commencing just below the junction of the
wrists, and carried in a straight line down the centre,
forming the dos d' anc or coping of the monument ;
but before the shaft terminates it takes a short bend
right and left, showing the lower part of the lady's
feet, where lies coiichant a lap-dog with long droop-
ing ears. The sides are decorated with shields,
two above the canopy and two beneath the transom
bar of the cross. On the outer ledge of the stone
plynth, cut in large Gothic letters, an inscription in
Norman French reads as follows : —

'Mil'MiYiLiw^'nirZ J.3^

izMlCTiLiliU Ai

PARISH MEMORIALS. 97

^ ICI GIST lOAN : qv FVST LA FEMM MOVN
GILLAM DISNI : ET FILL MOVN SIRE NICOLAS
DE LANDFORD : DIEV EITE MERCI DE SA
ALME. AMEN. ^

Note.— The word SIRE between MOVN and GILLAM is
omitted in the original, through want of space, or carelessness
of the sculptor.

No. 3. An altar tomb, surmounted by the mutilated
effigy of a knight in armour, beneath the last chancel
arch eastward. The figure is habited in a hauberk
of mail and helmeted, with collar of chain mail, to
protect the neck and shoulders. Round his waist is
the baudrick or belt, from which hangs his sword
(now broken), and upon the left arm a kite-shaped
buckler with three lions thereon, as his cognizance.
The hands, arms, legs and feet, are all mail clad,
the former upraised in supplication, the latter rest-
ing against the ribs of a hound. Neither date nor
inscription certify its age; but from certain mouldings
beneath the ledge of the slab, as the ball-flower and
patercE — which are inherent evidences of style ; the
perpendicular-sided tomb beneath is a later produc-
tion than the mail-clad figure which rests upon it.
The figure is supposed to represent Sir William
DTseny, mentioned at p. 40, ct seq., but when raised
to its present position is unknown.

No. 4 represents a lady in a formal close-fitting
habit, fastened at the neck in front, and carried in
long-drawn narrow plaits to the feet, with a row of

g8 PARISH MEMORIALS.

little buttons down the centre the full length of the
dress. Like No. 2 it is triangular or prism-shaped,
with sides shelving downwards, but deeper sided
and more elaborate, owing to its being of a some-
what later date, say about the time of Richard
the Second, who reigned from 1377 ^^ 1399. Two
square cushions set diagonally support the figure's
head, on either side of which are two small winged
figures. The hair cropt short, and confined within
a net, leaves the ears and side face exposed. Six
shields, three each side, the exact counterparts of
those on Nos. i, 2, and 3, decorate the sides of the
monument. At the head and feet are two chimoera
in a sphinx-like posture, with fore paws outstretched
the full width of the monument. No date, but an
inscription in Roman characters sets forth the name
and condition of the deceased, as follows : —

Ilk : iaat : hautacia : filia

l^Ui : titsne : iiomini : iie : ^orton.

In addition to the above, there is a raised slab
of grey marble 8ft. by 3, in which there has been
inlaid the effigy of a knight in brass, beneath an
ogee-arched canopy, crocketted and pinnacled. The
brass is gone, but the indent or matrix is visible.
Being no longer tiiinulus cere fixiis we pass to the
last in the series, viz :

J

PARISH MEMORIALS. gg

No. 5. A brass tablet with inscription at the back,
size 3 ft. by 2, now set in a soHd oak frame on hinges,
to show the reverse (Appendix N.) The plate is
divided into five compartments, with incised lines
down the sides, forming an ornamental border, ( see
frontispiece.)

First compartment. — The Disney arms impailing
Joiner on a shield within a triangular pediment ;
crests on either side, to the right a lion gardant ; a
hart under a tree to the left.

Second compartment. — William Disney and wife
kneeling at a prie dicu with open books before them,
and the motto ' svfferance dothe ease ' on a scroll
above : under them the names William Disney and
Margaret Joiner; behind them four sons, and five
daughters with labels issuing out of their mouths.

Third compartment. — Three shields charged with
heraldic designs and quarterings, the Disney arms
in the centre ; Hussey and Ayscoughe on either side.

Fourth compartment. — Richard Disney in armour
and his two wives, Nele Hussey the first wife on his
right, and behind her seven sons and five daughters ;
on his left, the second wife Jane Ayscoughe with no
children ; all half-lengths dressed in the costume of
the age of Elizabeth ; names of sons cut out ; those
of daughters — Sara, Ester, Judeth, Judeth, and
Susan.

Fifth compartment is occupied by inscription, for
which see frontispiece.

loo PARISH MEMORIALS.

THE ENDOWMENT OF THE RECTORY.

To build a house to God, and leave it unendowed,
was in the opinion of our forefathers a deviation
from apostolic precept, and contrary to all precedent.
In the early days of English history this obligation
fell, from the exigency of their position, on the Saxon
thanes and Norman lords, who, when building a
House of Prayer for their dependants, almost
invariably set apart a portion of their estate, or
encumbered it with tithes in perpetuity. On the
plea of enlarging the Church's general usefulness,
landed proprietors, from motives of mistaken piety,
often alienated these ancient endowments to some
particular abbey, or monastery, which on the sup-
pression of the monastic Orders became secularised,
and lost to the Church. Such was the case here.
In the ancient Survey of Church property by Pope
Nicholas IVth. cijx. 1292, the impropriate Rectory
of Norton was valued at ^ 13 . 6 . 8. And this
taxation held good until 27 Hen. VIII (1535), when
a new Survey being taken its gross value was
returned at ^^8 . 3 . 8; but how, (allowing for the
usual increase in the value of money) the rectorial
tithes had in the meanwhile grown less, we are at a
loss to discover.

The annexed Schedule taken from the Valor Eccles-
iasticus temp. Hen. Vlllth, shows the different items
of which it was then composed : —

PARISH MEMORIALS. loi

Norton Disney. — -The Rectory here is appropriated
to the monastery of Semringham (22). To Master
Edvv. Tomlynson, Vicar there —

£ s- d.

For his House and Land belonging tliereto - - o 13 4

For tlie Burial Ground - - - - - - o i o

F^or Lambs and Wool - - - - - - 2 13 4

For Hay and Corn Sheaves - - - - - 2 6 8

For Geese, Pigs, Fowls, Hemp, Flax and Calves i 13 4

F'or all other Offerings there - - - - 0160

£8 3 8
Deductions for an annual Pension pd. to the]

Prior of Sempringham, 26s. 8d. And fori i 16 10
Synodals and Procurations, los. 2d. - - -]

£6 6 10

We may assume that, after the suppression of the
Religious Houses, the great tithes reverted by grant
or purchase to the owner of the lordship at the time,
and that on the estate being sold to the Duke of
Albemarle, the advowson, or right of presentation,
together with the great tithes, were included in the
bargain, and have so continued merged in the
estate ever since.

THE ENDOWMENT OF THE VICARAGE.

By whom, and at what date Norton Church was
despoiled of its original revenue, is unrecorded. The
transfer, or alienation, most certainly took place at an
early date, for in the Liber Antiquus de Ordiuationibus
Vicarianini of Bishop Hugo Wells, who presided

I02 PARISH MEMORIALS.

over the See of Lincoln a°- dni. i2og — 1252, mention
is made of the "release" of Norton church from its
appropriation to Sempringham. Some omission or
irregularity with the ordination of the Vicarage had
probably occurred, which called for episcopal inter-
ference and redress, the exact nature of which at
this distance of time we cannot now speak. Anyhow
no provision for the sustenance of a Vicar appears
to have been made until a°- dni. 1318, in which year
" on ye xiiith dale of Kalands of December," 33 acres
of land were set apart for that purpose, which with
small tithes (commuted in 1836 at £iiS V^^' annum)
constituted for many years the Vicar's sole income.
This being found inadequate to meet the altered
circumstances of the times, 26 a. i r. igp. of land,
situated in the parish of Bassingham, were bought
in the year iSig of Sir Wm. VVelby, bart., for
the sum of ;f 1,000, towards which the patron,
Sir Thos. Clarges, and the Rev. Wm. Brocklebank,
Vicar, contributed ;^200 each, the remaining /'600
being met by the Trustees of the ecclesiastical
sustentation fund known as ' Queen Anne's Bounty.'
The following Schedule shows the gross amount
of the Benefice in the year iSgi —

Tithe Rent Charge (m lieu of small tithes) -^"85 17 8
Do. on the ' Rudge Mullions' - - - - o 19 10

Do. on a field called 'Isle of Wight ' - - -016

£"i,ooo invested in land as above rent thereof]

per annum - - - - - - j 32 o o

The Vicar's Glebe in Norton - - - - 19 10 o

£138 9 o

PARISH MEMORIALS. 103

A LIST OF CLERGY instituted to the Church

AND Parish of NORTON, from the
Book of Institutions, Bishop's Registry, Lincoln.

1232. ano. 4 Grostate. — Magister Walter de Pelham, sub-
deacon, presented by the Prior and
Convent de Sempringham.

1245. ano. 10 Grostete. — Conrad de Kovenato, consanguineus
venerabilis patris [blank] Episcopi by
the same patrons. He was presented
same time to Eagle by the Master of
the Temple.

• John de Metheringham.

1301. IX Kal : Nov. — Henry de Hales, priest, by Prior and
Cvt. of Sempringham, on the death
of Dominus John de Metheringham.
[The above appear to have been
Rectors till the Ordination of the
Vicarage by Bp. D'Alderby in 13 18.]

1318. XHI Kal: Dec. — John de Stillington, priest. Presented
by the above patrons to the newly
ordained Vicarage.

1321. — Non : Junii — ^John de Dunstan, priest, by same
patrons.

1349. XVn. Kal: Oct. — Robert Wade of Sempringham, priest,
by the same patrons. Resigned.

1352. XIV. Kal: Nov. — John Stoyle, of Stapulford, priest, by
same patrons.

1353. — Non. Julii — Henry de Lisle, priest, by same

patrons, on resignation of Stoyle,

Dominus John Aubourne.

Ano. 1383. Jan. 23.— William Karlton, of Sleaford, by same
patrons on death of Aubourne.

John Spaldwick, priest, by same patrons.

1390. Nov. 14. — ^John Thickmarsh, priest, by same, on
resignation of Dominus John Spaldwick.

104 PARISH MEMORIALS.

1393. Feb. 22. — Richd. Prydde of Landford, priest, by same

patrons. How vacant not stated.
1391. Nov. 15. — ^John Sely of Willingour, by same patrons.
1403. Jan. 17. — JohnBroughton,ofHermeston (Harmston)

capellamis, by same patrons.
1420. Oct. 16. — Richd. Steynton, priest, by same patrons.
1456. Aug. 14. — Dominus Johannes Wenslawe, capellanus

by P. and Cvt. of Sempringham.
1458. — Dominus Richd. Bryers, priest, by same,

on death of Wenslawe.
1499. Jan. 2. — Dominus Wm. Hawes, priest, by the

Bishop, by lapse.
1506. June 18. — Master Edwd. Thomlynson, capellanus,

by Pr. and Cvt. of Sempringham, on

resignation of Hawes.
Ano. Dili. 1550. — ^Johannes ffynemore, clerk, by Richd.

Dyseny, Esq., on death of Thomlynson.
1561. Nov. 28. — Robt. Harris, clerk, by Richd. Disney, Esq.
1578. Sep. 27. — John Willson, clerk, by Danl. Dysney, Esq.,

vacant for non-payment of tenths.
1617. Sep. 30. ■ — •VVillm, Holwell, pbr. by Sir Henry Disney,

knt., how vacant not stated.
1646. — Ralph Kennety, died 1658 [Two following

names supplied by Parish Register.]
1656. — John Home ]

John CrumpeJ

1661. — William Marris, clerk, by Molineux

Dysney, Esq., on cession of — Crumpe.

1668. May 26. — David Bruce, B.A., by same patron, on
resignation of Marris.

1682. Sep. 25. — George Seywell, B.A., by Christopher
duke of Albemarle, on death of Bruce.

1701. Feb. 18. — Nathaniel Thorold, B.A., presented by
Ralph, earl of Montague, on death of

Seywell.

1724. July 12. —Francis Fothergill, B.A., by Thomas earl

of Thanet, and Charles, earl of Sunder-
land, guardians of Elizabeth, duchess
dowager of Montague, a lunatic.

during the Commonwealth.

PARISH MEMORIALS. 105

1750. June 28. — Henry Smith, clerk, by Sir Thomas
Clarges, bart., on death of Fothergill.

1763. Jan. 29. — Thomas Seddon, clerk, by Sir Thomas
Clarges, bart., on death of Smith.

1799. July 26. — William Brocklebank, clerk, by Sir T.
Clarges, bart., on death of Seddon.

1852. March 6. — Present Incumbent.

The three last above named being officially
connected with Carlton, lie buried there. Our much
respected predecessor died September 26, 185 1, after
being "for thirty years Curate of Carlton, and
fifty-one years Vicar of Norton." Their names, once
so familiar, are now almost forgotten and unknown ;
all have passed away as their predecessors have
before them, to that world where we ourselves in a
few years shall have gone, and leave only like them
a single line in time's history.

The old Vicarage, or Manse, formed a fitting
subject for the pencil of Dr. Syntax, when on his
memorable tour in search of the picturesque. It was
composed chiefly of rubble, with upright oak posts
let into the ground on a level with the outer walls,
and covered in with thatch a yard thick. At one
end, similarly constructed, was a long barn in which
tithes, when paid in kind, were wont to be stowed.
Being ill-suited to the conveniency of modern times,
the whole was pulled down by the compiler of these
Notes in 1852, and more suitable offices raised on the
site. The principal fault of the new V^icarage is its

io6 PARISH MEMORIALS.

being on too big a scale for the Living — a grand
mistake often made by the clergy, whose incomes
can ill afford so expensive a luxury ; but the ring
of a mason's trowel, like the sound of a trumpet to
an old war horse, has a peculiar charm to some,
they must go on raising a monument to their own
folly, to the great delight of builders, contractors,
et id genus omne.

THE DISNEY CHARITY.

The Rev. Saml. Disney, M.A., sometime Lecturer
of Wakefield, Yorkshire, by Will dated October 29th,
1738, left to the S. P. C. K. the sum of ^^50 in trust,
the interest of which is to be expended in Bibles,
Prayer Books, and religious Tracts, for the use of
the poor parishioners of Swinderby, Norton, and
St. Margaret's, Lincoln. The above is the only
charity this parish possesses, and has been found
useful. Even small mercies are not to be despised.

CHURCH-WARDEN AND OVERSEER'S
ACCOMPTS.

Our Parish chest contains under the above
heading, a small packet of loose Papers referring
to payments under the old Poor Law. They are
of no antiquarian interest, as the oldest in date
goes no further back than 1747. Here and there

PARISH MEMORIALS. 107

we come upon a word now obsolete, or purely local ;

but it is more for the peculiarity of the spelling,

which is decidedly odd, and, as specimens of village

life and expenditure, we venture to cull a few

extracts before bringing these ' Parish Memorials '

to a close : —

EXTRACTS.

" My Charge for Mary helmore's harber, & her Childer bein
at my house i daie, & i night, 6d. Bout for her & ye Childer
sum Saffron and Balsum, i.6d., & i bottle of Ramboose
[" a drink of wine, ale, eggs & sugar." Todd's y-ohnson'\
gd., in all 2. 3d. — Bout for Phaby rodley a pladden
Handkerchar, gd. — For g daies of Larning for Phaby 4id.
— ^Bout 6 lbs. of To [tow yarn] for mekin Gowns, 6s. —
For 6 oz. of Buckthorn for Ion nixon, 6d. —For m.endin ye
Town's Reel, 3. gd. — Pde for William pormer his In
Denters [Indentures] £2. 5. — To 4 Saylors as had a Pafs,
who had lost all their Cargo by a fyer 3s. To a strange
Woman as pertended to be in Child Labor, is.

For goen to Navenby with Eliza page, my Disbursements.
Her examinacion, is. A Warrand, is. My daie, is. My
Mares, i.6d. Spent on Self, 4d. — in all, 4. lod. For goen
to thorpe to see if they will take Eliza in, is. — For my
Mare & my Self goen to Maister swann for Sumthing
for Eliza page in her Labor, & pade Will cont for Sumthing
he bout for her again yt time, i.8d. — in all, 2.8d. For
goen to Welbon when Eliza page had lien in her Month
to know what to do with her, is. — Pde for mekin 2 shorts,
2 capps, 3 dabbs for Eliza pages Child, lod. — For goen to
swinderby 6 times to see Maister disne for his Advice, 2s.
— For alf a years Board of Eliza pages Child, ^2.5.

Pde in ye Marshelsea muney for Precpts & Quits ^i . g . 6.
— Pde for a Militair Man to sarve on ye Melisher ye sum
of £"3 . 13 • 6d. — On goin to lincoln to Drow ye Militar
Man 3s. — For goin to lincoln with ye Drown Man 3s. —

io8 PARISH MEMORIALS.

When j was pannelled on ye Wattors at lincoln, my
charge & my Mares 3s., toul id., for swearin is. — in all
4s. id. — When we went me and my IMare to vue ye scarle
Dytch, my Charge 3s. — Spent when j gave up my last
Vardic on ye Suers, 2s. — To ye Fore Man on ye jury, id.
— Pde tor 6 daies Ramperin 4s. 6d. For leadin Rammel
on to ye Hamper 2s. — To 3 men gettin Turves [winter
fuel for the poor] on ye Towns Moor, & a stacken ye
same, 4.6d. My jurney to welbon for ye winder Dublecats
sinin, 3.od. For carryen a huencry to swinderby, 2.3d. —
To ye Mouler for a fafsen penny, is. — For i years ketchen
ye Moulwarpes £2 ids.

When j livered in ye Persentment Bill at ye Visetation.
Pde ye Palletter Man [Apparitor] for Synnidals & Procu-
rations, 10. 6d. Pde ye Mumpers on Mumpen daie, 2s. [St.
Thomas' day so called when the widows, old and young,
go round levying blackmail.] Pde for mendin ye Lion &
Unicorn 3s. 3d. To j for holpen ye Glasnor is.6d. — To
my Faither for menden ye Chorch heals 3s. gd. — For one
year's washin ye Sarplis, & a scowerin ye Pewter belongin
ye Chorch, 5s. — For a Childs coffin as was drownd at
bassingham brigg 5.6d. — To 4 Dinners with ye Crowner,
5s. — For Cake, ale, & sugar at ye Funeral 3.9. — in all
i4s.3d.

Among the various items we find constant pay-
ments for badgers, otters, and other small animals
of prey, including magpies, sparrows, &c., said to
be so destructive to the farmer. Indeed, payments
for the latter became so burthensome that the
following economic resolution was passed at one
of the Easter meetings : —

"April ye 20, 1747. Agreament by ye Nebours of Norton
disne yt they are not Willin to pay to ye Pafsengeas, noe
ye Sparreas, noe ye Magpeas : Foxes, Bages, Oters, &
Fummes is to be pde for and nothing elce."

PARISH MEMORIALS. locj

Many more of these ' elegant extracts ' could be
produced, but we spare the reader, being quite sure
the above will suffice. If they do not point a
moral, they may at least be of service to those who
advocate a return to the phonetic system of spelling.
At all events our task is done, and with them we
bring these local memoranda, or ' Parish Memorials,'
to a close.

NOTES.

( 1 ) The omission from Domesday of the four northern
counties has a peculiar significancy. Fifteen years before,
the citizens of York and Durham massacred the Norman
garrisons, and then, in retaliation, the country around, far and
wide, was wasted with fire and sword. The pitiless Conqueror
dispersed his troops into separate bands over a surface of
100 miles, with orders to destroy every living creature, both
man and beast. Houses were to be burnt, implements of
husbandry broken up, and the whole country laid waste. The
order was carried out, and for a century the land was terra
vasta, a wildernes, uninhabited and uncultivated. Hence their
omission in Domesday.

(2) It is to be observed that the Hundreds, in name, have
gone through a great change. Lincolnshire is divided into
thirty Wapentakes or Hundreds, yet nineteen only bear
anything like the same names in Domesday which they do
at present ; and in some counties, as in Warwickshire, not one
remains out of the ten there set down. Ellis : Intro, to
Domesday Book, vol. i, p. 34.

(3) The particulars to be gathered from Domesday are,
generally — the name of the place ? How many hides, or
carucates, it is gelded, or taxed at ? Whose it was at the
time of Edward the Confessor? Who the present owner, and
its sub-tenants ? How many carucates, or plough-lands ?
How much in demense ? How much in tenancy ? How much
meadow, pasture, and wood-lands ? How many mills and
fish-ponds? How many free-men, soch-men, bordarii, etc.?
Sometimes what churches there are, and how many priests ?
What the whole was let for in the time of the Confessor?
What its present value ? Whether it was too dear, or might
be improved ? But the entries are more or less particular,
according to the care and industry of the Commissioners.
Kelham's Domesday Illustrated.

112 NOTES.

(4) Deinense, or domain, was probably so called from de
niaison, because it was the land of the house. The demense
lands were invariably near the mansion, for the use of the lord
or Baron ; the rest tenemental, and occupied by tenants under
various tenures.

(5") The contents of a carucate in acreage was very
uncertain, and seldom in two places alike. The estimate we
have adopted is the usual one, and which the translator of
Domesday for Lincolnshire, [Gowan Smith] also adopts, viz:
' six score acres to the hundred ' ; but assuredly it might be
more, or less, according to the lightness or stiffness of the
soil.

(6) The following extracts, referring to an entertainment
given in 1531 to Henry Vlllth and his queen Catherine of
Aragon, at the old Ely Palace, Holbourne, London, will show
the scarcity of money in those days, compared with the present
prices of the same description of article : —

£ s. d.
Brought to the slaughter 24 beeves, each - - - 168
One carcass of an Ox from the shambles - - - 140
One hundred Fat Muttons, each at - - - - o 2 10
Fifty one great Veals, each at -----048
Thirty four porks (probably suckers) each at - - - 006
Swans XII doz : ( price not given ) . - - .
Pullets, the best 2^d. each. Other pullets - - - 002
Twenty hern-sews (herons) each - - - - - 012
Larks 350 dozen: each doz. at 008

Pennant's London Illustrated.

(7) Historians name three daughters of Judith by the
English earl. Maud, the eldest, with whom only we are here
concerned, married twice. Her first husband, Simon, feudal
lord of St. Liz, in Normandy, by whom she had issue, was
created earl of Northampton, whose name is still commemo-
rated in the races of the town from whence he took his title.
Burke's Extinct Peerage, Art. St. Liz. By a second marriage,
with David the First King of Scotland, Maud carried the
earldom of Huntingdon into the royal House of Scotland, with
whom it continued down to the death of John le Scot, when
this ancient earldom expired.

NOTES. 113

(8) Among the "XII good men and true" on whose
presentment the King's Justiciaries based their return at this
Inquisition, was a ' Nigellus D'Iseny de Karlton,' who was
probably the lessee of the abbey lands there. At the same time
another branch was residing at Wellingore, as we gather from
the Abbreviatio Placitoruin. Edwd. 1st, p. 248. Both were
off-shoots from the parent stock at Norton.

(g) The elder co-heir, on the death of her brother, about
21 Edw. I., had for her moiety the manor of Balderton, with
other lands in the neighbourhood of Newark. She married
Sir Lambert de Bussey, whose principal seat was at Hougham
in this county, in which worthy family the aforesaid manor
remained until the heir female carried it to the Meers of Kirton,
in regno Elizabethce. Thoroton, vol. i. ed. 4to, p. 359.

(10) Shakespeare, in the Third Part of King Henry the
Sixth, describes with his usual felicity the distressing features
of this great civil conflict, the Pharsalia of England. There is
a son who killed his father without knowing him ; —

" From London by the King was I pressed forth ;
My father, being the Earl of Warwick's man,
Come on the part of York, pressed by his master ;
And I, who at his hands received my Hfe,
Have by my hands of life bereft him."

And then follows the scene of a son killed in like way by
his father, who says : —

" What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly,
Erroneous, mutinous, and unnatural,
This deadly quarrel doth beget !
O boy, thy father gave thee life too soon,
And hath bereft thee of thy life too late."

(11) As some compensation for the loss lord Hussey's
family sustained by the confiscation of their title and estates,
Henry VIII th conferred on Sir William Hussey, Beauvale
Priory, near Southwell, Notts., on condition of its reverting to
the Crown on failure of male issue. By an Inquisition 3rd and
4th Philip and Mary, 1556, it was found that the said Sir
William Hussey died at Beauvale the same year, without male
issue, and that Nele, then the wife of Richard Disney, Esq.,
aged 40, and Ann, the wife of James Columbell, gent., aged
39, were his daughters and co-heirs. Yerburgh's Hist, of
Sleaford, 1825,

1

114 NOTES.

(12) In order to secure the manor and advowson of
Swinderby on the issue of his second wife, Sir Henry, as
lawyers say, or used to say, suffered a ' Common Recovery,'
under cover of which land became free from its entailment
to issue. That there was a Deed of settlement to the above
effect is evident, for in the parish chest of Swinderby there
was (and doubtless there is still) a parchment Deed purporting
to be a reneival of the aforesaid "Common Recovery" to
another party, for a further term of years by the then tenant
in tail, John Disney, the eldest son by the second wife
Eleanor {nee Grey). The document in question, too long
and prolix by far to be given here, is curious, not merely
as a specimen of ancient conveyancing, but noteworthy
from its being issued during the single year of Richard
Cromwell's Protectorate, and bearing his seal.

(13) There were two officers of the name of Disney,
holding commissions in the Parliament's armies. One held
the rank of Colonel, 14 March, 1645; and the other was
a Captain in Colonel Hammond's Regiment, in 1646. We
can identify neither in the absence of their christian names,
but we have little doubt in our own mind that one of the
two was 'Col. Molineux Disney, of Norton.' The Commons'
Journals of 20 Nov., 1651, notice also a petition from Joan,
the widow of Capt. Guido Disney of Col. Tyler's Regiment,
from which it appears that her husband had been slain
during the campaign of Lieut. Genl. Monk in Scotland.

(14) William Monson, who owed his elevation and title
to Charles the First, was base enough to sign his royal
master's death-warrant. At the Restoration he was justly
degraded of his honours, and sentenced to undergo the
punishment described by Pepys in his Diary: — "Jan. 27,
1661-2, Going to take water we met with three sledges, to
carry my lord Monson and Sir Henry Mildmay, and another,
to the gallows and back again, with ropes round their necks,
which is to be repeated every year, this being the day of
sentencing the King."

(15) This report was so widely spread that Charles the
Second, by the advice of his ministers in Council, signed

NOTES. 115

and swore to a declaration that he had never been married
to any other woman but the Queen. Rapin, vol. 11, p. 712.

(16) There is in Dr. Skinner's Life of General Monk a
long fulsome Latin inscription, composed in anticipation
of a public monument being put up to his memory in
Westminster Abbey, in which occurs, confirmatory of our
remarks, the following passage : — P'.eiie inter nuptias hceredis
obi'li, lachrimas funeris tempcraturns niiptiarnm gaudiis, that
is, ' he died almost on the very day of his son and heir's
wedding, to temper funeral tears with marriage joys.'

(17) "The 28th May, 1671, the king celebrated the feast
of St. George in a very stately manner at Windsor, and
installed in the Order of the Garter the king of Sweedon,
the Elector of Saxony, by their proxies, and after them the
young duke of Albemarle." Rapin, folio, vol. 11, p. 661.

(18) The Duke settled his landed estates, subject to his
widow's life interest therein, on his cousin Sir Walter Clarges,
bart., whose father for many years represented Westminster
in Parliament. The duke's Will was hotly contested. The
action was ostensibly for trespass, but really brought to test
Duke Christopher's legitimacy, or power of disposal by Will
of certain estates, notably Sutton-on-the-Derwent, and other
lands in the county of York, which the plaintiffs claimed as
the representatives and heirs-at-law of Thos. Monk, Esq.,
the elder brother of George Monk, the first duke. The case
was tried at the Bar of the King's Bench three several
times, and each time decided in favour of the defendants.
The trial attracted considerable attention at the time, full
details of which are given in the Gentleman's Magazine,
1793, p. 88.

(ig) The principal parties concerned in raising the vessel,
conceiving the duke had taken advantage of his position
as Governor, by appropriating more than his fair share of
prize money, formed the desperate resolution of kidnapping
the duchess and carrying off the treasure. Luckily her grace,
receiving timely notice, communicated her fears to the House
of Assembly, who guarded her person night and day, until
she was safely embarked in one of the king's ships for

ii6 NOTES.

England, where she arrived with all her treasure, at the
beginning of June, 1688." Brian Edward's Hist, of the
West Indies.

(20) Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was conse-
crated about the year 668, is usually named as the creator of
the parochial system in England, though to what extent his
efforts in this direction were carried out rests upon conjecture.
It is probable that through his suggestion country churches
were multiplied, and local provision of some sort made
for the clergy. Before then the clergy lived together in
monasteries, or collegiate establishments, and from those
seats of piety and learning (as yet uncontaminated by, and
free from the unscriptural pretensions of Rome) our first
missioners issued forth to preach the word of God among
the pagan Saxons,

(21) The stained glass window over the Communion
Table is quite modern, the artistic production of Messrs.
Powell & Sons, London. The window consists of three
lights, and represents the crucifixion of our Lord, In the
centre light is the figure of Christ hanging on the cross ;
on his right hand is the Apostle John ; while the Roman
centurion with shield and spear occupies the remaining
light. The back ground of the window is formed of painted
canopy-work of the 15th century, and is treated in very
soft and subdued colours. At the base of the centre-light
is placed the coat-of-arms of the St. Vincent family, a
chevron between 3 martlets, and in each side-light is
a regimental badge of the 7th Hussars. The memorial
inscription at the bottom of the window runs as follows; —
'' Erected to the memory of J. E. L. Jervis, Viscount
St. Vincent, who died of wounds received at the battle of
Abu Klea in the Soudan, 22 Jan., 1885, by his brothef
officers of the 17th Hussars."

(22) The monastic Order, known as Gilbertines, was
instituted expressly to check the feudal outrages of the early
Norman Knights. The founder is described as being in
custodid mnlierum singnlaris gratia:, ' of singular repute
for the protection he afforded defenceless females,' As the

NOTES.

117

Order increased in wealth and numbers, asylums, or Houses
of Refuge, were built and endowed in various parts of the
kingdom, their chief seat being at Sempringham in this
county: and to that Society the rectorial, or great tithes
of Norton Church were at an early date appropriated.

APPENDICES.

A P P E N 1) I C P. S

A. p. 41.

The earliest Will connected with Norton Disney is that
of John Hamsterley, of which an abstract is ^iven in
Mr. Gibbons' recent vol. of Early Lincolnshire Wills. It is
in two parts, bearing different dates. The first part is dated
"Norton disne, Friday, Vigil of St. Andrew, Apost., 1415,"
in which, after stating his wish to be buried in St. Peters
Church in Norton aforesaid, and naming his executors, the
more important part proceeds as follows : —

''Last Will.

" Friday before Nativ. of the B.V.M., 3 Hen. v.

" Sir Gerard Usflete, knt., Thomas Bosom, John Leek,
and Thomas Claymond (my feoffees under a fine levied in
the Curia Regis as to the Manors of Norton Dysny and
Stapleford and lands, &c., in Wellingor, which I had by
gift of William Dysney deceased), to enfeoff Elizabeth my
wife, she providing masses for the souls of the said Wm.
Dysney her father, Wm. Hamsterley my father, Elizabeth
Hamsterley my mother, and Elizabeth de Staunton my aunt,
to be celebrated in Norton Dysney Church, in the chapel
where the said Wm. Dysney is buried; also in Staunton
Church where the said Elizabeth de Staunton is buried ;
and in the chapel of Stoke by Newerk, where the said
William Hamsterley is buried.

"The feoffees of my lands in Skredington to enfeoff my
son John, for the life of Elizabeth my mother, with
remainder to the right heirs of my father.

"Lands in Baruby to my son John at full age, and to
his heirs in tail, with remainder to the heirs of Sir John
Bussy, knt.

"My lands in Carlton, which formerly belonged to John
Wright of Carleton, to go to my wife, after the death of

120 APPENDICES.

Peter Marshall my valet ; also my lands there, formerly of
Elias de Midelton ; also my lands in Basyngham and
Snellound.

"My lands in Newark and Scarthorp, co. Notts, to my
nephew John Hamsterley for life, with remainder to my
father's right heirs, unless William, elder brother of the
said John, shall deem his brother so living and conducting
himself that he shall choose to give him an estate tail in
the lands.

Proved at Sleford, 3 Dec. 1415."

B. p. 50.

On the suppression of the Monastic Orders, it was found

that the great Lazar House, or Hospital for Lepers at

Burton Lazars, Leicestershire, had land in Carlton-le-

Moorland to the amount of ;^4 . i . 8 per annum; but the

greater portion, including the manorial rights, belonged to

Thornton Abbey, in this county. John Disney, most

probably, was the lessee at the time of the dissolution, as

some of his ancestors had been before him (note 9); but

whether the transfer was by purchase or grant, we are

unable to say. He certainly became the founder of a junior

branch there. A brass tablet in the parish church describes

him as being '^seciindus jilius jfohannis Disney de Norton,

Armig., et f rater Gulielmi Disney de Norton prcedic."

According to the tablet he died "circ. 1556,' leaving several

sons. The eldest, Thomas, married Catherine, the d. of

Augustine Porter, lord of Belton, near Grantham, (Tumor's

History of Grantham, 4to. p. 99) and is the person named

under Carlton-le-Moorland, in Peacock's List of Church

Goods destroyed in Lincolnshire, as made out from the

original returns to the Royal Commissioners in 1565 : —

"Item, one popishe mass booke with ye rest

appertaining to ye s"^- service — sold Mr. disne of

the same towne, ano. dni. 1563. Wm. saunderson,

and Wm. taylour, Church-wardens."

'^Its)n, Banners, Banner stafts, cross staffs de-faced
ano. dni. 1563, by me, Mr. disne of ye same towne."

APPENDICES. 121

Several members of this collateral branch were living in
this immediate neighbourhood down to the middle of the
17th century, when, through marriage settlements and the
disasters occasioned by the civil war, their property lapsed
into other hands, the chief purchaser being Sir Richard
Bothwell, of Enderby, in this county, whose d. Elizabeth
carried the Carlton and Stapleford property to Sir Thos.
Willoughby, cr : Baron Middleton in Queen Anne's reign,
with whose decendants it still continues.

ABSTRACTS OE WILLS.
C. p. 50.

In his Lincolnshire Wills ano. dni. 1500 — 1600, preserved
in the Probate Court, Lincoln, Rev. A. R. Maddison has
published ' Abstracts of the Wills of William, Richard, and
Daniel Disney, who inherited Norton in succession. The
shortest of these 'Abstracts' is that of the first-named, as
follows : —

"The Will of William Disney, of Norton Disney, Esq., 6th
Dec: 1540. To be buried in my Chapel in the church of
Norton Disney. My wife Margaret to have a Chamber in
my place at Norton for her life. To my son Francis Disney
200 ewes I bought of Augustine Porter. I make my son
Francis Disney, & my brother John Disney, Exors." Proved
16 Dec : 1540.

ABSTRACT OF RICHARD DISNEY'S WILL.
D. p. 51.

" The Will of Richard Disney, of Norton Disney, Esq.,
22 Jan. 1577. To be buried in my chapel in the church
withoute superfluus pompe, and decentlie." To my wife Jane
all my farming stock at Swallow and North Carlton, and her
jewels, &c. To my son Daniel Disney ' my cheyne of gold,

122 APPENDICES.

1 standing cuppes of sylver and gilte with their covers, 12
spoones of the twelve Apostles, and all my armor.' He to
confirm all leases to my tenants in Norton Disney, Morton,
and Kingerby. To my wife £100 in consideration of £"100
paid to her by her brother. Sir Francis Aiscough, Knight,
deceased, and ;^200 for the leases of North Carlton and Aylsby,
to me paid for them. To my brother Francis Disney £"30, and
to his son William Disney, £\o. To every one of my son
Daniel Disney's children £^, and to those of my son Sirach
Disney £^ each, and to those of my daughter Susan Amcotts

£^ each To my godson Richard

Thymelby £c^. To my son Daniel Disney ' my velvet bonnet
with aglettes of goulde.' To my son Amcotts ' my hatte of
velvet with the broche of goulde.' To my daughter Susan
Amcotts ;^5 'to make her a cuppe.' To my daughter Mary
Disney ' one ring of goulde with a ruble, and one with a
diamond.' To my nephew Thomas Amory and his wife
;^3 6s. Sd. and the remainder of the lease of the vicarage of
Swinderby. To my servants half-a-year's wages. ' I will that
the 32 peces of gold which I was accustomed to accompte
withall shall be made in rings, and this posie shall be graven
in every ring. Remember thy frende, for such is thy eiide.'
These rings to be instead of black gowns. I give my son
Sirach Disney 40 marks. I make executors Mr. Thomas
Moryson and Mr. Francis Manby, Esqs., and give each ;^20,
and Robert Tounley, Gent., to whom I give £6 13s. 4d. 'I
must earnestlie require my especiall frend Sir Christopher
Wraie, knt.. Lord Chief Justice of England, to be supervisor.'
He is to take his choice of my best horse or gelding." Proved
28 April, 1578.

ABSTRACT OF JANE DISNEY'S WILL.
E. p. 51.

" The Will of Jane Disney, Widow, of South Kelsey, 24 Nov.
1590. To be buried in the church where I may die. To my
son George St. Poll, Esq.,* my basin and ewer of silver, my
livery pott of silver.' To my niece ludith Hatcliffe * my white

APPENDICES. 123

boule of silver, and my Limbecke to still ' aqua composita.'
To my nephew Edward Aiscoughe, of South Kelsey, ' my
rownde salte cellar of silver with the Disneys and Aiscoughes
arms engraven upon it.' My daughter Bridget, wife of my
son Sirach Disney. To Vincent Disney 20s." Many other
bequests to members of the Aiscough, St. Poll, and Maddison
families." Proved 7 Jan., 1591.

* George St. Poll, or St. Paul, Esq., of Snarford, Dame Disney's
son by a former husband, married Lord Chief Justice Wray's
daughter Frances. Surviving him, Lady Frances married secondly
Robt. Rich, Earl of Warwick, and under the title of the ' Countess
Dowager of Warwick,' left various charities for educational purposes,
and also the advowson of Bassingham Living to Corpus Christi
College, Oxford. The Wrays, being landowners in the adjoining
parish of Bassingham, were as such presumably neighbours residing
there at the time.

ABSTRACT OF DANIEL DISNEY'S WILL.

F- p. 53-

"The Will of Daniel Disney, of Norton Disney, Esq.,
30 Jan., 1587. To be buried in the church. I give to my
Lord Chief Justice of England my pyed colte lately taken
into my stable for a memory of his Lordship's good will
toward me at all tymes. To my brother Mr. Francis Molyneux
my neyesse Falcon. To my son Mr. William Staunton the
best hawk. To my daughter Elizabeth his wife, £6 13s. 4d.
To my wife Marie my velvet gown, and one-third of my
household stuff, except those parcels which were given to
my wife and children by Mrs. Elizabeth Meares, deceased.
To my wife a white silver salt, a silver bowl parcel gilt
that I bought at Kingerby, a silver can gilt : my coche with
two baye geldinges that were accustomed to draw the
same ; also her cheyne of golde, and all her jewels, &c.
My daughters Ann and Hester Disney. I desire that William
Disney enjoy his farm at Stapleford, paying the customary
rent. My son Henry Disney is to pay 40s. yearly out of
my manor of Kingerby to William Mawdeslay. My kinsman
William Disney to have £3 6s. 8d. yearly for his life. To

124 APPENDICES.

yonge Anthony Staunton a pyed foale. To Mr. Ellis a
tassel (tercel) gentle. To Mr. Thorneigh (Thornhaugh) a
tassel. To Mr. Edward Disney a tassel. To William Disney
a gerfalcon. To Mr. Harby my best foal. To my wife
Kathcrine (? Marie) £"20 yearly to maintain and bring up
my daughters Ann and Hester Disney. To my nephew
William Disney, my godson, son of my brother Sirach
Disney, £t, 6s. 8d. My wife shall remayne and be in house
with my son Henry Disney at Norton, so long as the same
agree together, or els she to goe to Kingerby quietlie. I
make my son Henry exor. and my brother Francis Molineux
and son Mr. William Staunton, supervisors."
Proved 24 Feb., 1587.

G. p. 56.

As stated in the body of the text. Sir Henry Disney
married twice, and on the issue of his second matrimonial
adventure settled the manor and advowson of Swinderby.
Like many more, during the ecclesiastical changes under the
Commonwealth, the Swinderby branch became "infected
with the doctrine fished out of the Lake of Geneva."
Although buried after the liturgical form of the Church of
England, in the Parish Church of Swinderby, (where several
mural tablets still testify to their former connection with
that parish), they declined for many years after the
Restoration to conform to its ritual, and the ancient order
of church government by bishops. Of this Puritan family
was Daniel Disney, Esq., third in line of descent from Sir
Henry, who having become possessed, in right of his wife
Catherine Clinton, of considerable church property belonging
to Kirkstead Abbey, in this county, converted its ancient
chapel into a meeting house for Independents, and endowed
it with £"30 per annum for a minister of that persuasion.
— (White's Lincolnshire, Art. Kirkstead.) Want of space
prevents more than a passing notice of his son. Dr. John
Disney, "theologian, magistrate, and poet/' whose views of
faith and discipline, undergoing a change in middle life, he

APPENDICES. 125

consulted his friend and spiritual adviser, Dr. Wake,
Bishop of Lincoln (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury),
by whom, after the usual probationary course, he was
admitted to Holy Orders, and subsequently to the Vicarage
of St. Mary's, Nottingham, which he held to the date of
his death in 1730. It was while holding the vicarage of
St. Mary he had, be it said to his honour, the moral
courage to rebuke Archbishop Blackbourne when about to take
a quiet pipe in the vestry of St. Mary, during a visitation
held there, saying — ■" so long as he was Vicar, he would
never allow his vestry to be turned into a smoking room."
This anecdote, the truth of which is well authenticated,
affords a painful instance of the want of veneration and
respect even the highest dignitaries of the church manifested
towards the house of God in those days. Pope, taking off
the manners of the age in which he lived, might well say : —

" History has her pot, Theology her pipe."

Happily more enlightened days have dawned upon the
Church, when higher and better feelings of what is due to
God and sacred things pervade all classes. But, before
his appointment to St. Mary's, Nottingham, he appears to
have had some connection, by birth or officially, with the
parish of St. Peter-at-Arches, Lincoln, of which its marble font
is probably a memento ; at all events, it was his gift, as shown
by the inscription round the v\m^^^ Exdono jfohannis Disney,
Armigeri, Beatce Marice Ecclesice inter Nottinghamiensis
Rectoris." From him we pass to his grandson and namesake,
the Rev. John Disney, D.D., examining chaplain to Dr. Law,
Bishop of Carlisle, rector of Panton and vicar of Swinderby,
Singular to say, he too, after passing the climacteric of life,
became unsettled in his religious convictions, and at once
threw up his preferments to become first the assistant and
afterwards the successor of his friend Dr. Theophilus
Lindsay, at that time a celebrated Unitarian and
Nonconformist divine in London, who had himself seceded
from the Anglican communion. It is to his pen we are
indebted for a curious biographical tract, entitled " Some
remarkable passages in the Holy Life and Death of Gervase
Disney, Esq., 1692," which brings before us with painful

126 APPENDICES.

reality the sufferings of Protestant dissenters, under the rule
of the two latter kings of the House of Stuart. On the
extinction of the senior or Norton line, the Disneys of
Swinderby became the chief representatives of this ancient
Lincolnshire family. The late John Disney of the Hythe,
Ingatestone, Essex ( who founded a few years back a
Professorship at Cambridge, and whose collection of
classical antiquities forms one of the principal sections of
the Fitzwilliam Museum ), was a lineal descendant of
Sir Henry Disney, by his second wife Eleanor Grey. Refer
to Hutchin's History of Dorsetshire, Art. Corscombe, Vol. IV,
p. 389. And for a List of their literary works, Dictionary
of National Biography, edited by Leslie Stephen, 1888,
Art. Disney.

H. p. 59.

A very animated description of Col. Thornhaugh's death,
with a high encomium on his valour, but evidently written by
a partizan, is to be found in Mrs. Lucy Hutchinson's Memoirs
of her husband. Col. Hictchinsoii. From this lady's account it
appears that Col. Thornhaugh was slain at the battle of
Preston, in Lancashire, by a company of Scotch Lancers
belonging to the duke of Hamilton's regiment, which he
encountered almost single-handed, the impetuosity of his
temperament impelling him forward to meet his own death
before his men had time to come to his assistance. Evidently
his courage out-ran his discretion, for after a desperate
struggle he fell, covered with wounds inflicted by the long
sharp points of the Scotch lances. On being carried off the
field by his men, it was found that life was not totally extinct :
he rallied just long enough to learn which way the tide of
battle ran, and the party victory favoured that day. To quote
the words of this accomplished authoress — "his soul was
hovering to take its flight out of his body, but an eager desire
to know the success of that battle kept it within till the end
of the day, when news being brought him, he cleared his
dying countenance and said, ' I now rejoice to die, since God
hath let me see the overthrow of this perfidious enemy: I could

APPENDICES. 127

not lose my life in a better cause, and I have this favour
from God to see my blood avenged,' and havmg so said he
immediately expired."

An altar tomb to his memory is still extant in Sturton
church, near Retford, bearing the following inscription : —

Qvod ReUqvvm Francisci Tlwrnhough, ariiiigeri, pnefecti
cohortis cqnituin hie sitani est, eiuii milies periculis
ohjectvs occvhvit Augusti xvii ; Alio, jfvnestissimi
belli vii; Mtatis stim xxxi ; Christi MDCXLVIII :
proleDi reliqvit Dilectissiind conjnge Elizabetha St.
Atidrea, yohaneui, Elizabcfhaiu, yoiiaiii.

that is, —

Here lie the mortal remains of Francis Thornhaugh,
Esq., Captain of a Troop of Horse. After facing
dangers a thousand times he fell August xvii; in the
viith year of this most fatal War; in the xxxist year
of his age, and MDCXLVHI years after Christ.

He left by his dear wife Elizabetha St. Andrea •

John, Elizabeth and Jonas.

I. p. 65.

A true and faithful account, given by the Minister of
St. George, concerning the Behaviour and last dying Speech
of William Disney, Esquire, June 2gth, 1685 :

" Between nine and ten o'clock in the morning,

I was sent for by the High Sheriff of Surrey, to officiate
as Ordinary at the execution of the prisoner at Marshalsea.
Before he was brought out, a neighbouring minister and I
(upon the Sheriff's motion) went into the room where he
was; when the reverend parson (having seen him the night
before) asked him whether he had considered those things
which he had formerly offered him, and did very pathetically
press him that he would give God the glory by a full and
ingenuous confession of his crime, intimating to him the
fatal consequences that might have followed, if he had

128 APPENDICES.

perfected that evil work ; how many lives might have been
lost in the quarrel, whose blood he was so far guilty of,
as he contributed to the increase of the Rebellion by his
printing the traitorous Paper; or words to that effect. To
which the prisoner answered, with some signs of discontent,
to this purpose : that he hoped he did not come to press
him to unburthen himself now; that he had nothing to say
that might bring any person into trouble, and his time was
short, so he desired not to be troubled about any such
matter: so that few words passed 'ere we parted. Finding
him resolved not to make any discovery, I only told him
I intended to meet him at the place of execution, and he
thanked me. When he came to the Gallows, and was in
the cart, I came to him and asked him how he desired to
improve those few moments of his life that were yet to
come ? He answered, In prayer. I asked him. Will you
pray yourself, or shall I pray for you ? He answered, I will
pray, and desire you to pray for me. Whilst the executioner
was preparing the rope, I showed him the Bible, saying,
Sir, what comfortable sentence do you remember out of this
word of God for your present use? He answered, 'JESUS
CHRIST came into the world to save sinners, of whom I
am the chief.' And then he proceeded in general terms
to acknowledge himself a great sinner against God : but
affirmed that he had made his peace with God ; that he had
confessed his sin with humility and fervency, and had begged
God's pardon, and did not doubt but God had for the merits
of His son JESUS CHRIST pardoned all his sins, and he
was now under very comfortable hopes that he should soon
be happy, not upon the account of his own merits, but the
merits of Jesus Christ, his Saviour. I told him this was
very good, if his hopes were grounded on the Scriptures,
which assured him that Christ died to save sinners. Where-
upon I recounted to him some other gracious promises of
God to true penitents, as that of Ezekiel, ' If the wicked
man turneth away from his wickedness, and doeth that
which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.'
After which, he made his address to God in prayer, that
he would forgive him all his sins, and sanctify this his
affliction to him; and prayed God to bless the king, and

APPENDICES. 129

that he might be merciful and kind to his subjects, as well
as just to his enemies : he further observed how gracious God
was to him in giving him this admonition (as he called it),
for God might have taken him off by some sudden death, or
deprived him of his senses; and then (he said) it must
have been worse for me, but now God of his goodness
hath given me time to bethink myself; so that the dolour
and the shame of his death (having so many spectators
upon whom he looked) may somewhat discompose me,
yet have I peace and comfort within. Afterwards he desired
me to pray with him, which I did briefly, according to his
mind, and present example ; and, closing with the Lord's
Prayer, he answered every petition deliberately and calmly,
declaring that he lived in, and did now die in communion
of the church of England. After prayer, I asked whether
he would sing some part of a Psalm ? He answered, ' No.'
Then I asked him whether he had anything more to do or
say ? He answered, — ' I have nothing more but to return
you thanks for your generous care of me. And I pray God
bless you, and hear your prayers for me, and mine for
you, and our Saviour Christ for us both.' And so I left
him going to his long home. This, according to the best
recollection of my thoughts, is the sum (as near as I can
remember) and the words that passed between me and
Mr. Disney.

(Signed.) Andrew Watson.

130 APPENDICES.

J. P- 65.

The following is a verbatim copy of the Claimant's
Petition : —

TO THE

KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY,

THE HUMBLE PETITION

MOLINEUX DISNEY, Esq.,

Son & Heir in the direct line to Sir John Hussey,
LORD HUSSEY,

Humbly sheweth,

That Sir John Hussey, yr Petitioner's
ancestor, whose heir he is, was seized to him, & his
heirs as of Fee & Right, of ye Degree & Dignity of Lord
Hussey, & was called by Writ of Summons to sit in
Parliament in ye 3ist year of King Henry ye Eighth, as
also by one Writ of Summons of ye same king by ye name
of John, lord Hussey, and accordingly by virtue of the same
Writ sat in ye same Parliament : who had issue as son &
heir apparent Sir William Hussey.

That ye sd. lord Hussey was in ye agth year of ye same
King's Reign, Attainted and Executed for High Treason,
his blood corrupted, & his honour forfeited.

That in ye third year of King Edward ye Sixth, ye s^-
William Hussey, upon his Petition was by Act of Parliament
restored in Blood, as Heir to ye Degree of his father, &
shortly after died leaving issue only two daughters, NEALE
& ANNE, which ANNE is dead without issue: NEALE,
the eldest daughter & co-heir of ye sd. Sir William was
married to RICHARD DISNEY of NORTON DISNEY,
esq. : from whom by several mesne descents yr Petitioner
is as Son & Right Heir descended in ye direct line — that
is to say — son & heir to William Disney ; son & heir to

APPENDICES. 131

Sir Henry Disney; son & heir to Daniel Disney; son &
heir to Richard Disney, & ye sd. NEALE, daughter & heir
to Sir William Hussey, son & heir to ye sd. JOHN lord
Hussey.

May it therefore please yr. MOST excellent
MAJESTY graceously to give comand for yr.
PETITIONER'S summons to this present
Parliament there to sit, & enjoy ye place &
pre-emminence to ye Dignity to him descended,
& by right belonging.

And yr. PETITIONER shall daily Pray
for yr. MAJESTY'S long and Pros-
perous Reigne over us "

The above Petition, considering the great pains and re-
search bestowed in preparing the Argument, — which, in the
printed Copy before us, fills an 8vo. volume of 65 pages —
was evidently compiled with a view to hearing and debate.
The Argument appears to proceed on the ground that
Dignity is inherent in the blood, and that the reversal of
the attaint implied a restoration to the Dignity or Title.
In the Act of Restitution, however, there is a stringent
Previso expressly excluding both title and estates. And this
seems to have been the understanding at the time, as other-
wise Sir William Hussey would have assumed the title of
' Baron Hussey,' whereas, down to the period of his death,
3 and 4 Philip and Mary (see note 12), he never took any
steps to vindicate his title to the Honour. For some reason
unknown the Case never came before the proper tribunal;
at least, no entry is to be found in the Lords' Journal,
relative to any proceeding taken upon it. A writer, from
whom we have borrowed the above remarks, suggests that
the claimant may have anticipated the fate of the unfortunate
trunk-maker, James Percy, whose Petition to be heard as
to his claim to the earldom of Northumberland was refused
about the time the Disney Petition was to have been
presented. Others, with greater probability, that the un-
expected arrest, and untimely end of his only surviving son
and heir, stayed all further proceedings.

132 APPENDICES.

K. p. 82.

Sir Walter Clarges, who was created a baronet in the life-
time of his father, pulled down the family mansion in London
known as ' Clarges House,' and converted it and the grounds
around into a street called after him ' Clarges Street,' —
which marks the epoch when the vast tide or great wave
of London life began to set in westward, along the north
side of Piccadilly, and which now extends in the same
direction for miles still further westward. He was one of
the trustees named in the Deed of Transfer at the time
St. James' Church, Piccadilly, was made parochial, or distinct
from and independent of St. Martins-in-the-Fields, to which
it had previously been a Chapel of ease. Known to be
immensely rich and the owner of considerable house property
in the city of Westminster, Sir Walter became, on the eve
of a contested election, a person of considerable importance.
In days when bribery was tolerated and unblushingly avowed,
he is said to have deposited in the hands of an electioneering
agent a canvass bag containing between two and three
thousand guineas, to turn the tide of an election in favour
of the Tory candidate. This is probably the same story
as the one told by Macaulay, the historian, when, in the
year 1695, Sir Walter himself came forward, in the place
of his father then lately deceased, to contest Westminster,
his principal opposition candidate being Sir Stephen Fox, who
was backed by the whole Whig interest. At this election,
to borrow the words of the above writer, Sir Walter " dis-
tributed £2,000 in a few hours, a great outlay in times
when the average income of a member of Parliament v/as
not estimated at more than £800 a year : but, though neither
money nor ink were spared, it was all in vain, Clarges was
at the bottom of the poll, without a hope of rising." —
Macaulay's Hist, of England, vol. iv. p. 615.

L. p. 82.

The fourth Visct. St. Vincent, late owner of this lordship,
young as he was, had seen considerable service. Although
only 34 years of age at the time of his death, he had taken

APPENDICES. 133

part in no less than five campaigns. In the Zulu War in
1879; in the Afghan War, the following year; in the
Transvaal of 18S1 ; in the Egyptian campaign of 1882; and,
lastly, at Abu-Klea in the Soudan, where he received his
death wound. The following iiiciitorandniit, intended as a
Codicil to his Will, derives a peculiar signihcancy from the
circumstances under which it was written, being made by
the deceased after he was wounded, and found written in
pencil on a leaf of his pocket book, in the form of a letter,
as follows : —

Dear Mother, — In the extent of my dying under the operation
about to be performed, I should like Privates Teaffy Hosmar,
and Knight, to have an annuity of ^15 each. I should like a
tablet put in Norton Church, with a short description from
' Army List,' or elsewhere, of my military life.

Your affectionate Son,

To Lady St. Vincent. St. Vincent.

As time has not yet obliterated the interest attached
to his memory, we may be pardoned for introducing the
ioUowing extract from the ' United Service Gazette,' at the
time, which conveys, in a few brief words, a just description
of his character and disposition : — " The late Lord St. Vincent,
who succumbed to the wound received at Abu-Klea, deserves
something more than a formal obituary notice. He was in
truth one of the ornaments of the army. Gentle, modest,
somewhat reserved with strangers, he was full of heart and
courage, a brave soldier, and a good comrade. To know
him was to love and admire. Quiet as was his demeanour,
he possessed a daring, dauntless spirit, was a fearless horse-
man, and some seven or eight years ago received the Royal
Humane Society's medal for saving a person from drowning.
Subsequently he saw much service in the field, gaining ad-
ditional credit in each campaign. Alas ! he will fight no
more, and the army has lost a brave comrade, the Queen a
devoted officer, and the young aristocracy a fine example.
He has, however, died a soldier's death, so why should
soldiers lament him ? Rather should they envy his honour-
able career, and bear in mind the good example which
through life he set." And with the above well-merited
tribute to the memory of a young and brave officer, sans
peur, et sans reprochc, we close this Appendix.

134 APPENDICES.

M. p. 91.

The transept, so called, on the south side of Norton church
was without doubt originally a chantry chapel, having ap-
parently an upper chamber for the accommodation of the
priest serving at the altar. Two boldly-carved brackets
(now defaced) showing the position of the ancient altar, still
remain embedded in the thickness of the wall, but who the
founder or foundress was is unknown. If we may hazard a
conjecture, it is 'the chapel' referred to in John Hamsterley's
Will. (See Appendix A.) There was, however, an obit-
gift, or bequest of land in this lordship, given towards the
maintenance of a priest to perform daily mass 150 years at
least previous to the date (1415) of John Hamsterley's Will,
as attested by the Jury at the first Inquisition of Edw : the
First, of which the following is a translation : — " They
" certify that the Abbot & monastry of Newsam hold a Cell
" {Capella) in the township of Norton, & XI bovats of land
"by the gift of Adam D'Iseny that the sd. abbot & monks
" may keep a chaplain [capcllainis] in the sd. Cell celebrating
" mass every day for ever for the souls of his ancestors &
" successors, & the sd. Cell, & the sd. XI bovats of land are
"worth V marks a year: & the same Adam D'Iseny held
" the sd. Cell, & sd. XI bovats of land in mesne of Richard
" Basset by knight's service, & the same Richard of Alexander
" Bardolph, & the same Alexander of the King in chief. And
" so from the first step to the last, the aforesd. Cell & the
" above bovats of land have been alienated to the heavy
"loss of the King & his predecessors, wh : they are unable
" to account for, or say by what Warrant it was done."

Newsam is now an extra-parochial place in the parish of
Brocklesby, and formerly possessed a Priory, to which the
above Cell was subordinate. It was distinct from and in no
way connected with the parish church of Norton, which, as
will shortly be shown, was appropriated to Sempringham
Priory. The names of certain fields, as Chapel Close, Abbey
Field, and Abbey Leys in this lordship, suggest their original
appropriation to a monastic establishment, and somewhere
on the site thus indicated the above Cell or Chapel most
likely stood. It may not be amiss to add that these obit-

APPENDICES. 135

gifts must not be confounded with tithes, which were given
to perpetuate the religion of Christ in every parish : but
were distinct bequests, left for a specific purpose of praying
souls out of purgatory, and are, as a writer observes, "a clear
indication of the wealth of the family by whom they were
made."

N. p. 99.

About the year 1782, the tablet in question was sent up
to London by permission of the then patron, Sir Thomas
Clarges, to be engraved for Gough's Sepulchml Monuments
of Great Britain. On taking the brass plate out of its stone
setting, it was then discovered that it had been used before,
for on the reverse was a long inscription referring to the
founding of a Chantry in some church [name not given] in
Holland.

The following translation is from the pen of a correspondent.

" In the year MDXVIII, on the XXIXth day

of December, We, Adrian Ardenses and the young lady,
Josephine van de Steine, have founded within this Church
on St. Cornelius' altar a single mass to be said daily, which
the Church-masters or directors ( ? ) have accepted, & will
cause to be performed & continued. The sd. daily mass to
begin always after the clock has struck the hour of X., for
which the priest celebrant is to have VII lbs. (?) Flemish
a year in four terms : the Sexton, who at the aforesd. mass
shall toll the large bell, V gr. a year on St. Agatha's Day,
when both are to be yearly paid, or on the following day if
this day falls on a Sunday, & on no other day. Then shall
the Church-masters or directors ( ? ) cause the celebrant of
the service, the priest or his vice-priest (?), the choir-master,
& the choristers, & the sexton, to bring to the altar in the
evening at Vespers, & in the morning at daily mass, the
grave-cloths & serge, & thereupon shall they cause to be

put VIII burning torches of wax, & the four

& they shall come & sit at the grave at Vespers

at the foot of St. Cornelius' altar. And the Church-masters

136 APPENDICES.

shall at the Requiem mass cause the priest-celebrant, & the
choir-master, & the choristers in full choir, to chaunt the
Sequences, the Dies Irre, and the Dies Ilia, & the conductors
of the service shall be careful also to furnish the oblation
lights. And the aforesd- Church-masters shall be obliged to
pay on St. Agatha's Day, or the day following, to the priest-
celebrant lbs. (?), to each of the groats (?),

& to the sexton V groats for tolling the bell, & for lighting
the oblation lights. And let it be well understood that not
one of them shall profit thereat unless they shall be present
from the begining of the service unto the end."

ERRATA.

Instead of true, at the end of line 14 on page 55, read "true-hearted."

In the Clarges' pedigree page 83, add "d. July 19th, 1879," after the final
name — Carnegie.

In the Latin quotation on page 28, the word " Agricolas," instead of being
at the end of line, should form the commencement of a fresh line.

On page 24, last line, instead of scnitage read " scutage."

PRINtED EY S. WHILESi NEWARK.

mmmm