Hareby is situated about 7 miles, in an easterly direction from
Horncastle, is about 1 mile west of Bolingbroke, and 4½ miles from
Spilsby. From the first place it is approached by the old Roman road
from Horncastle to Waynflete, as far as the cross-roads at Lusby, turning
to the right for half-a-mile and then to the left. It is a small parish,
of less than 40 inhabitants, and comprising about 740 acres. Letters,
_via_ Spilsby, arrive at 8.30 a.m. The nearest money order office is at
Bolingbroke, the nearest telegraph office at Spilsby. Hareby Manor
House, the property of Messrs. Ramsden and Taylor, stands on a steep
hill-side, commanding extensive views over Bolingbroke, West Keal, and
southward, far away to the waters of “The Wash.” It has been said that
the name of Hareby, and probably also that of Eresby—the older name of
Spilsby—is derived from the hares, which formerly abounded on these hills
and valleys of the Wolds, the “South Wolds,” as we might here call them,
of Lincolnshire. {87} We are only able to recover fragmentary
particulars, “disjecta membra,” of the past history of this parish. From
Domesday Book we gather, that, like Miningsby, Bolingbroke, and many
other neighbouring parishes, it was once the property of Ivo Taillebois,
through his marriage with the Lady Lucia, heiress of the Saxon princely
family of the Thorolds, whom the Conqueror bestowed upon him. They were
married in A.D. 1072, and on his death, without male issue, in 1114, the
Lady Lucia married Roger de Romara, who thus, through her, became Lord of
Bolingbroke, with other manors in the soke of that demesne. At that
period the parish would seem to have been more populous than it is at the
present day; the Domesday survey, giving the acreage as four carucates
(or 480 acres), rateable to gelt; adds, that thirty-three socmen, five
villeins and five bordars had another four carucates, and 100 acres of
meadow.
The Lady Lucia, marrying as her 3rd husband the Norman noble, Ranulph, he
delivered some of her estates to the King, Henry I., in return for the
dignity of the Earldom of Chester. Against this, William de Romara, her
son by her late husband, Roger de Romara, protested, but in vain. Some
years later, however, Henry I. restored to him some of his mother’s
property, and made him Earl of Lincoln; and later still, by the exchange
of some lands in Normandy with Robert de Tillot, he acquired the
lordships of Hareby, Hundleby and Mavis Enderby. By his wife Maud,
daughter of Richard de Redver, he had a son William, who married Hawise,
daughter of Stephen, Earl of Albemarle. The last of the Romaras dying
without male issue, the property passed to Gilbert de Gaunt, who married
his daughter, who also succeeded to the Earldom of Lincoln. Robert de
Gaunt forfeited the property by rebelling against King John, and the
estates were conferred upon Ranulph de Meschines, surnamed de Blundeville
(_i.e._, of Oswestry), Earl of Chester, A.D. 1100–1120. He died with
issue, but assigned to Hawise, one of his sisters, the Earldom and
manors. She married Robert de Quincy, son of the Earl of Winchester,
whose daughter Margaret, married John de Lacy, a descendant of the Barons
of Pontefract. His son Edmund, left issue Henry (and others), who, dying
without surviving issue, bequeathed his property to the heirs of Edmund
Plantagenet; after various changes the property again came to a Gaunt,
John, afterwards Duke of Lancaster, and father of Henry of Bolingbroke,
who later on succeeded to the throne as Henry IV. {88} In the course,
however, of the these changes, Hareby, and some other manors, had become
separated from Bolingbroke, and had passed to the Willoughby family,
since we find that in the time of Edw. III., father of Henry of
Bolingbroke, John Willoughby, held “the manors of Wester Kele with
Hareby, Lusby, Easter Kele, &c.” (Chancery Inquisition, 46 Ed. III. No.
78). The family of Willoughby, although originally holding lands under
the Becs, who were lords of Spilsby, Eresby, &c., &c., subsequently
inter-married with that family, and thus succeeded to some of their
property, and were the ancestors of the family of the present Lords
Willoughby d’Eresby, and eventually acquired very large possessions in
these parts, much of which they still retain.
We find, however, at different periods, various other parties holding
lands in, or connected with, Hareby.
In a Revesby Charter (No. 28, collection of the late Right Hon. E.
Stanhope), conveying the right of lands in East Kirkby to Revesby Abbey
(temp. Henry II. or Richard I.) the first witness is Alan, Dean of
Hareby, others being, Aschetill, priest of Keal, Alan, priest of Asgarby,
&c.
By another Charter (No. 53 temp. Richard I. or John), Henry Smerehorn of
East Kirkby, gives his home-born (“nativum”) servant, Robert, son of
Colvan, with all his chattells to Revesby Abbey, and receives in return
“one silver mark from Peter, the monk of Hareby.” This monk of Hareby
would therefore seem to be a nominee of the Abbot of Revesby.
And this connection is confirmed by another charter (No. 92, temp. Henry
III.), by which the Abbot and monks of Revesby lease certain lands in
Stickney to Bricius, son of Roger, clerk of Stickney, to which deed the
witnesses are Walter of Hareby, at that time Prior of Revesby; Reginald
the cellarer, John of Moorby, Alan of Horncastle, &c., so that it would
seem the former priest, or dean, of Hareby, was promoted to the Priorate
of Revesby.
By another charter (No. 129, temp. Ed. I.), Alan son of Richard atte
Grene (or, as we should now say, Richard Green) gives certain lands in
East Kirkby to the Abbey, the monks paying in return, “one farthing a
year” to Alan, son of William, son of Roger Palmer, of Hareby, and his
heirs, at the feast of St. Botolph, for all claims on the land.
By another charter (150 B.), lands in Hareby, Bolingbroke, West Keale,
&c., formerly belonging to Revesby Abbey, are conveyed by Henry VIII., on
the dissolution of the monasteries, to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
Another name, once well-known in the neighbourhood, is found connected
with Hareby, in the 15th century. In a Chancery Inquisition, 32 Henry
VI., 1453, taken at Horncastle, the witnesses on oath are Walter
Tailbois, Esq., William Dalison, of Hareby, and others. The Dalisons
(doubtless originally d’Alencon), were a very old Lincolnshire family,
seated at Laughton, probably of Norman extraction. In the 16th century
Sir Francis Ayscoughe a member of another very old county family {90a}
married, as his 2nd wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Dighton, Esq., of
Stourton, and widow of Sir William Dalyson.
In 1635 Robert Bryan died, at Bolingbroke (March 7th) seized of lands in
Bolingbroke and Hareby, which he held of the Crown, a captain Bryan being
governor of the Castle in the time of the Commonwealth, and a few years
later, (1663), a grant of leases in reversion of demesne land was made in
favour of the widow of Thomas Blagge, groom of the bedchamber {90b}
(“Architect. S. Journal,” 1865, p. 57).
We have mentioned this manor as formerly being the property of the
Plantagenets. Of this there exists a curious piece of evidence. One
Alan de Cuppledyke, {90c} was appointed by Edward II. governor of
Bolingbroke castle, and his steward’s accounts still exist. In one
passage he says that “the open woods of Hundleby, Kirkby and Hareby
Thorns cannot be agisted (modern Linc. ‘gisted,’ _i.e._, let to be
stocked with cattle), on account of the _new coppice_, planted by the
late Earl,” _i.e._, Thomas Plantagenet, the recent owner, the King’s
cousin, but who had forfeited his property, by stirring up a rebellion.
This probably may be said to be the only wood in England which can be
proved to have been planted by a Plantagenet (“Arch. S. Journ.” 1865, p.
43).
The Littleburies, whose chief residence in this neighbourhood was
Stainsby House, in the parish of Ashby Puerorum, formerly owned land in
Hareby. Humphrey Littlebury, of East Kirkby, in his will, dated 1 Sep.,
1568, among other property mentions land in Hareby. {91}
Another old family connected with Hareby was that of the Skynners. Henry
Skynner of Bolingbroke, by his will of date 29 May, 1612, leaves to his
daughter Judith, all his copyholds in Harebie, and £100 when she is
married, or 21 years of age; to his brother, Sir Vincent Skynner, knight,
and his heirs, he bequeaths certain lands in Harebie, and other places,
with the advowson of the parsonage of Harebie, “all of which I lately
purchased of him, on condition that he pay to my executor the sum of £60,
within six months of my decease, which sum I have already paid for my
said brother, unto Margery Neale of Horncastle, deceased, or else this
gift is utterly void, and I give it to my daughters . . . I have made
surrender of all my customary messuages, lands, &c., in Bullenbroke and
Harebie, into his Majestie’s hands by Vincent, in the name of one Grave,
in the presence of Richard Smyth, gent., and others.” This testator was
the son of John Skynner, and brother of Sir Vincent Skinner, of Thornton
Curtis.
Mention has been made of Robert Bryan as owning land in Hareby, in 1635.
Members of the same family would seem to have had property there nearly a
century later, as John Bryan was patron of the benefice in 1754, and
united it to that of Bolingbroke. In 1555 King Philip and Queen Mary
presented Gilbert Skroweston to Hareby; but in 1779 the patronage of the
united benefice had passed to Matthew Wildbore, Esq. In 1834 the patron
was Earl Brownlow; in 1836, C. Bosanquet, Esq.; and in 1863, Sir John W.
Smith, Bart.; after him the trustees of the late G. Bainbridge, Esq.,
held the patronage, which now has passed to C. S. Dickinson, Esq. The
owners of the estate are now Messrs. Ramden and Taylor, and it is managed
for them by their relative, G. Mariner, Esq.
The church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, was rebuilt in 1857–8,
at a cost of about £450. It consists of nave and chancel, with belfry,
having one bell, the fabric being constructed of brick. Sir J. W. Smith,
the then patron, built the nave, and the chancel was built by the then
Rector, the Rev. E. Stanley Bosanquet. The east widow, of coloured
glass, with the crucifixion, was erected in memory of William Bernard
Wingate, a late owner, by members of his family. There is another
coloured window in the south wall of the chancel, without inscription,
but probably erected by the Wingate family; and there is a marble tablet
in the north wall of the nave, in memory of the late owner of the estate,
Frederick Tooth, Esq., of Sevenoaks, Kent. The register dates from 1567.
Hareby Manor House is a handsome, substantial structure, standing on a
slope, looking towards Old Bolingbroke, and surrounded by extensive
gardens and good farm buildings.