HORNCASTLE. SITUATION.

Horncastle is pleasantly situated at the foot of that bold and even range of Hills, which, from their openness, have been termed the wolds.  It is nearly in the centre of the Lindsey division of the county of Lincoln, and is the chief of a soke of fifteen parishes to which it gives name.

The principal part of the town is built within an angle formed by the confluence of two rivers, the Bane and the Waring, where an ancient fortification formerly stood, the scite of which is still visible, denoting it in early times to have been a station of importance.

The character of the place however is now completely changed.  From a military station it has become a situation of trade; and owing to its being surrounded by a considerable number of villages, possesses one of the largest markets in the county.

Its distance from the city of Lincoln is twenty-one miles, and eighteen from the town of Boston.

HORNCASTLE DURING THE ROMAN AND SAXON GOVERNMENTS.

Before the invasion of Britain by the Romans, whilst yet the island was divided into independent states, the present scite of Horncastle with its immediate neighbourhood was doubtless appropriated, like the rest of the country of the Coritani, to the pasturing of herds and flocks.  In the formation of settlements no other circumstances influenced the Britons than the conveniences which might be afforded them in their accustomed occupations.  Vallies fertilized by streams, and the contiguous hills would supply food for their cattle and sheep, whilst the neighbourhood of forests invited to the pursuits of the chase.  The rich tracts of open grass land stretching along the banks of the river Bane, and its tributary stream, would be populously occupied by the pastoral inhabitants of this district.  Hence it may be presumed, that when the weak efforts of the Coritani for independence had left them vanquished by the victorious arms of the Romans, under Ostorius Scapula, and finally a tributary state by the more efficient achievements of Suetonius Paulinus, this portion of the country was soon secured by fixing on the present scite of Horncastle a military station.  From the almost imperishable masses of the ancient wall which still remain, and by the numerous coins, urns, and other vestiges of the Roman people which have been found in this place, and are still met with in turning up the soil, it evidently became in process of time a station of considerable importance.  It is difficult however to make any definite suggestions as to the period at which the fortifications were erected, no inscription having been found to throw light upon the subject.

To secure by effectual barriers against insurrections, the conquests which had already been made, whilst yet the bordering people to the north, the fierce and powerful Brigantes, remained unsubdued, might be deemed by the Romans a sufficient inducement for raising frequent and effectual military works among the inhabitants of this state: for it was not until Petillius Cerealis was appointed by the emperor Vespasian to the command in the province of Britain, that this hitherto unbridled nation were either conquered or involved in all the calamities of warfare.  Though there be no precise data by which the decision may be guided, as to the time of the earlier military erections which were formed at this place; yet it cannot be ascribed to a much later period than the above occurrences so intimately connected.  At all events, it may not be considered posterior to the effects which resulted from the wise policy of Agricola.  Immediately on his arrival to assume the command, he placed along the frontiers of the several subjugated districts, a chain of fortresses: these were constructed with so much care and judgment, that the inhabitants of those parts where the Roman arms had not then penetrated, could never consider themselves secure from the vigor of the conqueror. [4a]  The people, soon after this, completed their submission to the yoke by yielding to the allurements of Roman manners.  Their ferocity was tamed: from a savage people running wild in woods, they became cultivated, acquiring knowledge, and dwelling in towns; and finally sweetened their slavery, by indulging in the pleasures of polished life.

From the circumstances of this station being situated on the river Bane, several antiquaries have concurred in fixing here the Banovallum of the Roman geographer Ravennas.  This opinion has been the more readily adopted from the etymology of the name; the latter part of the word being Latin, and the whole collectively signifying a fortification on the Bane.  It is indeed probable that the Romans were induced at first to make a station at this place, from its convenient situation, easily rendered defensible by a vallum, or temporary barrier, drawn across the aperture of the two rivers from one bank to the other, and thence came its designation.  Afterwards they built the indissoluble stone wall, whose vestiges after the lapse of ages are manifest nearly the whole compass round. [4b]  It is to be regretted that Ravennas gives no distances: he merely places Banovallum next after Lindum, so that nothing decidedly certain can be gained from his work.

But, though it cannot be positively ascertained that this spot was the Roman Banovallum; yet, as the name most evidently points out a fortification on the river Bane, there appears little reason to question it; both from its contiguity to the colony of Lindum, with which place it had communication by means of a military road; as also from its situation; particularly as no other remains of the Romans have been discovered on that river, nor yet any near to it, except some coins at the village of Ludford, where the Bane has its source; and traces of an encampment at Tattershall, more than a mile distant from its banks. [5a]

In what circumstances this station was involved from the final subjugation of the Britons by Agricola, under whose paternal government the province felt some portion of enjoyment in cultivating the arts of peace, is not known: but, from the evidence of antiquities, it is perceptible that it continued a place of importance down to the period when the Romans in the decline of their empire had withdrawn from Britain; though probably, in the security of a long abstraction from war, its military strength was somewhat disregarded.  No sooner however had the necessities and the mistaken policy of the enervated inhabitants, again left to themselves, called to their assistance the warlike Saxons, against the eruptions of the northern barbarians, than we find this place agitated, in common with the rest of the country, by all the calamities which were connected with the desperate contests which ensued: the Britons having to struggle for liberty, against the eagerness for dominion on the part of the victorious Saxons.  These people, according to the practice which prevailed amongst them of changing the names of Roman stations, gave to this place the appellation of Hyrncastre or Hornecastre, from its situation in an angle formed by the junction of the two rivers, which denotes a fortification in a corner, of which the present name Horncastle is evidently a corruption.

The Roman fortress was at that time either destroyed, or in a very dilapidated state: for Horsa, the Saxon general and brother of Hengist is stated to have enstrengthened the fortress of Horncastle.  This fortification however did not continue long; for Horsa being defeated in an engagement with the Britons, under the command of Raengeires, at the neighbouring village of Tetford, Vortimer king of the Britons caused it to be beaten down and rendered defenceless. [5b]

THE MANOR.

By the record called Domesday, compiled towards the latter end of the reign of William the Conqueror, it appears that the manor of Horncastle, previous to the close of the Saxon Government, belonged to Editha the queen of Edward the Confessor; but at the time of making that survey, it formed, together with the soke, part of the possessions of the king. [6a]

When the manor was separated from the crown does not appear; but in the reign of Stephen it was the demesne of Alice or Adelias de Cundi, who resided at her castle here, which leaves it to be concluded that she held it by inheritance from her father. [6b]  As she took part against the king in his contention with the Empress Maud, he seized her lands, but restored them again on condition that she should demolish her castle, the means which had served to render her political alliance formidable to his interest. [6c]  What may have been the extent and nature of the structure possessed as the mansion of Adclias is not now discoverable, no traces being to be found; but its strength most probably consisted in a restoration of the walls of the Roman fortress, which encircling some convenient and less durable edifice, gave to the place of her residence the security of a castle.

The restitution by Stephen of these lands to Adelias de Cundi, seems to have been only for life, as her heir did not succeed thereto; for this manor came again to the crown, and was afterwards given by Henry the second to Gerbald le Escald, a Fleming, who held it for one knight’s fee, and who was succeeded by his grandson or nephew and heir Gerrard de Rhodes.  [6d]  Gerrard was succeeded by his son and heir Ralph de Rhodes, who, in the reign of Henry the third, sold the manor to Walter Mauclerke, the third Bishop of Carlisle, who also held the office of Treasurer of the Exchequer.  This sale being made in the spirit of these times when the feodal system prevailed, the bishop and his successors were to hold the estate by the performance of suit and service to Ralph de Rhodes and his heirs.  In the fourteenth year of the same reign, the transfer to Walter Mauclerke was confirmed by the king, who in the same year also granted to him three several charters, conferring those immunities upon the manor and soke, which served to raise the town of Horncastle from the dependence of a village, to become in some degree the mart of the surrounding country.

The first of these charters gave to the bishop free warren over the manor and the soke: the second the liberty of holding an annual fair at this place, which was to commence two days before the eve of the feast of St. Barnabas, and to continue eight days: the third had for its objects the empowering of the bishop to try felons, and to hold a court leet; also the exemption of the inhabitants of the manor and the soke from toll, and several other payments and services, beside protecting them from arrest by the officers of the king and the sheriff. [7a]  An additional charter was granted in the following year enabling the bishop to hold a weekly market here every Wednesday; and also another annual fair to commence on the eve of the feast of St. Lawrence, and to continue seven days. [7b]  The custom of holding a fair on the anniversary of this festival appears to have prevailed at an earlier period, it being alluded to in the charter granting the former fair.

In the same reign, Gerrard, the son and heir of Ralph de Rhodes, appears to have preferred his claim to this manor, which had been sold by his father; perhaps in consequence of some omission in the performance of those services by which the estate was to be held. [7c]  His claim does not appear to have been successful; for in the seventeenth year of the same king, the bishop fined to hold the manor in fee, but not to alienate without licence.  [7d]

Walter Mauclerke resigned the see of Carlisle in 1246, and as the manor devolved to his ecclesiastical successors, it may be inferred that it had been purchased to increase the revenues of the bishoprick, and not to be appropriated as his private property.  The privileges of such essential interest to the estate, which had already been conferred by the preceding charters, were in part strengthened by fresh acknowledgments to the Bishops of Carlisle, in the reigns of the two succeeding kings; Edward the first confirming the grant of free warren, and Edward the second that which exempts the inhabitants of the manor and soke from certain payments and services. [8a]

At the period of Richard the second, Roger le Scrop and Margaret his wife, with Robert Tibetot and Eve his wife, heirs and descendants of Gerbald le Escald, appear to have advanced a claim to this manor, and to have succeeded in obtaining letters patent, confirming to them homage and service from the ecclesiastical possessor. [8b]  At that time also when the border contests had laid waste the see of Carlisle, and divested the bishops of their seat of Rose Castle in Cumberland, they were necessitated to take up their residence at Horncastle, which continued for some time to be their principal place of abode.

In the twenty-fifth year of Henry the sixth, that monarch confirmed the several charters granted to the bishops as lords of this manor, by Henry the third, and also conferred on them numerous other privileges. [8c]

The manor continued in the possession of the Bishops of Carlisle, until the reign of Edward the sixth, when under the authority of a licence from the crown, it was sold by Bishop Aldrich to Edward Lord Clinton, who, during the time he held it, compounded with the copyhold tenants, and enfranchised their estates; but after Mary had ascended the throne, he was compelled to re-convey his purchase to the see of Carlisle, to which, since that time, it has continued to belong. [8d]  Bishop Aldrich died at this place in March, 1555, the second year of the reign of Queen Mary: from which it appears, that the estate had either been restored previous to his decease; or, in the conditions of the sale he had reserved to himself the privilege of residing in the manor house. [8e]

In the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles the second, the several charters which had before been granted to the possessors of this manor were again acknowledged, and the privileges further extended. [9a]

Queen Elizabeth had a lease of this manor from the then possessing bishop, in which she was succeeded by James the first, who assigned it to Sir Edward Clinton, knight; but owing to a neglect of enrollment, it proved void. [9b]  For nearly a century the lease was held by the late Right Honorable Sir Joseph Banks, Baronet, and his ancestors, and it is now held in trust for the benefit of his devisees.

The large tract of fen land, situated between this place and Boston, at a very early period belonged to the lords of this manor, in conjunction with the lords of the manors of Bolingbroke and Scrivelsby; but by the grants which they gave to the neighbouring abbies at Revesby and Kirkstead, their right therein became comparatively small. [9c]  On the enclosure of these fens, pursuant to Act of Parliament, in 1801, about six hundred acres were annexed to the parish of Horncastle, eighty-one acres of which were allotted to the lord of the manor; the remainder to the owners of common-right houses.

The parochial extent of Horncastle, exclusive of the fen allotment, is about one thousand three hundred acres, two hundred and fifty of which are contained in the manorial estates.

The house where the bishops used to reside, a spacious structure, but destitute of architectural merit, was situated at the north-west corner of the ancient fortress.  It was demolished about the year 1770, when the present manor house was erected on its scite.