The Lincolnshire History

From 900-1974 Lincolnshire was 75 miles north by south and 45 miles east by west. It was bounded on the north by the Humber estuary, on the east by the North Sea and from Humber “down to halfway round the Wash” and on the west to Trent and to the south to the Fenland rivers of Weiland and Nene. Lincolnshire was divided into 3 parts: Lindsey, Kesteven and Holland.

The early people of Lincolnshire were, it is believed, the Coritani, who were conquered by the Romans in 50A.D. There was an Iron Age Settlement at Lincoln which was later conquered by the Romans. When the Romans left, the area was settled by the Friesians, Saxons, and mostly the Anglos.

The area north of Lincoln (the Hackthorn area) was known as the Lindsey Part. This area was later overrun by the Mercians and later still by the Northumbrians. In ca. 678-732, they had their first bishop. The monasteries built during that time were destroyed in the 9th Century by the Danes. The Danes, after years of raids on the east coastal area of England, occupied half of Lincolnshire.

The effect of the Danes on the history of the area is still seen today in the names of many (over 250) of the villages of the area. Village names with “ing, by”, and “thorpe” (i.e. Hogsthorpe) were villages named by the Danes. Thorpe”, for instance, means secondary settlement. This whole area occupied by the Danes was known as Danelaw.

Danelaw was comprised of Five Burghs: Lincoln, Stamford, Nottingham, Dervy and Leicester. The sons of Alfred the Great recovered the invaded lands of the Five Burghs but this was not to last. It was re-taken by Canute, son of Svein in 1013. Again in 1066 the Normans ( William the Conqueror) re-took the lands.

William the Conqueror, in fear that the lands would once again fall to foreign invaders, initiated the first census in 1086. It was called the Doomsday survey and the result was published in the Doomsday Books which survive to this day. The villages of Hackthorn and Hogsthorpe existed at that time and are listed in these books.

Lincolnshire was to know no peace. In 1369 the Black Death (bubonic plague) ravaged the lands. Later the Hundred Years War against France and the subsequent loss of trade with Scandinavia devastated Lincolnshire's prosperity. It could not have been an easy life even for the Cracroft landed gentry of the area. Things got worse.

The War of the Roses which sacked Stamford and Grantham, the dissolution of the religious houses in 1536 (Louth, Horncastle, Boston, Stamford and Lincolnshire) and the Civil War, all found Lincolnshire in the middle of the conflict and unrest.

Also, the great floods along the coastal areas reclaimed most of the hard won land (land drained by the same methods as the Dutch in Holland) by James I, Charles I and the Danes. It was reported to me by Lady Rhona Cracroft-Amcotts, at the time of my visit to Cracroft Hall, that there was a village called Cracroft lost to the sea during this period. I have found no record of this village. However, Michael Cracroft, a friend in England, provided me with the following from a local Hogsthorpe historian: “................Regarding flooding and the story handed down to the incumbents of Hackthorn Hall I am sure this is probably correct. I have a map somewhere showing an area of land on the coast in the region of what is now called Trunch Lane at Chapel St.Leonards and marked as Hogsthorpe. Lots of old people used to refer to that part as 'Hogsthorpe Sea' when I was young. It has suffered severe flooding and much land lost to the sea along from just north of Mablethorpe down to south of Skegness. Holinshed(a Tudor historian) recorded the destruction of Mumby Chapel(Chapel-St.Leonards) in 1571. This could have been the time when Cracroft family lost land there. Strangely enough a few years ago I was called to help excavate a burial on the shore there of a female on a coffin base but all other parts washed away .Maybe one of your relatives?? I still have her somewhere. Other recorded bad flood years are 1200's.1735,1810,1837,1861,1949, oh and 1323 & 1325 damage at Mablethorpe and 1421 & 1422 damage at Ingoldmells.Then of course we have the 1953 flood well documented. .........”

As can be seen by the above history of the area inhabited by the early Cracrofts of England, those early years were quite harsh. However, the fact that they maintained the title to their lands and their position in society attests to their ruggedness. Perhaps this ability to endure hardships is why the early American Cracroft pioneers survived the hardships of the frontiers of The New World.