In the case of Kirkby the accounts also of these Norman Lords might seem, at first sight, somewhat conflicting. For instance, Domesday Book gives Odo, Bishop of Baieux as owner of this parish, or a large portion of it; but we turn over only a few pages, and find it referred to as among the possessions of William de Karilepho, Bishop of Durham. But “hereby hangs a tale.” Odo of Baieux was half brother of William the Conqueror; being the son of Arlette, the concubine of his father, Robert, Duke of Normandy, by a Norman Noble, Herluin de Contaville. Odo’s brother was created Earl of Moretaine, his sister was the Countess d’ Aumale (which in later times became Albemarle), and he was given by the Duke, in 1049, the high position of Bishop of Baieux, in the now department of Calvados, in Lower Normandy. {102a} On coming to England in the train of the Conqueror, he was created Earl of Kent, Count Palatine, and “Justiciarius Angliœ,” and no less than 439 manors were bestowed upon him, 76 of these being in Lincolnshire. He was thus among the most powerful of the Normans in this country; he was styled “Vice-Lord of the whole of England,” and was said to be “second only to the King.” But his greatness was his ruin. Elated by his vast wealth, he aspired to the Papacy, and collecting a great amount of treasure, he was about to set sail for Rome, when William seized him and his treasure, and sent him to prison in Normandy, confiscating his estate. {102b} Thus Odo’s tenure of his lands in Kirkby and elsewhere, was only brief; and there were other grasping Norman followers of the Conqueror ready to step into his shoes. One of these was the aforenamed William de Karilepho, Bishop of Durham; who had been Abbot of St. Karilepho in Normandy, but, coming over to England, was consecrated to that Palatine See in 1082. Thus Kirkby again became the property of a scarcely less powerful prelate than Odo; for the Bishops of Durham have ranked high in the episcopate down to quite recent times; but in early days they were not only bishops, but princely nobles, whose influence almost rivalled that of the Sovereign; and this prelate again was Chief Justice of England. An indirect evidence of the Bishop of Durham’s influence in Kirkby is seen in the following circumstance. Both Ecton’s “Thesaurus,” and “Liber Regis,” state that the benefice of Kirkby formerly paid a “pension of 40_s._ to the Priory of St. Leonard at Stamford.” This would appear to have come about in the following manner. Oswy, the Saxon King of Northumbria, in the middle of the 7th century of the Christian era, having conquered the pagan King of Mercia, of which Lincolnshire formed a part, as a thank-offering to God, gave to Wilfred, the friend and instructor of his son Alchfrid, certain lands in Stamford, for the maintenance of 100 Monks. Accordingly Wilfred, who afterwards became Bishop of York, founded the Priory of St. Leonard at Stamford;