The Dighton surname derives from the placename of Dĩc-tūn, meaning farmstead with a ditch,  and is linked with the settlements of Deighton, near Northallerton; Deighton, south of York; and the adjoining settlements of Kirk Deighton and North Deighton in the West Riding. It is North Deighton in which the de Dighton family are recorded as holding land in the 1300s and early 1400s.

 

Maddison’s Lincolnshire Pedigrees and The Visitation of Worcestershire, suggest Jane’s family line descended from Thomas Dighton of Swaby (north of Spilsby, Lincolnshire) in the late 14th century, though Dightons appear in various county records a century prior to that: John de Dichton of Wyberton (south of Boston, Lincolnshire) is named as a debtor in 1299. A priest named John de Dighton instituted to the vicarage of Immingham, Lincolnshire in 1320. John de Dyghton “son of John” who, along with his wife Joan, appears in legal documents between 1375 and 1382 and is variously described as being of Skirbeck, Boston and Lincoln. In 1415, John Dyghton of Lincoln ‘Horse Leech’ (a medieval term for a veterinary) is recorded as the defendant in the case of a debt.  With another John Dyghton, a Clerk, record a case of trespass in “Wynterton”, North Lincolnshire in 1460. Twenty-seven years later, a John Dighton was given the rectorship of St Nicholas’ in Fulbeck (north of Grantham, Lincolnshire).

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In 1435, William Dyghton (aged at least 25) was presented to the vicarage of St Katherine’s Priory in Lincoln, resigning in 1540.  This may be the same William Dighton who was rector of Doddington for nine years from 1440, under the patronage of Alan Alforth, and William Dominus Dyghton whose will is dated 1509.

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Robert Dighton II

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The earliest reference to Robert Dighton is in 1512, when he is described as a glover when admitted to the freedom of the city. By 1523 he was married to Joyce St Paul, whose parents were William St Paul of Snarford and Agnes Tyrwhit both being from notable Lincolnshire families. Robert and Joyce were evidently resident at Little Sturton from at least the mid-1530s, when it is likely he had a substantial property there “suitable to a rising and aspiring gentleman.” 

 

The PCC copy of his will refers to him as  Esquire, which suggests he was a step up the social scale from a gentleman; this is reflected in the supervisors of his will who were all esquires and included Justice William Dalison the younger. Robert himself held significant offices: he was MP for Lincoln in 1539, and (along with Thomas Dymock) was put in charge of making inventories of the monastic property of Barlings. This was in 1537, not long after he was implicated in the Lincolnshire Rising in 1536. Though not as wealthy as his father, Robert has numerous manors and parsonages, clearly profiting from the opportunities to purchase and lease monastic lands such as those at Stixwould Priory, which were sold to him for twenty years purchase once the nuns had been forced to surrender and pensioned. Robert is also recorded as having purchased “Two buttresses of Trinity church at the Grece foot and stone from the chancel”.

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Robert is apparently resident at Little Sturton when he dies in 1544/45. His wife Joyce was his executor, and she was to have all unbequeathed land to bring up the children in “virtue and learninge” as well as the inevitable payment of debts and the legacies. There was a contingency plan of trustees to bring up the children if Joyce remarried or died. She also acquired land in “Asheby”.

Robert and Joyce had nine living children at the time of his death:

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Joyce Dighton

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Joyce outlived Robert by around 25 years; her will is dated 1 Jan 1570 (1570/1). By this time, her son Christopher has died but there are two children under the age of 21. Joyce left her granddaughter Anne £20, to be paid at marriage or when she reached full age. Thomas her grandson, was to be made the ward of Master Charles Fitzwylliams ‘his father in lawe’ which suggests that their mother had remarried.

Sons Gilbert, Robert and William were each left 100 ewes and their lambs (the latter to be divided amongst them).

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The will records that son Edmund owed £200 for four years rent of Sturton, Sturton Grange and Ashebye and that his brother William may need to appoint atorneys to “recov[er] to his and their more use and behoofe the said CCli w[hi]ch the said Edmond Dighton my son[n]e Doth owe unto me and wych I have geven to my said son[n]e W[illia]m Dighton”. Elizabeth was now married to her third husband, but Joyce makes provision for the sons (Robert and Thomas) from her first marriage to Justice William Dalyson. Anne is married to William Daylson Esq of Kirmington, and Jane to Sir John Monson.

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The premable to Joyce’s will hints at a possible conflict between personal and public declarations of religious faith. Whilst largely Protestant in its tone, it includes the words “commit my soule to almyghtye god and to o[ur] blessed ladye S[ain]t Marye and to all the holly companye of heaven” which is more reflective of Catholic beliefs. Joyce asked to be buried within the “cathedrall churche of Lyncoln nighe unto my sayd late husbande”.

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