year 1166; but I know of no connection between this family and those of Thomas Cromwell, the “Malleus monachorum,” and of Oliver Cromwell, the Protector. The Cromwells had already, in the thirteenth century, been allied with the family of Marmion, as the fourth Ralph Cromwell married Mazera, second daughter and co-heiress of Philip de Marmion. The ninth Ralph Cromwell, knight (son of Sir Ralph Cromwell and Amicia de Beler, daughter and heiress of Roger de Beler, co. Leicester), who married Maud Bernak, was summoned to Parliament as Baron Cromwell in 1375 and 1398, in which year he died, his widow surviving till the year 1419. The second Ralph, Lord Cromwell of Tattershall, died in 1416. His son, also Ralph, was Lord Treasurer of England from 1433-1443, a peer of great wealth and influence, and the builder of the existing castle and church of Tattershall. Another building of his in stone (no doubt because it was easy to procure, as brick was at Tattershall) has been described and illustrated in a previous volume of this series, _i.e._ Wingfield Manor House, Derbyshire. He also held the appointment in 1435 (after the death of the Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, at Paris) of Master of the Mews, and Falconer to the King. He married Margaret, daughter of John, Baron Deincourt, and his wife Joan, daughter and heiress of Lord Grey de Rotherfield, also connected with the family of Marmion. Lord Cromwell died in 1455 (his wife having predeceased him in 1454), and left no family. They both were buried in Tattershall Church. Consequently, his two nieces, daughters of his sister Maud (who had married Sir Richard Stanhope of Rampton, Notts, and who had died in 1455), became his co-heiresses. Of these Maud married, first, the distinguished soldier, Robert, sixth Lord Willoughby d’Eresby, who died in 1452, having had no children by her; next, Sir Thomas Nevile, third son of Richard, first Earl of Salisbury, who was killed at the battle of Wakefield in 1460, also leaving no family; and thirdly, Sir Gervase Clifton, of Clifton, Notts, who was killed at Tewkesbury in 1471. Maud herself died in 1497 and was buried in Tattershall Church. Joan married Sir Humphrey Bouchier, third son of the first Earl of Essex, who was summoned to Parliament (_jure uxoris_) in 1461 as Baron Cromwell, and who was killed at the battle of Barnet in 1471. She married, secondly, Sir Robert Ratcliffe, and died in 1472, leaving no children. She also was buried in Tattershall Church. According to the poet Skelton, King Edward IV. possessed Tattershall, as he makes him say— “I made the Tower strong—I wist not why— Knew not for whom, I purchased Tattersall;” and his badge, the falcon and fetterlock, may be seen in the east window of the church.