TATTERSHALL, a market-town and parish in the
southern division of the wapentake of GARTREE, parts
of LINDSEY, county of LINCOLN, 30 miles (S. E. by E.)
from Lincoln, and 125 (N.) from London, containing
627 inhabitants. This place, anciently a Roman military
station, as two encampments at Tattershall park in its
immediate neighbourhood indicate, was granted at the
Conquest to Eudo, one of William's followers, whose
descendants erected a castle here about 1440, of which
some remains are yet visible south-westward from the
town: it stood on a moor, and was surrounded by two
fosses, which received the waters of the Bane, but the
principal part was demolished during the parliamentary
war: the north-west tower, a rectangular brick structure
one hundred feet high, flanked by four embattled
octangular turrets, was built by Sir Ralph Cromwell,
treasurer of the Exchequer in the reign of Henry VI.,
and still remains; he likewise erected a lofty tower,
with a spiral staircase leading to its summit, about four
miles northward, as an appendage to the larger structure,
but this is now in a very dilapidated state. The
town, situated on the river Bane, near its junction with
the Witham, is much decayed, and the trade inconsiderable;
a canal from the Witham to Horncastle passes
through it. The market, originally granted by King John
to Robert Fitz-Eudo, was formerly on Friday, but is
now on Thursday; fairs are on May 15th and September
25th. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the peculiar
jurisdiction of the manorial court of Kirstead,
and in the patronage of E. Fortescue, Esq. The church,
which is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is situated on
the eastern side and in the outer moat of the castle, and
was made collegiate, in the time of Henry VI., for seven
chaplains (one of whom was master), six clerks, and six
choristers: at the dissolution its revenue was estimated
at £348. 5.11. The collegiate buildings have been taken
down, and the church alone remains, which is a beautiful
and venerable cruciform structure, consisting of a
nave, transept, and choir, of which the last was once
much admired for its magnificent painted windows, but
since their removal to the chapel of Burleigh, the seat
of the Marquis of Exeter, this part of the edifice has
been allowed to fall into decay. There is a place of
worship for Wesleyan Methodists. A National school,
wherein about one hundred and thirty children are instructed,
is held in the south side of the transept of the
church; and an almshouse for thirteen poor persons,
originally established by the license which raised the
church into a college, still remains, with a small endowment
for its support.