In 1317, Edward II granted the friary of St Augustine a license to purchase land in Skirbeck in Lincolnshire and by 1328 there were twenty friars living there. By the time of the dissolution, the total area was calculated as covering about ten acres - half an acre of this was adjacent to St John’s churchyard.

Three centuries later, when the Poor Laws were enacted it became the responsibility of the local parish to provide for the poor and they were housed in workhouses. Boston was built on land that belonged to the friary. All that remains now is its frontage.

The building was designed by architect George Gilbert Scott (image two) and what remains today is used by Lincolnshire Social Services.

#lincolnshire #boston #skirbeck
#friary #staugustine #edwardII #workhouse #poorlaw #19thcentury #architecture #georgegilbertscott

Laying in the corner of what was once the churchyard of St John’s in Skirbeck are the broken remains of gravestones along with bits and pieces of rubble.

I suppose that they were piled in a corner at one time but they are now just scattered around, sad isn’t it?

#lincolnshire #boston #skirbeck #stjohnschurch #churchyard #gravestones #tilney #familyhistory #localfamilyhistory #lincolnshirefamilyhistory

On this side of the fence that runs along the centre of my photo is the land on which St John’s Church once stood. On the other side is a piece of land that was known as St Augustine’s Pasture, and behind that, where six grain silos stand, is the site of St Augustine’s Friary founded in 1317 by the Tilney family.

In the July of 1930, in the old friary pasture, a firm of timber merchants were digging foundations for their new sheds when they found human skeletons just four feet below the surface.

#lincolnshire #boston #skirbeck #staugustine #friary #stjohnschurch #knightshospitaller #knightshospitallersofstjohnofjerusalem #tilney #familyhistory #localfamilyhistory #lincolnshirefamilyhistory

On this spot in about 1200, a hospital was founded and dedicated to St Leonard. Its function was to care for ten poor of the community. Thirty years later, Thomas de Moulton gave the hospital, along with rights to the land, to the Knights Hospitallers of St John’s of Jerusalem. A number of knights lived out their days here and a tomb of one of them can be found in St Botolphs Church in Boston town’s marketplace.

St Leonard’s Hospital became St John’s Hospital and by 1287 there was a chapel added, this became St John’s Church, the cemetery of which you can see in my photos. The church was in use until the 17th century when it became unfit for purpose and was demolished.

#lincolnshire #boston #skirbeck #stjohnschurch #graveyards #cemetary #knightshospitaller #knightshospitallersofstjohnofjerusalem #tilney #familyhistory #localfamilyhistory #lincolnshirefamilyhistory

Here I am again back in Boston where I started my search for the Tilney family.

The summer took me to two villages on either side of the Humber in search of this lady’s maternal ancestry. It is possible that this is Margaret the wife of Frederick Tilney.

Margaret and Frederick had at least one son, whose descendants would go on to greater things (depending on your point of view that is) in the mid-16th century.

Margaret’s effigy once lay in the church of St John’s in Skirbeck. It is this area, which predates Boston itself, that I find myself this weekend.

#lincolnshire #boston #stbotolphs #bostonstump #tower #stjohns #skirbeck #church #tomb #effigy #medieval #architecture #surname #tilney #rochford #family #familyhistory #lincolnshirefamilyhistory