Margaret Beaufort has had links with the county of Lincolnshire since at least the middle of the 15th century, for instance she is known to have held the Manor of Bourne from about 1445. Following the fall of the House of York, she was granted other Lincolnshire estates such as the manor of Tattershall, which, along with its castle, had been forfeited to the crown in 1471. She also received the manor of Stamford following the death of Cecily Neville in 1495. She must have had some affection for the fenlands because she spent much of her time, when she was married to her third husband, at their castle in the aforementioned manor of Bourne.
Victorian Etching of Boston - After Joseph Mallord William Turner
She is also known to have spent some time in the market town of Boston, her account books show an entry of a payment to a child who played a song for her during a visit - maybe she was entertained in the household of Fredrick and Margaret Tilney in their Skirbeck home. She may well have even attended a service at the recently built St Botolph's Church and been shown the newly carved choir stalls and misericords. The Tilney's were an important family in Boston at the time of Margaret's visit, later their great granddaughter would become Henry VIII's fifth wife.
Despite what many think of Henry VII's mother, she was a generous benefactor to churches and abbeys and often kind to those less fortunate that herself and, this is why her emblem of the portcullis can be found dotted around the town.
She can also be seen immortalised, albeit quite recently, in a stained glass window in the at St Botolph's.
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