Lincoln Linx

Working with the Wolds Learning Network in Horncastle gives me the opportunity to go to their offices which is situated in Joseph BANKS House. The house has been totally rebuilt it appears from the outside but being staff I am able to root about in the top floor where the original parts of the house are still in view. This is a fascinating house. The name of the house tells of its claim to fame. Sir Joseph BANKS, 1st Baronet, (1743-1820) was an English naturalist, botanist and science patron. He took part in Captain James COOK'S first great voyage and around 80 species bear BANKS' name. He is credited with the introduction to the West of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa, and the genus named after him, Banksia. BANKS' father died in 1761, and when Joseph turned 21 he inherited the estate of Revesby Abbey, becoming the local Squire and Magistrate, and sharing his time between Lincolnshire and London. Pop in under any pretext to have a look at the house. Sympathetically renovated, modern and ancient building gives it a surprisingly welcoming feel to it. The abbey had had few owners in its lifetime. In 1142, William De ROMARA, Earl of Lincoln and lord of the manor at Revesby, founded an Abbey there for the Cistertian monks. In 1538 it was granted to Charles BRANDON, Duke of Suffolk, and it thence passed from his family to the HOWARDs, Dukes of Berkshire, and from them to the BANKS family.

This week the names I shall look at come from my visit to Horncastle and the Linx Housing Trust. The first name I shall look at is ALLENDER. There are very few examples of this in Lincolnshire. In general the name appears in the middle of the country with the highest concentration in 1881 being in Wolverhampton. By 1998 the centre has shifted to Sheffield and it is here that Jack ALLENDERs mother was born around 115 years ago with the maiden name HARRINGTON. Without research going back as far as the changes in spelling it is difficult to say what the origin of ALLENDER is. However a very similar name is that of ALLENDE and the Old Spanish allende meaning someone who lived some distance from the main habitation.

The name BRUCKSHAW is as you will have noticed a variation on BROOKSHAW. Again this is a name that is not originally from Lincolnshire. Mainly from the Crewe in 1881 we find the Lincolnshire variation BIRKENSHAW throughout the county. This comes from BRUKENSHAW and the two words have the Old English origin of bruc being a brook and scaga that became shaw and was a copse and so we get the dweller living by the copse near a brook. One interesting thing about the name is that when I put the surname into the census search engine it returned not one single Ag. Lab. I am sure that this was purely due to the places that the families lived. A few farmers were listed but in the main the occupations were town based and the type of thing that we now associate with a factory. Put in any Lincolnshire name and 90% would be returned as labouring on a farm.

 

Bits and Bobs

1341 Royal Inquest in Lincolnshire – Gilbert de LEDRED, sheriff of Lincolnshire, in 14 Edward III had a royal commission to collect wool and took 20s from Thomas de LEKYNGFELD of Barton upon Humber not to take his wool. Likewise on the same day similarly took 20s from Thomas del BANK. – Lincoln Record Society Vol 78.

There is very little today that is new. Shouts about sleaze are likely to go back to Noah building the ark and whether the timber bought was kosher.