The Bolle's Landholding in Coningesby
Back to The Question of The Bolles as Lords of Swineshead
William Bolle's ipm
in January 1327 shows that his land
around Swineshead was largely held as a tenant under another local
landholder but significantly he held one small 'plot' in Coningesby, parcel
of the Manor of Scrivelsby, north of Boston, directly from the king which
made him a Tenant-in-Chief. For
that one small plot, he had the technical requirement of holding land
directly from the King that a Baron would have and the technical-Lordship of
that plot. That sounds insignificant but it was a huge honour at the time
and this one carried with it the even bigger honour of 'grand sergeantry', the requirement to
personally serve the king
when called upon. I don't have
any way to exhaustively check this but William is the only one that I can
find that held land in Scrivelby directly from the king other than the Lord
of Scrivelsby and since Scrivelsby was the traditional home of the Champion
of England, held by the Marmion family since 1066, that knightly service may
have been also called on when the Champion of England was needed.
William's responsibility to provide 'grand sergeanty' is stated in
his ipm. There were two ipm's
after Cecily's death in 1332.
The first states that she held the plot in Coningesby by paying 1d per year
to Edward Hillary. The second
ipm was held to correct that and states that she held Coningesby of the king
in chief as a parcel of the manor of Scrivelby and that it was held of the
king in chief specifically by “grand serjeantry, that is finding on the day
of the coronation of the king for the time being, an armed knight on
horseback, to prove by his body if necessary against all comers that the
king who is crowned that day is the true and right heir of the kingdom”.
It seems to me that may mean that William had
some role in
the responsibility that the Lord of Scrivelby, Champion of England, had.
I cannot find any other references to another landholder in this
position. If there are a couple
of others, yet to be found, who held plots in Scrivelby as tenants-in-chief
they would also likely just share that same responsibility.
In 1100 this would have been an obligation that very well may have
resulted in the King’s Champion actually having to fight a challenger sent
by the king’s cousin or someone but by the 1300’s this had become largely an
honourary role, although a very prestigious one.
It would put William Bolle's status up in the ranks of the larger local
landowners but not into that of the Lords of Swineshead, the Grelleys and de
Warres.
In that role, William may have been at the
coronation of Edward II in 1308 when Thomas de Ludlow, Lord of Scivelsby
under his wife Joan Marmion's right, appeared in the ceremony as Edward's
Champion, challenging all comers and William almost lived long enough to be
there when Edward Hillary, Champion of England as Joan Marmion's second
husband, faced all challengers at Edward III's coronation in January 1327
but William had died in July 1326.
After his death the plot at Coningesby continued to be held by his
heirs although as tenants of Scrivelby not as tenants-in-chief and more.
The king took that back when he seized Cecily's lands when she died
and although William's brother John obtained William's land back in 1333
there is no more talk of grand serjeantry.
Randolph Bolle (m. Katherine Pulverton) sold the tenantry of a plot
in Coningesby to his brother William in 1369 and William's grandson William
(m. Anne Kyme, they were the parents of John Bolle of Haugh) is probably the
William Bolle who appears in a tenant list of Coningesby in 1435.
As Coningesby is quite a ways from Bolle Hall and all their other
landholdings were in the immediate area, this is probably the same plot
which William held ‘in grand serjeantry’ in 1326.
In July 1326, in almost one of Edward II's last
orders, the king ordered the escheator of Lincolnshire, to conduct an ipm
for 'William Bolle of Swineshead, deceased, Tenant-in-Chief'.
It actually meant 'William Bolle of Bolle Hall near Wigtoft, a
Tenant-in-Chief of a small plot quite a ways north of there that he probably
hardly ever sees' but I think it would have been pretty easy for the Bolles
of Haugh to spin that order to the Heralds to mean that the Bolles were
"Lord of Swineshead and of three several manors within the same called Bolle
Hall".
Excerpt from The History, Gazetteer, and Directory, of Lincolnshire, and the city & diocese of Lincoln, William White, 1882
