The earliest actual mention of Waddingworth is in Domesday Book, in which there are two references to it. In one of these we are told that the Conqueror gave part of the parish to the proud and powerful Bishop of Durham, William de Karilepho, A.D. 1082, who was also Chief Justice of England. There were 4 carucates of land, _i.e._, 480 acres, rateable to gelt (a very small tax), the whole being 6 carucates, or 720 acres, with 20 acres of meadow (“ings”) and 25 acres of underwood. The other notice is that the same amount of land was given by the Conqueror to one of his distinguished Norman soldiers, Eudo the son of Spirewic. Eudo, it will be remembered, was a comrade in arms of Pinco, the latter of whom acquired large property in the neighbourhood of Spilsby, and his descendants eventually became the Lords Willoughby d’ Eresby (_i.e._, Spilsby). Eudo received the manor of Tattershall and several others, one of these being a moiety of Waddingworth. He was the founder of Kirkstead Abbey, which he richly endowed. This leads to a curious coincidence. Dr. Oliver, the learned writer of “The Religious Houses on the Witham,” mentions that among the possessions of Tupholme Abbey were lands in Waddingworth. What more natural than that, in days when spending one’s wealth on so-called religious works was a passport to heaven for the giver, and for his forefathers or his descendants, Eudo should have devoted some of his wealth to the Religious House at Tupholme, as well as to the Religious House at Kirkstead? Tupholme was founded by two brothers, Alan and Gilbert de Nevil, in 1160, Kirkstead was founded 1139. At the dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII. seized monastic property, and this is why we find the King as Patron of Waddingworth in “Liber Regis,” and also in much later authorities. It is, indeed, now in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor, as representing the crown. The Conqueror seized it by the right of conquest; Henry VIII. seized it as the plunderer of monasteries. This carries us down to nearly the middle of the 16th century. There were, however, other small proprietors who owned land, besides these two prominent parties. At an early period, there is a “Final Concord,” so called, or agreement, of the 13th century, as follows:—“On October 19, A.D. 1200, Petronilla, the widow of Richard de Waddingworth, claimed of Robert de Waddingworth, tenant of a 3rd part, viz., 20 oxgangs (or 300 acres), with 6 tofts, in Waddingworth, besides lands in Bucknall and Horsington, as her dower, given to her by her late husband, the said Richard; and Robert surrendered all claim to the lands in favour of the said Petronilla for her life, for which Petronilla gave him 2½ marks.” After the dissolution of the monasteries, though the crown retained the patronage of the benefice, the land seems to have passed into several other hands. In 1559, Roger Fulstow, of Waddingworth, claimed of his sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, protection