Brothertoft

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.{{cite PastScape|mnumber=352534|accessdate=28 April 2011}} A denarius of Septimius Severus was found along with pottery, potsherds, animal bones, ditches and hollows. A Roman vase was dug up about 1970 at a separate site in Brothertoft by Mr Epton.{{cite PastScape|mnumber=352540|accessdate=28 April 2011}}

The hamlet is first recorded some time after 1350 and before 1540.{{cite book |title=The agrarian history of England and Wales |volume=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1989 |editor1-last=Hallam |editor1-first=H. E. |editor2-last=Thirsk |editor2-first=Joan |page=142 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSE9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA142 |isbn=978-0-521-20073-8}} Brothertoft hamlet is mentioned in the Diocesan Return of 1563 (Deanery of Holland, parish of Kirton,) as having ten households.{{cite book|title=Tudor Lincolnshire|year=1975|publisher=The History of Lincolnshire Committee|isbn=0-902668-05-6|first=Gerald A. J. |last=Hodgett|editor-first=Joan |editor-last=Thirsk|page=193}} 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.{{cite book |title=The history of Lincolnshire |volume=2 |pages=186–193 |first=William |last=Marrat |authorlink=William Marrat |publisher=William Marrat |location=Boston, Lincs. |year=1814 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ShAHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA186}}{{cite journal |journal=The Cornhill Magazine |series=New |volume=22 (69 of old series) |page=526 |title=Toft and Croft |date=May 1894 |location=London |publisher=Smith, Elder & Co. |url=https://archive.org/stream/cornhillmagazin22londuoft#page/526/mode/2up }} In an addendum Marrat wrote that the place had been a vaccaria (or vaccary{{cite book |title=The agrarian history of England and Wales |volume=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1989 |editor1-last=Hallam |editor1-first=H. E. |editor2-last=Thirsk |editor2-first=Joan |page=309 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSE9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA309 |isbn=978-0-521-20073-8}} - literally, a cow shed) of the abbey at Swineshead and had once been called Toft because of it relatively raised position above the fens.{{cite book |title=The history of Lincolnshire |volume=2 |pages=410–413 |first=William |last=Marrat |publisher=William Marrat |location=Boston, Lincs. |year=1814 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ShAHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA410}} There are records of receipts which were probably from the area in the Swineshead entries of the Valor Ecclesiasticus. These are not definitive as another historian of the period, Pishey Thompson, pointed out that Toft was used as a name both for Brothertoft and Fishtoft in the late fourteenth century.{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyandantiq00thomgoog |title=The History and Antiquities of Boston: And the Villages of Skirbeck |first=Pishey |last=Thompson |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyandantiq00thomgoog/page/n535 483] |year=1856 |publisher=John Noble |location=Boston}} 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.{{cite book |title=The fens and floods of mid-Lincolnshire |url=https://archive.org/details/fensfloodsofmidl00padl |first=James Sandby |last=Padley |author-link=James Sandby Padley|page=[https://archive.org/details/fensfloodsofmidl00padl/page/43 43]|chapter=Holland Fen Riots |publisher=C Akrill |location=Lincoln |year=1882 |hdl=2027/loc.ark:/13960/t6h13j38d}}

In 1971 the civil parish had a population of 320.{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10403870/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Brothertoft Ch/CP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=23 November 2023}} Brothertoft was formerly a chapelry in the parish of Kirton,{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/place/11768|title=History of Brothertoft, in Boston and Lincolnshire|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=23 November 2023}} in 1866 Brothertoft became a civil parish,{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10403870|title=Relationships and changes Brothertoft Ch/CP through time|publisher=A Vision of Britain through Time|accessdate=23 November 2023}} on 1 April 1987 the parish was abolished to form "Holland Fen with Brothertoft".{{cite web|url=https://www.ukbmd.org.uk/reg/districts/boston.html|title=Boston Registration District|publisher=UKBMD|accessdate=23 November 2023}}

While the surrounding land belonged to Swineshead in medieval times, the manor of Brothertoft was worked by the Sempringham Priory.{{cite book|title=Holland Fen with Brothertoft|year=2000|publisher=Holland Fen with Brothertoft Parish Council|first=Betty |last=Brammer}} The Gilbertine Order 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=38029 |title=The Priory of Sempringham |publisher=British History Online |year=1906 |work=The History of the County of Lincoln |editor=Page, W |accessdate=13 April 2011}} The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 values "Brodertofte" at £9.16s.1d. On 18 September 1538 Brothertoft was surrendered by Robert Holgate, chaplain to Cromwell, with Roger the Prior (Prior of 1538) and 16 canons as part of the dissolution of the monasteries.{{cite book | title=History of Lincolnshire | editor=Page, A | volume=2 | publisher=Archibald Constable and Company | location=London | year=1906 | page=186 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1WU-AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA186 }}

By 1553 Robert Carre (sometimes spelled Carr) of Sleaford owned the manor of Brothertoft, which was left to his cousin Robert Carre.{{cite book | title=Sleaford and the wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardhurn in the county of Lincoln | author=Trollope | publisher=W. Kent and Company | location=London | year=1872 | page=328 | url=https://archive.org/stream/sleafordwapentak00troluoft/sleafordwapentak00troluoft_djvu.txt }}{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=057-hill&cid=23-226#23-226 |title=Lincolnshire Tellers' Bills 1553-1671 |year=2001–2011 |work=Lincolnshire Archives |publisher=National Archives |accessdate=18 April 2011}} Payment by Robert Carr in 1583. Described in the Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office, vol. I (1963) p. 98, as "Records of teller bills described as narrow slips of parchment recording the payment of money into the Exchequer. They were entered by the auditors and afterwards recorded by the Clerk of the Pells in his receipt book". Robert Carre, cousin to Robert Carre, lived at the old Carre House at Sleaford. He died in 1590.{{cite book | title=Sleaford and the wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardhurn in the county of Lincoln | author=Trollope | publisher=W. Kent and Company | location=London | year=1872 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/sleafordwapentak00troluoft/page/130 130], 135, 415 | url=https://archive.org/details/sleafordwapentak00troluoft }}

Sir Edward Carre, 1st Baronet of Sleaford,{{cite book | title=Sleaford and the wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardhurn in the county of Lincoln | author=Trollope | publisher=W. Kent and Company | location=London | year=1872 | page=[https://archive.org/details/sleafordwapentak00troluoft/page/119 119] | url=https://archive.org/details/sleafordwapentak00troluoft }} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=057-spaldingsewers&cid=6-3-11#6-3-11 |title=Records of the Spalding Court of Sewers |year=2001–2011 |work=Lincolnshire Archives |publisher=National Archives |accessdate=18 April 2011}} 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 and died in 1618.{{cite book | title=Sleaford and the wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardhurn in the county of Lincoln | author=Trollope | publisher=W. Kent and Company | location=London | year=1872 | page=[https://archive.org/details/sleafordwapentak00troluoft/page/131 131] | url=https://archive.org/details/sleafordwapentak00troluoft }} Sir Robert Carr, son of Edward and 2nd Baronet of Sleaford, and Lady Ann Carr were owners of Brothertoft in 1619.{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=174-ha507&cid=3-41-3#3-41-3 |title=Lincolnshire - Surveys and valuations HA 507/3/224-250 [n.d.] |year=2001–2011 |work=Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch |publisher= National Archives |accessdate=18 April 2011}} Lady Ann was likely Robert's mother, Ann Dyer Carre.

Lucy Carre, daughter of Sir Robert Carre (died 1667) and "the Lady Mary Carre, daughter of Sir Richard Gargrave,{{cite book | title=Sleaford and the wapentakes of Flaxwell and Aswardhurn in the county of Lincoln | author=Trollope | publisher=W. Kent and Company | location=London | year=1872 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/sleafordwapentak00troluoft/page/132 132]–135 | url=https://archive.org/details/sleafordwapentak00troluoft }} married Sir Francis Holles (1627–89),{{cite web|url=http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/holles-family |title=Holles family |accessdate=14 April 2011}} 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.

The son of Francis Holles, Denzil, was initially the heir of Francis but died within two years of his father, and the land passed to his cousin John Holles, first Duke of Newcastle. Upon his death in 1711, much of his estate passed to his nephew, Thomas Pelham-Holles, who also became Duke of Newcastle.{{cite web |url=http://www.historyhome.co.uk/pms/newcastl.htm|title=Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle (1693-1768) |accessdate=13 April 2011}}{{cite book | title=The history of the reign of Queen Anne | first=Abel |last=Boyer | year=1712 | volume=10 | page=381 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O-k1AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA381}}{{cite book|title=Holland Fen with Brothertoft|year=2000|publisher=Holland Fen with Brothertoft Parish Council|first=Betty |last=Brammer|page=14}}

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.{{cite web|title=Manor of Brothertoft; Final Concord|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=176-frederick183&cid=-1#-1|work=Access to Archives|publisher=The National Archives|accessdate=17 March 2012}} Frederick died in December 1785,{{cite web|title=Sir Charles Frederick|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/frederick-charles-1709-85|work=History of Parliament|publisher=History of Parliament Trust|accessdate=17 March 2012}}{{cite web|url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=9&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27frederick%27%29|title= Library and Archive Catalogue|publisher= Royal Society|accessdate= 2011-04-16}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and his son Thomas Lenox Frederick sold it to John Cartwright, Esquire. Cartwright did not purchase the land until 1788.{{cite journal | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wTQaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA522 |year=1824 |title=John Cartwright, Esquire |journal=The New Monthly Magazine |volume=XII |issue=1 November |page=522 |publisher=Henry Colburn |accessdate=13 April 2011}}

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.{{cite book |title=Collections for a topographical and historical account of Boston, and the hundred of Skirbeck |first=Pishey |last=Thompson |page=155 |publisher=J Noble |location=Boston |year=1820 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=thUHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA155}} 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.{{cite book |title=The fens and floods of mid-Lincolnshire |url=https://archive.org/details/fensfloodsofmidl00padl |first=James Sandby |last=Padley |page=[https://archive.org/details/fensfloodsofmidl00padl/page/40 40] |chapter=Holland Fen Riots |publisher=C Akrill |location=Lincoln |year=1882 |hdl=2027/loc.ark:/13960/t6h13j38d}} 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. This common land had also traditionally been the scene of an annual fair, called the Toft drift, lasting a week from 8 July and attracting visitors from nearby villages and from Boston.

File:BrothertoftChurch HallandPark.jpg

In 1788 the land was bought by Major John Cartwright, the political reformer. He sold his estate at Marnham, Nottinghamshire soon after and by the time he leased the estate and moved to Enfield, Middlesex in 1803 or 1805 had developed the rich loam soil into a profitable site for the cultivation of woad, assisted by new machinery, some of his own invention{{cite book | url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89053439170 | title=The Life and Correspondence of Major Cartwright | volume=1 | pages=177, 198, 322 |first=Major John |last=Cartwright | editor-first=F D |editor-last=Cartwright |year=1826 |publisher=H Colburn |location=London }} and some developed by his bailiff and later steward William AmosArthur Young,General View of the Agriculture of Lincolnshire, London, 2nd edn, 1813, pp. 76–77, 163. He began addressing his letters as being from Brothertoft Farm.

At this time there was a building called Brothertoft Hall{{cite book|url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp|title=History, Gazetteer & Directory of Lincolnshire |year=1856 |pages=52, 811 |publisher=William White |accessdate=14 April 2011}} 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".{{cite journal |title=Young's view of the agriculture of Lincoln |journal=The British Critic and Quarterly Theological Review |volume=14 |year=1799 |page=270 |publisher=F and C Rivington |location=London |hdl=2027/mdp.39015056066734 }} He claims that it was originally built by Thomas Saul, founder of the Baptist chapel in Boston. Pishey Thompson believed the founder of the Boston chapel to be John Saul.{{cite book |title=Collections for a topographical and historical account of Boston, and the hundred of Skirbeck |first=Pishey |last=Thompson |page=211 |publisher=J Noble |location=Boston |year=1820 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=thUHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA211}}

Brothertoft Farm was extended in the early 19th century by Thomas Gee,{{cite web |url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp |title= Kellys Lincolnshire Directory |year= 1919 |publisher= Kellys Directories Ltd |accessdate=14 April 2011}} 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 {{convert|880|acres|ha}} and that the principal owners then had been Gee, T C Gerordot, C Dashwood, G Beedham and John Burrell. Cartwright had married the eldest daughter of Samuel Dashwood in 1780.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/abiographicaldi00watkgoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/abiographicaldi00watkgoog/page/n76 57] |title=A biographical dictionary of the living authors of Great Britain and Ireland | first1=John | last1=Watkins | authorlink1=John Watkins (writer) | first2=Frederic | last2=Shoberl | authorlink2 = Frederic Shoberl | first3=William | last3=Upcott | authorlink3 = William Upcott |publisher=H Colburn |location=London |year=1816}} 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).{{cite web |url=http://visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=13421 |title=Pelhams Lands|publisher=Vision of Britain |accessdate=17 April 2011}} At this time the area was a part of the Kirton Hundred or Wapentake, which itself had a total rateable value of £51,469 15s. 8d.{{cite book |title=Accounts and Papers relating to assessed taxes, poor &c. |volume=17 |page=93 |publisher=House of Commons |year=1831 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S29bAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA93}} By the mid-1850s there were 123 inhabitants and the lands consisted of {{convert|900|acres|ha}}, with the principal owners being Gee, Herbert Ingram, Henry Rogers, George Cartwright and Mrs Barnsdale.{{cite web|url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/makepdf.asp?fn=E:\ZYIMAGE\DATA\HISTDIR\TIF\LU7FDC~1\00004S8J.TIF |title=History, Gazetteer & Directory of Lincolnshire |year=1856 |edition=2nd |page=811 |publisher=William White |accessdate=14 April 2011}}{{Dead link|date=April 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} A Mary Beedham, only child of George Beedham, had married a Mr Barnsdale of Brothertoft at Boston around June 1811.{{cite journal |journal=Monthly Magazine and British Register |volume=31 |date=June 1811 |title=Lincolnshire (Married) |page=588 |publisher=R Phillips |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AyoAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA588}}

File:Geegrave1 (2).jpg

Thomas Gee died in 1871, leaving his wife, Ann Leman Gee, as occupant of the Hall until her death in 1878. They are both buried at Brothertoft.The inscription on the gravestone of Thomas and Anne Gee pictured reads:
Thomas : Gee of Brothertoft
Born : March : 26 : 1788
Died : Sept : 6 : 1871
Anne : Gee: his : wife
1797 the : daughter : of : the
R.e.v : Naunton : Thomas : Orgill : Leman
of : Brampton : Hall : Suffolk
died : May; 27 : 1878 : aged : 81 : years
{{cite book |url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/makepdf.asp?fn=E:\ZYIMAGE\DATA\HISTDIR\TIF\LUL702~1\00002F2L.TIF |title=History, Gazetteer & Directory of Lincolnshire |year=1872 |edition=3rd |page=798 |publisher=William White |accessdate=15 April 2011 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} The Hall was subsequently occupied in turn by Frederick Curtois,{{cite web |url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp |title=Kellys Lincolnshire Directory |year=1885 |publisher= Kellys Directories Ltd |accessdate=14 April 2011}} Charles James Small,{{cite web |url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp |title=Kellys Lincolnshire Directory |year=1889 |publisher= Kellys Directories Ltd |accessdate=14 April 2011}} Henry Peart,{{cite web |url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp |title=Kellys Lincolnshire Directory |year=1905 |publisher= Kellys Directories Ltd|accessdate=14 April 2011}} and Ebenezer Larrington, It is still occupied today. Brothertoft Hall, built around 1780 and substantially extended about 1850, is now a Grade II listed building.{{National Heritage List for England|num=1147406|desc=Brothertoft Hall|grade=II|accessdate=9 February 2025}}

File:Brothertoft chapel c 1843.jpegThe church, which is dedicated to St Gilbert of Sempringham, was a part of the chapelry of Kirton around 1837{{cite book |title=The English Counties Delineated |volume=2 |first=Thomas |last=Moule |authorlink=Thomas Moule |publisher=Virtue |year=1837 |page=190 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=la0_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA190}} and was owned by the lord of the manor, it being at that time a chapel of ease.{{cite book |title=A topographical dictionary of England |volume=2 |page=550 |last=Lewis |first=Samuel |year=1831 |publisher=S Lewis & Co |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g84qAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA550}}

;History

The Lincoln Diocesan Record Office holds registers baptisms, marriage and burials for the church going back to 1682.{{cite web |url=http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/upload/public/attachments/522/brothertoftpar.pdf |title=Brothertoft Par |author=Lincoln Diocesan Record Office |year=1980–2000 |work=Lincolnshire Archives |publisher=Lincolnshire County Council |accessdate=15 April 2011}}

Marrat was of the opinion that the building was not particularly old, being built of brick and roofed with flat tiles, and that the Saxon window arches were the exception and perhaps indicated an earlier use for the building. He noted that the oldest register was from 1757. However, he subsequently amended his writings on the basis of new information which indicated a construction date around 1600 using materials from a chapel at Coningsby. Lewin also noted that he had seen registers, or perhaps copies of them, for as far back as 1682.{{cite book |title=Lincolnshire churches: an account of the churches in the division of Holland, in the county of Lincoln |first=Stephen |last=Lewin |publisher=T N Morton |year=1843 |pages=72–74 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YAwNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA72}}

A former monk of Bardney, Otto Buttolle, was curate of Brothertoft in 1554, long before the surviving church records and when the living had an annual stipend of £3 6s. 8d. (He also had an annual pension of £5 under the terms agreed following the dissolution of the monasteries).{{cite journal |title=The state of the ex-religious and former chantry priests in the Diocese of Lincoln, 1547-1574 |first=Gerald Augustus John |last=Hodgett |journal=Publications of the Lincoln Record Society |volume=53 |page=113 |year=1958 |publisher=Lincoln Record Society |url=https://archive.org/stream/publicationslinc53lincuoft#page/112/mode/2up}} William Scoffin was curate from around 1683 until his ejection as a consequence of the Bartholomew Act in August 1686. He went on to minister a presbyterian congregation in Sleaford.{{cite ODNB |title=Oxford dictionary of National Biography |first=Caroline L |last=Leachman |chapter=Scoffin, William (1654/5–1732) |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24846 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/24846 |accessdate=17 April 2011}}{{cite book |title=Sketches, illustrative of the topography and history of New and Old Sleaford |first=James |last=Creasey |publisher=James Creasey |location=Sleaford |year=1825 |page=119 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2cuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA119}} A later holder of the living was William Tyler, rector and stepfather to Ann Chappell. Chappell married the navigator and cartographer Matthew Flinders in April 1801.{{cite book |title=The life of Captain Matthew Flinders |page=129 |first=Ernest |last=Scott |edition=Reprinted |publisher=Kessinger |year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DDNEle_1NzkC&pg=PA129 |isbn=978-1-4191-6948-9}}

The church was dedicated as a parish church in 1922. Five years later, in 1927 parts of the parishes of Holland Fen, Boston, Wyberton, Frampton, Kirton, Swineshead, Wigtoft, and extra-parochial land were transferred to the benefice of Brothertoft.

;Buildings

Stephen Lewin described the church in 1843 as {{blockquote| The west end ... has a low door with pointed Tudor arch; above this is a window of two lights with circular arches without tracery; the south wall is pierced with a door, a window of three lights and a window of two lights without tracery; the north wall has in it two windows of three lights with trefoiled tracery and the east end has a window similar to these. At the apex of the roof at the west end is an octagonal turret, constructed of wood containing one bell with the date 1721.}}

Rebuilt between 1847 and 1854 to a design by Lewin, the church is a Grade II listed building and has a small bell tower.{{cite web |url=http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-191924-church-of-st-gilbert-holland-fen-with-br |title=Church of St Gilbert, Holland Fen With Brothertoft |work=British Listed Buildings |publisher=British Listed Buildings Online |accessdate=13 April 2011}}

In 1922, when St Gilbert's was dedicated as a parish church, the building of the rectory house was completed.

Some form of provision for education existed in the mid-1700s as this is when an "obscure poet", William Hall, was taught in Brothertoft for a period of six months.{{cite book |title=Sketches of obscure poets |chapter=William Hall |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sketchesobscure00unkngoog/page/n175 156]–158 |year=1833 |publisher=Cochrane and McCrone |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/sketchesobscure00unkngoog}}{{cite ODNB |first=Francis |last=Watt |chapter=Hall, William (1748–1825) |others=Mills, Rebecca (revised) |editor1-first=Rebecca |editor1-last=Mills |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11996, |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/11996 |accessdate=17 April 2011}} Thomas Gee erected a school at Brothertoft in 1856.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VplQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA798 |title=History, Gazetteer & Directory of Lincolnshire |year=1872 |page=798 |publisher=William White |accessdate=2011-04-19}} In 1879 the North East Holland Fen United District School Board was formed, and on 4 April 1881 the newly built Hedgehog Bridge School opened on the North Forty Foot Bank, and children were schooled there until it closed in December 1969.{{cite web|title=Lincs to the Past|url=http://www.lincstothepast.com/BROTHERTOFT-HEDGEHOG-BRIDGE-COUNTY-PRIMARY-SCHOOL/824869.record?pt=S|publisher=Lincolnshire Archives/English Heritage|accessdate=6 May 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/d.asp|title=Kellys Directory page 111 |year=1919 |publisher=Kellys Directories Ltd}}

The Misses Gee, sisters of Thomas Gee, opened the Boston Middle Girls School{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyandantiq04thomgoog |title=The History and Antiquities of Boston: And the Villages of Skirbeck |first=Pishey |last=Thompson |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyandantiq04thomgoog/page/n328 294] |year=1856 |publisher=John Noble |location=Boston}} in Boston, which became the Conway School and is now the Excell International School.[https://archive.org/details/historyandantiq04thomgoog/page/n328 "The History and Antiquities of Boston: And the Villages of Skirbeck"], Pishey Thompson, Page 294, 1856

The parish church is now part of the Church of England "Brothertoft Group" in the Diocese of Lincoln, known as the "Five in the Fen" that also includes:{{cite web |url=http://www.achurchnearyou.com/parish/210194/ |title=The Brothertoft Group |year=2010 |work=A Church Near You |publisher=Church of England, Archbishops' Council |accessdate=16 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929114756/http://www.achurchnearyou.com/parish/210194/# |archive-date=29 September 2012 |url-status=dead}}

• All Saints at Holland Fen
• Christ Church at Kirton Holme
• St Peter at Wildmore
• St Margaret of Scotland at Langrick

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.{{cite journal |title=Auxiliary Missionary Societies |journal=The Baptist Magazine |volume=5 |page=261 |year=1813 |location=London |publisher=J Burditt and W Button |hdl=2027/nyp.33433069129116}}

The above table contents are based on official census data and are not comparable to the figures referred to earlier in the text. The Civil Parish gained a part of Fosdyke in 1880, parts of Frampton, Kirton and Wyberton in 1906, and parts of Boston and Langriville in 1932.{{cite web |url=http://visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10403870&c_id=10001043 |title=Brothertoft Ch/CP |publisher=Vision of Britain |accessdate=17 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111003010954/http://visionofbritain.org.uk/relationships.jsp?u_id=10403870&c_id=10001043 |archive-date=3 October 2011 |url-status=dead}}

{{Geographic location

|title = Destinations from Brothertoft

|Northwest = Lincoln, Tattershall, North Kyme, South Kyme,

|North = Horncastle, Mareham le Fen, Tumby, Langrick,

|Northeast = Skegness, Wainfleet, Stickney, Sibsey, Frithville

|Centre = Brothertoft

|East = Boston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton,

|West = North Forty Foot Bank, Amber Hill, Heckington, Sleaford,

|Southwest = Swineshead, Bicker, Billingborough, Bourne

|South = Hubberts Bridge, Kirton Holme, Sutterton, Spalding,

|Southeast = Boston, Wyberton, Fishtoft, Frieston, Frampton,

}}

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{{reflist|group="Notes"}}

• {{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=176-frederick183&cid=-1#-1 |title=The Frederick Family |publisher=The National Archives}}
• {{cite web |url=http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/upload/public/attachments/522/brothertoftpar.pdf |title=Brothertoft PAR |publisher=Lincolnshire Archives}} - archive resources for parish records going back to 1682

• {{Commons category-inline|Brothertoft}}

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{{Lincolnshire}}

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Category:Villages in Lincolnshire

Category:Former civil parishes in Lincolnshire

Category:Borough of Boston