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family became thus early extinct; but the succession was prolonged for some time through the son of Emma (or Rohesia), above mentioned, whose husband's name is not recorded. Her son Gilbert took the name of Lacy, and had a son, Hugh, who died 1185. Hugh had two sons, Hugh, lord of Ulster, who died s. p. in 1240; and Walter, lord of Meath, who founded the abbey of Craswall.1 His wife was Margery, daughter of William de Braose, lord of Brecknock, by his wife, Matilda of St. Vallery, that "proud, malapert, and stomachful" lady, as Camden calls her; or as Holinshed, that "quick and hasty dame," who used such plain and disrespectful language towards King John, and was afterwards so cruelly punished by him.2 The Lady Margery Lacy founded the priory of Aconbury near Hereford. By her husband, Walter, who died 1241, she had several children, who all died s. p., except Gilbert, who died v. p. ; but left two daughters, Maud and Margery, who with their mother, Isabel Mareschall, shared among them the great inheritance which was now for the first time divided.3 Isabel took a moiety of the lordship of Ewyas Lacy, and married, for the second time, John de Jeffrey. Margery, the eldest daughter, married John de Verdon, descended through his mother, Rohese, wife of Theobald de Buttiller (who took the name of Verdon), from Bertram de Verdon, lord of Farnham-Royal, whose grandson, Bertram, lord of Alton in Staffordshire, founded the abbey of Croxden in that county in 1176.4 By this marriage John de Verdon became lord of the barony of Weobley, and also possessed of moieties of Ludlow and EwyasLacy.5 Maud, sister to Margery Lacy, married Geoffrey de Genevil, who became in her right lord of Ludlow. Their grandaughter, Joan, was married to Roger, the gentle" Mortimer, first Earl of March.

66

Having survived his first wife, and married a second,

1 Tanner, in L.

2 Holinshed, iii, p. 172; Wright, Hist. of Ludlow, p. 63.

3 Mon. A., U. s.

5 Inq. p. m. 2 Ed. I, No. 34.

*Harl. 807; Tanner, Not. Mon.

Eleonora - John de Verdon died in 1273. His youngest and surviving son, Theobald, became lord of Weobley, and is mentioned in 1287 as presenting a clerk to the church of Ludlow in right of his inheritance,1 and adjudged to belong to him notwithstanding the claim set up by Peter de Genevil, son of Geoffrey, husband of Maud de Lacy. In 1277 he is mentioned as offering two knights' fees and a half for service against the Welsh, from his inheritance from Walter de Lacy; and in 1282 and 1286 he was required to undertake similar services as feudal lord of Ewyas.2 Shortly before A.D. 1297 he lost his eldest son John, and was excused from personal appearance for military service against the Scots, both on this account and also his bodily infirmity, "et alias turbationes corporeas...... de quibus" (says the king's writ with a touching simplicity)" multum nobis displicet." This son John he had intended to send instead of himself, and he is now desired to send his second son, Theobald. A similar summons is made in 1301. In 1309 he died, and his son Theobald succeeded him, who became Constable of Ireland; and married 1st, Maud, daughter of Edmund Lord Mortimer, who died 1312, and by whom he had three daughters; and, as it seems, two sons, John and William, who both died After her death he married, 2ndly, Elizabeth de Burgh, daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and widow of John de Burgh. By her he had a daughter, Isabel, born after his own death in 1316, who was afterwards married to Henry Lord Ferrers of Groby. Elizabeth de Verdon afterwards married Roger Damory.6 The three daughters by his first wife, between whom his inheritance was divided, were-1, Johanna, who was married to Thomas Lord Furnivall, and died 1340; 2, Elizabeth married to Bartholomew Burwash or Burgh

V.

1.5

1 Ib. Clive, Hist. of Ludlow, p. 34; Harl. 6596; Dugd., Mon. A.,

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5 Dugdale, M. A., vi, 135.

6

Ib., 7 Ed. II, 1314.

Inq. p. m., 10 Ed. II, p. 385; Rot. Orig. Ed. II.

ersh, and died 1360; 3, Margery, who was married first to William le Blount, to whom she brought the castle and manor of Weobley, and who is mentioned in 1332 as endowing Nicholas Coleshull, chaplain of Weobley Castle, with certain rents; secondly, to Marcus Husee; and thirdly, to Sir John Crophull, who in 1361 is styled Seigneur of the Castle of Weobley; and is mentioned as presenting a clerk, Roger de la Marke, to the church of Ludlow in 1372. He died 1383. His son and heir, Thomas Crophull, died before him, and left by his wife, Sibilla, daughter of Sir John Delabere, a daughter and sole heiress, Agnes. In 1384 (7 Rich. II), being then under age, she was married to Sir Walter Devereux, who two years after, making proof of her majority, had livery of her lands.2 Sir W. Devereux died July 1402, leaving four sons and two daughters; but his widow survived him thirty-one years, having married, for her second husband, John Merbury, Esq., of Lyonshall. John (or Nicholas) Merbury was in 1402 esquire to the Earl of Northumberland, and as bearer of the news of the victory over the Scots at Homildon, received a grant from Henry V, as Prince of Wales, of a pension of forty marks, payable out of the manor of Isleworth. About 1415 he became door-keeper of the king's chamber, and in 1421 keeper of the jewels. Henry V, by his first will, July 24, 1415, bequeathed him £100. In 1427 he presented a petition for payment of his pension, and in lieu of it received a charge of the same amount out of the revenues of the county of Gloucester. He was sheriff of Herefordshire in 1405, 1415, 1419, 1425, 1429, and had married for his first wife Alicia, daughter of Sir John Pembridge. He died 1437, and is probably buried in Weobley Church. He is styled by Dugdale a knight; but this is erroneous, as in the inquisition post mortem, as well as in his own petition, he is termed esquire. In 1419 he is mentioned in conjunction with

1 In Harl. 7366; Clive, Hist. of Ludlow, u. s. There are conflicting pedigrees in Harl. 807 and 6596.

2 Inq. p. m., 8 Hen. IV; Dugdale, Baronage.

his wife, Agnes Devereux, as presenting John Donwode to the church of Ludlow.1

2

Walter, eldest son of Walter and Agnes Devereux, succeeded his father at fifteen years of age, and by subsequent marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thos. Bromwich, had a son Walter, who, like his father, was also fifteen years old at the time of his death in 1435. His son, Walter, married Elizabeth Merbury, daughter of his grandmother's second husband, and probably lies buried with her in Weobley Church. He appears for a time to have suffered for his adherence to Edward IV. for in 1460 we find him petitioning for pardon as a rebel; and in particular, for his conduct at the battle at Ludford; and in the same year a grant was made to Humphrey Duke of Buckingham, of fines due from W. Devereux, late of Weobley, Esq. He had two sons. and two daughters. Walter, the eldest son, espoused, when she was only eleven years and eight months old, Anne, only daughter of William Lord Ferrers of Chartley, a faithful follower of Edward IV, and by the king's special favour had livery of her lands in 1461. Having thus recovered for himself and his family the royal favour by the change of the sovereign, he was summoned to Parliament as Lord Ferrers. In 1470 he was made. K.G., and in 1485 was killed on the side of Richard III at Bosworth Field. His eldest son, John Devereux, married Cecily, sister and heir to Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, and grandaughter to Thomas of Woodstock, husband of Eleanor Bohun, and youngest son of Edward III. This marriage connected his family with that of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, of whom we shall speak in connexion with Weobley Castle. Walter, third Lord Ferrers, son of John Devereux, was made K.G. in 1523, and in 1525 appointed Justice of Wales. In 1549, in reward for his services at Boulogne,

1 Aungier, Hist. of Isleworth, pp. 201, 202; Rymer, Fœd., vol. ix, p. 292; Rot. Parl. A.D. 1427; Harl. 1159, 6596; Clive, Hist. of Ludlow, u. s.; Dugdale, Bar.

2 Rymer, vol. v, A.D. 1460, Feb. 12; Rot. Parl. 38 Hen. VI; Lingard, iv, 122.

he was created Viscount Hereford. His son Richard died v. p., and his grandson Walter succeeded him, who, in addition to his other titles, was created Earl of Essex in 1572. His son Robert, third Viscount Hereford and second Earl of Essex, was the well-known favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and was executed in 1601. His honours were forfeited, but restored to his son Robert, in 1603, by James I. Robert, third Earl of Essex, was the able and disappointed Parliamentary general, who died 1646. By his death, without male issue, the earldom of Essex became extinct. The title of Viscount Hereford went to Sir Walter Devereux of Castle Bromwich, only son of Walter, first Viscount Hereford, by his second wife. The property was divided between Lord Essex's two daughters. The Weobley portion came to the eldest, Frances, married in 1617 to Sir William Seymour, Marquess of Hertford and Duke of Somerset, whose first wife had been Lady Arabella Stuart. The Duchess of Somerset, who died in 1674, by a codicil to her will bequeathed her property to Thomas Thynne, afterwards Viscount Weymouth2, who had married Lady Frances Finch, daughter of the second Earl of Winchelsea, the husband of her daughter Mary. From Viscount Weymouth the Weobley property has descended to the present Marquess of Bath, in whose family also the parliamentary interest in the borough continued so long as Weobley was permitted to return members to Parlia

ment.

The following table exhibits, in outline, the succession. from Walter de Lacy, and the partitions of the inherit

ance:

1 Collins, Peerage, vi, 18.

2 Harl. 6336; Collins, ii, 507.

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