Shortly after the conquest, the lordship of Tattershall, together with
the hamlet of Tattershall Thorpe, and several other estates, was given by
King William to Eudo and Pinço, two Norman nobles, who had attended him
into England, but who, though sworn brothers in war, were not otherwise
related. On the division of the estates between these chieftains, this
manor became the property of Eudo, who fixed his residence here. Upon
his death his estates descended to his son, Hugh Fitz Eudo, who, in the
year 1139, founded an abbey for Cistertian monks at the neighbouring
village of Kirkstead.
Hugh was succeeded by his son Robert, who left issue a son named Philip.
Philip, after serving the office of sheriff of Berkshire in the seventh
year of the reign of Richard the second, and also of Lincolnshire in the
eighth, ninth, and tenth years of the same king, was succeeded by his son
Robert, the second of that name, who, in the year 1201, procured from
King John, by means of a present of a well-trained goshawk, a grant to
hold a weekly market on Thursday, on this manor. Robert was followed by
his son of the same name, who about the year 1230, obtained from Henry
the third a licence to build a castle at this place, together with a
grant of free warren in all his demesne lands. The male line of Eudo was
continued in regular descent, by Robert the fourth, fifth, sixth, and
seventh; upon the death of the latter of whom in his minority, it became
extinct, and the inheritance was divided between his three sisters.
Tattershall became the portion of Joan, one of the co-heiresses, who
married Sir Robert Driby, and who had issue by him a daughter and heiress
Alice, afterwards married to Sir William Bernack. John, the son of this
latter marriage, was succeeded by William, who died a minor, and left his
sister Maud his heiress.
The Fitz Eudos, from the place, assumed the cognomen of Tateshall, and by
that title had summons to parliament among the great barons of the realm.
Maud, the heiress of the Bernack family, married Sir Ralph, afterwards
Lord Cromwell, who, in her right, became lord of this manor; and upon his
death, which happened on the twenty-seventh day of August, in the year
1398, left his son Ralph his heir, who died in 1416, and was succeeded by
a son of the same name. In the year 1433, this latter Ralph was by Henry
the sixth appointed Treasurer of the Exchequer. He died without issue on
the fourth of January, 1455; whereby his two nieces, the daughters of his
sister, the wife of Sir Richard Stanhope, became his co-heiresses.
It does not appear into whose hands the Tattershall estate fell after the
death of the Lord Treasurer Cromwell, until the year 1487, when Henry the
seventh granted the manor to his mother, Margaret Countess of Richmond,
and in the following year entailed it on the Duke of Richmond. The Duke
dying without issue, Henry the eighth in 1520, granted it to Charles Duke
of Suffolk, by letters patent, which were confirmed by Edward the sixth,
in the year 1547.
On the death of the two infant sons of the Duke of Suffolk, who survived
their father only a short time, this manor again came into the possession
of the king, as one of the heirs general of the family. By letters
patent, dated the fifth of September, 1551, Edward the sixth granted the
castle with the manor, in fee, to Edward Lord Clinton and Saye,
afterwards Earl of Lincoln. The Earl dying in 1584, was succeeded by his
son Henry, who died in 1616, leaving issue a son and heir Thomas, who
survived his father only two years, and was followed by his son
Theophilus, who died in 1667. The next possessor was Edward, who was the
grandson of Theophilus, and who died at Tattershall in 1692; in him
terminated the male line of the Clinton family. Upon his death, without
issue, the Tattershall estate became the property of his cousin Bridget,
who married Hugh Fortescue, Esquire, by whom she had a son and heir Hugh,
created in 1746, Baron Fortescue, and Earl Clinton. Upon his death in
1751, his half brother Matthew succeeded him, but dying in 1785, the
Tattershall estate descended to his eldest son, Earl Fortescue, the
present possessor.
Besides the liberties of the parks, chases and free warrens, belonging to
the castle and manor of Tattershall, it also appears in the several
grants of Henry the third, Henry the fourth, Henry the seventh, Henry the
eighth, and in the grant of the liberties of Richmond fee, whereof the
castle and manor of Tattershall is a part, that to the said castle and
manor also belong the liberties of stallage, tolls of markets and fairs,
together with the privilege for all tenants and inhabitants of
Tattershall to be discharged of any tolls in fairs and markets abroad;
also the sole liberties of fishing, fowling, hawking, and hunting, in all
the said manor, chases and the precincts of them; also suits of courts
baron, waifs, estrays, treasure trove, goods and chattels of felons,
fugitives, men outlawed, and felones de se, deodands, bondmen, villains,
with their sequels; and also that neither the sheriff of the county, nor
his bailiff shall arrest within the said manor, and that no distress
taken therein shall be delivered, nor replevins granted by the sheriff,
but only by the steward of the lord of the said manor.