SWINESHEAD, a parish (formerly a market-town)
in the wapentake of KIRTON, parts of HOLLAND, county
of LINCOLN, 7 miles (W. by S.) from Boston, containing
1696 inhabitants. An abbey for Cistercian monks
was founded here by Robert de Greslie, in 1134, the'
revenue of which at the dissolution was valued at
£175. 19. 10.; many valuable coins and several skeletons
have, at various periods, been dug up near the spot,
and, in 1825, on sinking a well, one of the latter was
discovered, which measured six feet four inches. King
John, in passing the Cross Keys wash, near this place,
lost his carriages and baggage, and escaped to the
monastery only with his life, where he died. The ruins
of the monastery have entirely disappeared, but its site
is still visible, and a mansion, recently modernised,
was erected with a portion of its materials, about two'
hundred and twenty years since. The sea formerly
flowed up to the town, and near the market-place was a
harbour. About thirty years ago, a bridge was taken
down, which crossed a river then navigable for small
craft, but now choked up. The market, nearly disused,
is on Thursday, and a fair is held on October
2nd. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the arclv
deaconry and diocese of Lincoln, rated in the king's
books at £ 14. 9., endowed with £30 per annum private
benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and £900 parliamentary
grant, and in the patronage of the Master and
Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge. The church, dedicated
to St. Mary, is a handsome edifice with a lofty
spire. A free school was founded, in 1720, by Thomas
Cowley, Esq., who endowed it with certain lands producing
£35 per annum, for which thirty-five children receive
instruction, with a small surplus for clothing thei
poor, who also receive from the interest of various
charitable bequests the benefit of a distribution amounting
to £ 200 per annum. About a quarter of a mile
north-westward of the town is a circular Danish encampment,
called the Man-war-rings, about sixty yards
in diameter, and surrounded by a double fosse.