Bourne Archive:
Bourne: Foster
http://boar.org.uk/abiwxo3Foster’sBourne.htm Latest edit 4 Oct 2009
Web page &
commentary© 2007 R.J.PENHEY
The Bourne Archive
C.W. Foster’s
Introduction to his Transcription of the Parish Register of Bourne Abbey (1921)
Originally published by Lincolnshire Record Society
This document was
transcribed from a book lent by the Lincolnshire County Library Service, to
which I offer my thanks.
It is
presented here as an historical document so the credibility of what it says
should be assessed. The reliability of old essays on history is usually best on
points to do with the writer’s own time but this one is of above average
reliability (or his prejudices match mine). RJP
The wapentake of
Aveland, in which Bourne is the principal town, is a part of
Although it is
beyond the scope of a short introduction like the present to tell the history
of Bourne, with its abbey, its chapels, its castle, its barony, its manors, and
its principal families, it seems desirable to mention a few facts which may
lead to a better understanding of the part of the parish register which is now
printed for the members of the Lincoln Record Society.
The parish of
Bourne contains the hamlets of Cawthorpe and Dyke. In the time of Henry VIII, 2 Egate or Eagate,
on the eastern side of the town or, in other words, the part of the town which
lay to the east of the Car Dyke, was reckoned as a hamlet or district. The name
is evidently derived from the Bourne Ea, 3 the stream which rises in the town, and flows
eastward to join the River Glen at Tongue End. This district is now known as
Eastgate, and its chief street is called by the same name; but certainly in the
former connection, and probably in the latter also, the name is a corruption of
the ancient Eagate.
The parish church
of Bourne with several other churches, and land in Bourne and elsewhere, was
given in 1138 by Baldwin son of Gilbert to Gervase abbot of Arrouaise, in
Artois, in the Diocese of Arras, for the foundation of a monastery. The house,
according to the evidence of the earliest charters and of its conventual seal,
was dedicated to Saint Peter, but in later times it had the double dedication
of Saint Peter and
To provide for
the religious needs of the parishioners a vicarage was constituted early in the
thirteenth century, and endowed with a stipend of six marks a year. The vicar
was to have his victuals as a secular vicar at the canons’ table; his groom
likewise was to be maintained; and the abbey was to provide forage for his
horse. Whenever the vicar travelled on the church’s business he was to have a
portion of meat and drink (prebendam)
according to the means of the house. For his raiment he was to be allowed
twenty shillings a year : and he was to have the oblations on the greater festivals,
and a penny for espousals, and a penny for a corse-present (pro corpore presenti5), and the secundum
legatum ; and further he was to have a toft within the abbey, near the
gate. 6
After the
dissolution of the abbey in 1539, the nave continued to serve its original
purpose, while the monastic quire also seems to have been used for parochial
purposes. In a report on the state of the churches in the
At the time of
the suppression of the house, the community consisted of an abbot and twelve
canons. On 12 February, 1536-7, Richard Riche, of London, grocer, received from
the Court of Augmentations a lease of the rectory for twenty-one years, and
Richard Cotton, of Bedhampton, in Hampshire, a similar lease on the site and
demesne of the abbey. 8 On 31 December, 1538, Cotton and his wife
Joan obtained a grant from the Crown of the reversion of these two leases, and
a grant of the church, steeple, and churchyard, with the demesne and other
lands of the abbey. 9 In June 1553, they conveyed to the Crown
the manors of Bourne and Morton, the site [of the abbey] or capital messuage of
Bourne, 200 messuages, lands, tenements, and rents in Bourne, Cawthorpe, Dyke,
Westgate, Wilsthorpe, Morton, and Hanthorpe, the rectory of Bourne with its
tithes, and the free warren and view of frankpledge of Bourne. 10 An indenture, dated 24 June in the same year,
shews that the grantors received from the Crown in exchange the Dee mills and
fishings near
The rectory and
grange of Bourne, which are mentioned above as having been reconveyed to the
Crown by Cotton and his wife, were granted by the Crown, 11 May, 1608, to
Francis Phelips and Richard Moine, 14
soon after which date the church seems to have come into the possession of the
Browne family, for we find members of that family presenting to the vicarage
from 1613 until the middle of the eighteenth century.
On the death of
Thomas, the second Lord Wake, the barony of Wake passed through his sister and
heiress, Margaret, countess of Kent, and widow of Edmund [Plantagenet] of
Woodstock, earl of Kent, into her husband’s family, whence it was carried by
Joan Plantagenet, the Fair Maid of Kent. With the barony descended the castle
and manor of Bourne and the advowson of the abbey. 16
Joan, the widow of Thomas earl of
The opportunity
may be taken here of mentioning another famous native of Bourne Robert Mannyng,
or Robert de Brunne (who flourished 1288-1338), the poet, who describes himself
as of ‘Brunne wake in Kesteuene.’ He was not a canon of Bourne, as is sometimes
stated, but was connected with the Gilbertines houses of Sempringham and Sixle.
Members of his family are found making gifts to Bourne abbey: Thomas Manning’
of Brunne who gave land to the chapel of Saint Mary of Brunna, and Thomas son
of Geoffrey Mannyng of Brunne who gave two selions in the shot called
‘Ediswonk’ in the field of Bourne. 21 Robert
Mannyng’s works consist of: (1) Handlyng
Synne, (2) Chronicle of England, (3) Meditacyuns of ţe Soper of our Lorde Ihesus;
and also of hys Passyun; and eke of ţe peynes of his swete moder, Mayden Marye ţe
whyche made yn Latyn Bonaventure Cardynall. Dr. Furnivall speaks of him as
a language reformer, who helped to make English flexible and easy. 22
By the time at
which the parish register begins,
There appere grete diches, and the
dungeon hil of an auncient castel agayne the west ende of the priori, sumwhat
distant from it as on the other side of the streate bakwarde: it longidd to the
Lord Wake, and much service of the Wake fe is done to this castelle; and every
feodarie knoweth his station and place of service. 23
Peak’s account of the towns in Kestefen,
which Marrat24 printed, shews that the
buildings, though ruinous, had not disappeared as Leland’s account seems to
imply. A note in the parish register says:
Memorandum that the
Garryson at
It is difficult to interpret this entry,
but it is possible that the castle was manned on behalf of the King, for a
local tradition says that Cromwell caused the castle to be dismantled because
of the town’s loyalty to the royal cause. On October the 11th, the day
mentioned in the note, Charles was at
A few particulars
may be given about vicars of Bourne during the period covered by the present
volume.
Thomas Baxter was
instituted 7 May, 1562, on Queen’s presentation. 29
In 1569 he held another benefice in plurality, 30
and we may conclude that this was the rectory of Draughton, co.
The vicarage is
entered as vacant in 1576, 35 and no
institution is recorded until 1581. Meanwhile Richard Fowler, who describes
himself as minister or curate, signs the bishops’ transcripts in 1577 and 1578.
36 On 28 July, 1581, Richard Foster was presented
by the Queen to the vicarage of Bourne, and instituted at Buckden, 5 September.
37 He
was ordained priest by the Bishop of Peterborough, 20 September, 1561. 38 He resigned the vicarage about November, 1585,
and was instituted to the rectory of Folkingham, 11 November, 1585. 39 In 1590 he contributed a light horse to the
‘subsidy of armour and warlike furnitur’ provided by the clergy within the
diocese of
John Jackson was
presented by the Queen toe the vicarage, 15 November, 1585. 44 In 1590 he contributed a bow to the subsidy of
armour. 45 The Liber Cleri of 1603 records that he had a preaching licence from
Bishop Wickham, and that there were then nine hundred communicants in the
parish.46 He was one of the small and
dwindling band of about eighteen clergymen in the extensive diocese of Lincoln
wo were proceed against for nonconformity in the early years of the seventeenth
century. The bishop, as the diocesan records shew, treated these men with
extreme patience and consideration. Jackson’s is a case in point. In October,
1603, he and others appeared before the bishop, being cited ‘for not wearinge
the surplisse and not conforming themselvesto the use of the ceremonies of the
Churche in the celebrac’on of divine service and administrac’on of the
sacramentes, etc., according to the booke of common praier.’ They confessed
that the article objected against them was true, and craved time to deliberate;
whereupon the bishop admonished them to conform themselves by the end of October.
Jackson, after several subsequent appearances extending over two years, was at
length dismissed by the court ‘in hope of his conformity,’ until he should be
cited again. 47
1. ↑ For accounts of Bourne abbey and castle, see Dugdale, Monasticon
(ed 1817-30), vi, 370-2 ; Associated
Architectural Societies’ Reports, vol. xi, pp. vii-x; vol. xx, pp. 1-19;
vol. xxxii, pp. 329-32; Victoria History
of the
2. P.R.O. Lay Subsidy Rolls,
137/410, mem. 1, 2; 137/427, mem. 1.
3. The
word represents the Old and Middle English éa=a river. Here and elsewhere in
4. ↑ P.D.,
1505, no 69. Valor Ecclesiasticus,
iv, 103.
5. The corse-present
was an oblation or present made at the funeral. The secundum lagatum was the mortuary due to the church as a
composition for tithes forgotten or withheld. The principale (sc. Legatum)
was strictly the heriot due to the lord of the fee ; while the secundum legatum went to the church. The
term principale, however, is often
used of the mortuary. The provincial constitution quoted by Ducange s.v. mortuarium), which he attributes to
Langton, but which is now more generally quoted as Winchelsey’s, defines the
mortuary of a person who has three or more beasts as secundum melius animal, which supplies a gloss upon secundum legatum. The reason for the
specification of these fees in the ordination of the vicarage is doubtless
that, as the parish altar was in the conventual church and marriages and
burials took place within the precincts, the abbot and convent could claim such
dues as their right, but waived them in perpetuity in favour of the vicar. The
writer is indebted to Mr. A. Hamilton Thompson, M.A., F.S.A., for information
about these fees.
6. ↑ A. Gibbons, Liber Antiquus Vicariarum tempore Hugonis Wells, 61.
7.
8. ↑ Letters
and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. xiii, part i, p. 579.
9. ↑ Ibid.,
part ii, no. 1182 (25).
10. P.R.O., Feet of Fines, 7 Edward VI, Trinity, no.
4.
11.
↑ Associated
Architectural Societies’ Reports, xx, 19.
12. See
below, p. 128 and note.
13. Trollope, The Family of Trollope, 13, 14.
14.
↑ Certificate, dated 11 May, 1608, attached to a
presentation deed (P.D., 1642. no.
49).
15. Calendar
of Inquisitions, ix, pp. 202, 205.
16. Calendarium
Inquis. Post Mortem, iii, 32, 78, 298.
17. Ibid.,
iv, 214.
18. P.R.O., Inquisitions
Post Mortem, Exchequer Inquisitions, series ii, file 548, nos. 12, 23.
19. P.R.O., Feet
of Fines, 6 Eliz., Easter, no. 33.
20. ↑ P.R.O., Feet
of Fines, 4 Eliz. (divers), Easter, no. 10; 5 Eliz., Trinity, no. 11; 8
Eliz. (divers), Easter, no. 14; 9 Eliz. (divers), Trinity, no. 2; 20 Eliz.,
Easter, no. 7; 33 Eliz., Hilary, no. 14; 39 Eliz., Hilary, no. 7.
21. Calendar of the Charter Rolls, iv., 16,
33.
22. Dict. Nat. Biog, xii, 965.
23. The Itinerary of John Leland, ed.
Toulmin Smith. I, 25.
24. History of
26. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War (1893
edition), ii, 360, 367-72.
27. Gardiner, op. cit., iii, 26.
28. See below p. 209.
29.
30. P.R.O., State Papers Domestic,
31. L.R.S., ii, 212-13.
33. L.R.S., ii, 212-13.
34. P.D., 1586, no. 32.
35. L.R.S., ii, 209.
36. See below, p. 217.
37. P.D., 1581, no. 41. L.R.S., ii, 29.
38. Lincoln
Episcopal Registry, Liber Cleri,
1585, folio 7.
39. P.D., 1585 no. 21.
40. Muniments of the Dean and Chapter of
41. ↑ P.D.,
1592, no. 20; 1612, no. 58.
42. P.R.O., Bishops’ Certificates.
43. P.D., 1606, no. 48.
44. P.D., 1585, no. 29.
45. Muniments of the Dean and Chapter of
46. ↑ Liber
Cleri, 1603, f. 38.
47. The State of the Church at the time of
Elizabeth and James I, as illustrated by documents in the
