Goulding on Louth Houses

Introduction

This page describes and partly reproduces a paper, Notes on some Louth Houses and their Former Occupants, produced in 1903 by Richard Goulding. Where repeated, his original text is shown in red . Goulding’s notes are shown as GN1, GN2…

Goulding’s paper may have been an amalgamation of three drafts, one identifying the former “great houses” of Louth, one on genealogy, particularly concerning the Bradley family, members of which were active in Louth in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and a third on Louth’s public houses. This page concentrates on the great houses. As this website is mainly concerned with the nineteenth century, I have excluded most of what Goulding wrote about occupants before 1750. In many cases these have been dealt with by Chris Marshall’s 2019 papers Memorials and Heraldry in St James’ Church, Louth and Catalogue of the Ledger Stones in St James’ Church, Louth (both available on the website https://hcommons.org). Louth’s public houses are dealt with on a separate page.

The main difficulty with Goulding’s paper can best be explained by considering the following extract from his text:

No. 38 Westgate

In or about 1540 one Robert Hennege was living here…

This sentence must be understood to mean that Robert Heneage was the occupier of the house that stood on the site of the present building, and throughout the paper similar expressions must be similarly interpreted, as most, if not all, of the houses mentioned have been rebuilt.

There were no Louth maps in 1540 and views on what houses stood where at distant dates must be somewhat speculative. Goulding was relying largely on the Corporation rentals, of which his knowledge was unrivalled. As is explained on another page, these rentals included small manorial rents fixed centuries previously. However, the precise location, size and nature of the “great houses” must be left for future archaeologists to discover.

This page includes many comments based on rating lists. It needs to be said at the outset that differences in values between the lists generally resulted from changes in the bases of valuation rather than physical changes in the buildings concerned. For an example of this see the entry for The Limes below.

Goulding was inconsistent in the extent to which he gave information about nineteenth century owners and occupiers of the houses. I have added to what he wrote by using other sources, particularly the rating lists and two publications by the Lincolnshire Family History Society: Lincolnshire Death Duties, which deals with a large number of wills, and General Loft’s Lincolnshire Notes. However, it is not possible to give a complete list.

Notes on Louth Houses and their Former Occupants

A paper read before the Louth Antiquarian and Naturalists’ Society, March 30, 1903 by Rd W. Goulding, one of the Secretaries of the Society

It is natural that a man should cherish an affection for the place of his nativity and education. In the words of an old poet,

“…nature gives to all Men at their Birth

Something of secret Love unto that Earth

Where they were born…”

But if we try to analyse this love there is always something that eludes us, something mysterious, something difficult to explain. In part it is created by the countless trivialities which memory has consecrated and by the nameless emotions which invest certain spots with a peculiar and a personal charm, making them instinct with life and suggestion. But unlike the incommunicable personal feeling, there is something that is more widely diffused – it is the genius loci. The spirit of the place in some sort takes possession of us. We have heard, and our fathers have declared unto us, some of the stories that were current in their days and in the old time before them, and from a time-worn document here, or from the lips of an ancient townsman there, we have learned other fragments of the history of bygone men and things. We have been told, for instance, that this building was the shop of an agreeable eccentric ; that that house was the dwelling of a benevolent physician ; that in this street [GN1] stood the medieval Guild Hall ; that on yonder hill was the ancient leper hospital [GN2]; that in this obscure yard [GN3] John Wesley preached ; that in yonder field John Keal was hanged [GN4]

GN1 – Westgate.

GN2 – Spital (i.e. Hospital) Hill. This appears from an entry upon a fragment of a Manorial Court Roll, 4 Henry vii. (1488), where the hospital is called domus leprosorum. The accounts of the Warden and Six Assistants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries contain many references to the “Spittill,” and the ringing of the “Spittle” bell. The house was given to the Grammar School by John Bradley, and was rebuilt in 1594.

GN3 – Chapel Yard in Eastgate.

GN4 – John Keal was a wood cutter living at Muckton, and his crime is thus recorded in the Register of that parish: –

1731 Mary ye wife of Jn. Keal & Wm. his son both barbarously murthered by ye said Jno. Keal, buried Sep. ye 10th.

The said Jno. Keal was hanged in chains in Louth broad spot March ye 18th [1731-21.]

The chains in which he was hung were for many years kept in the Old Prison, whence they were transferred to the Mechanics’ Institute, where they now are.

The chains are now in Louth Museum. In the 1950s I heard the farm lane adjoining the place of the gibbet referred to as “Hangman’s Lane”; its present name, Kenwick Pastures, undoubtedly sounds better.

Unless they are occasionally repeated, such things pass into oblivion, but much of the interest that may be aroused by the sight of a house or the hearing of a name depends upon their remembrance. At the best the explicit narrative of one generation becomes the vague tradition of the next, and details are soon lost.

Here is a case in point. We know that for hundreds of years a church existed within the enclosure called S. Mary’s Churchyard. We know, too, that part of it was standing as late as 1753 and yet not a single person now living can with certainty point out the site of the edifice.

At an inn in Sweden this inscription was once to be seen: “You will find at Trolihatte excellent bread, meat and wine provided you bring them with you.” In like manner we may find antiquarian interest attaching to many of the streets [GN5] and houses in Louth, provided that we bring to our contemplation of them a sympathetic knowledge and insight.

GN5 – James Street, for instance, was so named after James Dunn, a builder, to whom, on the 10th April, 1793, the Corporation leased land “in a place or street in Louth called Padehole,” the lessee covenanting to lay out £1,000 in building in “the new intended road from Padehole to the Navigation” (Lease to expire 5th April, 1892).

James Dunn (1760-?) was bankrupt in 1798 and the sale notice of his property in James Street included 27 houses and a number of house plots temporarily let as gardens.

Imagine two men, the one endowed with, the other a stranger to, this quality of instructed sympathy. They stand at the junction of Upgate and Mercer Row. One person sees a post, and that is all. The other person sees the post, but with his mental eye he sees the Old Blue Stone, and he remembers that that huge boulder lay for centuries in the place where the post now stands. He remembers, too, that as long ago as 1540, the adjoining house was called the house at Louth stone, [GN6] and that this house in process of time became the Blue Stone Inn, and the principal posting establishment in the town. He remembers, also, that there is a story to the effect that upon this stone two small boys were accustomed to sit, crying “muffins”. Being lads of comely countenance they attracted the notice of a benevolent passer-by, who helped them to a better education than they would otherwise have received, fitting one for a commercial, and the other for a professional, career. Of the two brothers, the former (Charles Bellwood) became a prosperous baker, and the latter (Richard Bellwood) a lawyer of repute, who was Town Clerk of Louth from 1804 until his death, at the age of fifty, on the 25th May, 1824.

The “post” referred to by Goulding was a type of traffic bollard: see the painting included in Louth Museum’s “Ruth’s Blog” 17.8.2015. Richard Bellwood (1774-1824) and his brother Charles (1777-1855) were born in Gainsborough, where their father, Richard senior, was described as a shopkeeper or grocer. In Louth he was described in the Universal British Directory (1794) as a baker; so it is unsurprising that his sons should have been selling muffins. The story recounted by Goulding implies that the brothers were rescued from poverty by an unnamed benefactor; but apprenticeship records show that a premium of £30 was paid when Richard junior was apprenticed to an attorney in 1790; either Richard senior must have been fairly prosperous or the benefactor must have been very generous.

GN6- The Blue Stone is a Dolerite boulder of blue-black colour. It is about 32 inches in height, and about 145 inches in girth. In 1827, Mr. Fotherby removed this stone from the corner, placing it in its present position in his (now Mr. Burditt’s) yard. (“The Lincoln and Lincolnshire Cabinet,” 1828, p. 219).

Messrs Fotherby and Burditt were printers and stationers at the former 2 Mercer Row, once part of the Blue Stone Inn. The blue stone is now outside Louth Museum.

The two men enter the Parish Church. The one sees the pews, the walls, the inscriptions, those time-hallowed memorials of the dead that for him preserve no memories, The other, with something of Charles Lamb’s spirit upon him, thinks “of the piety that has kneeled there-the congregations, old and young, that have found consolation there-the meek pastor-the docile parishioner.” His eye rests upon the monumental tablets, inscribed with such names as Bradley, Stutt, Bolle, Atkinson, North, White, Jolland, Codd, Clarke, Beaty, Orme, Emeris, Robinson, Pettener, and just as Aeneas looked with joy upon that procession of heroes destined to do honour to the Roman name, so he looks back with pride upon a long procession of notable townsmen whose “history once was in good repute, And so it ought to be still.”

Generally: see Chris Marshall’s papers mentioned above. Goulding’s list of names was far from complete. Some of these people are referred to below.

Six of the houses in Louth are, in the Corporation Rentals, distinguished as “great houses.” [GN7] Three of these were in Westgate, one was in the Market Place. one in Eastgate, and the sixth was the great house at Louth Stone.

GN7 – In the eighteenth century this term was occasionally applied also to a house in Walkergate.

In this paper it is not my object to present complete lists of the names of the owners and tenants of these and other dwellings; my attempt is to give some brief glimpses of a few of the men and women who have been associated with particular houses in Louth, these houses being identified by the out-rents paid to the Warden and Six Assistants, and recorded in their Rental Books. The earliest of these rentals is not dated, but it belongs to the period subsequent to the dissolution of the monasteries and antecedent to the dissolution of the gilds, that is, about 1540.

Since Goulding’s detailed text refers to more than six “great” houses, as well as some smaller ones, it is best to begin with a tabulation. The sequence in which Goulding described houses in Westgate was not entirely logical and the entries have been rearranged so as to deal first with the north side of the street and then the south side; in both cases running from west to east.

No 33 Westgate

Where George Jolland lived for many years …

Goulding did not suggest that this house occupied the site of a former great house. He introduced it as a peg on which to hang an account of George Jolland (1712?-1780) and his family.

George Jolland, attorney at law, was a remarkable man whose combative and somewhat unscrupulous character often involved him in controversy. He was Warden of Louth in 1748-9 and again in 1755-6, and notwithstanding the fact that he was a member of the Corporation, he was elected Town Clerk on 20 December 1762.

Goulding went on to describe how in 1780 other members of the corporation tried unsuccessfully to remove Jolland from his position as town clerk, because he had persistently failed to attend meetings. Jolland’s defence was that he had sent an assistant to take the minutes.

George Jolland seems to have come from the Gainsborough area but was in Louth by 1736, when he married a Louth woman, Justina Wolley. I have not found any record of his apprenticeship as an attorney. In 1764 he had taken his son Wolley (1745-1831) as an articled clerk (apprentice) but Jolland, presumably after finding him inadequate as a lawyer, decided to put him into the Church and conducted a successful campaign to secure his appointment as Vicar of Louth, in which position he proved to be eccentric, devoting much time to the construction of a “hermitage” in his garden.

The present number of the house is 34. On the NHLE list the building and the adjoining No 36 are described as an eighteenth century pair. This pair of houses can be identified on the 1749 rating list, valued at £10 each and one occupied by Jolland. As Jolland’s house was valued at £10 on the 1767 rating list, it is likely that this was the same house.

The three nineteenth century rating lists show the house owned and occupied by Mrs Elizabeth Wigelsworth (1774-1853), the widow of Charles Wigelsworth, the former owner of Westgate House (see below). After Mrs Wigelsworth’s death the house was occupied by her unmarried daughter, Mary. It was auctioned after her death in 1874 and bought for £250 by John Parker (1831-98), later an accountant and parish clerk; his unmarried sister was the occupier at the time when Goulding was writing.

No. 38 Westgate

Goulding’s opening text and note is quoted above. He traced the great house through various owners, mainly in the Bradley family, leading to Edward Ayscoughe (1703-1739), whose estates were divided amongst his four daughters in 1765 by a private act of Parliament.

The Bradley mansion fell to the share of Martha Ayscoghe, then the wife of Bentley Bennett, of Keddington. Another daughter, Elizabeth, was the wife of Nicholas Wrigglesworth, of Louth, surgeon; and a third, Frances, was the wife of William Floyer, of Reesby.

At this stage of Goulding’s account it is pertinent to consider whether the house still existed in 1765. If it did, one would expect to find it in the 1767 rating list with a substantial value and owned by someone called Bennett, Martha’s married name. There is a probable entry, set out below; but unfortunately it is one that covers both a house and an unknown quantity of land.

Occupier: Edward Bennett; owner: Bennett; description: House, Paradise Cowgate and Bottoms; value: £25.

Edward Bennett was probably the “Edward Bennett of Louth”, recorded in the Keddington parish register as having been buried in 1798 aged 86. In 1799 an advertisement appeared for the sale by auction of various properties in Louth, at least one of which was occupied by the administrators of Edward Bennett and including “a capital and large mansion” and “a plantation of large and lofty elm trees situate in Westgate-street”. The advertisement did not state that Edward Bennett had occupied the mansion or that the mansion was in Westgate, but on the balance of probabilities both seem likely.¹1. Mercury 18.1.1799

Goulding then moved to the nineteenth century.

Among the subsequent occupiers have been: the Misses Gace, Mr. J. B. Lees, Mr, James Wood (solicitor), and Mr. Thomas Falkner Allison (Town Clerk of Louth).

Goulding referred to only one house, but No 38 was one of a pair of semi-detached houses numbered 38 and 40 Westgate at the time when he was writing but now numbered 44 and 46. On the NHLE list they are dated early nineteenth century.

What seems to have happened is that after the 1799 advertisement the house was purchased by some person unknown, demolished and redeveloped to provide a site for the semi-detached houses. As the block of buildings shown on Espin’s 1808 map appears to be the same as that shown on the maps published in 1834 and 1839, the redevelopment must have taken place soon after the sale.

The first records of the two houses appear in the rating lists as follows.

The Misses Gace, Elizabeth (1775-1847), Susanna (1777-1843) and Grace (1780-1860), were the daughters of Grantham Gace (1739-1810) a landowner at Saltfleetby. Their brother, Langley (1776-1829) also lived in Westgate and was from 1827 a member of the Old Corporation. Miss Susanna [“Sarah” was a mistake in the rating list] Heald (1779-1867) was the daughter of a wealthy Horncastle solicitor; by 1828 she had bought a larger house in Eastgate. For “Ansell”, the owner in 1823, see Westgate House below. Mrs Jenny (or Jane) Graburn (1764-1847) was the widow of Marmaduke Nelson Graburn (1764-1821), a landowner at Barton on Humber. Isle Grant Hildyard (1802-64) was a surgeon.

If we follow Goulding’s line of enquiry, No 38 should be identifiable in the Corporation rentals. A report on the rentals produced by the town clerk in 1836 showed the Misses Gace as paying an annual rent of 6s 8d for “several houses in Westgate &c”, which could mean that all of the manorial charges relating to the former “great house” and associated buildings had by agreement been attached to No 38. Alternatively it could mean that a charge relating to No 40 had already been commuted for a lump sum payment.²2. The Old Corporation had a policy (Minutes 11.11.1815) of commuting small annual payments at the rate of 20 years’ purchase. This illustrates the difficulty in identifying existing houses by reference to financial records of houses that no longer existed. (The 1836 list also showed an annual payment of 1s 1d by “Graburn”, but this was in respect not of No 40 but of a piece of garden land on the other side of Westgate, the site of a demolished house.)

Goulding’s list of occupiers after Grace Gace is supported by the census returns: 1861: John Bailey Lees (retired ironmonger); 1871: Caroline Lees (widow of previous); 1881: James Wood (solicitor); 1891: house unoccupied; 1901: Thomas F Allison (solicitor and town clerk).

Goulding continued with eight pages on the history of the Bradley family in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These are omitted here.

No 32 Westgate – Dr Fawssett’s House

This house, The Mansion, is described on the NHLE list as “probably built circa 1600, it was remodelled late in the century.” Accordingly it must be considered the only one of Goulding’s “great houses” to survive today, albeit not in its original form. This makes Goulding’s excursions into early ownership more relevant.

Among the names connected with this house in the rentals are those of “Oulde Mrs Halton” (1610), George Sanderson (1683), and Martin Browne (1702), who appear to have been both owners and occupiers; 1753, Robert Cracroft; 1774, Charles Chaplin; 1786, Richard Codd; 1824, William Loft; 1826, John Loft; 1832, William Grant Allison, the first Mayor of Louth. Two well-known men who were tenants only were Maximilian de Cerjat and Charles Marshall Clarke, M.D.

Of these George Sanderson was thrice Warden of Louth, and from him the house passed to his daughter Anne, wife of Martin Browne, High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1698. The last-named died 28 December 1710 in his 53rd year, and his widow on 13th November 1746. After Mrs Browne’s death the house passed to her daughter Anne, wife of Robert Cracroft.

This list of names gives no clue to who built the house. Martin Browne looks the most likely person to have remodelled it: sheriffs were generally rich. The house may be identified in Louth’s 1749 rating list as the largest house in Westgate (valued at £24, but the basis of valuation is uncertain) and owned and occupied by “Cracroft”. In the 1767 rating list it was valued at £30, owned by “Cracroft’s heirs” and occupied by Maximilian Cerjat (1729-1803), a Swiss, who came to England as a young man, married “an English lady of large fortune” and eventually returned to Switzerland.³3. Sun (London) 9.7.1802, which stated that three of his sons were then lieutenant-colonels in the army. The next occupier of the house was Charles Marshall Clarke (for whom see below).

The house was advertised for sale in 1785 and apparently bought by Richard Codd (1740-1825), a younger son from a landowning family on the southern Wolds. He seems to have had no profession and did not appear in directories, but he may have seen himself as a gentleman farmer: R1823 shows him as the owner-occupier of what amounted to a small farm mainly adjoining Crowtree Lane; and he may have occupied other land outside Louth parish. He was elected to the Corporation in 1789 and was warden four times.⁴4. Mercury 11.3.1785; Lincolnshire Pedigrees vol 1 p 256; sale advertisements: Mercury 11.11.1825 (house), 17.2.1826 (furniture).

During the time of John Henry Loft’s tenancy a sentry paced to and fro in front of the house, and general Loft himself deserves a word of praise for having copied (in 1836) the inscriptions in St Mary’s Churchyard.

General Loft (1769-1849) was a military administrator, effective in recruiting soldiers in the period 1794-1813. His duties took him to various places and he certainly lived on occasions in Louth; the story about the sentry is perfectly credible. However, it is unlikely that he ever had a tenancy of The Mansion, far more likely that he was in effect a war-time boarder; Richard Codd was a bachelor and must have had plenty of room for him. By 1826, the date mentioned by Goulding, General Loft’s army duties and pay were long gone. The John Loft referred to by Goulding (and shown as a private resident in directories for 1826 and 1828) was probably a different person, the husband of Richard Codd’s niece.⁵5. For General Loft’s career see the introduction to General Loft’s Lincolnshire Notes; for the other John Loft see Lincolnshire Pedigrees referred to above, and also Richard Codd’s will.

I have not been able to identify the William Loft referred to by Goulding. There were at the time several people of that name in east Lincolnshire; and two different William Lofts were mentioned in Richard Codd’s will.

Codd’s death in 1825 led to a large property sale: the auctioneers listed 24 separate pieces of land.⁶6. Mercury 16.12.1825. The first of these included not just the house itself but a half acre kitchen garden on the opposite side of Westgate. Six of the plots, totalling about 1.72 acres, were described as building land.

The purchaser of The Mansion was William Grant Allison (1797-1867), a solicitor. He came from a long-established Louth family, his father being “Banker” Allison, warden for the year 1823/4. As Goulding mentioned, W G Allison was the first mayor elected after Louth’s new corporation was established by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835; he was also mayor in 1855. The addition of a pair of semi-detached houses (now Nos 13 and 15), not found in R1823 but listed in R1838 as belonging to Allison, show that he must have purchased at least one of the building plots. He probably regretted not buying more, because most of the other building land was developed to provide Westgate Cottages and William Grounsell’s ironworks, neither being the best of neighbours.

The rating list entries for the house are as follows.

After the death of Allison in 1867 the house was purchased by Charles Byron, a Tathwell farmer. A newspaper article explained that he had bought it in order to obtain the kitchen garden on the north side of the street and that the remainder of the property was promptly re-advertised for sale. Unfortunately, Byron died just before the auction. At the auction the property was not sold, the best bid being £1,500.⁷7. Mercury 20.11.1868; Chronicle 27.11.1868. The failed sale illustrated the decline of Louth as a place of resort.

Shortly after the unsuccessful auction the property, including the kitchen garden, was bought by Dr Frederick Fawssett (1835-1918). He was a GP in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, (helping his father, another doctor also called Frederick) but had Louth connections, particularly in that his grandmother, Susanna Beecham/Willoughby (1789-1878), had for many years run Louth’s largest hotel, the King’s Head.⁸8. For her career see an article in Journal of the Lincolnshire Family History Society vol 32 no 1.

Dr Fawssett occupied the house for the rest of his life. He took an active part in public affairs: within a year of his arrival he was a steward at the town and country ball. He became a JP in 1873. In 1874 he was elected consulting physician to the recently erected Crowtree Lane hospital. He was active in the conservative association and was for many years a churchwarden. A plan from the 1918 sale particulars is included in Robinson 1979 p 35. The sale price then was £2,650, which compared with £1,585 for two Chippendale tables and 14 Chippendale chairs at the subsequent furniture sale.⁹9. Yorkshire Post 7.9.1918; Lincolnshire Echo 30.10.1918.

No 53 Westgate House

This house (now occupied by Mr Wm. Allison, junior) was another of the “great houses” already mentioned as being situate in this part of the town. At the time of Queen Elizabeth it was in the occupation of John Purvey … Lady Haversham, whose name appears in 1755, and Charles White (1764-72) were owners only. From 1775 to 1799 Charles Wigelsworth lived here. He was both lawyer and banker and the entrance to his banking department (now bricked up) may be discerned by the curious on the eastern side of the house in School-house Lane.

Charles Wigelsworth (1746-1799) was a successful lawyer but a failed banker. He served his articles with an attorney in Barton-upon-Humber and probably qualified in 1766 and came to Louth soon afterwards. According to local gossip reported by General Loft, his father, another Charles (d 1783), “married two rich wives, one blind and one lame, by which he secured property to purchase Cleatham”, a hamlet in Manton parish, near Kirton Lindsey; and on the death of the Louth Charles, the Cleatham estate was sold for £30,000. If that was true, the sale must have been gratifying to Wigelsworth’s creditors.¹⁰10. The purchase of Cleatham by the Wrigglesworths is confirmed by Eleanor Russell’s study of the enclosure of Cleatham in Land People and Landscapes (1991) p 118.

On the NHLE list the building is dated to the late eighteenth century; but a detailed article in Lincolnshire Life October 2004 suggests a date of 1725-50 with alterations in 1801. Wigelsworth was not recorded as a Louth resident in the 1767 rating list; nor does that list show any house owned by Charles White, the previous owner mentioned by Goulding.

His successor was John Simpson, who was in occupation from 1800 to 1815. He was M.P. for Michael, co. Cornwall, from [1799 to 1802]. In his time … “a curious chequered pavement”, lying three feet from the surface of the earth, was found by workmen employed in repairing the house in the year 1801.

John Simpson was an obscure MP for a constituency exceptionally rotten, even by Cornish standards: Mitchell (not “Michael”) had only seven voters when it was abolished by the Reform Act 1832; but it is unlikely that he was the same person as Louth’s John Simpson. The latter was a London merchant based in Mark Lane, the centre of the grain trade; he was described as a “West-India-merchant” in a press report; so he may have dealt in sugar. Goulding’s account of Simpson’s occupying the house from 1800 seems to be the first reference to him in Louth. He was elected to the Corporation in 1806, but resigned in 1811. Goulding’s statement that he lived in Westgate House until 1815 cannot be correct, because he was made bankrupt in 1810 and his assignees advertised Westgate House for sale in 1811¹¹11. Mercury 22.2.1811; Hull Advertiser 11.5.1811. Simpson’s wines, including “112 dozen of very fine old port”, merited a separate auction. The advertisements showed that Simpson also owned other houses in Westgate, Eastgate and Walkergate.

Who bought the house in 1811 is not known, but it was advertised for sale again in 1816. Westgate House was briefly occupied by a private school and then by Richard Elmhirst, a landowner.¹²12. Mercury 27.12.1816 (“Westgate House Seminary”); 30.3.1821 (reporting the marriage of Elmhirst’s daughter); 6.4.1821 (sale of Elmhirst’s household furniture).

The house was next occupied by Elizabeth (1764-1839) and Mary (1771-1855) Ansell. They were the daughters of John Ansell (d 1798), a landowner based at North Ormsby. In 1816 they evidently decided to move to Louth.¹³13. Mercury 30.8.1816 (sale of household furniture in North Ormsby). R1823 indicates that Elizabeth then in addition to Westgate House owned two houses on the north side of Westgate: 231802 (see above) and 231813. An advertisement in 1820 shows that the sisters were at that date occupying one of these houses.¹⁴14. Mercury 21.7.1820.

The rating list entries for Westgate House are as follows.

After the death of Mary Ansell in 1855 Westgate House was acquired by a major Lincolnshire landowning family, the Chaplins. According to the Lincolnshire Life article referred to above, it was “owned as a family property and not by any specific individual”. In the period 1859-66 the building was mainly occupied by a girls’ school run by the Misses Evison.¹⁵15. Chronicle 18.3.1859 (transfer of school); Mercury 16.3.1866 (closure). However, the Chaplins seem to have retained the use of part of it.¹⁶16. Sale advertisement Mercury 16.2.1866; the sale failed. Subsequently the Chaplins made various attempts to sell or let Westgate House and occupied it intermittently until shortly after the death of Richard Chaplin (1842-1888).

Goulding referred to the house as “now occupied by Mr Wm Allison, junior”. William Allison (1859-1907), a solicitor, appears to have acquired the house about 1890 and lived in it until his death. He was succeeded by another solicitor, Frederick Ingoldby, who lived there until after World War I. In 1937 it was acquired by Lindsey County Council as an addition to the Louth Girls’ Grammar School.

No 55 Westgate – The Limes

This house, lately occupied by Mr Alphonse Auguste Pahud JP, was rebuilt in the early part of the nineteenth century by its then owner, Miss Emeris… Towards the close of the eighteenth century it was owned and occupied by the Rev Stephen Fytche from whom it passed to Thomas Bentley Phillips and from him (in 1810) to the Rev John Emeris.

Goulding noted that sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a house on the site had been referred to as “Linsey howse”, apparently because it had been occupied by Clement Lyndesey, who died in 1540.

Alphonse Pahud (1849-1902) was a benefactor of Louth: see below.

On the NHLE list the building is dated early nineteenth century. A comparison of the 1808 and 1834 maps shows that the house was indeed rebuilt in the early nineteenth century. The former shows a building, probably a substantial house (but not a “great” one), fronting onto Schoolhouse Lane.

However, Goulding’s account of its ownership at that time is difficult to reconcile with what he wrote about 57 Westgate (see below) and what he said in his obituary note on William Robert Emeris, which was to the effect that Rev John Emeris senior built the house next door to The Limes about 1780 and was succeeded there by his son of the same name on his death in 1819. “Miss Emeris” must mean Frances Emeris (1775-1853), the daughter of John senior and sister of John junior. She was a wealthy woman, who later built a substantial house (382318, 510423, now used by Louth Golf Club) in Crowtree Lane; but there seems to be no evidence that she built The Limes. R1823 shows that the new house had been built by then.

The rating list entries for the house are as follows.

As is explained elsewhere on this website, the changes in rateable values should not necessarily be taken as indicating physical changes to the house. The earliest value, £35, has an unknown date. The value of £53 fixed in 1823 was intended to be an estimate of half the annual letting value on the open market. The value of £94 fixed in 1838 was intended to the full letting value minus a small allowance for landlord’s expenses. The value of £56 fixed in 1851 was intended to be the full letting value minus a larger (indeed generally excessive) allowance for landlord’s expenses. The figure that stands out above is the old 1851 RV of £73, which one would expect to be the same as, or very close to, £94. It is unlikely that the house had really deteriorated; more probably Parker had secured a reduction by claiming that his house was over-valued in comparison with other Westgate houses.

The first listed owner-occupier (and probable builder) was Thomas Bentley Phillips (1782-1828), a solicitor, who used the building both as a house and as an office. He committed suicide after forging documents.

The 1838 owner-occupier, Lysimachus (“Lys”) Parker junior (1786-1860), was another solicitor, who worked in partnership with his brother Cornelius (1794-1880). Their law practice was wound down in the 1840s and Lys left Louth in 1848. Cornelius, who lived on the north side of Westgate, remained and was prominent in local affairs as mayor, magistrate and benefactor of charities.

R1851 shows as the tenant occupier Mrs Emily Egremont (1801-18?), the widow of a vicar of Barrow on Humber, who died there in 1848. Her period of occupation was relatively brief: the tenancy was re-advertised in July 1852 and she remarried in Nottingham in 1854.

It is not known who occupied The Limes immediately after Mrs Egremont. The next identified occupier was Maurice Grant Searle (1810-1876), shown there in the 1861 census and describing himself as a “landed proprietor”. Previously, he had lived in a smaller house in Westgate, then in Trinity Terrace, Eastgate. He was the son of George Searle (c 1777-1845), a successful Louth draper, who had large premises in Mercer Row and had other property interests, including agricultural land and a terrace of six houses in Newmarket. Maurice Searle seems to have taken no conspicuous part in public affairs but lived as a connoisseur. After his death, there was an auction sale featuring “Mediaeval bronzes … Worcester, Dresden and other exquisite China… 97 superb Oil Paintings..”.

Searle’s widow, Maria, moved to a smaller house on the north side of Westgate and The Limes was acquired by Mrs Maria Grant (1818-89), who lived with her unmarried daughter, Annie (1842-99). Mrs Grant was the widow of William Grant (d 1866), a farmer at Withern. He may well have been related to Searle, because both of them inherited property under the will of Benjamin Grant (d 1844) a landowner based at Scamblesby. In 1887 Annie Grant married Alphonse Auguste Pahud, of Swiss origins, who was earning £100 pa as a teacher at Louth Grammar School. The 1891 census showed them in The Limes with a cook and two housemaids. Naturally, Pahud had given up teaching. In 1894 he was appointed as a JP for Lindsey and initially was fairly active as a magistrate. However, when in 1899 Annie unexpectedly died, Pahud suffered from depression, was seldom seen in public and in 1902 committed suicide.

Under the terms Of Pahud’s will his estate was to be devoted to charitable purposes. His executors purchased Hubbard’s Hills for public use and gave The Limes to form the premises of Louth Girls’ Grammar School. (The school had used premises in James Street.) The Limes was formally opened for school purposes in September 1904, just after the date of Goulding’s paper.

No 57 Westgate

This (the residence of Mrs Emeris) is the third of the Westgate “great houses,” or rather, it is part of it, for originally this and No 59, Arnold House, together constituted the “great house”.

About 1540 John Bradley… [More on the early history of the house is omitted here.] ….it was by Thomas Wallis of the Middle Temple, London … sold in 1750 to Mrs Alice Weightman, widow, who became resident there. [Mrs Weightman’s granddaughter, Elizabeth, married in 1772 Wooley Jolland, later vicar of Louth and in 1773 the family] united in selling the property to the Rev John Emeris, master of the grammar school, by whom the house was rebuilt.

The 1767 rating list valued Mrs Weightman’s house at £5 10s, indicating that it was then of modest size, very far from being a great house. The house is now No 43 Westgate. On the NHLE list the building is dated eighteenth century. For anyone struggling with conflicting information about houses in Westgate, it provides a useful anchor point, because it remained in Emeris occupation for the entire nineteenth century: John Emeris senior to 1819; John junior 1819-1831; Elizabeth (widow of John junior) 1831-1849; William (son of John junior) 1849-1896 and Isabella (widow of William) 1896-1908.

After Isabella’s death in 1908 the house was made available on concessionary terms to the girls’ grammar school, which had recently been accommodated next door.

No 59 Westgate – Arnold House

(to which reference has already been made) owes its name to the honour in which Thomas Arnold, the famous educationalist, is held by the present occupier of the house, Mr Joseph Wilson, M.A., His Majesty’s Inspector of Schools.

On the 6th April, 1745, Thomas Wallis (already mentioned as the owner of No 57), sold this house … Subsequently it passed into the possession of Charles Marshall Clarke, M.D., who resided here from 1798 until his death, 16 April, 1830.

On the NHLE list the building is dated circa 1700. It was presumably the house sold in 1745. It cannot be identified in the 1767 rating list, as neither the owner nor the occupier at that date is known. The entries in the 1823-51 lists were as follows.

Charles Marshall Clarke (1755-1830) was a doctor, the son of Charles Clarke (d 1788). Charles senior practised in Louth for many years and was warden six times. C M Clarke was not a member of the corporation and probably had a less extensive medical practice. General Loft indicated that he acquired considerable wealth by marriage to the daughter of a Scottish judge and lived extravagantly, first as the tenant (1778-1784) of The Mansion and then in Thorpe Hall before moving to 59 Westgate.¹⁷17. See the entry in Goulding’s Old Boys of Louth Grammar School and General Loft’s Lincolnshire Notes p 477.

On Thomas Phillips Waite (1809-91) Goulding said in Old Boys of Louth Grammar School: … son of John Waite, Master of Louth Grammar School, and Mary Phillips, his wife. He was a solicitor at Louth; was elected Mayor of the Borough in 1844, 1856, 1857 and 1858 … Misfortune overtook him by reason of his partnership with Henry Pye … .”

Henry Alington (1799-1883), who changed his surname to Pye in 1828, was a solicitor, who came from a wealthy Lincolnshire family. He was very active in church matters, often churchwarden. He built for his own use a large house, The Cedars, in St Mary’s Lane. However he was living far beyond his means and funded his conspicuous consumption by misappropriating trust funds. In 1868 he fled to the Continent to avoid arrest. He died in Belgium. It was not suggested that Waite was party to Pye’s frauds, but he too seems to have lived beyond his means; he made an assignment for the benefit of creditors and a sale of his household furniture followed.¹⁸18. Chronicle 25.1.1868, 1.2.1868. After his insolvency Waite left Louth but eventually returned and the 1891 census showed him living once in a smaller house in Westgate with his wife, daughter and a domestic servant.

After Waite vacated the house it was occupied by Maria Symons (1809-95), the widow of an officer in the Indian army. She came from a Lincolnshire landowning family, the Huttons of Gate Burton, that had financial connections with Louth as former lessees of the rectorial tithes. She left for Hertfordshire in the early 1880s.

By 1885 the house was occupied by the person referred to by Goulding, Joseph Wilson (1849-19?), formerly a fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge. He became HMI for the Louth district in 1883. (In those days the main function of the HMIs was to check that the standards of elementary schools were sufficient to justify the payment of government grants.) Wilson seems to have been an active inspector and well-regarded. He introduced conferences of school governors and teachers, initially at Grimsby and later in Louth. He appears to have left Louth about the time that Goulding was writing and by 1905 he lived at Heighington, which probably indicated a transfer to the Lincoln district.

No 61 Westgate – Church Precincts

was for some time in the occupation of the Rev Joseph L’Oste (who for 57 years was usher of the Grammar School), but he had ceased to be the tenant in 1776, and it seems probable that in this house George Jolland ended his days. The earlier names given in the rentals are … 1767-1774 Mr Jolland’s house, Rev Mr L’Oste tenant.

On the NHLE list the building is dated mid-eighteenth century. Ownership by Jolland and occupation by L’Oste is confirmed by the 1767 rating list, which valued the house at £12 ie £2 more than the house occupied by Jolland himself. Goulding’s surmise that Jolland died in Church Precincts is supported by a sale advertisement, probably relating to that house and described as being “in the possession of Mrs Jollands [sic]”.¹⁹19. Mercury 6.11.1783. The nineteenth century rating list entries were as follows.

Elizabeth Gilliatt (d 1825, aged 91) was the widow of William Gilliatt, a landowner at Wold Newton. Elizabeth Wilson (1770-1845) was her daughter, the widow of John Wilson (d 1809), a doctor at Spalding. She was one of the beneficiaries under the will of Mrs Gilliatt and apparently owned the house. Miss Mary Christease Wilson (1805-1891) was Elizabeth Wilson’s daughter. The “Parkinson” referred to as the owner in 1851 was probably Elizabeth Wilson’s son, who changed his name on marrying an heiress.

Miss Wilson was still living in the house at the time of the 1891 census, but died very shortly afterwards. She apparently enjoyed a comfortable income, since her personal estate was valued at nearly £10,000. The house was promptly advertised to let, but its next occupier is not known.

No 12 Mercer Row – Kelsey House

The rentals give the following names of occupiers of this house: … 1770 Robert Neve; 1790 Mrs Lister; 1797 John Baker; 1798 Samuel Carter Pettener. Of these … Robert Neve and Dr Pettener filled the office of Warden, the last named discharging that office seven times, and being an “Assistant” forty-three years. He was born on the 15th June 1748 and died on the 18th January 1831. On the monument raised to his memory in Louth Church it is declared: “His professional duties were discharged with a zeal and philanthropy unwearied in administering relief to the poor in sickness and affliction.”

Since his decease the house has had as successive residents Dr Trought, Dr Blathwayt, Mr Dan Gresswell and Dr Albert Gresswell.

Goulding did not expressly state that Kelsey House was on the site of “the great house at Louth stone” but that seems to have been his meaning. On the NHLE list the building is dated to the early eighteenth century, with later additions. Of the occupiers mentioned above Robert Neve (d 1789) was not listed in the 1767 rating list. In apprenticeship records in 1787 he was described as a merchant. He was elected to the corporation as an assistant in 1782 and was warden for the year 1787-8. I have not been able to identify Mrs Lister and John Baker.

Samuel Carter Pettener (1748-1831), was an apothecary and surgeon. Neither his place of birth nor his apprenticeship is known, but he had arrived in Louth by 1771. He was elected to the corporation in 1788 and, as stated by Goulding, was seven times warden. His premises were the most valuable in Mercer Row, except for the King’s Head; and R1823 showed him as the owner-occupier of nearly 40 acres of other land. After Pettener’s death the building was briefly used as a private house by his two unmarried daughters and then sold to Samuel Trought.²⁰20. Sale advertisement Mercury 23.12.1831; list of Louth parliamentary electors 1832.

Samuel Trought (1797-1868) was another apothecary and surgeon. His involvement in public and social life in Louth was too extensive to be summarised on this page. He qualified in 1819 and became the partner of William King (c 1755-1827), a long-established Louth doctor, whose surgery was in Upgate. He continued to occupy the building until the early 1850s, when he leased it to another Louth doctor, William Blathwayt (1811-1880), with whom he entered into partnership. Blathwayt was a relatively recent arrival in the town, though he had Louth connections.²¹21. He had been married in Manby and his father, formerly a doctor in London, had retired to Louth in the 1830s. The Trought-Blathwayt partnership was terminated at the end of 1861 and Blathwayt left Louth shortly afterwards.

The entries for Kelsey House in the rating lists were as follows:

The next tenant of the building (now referred to as No 12 Mercer Row) was, as stated by Goulding, Dan Gresswell (1820-1883), a veterinary surgeon who had come to Louth in 1840. Electoral registers indicate that he had bought Kelsey House by 1876. Gresswell was a well-known figure in the town as a member of the borough council from 1862 and Mayor in 1871. Gresswell used the building for professional purposes and also to house his very large (approximately 14 children) family. He was succeeded by his son Albert (1856-1927), a practising doctor and minor author on scientific matters; he maintained the family’s interest in veterinary matters, his best-known book being Diseases and Disorders of the Horse (1886).

The Great House in the Market Place

was one of the buildings pulled down to make room for the Market Hall. In 1621 it belonged to … [early names omitted] … 1770 George Wilcockson; 1816 John Naull.

It was here that John Naull in 1830 entertained William Cobbett, as the latter tells us in his “Rural Rides:,” where he gives the following account of his visit to our town. His narrative is of peculiar interest by reason of the tribute he pays to the eloquent and eminent lawyer (Richard Paddison) who became the first Town Clerk of Louth appointed by the new Corporation.

“At Louth,” he says, “the wise Corporation had refused to let us have the play house; but my friends had prepared a very good place; and I had an opportunity of addressing crowded audiences, two nights running. At no place have I been better pleased, than at Louth. Mr Paddison, solicitor, a young gentleman whom I had the honour to know slightly before, and to know whom, whether I estimate by character or by talent, would be an honour to any man, was particularly attentive to us. Mr Naull, ironmonger, who had had the battle to fight for me, for twenty years, expressed his exultation at my triumph, in a manner that showed that he justly participated it with me. I breakfasted, at Mr Naull’s with a gentleman 88 or 89 years of age, whose joy at shaking me by the hand was excessive. “Ah” said he, “Where are now those savages who, at Hull, threatened to kill me for raising my voice against this system?” This is a very fine town, and has a beautiful church, nearly equal to that of Boston.”

George Wilcockson (17?-1819) was an ironmonger (“hardware-man” in the Universal British Directory 1794). The 1767 rating list showed him as the owner-occupier of a substantial house and shop and also a maltkiln. The John Naull referred to by Goulding must have been John Naull junior (1773-1833), also an ironmonger. He and his father, John senior (17?-1830) had extensive property interests in Louth, including shops, warehouses, a brickyard and about 20 houses.

Probably the Naul house and shop referred to in the 1767 rating list was the same as the house and shop recorded in R1823. On its own this was too small to be the 1621 “great house”; but Naull also owned an adjoining shop, let to Thomas Armitage, and the two combined may have represented either the great house partitioned or a later building on the site. In 1836 rent was being paid for “House and shops in Market Place”²²22. That was a small annual manorial rent of 2s 7d : town clerk’s report on borough property 1836. The then owner was John Dunston Naull, the son of John jun.. A surviving photograph taken just before the demolition in 1866 shows an old, dilapidated building.

William Cobbett needs no comment. His visit to Louth was on 13-15 April 1830. His lectures on the need for reform were not reported in detail by the press, Mercury merely noting that in Louth he was “said to have indulged in some very unmeasured expressions”. Goulding’s view that Richard Paddison was “an eloquent and eminent lawyer” was a matter of opinion. Today Paddison’s recorded orations seem tediously long and his nearest approach to legal eminence appears to have been his appointment as solicitor to the Irish Peat Commission in 1860, probably a reward for his services to the Liberal party.²³23. See generally the entry in Goulding Old Boys. In a minor case, when a Louth doctor was charged with failing to clean out a section of the Lud, Paddison’s closing speech to the jury lasted two hours: Mercury 25.1.1828.

Goulding continued with a section, omitted here, on the Blanchard family in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Mrs Frances Blanchard owned the great house in 1624.

Nos. 18, 20 and 22 Mercer Row

These buildings, including the Goulding family’s shop, are close to what is now called Pawnshop Passage (Hurton’s or Horton’s Yard at the time when Goulding was writing). NHLE describes them as “later C18”; but Goulding stated that they were rebuilt about 1700 and then divided into two shops, which became three about 1790. This section of Goulding’s paper is omitted here, because it was largely devoted to an account of Louth’s early booksellers. Goulding produced a more detailed paper on this subject in 1917 and I hope to add a note on this at a later date.

The Corn Exchange

About 1540 this was a messuage wherein dwelt Robert Bayly … In the early years of the nineteenth century part of the building was used as a theatre and part as the banking-house of Abraham and Challis Sheath, people who made deposits being said to place their money in Abraham’s bosom. In 1815 it was converted into a Guild Hall which was demolished in 1853, the Corn Exchange being erected on its site.

In the early nineteenth century country banks were normally partnerships formed by businessmen with other commercial interests. Towns without banks often had bank agents; and it may not always have been clear to customers whether they were dealing with the bank itself or with an agent. The difference was potentially important, because bank failures were fairly common and caused the partners to be liable to the extent of all their assets, whether or not those assets related to banking.

Goulding’s reference was to the bank of Abraham Sheath and Sons, which was based in Boston and operated from 1789 to 1814, when the firm was declared bankrupt. There seems to be no evidence that the firm had a branch in Louth, but it did have agents: Holden’s 1811 directory records three bank agents in Louth, including George Smith (not otherwise identified) for Sheath’s bank. An earlier agent had been William Bustin, a cloth supplier.²⁴24. For the Sheaths see S N Davis Banking in Boston (1976); for Bustin see Mercury 27.3.1801 (robbery of £900 in cash and notes).

The first press reference found for the theatre is a notice of a lease in 1796. It was described in an early directory as “a small but neat building erected by Mr Edward Blyth, merchant; to whose public spirit Louth is indebted for several handsome buildings and liberal institutions”.²⁵25. Mercury 21.10.1796; A History of the County of Lincoln … (1833) Vol 1 p191.

Edward Blyth (1715-1820) was originally a butcher, and took apprentices as butchers in the period 1750-65; but the entry for him in the 1767 rating list shows so much land as to suggest that he was becoming a grazier; he also had a malt kiln. Later he became a substantial grazier and wool merchant and had property dealings. He was bankrupt in 1808. The sale notices after his bankruptcy suggest that the erection of the theatre was part of a redevelopment scheme involving the construction of five shops in what is now Cornmarket. Blyth reserved the theatre basement for his own use as a wool warehouse.²⁶26. Mercury 27.2.1795, 5.4.1805, 8.7.1808, 18.2.1820.

In 1815 the Corporation decided to demolish the old town hall in Market Place. They asked John Espin to design a replacement, which he did. However, the Corporation decided instead to buy the theatre on the basis that it could be used partly as a theatre and partly for civic purposes, which later included holding magistrates’ courts.²⁷27. Corporation minutes 5.8.1815, 11.11.1815. There are illustrations of the old town hall and Espin’s design for a new one in Robinson 1979 pp 30-31. It came to be called the Guildhall. As a dual use building it was unsatisfactory, as shown in the following complaint.

That the present Sessions-house is a very inconvenient and unfit place for a Court of Justice; that it was originally designed for a Theatre, and is now convertible into a Play-house and Sessions-house in turns; that a licensed shop for the retail of wine and spirits is situated immediately under the floor of the court, tempting jurors and witnesses to drink, and exposing the whole building to a danger of fire; and that the interior is, from the faults of its original structure, ill ventilated [and] dark … ²⁸28. Mercury 1.9.1837.

The use of the theatre as such was always intermittent, since the same players also used theatres in other Lincolnshire towns. When the new borough council was established in 1835, the influence of Methodists led by J B Sharpley deterred theatrical use, though some performances continued.

“The Inne” No 8 Upgate

In ancient days it was exceptional that a house should have a distinctive appellation, but in modern times so many people have been “charm’d with the foolish whistling of a name” that it is almost a distinction that a house in Louth should be known by number only. Among the few ancient names that have survived is that of “The Inne,” the name given to the messuage, No. 8, Upgate, now occupied by Mr. S. F. Clarke. “The Inne” was on the 4th November, 1564, leased to James Osney, for 300 years at the yearly rent of 22s 4d, and it was surrendered to the Corporation 299 years later. In 1815 Lysimachus Parker was the tenant. He was an attorney whose long bills of costs are still remembered. The Rev Mr Chapman, the prison chaplain, a blind man, having received his account, exclaimed : “Now, I see you are a rogue.”

No 8 Upgate (the number has not been changed) does not look in the least like a building existing in 1564 and Goulding’s meaning must be that the present eighteenth century building was erected on the site of an earlier house. In the rating lists the house appeared as follows.

Lys Parker is referred to above (No 55 Westgate). John Jackson senior (1766-1849) was a bookseller, printer and auctioneer, possibly retired by 1838. His sons, including Thomas (1806-76) continued the family business. The owner, “Misdall”, was probably the heir(s) of Thomas Misdall (d 1804) a liquor merchant. The Mr Clarke referred to by Goulding was a dentist.

Inns

Amongst the oldest of Louth houses are the inns, and whilst the writer would gladly hear of a great reduction in their number, yet he hopes that their names will be retained when the houses themselves are converted to nobler uses.

No comment is needed on Goulding’s bias. Most of the material in this final section of his paper is omitted here, because it has been incorporated in another page. However, one anecdote merits repetition.

The Pack Horse

One of the landlords of this inn (Jean Mari de la Pierre) was a man sui generis. He was exceedingly strict and would supply to a customer only a modicum of drink. Now, you have had enough, he would say, go home, your wife and children need your money. He made a point of closing his house early, but one night certain visitors determined to thwart him by staying late. His hints as to the time being disregarded, he withdrew, but soon returned, excitedly exclaiming, Come and see the great fire in Bunting [i.e. Burnt – Hill] lane. When the men reached Burnt Hill lane they found that they had been hoaxed, and quickly made their way back. But they were too late, the door was locked. De la Pierre was buried in S. Mary’s Churchyard, and on his tombstone is stated to have been “a native of Roverolle, district de Morges, Canton de Bern, en Helvetie. He died 21st December, 1822. The high respectability he maintained for many years in this parish amongst a numerous acquaintance was acquired by the cheerfulness of his temper, the urbanity of his manners, and the amiable qualities of his heart.”