Lincolnshire county page

Contents

Lincolnshire Towns & Parishes

Nearby Places

Willoughby

Note: Silk Willoughby and Scott Willoughby are different parishes, both near Sleaford. There is also a Willoughby in Warwickshire.

Census

• The parish was in the Alford sub-district of the Spilsby Registration District.
  
  
• We have an extract of a small portion of the 1901 surname index which you are welcome to review or add to.
  
  
• Check our Census Resource page for county-wide resources.
  
  
• The table below gives census piece numbers, where known:
  
  

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Church History

• The Anglican parish church is dedicated to St. Helen (or St. Helenas).
  
  
• The church was restored in 1886 and further restoration was done in 1890.
  
  
• The church seats 300.
  
  
• There is a photograph of St. Helen's Church on the Wendy Parkinson web site.
  
  
• There is a photograph of the Mission Church at Sloothby on the Wendy Parkinson web site.
  
  
• Here is a photo of St. Helen's Church, taken by Ron Cole (who retains the copyright):
  
  

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Church Records

• Parish registers are on deposit from 1538, and the registers are available on microfilm from the Family History Library (FHL) in Utah.
  
  
• The Lincolnshire FHS has published several marriage indexes and a burial index for the Calcewaith and Candleshoe Deanery to make your search easier.
  
  
• The Wesleyan Methodists and Primitive Methodists built chapels here in the 1800's. For information and assistance in researching these chapels, see our non-conformist religions page.
  
  
• Check our Church Records page for county-wide resources.
  
  

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Civil Registration

• The parish was in the Alford sub-district of the Spilsby Registration District.
  
  
• Check our Civil Registration page for sources and background on Civil Registration which began in July, 1837.
  
  

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Description and Travel

Willoughby is both a village and a parish which lie about 3 and a half miles south of Alford and eight miles northwest of Spilsby. It is a large parish of approx. 5,027 acres, with Farlesthorpe and Cumberworth parishes to the north, Hogsthorpe parish to the east and Orby and Welton le Marsh to the south.

Willoughby village is bisected by the B1196 secondary road. The hamlet of Sloothby at TF 4970 is also part of Willoughby parish. Other hamlets which existed in Willoughby are Bonthorpe, Habertoft, Hasthorpe, Mawthorpe, and Sandfield.

• Part of the old railway at TF 4773 is now a scrub preserve under the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust.
  
  
• For information on visiting, see the Lincolnshire Touring and Holidays page on this site.
  
  

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History

• Willoughby was a station on the Great Northern Railway in the 19th Century.
  
  

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Maps

• For a map, go to MultiMap.
  
  
• The national grid reference is TF 4772.
  
  
• You'll want an Ordnance Survey Explorer map, which has a scale of 2.5 inches to the mile.
  
  
• See our Maps page for additional resources.
  
  

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Names, Geographical

• The name Willoughby derives from a combination of Old English and Old Scandinavian Wilig+by, or "farmstead by the willow trees". It appeared in the 1086 Domesday Book as Wilgeby.
  A. D. Mills, "A Dictionary of English Place-Names," Oxford University Press, 1991.
  
  

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Names, Personal

• Robert SUTTON of Willoughby was sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1507.
  
  
• Famous people of Willoughby include Captain John SMITH, who campaigned in a battle in Hungary against the Turks. He later went on to New England (which he named), where he wrote a local history, as well as one of Virginia, where he founded Jamestown. It is he who was captured by indians and almost killed, saved by the intervention of Pocahontas, the daughter of a tribal chief. He died in 1631.
  
  
• In the 19th Century, Baroness Willoughby de ERESBY was owner of the greater part of the parish.
  
  

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Politics and Governance

• The parish was in the ancient Calceworth Wapentake in the East Lindsey district in the parts of Lindsey.
  
  
• Kelly's 1913 Directory of Lincolnshire places the parish, perhaps erroneously, in the South Lindsey district of the county.
  
  
• For today's governance, see the East Lindsey District Council.
  
  

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Poorhouses, Poor Law, etc.

• Undated: Rev. Anthony BARNES bequeathed £10 yearly for apprenticing poor boys of the parish.
  
  
• As a result of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, the parish became part of the Spilsby Poor Law Union.
  
  

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Population

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Schools

• Schooling started here in 1727 with a bequest by the Rev. Anthony BARNES. A schoolhouse was built in 1848. In 1871 it had about 40 students. A Church School existed at Sloothby in 1872, attended by about 30 children.
  
  
• See our Schools page for more information on researching school records.
  
  

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