In the reign of the Conqueror the powerful Robert Despenser had in this parish eighty acres of meadow land, three hundred and fifty acres of wood, and two mills, with sokemen, velleins, and bordars; other land, with dependents, being owned by Gozelin, a vassal of Alured of Lincoln, named above in connection with Woodhall. The Champion Dymoke is lord of the manor in the present day. A Roman urn, as has been stated elsewhere, was dug up in this parish when the railway was being constructed. The only public notice in connection with Thornton of an unusual character, in modern times, is the following, which appeared as an advertisement in the “Stamford Mercury” of January 5th, 1810:—SACRILEGE.—Whereas the Parish Church of Thornton, near Horncastle, has been lately broken open and a thin silver half-pint cup stolen out of the chest, any person giving information of the offender or offenders, shall, on conviction, receive from the parishioners of Thornton five guineas reward, and if there was an accomplice in the above sacrilege who will turn King’s evidence, he shall, on conviction, have the above reward, and every endeavour will be used to obtain his Majesty’s pardon.—“Lincs. N. & Q.,” Oct., 1896. In a list of gentry who furnished “launces and light horse” for the defence of the country in 1584, given in the Melbourn Hall MS., we find the name of Edward Dymmock, of Thornton, Gent., put down for “j light horse” for the master at Horncastle, and among those who were summoned for the Sessions there, according to another list, we again find Edward Dymmock of Thornton, Gent. (“Architect. S. Journal,” vol. xxii., pt. ii., pp. 214 and 221). In a grass field, on the south side of the road through Thornton, there are mounds and hollows, indicating a large residence, which this Dymmock probably occupied.