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start A GUIDE TO LOCAL BOOKS AND OTHER SOURCES start
start Control over land has clearly been of crucial significance throughout the history of a country parish. As Lincolnshire suffers from a lack of attention having been paid to manorial history, students must shift for themselves much more than in many other counties. Clues will arise in places such as church monuments and directory entries, depending on the period, and local knowledge gathered in the folk memory will often have been expressed in street names and the like. It is not only a matter of identifying the manorial lord, but also the names of other chief landowners, since in many parishes there was no dominating owner, still less one whose family resided over long periods. Furthermore, there are many 'open' parishes in Lincolnshire where substantial numbers of small freeholders lent a totally different complexion to rural society as compared with the archetypical resident squire under whose control everyone lived. As good a starting point as any is map 46 in Bennett and Bennett (list 2), or the general information sections in directories, as illustrated by the chosen quotations:
end Examples from White's 1892 Directory provides of well-distributed landownership: BILLINGHAY - J. J. Wheat, Esq., of Norwood Hall, Sheffield, and the Bowling, Cragg, and other families have estates here; but most of the inhabitants are small freeholders.
GOXHILL - Goxhill Manor belongs to W. Bradley, Esq., but the soil is chiefly owned by Miss Thorold's representatives, Rev. Frederic Hildyard, the Corporation of Trinity House, J. Turner, Esq., and Thomas Wilson, Esq., Executors of the late W. Brooks, and many resident families.
PINCHBECK - Mrs Johnson and C. F. Bonner, Esq., are lady and lord of the manors, but a great part of the soil belongs to Earl Brownlow, Messrs. Richard, Buckworth, J. H. Bunting, and Samuel Freir, and the Plowright, Beatson, Beridge, Chevins, Duncombe, Waltham, Wayet, Fletcher, and other families.
Examples from White's 1856 Directory of monopoly landownership, followed by two examples of parishes falling between the extremes already exemplified: GATE BURTON - Wm. Hutton, Esq., the lord of the manor and owner of the soil, resides at the Hall....The rectory....is in the gift of Wm. Hutton, Esq., and in the incumbency of the Rev. George Hutton, B. A.
SYSTON - Sir John Charles Thorold, Bart., of Syston Park, is the lord of the manor and owner of the soil....He is impropriator of the great tithes and patron of the Church....
SOUTH ELKINGTON - J. E. Denison and Rt. N. Lee, Esqrs., have estates here, but a great part of the parish belongs to the Rev. John Smyth, who is lord of the manor, impropriator, and patron of the vicarage....
TIMBERLAND - R. P. Milnes, Esq., of Frystone Hall, Yorkshire, is lord of the manor.... and owner of the great part of the soil; but Sir T. Whichcote, Bart., has a large estate, and here are several smaller owners.
See also List 1 for Pike and Rawding and for vols. IV, VI, VII, VIII and X of the History of Lincolnshire; List 2 for Bennett and Bennett (maps 31 and 52); List 3 for directories; List 5 for the Domesday Survey; list 9 for Beresford on lost villages (often separate estates), and Tyszka et al., on Russell's work on enclosures.
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