Ruth's Blog

Almost ten years ago, our blog featured a 1775 document about the Fleece Inn in Louth Market Place.  Now we are excited to find two parchments which appear to relate to the same property, but are dated November 1652, more than 100 years earlier.  That was the time of The Commonwealth of England, after the execution of King Charles I.

The parchments are difficult to read, but thankfully they are in English, not Latin.  There are two documents, because at that time the conveyance of property took place in two stages: first a lease to the buyer, and one day later, a release or renunciation of ownership by the sellers.

The parchments describe one of the long burgage plots stretching from Louth Market Place back to Kidgate, the front of which was an inn.  The inn is not named – almost none were in the 17th century - but a likely contender for this property must be the inn that later became known as the Fleece.

The people named in these parchments were wealthy influential people, so we can find information about them.

The sellers were Robert Christopher of Alford, and John and Mary Skipworth of Louth.  Christopher owned Alford Manor House; he had fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War, and in 1660 was rewarded with a knighthood by King Charles II.  There is a memorial to Sir Robert Christopher and his wife Elizabeth in St Wilfrid’s Church in Alford, and in his will dated 1668 Christopher left money for alms houses, which are known as the Sir Robert Christopher’s Almshouses.

John and Mary Skipworth (or Skipwith) were prosperous citizens of Louth.  In his will dated 1678, John Skipworth set up a charitable trust.  This was administered as an individual charity until 1972, when it was amalgamated with other small charities, and became part of the “United Charities in the Parish of Louth”.

The buyer of the property was William Kilbourne (or Kilborne), a farmer and landowner in Louth.  According to Richard Gurnham’s book on Stuart and Georgian Louth, the Kilbornes were an old Louth family with numerous branches by the mid-17th century.  Oliver Kilborne had been a member of Louth Corporation in the 1620s and 1630s and served as Warden in 1633-34.  William Kilbourne’s probate inventory (the list of items owned at the time of his death) includes brewing equipment, numerus pewter drinking mugs, beds and bedding, showing that the property was run as an inn.

The tenant of the property was John Sheels (or Scheels).  We have his probate inventory too (he died in 1668), and we know that in 1642 he had married 20-year-old Rose Whalley, of Covenham St Bartholomew.

These parchments reveal some of the business and charitable activities of affluent families living under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, about 370 years ago.

I am grateful to Richard Gurnham and Lynda Payne for helpful comments.