THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIREa. THE publication of this magnificent volume must be considered an event in the archæological world. Few towns in England, or in any other country, can boast of so complete a record of its history and antiquities, and everything else relating to it. The fact also that it owes its existence in part to the interest taken in the subject by the inhabitants of Boston, in Massachusetts, adds considerably to its importance. The Americans, having no medieval antiquities in their own country, seem to feel only the more keen and lively interest in those of the mother-country, more especially those with which their own ancestors are in any way connected. It is an instinctive feeling of human nature to love to have an ancestry to look back upon, as well as a future destiny to look forward to. The author of this elaborate work is fortunate in being able to gratify his friends and connections at the same time that he satisfies his own taste and ambition. The work is every way creditable to him, and few have been enabled to shew so good a result of the labour of a long life;-a labour of love it must have been, for no mercenary spirit could have collected such a mass of materials, nor have received the assistance of so many friends : "The author began to collect materials for the History of Boston' in 1804, and his intention to prepare such a work for publication was announced in 1807. He was fully aware that he was entering upon untrodden ground; but he also felt that it was a field which ought to be traversed and explored-that it was a rich soil, and, if properly and diligently cultivated, would yield a valuable and exuberant harvest. He industriously continued his labour of collecting and arranging until 1819, when, by his removal to the United States, this work was interrupted, and there did not appear any probability that he would be, at any future period, able to resume it. The materials which he had collected were therefore arranged for the press, and published in 1920, under the title of Collections for a Topographical and Historical Account of Boston, and the Hundred of Skirbeck, in the County of Lincoln.' When the author finally returned to England in 1846, he found that the Collections' had been favourably received by the public, and that copies of the work were scarce and difficult to be procured. He was solicited to prepare a new, enlarged, and corrected edition; he was not unwilling to undertake the work, although quite aware of the labour which it would involve. Indeed, he never lost sight of his original intention, but had, during a residence of more than a quarter of a century in the United States, carefully collected all the information which he there met with relative to his native district; but he knew that much remained to be done before he could complete such a History of Boston' as he was ambitious to produce. The author continued his labours until 1851, and from that time he has almost incessantly applied himself to the accomplishment of his object."— (p. vi.) Such a list of friends and coadjutors as here follows, it has rarely been our lot to read; and the author records their names with evident satisfaction. Some of them are from the other side of the Atlantic: "To these and other gentlemen, who liberally and kindly forwarded to the author many valuable books, which have been of the greatest service to him in compiling the too brief account of the PILGRIM FATHERS, and other early emigrants from Boston and its neighbourhood, he feels under the greatest obligations. The kind : ness which he has experienced in this respect, as well as in others which he can only allude to, and not express, is an additional corroboration, were any necessary, of the unity of feeling and purpose which exists between the respective people of Old and New England. ESTO PERPETUA!”— (p. x.) "The History and Antiquities of Boston, Lincolnshire. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with One Hundred Engravings." (Boston: John Noble, jun. Royal Svo., and large paper, folio. 812 pp.) The former edition of the work, published in 1820, was duly noticed in our pages at the time; but it is so much enlarged and improved in every way, that it may fairly be considered as a new work and it is evidently so considered on the spot, by those most conversant with the subject, since we learn that the Town-Council of Boston have had a large-paper copy handsomely bound in morocco for presentatation to the town library of Boston, Massachusetts, with a suitable inscription outside, and a letter signed by every member of the council, to accompany it. The first division relates to the early history, chiefly in the time of the Romans, with an account of their roads, their works of drainage, and such other particulars as can be gleaned from existing remains, or other sources; but these are very scanty, and differ little from the history of the same period and people in other places. The second division relates to the time of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes. For this period also there is no specific history. The third division relates to the middle ages, beginning with the Norman Conquest; and here the separate history of Boston really begins. It is well known that the inhabitants of the Fen country resisted the Normans successfully for several years : "But the Isle of Ely was not the only portion of the Fens which resisted the army of the Conqueror. The more immediate neighbourhood of Boston furnished some brave men, who successfully opposed the invaders; we find it recorded that, "The country of Holland being, at the Conquest, very strong by abundance of water: the Hollands, the Welles, and the Lords of Kyme, being confederate together (as by old men, from man to man, I have been credibly reported), kept out the Conqueror by force, till at length he had it by composition and agreement, that they should keep their lands still; and so the grant to the Hollande's at that time from the Conqueror passed in this sorte, 'Notiscat omnibus Anglis, Francis, et Alienigenis, nos Willum: Regem redidisse Radulpho Milite de Holand totum dominium suum de Esteveninge, tam libere, honorifice, quiete et in pace, sicut aliqui alio de Baronibus nostris de nobis tenent, teste, &c.' "These estates of the Hollands, the Wells, and the Kymes, were probably held by what was then known as allodial tenure, which signified an hereditary and perpetual estate, free, and in the power of the possessor to dispose of by gift or sale, but subject to the common and constant tax of hidage. The king was, on the death of an allodial tenant, entitled to relief. "The families of Holland and Kyme were for a long time closely connected with this neighbourhood."-(p 34.) "We do not find anything upon record relating to Boston until 1171 (17 Henry II.), when the town was the property of Conan, Earl of Richmond. He died in this year, when it fell into the hands of the Crown, under the title of the Honor of Conan.' The king retained it a considerable time, since Ralph de Glanville, in the 21st and 29th of that reign, accounted under that title at the Exchequer for the farm of the town. The town, at least so much as lay on the east side of the river, continued to be held by the Crown until the 25th Henry III. (1241), and the profits thereof were, from time to time, answered for at the Exchequer, either by the king's receiver or farmer, or by the men of the town."-(p. 36.) "The manufacture of woollen cloth appears to have been carried on at Boston to a considerable extent during the twelfth century, for Hoveden says: 'Hugh Bardolf, and certain others of the king's justiciaries, came to St. Botulph's, A.D. 1201, to seize certain cloths which were not according to the statute-"two ells wide between the lists;" but instead of taking them in the king's name, the merchants persuaded the justiciaries to leave them for a sum of money, to the damage of many.' The dealers in cloth in those days appear to have been sharp traders; for in the year 1198 a statute was issued ordering that dyed cloths should be of equal quality throughout, and that the merchants who sold such goods should not hang up red or black cloths at their windows, nor darken them by penthouses, to prevent any from having a good light in buying their cloths.' Two peculiar kinds of cloth are mentioned about this time-russets and halberjects or hauberjets. The first was an inferior kind of cloth often spun by rustics, and dyed by them with bark of a dull red lish hue; the latter was a coarse and thick mixed cloth of various colours, sometimes used for the hab ts of monks."-(p. 37.) "The extent and importance of the commerce of Boston at this period are manifested by the fact, that in the year 1205, the sixth of the reign of King John, when William de Wrotham and others accounted for the quinzeme of merchants, which was a tax levied of one-fifteenth part of the goods of merchants, for the use of the state, at the several ports of England, the amount paid by the merchants of Boston was 7807; those of London paying 8361.; of Lynn 6517.; and of Southampton 7127. London paid the largest sum of any port towards the tax, and Boston the second in amount."-(p. 37.) "In 1220, according to Stow, Ranulph Earl of Chester, Lincoln, and Richmond, and Lord of Little Brittayne, came into England from the Holy Land, and built a castle at Boston.' This was, very probably, merely a manorial residence in the town of Boston,-in fact, the original Hall-Toft manor-house. There was as many as 1,115 castles-as they were called-in England, in the reign of Henry II. It was directed that there should be one in every manor, such castle to bear the name of the manor in which it was erected; these castles were therefore merely the manor-houses of the respective manorial lords. Each of these manor-houses contained a prison. The constables, or keepers, of these prisons often treated their prisoners so cruelly, and made them compound for their liberty by such heavy fines, that at length, in the fifth of Henry IV. (1403), it was enacted that Justices of the Peace should imprison in the common gaols."-(p. 39.) Our limits compel us to pass over much interesting matter relating to the drainage of the Fens, the various floods, and the causeways; and this brings us to the time of Edward I. :— "The town of Boston appears at this time to have been surrounded by a wall, for, in 1285 (13 Edward I.), a grant was made by the king to the bailiffs and burgesses, and other good men of the town of Boston, of a toll in aid of repairing the said walls, at the instance of John de Brittany, Earl of Richmond. This toll was granted for one year, and was as follows:--"For every weight (256 pounds) of cheese, fat, tallow, and butter for sale, one farthing; for every weight of lead for sale, one farthing; for every hundredweight of wax for sale, one halfpenny; for every hundredweight of almonds and rice, one halfpenny; for every hundredweight of pepper, ginger, white cinnamon, incense, quicksilver, vermilion, and verdigrease for sale, one farthing; for every hundredweight of cummin seed, alum, sugar, liquorice, aniseed, picony roots, or pimentum, one farthing; for every hundredweight of sulphur, potter's earth, bone of cuttle-fish, rosin and copperas, one farthing; for every great frail of raisins and figs for sale, one farthing; for every hundredweight of cloves, nutmegs, mace, cubebs seed, saffron, and silk for sale, one penny; for every 1,000 yards of the best grey cloth for sale, one penny; for every 1,000 of Russet cloth, one farthing; for every hundred of rabbits for sale, one farthing; for every timber (40 skins) of fox-skins for sale, one farthing; for every dozen of leather for sale, one halfpenny; for every dozen of whetstones for sale, one farthing; for every ton of honey for sale, one penny; for every tun of wine for sale, one halfpenny; for every sack of wool, one halfpenny; for every sieve of salt, one farthing; for every ton of ashes and pitch, one farthing; for every hundred of deal boards, one halfpenny; for every barrel of steel wire, one farthing; for every hundred of canvas, one farthing; for every great truss of cloth, one penny; for every 1,000 stock-fish, one penny; and for all sorts of merchandise not enumerated, one farthing for every 20s.-worth. The year having been completed, the custom to wholly cease and be abolished.' "No traces of this wall are now visible, but some evidences of its former existence are, perhaps, discernible in the present names of some of the streets-Bargate, Wormgate, &c."- (pp. 43, 44.) "A similar flood had occurred in the year 1236, on the morrow after Martinmas;' another in the year 1254; and a third in 1257. A more ruinous affliction, however, than these occurred in 1287, of which Stow says, 'A Justis was proclaimed at Boston, in the faire time in 1287, whereof one part came in the habyte of monks, the other in sute of chanons, who had covenanted after the Justis, to spoile the faire; for the atchieving of their purpose, they fired the towne in three places; it is said the streams of gold, silver, and other metal, molten, ranne into the sea. The Caiptaine of this confederacye was Robert Chamberlain, Esquire, who was hanged, but woulde never confesse hys fellows.' Leland says this took place in 1288: "Better times (says Camden) succeed. ing, raised Botolph's town once more out of its ashes, and the staple of wool, &c. being settled here, brought in great wealth, and invited the merchants of the Hanseatic league, who established here their guild, or house.""-(p. 44.) "Additional evidence of the great traffic which was carried on at the annual mart or fair held at Boston, and of the great distance from which people resorted to it to purchase their annual supplies of both necessaries and luxuries, is afforded by a knowledge that the Canons of Br dlington regularly attended this fair, from 1290 to 1325, to purchase wine, groceries, cloth, &c., for their convent."-(p. 45.) "The trade between Boston and the Continent appears to have been very considerable at this time; for in the year 1336 a patent grant of protection was issued for a great number of German merchants, and fourteen ships, coming to the fair of St. Botolph."-(p. 53.) "In 1369, Boston was made a staple town for wool, leather, &c., and would necessarily derive most material advantage from this measure. It had, before this time, been only the outport for Lincoln; the staple for this district having been fixed there in 1353. The counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby petitioned in the year 1376, that the staple might be removed back from Boston to Lincoln, but they failed in accomplishing their desire."-(p. 55.) The fourth division contains some valuable information on the obscure subject of the Guilds, both for trading purposes and for religious and charitable ends. We hope to be able to return to this subject on a future occasion, and may be able to apply these notices : "Queen Mary, in the first year of her reign (1554), endowed the corporation with the lands, &c. now called the Erection Lands, including the possession of the three then lately-dissolved guilds of St. Mary, St. Peter, and St. Paul-and the Holy Trinity; in order that they might be the better able to support the bridge and port of Boston; both of which appear, from the words of her grant, to have been at that time in a deplorable state, and causing great charges in their daily reparation. The fifth division is devoted to the "It has often been a subject of inquiry, both by the intelligent resident in the district, and the stranger travelling through it,-How was the money raised to build the magnificent churches in this neighbourhood, so very disproportioned in their size to the population residing there at the time of their erection ? A respectable authority, after stating the mode of raising the funds to build the cathedral of St. Magnus at Kirkwall, in the Orkneys, in 1138, says, "If it was a practice in those ages for the feudal lord to impart to his vassals full hereditary rights to their lands in consideration of a payment which he laid out in pious uses, such as the building of churches, it is evident that the quality of the land, and value of the right ceded to the vassal, would have more to do, than the number of the inhabitants, in determining the size and number of their parish churches; and it is precisely in the rich alluvial lands gained from the rivers and fens, in which the feudal lord had a title to the new land found contiguous to his vassal's land, that the most of such parish churches as were This grant was also made to the corporation for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a free grammar-school in the town; and for the finding of two presbyters for the celebration of divine worship in the parish church, and for the maintenance of four beadsmen, to pray there for ever, for the good and prosperous state of the queen whilst living, and for her and her ancestors' souls after her decease."" (p. 66.) history of St. Botolph's Church :evidently not erected with any reference to the population of the parish, are found. The land being gained gradually from the fen or marsh, could never have been cultivated so as to have employed a large resident population. The erection of so many churches in such a tract has, therefore, been probably connected with the grants of the land as it was gained from time to time from the water.' "This is an ingenious and not improbable mode of solving the difficulty in part. But we think one other circumstance, at least, had a share in it. "The foundation of the present steeple of Boston Church is said to have been laid in 1309, although the tower was not carried up until a considerable time afterwards. The nave and aisles, and part of the chancel,- either wholly or in part, rebuilt at the same time.' "This was during the period when Boston was one of the ten shipping ports of the kingdom, and the principal one as to the extent of its shipments. At that time it had an immense trade in wool, leather, hides, &c.; and many merchants from Calais, Cologne, Ostend, Bruges, and other continental towns, resided there. The merchants of the Hanseatic League had their guild or house there It is traditionally said that the foundations of Boston steeple were laid upon woolsacks, and this is, probably, figuratively correct; for it may be doubted whether those foundations would have been laid, had it not been for the woolsacks which then contributed so largely to the wealth of the town. Among the merchants who about that time resided in Boston and Skirbeck, were the families of Tilney, Spayne, Sibsey, Pescod, Derby, Emery, Robinson, Whiting, and Dutchfeldt. Merchants and other persons connected with the trading guilds had their residences in all the villages in the hundred of Skirbeck; and, no doubt, by the libera lity of these persons the erection of the other churches, as well as that of Boston, was materially assisted."(pp. 160, 161.) "The first stone of the steeple was laid in 1309, and Stukeley gives the following particulars of the ceremony: "Anno 1309, in the 3d. yeare of King Edward ye. 2d. the foundation of Boston steeple, on the next Munday after Palm Sunday in that yeare, was begun to be digged by many miners, and so continued till Midsummer following; at which time they were deeper than the haven by 5 foot, and they found a bed of stone upon a spring of sand, and that laid upon a bed of clay, the thickness of which could not be known. Then upon the Munday next after the feast of St. John Baptist was laid the first stone by Dame Margery Tilney, and thereon laid shee five pound sterling: Sr. John Truesdale, then parson of Boston, gave also 5.; and Richard Stephenson, a merchant in Boston, 51. more. These were all ye. great guifts at that time.'"(p. 162.) "In 1428, the King, on the petition of the Bishop of Lincoln, granted a license to the abbot and convent of St. Mary at York, to establish a college in the church of St. Botolph at Boston, under the title of the College of the Blessed Mary and St. Botolph, at the town of St. Botolph; the same to be under the patronage of the Bishop of Lincoln, and to consist of one deacon, one precentor, and a certain number of prebends and canons, according to his discretion; the said college to be endowed by the abbey of St. Mary, with lands and tenements of the annual value of 401. In 1478, the abbot and convent of St. Mary at York granted the advowson of the church of Boston to the king and his heirs for ever." (p. 162.) "There is in the British Museum a curious document entitled, "The inventory of all the goodes, juelles, plate, and ornaments perteynyng to ye parishe churche of Boston, in the countie of Lyncoln.' It bears date 17th August, 6 Edward VI. (1552), an was taken by the churchwardens, by the command of the mayor, under the orders of the king."—(p. 163.) "In the sale of the vestments and ornaments are enumerated "An egle for a lectern,' sold for 40s. 'Two pelles to lay before the altar, 13s. 4d. Sixe altire clothes of sylke, sundrie colours, 40s. One vestmente for deacon and subdeacon of blake worsted, with copes of the same, 20s. A sute of red bawdekyn, 13s. 4d. A sute of blewe silke and a blewe bawdekyn cope with unycorns, 23s. 4d. Another sute with half mones, 8s. A sute of satten of Bruges, and two copes with garters, 16s. One sute of barred sylke with pellycanes, 10s. Two copes of red velvett embrodered with egles, 30s. Three redde sylke vestmentes, with moun and sterres, 6s. 8d.' "A number of other vestments, altarcloths, hangings for lecterns, 'copes of white bustion,' &c., are enumerated."(p. 163) "The present plan of this very beautiful building consists of a nave, with north and south aisles, a spacious chancel, the great west tower, a south porch, and a chapel at the south-west angle of the south aisle."(p. 175.) "The south aisle contains five bays, the porch, and the chapel. The windows are of four lights each, varying alternately in the design of the tracery. There is a buttress between each two windows, the top canopy of which has boldly projecting gorgoyle figures. The buttress next to the porch contains a beautiful niche, with crocketed pediment and canopy; and it may be inquired whether the other buttresses had not formerly the same ornament. The south porch is two stories in height, and has an imposing effect. The lower story is of Decorated work, the upper one of Perpendicular. Both the porch arch, and the doorway within it, are very excellent examples of Decorated detail. In the east wall, and adjoining the aisle, is a staircase which leads to the upper room. The mode of adding the Perpendicular work of the upper story to the lower one is curious, especially in the south face, where the low arch with hanging tracery |