Lunch at the Carre Arms on Saturday – cheese soufflé, salad and a glass of wine. Wikipedia gives a potted history of the Carres
‘During the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the Hussey family owned the manor of Old Sleaford. John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford was executed for treason for his part in the Lincolnshire Rising. The manor and his residence at Old Place reverted to the Crown and were later sold to Robert Carre. George Carre or Carr from Northumberland had settled in Sleaford by 1522 when he was described as a wool merchant. His son Robert bought Hussey’s land and the castle and manor of New Sleaford from Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln. His eldest surviving son Robert, founded Carre’s Grammar School in 1604, and his youngest son Edward was created a baronet; his son founded Sleaford Hospital in 1636. The last male descendent died in 1683 and the heiress, Isabella Carre, married John Hervey, Earl of Bristol, in whose family the estates remained until the 1970s. The Carres and Herveys had a strong influence: in addition to extracting dues from their tenants, they took leading tradesmen to the Exchequer Court to gain legal force behind their monopoly on charging tolls on market and cattle traders and for driving animals through the town.’
A grabbing lot the later Carres, it sound as if they followed neither the letter nor the spirit of the sign on the wall outside.
