Goulceby lies in a northerly direction, about 7 miles from Horncastle,
some two miles further on than Scamblesby, and barely a mile west of
Asterby, to which parish it is now ecclesiastically annexed; the joint
value of the two benefices, the former a vicarage and the latter a
rectory, being about £380 a year, now held by the Rev. J. Graham, J.P.,
who resides at Asterby. Goulceby was probably, in Saxon times, the more
important of the two places, since it was one of the 222 parishes in the
county (according to Sir Henry Ellis) which possessed a church before the
Norman Conquest, and one of the 131 which had a resident priest.
Letters arrive _via_ Lincoln at 10 am., and are despatched at 3.55 p.m.
The nearest money order office is at Scamblesby, the nearest telegraph
office at Baumber; but, by arrangement, telegrams can be sent from the
Donington-on-Bain station, on the Lincoln and Louth railway, which is
distant about 2 miles.
The village lies in a valley which is watered by a branch of the river
Bain. The patronage of the benefice has been in various hands. In
pre-reformation times it belonged to the Preceptory of the Knights
Templars at Willoughton; in 1605 it was held by Christopher Pickering
(“Liber Regis”), later by a Mr. Hatley (Ecton’s “Thesaurus”); then by the
Listers of Burwell Park, who presented as late as 1837; from whom the
patronage, with the manor, was acquired by the Bagnell family; whose
representative now presents to the united benefice, alternately with the
Traffords, as Lords of the Manor of Asterby. At what period the original
church perished does not appear to be recorded; but, according to Weir
(“History of Lincolnshire,” ed. 1828) there was in 1821 only a small
modern church, dedicated to all Saints. This fell into decay, and in
1855 was succeeded by a small brick and stone structure; which, in turn,
has more recently been taken down; and the church at Asterby now serves
for the two parishes.
Historic references to this parish are “few and far between,” yet by
bringing them together, with a moderate degree of assumption from given
premises, we can make out a fairly connected catena of its ownership.
The name itself can hardly be said to give a certain sound. It has been
variously spelt, as Golsby, Goldesby, Gouthesby, Golksby, Colceby, and,
in Domesday Book, Colchesbi. We can only conjecture that it may have
been the “Buy,” _i.e._, Byre, or farmstead of a Saxon Thane, named Col,
Kol, or Golk, the two former being common as contractions of Colswen, or
Colegrim, and not uncommon in the neighbourhood. {58}
According to Domesday Book, this, like many other parishes in the
neighbourhood, was among the possessions of the Norman noble, Ivo
Taillebois, acquired through his marriage with the Lady Lucia, the
wealthy Saxon heiress of the Thorolds, and connected with the Royal line
of King Harold. He (or she), had here 3 carucates of land (or 360
acres), rateable to gelt; with 16 socmen and 2 villeins, occupying 6
carucates (or 720 acres); a mill worth 4s. yearly; a church and priest,
and 120 acres of meadow. As I mention in notices of other parishes
(Bolingbroke, Scamblesby &c.), the tenure of these demesnes was not of
long duration, and in a few years they were dispersed among the
descendants of the Saxon heiress. Goulceby would seem to have become an
appurtenance, with Belchford, Donington and several others, of the
superior manor of Burwell. It would thus be granted, originally, by
Henry I. to the Norman family of De la Haye, one of whom, in the 13th
century, founded the Benedictine Alien Priory of Burwell, as a dependency
of the Abbey of S. Mary Silvæ Majoris, near Bourdeaux, and endowed it
with some of his own demesnes. This family held these possessions for
150 years. The last of them, John De la Haye, in the reign of Edward I.,
having enfeoffed Philip de Kyme of the same, continued for the remainder
of his life to hold the lands, under the said Philip, by the peculiar
(nominal) “service of _one rose_.” (Chancery Inquis., post mortem, 21,
Edward I., No. 33). For some years the Kymes held the property, being
called to Parliament as Barons, and doing other service for their
sovereigns; until in 12 Edward III. (Dugdale’s “Baronage,” i., 621)
William of that name died without issue; and his widow married as her
second husband, Nicholas de Cantelupe (whose ancestors had been Earls of
Abergavenny), who thus succeeded to these demesnes. He dying also
without issue, on the subsequent death of his widow, the property
reverted to Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus, who had been enfeoffed
of it by his uncle, the above William. Gilbert, again, died without
issue, and his widow married Henry Percy, created at the coronation of
Richard II., the 1st Earl of Northumberland, who thus in turn acquired
the property. He, however, rebelled against Henry IV. (Camden’s
“Britannia,” p. 547); and on his attainder that sovereign granted the
manors to his son John, afterward. Duke of Bedford (Patent Rolls, 6, H.
iv., p. 2., m. 16s) He dying without issue, the property reverted to the
crown, and Henry VI. granted it to Ralph, Lord Treasurer Cromwell.
(Patent Roll 18, H. vi., pt. 2, m. 19).
Before this period, however, the Cromwells were connected with Goulceby,
since it is shewn, by an Inquisition in the reign of Henry V. (post
mortem, No. 72, A.D. 1419), that Matilda, the wife of Sir Ralph Cromwell,
Knight, held lands in Roughton, Wodehall, Langton, Golseby, Belcheford,
Donington, etc., {59} and that Sir Ralph Cromwell her son was the next
heir. When the Lord Treasurer founded at Tattershall, the College of the
Holy Trinity, on the 17th Henry VI. (1439), he endowed it with portions
of many of these manors, as had also been done in the case of Burwell
Priory, centuries before; Goulceby doubtless being one of them. On the
dissolution of Religious Houses by Henry VIII. a great number of the
lands connected with them in this neighbourhood were bestowed by that
sovereign on Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, among these being
Goulceby, Belchford, ffulletsbye, etc. {60a} He died 24 August, 1545,
leaving two sons, Henry and Charles, by his wife Catherine, daughter and
heiress of William Lord Willoughby de Eresby. They, while at St. John’s
College, Cambridge, died of the epidemic, called “the sweating sickness,”
16 July, 1551 (Cooper’s “Athenæ Cantabridgenses,” i., 105); whereupon the
descendants of the daughters of their great grandfather, Sir William
Brandon, were declared the rightful heirs. One of these, Eleanor, had
married John Glemham, of Glemham Parva, Suffolk, and their great grandson
succeeded Thomas Glemham, Burwell, and a considerable portion of these
demesnes. {60b} He died about the 14 year of Queen Elizabeth, and was
succeeded by his son Henry, afterwards Sir Henry Glemham, Knight, who
married Lady Anne Sackville, daughter of the Earl of Dorset. {60c} He
settled upon his wife, Burwell, with appurtenances; and documents
connected with the Lister family (subsequently owners of Burwell, etc.),
now in the possession of Porter Wilson, Esq., shew that, in 1602, the
farm rents included those from “Goulsby, Belchforde, Donington super
bayne,” etc. We now proceed a step further to another change of
ownership:—In 1641, Sir Thomas Glemham, of Burwell, was a strong
supporter of Charles I., being Colonel of the King’s 4th Regiment, and
successively, Governor of York, Carlisle, and Oxford. {60d} He, probably
in order to raise funds for his royal master, sold for £15,000, the
Burwell estate and its many appurtenances, to Sir Matthew Lister, Knight,
of St. Martin in the Fields, co. Middlesex, and Martin Lister, of Thorpe
Arnold, co. Leicester, his brother. It is somewhat curious that in the
list of manors, which then changed hands, although Belchford, Oxcombe,
ffaireforth (_i.e._ Farforth), and Walmesgate, all in the near
neighbourhood of Goulceby, are named, no mention is made of Goulceby
itself, yet down to as recently as 1863 the patronage of the benefice was
vested in them (Morris’s “Gazetteer,” 1863). It appears, however, from a
deed of settlement, dated 10 Jan. 1656–7 (or about 15 years after the
sale), that Sir Martin Lister, of Thorpe Arnold, was possessed of
Belchford, Colceby, &c.; and after his death, his children were to divide
his property, and the trustees were “empowered to sell, if necessary,
Belchford, Colceby,” &c. It is possible that by this “Colceby,” Calceby
may be intended, which was annexed to Driby and Ormsby; but it certainly
looks as if Goulceby formed a part of the share of the property
originally bought by Sir Matthew Lister’s brother Martin. The Listers
continued to be owners of Burwell, doubtless at different periods parting
with various of the subsidiary “appurtenances” down to a few years ago;
intermarrying with the Dymokes, Alingtons, Gregorys of Harlaxton, Lord
Deloraine, members of the families of Sir Robt. Barkham, Knollys, Sir
Edward Boughton, and forming other good connections. Only in 1883, was
the property finally parted with by the late Matthew Henry Lister, eldest
son of Matthew Bancroft Lister, High Sheriff in 1800, to the present
owner, William Hornsby, Esq., High Sheriff in 1898. We may add that
Matthew Bancroft Lister claimed descent from Philip of Kyme; whose
family, we have seen, were owners of Goulceby, in the reign of Edward I.,
and in 1840 he petitioned the Queen for a revival in his person of the
Barony of Kyme; but that dignity still remains in abeyance. Of the
Matthew Lister who married Eleanor, daughter of the Hon. Sir Charles
Dymoke, Knight, champion of James II. (Circa 1683), it is recorded that
he had a son “Martin, baptized 1 October, buried in woollen 30 Nov.,
1693.” {61} For these particulars as to the ownership of Goulceby in the
past, I am largely indebted to a paper in the “Architectural Society’s
Journal” for 1897, by Mr. R. W. Goulding, entitled “Notes on the Lords of
the Manor of Burwell.”
The present owners of Goulceby are Colonel Bagnell, Lord of the Manor,
Earl Manvers, Thomas Falkner Alison, and various small proprietors.
The following particulars of the Listers are worthy of mention.—Sir
Matthew Lister, M.D., was fellow of Oriel College, Oxford; Physician to
Queen Anne, Consort of James I.; and Physician in Ordinary to Charles I.,
by whom he was knighted in 1636 (Woods’ “Fasti Oxon.,” 3rd ed., 1815, i.,
307–8), he died at the age of 92. The entry of his burial is as follows,
“Matthew Lyster, Kt. & cheefe lord of Burwell, &c., was buried December
the 19th, 1657.” Among the bequests in his will, dated 18th August,
1656, are the following:—To his wife all his household stuff . . ., all
“the jewells she usually weareth, and hath in her custodie”; also his
“coach and coach-horses, if he should have any at his death.” “Item, I
give to be divided between her and my neece, Sir Martin Lister’s wife,
all that poure remnant of Plate which is left me since these troubles.”
To his “son in law George Banfield, and to his sister, the Ladie Cobham,
£10 for a remembrance.” To his “servant John Mitchele, £50 . . ., and if
he bee with me at my death all my wearing apparel, except one _fringed
sattin gown lyned with furre called ffitches_ (_i.e._, Marten skins),
which I desire my wife may have.” We may assume that this was some
official, or court, robe worn by Sir Matthew on occasions of ceremony.
He was President of the London College of Physicians, and even in our own
day, members of a College wear the “gowns” of their degree or office.
Another member of the family, Martin Lister, M.D., F.R.S., was one of
Queen Anne’s Physicians, an eminent zoologist, and author of books on
various branches of Natural History. His most important work was his
“Historia sive, synopsis Methodica Conchyliorum.” Various plants and
animals have been named after him.
Two or three other documents connected with Goulceby, may be here briefly
referred to:—
By a Final Concord, dated 20 June, 1202, an agreement was made between
Holda, daughter of Geoffrey, on the one hand, and certain Monks of
Minting Priory, who were tenants of an oxgang of land in Goutheby, by
which she surrendered all claim to the land, in favour of the Monks and
their successors for ever. In return for which the Monks gave her one
mark.
On July 28, 1231, an agreement was made between the Master of the Knights
Templars in England, and William Moysaunt and Amice his wife, by which
the said William and Amice acknowledged a certain meadow in Golkesby to
be the right of the said Master “to have and to hold, to him and his
successors, in free, pure, and perpetual alms”; and for this the said
Master gave them 2s.
By will, dated 30 May, 1617, Adam Henneage of Donynton Super Bane, Gent,
left to Frances his wife “all my messuage in Goulcebie, wherein John
Clarke now dwelleth”; and to his “sonne James his copyhold land in
Goulcebie, in tenure of Peter Pindar and John Tomson.” Proved at
Horncastle, 28 June, 1617. By will, dated 23 July, 1623, Thomas Kent, of
Scamblesby, Clerk, left “to the poor people of the parish of Goulceby,
20s.,” with similar bequests to the poor of Donington and Scamblesby.
Proved at Lincoln, 15 Nov., 1623.
The will of Timothy Kent, of Donington, Clerk, dated 13 Feb., 1623–4,
mentions lands in Goulceby and Asterby, and leaves bequests to various
relations and servants, and to the Cathedral Church, Lincoln, 2s., and to
the poor of Donington, 20s. Proved at Lincoln, 28 May, 1624. Elias
Kent, of Scamblesby, Gent., by will, dated 13 Feb., 1625, leaves various
bequests to relatives and friends, and “to the poorest people of Goulceby
10s., to those of Donington 10s., to those Scamblesby 40s.” Proved at
Lincoln, 20 Dec., 1628. (“Lincs. N. & Q.,” Vol. III., pp. 205–207).
The poor of Goulceby have an annual rent charge of £2 10s., left by
Anthony Acham, which is distributed in bread. He also in 1638 founded,
and endowed with £10 yearly, a school here; which was re-built in 1865,
with accommodation for 130 children; the original endowment is now
supplemented from other sources, and the school serves for the parishes
of Goulceby, Asterby, and Stenigot.