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The Linacres of Westwell and Plumley, 1189-1605 ADBy John RotherhamApril, 2017The Linacre family are of ancient Anglo-Saxon heritage, having been recorded in England at the time of Domesday. The name is derived from the Old English, lin (flax) + oecer (cultivated field), meaning “dweller in or near a place where flax was grown”. Flax is the source of natural fibre used for the making of linen and was widely grown in the locality from the 13th Century. There were flax spinning mills at Brampton and Holymoorside, and the crop was still being grown in Eckington in the 18th Century.The earliest record of the Linacre name in Derbyshire is contained within a 12th Century charter of Engelram de Brampton, where Hugo de Linacre of Lynacre is recorded as a witness. From the time of the Norman Conquest, it had been commonplace for people to adopt the name of their place of origin. Presumably therefore, Hugo had been living at Linacre for a while when he attested the charter.It may have been Hugo’s son, John de Linacre who, according to a deed of 1189 AD, was paying a rent of 2 shillings to Garnier of Nablus, the Prior of the Brothers of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem for two bovates of land (30-40 acres) at Linacre. Early in reign of Henry III, Hugo de Linacre and Hugh, his son, granted land in Brampton to Geoffrey, the parson of the chapel of St. Peter and St Paul, Brampton, for an annual rental of five shillings. Around the same time, Walter de Linacre granted land to the chapel. Hugo also gave land in Brampton to the nuns and friars of the Priory of Sempringham in Lincolnshire, on payment of one pair of boots every second year on St Martin’s Day. He also owned property in Hasland, including the mill there.One of the remarkable features of the Linacre family is the frequency with which they appear as witnesses to charters and deeds of the period. For Brampton in particular, there is hardly a single charter that does not contain a Linacre within the list of those present at its signing, often being the first, suggesting that the family was regarded with some esteem by the local community. Of the local manuscripts that survive from between 1200 and 1300 AD, Hugo and his son Hugh, Walter, Simon, William and Roger Linacre were the witnesses to 58 deeds and charters.Around 1264 AD, a chantry was founded at Brampton Chapel by Hugh Ingram. Named “The Chantry of Our Lady at Brampton”, he endowed it with thirty five acres of land for a priest to say mass at the Lady Chapel. This was followed by a further eleven acres donated by Hugh de Linacre and a homestead and unspecified area of land and meadow was given by his son or brother, Walter, for the maintenance of morning mass.At the turn of the 14th Century and after approximately five generations of de Linacres at Brampton, two brothers, Roger and William Linacre, begin to dominate the records. In 1327/8 Roger is assessed in the Lay Subsidy Roll for Brampton as having moveable goods to the value of ?4. In Dronfield, he also had goods valued at 10 shillings. The latter probably represented a messuage which would later become the site of Hasland Hall. William was not assessed, suggesting that he was a minor or living with his older brother at the time.Their father, William, had married Cecilia de Hackenthorpe, daughter and heiress of John de Hackenthorpe of Beighton, and in 1342 Richard Hackenthorpe gave Cecilia some additional land and properties in Mosborough that John of Westwell previously held. By 1350, their son, William the younger, was also holding land in Ridgeway, near Eckington.The extent of the younger William’s estate in Westwell becomes apparent from the Inquisition Post Mortem of Sir Roger Belers, knight, taken in 1380, revealing that in Mosborough, William de Linacre held a one eighth part of a knight’s fee, said to be worth 12s. yearly, suggesting that his holding there extended to approximately 80 acres. By 1391, William’s land in Ridgeway had been leased to Roger Sitwell, an ancestor of the Sitwells of Renishaw Hall, whose grandfather in 1310, was one of the founders of the Guild of St Mary and the Holy Cross at Eckington. William’s father had served as Alderman of the Guild in 1350.After William granted a lease of his land in Hasland to John, the son of Richard del Frith in 1352, the family, uncharacteristically, disappears from the record, perhaps owing to the outbreak of the Black Death of 1348-9 and subsequent visitations. From an analysis of court rolls of 1348/9, Sitwell estimated a possible loss of 30% of the population of Eckington at this time. In 1375, William is witness to a charter granting of an oxgang of land, probably as part of a marriage settlement, to his daughter Joan and her husband Roger, the son of John de Wygley. In 1414 and 1415, John Linacre, probably a son of William, is recorded in the Fine Rolls as Tax Collector for Brampton. John and his wife, Katherine, appear in a roll of the fraternity of the Guild of the Virgin Mary and Holy Cross at Chesterfield, along with the names of Robert Barley, Esq., Alderman of the Guild, Henry Foljambe and Benedicta his wife, Godfrey Foljambe, John Foljambe, Peter Frescheville and Matilda his wife, William Barley and Christian his wife, and Roger Eyre and Ellen his wife. The respected historians Daniel and Samuel Lysons, in their major work “Magna Britannia” suggest that, in addition to the marriage with the Hackenthorpe heiress, there were Plumley and Bakewell heiresses who also married into the Linacre family before 1400, although they quote no sources apart from Vincent’s Derbyshire Pedigrees, which cannot be relied upon. Of the Bakewell marriage, no trace has been found, but the Plumley family had been resident at Plumley in Mosborough since at least 1342; probably much earlier, and a clue to the Plumley connection arises from a rather remote source in Norfolk.In 1443, Agnes Lynaker of Brampton in Derbyshire, presented Thomas Plumley to the rectory of Saxlingham in North Norfolk, “as lady of John de Saxlingham’s lordship”. Thomas was not the first Plumley to be associated with the area. A Thomas Plomley was presented to the living by Robert Plomley (styled Domicellus) in 1414. Thomas Plumley was rector of Saxlingham in 1427, and two further presentations by the Linacres occurred in later years: William Lynekene was presented by John Linekere in 1474, and Nicholas Bothe was presented by Robert Lynacre, Esq., in 1509. Deeds deposited at the Norfolk Record Office explain the connection. In 1391, Robert Plumlee was lord of the manor of Saxlingham, and in 1393 Robert and his wife Margaret leased the manor and advowson of Saxlingham to Roger Bartholemew. Some years later, in 1418, Robert Plumler, son and heir of Robert Plumler, gave to Thomas Plumler, rector of Saxlingham, Henry Bartholomew and William Smyth the manor of Saxlingham with all rights and land in the vills of Saxlingham, Bayfield, Sharrington, Dalling, Wiveton and Langham in the hundred of Holt, Norfolk. Robert Plumler, the grantee, appears to be the same Robert Plumley who was living in Plumley in Mosborough at this time and William Smyth was described as “of Ekyngton, Derbys.” in a later deed of 1423. This latter transaction seems to be part of a settlement for a division of the estates of the elder Robert Plumley in favour of his daughter Agnes Plumley, who had married William Linacre of Brampton.John, the eldest son of William and Agnes, had married Nichola, the daughter of John Algarthorpe, and in 1430, the couple inherited estates in Brampton, Hasland, Mosborough, Hackenthorpe, Sothall, and Beighton in Derbyshire, as well as Agnes’ lands in Saxlingham, Bayfield, Sharington, Dalling, Wiveton, and Langham in Norfolk .In 1431, Parliament approved a subsidy or tax that was to be levied on land and John Linacre, armiger, was summoned to serve on the Scarsdale jury that was charged with making the assessment. In terms of his own liability, it was recorded that he held land in Eckington (worth 20 shillings), Brampton (40 shillings) and Beighton (30 shillings). He is now described as “of Mosborough”, suggesting that John and Nichola had set up home at the Westwell estate in Mosborough, leaving John’s younger brother, Thomas, to remain at Brampton. It is of interest to note that, at this time, William Plumley, armiger, was holding Plumley (worth 13 shillings and four pence), land in Staveley (6 shillings and eight pence) and a third part of the manor of Ashover (by military service).There was another Thomas Linacre (c. 1460-1525) who rose to prominence during the early 16th Century. A memorial plaque at the parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Old Brampton records: “To him was chiefly due the revival of classical learning in this country”. Thomas Linacre, scholar, physician and priest, was a Fellow of All Souls College Oxford, founder and First President of the Royal College of Physicians and Tutor to both Erasmus (who in turn was Tutor to King Henry VIII) and Sir Thomas More, physician to King Henry VIII. He was the founder of Linacre College in Oxford.A number of writers of the period, who were probably in a position to know, claim that he was born at Derby. The roll of the Royal College of Physicians (Munk’s Roll) names his birthplace as Canterbury. His biographer, John Noble Johnson, is more circumspect, but accepts the logic of Linacre as his birthplace. More recently, Madison concluded that there is no new evidence to dismiss his links with Linacre Hall.Oddly, Linacre himself gave nothing away about his birthplace or heritage during his lifetime and his memorial at St. Paul’s Cathedral (lost in the Great Fire of London, but recorded by Weever) is equally unhelpful. His will includes bequests to a sister Alice, who is otherwise unrecorded, and a brother Thomas, which is unusual of itself, although he was of the same era as Thomas Linacre, the supposed builder of Hasland Hall, raising the possibility of a half-blood relationship. The one concrete and tantalizing link is the reference to his two nieces, Agnes and Margaret, names which correspond exactly with the names of the two daughters of John Linacre, brother of Thomas the builder, who were both probably living in 1525 when the will was drawn.The early part of the 15th Century was marked by an increased incidence of lawlessness throughout the country, but particularly in the northern counties, including Derbyshire. Local rivalries had developed into bitter disputes and, ultimately into violence. In an attempt to restore law and order, Parliament issued an order in 1432 requiring commissioners from each county to nominate the more prominent of the local gentry to swear an oath not to maintain peace breakers. Among the 330 men listed for Derbyshire appeared the names of ‘John Lynacre, esquire’ and his father, ‘William Lynacre, gentilman’.John and Nichola had three children, a son also called John, and two daughters, Agnes and Margaret. Agnes married Robert Rollesley, a younger son of the Rollesleys of Little Rowsley, who had held the manor there since the reign of Richard I. Margaret had married John Coke of Norton, a yeoman farmer. In 1483, John Linacre conveyed the manor of Saxlingham, to his son John, together with rents and services in the neighbouring villages of Sharrington and Thornage.John, the father, died in 1488 and his Inquisition Post Mortem outlines his landholdings in detail. These included the manor of Linacre in Brampton, with 2 water-mills, worth ?7, together with other land at Brampton for which he paid a rent of 40 shillings to the heirs of Thomas Caus. He held the manor of Plumley and other land in Eckington, which in total amounted to eight messuages, 10 bovates of arable land (150-200 acres), 20 acres of meadow, 40 acres of pasture and 14 acres of woods, worth ?12. In Beighton, he owned the manor of Sothall, worth 66 shillings and eight pence, with 10 bovates of arable land, 20 acres of meadow, 60 acres of pasture and 6 acres of woods. With his house at Westwell, there were 10 bovates of land, 40 acres of meadow and 2 acres of woods, and at Hasland Hall, there were 8 bovates of arable land and meadow and 60 acres of pasture, worth 100 shillings. In Handley, he owned a messuage, 4 bovates of land and 8 acres of woods worth four marks, and in Bramley a messuage, 3 bovates of land, 2 acres of meadow and an acre of woodland. John Newbold paid him four shillings for a tenement in Hackenthorpe.The document also summarises the process by which the property came into his hands: “One John Lynacur, son of William Lynacur of Brampton, gave the under-mentioned manors and lands, whereof he was seised in fee, by the name of all those lands and tenements which he had of the gift and feoffment of the said William Lynacur his father in Brampton, Haselond, Egkyngton, Plumley, Westhyll, Swottehall, Hakyngthorp, and Beghton, co. Derby, to the said John Lynacur, by the name of John Lynacur his son, and Nicholaa his wife, daughter of William Algarthorpe, and the heirs of their bodies, with remainder to the right heirs of the said William Lynacur for ever. The said John Lynacur, the son, survived the said Nicholaa his wife, and died 6 July last. Agnes, now the wife of Robert Rollesley, aged 36 and more, and Margaret, now the wife of John Coke, aged 30 and more, are his daughters and heirs by the said Nicholaa.”Significantly, it adds “The issues and profits of the said manors and lands have been received by Robert Lynacur since the death of the said John.”Firstly, it may be inferred from this that William Plumley of Plumley had died and that John had inherited the Plumley estate by right of his grandmother. Second, and importantly for what was to follow, the estate carried a remainder to the right heirs of William Linacre, John’s father. His two daughters, Agnes and Margaret, had survived him, but the absence of his son, John, as a named heir suggests that he must have died some time previously. On the face of it, it might seem logical for the daughters to expect to inherit, but under common law, married women could not acquire, hold or dispose of property. Primogeniture remained a key principle of 15th Century inheritance law, aimed at keeping estates intact and avoiding their repeated sub-division. Perhaps John the younger had died prematurely, leaving his father with insufficient opportunity to enfeoff his daughters and their husbands with a share of the estates before his own demise. In any event, the entail on the estate was clear: “with remainder to the right heirs of the said William Lynacur for ever”, making Robert Linacre of Brampton and Hasland the rightful heir. An attempt by the two daughters and their husbands to exclude Robert in 1493 was unsuccessful.Robert married Anne de Stanborough. They had four children, a daughter, Margaret, and three sons, Peter, who married Margaret Taylor, Philip, Robert, and George, who married Muriel, daughter of Thomas Leek of Hasland. It is evident from the terms of a lease to John Linacre, his nephew, that Robert had also inherited the manor and advowson of Saxlingham in 1490, and a charter from the same year reveals that Roger Eyre, one of the fourteen children of Robert and Joan Eyre of Padley, Derbyshire, had replaced William Wilson as the tenant of Plumley. A pardon roll of Henry VIII confirms that Robert was living at Brampton in 1509.Around 1515, Helena Coke, the daughter of Robert’s niece, Margaret, married Roger, the son of Sir Henry Foljambe of Walton Hall. The Foljambes were prominent Derbyshire lead smelters; Roger Foljambe’s brother, Sir Godfrey being Farmer of the King’s Lead in 1516. The process of bole smelting consumed enormous quantities of wood and sources nearest to the lead mines on the fringes of the Peak District were especially sought after. The marriage would have been regarded as advantageous for both families. On 15th April 1513, Godfrey Foljambe had purchased timber in Over Linacre Wood from Robert Linacre for ?20 8s 6d. Foljambe would have possession of the woods for four years, with consent to cut turf to cover his charcoal pits. Foljambe’s grandson, also named Godfrey, was exploiting the same woods almost sixty years later, when, on 4th June 1571, he purchased all the timber in Over Linacre Wood and others from James Linacre of Linacre for ?50. Foljambe was given possession until 2 February 1577, with the right to continue the production of charcoal.Robert also granted the couple a lease of Linacre Hall and Helena continued to live at the Hall after her husband’s death in 1527. She was probably interred beside him in the family vault in the Foljambe Chapel of Chesterfield Parish Church, on the alter tomb of which is displayed the Linacre arms, a chevron between three escallops.Robert died shortly afterwards and a quite astonishing document, appearing to be his Inquisition Post Mortem furnished by the Rev. W. Rotherham of Bury St. Edmunds, appeared in the 1869/70 edition of “The Reliquary”, claiming to afford proof of descent of the Linacre estates from the beginning of the 14th Century to the time of Henry VIII. At first glance, the record has all the hallmarks of a fake. It sets out each descent sequentially, mostly from one generation to the next, the heirs almost universally being sons and heirs of those preceding. Vincent’s Derbyshire Pedigrees interpret the document to represent some twenty generations, which by today’s standards, appears wildly excessive. However, life expectancy was considerably shorter in those times and the names of the descendants do, with some exceptions, accord broadly with the written record provided by contemporary deeds, charters and governmental/church archives. Also, the evidence must have been sufficiently compelling to convince the heralds at the Derbyshire Visitation of 1569.The disputes surrounding Robert’s inheritance of the estates in 1488, provide additional context, and conspiracy theorists may have reason to regard the document with suspicion. The litigious Foljambe family of Walton Hall had become involved following Roger Foljambe’s marriage to Helena Coke; Henry Foljambe being charged with unlawful detention of deeds relating to the Brampton, Linacre, Westwell, Sothall, Hackenthorpe, and Hasland estates.Nevertheless, the Linacre entail prevailed and Robert’s son, George Linacre, inherited the estates. George married Muriel Leek, daughter of Thomas Leek of Hasland and Sutton Scarsdale, and sister of Elizabeth Leek, otherwise known as ‘Bess of Hardwick’. They had one son, John, who married Ann, daughter of Charles Barneby of Barneby Hall, Yorkshire.In 1516, George granted the manor of Saxlingham and a share of the right to presentation on every second turn to the benefice of Saxlingham church to Richard Wye . On 2nd January 1540, he sold land in Handley, a close called “Cloighfeld” in Eckington, and a rent of 4d in West Handley, to Peter Frescheville of Staveley for ?63 13s 4d. George is said to be of “Plomeclay Hall” (presumably, Plumley Hall) in this document; the first recorded reference to a hall at Plumley.Soon, George was to learn what it meant to hold his manor of Linacre by knight service, for in April 1545, he received the following letter from Francis Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury: “Forasmuch as the King “is credibly advertised that his ancient enemies, the Scots and Frenchmen, of their insatiable and deadly malice against this realm” intend an invasion of these North parts, Shrewsbury is commanded to levy an army royal within his commission. Knowing Lynacre to be a man of courage who will gladly serve for the defence of his native country, charges him to put himself and ten picked men ready, the "fourth part of them" to be good archers furnished with bow of yew and 24 arrows in a sheaf, and with dagger and sword or "malle of leade or iron," and the rest each with a good bill and dagger, foreseeing that as many as possible have horses that may be able to serve when they come to the Borders. They shall be ready to march on 12 May next or sooner upon one hour's warning, and bring their own victuals and carriage. Darneton, 18 April 1545. Signed.”A short note attached to the letter states “Therll of Shrewsburys l'res, when he was lieut., for the making of men.”Henry VIII had declared war against Scotland after the Scottish Parliament had rejected his proposal to secure the marriage of the infant Mary Queen of Scots to his son, Edward. Francis I of France had agreed to send troops in aid of the Scots, and in 1544/5, Shrewsbury had been appointed Lieutenant-General of the North and ordered to secure and hold the northern borders. George appears to have survived the conflict, unlike his wife’s cousin, Sir John Leek of Sutton who, writing his will before departing for Scotland, did not.It would have been expected, no doubt, that in the event of George’s death, his estates would pass to John, his only son and heir. John and his wife Ann had four children, James, who married Agnes, the daughter of the Reverend Edward Bagshawe of Ridge Hall (known locally as “The Apostle of the Peak”), a younger son, Godfrey, and daughters Anne, who married Richard Pendleton of Mansfield, and Elizabeth, who married William, the son of Robert Rotherham of Ridgeway.It appears that George had given John and his wife the lease of Linacre Hall, but when John pre-deceased his father in 1544, John’s widow, Ann, living at Beighton, demised the lease of Linacre Hall to an attorney, possibly acting on behalf the Barneby family. George was also living at Beighton, when in 1548 he enfeoffed his brother, Robert, for life with all of his Brampton estates at Brampton, Cutthorpe, Whittington and Staveley. Perhaps fearing for his own demise, he placed his grandson and surviving male heir, James Linacre, son of John and Ann, a minor, into the care of his wife’s cousin, Sir Francis Leek of Sutton, along with his estates at Linacre, Plumley and Westwell in trust to provide for the future marriage of James to Frances, one of the daughters of Sir Francis.Meanwhile, Godfrey Foljambe of Plumley Hall, the husband of his wife’s cousin, Elizabeth, had died and, by 1553, was remarried to James Hardwick of Hardwick and Glapwell, brother of “Bess of Hardwick”, then wife of Sir William Cavendish of Chatsworth.At some time in the three weeks prior to the sitting of the Eckington Manor Court on 17th May 1556, George had died. The jury presented that James Linacre, his blood-relative, and next heir, was aged 3 years. As was customary at the time, George’s widow, Muriel, would continue to enjoy the family home at Westwell during the remainder of her lifetime.However, disputes soon arose with her grandson’s guardian and father of the young James’s intended wife, Sir Francis Leeke. The marriage appears never to have taken place and this may have been the source of the quarrels. Records of proceedings in the Star Chamber reveal that Leek was accused of assaulting Muriel’s servants at Hackenthorpe and Beighton, and on another occasion, of assaulting her servants at Hasland. Muriel, on the other hand, was said to have seized Leek’s tithe-corn and assaulted his servants at Westwell, and to have forcibly seized growing rye there.The Leeks had acquired a reputation for being particularly ruthless in their dealings with property. At one stage they had instituted so many proceedings in the courts of Star Chamber, Requests, Chancery and Common Pleas, that the Privy Council was persuaded to intervene to seek ‘a final and neighbourly end’ to the litigation.James died prematurely, and without issue in 1558 after having defended a suit for debt by Thomas Stringfellow and others in the Court of Chancery. Shortly afterwards his brother, Gilbert, inherited the Plumley and Westwell estates and he was obliged to defend another suit for debts incurred by James, who had placed certain lands in Derbyshire and elsewhere in trust with the plaintiffs for payment of a debt of ?20.It was Gilbert’s grandson, James, who would ultimately succeed to the Linacre estates after more untimely deaths in the family. James married Mary, the daughter of Francis Stephenson of Unstone, and the couple made their home at Linacre Hall.When, in 1570, Parliament voted a Lay Subsidy to Elizabeth I for the suppression of the Northern rebellion of Earls supporting the claim of Mary, Queen of Scots to the throne of England, James Linacre’s estate in Walton, Brampton and Calow was valued at ?10, second only to that of Godfrey Foljambe, valued at ?60.The year 1580 marked the beginning of a long-running saga in which the Manor Court of Eckington attempted to force James to pay attention to the condition of Plumley Lane. At the Great Court hearing of 24th October, the Court had dealt with a number of instances in which pigs and cattle had strayed and tenants had failed to secure their hedges or had stopped up common lanes. The Court resolved that: “First a payne laide that James Lynacre gent do lye open one lane betwixt Plumley Woodd and Mosbroughe before the feast of the purification of our ladye. And so suffer it to lye open in payne of vjs viijd.”As a tenant of the manor, James was obliged to attend the manor court every three weeks, but hardly ever did so and was often fined fourpence on account of his absence. In April 1583, the Manor Court noted “that James Lynacre, gent., had not laid out a lane between Westwell and Plumley Woode contrary to the pain previously laid”. He was amerced (fined) 30s. and a new determination was made:“A payne set that James Lynacre, esquire, doe laye oute a lane leading from Westwell to Plumley Woode and hedge the same from the Sou[th]all Closes before Maye Daye next and so kepe the same open in payne of xxxiijs iiijd.”The same pain (rule) was set in October of that year, and again in March 1584. In October 1584 the pain was increased again to 38s, and now the jury was asking by what right James Linacre held the land, which was shown to be by knight’s service. By April 1585 the pain was repeated once more, this time with the words “hedge the same from his severall closes”, being underlined, perhaps emphasising a growing sense of frustration. Sadly, the court rolls for the first 33 years of the seventeenth century have not survived, so it is not possible to discover the outcome of James’ intransigence. Perhaps he resented the interference of the manor court in what he regarded as his manors of Westwell and Plumley. Alternatively, he may have simply fallen into line and restored Plumley Lane to the satisfaction of the court and its bailiff. What the record does reveal is the difficulties that manor courts of the period experienced in enforcing their will against the gentry.In 1589, James was included in a list of Derbyshire gentry selected to make an enforced “loan” to Elizabeth I for the defence of the realm at the time of the Spanish Armada. Nine names are set down for ?100, fourteen for ?50, and forty-nine, including James Linacre, for ?25. There was much resistance locally to such an imposition, but James duly made his contribution on 14th April.It has not been possible to establish whether the Linacres were involved in the lead smelting trade prior to the 1580s, but the incentive to do so came firstly with the introduction of the footblast ore hearth before 1576, superseded by the water-powered smelting mill by 1585. The Linacres are known to have held water corn mills in Linacre and Brampton since the early thirteenth century, and the conversion of these for lead smelting would have been an attractive proposition. Conversion of at least one of these by 1584 is evidenced by a bill of complaint to the Exchequer Court alleging infringement of a patent held by the Company of Mineral and Battery Works. This concerned a lead smelting technique developed by William Humfrey in association with Nicholas Strelley at Beauchief. Despite two special Exchequer Commissions of Inquiry, the proceedings were abandoned shortly thereafter following local opposition by prominent lead interests including Sir Godfrey Foljambe and the Earl of Shrewsbury.On 16th August 1596, James and his uncle, Gilbert Linacre of Brampton, once more leased the woodlands at Linacre, this time to Thomas Burton of Cartledge, for five years, including the Over (i.e. upper) lead-mill and the right to make pits for charcoal or white coal. Two years later, James wrote to Bess of Hardwick, now the Countess of Shrewsbury, to say that he had fallen from his horse and was unable to wait upon the Earl, requesting that he might have “two does at Christmas to bestow among his friends.” It is possible that James died as a result of his fall, for there is no further reference to him thereafter.Gilbert Linacre had married Troth, the daughter of John Nevil of Grove, Nottinghamshire, and cousin of Mary Nevil who married Gervase Eyre of Newbold. It seems that, by 1599, Gilbert and his wife had displaced the Eyres as the residents of Plumley Hall according to a conveyance of 20th September of that year by which he sold land and cottages at Holymoorside and Cutthorpe along with the water corn mill there to Godfrey Clarke and Thomas Foljambe, gents., both of Somersall. The same year, he also assigned land in Hasland, possibly Hasland Hall, to a distant cousin, Thomas Leek of Hasland.In February 1601, he leased a watermill called Wood Mill and a “decayed” mill called the Nether Lead Blast, both in Linacre Wood with a dwelling house and newly erected kiln adjoining and with grazing for a mill horse to Gervase Scha alias Somersall of Ashgate for 20 years at ?6 rent. Gilbert retained the right to convert either of the mills to a cutler’s wheel, and after Thomas Burton’s lease of the woods expired in 1602, they were leased once more to Roger Newton and William Stafford, mercers, of Bakewell, by which time the conversion of one of the mills to a cutler’s wheel had been completed.In 1605, Gilbert and his wife sold all their property to Robert Booth and John Hacker, agents of Gilbert Talbot, 10th Earl of Shrewsbury. The property included the manors of Lynacre and Plumley with Linacre Hall and Plumley Hall, Westwell Hall, 3 cottages, 100 acres of arable land, 70 acres of meadow, 270 acres of pasture, 150 acres of woodlands, 2000 acres of moorland and all property in Lynacre, Brampton, Holymoorside, Wigley, Walton, Cutthorpe, Chesterfield, Ingmanthorpe, Westwell, Mosborough and Ridgeway.There is no record of what happened to Gilbert and his wife after the sale, bringing to an end almost 500 years of Linacre history in Brampton and Mosborough. ................
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