daughter of John Nevil, Lord Latimer, and 2nd, Frances, daughter of Lord
Chandos. He was, doubtless, a man of large ideas and great ambition, his
royal mistress was herself Lady of the manor of Horncastle, and
Horncastle having thus been brought under his notice, he may have been
too grasping in compassing his purposes. The Revesby Charters {30a} show
that he purchased that estate in 1575.

We may add that the Cecils were descended from an ancient family located
in Wales soon after the Norman Conquest, and acquired large possessions
in the reign of King Rufus; the 14th in descent was David Cecil of
Stamford, Sergeant at Arms to King Henry VIII., he was grandfather to the
1st Lord Burghley. {30b} The present representatives of this old family
are the Marquis of Exeter of Burghley House, Stamford, and the Marquis of
Salisbury of Hatfield House, Herts.

We have now reached the end of a somewhat lengthy series of owners
formerly connected with Horncastle, its manor, and its soke, bringing us
down to the early part of the 17th century, and we think that few towns,
of its size, could show such a record of distinguished names. The
information available as to more recent periods is more meagre. The
Bishops of Carlisle continued to hold the manor down to the year 1856,
and various parties held leases of it under them, they themselves
residing here from time to time, {30c} until the episcopal palace was
demolished in 1770, when the present Manor House was erected on its site.

We have already stated that Queen Elizabeth leased the manor from the
Bishop of Carlisle of that date, she was succeeded in the lease by King
James I., who transferred it to Sir Henry Clinton, but owing to a legal
error in that transaction, it proved void. One of the said Bishops in
the next reign was Dr. Robert Snowden, whose family were located in this
neighbourhood, his son being Vicar of Horncastle. Abigail Snowden
married Edward, son of Sir Edward Dymoke, Knt., in 1654, and Jane Snowden
married Charles Dymoke, Esq., of Scrivelsby Court; the former belonged to
the, so called, Tetford branch of the Dymokes, who have of late years
also succeeded to the Scrivelsby property. Bishop Robert Snowden granted
a lease of the Horncastle manor to his kinsman, Rutland Snowden, and his
assignees for three lives; but this would appear to have been afterwards
cancelled, owing to the "delinquency" of the first grantee. {31a} The
name of this Rutland Snowden