Hougham, Lincolnshire
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HOUGHAM Hougham is situated 8 miles NNW of Grantham and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. Lord Brundenell enclosed the manor in the 1590’s. Enclosure reduced the number of ploughs and crop output for example at Laceby near Cleethorpes the number of ploughs was reduced from 27 to 3 and corn output consequently fell by 1800 quarters. In the 1630’s large numbers of French and Belgian refugees settled in Lincolnshire which caused local wage rates to fall. In 1631 Gervase Markham said Lincolnshire cattle were esteemed above all other for labour and draught. He also noted that the sheep were extremely coarse. Sheep rearing was so profitable that larger amounts of land were enclosed and arable land turned into pasture with ensuing depopulation. At Horncastle 471 acres were enclosed which caused the eviction of 41 people. Prices rose more rapidly than wages so real incomes declined. Rents doubled during this period forcing those tenants who could not pay off their land and land prices went up. Even during the worse years of the Civil War there were enclosure riots in the county. Women often took a prominent part in consequence of a popular belief that women were lawless and not subject to the laws of the realm as men are. Like the villagers of Carlby the people of Hougham had to take the Protestation Oath which they did on the 20th February 1642. Below is a list of the villagers who signed the Protestation: William Avery John Habdy Christopher Peerse John Barrows Richard Habdy Robert Peerse Anthony Benskin Richard Hambrook William Peerse William Benskin John Hawkins Henry Pepper Mathew Boyman Valentine Harvey John Pepper John Burden John Homwood Thomas Pepper Thomas Burges Robert Homewood William Pilcher Thomas Coker Thomas Hogbean William Ralyer John Dery John Hogben Finnis Shrewsbury Thomas Dixon Henry Hudson John Syins John Fagg John Joyner Henry Tayler Thomas Fagg Thomas Kite John Tayler William Fagg George Knot Thomas Tayler Thomas Fines Micheal Lissenden John Vallier Thomas Finery John Mersh Edward Watson Robert Friskett Peter Mersh William White John Geeford Thomas Morris Anthony Wraite Edward Habdy Mathew Oyn Daniel Wraith The Oath was witnessed by the Vicar Henry Harrington and by the Churchwardens Valentine Harvey and Thomas Pepper. The subsistence wage was between £11-14 per annum. Agricultural workers earned 8-10d per day. Women earned 4d per day. Skilled workers like Masons and Carpenters earned 1 shilling per day. Wages in the district of Holland were higher than in Kesteven. Tea and Coffee were introduced into England after the Civil War. A chicken cost 2 shillings. A firkin of butter cost 15 shillings. Beer was 1d per quart. Oranges cost 1 shilling each. Sugar cost 9d per lb. A loaf of bread cost 1d. A side of beef cost 20 shillings. A sheep cost 7/6d. Tobacco was a great morale booster for the troops during the war even though the excise duty was 6/10d in the pound. Soldiers mixed the tobacco with rhubarb leaves which they scented. One man was caught smoking in the streets of Stamford and fined 1 shilling. The local population married late - men at 26 and women at 23. The diet of a labourer consisted of bread cheese lard soup beer and garden greens though at special times like Christmas the farmer would provide his worker with boiled beef bacon puddings apple pie hot cakes and ale. Husbandmen preferred barley and rye brown bread to white bread. There were rises in the acreage grown of oats and barley and stock rearing developed. Lincolnshire in common with other counties had a problem with vagrants. Unemployment decreased during the Civil War but after 1646 poverty in Lincolnshire rose to 35%. Colonel Edward King at the Quarter Sessions in 1646 said that unemployment had to a great extent been alleviated by the war but now truly I may say in that little time I have lived in the county I have seen sturdy beggars and rogues marching twenty-four at a time more like a foot company than beggars. MAP OF HOUGHAM 1614 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE MANOR HOUSE The house is an ancient building which in the 17th century courts were held for the Loveden Wapentake. The walls are 4 foot thick. To the North was a strong gatehouse. The only entrance to the house was a bridge over a moat. The house was refaced in 1620 but the outside of the building was rebuilt in Georgian times. The dwelling was the hunting lodge of the Brudenell family. Oyster shells and millstones have been found in the grounds. The present main facade is to the North windows in the East gable end. There are also remains of a much earlier date notably a completely mysterious huge respond in the room at the South East corner. It is a triple respond doubtless 13th Century and probably earlier. The floor has been raised. Originally it was about 7 foot high and about 5 foot 6 ins in diameter of cathedral size. Above the capital it is corbelled out three times and in the wall there is another corbel. In the wall opposite is a small oblong window and the room is of small size. Further East from this South East corner runs a wall and in this wall are traces of three large perpendicular windows of the former private chapel. The site is that of the de Bussey mansion for which an oratory was licensed in 1405. There is in existence a 15th century manuscript called the Bussey Psalter containing 168 leaves of vellum which was the service book for the private chapel and contained the orbits of the family between 1400-69. The outline of the moat can be seen today though it has largely been filled in. A massive Norman corbel was dredged up from the moat and is now in the Lincoln Museum. Thomas Brundenell a Catholic and a supporter of the King suffered badly in the war. His house at Deene was damaged and in 1652 he applied to Cromwell for compensation for the damage done to the Manor House his other property it being almost totally ruined by being made a garrison. The walls to the house were slighted so that it could never be used again as a fortified residence. Robert Meres DD(Ca) the Rector of Hougham lent 3 horses to the Royalist Northern Army for 3 months from the 20th July 1642. Other gentry lent horses but who were they? The following is a list of subscribers: Sir John Monson 12 Sir Edward Hussey 6 Sir George Heneage 6 Sir William Thorold 6 Sir Charles Bolle 6 John Bolle 5 Sir Francis Fane 4 Sir Peregrine Bertie 4 Sir Gervase Scroop 4 William Dalison 4 Ralph Eure 4 Dr John Farmery 4 Sir Charles Dalison 4 Sir Robert Markham 4 Dr Anthony Topham 4 Sir William Pelham 3 Sir Daniel de Ligne 3 Sir Robert Thorold 3 Adrian May 3 Sir William Cony 3 Dr Hamlett Marshall 3 John South 3 Sir Charles Hussey 2 Sir Gervase Neville 2 Thomas Harrington 2 Chris Beresford (L) 2 Sir John Oldfield 2 Anthony Butler 2 Sir John Burrell 2 Chris Beresford (F) 2 Sir Robert Tredway 2 William Saltmarsh 2 Stephen Anderson 2 Thomas Ogle 2 William Tirwhitt 2 Dr Morgan Winne 2 Dr Thomas Hurst 2 William Welby 2 William Disney 2 Robert Bolle 1 Thomas Rands 1 John Columbell 1 John Stutt 1 N Smith 1 Edward Tournay 1 Edmund Ellis 1 Arthur Redhead 1 George Walker 1 Hustwait Wright 1 William Stone 1 William Langton 1 Anthony Meres 1 Thomas Read 1 George Bradley 1 Sir William Quadring 1 Sir Edward Heron 1 Thomas Monson 1 Dr Robert Sanderson 1 Robert Haslewood 1 Adam Cranwell 1 Stephen Primatt 1 Charles Harrington 1 Henry Pigg 1 Davy Williamson 1 John Chappell 1 Edward Middlemore 1 Francis Welby 1 Henry Fynes 1 Robert Metham 1 Richard Parke 1 Richard Fancourts 1 Montague Cholmley 1 (L) = Chris Beresford of Leadenham. (F) = Chris Beresford of Fulbeck. THE TAKING AND RETAKING OF HOUGHAM MANOR HOUSE Why was Rossiter late getting to Naseby on the 14th June 1645? This book answers the question with a detailed account of the action that delayed him. Before we look at the conflict I would like to print what the newspapers said at the time so that the reader can compare their account with what actually happened. The Moderate Intelligencer Friday 13th June 1645: This day we heard that Colonel Rossiter had recovered some of his souldiers taken by Newarke men and taken more of theirs. The manner thus: They of Newarke understanding of Colonel Rossiter being cald off for to go to Sir Thomas Farfax set upon a strong house that lies between Newarke Grantham and Lincolne and having killed the sentines surprised the house which they having taken they bound all the souldiers in it with cordes and laid them within command of the house intending they perish there which Colonel Rossiter understanding of being not then gone drew out a partee of horse who comming to the house dismounted and adventured to the walls and untied our men: they shot so fast that they wounded some killed one: this being done our men fell upon the house stormed it took all them prisoners and if they had served them a little worse then they ours for example fake it had been good: They in Newarke understanding of this sent out a partee to rescue theirs but ours beat them took about 50 of them prisoners and having settled the house returned: among these divers officers were taken and many gentlemen which we shall do well to hold fast and if we exchange them to do it upon equall termes.