The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

BELL AND BENINGTON FAMILIES. 543
This chantry is mentioned in a deed, dated 28th June, 1425, in which William Derby of Benington, Esquire, grants to John IKygheley and Robert Roos,
knights, and other persons therein named, the manor of Benington, with the
advowson of the church, and a chantry in the same founded in honour of the
Blessed Virgin Mary.l The lands belonging to this chantry were leased by
Queen Elizabeth to; "George Erington, servant to Sir Walter Mildmay," on the
7th July, 1565, for twenty-one years, for the annual rent of 41. 7s. This lease
was transferred to John Browne of Boston, gentleman, on the 6th of November,
1565, for the sum of forty marks.2 A piece of ground in Benington called Monk
Green, and another inclosure called the Chantry Pasture, were probably part of
the possessions of this institution.
Several families of note and antiquity were formerly connected with, and
resided in, Benington. The pedigrees of the BELLS of BENINGTON are given at
length in the Harleian MSS., Nos. 1097, 1190, 1484, and 1550.3 John Bell of
Benington occurs about 1300; he was succeeded by his son John, whose son,
Richard, married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Holland of Estovening, about 1380; their son, Gilbert Bell, succeeded them, whose son, John,
was alive 1445; his daughter and heiress, Joan, married John Clements of
Leverton about 1460. This, we believe, terminated the main branch of the
Bells of Benington; but the name, connected with Benington, frequently occurs
in the Subsidy Rolls, and other documents of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.
Sir WILLIAM BENINGTON, knight, and Lord of Benington, lived about the
middle of the twelfth century.4 He was succeeded by his son, Alan, of Benington. His second son was Baldrick Benington, archdeacon of Leicester.5
Alan was succeeded by his son, Sir Reginald Benington, knight, whose daughter
and heiress, Maude, married Sir Alan Engaine, Chief Justice of England.
Their grand-daughter married Sir John Batonica; another grand-daughter
married John Bohun of Leverton, about 1325. Their daughter, Elizabeth,
married Henry Winceby. Though the elder branch of the Benington family
was thus extinct, we find aWilliam de Benington mentioned among the gentry of
the county in 1332;6 and Richard de Benington in 1425,7 1429,8 1430,9 1432,10
1434, 1447,11 1448,12 1452, and 1456.13 Joan, the wife of Richard de Benington,
was a member of the Corpus Christi Guild in 1434.14
RIcHAR DIE BENINGTON was a wealthy and liberal man. In 1447, he gave to
the Guild of the Blessed Mary, in Boston, five Inessuages and thirty acres of
pasture-ground in Boston and Skirbeck,15 We believe that this Richard Benington is the same person as the Richard Benington mentioned by I[NGULPHUS,
C" as that noble and painstaking man, who proved himself in all respects most
faithful towards our monastery; and liberally contributed forty pounds towards
the glazing of the western window in the lower part of the church;"16 and, in
another, as "that illustrious man, Richard Benington."'l This person is
alluded to, in the first place, as a cc liberal contributor" to Croyland Abbey, and,
1 Close Roll, 3 Henry VI.' Com potzs of the Guild of St. Mary.
2 Harleianlz Chartelrs, British iMuseum, 78 A. 16. 12 Inqueis. ad quod dalmnurm.
3 SIMS' Index to the Herald's Visitation, p. 170. 13 DUJGDALE, On Embankment, p. 240.
4 Harleian MSS., No. 2145, p. 88. 5 Ibid. 14 Corpus Christi Roll.
6 Inquis. cd quad dannunm.5 Inquis. ad q(lod damnZum.
7 Roll of Corpus Christi Guild. 16 INGIPIJPHUS, new edition, p. 433.
s Ibid. 9 Ibid. 17 Ibid. 415.
1O DUGDALE, Embanklcment, 240.