Brothertoft

Village in Lincolnshire, England

Brothertoft is a village in the civil parish of Holland Fen with Brothertoft, in the Boston district, in the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is about 4 mile (6 km) northwest from the market town of Boston.

Evidence has been found that the area now known as Brothertoft was known to the Romano British people. The site of a possible building was uncovered at Cannons Farm in Punchbowl Lane between 1957 and 1959. A denarius of Septimius Severus was found along with pottery, potsherds, animal bones, ditches and hollows. The hamlet is first recorded some time after 1350 and before 1540. Brothertoft hamlet is mentioned in the Diocesan Return of 1563 (Deanery of Holland, parish of Kirton,) as having ten households. William Marrat, a local historian writing in 1814, noted that the traditional belief for the origins of the village name lay in a grant being awarded to two brothers in order that they could "inclose" (that is, separate and cultivate) the area from the surrounding fenland. The word toft is thought to come from the Danish occupiers of Lincolnshire in ancient times and has the meaning of homestead or enclosure. Hence the place name of Brother Toft. In an addendum Marrat wrote that the place had been a vaccaria (or vaccary literally, a cow shed) of the abbey at Swineshead and had once been called Toft because of it relatively raised position above the fens. There are records of receipts which were probably from the area in the Swineshead entries of the Valor Ecclesiasticus. The raised position did not exclude the area from flooding and, for example, in 1763 the villagers were forced to live in the upper stories of buildings due to the amount of water ingress. In 1971 the civil parish had a population of 320. Brothertoft was formerly a chapelry in the parish of Kirton, in 1866 Brothertoft became a civil parish, on 1 April 1987 the parish was abolished to form "Holland Fen with Brothertoft".

While the surrounding land belonged to Swineshead in medieval times, the manor of Brothertoft was worked by the Sempringham Priory. The Order of Sempringham originated in 1131. About that time Gilbert of Sempringham became the rector of the church of Sempringam. He then instituted the rule of St. Augustine and many statutes from the customs of Augustinian and Premonstratensian canons. The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 values "Brodertofte" at £9.16s.1d.

By 1553 Robert Carre (sometimes spelled Carr) of Sleaford owned the manor of Brothertoft, which was left to his cousin Robert Carre. Robert Carre, cousin to Robert Carre, lived at the old Carre House at Sleaford. He died in 1590. Sir Edward Carre, 1st Baronet of Sleaford, was the owner in 1614 at which time his Brothertoft tenants were charged with the diking of part of South Ea as commoners in Holland fen. Edward was married twice and had three issue from his second marriage to Anne Dyer: Rochester, Sir Robert and Lucy. He resided at old Hall at Dunsby Sir Robert Carr, son of Edward and 2nd Baronet of Sleaford, Lady Ann was likely Robert's mother, Ann Dyer Carre. married Sir Francis Holles (1627–89), later 2nd Lord of Holles (also spelled Hollis) in Westminster Abbey. Following Robert Carre's death, Francis Holles successfully secured for Lucy a good portion of Robert Carre's estates, although Brothertoft is not specifically named.

Brothertoft manor was next owned by Sir Charles Frederick Who bought it from Thomas Pelham Holles, Duke of Newcastle and Katherine Pelham, widow of Henry Pelham in 1761. Frederick died in December 1785, and his son Thomas Lenox Frederick sold it to John Cartwright, Esquire.

Prior to Frederick, the fenland often flooded to the point where boats had to be used for transport, and it was during his time at Brothertoft that drainage, and then enclosure began. Around 1767 the inhabitants of Brothertoft, who occupied 52 houses in the hamlet, were "most active" in rioting as a protest against the enclosure of Holland Fen. They regarded this land as being for their pleasure and sustenance, and in particular as a location for fishing and fowling. Aside from general rioting and the removal of recently erected fencing, up to 200 people also played football on the land in an attempt to assert their historic rights, forcing Frederick to send men to guard the area. The situation led to serious injury and deaths, including the loss of an eye by a Captain Wilks who had been employed by Frederick to command the guard and who was shot. and some developed by his bailiff and later steward William Amos (agriculturist) He began addressing his letters as being from Brothertoft Farm. or Brothertoft house, to which the farm was an ancillary. Cartwright had extended Brothertoft house with octagonal additions to both ends and had also applied a stucco finish to the walls. Marrat described it as "an elegant mansion". He claims that it was originally built by Thomas Saul, founder of the Baptist chapel in Boston. Brothertoft Farm was extended in the early 19th century by Thomas Gee, a son of Henry Gee, a banker of Boston. Marrat recounted in 1814 that Cartwright had sold off much of the land as separate farms, that the holding had consisted of around and that the principal owners then had been Gee, T C Gerordot, C Dashwood, G Beedham and John Burrell. The lands had a rateable value of £790 4s. 0d. in 1831–1832, with the "extra parochial Pelham's Lands" being valued at £518 7s. 7d. (Pelham's Lands was near Fosdyke and by the 1870s comprised seven houses and a population of 54). At this time the area was a part of the Kirton Hundred or Wapentake, By the mid 1850s there were 123 inhabitants and the lands consisted of , with the principal owners being Gee, Herbert Ingram, Henry Rogers, George Cartwright and Mrs Barnsdale. A Mary Beedham, only child of George Beedham, had married a Mr Barnsdale of Brothertoft at Boston around June 1811. [[File:Geegrave1 (2). jpg|thumb|The gravestone of Thomas and Anne Gee at Brothertoft. The Hall was subsequently occupied in turn by Frederick Curtois, Charles James Small, Henry Peart, and Ebenezer Larrington,

There were prayer meetings being held by a group of Baptists in Brothertoft in 1813. These people raised a subscription for a Mission in India.