The same Carlisle document {28d} mentions Thomas Fitz-William as concerned in the said dispute, as being a Horncastle proprietor; while, further, another Carlisle document of the time of Henry VIII., shows that Thomas Fitz-William, Esq., was seized of one capital messuage, 6 other messuages, 4 tofts and 100 acres of land in Horncastle, held of the Prior of Carlisle, and John Fitz-William was his heir. {28e} The Fitz-Williams again were a very ancient and distinguished family, the name is found in the Battle Abbey Roll of William the Conqueror. The family claim descent from Sir William Fitz-Goderic, cousin of King Edward the Confessor. His son, Sir William Fitz-William, has been said (as the name might imply) to have been really a natural son of William the Conqueror himself, {28f} but the more generally accepted version is that Fitz-Goderic was his father. Sir William Fitz-William accompanied the Duke of Normandy to England as Marshal of his army, and for his bravery at the battle of Hastings the Conqueror gave him a scarf from his own arm. A descendant, in the reign of Elizabeth, was thrice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; he was also Governor of Fotheringhay Castle when the unfortunate Queen Mary of Scotland was imprisoned there, and before she was beheaded she gave him a portrait of herself, which is still preserved at Milton House, near Peterborough, one of the seats of the Earls Fitz-William, who now represent the family, Baron of Milton being their second title. A Patent of Edward IV. (A.D. 1461) {28g} shows that Richard Fitz-William had the privilege granted to him by that King of “free warren” at Ulceby, near Alford. An Inquisition in the reign of Henry VII. {29a} (A.D. 1502) shows that Thomas Fitz-William held the manors of Mavis Enderby, Maidenwell and Mablethorpe. The list of magistrates for the county in the reign of Henry VIII. {29b} contains the name of George Fitz-William along with Lionel Dymoke, Lord Willoughby, and others; while an Inquisition held five years later {29c} shews that Thomas Fitz-William held the aforementioned manor of Ulceby, by the “service of 1 falcon annually to the King.” Sir William Fitz-William in the same reign {29d} was Lord High Admiral. John Fitz-William is named in the Herald’s list of county gentry in the 16th century as residing at Skidbrook, a hamlet of Saltfleet Haven, {29e} and William Fitz-William, Esq., supplied “one lance and two light horse” when the Spanish Armada was expected to invade England, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. {29f} William Fitz-William of Mablethorpe {29g} married, in 1536, Elizabeth daughter of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, of Kettlethorpe, a member of a very old Lincolnshire family, still owning property in this neighbourhood; and in 1644 Sir William Wentworth, {29h} a scion of a younger branch, married Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Savile, of Wakefield, whose family we have already mentioned as connected with Horncastle.