edited by Canon J. Clare Hudson, 1892).

The promotion of the Rector, Simon de Islep, led to more than one
lawsuit. The Bishop of Carlisle, being at that time heavily in debt, as
Lord of the manor, to which, as has already been stated, the advowson of
the church of St. Mary was attached, had in January, 1347-8 granted the
manor to Hugh de Bole, and others, on their annual payment of 129 pounds
19s. 2.5d, for three years. On the vacancy thus occurring the Bishop was
summoned to appear at Westminster, before Justice John de Stonor, and
others, to answer to William Widuking, of Saundeby, executor of the will
of the said Hugh de Bole, who claimed, as tenant of the manor, the right
to nominate to the vacant benefice. The Bishop resisted this claim, and
the case was argued before the King's Bench, in Hilary term, 1350, when
the Bishop was defeated, the claim of William Widuking being allowed.
(County Placita, Lincoln, No. 46. Pleas at Westminster, 24 Ed. III.,
roll 104.)

Seventeen years later, on the death of John de Kirkby, Bishop of
Carlisle, who had presented Simon de Islep to Horncastle, the
temporalities of the bishopric for the time lapsed to the King; and
Thomas de Appleby, the succeeding Bishop, with John de Rouceby, clerk
(who afterwards became Rector of Horncastle), were summoned to answer to
the King, that the King be allowed, through the said lapse, to appoint to
the vacant Benefice of St. Mary. The Bishop and John de Rouceby brought
the case before the court, but they admitted the justice of the King's
plea, and judgment was given for the King. (De Banco Roll, 41 Ed. III.,
in. 621.) Apparently, as a compromise, the King appointed John de
Rouceby. This John de Rouceby, while Rector of Horncastle, was murdered
on the high road to Lincoln in 1388, (_Horncastle Register Book_, p. 2).

We may here observe, that in the above documents, the Incumbent of St.
Mary's Church is styled "Parson" or "Rector," not, as he is at the
present day, "Vicar." On this change of status we are able to give the
following particulars. Among the Bishop "Nicholson MSS.," which are in
the custody of the Dean and Chapter of Carlisle, and consist of extracts
from the old "Bishops' Registers," it is stated (vol. iv, p. 349) that
Bishop Stern of Carlisle, under agreement with the Bishop of Lincoln (Dr.
Robert Sanderson) in 1660, appropriated the Rectorial appurtenances of
the Benefice of St. Mary to the See of Carlisle. This, howeve