The Cracrofts of Hackthorn are a genuine old Lincolnshire race. They held in early times the manor of Cracroft Hall in Hogsthorpe. Warinus de Cracroft is witness in a deed of the early twelfth century. This manor passed away late in the sixteenth century, but a junior branch held land in Burgh in the marsh at the beginning of that period, and by a fortunate marriage with an heiress of the Grantham family became possessed about 1616 of the present estate of Hackthorn. Robert Cracroft had a licence for an oratory in his house of Cracroft in 1345. The family was once one of the most widely spread in Lincolnshire, but it is now seldom to be found. The Welbys of Denton cannot prove their descent from the Moulton Welbys, though there is very strong reason for thinking it probable. They own Welby, but it was acquired by purchase. Any one who has read Lady Elizabeth Cust’s admirably written _Records of the Cust Family_ cannot fail to be struck with the facts she has gleaned from the muniments at Belton. A yeoman race, connected with Pinchbeck for six centuries, holding estates with title-deeds dating from 1479, and which was not “armigerous” till the seventeenth century, is now represented by Earl Brownlow, the direct male descendant. What of the Irbys? They undoubtedly are extant, represented by Lord Boston, although he is not resident in the county. They begin to rise in position about the middle of the sixteenth century in the person of a lawyer who accumulated property round Boston. If they really are traceable to an Irby of Irby, they would rank among the oldest families; but the Visitation Pedigree of 1562 is not altogether satisfactory, and needs proof. The Monsons were at Market Rasen as early as 1378. They, like so many other families of the age, became large landowners in the fifteenth century, having accumulated wealth by being merchants of the Staple of Calais. Lord Monson holds estates which have descended to him from the early part of the sixteenth century. The old original property at Owersby, near Market Rasen, was sold in 1834. The Whichcotes came from Shropshire in the fifteenth century. They were “of that ilk” in the county, and what brought them to Lincolnshire was the marriage of John Whichcote with an heiress of the Tyrwhits of Harpswell. The present head of the family, Sir George Whichcote, still possesses Harpswell, though he resides at Aswarby, near Sleaford. His great-great-grandfather, Sir Christopher, married the heiress of the elder line, and united the estates of Harpswell and Aswarby.