The Lincoln estate in Hanslope

Early Leases

Robert Bone, the incumbent rector in 1546 when the City of Lincoln purchased the rectory, seems to have died or left office in 1555, opening the way for the City of Lincoln to create the perpetual vicarage, thus freeing the assets and entitlements of the previous rectory for the City to exploit. (for further information click on the rectors and vicars of Hanslope).

For the next 200 years the policy of the City seems to have been to lease the whole of its estate in Hanslope and Castlethorpe to one lessee for periods varying from 10 to 99 years.

The first lease, dated 23 March 1555 was for 20 years to John Williams of London, gentleman and one of the secretaries to the Lord Chancellor. The lease seems to have been terminated early. Click on the image of this lease to the right to view an enlarged copy, and to access a summary of the content.

Lease1555 to John Williams; click to enlarge

The second lease dated 16 June 1557 was for 38 years to Sir Robert Lane of Horton, Northants. At his point no information is available on how he used the Hanslope estate, but it must be presumed he sub-let it. Click on the image of this lease to the right to view an enlarged copy, and to access a summary of the content.

The inclusion of the word "manor" in the property leased in these documents implies the existence of a manorial court, and this is confirmed by the terms "courts leets view of frankpledge" elsewhere in the leases.

Both these early leases refer to the "rectory parsonage and manor of Hanslope". The order of the words is unusual. It would be more normal to speak of the manor rectory and parsonage. The significance of not putting the manor first is not understood at this point in the researches.

The third lease was for 99 years from 1594 to Sir Robert Monson. The original of this lease has not been found, but evidence for it is a later note (opposite) written on the cover of the 1599 Terrier (next topic). Sir Robert Monson was from Lincolnshire.

Images of documents displayed by kind permission of the City of Lincoln Council.

Content