r, in
the parish, is not stated, but he ranked with Thomas Cressy (of a very
old family), of Kirkby-on-Bain; the Dymokes of Scrivelsby, Haltham, and
Kime; Heneage of Hainton, &c. {172a}

There is a smaller manor in this parish called the Hall-garth, the
residence attached to which is a picturesque old thatched mansion, with
an old-time garden, enclosed within high and thick hedges of yew, trimmed
in Dutch fashion. It has also a large "stew," or fish-pond, from which,
doubtless, in Roman Catholic times, the owners drew their supply of carp
and tench, for the numerous fast-days then observed. Old title deeds
show that this was at one time crown property. {172b} At a later date it
was owned by a family named Boulton, who also held land in Stixwould,
where there is still the slab of a Boulton tomb in the pavement of the
aisle of the church.

A slab, on the south side of Thimbleby Church, bears the inscription:
"Here lyeth the body of Michael, the son of Mr. Michael and Elizabeth
Boulton, buried the 7th of Septemr, 1692, aetatis suae 7. His mother the
28th of May, Anno Dom. 1725, aetat suae 61." The Register has the
following entries, "1725, Mrs. Boulton, ye wife of Mr. Mich. Boulton,
buried May 28th." "1738, Michael Boulton buried May 8th." The last
entry connected with this family is that of "Michael, son of Michael and
Mary Boulton," who was baptized in 1726 and buried in 1767.

These were the ancestors of the late Mr. Henry Boulton, of St. Mary's
Square, Horncastle. Michael Boulton, in 1719, left 40s. a year, from the
Hall estate, at Bransby near Stow, for the education of poor children at
Thimbleby; leaving also a bequest for the poor at Bransby.

At the beginning of the 19th century this manor was held jointly by
Richard Elmhirst, Esq., of Usselby, and Mr. Thomas Kemp, the latter of
whom resided at the Old Hall. {173a} There is a field at the west end of
the village, now the property of H. N. Coates, Esq., traversed by mounds
and ditches, which was formerly divided into three separate plots,
belonging to Elmhirst, Kemp, and Hotchkin. The Kemps were of an old
stock. In the Thimbleby Registers the first mention of them is in 1723,
{173b} but their name implies a much greater antiquity. One theory has
been that they were a Huguenot family, who came over to England at the
time of the French massacre of Protestants, on St. Bartholomew's day,
1572. Those refugees, in their enforced poverty, prosecuted various