By deed, dated 25 November, 1218, in a dispute between the same Matilda, wife of Richard Ormesby, and William, Prior of Bolinton, concerning the advowson of the church of Oxecumb, the said Prior recognised the advowson to be the right of Matilda, and for himself and his successors surrendered it to the said Matilda and her heirs for ever, an unusual act of grace, as it was rarely that any property passing into the possession of a religious house left their grasp again, until the time came when they had finally and for ever to disgorge their acquisitions, not seldom questionably obtained. On 12 May, 1240, in a dispute between Robert, son of Osbert, and Matilda de Marton, concerning land in Oxecumbe, Matilda admitted the said land to be the right of Robert, “to have and to hold to him and his heirs for ever, he rendering 4_s._ by the year, and doing foreign service.” Truly, it would seem, from these various disputes all occurring within less than the first half of the 13th century, {147} there must have been something in the atmosphere of Oxcombe which rendered its people peculiarly litigious. Could the confined position, we are almost inclined to ask, have narrowed their ideas, and, shut out as they were from the larger world beyond, the “combe,” have given them an undue sense of their own importance? A gap now occurs of many years before we find further records of this little lordship. Among the Chancery Inquisitions in the reign of Richard III. and Henry VII., is one (No. 246), held at Lincoln Castle, 28 January, 1504–5, by which it appears that Thomas Welby, a member of another prominent Lincolnshire family, who held the manor of Halstede, in Stixwould, in this neighbourhood, and manors or lands in nearly 30 other parishes in various parts of the county, had lands in Oxcomb, and the adjoining Ruckland. He, by charter, granted these possessions to Edward Burgh, knight, George Taylbois, knight, and others, to administer his will, on behalf of his son and heir, Thomas Welby, then of the age of 16. (“Architect. Soc. Journal,” 1895, p. 68.) After the dissolution of the monasteries, in the following reign, the lands connected with the priories of Sempringham and Bullington, in Oxcombe, would pass into other hands, and accordingly we find new names among the owners. By will, dated 14 June, 1535, John Gedney, of Bag Enderby, Esquire, leaves lands in Bag Enderby, Oxcombe, Winceby, Langton, and Somersby, to his sons John and Andrew, a witness to the will being George Musgrave, parson of Oxcombe. Oxcombe evidently fell to the share of the latter of these two sons, since a few years later, Andrew Gedney of Bag Enderby {148} (in 1562) presented Robert Brown to the benefice of Oxcombe, vacated by the death of Roger Barry, (“Architect. S. Journal,” 1897, p. 8.)