THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
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CL—LINCOLNSHIRE. (CorecLusiox.) BOSTON, whose name is now much more generally known in connection with its great offshoot in New England, is a seaport, situated on the river Witham (called by Leland the Lindis), about five miles from its mouth, and 28 south-east of Lincoln. The river divides the town into two nearly equal parts, with a long staeet on each bank, from each of which diverge several others. Its origin is unknown, and its early history very fragmentary. Accordtng to Stukeley, the Romans built a fort at the entrance of the Witham, and had a ferry over the river at Redstone Gotet, about a furlong distance from the south entrance of the present town, and an old Roman foundation was dug up
there, with an urn containing ashes, a small pot with an ear to it, an iron key, and an urn lined with lead, full of red earth and bones. Antiquaries believe the site of the present town to be identical with the Yceauho, or Icaulio, of the Saxon Chronicle, where St. Botolph is said to have built a monastery in 654, which existed till the county was ravaged by the Danes in 870, and that hence the town, which grew up around the monastery, was called Botolph's-town, contracted to Boa-ton.
However this may be, it is certain that during the period immediately following the Norman Conquest the town must have become a very flourishing seaport. A church existed here in 1090, and in the year 1204, in the levy of the Quinzieme,—a duty raised on the fifteenth part of laud and goods at the several ports of England,—Boston paid the second sum in amount-1780, London paying 1836. In the fifth year of this reign (John's), the town was incorporated. Succeeding charters granted it several fresh privileges and immunities. A great annual fair was at an early period held here, which was resorted to in the thirteenth century from Norwich, Bridlington, and Craven. Articles of dress, wine, and groceries formed part of its commerce. In 1281 part of the town was destroyed by fire, and in 1286 part of it, together with the surrounding country, suffered much from an inundation. Still during the Plantagenet period its shipping was so considerable that it furnished 17 ships and 360 men towards an armament for the invasion of Brittany, and numbered the twelfth in point of vessels among the 82 ports which were assessed. Under an Act of 27th of Edward III., it became a staple for wool, woolfells, leather, and lead ; and about the same time its property was increased by several Hanseatic merchants settling and establishing a guild here ; but a shock was given to it again by their emigration about a century later, in consequence of a violent quarrel with the townsmen, attended with bloodshed. From this time the commerce of the port began to fall off rapidly. According to Leland, in his time (1530), the "staple" and "stilliard" houses still remained, though the port had much declined, and a building remained down to modern times, in the bight of the river, called the Stellyard, or Steelyard, the old custom-house of the port. The Dissolution of the religious houses gave another blow to the prosperity of the town, which had benefited largely by several within or near it. A house of Dominicans or Black Friars was established at Boston in the early part of the thirteenth century ; in 1288 their church was burnt down in a riot, but was afterwards reconstructed. The Carmelitea had a priory here, founded in 1301; the Augustine Friars had one, founded in 1307; and the Franciscans or Grey Friars had one, founded in 1332. Their sites were granted to the Corporation of Boston at the Dissolution, as were the possessions of several Guilds. The Guild of St. Botolph was a fraternity of merchants, with only mercantile objects. The Guild of the Blessed Mary was partly religious. Its hall is now used by the Corporation for public purposes. The Guild of St. Peter and St. Paul was a religious establishment, and had a chapel or an altar in the parish church. St. George's Guild was a trading community. The most remarkable existing building in the town is the parish church of St. Botolph, erected in 1309. It is the largest church without aisles in the kingdom, being 382 feet by 98 feet within the walls. "Its tower, called Boston Stump,' is 263 feet high, and built on the same plan as that of Antwerp. It is capped with an octagonal transparent lantern of very beautiful construction, which forms a very important landmark on this low coast, being visible at 40 miles' distance." Another church, that of St. John's, was taken down centuries ago, but its churchyard is still used for interments.
Henry VIII., in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, granted the town a new charter of incorporation, under the designation of "the Mayor and Burgesses of Boston," with two weekly markets and two annual fairs, with power during the latter to hold courts of Pie Poudre. In 1547 Boston first sent two representatives to the House of Commons. "Philip and Mary, in the first year of their reign, endowed the Corporation with a rich grant of lands and messuages, which, rendered more valuable by subsequent inclosure Acts, has given the Corporation 511 acres of land." An endowment of lands for a grammar-school was made in January, 1555, but the school was not erected till the ninth of Elizabeth. That Queen empowered-the Corporation to hold a Courtof Admiralty for the port and creeks of Boston, giving them power to levy certain duties on ships entering the "Norman Deep," and in the reign of James I. still further privileges were granted. In 1571, Boston suffered much from a violent tempest, and during the latter part of the sixteenth century and in 1625 it was visited by the plague. It was for some time the head-quarters of the Parliament in this county during the civil wars of Charles I., and near to it, at
Donnington, Colonel Cavendish, the Cavalier, gained a victory over the Parliamentarians.
The prosperity of Boston rapidly declined during the eighteenth century, owing chiefly to neglect in keeping the navigation of the Witham clear, and at last the trade became almost extinct. "In 1721, vessels of 250 tons could discharge at the town ; in 1751, sloops of 6 feet draught could not come up except at springs." After this time extensive drainages of the neighbouring lauds, by which 66,000 acres were reclaimed, awakened attention to the state of the navigation of the river, and under special Acts of Parliament it has been so much improved that "vessels of 120 tons come up to the town, whence the navigation is continued up to Lincoln by small steamers and barges. A sluice was also erected, to detain the water above the town. The navigation to Lincoln is extended," as we have seen, "by the Fossdyke Canal, to the Trent at Torksey, and thence either by still water, or river navigation, to Gainsborough, Nottingham, and Derby." "The foreign trade is chiefly confined to the importation from the Baltic of timber, hemp, tar, pitch, and iron. The coasting trade is chiefly in the export of corn, wool, and other agricultural products, return cargoes consisting of coal and manufactured goods." "On the 31st of December, 1863, there belonged to the port of Boston 82 sailing vessels of and under 50 tons, and 47 above 50 tons, and two small steamers of 33 tons' burden." "The manufactures are mostly confined to sail-cloth, canvas, and sacking ; there are two iron and brass foundries, and two shipyards, where ve3sels of 200 tons are built ;" there are markets twice a week, and four fairs during the year for sheep, fat and horned cattle, and horses. "Immense numbers of the finest cattle and sheep are sold at these fairs, the town being in the centre of one of the richest grazing districts in the kingdom." "The town is well built, and contains many good dwelling-houses and shops, and extensive granaries and warehouses." The two portions are connected together by an iron bridge, opened in 1837, consisting of a single arch of eighty-six and a half feet span. Boston is a railway station. There are petty sessions there, and several other courts ; and chapels for all the principal denominations of Christians ; and several public and charitable schools, established at various periods from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The population, which in 1801 was 5,926, in 1861 was 14,712.
Gaisisborough, with which market-town we must conclude our notice of the urban history of Lincolnshire, consists chiefly of one long street running along the right bank of the river Trent, which is tidal up to this point, about 21 miles from where it falls into the estuary of the Humber, and 15 miles north-west from Lincoln. Genisburnh (as it is called in the Saxon Chronicle) was the spot where Sweyn or Swend, the Dane, pitched his camp, after sailing up the Trent with a magnificent fleet, in his last invasion of England, in July, 1013. On this all the country on the Danish side of Watling Street submitted to him without resistance, and among the embassies of submission are specified the men of Lindesey, and the men of the Nye Burghs,—the old Scandinavian confederated towns,—who had reluctantly yielded to the supremacy of the House of Wessex. Leaving his son Canute (Coat) in command of the fleet, Sweyn then marched southwards, and in a short time reduced the rest of the kingdom and compelled the Saxon King 'Ethelred to save himself by flying to Normandy. Gainsborough, again, was the scene of the death of Sweyn in the February of the following year, according to the legend related by the English chroniclers. Sweyn, we are told, though he had latterly resumed his faith in Christianity, "had a special hatred for the martyred King St. Edmund, the famous victim of Danish cruelty at an earlier time. He denied him all power of holiness ; he demanded a heavy tribute from his renowned church at Bury ; he threatened, if it were not paid, to burn the town and the townsfolk, to destroy the 'Muster, and to put the clergy to death by torture. He had held an assembly at Gaiusborough of some sort, which," continues Mr. Freeman, "probably passed for a Witenagemote of his new realm. He was on his horse, at the head of his army, seemingly on the point of beginning his march from Gainsborough to Bury. He then saw, visible to his eyes only, the holy King coming against him in full harness, and with a spear in his hand. ' Help !' he cried, fellow-soldiers, Si. Edmund is coining to slay me.".1' he saint then ran him through with his spear, and the tyrant fell from his horse, and died the same night in horrible torments." The truth seems plobably to be that the very sudden death of Sweyn, as he was about to set out against St. Edmund's shrine, was interpreted by the Saxons as a vindictive interposition of the saint hhuself,—and hence the legend which assumed the picturesque shape we have described. The Danish version also is that Swend died at Gainsborough, but they only tell us of his pious end, of
his Christian exhortations, and the instructions in the art of government which he gave to his son Canute. Matthew of Westminster, a later chronicler, tells us that Sweyn was stabbed by an unknown hand, a rationalistic interpretation perhaps of the earlier legend. in the south part of Gainsborough was, in the time of Leland, an old chapel of stone, in which tradition said
many Danes were buried. Under the Plantagenets, the town formed part of the possessions of William de Valence, who obtained for it the privilege of a fair in the time of Edward L The Barons of Burgh, who formerly resided here, claimed to be descendants of this nobleman through the Scotch Earls of Atholl and the Percies of Northumberland. "At the north-west end of the town stands a very singular building known as the Old Hall, which. is said to have been a palace of John of Gaunt, though its appearance shows it to have been of later date. It is composed of oak-timber framing, and forms three sides of a quadrangle, the north side of which was a chapel ; gardens were formerly attached, and a moat surrounded it." About half-a-mile south from the town, on the bank of the river, are the Castle Hills, mounds supposed to have been erected during the civil wars of Charles 1.; but they are too near the town to have been the scene of the fight in which Cromwell, marching to the relief of Gainsborough, in which Lord Willoughby of Parham was besieged, defeated and killed Colonel Caveudish. Cromwell himself defines it as about a mile and a half from the town, and Mr. Carlyle fixes the site as follows: "About two miles south of Gainsborough, on the North Searle road, stands the hamlet or church of Lea ; near which is a 'hill,' or expanse of upland, of no great height, but sandy, covered with furze, and full of rabbit-holes, the ascent of which would be difficult for horsemen in the teeth of an enemy. This is understood to be the 'hill' referred to," in Cromwell's account of the fight. "Good part of it is enclosed and the ground much altered since that time, but one of the fields is still called ' Redcoats' Field,' and another, at seine distance nearer Gaiusborough, Graves Field,' beyond which latter, on the other or western face of the hill, a little over the boundary of Lea parish, with Gaiusborough parish on the left hand (as you go north), between the road and the river, is a morass or meadow, still known by the name of Carendish's flog," where, doubtless, the Colonel was killed, as described in Cromwell's letter.
Gaiusborough can now be reached up the Trent by vessels of from 150 to 200 tons, and it has a considerable coasting trade and some foreign trade. It possesses means of communication with the interior by the Chesterfield and Fossdyke Canals. Vessels of considerable burden have been built here. "The shipping belonging to the port consisted on the 1st of January, 1864, of eleven sailing vessels under and two above fifty tons, besides tea steamers. There is a weekly market and two fairs in the year for cattle and toys. A stone bridge over the Trent of three elliptical arches was built in 1791. The population is declining, having been 7,506 in 1851, and only 6,320 in 1861.
Lincolnshire can boast of several names of greater or less eminence among her sons. Henry IV. was born at Bolingbroke Castle; 1Villiain Cecil, Lord Burghley, was a native of Bourne, as was also the unfortunate Dr. William Dodd, the celebrated preacher who was hanged for a forgery on Lord Chesterfield. Foxe, the niartyrologist, was born at Boston ; Sarah Jennings, afterwards Duchess of Marlborough, was born at Burwell Park ; Sir Carr Scrope, a poet and satirist of the reign of Charles II., belonged to a family established at Cockeriugton ; his father, Adrian Scrope, a Cavalier, was left for dead on the field of Edgehill, but was restored afterwards by the skill of the celebrated Dr. Harvey ; Sir Isaac Newton was born at the manor house of Woolsthorpe, a hamlet of the parish of Colsterworth. Dr. Robert Tighe, Archdeacou of Middlesex, an eminent linguist, and said to have been employed in the authorized revised translation of the Bible, was born at Market-Deeping. Simon Patrick, Bishop of Ely, the well-known commentator on the Bible, (born 1626), was a native of Gainsborough, which town also gave its name to William de Gainsborough, a learned Franciscan of Oxford, and Bishop of Worcester, who was an Ambassador of Edward I., and a great advocate of the infallibility of the Pope. Thomas Sutton, who purchased the Charter House in London, and formed it into a "Hospital and School," was born in 1532 at Knaith, a small village in Well wapeutake, near Torksey. Langton is claimed as the birthplace of the celebrated Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbuly in John's reign ; but this is very doubtful ; it more certainly produced Dr. William Langton, President of Magdalene College, Oxford, in the reign of James I.; and Bennett Langton, Dr. Johnson's friend. Sir William Monson, a celebrated sea captain and admiral of Queen Elizabeth's reign, knighted by the Earl of Essex at the siege of Cadiz, and who wrote an account of the Spanish wars from 1585 to 1602, was of South Carlton, a small village in Lawress wapentake; Sir John Monson, Knight of the Bath and Baronet, in the reign of Charles I., and one of the same family, was a lawyer, and the author of some moral and philosophical works. Dr. Willis, the eminent physician of the reign of George III., was a native of Lincoln ; Anne Askewe, the Protestant martyr of the reign of Henry VIII., the daughter of Sir W. Askewe, was born at Kelsey, in this county ; and Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester (the minister of Henry VII.), was born at Grantham.
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