The whole estate of Stixwould was afterwards purchased by Edmund Turnor, Esq., of Stoke Rochford, who first presented to the benefice in 1778, his nominee, as Vicar, being a member of a very old Lincolnshire family, Bernard Cracroft, who also held the Vicarage of Bardney. A former Sir Edmund Turnor was knighted by Charles II., in 1663, as a reward for services rendered to that king’s martyred father. The property still remains with this family. Among the gentry of Lincolnshire named at the Heralds’ Visitation in 1634, is Edwd. Broxholme “of Stixwould,” who seems to have had relatives at Lincoln, North Kelsey, Grimsby, Nettleham, and elsewhere among the county gentry; one of them, John of Otbye, contributing £25 to the national loan for defence against the Spanish Armada. (“Linc. N. & Q.” ii., pp. 9 and 134). Whether this Edward Broxholme was a landowner in Stixwould, or a tenant, does not appear. He resided at the Priory. We now give a brief notice of Stixwould Priory, dedicated to the blessed Virgin Mary. This was founded by the Lady Lucia (_i.e._, the second of that name), and her two sons, Ranulph, Earl of Chester, and William de Romara, Earl of Lincoln (Leland “Collect.,” vol. i., p. 92), in the reign of Stephen. The Rev. Thos. Cox, in his “Lincolnshire” (of date, 1719), ascribes the foundation to Galfred de Ezmondeys. {194} Doubtless, at different periods, additions and augmentations were made to the original institution, entitling the benefactors to be numbered among the “fundatores”; but the general testimony of Leland, Dugdale, and others, is in favour of the Lady; whose uncle, Sheriff Thorold, was a benefactor to Croyland Abbey, and founded Spalding Priory, his sister, the Lady Godiva, also (as the Chronicler Henry of Huntingdon tells us), spending much of her vast wealth in building monasteries and churches, while her descendant, William de Romara II., founded Revesby Abbey. By an Inquisition taken 3 Edwd. I. (1275), it was found that the lands held by the Priory, given by these and other benefactors, had been so held for 100 years (Dugdale’s “Monasticon” i., p. 56, No. 486); and further, by an Inquisition at Stamford, in the same reign, it was found that the Priory had certain lands at Huntingdon, from divers benefactors (“Ibid.” ii., p. 223, No. 809), one of these being Alexander Creveceur, a member of a distinguished Norman family, who owned lands in Somersby, circa A.D., 1242, and in several other parishes in this neighbourhood; the name also appearing in the Battle Roll. They are now represented by the de Courcy’s whose chief, Lord Kinsale, is premier Baron of Ireland, and entitled by royal warrant to the singular privilege of keeping his hat on in the Sovereign’s presence. Besides the Huntingdon property, the Priory possessed house property in Lincoln, 900 acres of land in Honington, 120 in Bassingthorpe, 120 in Bucknall, 42 in Wyberton, 249 in Stixwould, with