ghbouring parishes 24 carucates, or in all
2,880 acres of land. We have traced elsewhere {166e} the descent of the
Willoughby family from the Gaunts, and about 100 years later (circa 1213,
Survey, as before) William de Willoughby succeeded to these estates,
including the demesne of Thimbleby. He was ancestor of the present Earl
of Ancaster, and Lord Willoughby de Eresby, who now represents this
division in Parliament. How long the estates, in whole or in part,
remained with the Willoughbys is not clear; but we have evidence of their
connection with Thimbleby nearly 100 years later, in a document dated
1302, {167a} concerning a dispute as to lands in Thimbleby, Langton,
Woodhall, and several other parishes, between John de Bec and Robert
Wylgherby, the two families being related; in which the said Robert
surrenders to the said John all property in dispute, for his lifetime, on
condition that, after his decease, the whole shall revert to the said
John Willoughby, and his heirs, for ever. {167b}

From this time we find other names connected with the parish. Indeed
prior to this, in a charter of Bardney Abbey, dated "at the Chapter of
the Convent, on Sunday next after the Ascension of our Lord" (22nd May)
1281; we have among the witnesses, along with others belonging to
Edlington, Wispington, and Baumber, "Master Bartholomew of Thimbleby,"
and John Crayck of the same, the former being probably the Rector. {167c}
This charter refers to certain lands and tenements, the gift to the abbey
of "Walter, son of Gilbert, de Bolingbrog," _i.e._ Walter, the son of
Gilbert de Gaunt, already named. In another Bardney charter, dated four
years later (30th Sept., 1285), we find again the same Thimbleby
witnesses, with Alured of Woodhall, and others. {167d}

Three years later than this, in an official inquiry, held at Lincoln, as
to certain knights' fees, which belonged to Elyas de Rabayn and his wife
Matilda (12th Nov., 1288), the jurors declare that "Robert de Rothwell
holds in Thymelby and Horncastre," certain "rents of assize, to be paid
at the Feast of St. Michael, the Nativity of the Lord, Easter, and St.
Botulph" (June 17), amounting to 12s.

A more interesting record is the following. We may premise that the
Norman noble, St. Quintin (so named from a town of France, in the
department of Aisne, the Augusta Veromanduorum of the Romans), came over
among the followers of William the Conqueror, and his name appears in the
famous