History of the Manor and Township of Doddington, otherwise Doddington-Pigot, in the county of Lincoln, and its successive owners, with pedigrees, etc

Front matter

DODDINQTON HALL, LT.-COL. G. R. P. JA1VIS HISTORY OF THE MANOR AND TOWNSHIP OF DODDINGTON OTHERWISE DODDINGTON-PIGOT, IN THE COUNTY OF LINCOLN, AND ITS SUCCESSIVE OWNERS, WITH PEDIGREES; BY R. E. G. COLE, M.A., — -~K Rector of Doddington. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. pit .o.n : JAMES WILLIAMSON, PRINTER, 290 HIGH STREET. 1897. CONTENTS. paise Chapter I. Doddington and the Pigots ... ... 1-29 Chapter II. Doddington and the Burghs ... ... 30-52 Chapter III. Doddington — Savile and Tailor ... 53-69 Chapter IV. Doddington and the Husseys .. . ... 70-122 Chapter V. Doddington and the Delavals ... ... 123-147 Chapter VI. John Hussey-Delaval, Lord Delaval . 148-183 Chapter VII. Edward Hussey-Delaval, and the Gunman Family ... ... ... .. 184-207 ChapterVIU. The Jarvis Family ... ... ... 208-215 Chapter IX.

Doddington Hall ... ... ... 216-227 Chapter X. The Church, Church Plate, Registers, Rectors, Churchwardens, &c ... 228-242 Chapter XI. Village, Farms, Woods, &c ... .243-248 Appendix ... ... ... ... ...249-252 ILLUSTRATIONS The Hall from South-east Frontispiece Fae -similes of Signatures ... ... ... ■•• Page 93 Bird's Eye View, circ. 1700 To face Page iod Lt.-Col. G. R. P. Jarvis „ 209 The Hall from North-west ... ... ... ,, 216 Scold's Bridle Page 2 r 7 Drawing-room at the Hall ) To face Page 222 Long Gallery ... . Earl and Countess of Mexborough, by Sir Joshua Reynolds ... ... ... ,, 225 The Church ) \ .. 229 Rectory ) PEDIGREES OF THE FAMILIES OF Page Burgh 50,51 Delaval ... ... ... ... 182, 183 Gunman ... ... ... ... ... ... 205 Hussey ... ... ... ... .. 84. I2°> I21 Pigot... ... ... ... ... ... ... 29 Tailor ... ... ... ... ...

Chapter I. Doddington And The Pigots

THE Township and Manor of Doddington, otherwise Doddington-Pigot, is situated in the County of Lincoln, at the extreme north-western point of the Parts of Kesteven, about six miles south-west of the City of Lincoln itself. Church, Hall, Rectory, and village cluster together in true old English fashion on the slightly rising ground which here forms a watershed between the river Witham on the east and the Trent on the west. Its height above the sea at the Church is 94 feet, falling thence to 30 feet towards Harby on the west, and to 2 1 feet at the Carrs on the north. The township contains 2,515 acres, of which the higher part is gravel and moorland, while the lower ground is the underlying Lower Lias clay. According to the Census of 1891 it had 29»houses, with a population of 147 ; and together with the township of Whisby, which adjoins it on the south and contains 1,634 acres and 86 inhabitants, it forms the ecclesiastical Parish and Rectory of Doddington, which is bounded on the west and north by Harby and Brodholme in the County of Nottingham, and on the east and south by the Lincolnshire parishes of Skellingthorpe, Hykeham, Thorpe-on-the-Hill, Eagle, and Swine thorpe.

It has been said that the earliest history of a place is commonly recorded in its name ; this undoubtedly is the case with Doddington. Within near view on the east rises the "sovereign hill" on which stood the Roman Colony of Lindum, as well as the British stronghold which preceded it. Within short distance on the south-east the Roman Foss-way, now known as " the rampire," passes on its way from Lincoln to Leicester. At a like distance, three miles, on the north the Roman Fossdyke was cut, connecting the waters of the Witham and the Trent. But we have no trace of British or Roman occupation here. There is no sign of its having been the seat of human habitation until the arrival of our A Anglian forefathers in Britain, when it became the " town " * or settlement of the Dodings, the family or clan of some ancestral Doda.

The name must have been a common one, or the clan numerous and widely spread; for at least n places of the name remain, scattered throughout England in almost as many counties. Lincolnshire itself has another, known as Dry Doddington, for distinction's sake. Shropshire in the west has two, no less than Lincolnshire in the east. Northamptonshire in Mid-England has one, dignified as Great Doddington * but far more important is the Doddington of Cambridgeshire, which with its 38,000 acres enjoyed the distinction, before its sevenfold division in 1855, of being the richest benefice in England. Northumberland in the far north, Kent in the south-east, Somerset, Gloucester, and Cheshire in the west, have each one place of the name. The more part of these have adopted the spelling Doddington, but some retain the Dodington which is the original form of all, the form Doddington appearing only in quite recent times.

As the country became more settled, and ideas of order and government prevailed, Doddington became united with its neighbouring townships in a Hundred for purposes of common defence and administration of justice. The Hundred of Graffoe, as it was called, doubtless took its name from some notable burial mound (Graff-hoe or Grave How), then well known, but whose name has long survived all memory of its site, which served as a common meeting-place for the freemen and warriors of the district. Its original extent we may perhaps trace even now, as represented by the Deanery of Graffoe. Later, after the irruption of the Danes had taken place, when newer settlements bearing the characteristic Danish terminations of by and thorpe had intruded themselves amongst the Anglian tons and hams, and Danish names and customs were introduced, Lincoln being the chief of the five Danish Burghs, Doddington became part of the larger Wapentake of Boothby Graffoe,! to which it still belongs. * The term town is still locally used in its original sense for any collection of houses, however few, a real town being distinguished as a markel-tou n : thus we speak of "going to the town" and of the "town-end" and "town street " of Doddington, though there are scarcely a dozen scattered houses in it. t Apparently Boothby and Graffoe, signifying the combination of two districts, as the uncouth name Longoboby is similarly formed by a junction of two names, Langoe and Boothby ("Langhou et Boby," Tax.

Eccles., 1291). The townships comprised in the Deanery of Graffoe are Aubourn, Bassingham, Boultham, Carlton-le-Moorland, Doddington, Eagle, Haddington, Hykeham, Norton Disney, North Scarle, Skellingthorpe, Stapleford, Swinderby, Thorpe on-the-Hill, Thurlby, and Whisby ; to these, Skinnand was transferred from Longoboby in the last century. Besides these, the Wapentake of Boothby- Graffoe includes Boothby, Bracebridge, Coleby, Harmston, Navenby, Wad dington, Welbourn, and Wellingore. In the Testa de Nevill Boothby, comprising the last-mentioned places, is given as a separate district, Graffoe appearing under the strange form of Hrapelu. The earliest documentary record that we have of Doddington is in Domesday Book, compiled about a.d. 1085. Here, under the heading of " Land of St. Peter's Abbey, Westminster," we find set down the manor of Doddington (Dodinctune), together with a Berewick or dependent manor in Thorpe-on-the-Hill.

This was the only possession of the Abbey in Lincolnshire, and had been given by its former possessor Ailric or Elric, son of Mariete (spelt also Meriete and Marsete), to the newly built Abbey of King Edward the Confessor. But besides this estate Ailric had owned other lands of considerable extent in the adjoining parishes which, in the language of Domesday Book, were " Inland and Soke of Doddington," that is, either held in the lord's own hands, or let out to tenants on payment of rent or other services. Of this there was as much as 8\ carucates, or (taking the carucate at 120 acres) 1,020 acres in Haddington ; 4 carucates, or 480 acres, in South Hykeham; 12 carucates, or 1,440 acres, in Skellingthorpe; 6 carucates, or 720 acres, in Whisby. All these lands, 3,660 acres in all, then of the annual value of 140s. were at the Survey in the possession of Baldwin of Flanders, one of the foreign adventurers who since the Conquest had become landowners in England.

He claimed to hold it in chief of the King. The Abbot of Westminster, however, claimed it " for the service of St. Peter," as having been the property of Ailric, and given by him to the Abbey with the Manor of Doddington to which it belonged. As the custom was, the matter in dispute was referred to the decision of the men of the Wapentake, as most likely to be acquainted with the facts. Their verdict was that they themselves had heard that Ailric had given the land in question to St. Peter, though they knew not whether he gave the whole or the half of it ; but that the whole of the land belonged to the capital Manor of Doddington, and therefore was rightly claimed by the Abbot for the service of St. Peter. So the jury of the whole county abundantly testify, it is said.* It does not appear, however, that the Abbot ever obtained possession of these lands, which subsequently were in the hands of the Wakes, and were held by them in chief of the King.

Only Doddington and Thorpe are enumerated among the possessions of the Abbey ; and they continued to be held of the Abbot and Convent as long as there was an Abbot and Convent of Westminster, on payment of a fee farm rent. The Abbot indeed had taken steps to secure from the Conqueror a confirmation of the Convent's possession of Dodding- * "Hæc terra omnis pertinet ad Dodintune Man. S. Petri. Westmon. Hanc tenet Balduinus de Rege. Abbas vero clamat ad opus S. Petri testimonio hominum totius comitatus." "Totum hoc clamat Abbas de Westmon. quia capitale Manerium datum est S° Petro. Omnis comitatus fert SQ Petro testimonium. " Domesday Survey. ton, as it is shown by the following charter printed by Dugdale, whereby King William grants to God, and to St. Peter of Westminster, and to the Abbot Vitalis, the Manor of Doddington with its soke in Thorpe, which Ailric, the son of Mariete, had given to the Church of Westminster : — " Manerium de Dudinton cum soca de Thorp.

Willelmus Rex Angl. R(emigio) episcopo, H. vice comiti, et aliis baronibus de Lincolnescire salutem. Sciatis quod ego concessi Deo et sancto Petro Westm. et abbati Vitali manerium Dudinton quod Ailricus Marieti sune dedit eidem ecclesiæ, et unam soccam quæ dicitur Thorp pertinentem ad ipsum manerium, sicut ipse Ailricus earn habebat. T. G. episcopo Const. Walcelino episcopo Winton. Willelmo de Warenna. R. fil. G comitis apud Wich." Vitalis became Abbot of Westminster in 1076, and died in 1085,* which fixes the date of this charter at least as early as that of the Domesday Survey. If he, or any of his monks, ever visited their distant Lincolnshire property, the name of the adjoining parish of Thorney would remind them of the original state and name of the site which the Confessor had selected for their own great Church and Abbey.

From the description in Domesday Book, however, we may gather some details of the condition of Doddington at this time. There was already there a priest and a church ; and it was doubtless from its connection with the great Abbey of St. Peter at Westminster that our church gained its own dedication to St. Peter, which it has retained for 800 years. Ailric before the Conquest had had 6 carucates of land, some 720 acres, under cultivation there, and liable to the Dane-gelt, levied at the rate of 2s. on each carucate ; but now, 20 years later, the arable land was only 4 carucates, or 480 acres. On this the Abbot and Convent had but one plough team, 14 villeins or serfs, and 6 bordars or cottagers who had 4 plough-teams between them. Besides the arable land there was a tract of meadow, half a mile long and half a mile broad, equal to 160 acres ; and a wood affording pasturage, one and a half mile in length, and half a mile in breadth, equal to 480 acres more.

In King Edward the Confessor's time the annual value of the manor with all its appurtenances had been but now what St. Peter's Abbey had was only worth £4. The woodland is probably represented at the present day by the several detached * Vitalis was buried in the South Cloister of Westminster, with the following epitaph : — "A vita nomen qui traxit, morte vocante, Abbas Vitalis transiit, hicque jacet. " Which we may translate as follows : — " Our Abbot Vital death hath mortal shown, Vital no more, he lies beneath this stone." oak woods situated on the clay soil to the north of the village, the woods being constantly spoken of in all descriptions of the lordship. The arable land, however, meadow and woodland together, mentioned in Domesday, only make up a total of 1,360 acres, whereas the actual extent of the lordship is 2,515 acres; we must suppose that the remainder was then open, uncultivated moorland, as indeed a great part continued to be until far in the last century.

In the adjoining township of Whisby, 550 acres of moorland were only enclosed in 1842, and Black Game are recorded to have been seen there up to that year. As for the property of Ailric, and afterwards of Westminster Abbey, in the parish of Thorpe-on-the-Hill, we are not concerned with it farther than to remark that it continued attached to the Doddington property at least to the middle of the sixteenth century. At the time of the Domesday Survey it consisted of 6 carucates and 2 bovates of land, i.e., 750 acres, liable to Danegeld; 6 carucates of this were arable, and 30 sokemen, or tenants of the manor, had there 7. plough-teams. There was meadow land 2 furlongs in length and as much in breadth. It was doubtless the distance of Doddington from Westminster, and the difficulty of occupying it with profit to themselves, that prevented its connection with the Abbot and Convent from becoming closer, and caused them to be content with receiving from it a fixed Fee Farm rent, which from at least the time of King John onwards amounted to a year.

Even the church retained the status of a Rectory under the patronage of its lay lords, instead of sinking into a Vicarage served by a stipendiary of the Abbey, while the great tithes went to swell the Convent revenues. The family which for many generations, until their extinction in 1450, occupied the position of lords of the manor and virtual owners of Doddington, holding it from the Abbot, who held it in free alms, was a family of knightly rank, whose name, after passing through all the varieties of mediæval spelling— as Picot, Pycot, Piket, Pikot, Pykot, Pygot— settled down into Piggot or Pigot, a name which, in virtue of their long tenure, became affixed as a distinctive mark to the place itself. It was a name apparently of foreign origin, brought into England at the Conquest. The Roll of Battle Abbey (Leland) couples together in its alliterative rhythm the names of Deyville et Darcy, Pygot et Percy ; and one bearing the name, Othemyles Picot, with his wife Hugoline, is said to have come over in the retinue of the Conqueror, and to have been rewarded with a grant of 29 manors in Cambridgeshire.

One would fain claim for the Lincolnshire Pigots a more honour able descent from Picot, the son of Colswegen, son of Cole, whose father, Colswegen or Colsweyn, was the great citizen of Lincoln in the reign of the Conqueror, to whose care for his tenants displaced by the clearances above hill for the Norman castle and minster, we owe the twin towers of St. Mary-le-Wigford and St. Peter-at-Gowts. Picot himself fully maintained his father's great position at Lincoln, Henry I.'s Lincoln charters being addressed, " Osberto vice-comite, et Picoto filio Colsueni,et omnibus baronibus suis et fidelibus et Francis et Anglis de Lincolscire." He was present with his family at Spalding in May, mi, when he granted the tithes of Lutton and Sutton to the monks of Spalding Priory. But in fact the name was a personal one, which only gradually was adopted as that of a family.

Of its earlier personal use we have many such examples as those of Picot de Toni, John son of Picot, and the Picot and Eustace who had to pay the Sheriff of Lincolnshire a fine of two marks for a duel in 1160. Lower, in his Patronymica Britannica (p. 267), " can find no less objection able derivation for this widely diffused and very ancient name, to which our heraldic dictionaries assign no less than 30 different coats, than that of Camden, viz. the old French, Picote, the small pox ; Picote, pock-marked or freckled." It had already become a surname when we have our first documentary evidence of the connection of the Pigots with Doddington. We cannot tell how or when their tenure of it commenced, but it was at least before 11 94. For on the Sunday before the Feast of All Saints in that year, 6 Rich.

I., John Pigot came before the King's Court, and sued the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, claiming to hold the Church of Doddington of them for an annual payment. " Johannes Piket venit et advocavit Abbatem et Conventum de Westmonasterio de Ecclesia de Dodington, quod ipse debet earn tenere de Abbate et Conventu per annualem pensionem " (Rot. Curice Regis, i. 19), says the brief official record, not giving the grounds on which he based his plea. That he established his claim is evident from the fact that his descendants continued to exercise the right of patronage. Other possessions came to the family, or passed from it, through heiresses, but the Manor and Advowson of Doddington continued in the male line of the Pigots until their extinction in the middle of the fifteenth century. The ancient Survey, known as the Testa de Nevill, thus describes their tenure shortly after this date : " Abbas de Westm : tenet Dodington et Torp' in libera elemosina ante conquestum, et Will3 Picot tenet illam terram de eodem Abbate pro xii libris per ann : " i.e., The Abbot of Westminster holds Doddington and Thorpe in free alms (frank-al moigne) from before the Conquest, and William Picot holds that land of the Abbot for -^12 a year.

With 1 216 we come to the last troublous year of King John's reign, which was so closely connected with Lincolnshire. VVilliam Picot, the then owner of Doddington, was evidently siding with the barons, for on 15th January of that year, 17-18 John, an offer was made to the King, then at Berwick, by Walter de Killingholme to supply another knight for the King's service, if he might have William Picot's land in Lincolnshire and Herts. : " Walterus de Killinghulm serviet domino Regi altero milite pro habenda terra quæ suit Will' Picot in Line, et Hertford" (Rot. de Oblatis et Finibus temp. R. Joh.). On 28th February, 1216, the King, who had been at Lincoln from February 23rd to 27th, was at Stamford, and William Picot had succeeded in making his peace, agreeing to pay a fine of 60 marks, by two equal payments at Mid-lent and Whitsuntide, and to give a palfrey to regain the King's goodwill, besides surrendering his son Alexander as a hostage for his fidelity.

Here is the record of the agreement : " Line' Willelmus Picot finem fecit cum domino Rege per sexaginta marcas et unum palefrenium pro habenda gratia et benevolentia domini Regis, unde reddet ad mediam Quadragesimam anno domini Regis xviii0 unam mediætatem, et aliam mediætatem ad Pentecostem proximo sequentem anno dom1 Regis xviii0. Et mandatum est vice-comiti quod cum idem Willelmus liberaverit ei in obsidem Alexandrum filium suum pro fideli servicio suo, et cartam ei tradiderit de fideliter dom° Regi serviendo, et securitatem vice-comes ceperit de prædicto fine ad terminos prædictos dom° Regi reddendo, ei plenariam saisinam habere faciat de tota terra sua cum pertinentibus in balliva sua. Mandatum est eidem vice-comiti quod ex quo recepit ab eodem Willelmo denarios illos mittat eos vice-comiti Notinghamensi, scil.

Phil. Marc',* et quod acceptis securitatibus predictis tradat eidem Willelmo literas dom1 Regis pro eodem Willelmo vice-comiti Noting, et Hertford', quas penes eum habet. Teste Rege apud Stamford' xxviii0 die Feb." (Rot. de Oblatis et Finibus, temp. R. Joh.) William Picot does not seem to have fulfilled these conditions, but to have openly taken part with the barons, for on the 18th September a peremptory mandate was issued by the King to the Sheriff of Lincolnshire, directing him without delay to put William Briwer in possession of William Picot's land in Doddington and Thorp, as he was said to be with the King's enemies : — " Rex Vice-comiti Lincoln' &c. Præcepimas tibi quod sine dilatione habere facias dilecto et fideli nostro Willelmo Briwer terram quæ suit Willelmi Picot in Dodinton et in Thorpe, quia cum inimicis nostris est ut dicitur, et nisi idem W. Picot finem et conventionem quam nobis fecit tenuerit quam ei concessimus, quæ * Philip Marc was one of those who the barons in Magna Charta expressly stipulated should be removed from his office. est de feodo Baldwini Wac, cujus terræ et hereditatis custodiam eidem W. commisimus."

Teste me ipso apud Clar(endon) xviii0 die Sept." (Rot. Litter. Claus., 18 K. John.) On September 22nd King John was again at Lincoln, remaining there until October 2nd; on October 19th he died at Newark Castle, and with him disappears also Wm. Picot, slain perhaps in the capture of Lincoln by the King, or in the defeat of the Dauphin Louis and the insurgent barons, known as the Lincoln Fair, on the 1 9th May following. At all events it is with his son and heir, Hugh Pikot, that the young King Henry III. has to deal on coming to the throne. A mandate was directed by him in 121 7 to the Sheriff of Lincolnshire, ordering him to take possession of Hugh Pikot's land at Doddington with all goods and chattels upon it, because Hugh had not yet given security for his allegiance, and had deceived the court in obtaining the former letters which gave him, as against Wm. Briwer, seisin of the land as his father had held it at the beginning of the war.

This is the text of the mandate : — " Rex Vice-comiti Lincoln' salutem : Scias quod Hugo Pikot nondum fecit nobis securitatem de fideli servitio suo per cartam suam, Et ideo tibi precepimus quod sine dilatione terram suam de Dodinton cum pertinentibus et catallis in ea inventis in manum nostram capias, et salvo-custodias donee aliud tibi mandaverimus, quia dilectus et fidelis noster W. Briwer inde dissaisitus suit occasione precepti quod tibi fecimus de tali saisina eidem Hugoni facienda, qualem pater suus inde habuit in initio guerræ, cujus hæres ipse est, quia bene intelligimus quod idem Hugo decepit curiam nostram in impetratione literarum illarum " (Rot. Litter. Claus., 2 Hen. III.) Notwithstanding this mandate, Hugh Picot evidently made his peace with the King and retained his estate, for in a Final Concord entered into 22nd February, 1218, between himself and his father's widow, the latter styled Agnes de Nevill, either by her maiden name or as already married again, remised to him her right of dowry in her late husband Wm. Picot's lands in Doddington, Clifton, and Thorpe, in return for which Hugh acknowledged certain lands and rents of his father's in Wheathamstead to be her reasonable dower.

(Feet of Fines, 2 Hen. III.) From the episcopate of Bishop Hugh de Wells in 1209, the Bishop's Registers at Lincoln are preserved, and in these we find him as Sir Hugh Pycot, Knt., presenting to the Rectory of Doddington in 1222, and again in 1229. The presentee on the former occasion was Adam de St. Alban ; on the latter, Alexander Pikot, very probably his brother or half-brother, the stipulated hostage of 1216. As late as 1239 he presented to the Rectory of Thorpe, which from his possession of it is distinguished as ■ 9 Thorpe Pycot in Bishop Grostete's Register. Sir Hugh had a son, Baldwin, of whom we hear no more, and a daughter, Margery, who married Peter de Champagne (Petrus de Campania) ; he held lands and tenements in North Clifton of the gift of Hugh Pigot, his father-in-law, and as lord of the manor of Saxilby confirmed various gifts made to the Premonstratensian Nunnery at Brodholme.

He, and his son by Margery Pigot, another Peter de Champagne, who died without male heirs, 24 Edw. I., 1295, were also themselves benefactors of the Nunnery. (Inquis. p. mortem, 24 Edw. I. ) Apparently another daughter and coheiress of this Sir Hugh was Isabel, of whom Thoroton (Notts. i. 379-380, 385, iii. 99, 108) speaks as daughter and heiress of Sir Hugh Pigot, of Dodington, Knt. ; she married, as his second wife, Sir Robert Sutton, Knt., (d. 1286) son of Roland Sutton of Averham, and by him was ancestress of the Suttons of Averham, Lords Lexington. She brought into the Sutton family a Manor in Kirklington, Notts., called Pigot's Manor or Pigot Hall, and certain rents and other appurtenances of the same Manor in Hardeby (Harby), and North Clifton. These continued in the Sutton family until 1443, 22 Hen.

VI., when by means of a fine and recovery Richard Sutton, Esq., and Katharine his wife, transferred the ownership to Sir Thomas Chaworth, Knt., granting him together with the rents, the homage and services of the then Sir John Pigot, Knt., and his heirs for the tenements which he held of them in Harby. Previously to this, in 1402, "at the Assizes held at Nottingham, 4 Hen. IV. Robert Sutton recovered his seizin of the Manor of Herdeby, and Elizabeth who had been the wife of John Pigot was amerced." Once again, later in Henry III.'s reign, the possession of Doddington by the Pigot family was in jeopardy, for in an other wise undated list of rebels' lands given to the King's faithful subjects, " Terræ rebellium datæ Fidelibus, temp. Reg. Henr. III.," we find John Pikot's Manor of Dodinton granted to Richard de Brelins.

(Rot. Selecti, 204.) In 1272, on the death of Henry III., Edward I. came to the throne, and at once on his return from the Holy Land set himself to redress the disorders of his father's unsettled reign. In 1274 he issued a Commission of enquiry into the rights and revenues of the Crown, and the claims of other lords and landowners in each county. We have the result in the Hundred Rolls, so called, in which jury-men of each Hundred or Wapentake give their replies to the various questions submitted to them. This is the reply of the jurymen of the Wapentake of Graffoe as regards Doddington and John Pigot its owner. " Wapentak' de Grafhow in Ketstevene in Com' Lincoln'. "Dicunt quod Johannes Picot tenet unum feodum militare in villa Dodinton et Thorp per medium de Abbate de Westmonasterio, per quod servicium et quo waranto nesciunt, et idem Abbas tenet illud de Rege in capite per servicium militare, quo waranto nesciunt.

" Item dicunt quod Johannes Picot de Dodincton clamat habere furcas apud Dodincton, et eas habuit per tempus centum annorum, quo waranto nesciunt. " Dicunt quod Johannes Picot clamat habere liberam chaciam et warennam in bosco suo de Dodincton, et habuit per duos annos et dimidium elapsos, ad dampnum patente per annum xiid. quo waranto nesciunt." (Rotuli Hundredorum, 3 Edw. I.) In other words the jurymen report that John Pigot held one knight's fee in Doddington and Thorpe in mesne of the Abbot of Westminster, who himself held it by knight service in chief of the King. He claimed also to have his own gallows at Doddington, he and his ancestors having had one for 100 years past; it was one of three such claims to capital jurisdiction in the neighbourhood, William D'lsney having his gallows at Norton Disney, and the Abbot of Thornton a third at Carlton le-Moorland ; though neither of these could boast of so long an exercise of the right as the owner of Doddington.

John Pigot claimed moreover the right of chase and free warren in his woodland at Doddington, which he had exercised for 2 \ years. What became of his gallows we do not know ; it is not likely that so strong a King as Edward I. would allow such a claim, but he received a confirmation of the much coveted right of free warren in 1281. (Rot. Chartarum, 9 Edw. I.) Sir John Pigot, together with Sir Ralph de Trehampton and Sir Simon de Dryby, was one of the chief collectors for the county in 1274 of the twentieth penny, or tax of 5 per cent., granted.to King Edward I. ; and the jurymen of several Wapentakes, as well as of the towns of Torksey and Louth, declare that they have paid over the amount due from them to the three collectors at Lincoln, though they cautiously add that they cannot say whether these have paid it over to the King.

(Rot. Hundred.) In 1273 Sir John Pygot presented Hugh Pygot, Subdeacon, to the Rectory of Doddington, which he held for the long period of 40 years; and at the same time he presented Henry de Islep, also a Subdeacon, to the Rectory of Thorpe-on-the-Hill, the patronage of which he exercised as his predecessor, Sir Hugh Pygot, had done. Both these vacancies were caused by the death of Stephen de Hastinges, who had held the two benefices conjointly. Sir John Pigot also presented to Thorpe in 1276, and again in 1278, the reason for this latter appointment being given, that Peter de Mottington, the presentee of 1276, had not been ordained priest within a year of his institution. In 1281, on the death of the last incumbent, John de Horlaston, Sir John presented Roger Picot, Subdeacon, who held the Rectory of Thorpe until 131 7, when he exchanged with John de Dalderby for Skellingthorpe.