Horncastle was that of the
Angevines. Among the Carlisle documents is one {27j} shewing that a
trial was held at Horncastle (A.D. 1489-90), in which Sir Robert Dymoke,
Knt., and William Angevin, Esq., recovered possession of 400 acres of
land, with tofts and appurtenances, in Horncastle and its soke, from John
Hodgisson and his wife, John Cracroft, Gervase Clifton (of Clifton) and
others. This family probably acquired their name thus: William the
Conqueror brought to England from Normandy a body of troops called the
"Angevine auxiliaries" (from the province of Anjou), and their
descendants were granted lands in various parts of the kingdom. One
family especially seems to have adopted this name, which was variously
spelt as Angevine, Aungelyne, Aungeby, &c.; they settled in various parts
of this county at an early period, and Horncastle being a royal manor
they naturally were located in this neighbourhood. We find traces of
them at Whaplode in the south, Saltfleetby in the north, and
Theddlethorpe midway, in the 12th and 14th centuries. {28a} Among
Lincoln records is the will of Robert Angevin, Gent., {28b} of Langton by
Horncastle, dated 25 April, 1545, in which he requests to be buried in
the Church of St. Margaret (then a much larger edifice than the present);
he leaves to his son land in Hameringham, and to his widow, for life, and
his four daughters, lands in Burnsall, Hebden, Conyseat and Norton, in
the County of York. His brother, John Angevin, resided at West Ashby,
then a hamlet of Horncastle. William Angevin, Gent., of Theddlethorpe
{28c} is named in the official list of Lincolnshire freeholders made in
1561, and the name also appears in the Visitation of 1562, but all traces
of the family disappear before the time of the commonwealth.

The same Carlisle document {28d} mentions Thomas Fitz-William as
concerned in the said dispute, as being a Horncastle proprietor; while,
further, another Carlisle document of the time of Henry VIII., shows that
Thomas Fitz-William, Esq., was seized of one capital messuage, 6 other
messuages, 4 tofts and 100 acres of land in Horncastle, held of the Prior
of Carlisle, and John Fitz-William was his heir. {28e} The Fitz-Williams
again were a very ancient and distinguished family, the name is found in
the Battle Abbey Roll of William the Conqueror. The family claim descent
from Sir William Fitz-Goderic, cousin of King Edward the Confessor. His
son, Sir William Fitz-William,