The manor was given by the Conqueror to the powerful Norman, Robert Despenser, who, as his name implies, was the King’s High Steward. He was the ancestor of the Despensers, Earls of Gloucester, and he held 15 manors in Lincolnshire alone, besides 17 in Leicestershire, and several in other counties. Much of the land of this parish was at a later period given to Revesby Abbey, and at the dissolution of the monasteries some of this was granted by Henry VIII, to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. {196a} In later times it became, by purchase, the property of Mr. Joseph Banks, M.P. for Grimsby, born in 1681, and eventually came to his distinguished descendant, Sir Joseph Banks; and on his death some of the Mareham land passed to the ancestors of the present Sir Henry M. Hawley. Other proprietors are now Major Gape, Messrs. J. R. Chapman, Joseph Lake, and other smaller owners. Among the Lincolnshire gentry called upon (with the Massingberds, Heneages, and many others) to furnish “launces and light horse,” in the 16th century, when the Spanish armada was expected, was one “John May of Mairing,” who failed to present himself at the muster in 1584, but in 1586 supplied “one light horse.” {196b} In Notes on Low Toynton mention is made of the old family of Newcomen, originally “of Salaby,” _i.e._ Saltfleetby, where many generations of them were buried, from the time of Richard I. They married into influential and titled families, in various parts of the county. Charles Newcomen lived at Hagnaby in 1634, and bought land in Revesby. A Newcomen lived in Mareham in the 17th century. They were connected, by marriage, with the family of Sir Joseph Banks, as Mr. Banks, grandfather of Sir Joseph, had a house in Lincoln, the adjoining one being occupied by Newcomen Wallis, Esq., and Mr. Banks married Catherine the widow of Mr. Wallis (see the Banks monument in Revesby church, north aisle), whose mother was daughter and co-heir of Nicholas Newcomen, Esq. {196c} We here give a few old records in connection with this parish in the past. The Court Roll of Mareham-le-Fen (preserved among the documents of the Listers of Burwell) for 2 Elizabeth, shows that, at that date (A.D. 1559), Thomas Glenham, Esq. (variously written Glemham), had the Manor of Mareham. In the 23rd Elizabeth it is recorded that Charles Glenham, Esq., by his lawful attorney, Francis Colby, of Glenham Parva, Esq., granted leases for seven years to divers tenants in Mareham. Thomas owned also the Manors of Calceby, Belchford, Oxcomb, and Burwell; these he sold to Sir Matthew Lister, afterwards of Burwell. He married Amye, daughter of Sir Henry Parker. {196d}