for Stamford, and recorder of that town; Fran. ces, who died unmarried, Catherine, and Cranmer who are both living (1741) and unmarried. Sir Thomas, and his lady, were persons, extremely exemplary in their lives, of great piety and charity, of which the neighbourhood there found the effects. He died at Casewick, Nov. 1729. being succeeded, in dignity and estate, by his eldest

son,

Sir THOMAS, who married Diana daughter and cóheiress of Thomas Middleton, of Staustead in Essex, Esq. by whom he dad six sons 1 Thomas Middleton, who married Isabella, eldest daughter of Sir John Thorold. Bart. who died in the life time of his father, leaving Thomas William successor to his Granfather, and John successor to his brother; 2. Clobery, who died young at school; 3 John; 4 Arthur; 5 William; and 6. Anthony; who married, in1767. the second daughter of Adolphus Meetkirk, of the county of Hertford Esq. by whom he had issue, Susanna.

Sir Thomas died Oct. 7. 1794, aged 93, having lived in marriage with his lady nearly 70 years, and was succeeded by his Grandson,

Sir Thomas Wiliam who died 13 May 1789, and was succeeded by his brother,

John, the present Baronet, who succeeded his brother 13. May 1789, and married 24. March, 1798. Miss Thorold of Lincoln, by whom he has a son and heir, born May 8. 1800.

LANGTOFT.

Langtoft (from Longtoft) is a long straggling village in the wapentake of Ness, in the parts of Kesteven, about a mile nearly north of MarketDeeping, the road from this latter place to Lincoln passing through it.

Domesday Account.

Land of St. Guthlacus of Croyland.--In Langtof (Langtoft) St Gutlacus had and has six carucates of land to be taxed. Land of six ploughs. There is now in the demesne one plough, and eight villans, and four bordars, and twenty sokemen having five ploughs, and one hundred acres of meadow. A wood worth two shulngs. Marsh two miles long and two broad. Arable

Jand fifteen quarentens long and nine broad. Value in King Edward's time four pounds, now sixty shillings. Talaged at ten shillings.

"In the time of Henry III. the abbot of Croyland had from ancient times Langtoft and half the village of Baston " (Testa de Nevill.)

"In the year 806Kenulph confirmed the grants and made good the Almes given by Thorrold Sheriff of Lincoln and Boken hall; of Genulph son of Maltas in Halnister, and of Exegistus a most noble Knight, in Langtoft; and of Algarus, of Baston and Rippingale, and granted to the Abbey of Croyland perpetual possession..

In the year 1098 Baston and Langtoft were burned by fire, by Swayne the King, a Dane. who with a fierce army wasted all before him ;— he burned the Towns, plucked out the country. men's guts, and murdered the religious with extreme torture (Croyland's Chronicle.)

Here was formerly on old hall, at the east end of the town, once the residence of the Hyde's family, but it is now down, and a farm house is built · on the scite. The materials of part of the hall were sold off in rooms, within the memory of

man.

This was the manor house. A long avenue or lawn to King's street road, comes out

against where the old hall stood, and ran to the fen, being two miles long. W. Hyde Esq. lived here in 1682-he was a trustee named in Sir Robert Car's Will, then dated.

William Hyde Esq. of Langtoft married Elizabeth the widow of Thomas Skevington Esq. of Skevington, in the county of Leicester, and graudaughter of Sir, William Dugdale Kat. the Warwickshire Antiquarian. *

Sir W. Dugdale, an eminent English antiquary, was the son of a Warwickshire gentleman of Shustoke, near Coleshill, where he was born in 1605. He was educated at the free school in Coventry, and received instructions in law and history under his father, after whose death he purchased Blythe-hall, in Shustoke, and fixed his residence there. His acquaintance with some gentlemen attached to antiquarian pursuits, engaged him in similar studies, and he began to make collections for a history of his native county. In 1638 he visited London and was introduced to Sir Henry Spelman and other learned antiquaries. Through their recommendation he obtained a pursuivant's place in the herald's office, where he came to reside in 1640.

About this time he began to lay up materals for the "Monasticon," in which he was engaged along with Mr. Roger Dodsworth.

The first volume of the "Monasticon Anglicanum." or Account of all the Religious Houses in England, from their Foundation to their Dissolution, was published in 1655, folio. This, and the second volume, published in 1661 were entirely written by Dodsworth, but Dugdale took great paius in methodising and digesting them. The third volume did not appear till 1673. We are told that the publication of the Monasticon produced the effect of causing many law-suits, in consequence of the old writings it brought to light.

The Church.

Is a neat building, consisting of a nave, north and south ailes, a chancel, and spire steeple, which stands at the west end of the north aile.

In the chancel is a mural tablet to the memory of W. Hyde Esq. who died in 1703, aged 43.

years

Another, to the memory of W. Hyde, sen. Esq. who died Nov. 21. 1694. Also of Mary his wife who died 21. March 1671.

She was daughter of

Sir T. Trollope, of Casewick, in this county.. In the south wall is the figure, in effigy, of a woman Kneeling under an arch, with the following inscription. This monument doth present the memory of Eliz. the wife of Bevil Movies

In 1656 Dngdale published his "Antipuities of Warwickshire illustrated," folio, a work of twenty years' labour, and characterised by Mr. Gough as "standing at the head of all our county histories."

He employed his residence in London, during the printing of this work, in collecting materials for a "History of St. Paul's Cathedral in London," published in 1658, folio.

His next work was "The History of Embanking and Draining of divers Fens and Marshes both in foreign Parts and in this Kingdom, and of the Improvement. thereby," 1662 folio.

In 1677 he was advanced to the highest heraldic post that of Garter principal king of arms; to which was joined the honour of kuighthood.

He died at his house of Bly the hall in his 81. year in February, 1686.