then forming part of the great Tumby Chase. He afterwards
granted the manor to his steward, Robert Despenser, a powerful Norman
noble, the ancestor of the Earls of Gloucester, brother of the Earl
Montgomery, and of Urso de Abetot, hereditary sheriff of Worcestershire.
He held 15 manors in Lincolnshire, and 17 in Leicestershire, beside
others elsewhere.

Being in the Soke of Horncastle, it would be connected with that manor,
as were so many other neighbouring parishes; and doubtless by a similar
process, to the cases of Moorby and Wood Enderby, it belonged
successively to the Brandons, Dukes of Suffolk; the Cecils, Earls of
Exeter; the Howards, Earls of Berkshire; and finally, by purchase, passed
to the Banks family, and through them to the Stanhopes.

Among the Assize Rolls (No. 319, m. 9 d) is a plea, made at Hertford,
10th May, 1247, in which "Joan de Leweline (with another) offered herself
against Silvester, Bishop of Karlisle," in a suit concerning "20 pounds
of rent in Enderby, Moreby, Wilkesby and Cuningby, and the advowson of
the church Moreby," in which the bishop failed to appear. But in a Feet
of Fines, Lincoln, 32 Henry III., No. 131, an agreement was made (21st
July, A.D. 1248) by which the said Joan de Lewelyn (and others) did
homage to the bishop, for these lands in Enderby, "Welkeby," &c., and the
advowson of "Moresby," the bishop in turn granting to them "the homage
and whole service of Ivo, son of Odo de Tymelby"; and they holding the
land, &c., "in chief of the aforesaid bishop; and doing therefor the
fourth part of the service of one knight." {207b}

In another document, a Final Concord, dated 27th May, 1240, between Alan
de Dauderby and Alice de Lysurs, it was agreed that Alice should "acquit
him of the service which Robert de Theleby exacts . . . of half a
knight's fee, for which she is mesne." She further agrees that Alan and
his heirs shall hold certain tenements of Alice and her heirs; to wit, 12
oxgangs and 80 acres of land, two messuages, with a rent of 12s. 8d., and
two parts of a mill in Theleby, Wilkeby, Burton; and a meadow called
Utemyng, for the service a fourth part of a knight's fee; and for this
Alan gave her 10 marks.

The former of these records shews that, like the other parishes connected
with the Manor of Horncastle, the Bishops of Carlisle were at one period
patrons of the benefice (and probably owners of the manor) of Wilkesby;
but, while in the case of several other paris