The Abbey of Revesby was founded by William de Romara, A.D. 1143. {158d} He was the son of Roger de Romara, who married (about 1093), as her 2nd husband, the lady Lucia, who was daughter and heiress of Thorold, of Buchenale (now Bucknall in this neighbourhood), Sheriff of Lincolnshire, and that family survives now in Sir John C. Thorold, of Syston Hall, near Grantham. The family of Thorold, or, as it was spelt at that time, Turold, was even then old and distinguished. He was the brother of the Lady Godiva, of Coventry fame, wife of Earl Leofric, and mother of Earl Algar, and descended, according to Camden (“Britannia”, p. 474), and others, {158e} from the Saxon Earl, Egga (and Morcar), who flourished in the 8th century. The first husband of Lucia, was Ivo Taillebois, of Anjou, who came over with the Conqueror, as the leader of his Angevin auxiliaries. After the death of the brave young Saxon nobles, Edwin and Morcar, brothers-in-law, of King Harold, who refused to submit to the Norman yoke, their sister, the Lady Lucia, became entitled to all their possessions, and therefore was an heiress worth securing; and, much against her wish, the Conqueror bestowed her upon his favourite, Ivo (A.D. 1072). With her, this Ivo acquired, among much other property, the manors of Revesby and East Kirkby. We find the first mention of Revesby, in Domesday Book (A.D. 1085), as follows:—“In Churchebi and Resuesbi there are 12 carucates (or about 1440 acres) of land, rateable to gelt;” {159} the land is 12 carucates; 54 sokemen and 14 villeins have these 12 carucates. Ivo has 1 carucate (in demense) and 2 churches, and 180 acres of meadow land. The whole manor, with all that belongs thereto, is 6 miles long and 6 miles broad. Turold was Lord of Spalding, and his daughter Lucia, and conjointly her husband, Ivo, founded the Priory of Spalding. But Ivo, by his acquisitions, became so great a tyrant, to all connected with him, that he was eventually outlawed by King Rufus, and banished the kingdom. He fled to Anjou. After a time he was allowed to return to his wife, the Lady Lucia, who was holding her court at Spalding; but, to her great relief, he shortly afterwards died of paralysis, and, writes the chronicler, Peter de Blois, “hardly had one month elapsed after his death, when she married that illustrious young man, Roger de Romara, and lost all recollection of Ivo Taillebois.” Their son, William, was created first Earl of Lincoln, and, following the example of his mother at Spalding, he gave certain lands to the monks of Riveaux, Co. York, to found a Cistercian Abbey, the lands aforesaid being all Revesby, Thoresby and Sithesby, and, as certain portions of Revesby were held by another lord, he effected an exchange, by giving land commensurate in Miningsby, and by a similar process of exchange, secured other further portions, so as to bring the abbey estates into what would now be termed “a ring fence.” We have not space to go to any extent into