ove specified as the rent to be paid by Lord Clinton and Saye to the
bishop, Robert Aldrich. Of this, he asserts, "the see of Carlisle is
seized and the earl is not in legal possession by his lease now 'in
esse.'" {21c} He wages his suit "the more boldly, because of the
extraordinary charges he has been at, from the lamentable scarcity in the
country, the great multitude of poor people, and other charges before he
came had made him a poor man, and yet he must go on with it . . . the
number of them which want food to keep their lives in their bodies is so
pitiful. If the Lord Warden and he did not charge themselves a great
number would die of hunger, and some have done so," dated Rose Castle, 26
May, 1578.

His lordship, however, did one good turn to the town of Horncastle in
founding the Grammar School, in the 13th year of the reign of Elizabeth,
A.D. 1571, although (as we shall show in our chapter on the school) this
was really not strictly a foundation but a re-establishment; as a grammar
school is known to have existed in the town more than two centuries
earlier.

We have one more record of Lord Clinton's connection with the town, from
which it would appear that the Priory of Bullington, near Wragby, and
Kirkstead Abbey also had property in Horncastle. A Carlisle document
{21d} shows that in the reign of Edward VI. Lord Clinton and Saye
received a grant of "lands, tenements and hereditaments in Horncastle,
late in the tenure of Alexander Rose and his assigns, and formerly of the
dissolved monastery of Bollington; also two tenements, one house, two
'lez bark houses' (Horncastle tanners would seem even then to have
flourished), one house called 'le kylne howse,' one 'le garthing,' 14
terrages of land in the fields of Thornton, with appurtenances lying in
Horncastle, &c., and once belonging to the monastery of Kyrkestead."

As in other places the Clinton family seem to have been succeeded by the
Thymelbys, of these we have several records. An Escheator's Inquisition
of the reign of Henry VIII., {22a} taken by Roger Hilton, at Horncastle,
Oct. 5, 1512, shewed that "Richard Thymylby, Esquire, was seized of the
manor of Parish-fee, in Horncastre, held of the Bishop of Carlisle, as of
his soke of Horncastre, by fealty, and a rent of 7 pounds by the year."
He was also "seized of one messuage, with appurtenances, in Horncastre,
called Fool-thyng, parcel of the said manor of Parish-fee." {22b} The
said Richard died 3 M