Scrivelsby is a village and
ecclesiastical parish in the
East Lindsey district of the County of
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
, England. It is situated south of
Horncastle and is on the B1183 road east from the
A153 road
The A153 is a non-primary A road entirely in Lincolnshire in the east of England.
Route description
The A153 starts at the T-junction with the A607 at Honington and heads east to Sleaford, passing a crossroads with the B6403 - the Roman ...
. It is administered by the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...
of
Mareham on the Hill
Mareham on the Hill is a village and civil parish about south-east from the town of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, England.
Mareham on the Hill is listed in the 1086 '' Domesday Book'' as having one household and of woodland.
The parish churc ...
.
Historically the
manor was
held by
grand serjeanty
Under feudalism in France and England during the Middle Ages, tenure by serjeanty () was a form of tenure in return for a specified duty other than standard knight-service.
Etymology
The word comes from the French noun , itself from the Latin , ...
,
a form of
feudal tenure which required the performance of a ceremonial service rather than a money payment – in this case as the
King's Champion.
History
The manor of Scrivelsby is listed in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
of 1086 as "Scrivelesbi" and was
held in-chief from the king. It then comprised 89 households, 16
villagers, 11 smallholders and 30
freemen, with 8.5
ploughlands, a meadow of , woodland of , a mill and a church. In 1086 the manor was held by ''Robert Dispensator'' (Latin)
("Robert the Bursar"). Robert was succeeded by his brother Urse d'Abetot,
feudal baron of
Salwarpe in Worcestershire. Shortly thereafter the manor was in the possession of
Roger Marmion (d.1129), of
Tamworth Castle, then in
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avo ...
, 1st
feudal baron of Tamworth, and
lord
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage ...
of Fountenay in Normandy, it is believed due to his having married the daughter and heiress of Urse d'Abetot. Robert Marmion held the manor of Scrivelsby by grand serjeanty on condition that he should perform the duty of King's Champion.
[ The Marmions had historically been Champions to the Dukes of Normandy and King Henry I wanted to re-establish that relationship for his English crown.
The Marmion family died out in the male line in 1291, on the death of ]Philip Marmion
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
, 5th feudal baron of Tamworth, who left four daughters and co-heiresses.[ His fourth daughter Joan Marmion (d.1341), whose quarter share of her paternal inheritance included the manor of Scrivelsby, married Sir Thomas de Ludlow,][ by whom she had a son John de Ludlow, who died without issue, and a daughter][ or great granddaughter][ There had however been some confusion as to the identity of the King's Champion, as that feudal duty had appeared to descend with the tenure of Tamworth Castle, which was inherited by Mazera Marmion, Joan Marmion's elder sister and co-heiress, who married Ralph de Cromwell, by whom she had a daughter Joan de Cromwell, married to Alexander de Freville (d.1327/8). Alexander de Freville held Tamworth Castle
by the service of "coming to the king's coronation armed ''cap-a-pie'' (head to foot) with royal arms delivered by the king seated upon the king's chief charger offering himself to make proof for the king against all opposing his coronation". Due to the uncertainty then surrounding the identity of the King's Champion, the ceremony was dispensed with for the coronation of King Edward III in 1328. However, it was soon resolved that the rightful Champion was the holder of Scrivelsby, and not the de Freville family of Tamworth. The Dymoke family survives today, still possessed of the manor of Scrivelsby and living at Scrivelsby Court, the (nominal) lord of the manor in 2022 being Francis John Fane Marmion Dymoke (born 1955), 34th lord of the manor of Scrivelsby and 8th of Tetford.
The duty of the King's Champion was to ride fully armed into the ]coronation
A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of o ...
banquet at Westminster Hall
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...
and challenge anyone who doubted the new monarch's right to the throne.[ Although feudal tenure was abolished in England by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, which thus abolished tenures by grand serjeanty, the traditional custom of the lord of the manor of Scrivelsby acting as King's Champion continued until the coronation of King ]George IV
George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...
in 1821, after which it was discontinued.[
]
Landmarks
The manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals ...
, Scrivelsby Court, was burnt out in 1761,listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...
. The Lion Gateway was built around 1530 and was rebuilt in 1833.Humphry Repton
Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...
before 1791. Repton also added two octagonal lodges to the side of the Lion Gate.Pevsner, Nikolaus
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (19 ...
; Harris, John; ''The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire'' pp. 354-356; Penguin, (1964); revised by Nicholas Antram (1989), Yale University Press. Perpendicular
In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It c ...
and Early English style. A stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
east window by Thomas Willement was part of the 1860 rebuild. Within the church is a 1776 chalice by John Swift with an 1805 paten
A paten or diskos is a small plate, used during the Mass. It is generally used during the liturgy itself, while the reserved sacrament are stored in the tabernacle in a ciborium.
Western usage
In many Western liturgical denominations, the ...
by Samuel and George Whitworth. There are monuments to the Dymoke family and one, c.1300 of a Knight and Lady, probably to the earlier Marmian family.[Cox, J. Charles (1916) ''Lincolnshire'' pp. 262-264; Methuen & Co. Ltd.]Royal Garrison Artillery
The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (R ...
soldier of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
.
Today
Today Scriveslby is a country estate with deer park, still under the Dymoke family, and an event site for country fairs. In May 2012 it was announced that the estate would be part of Horncastle's events for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee
A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th anniver ...
, with a beacon lit as part of a sequence of National beacons."Horncastle's official Diamond Jubilee beacon takes shape in Scrivelsby Park"
This is Lincolnshire, 14 May 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2012
See also
* Dymoke
* Queen's Champion
References
External links
"Horncastle Worthies: Dymokes - Royal Champions"
Horncastle Civic Society. Retrieved 22 May 2012
"Scrivelsby"
''Genuki GENUKI is a genealogy web portal, run as a charitable trust. It "provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland". It gives access to a large collection of information, with the emph ...
.org.uk''. Retrieved 22 May 2012
{{authority control
Villages in Lincolnshire
Civil parishes in Lincolnshire
East Lindsey District
Country houses in Lincolnshire