Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ogle, Robert de
OGLE, Sir ROBERT de (d. 1362), soldier, was head of a Northumberland family long settled at Ogle in the parish of Whalton, eight miles south-west of Morpeth. The family rose to importance in consequence of the border warfare with Scotland. When David Bruce penetrated as far as Newcastle in August 1341, Ogle distinguished himself by effecting the capture of five Scottish knights, and in the same year Edward III gave him Permission to castellate his manorhouse at Ogle, together with the privilege of free warren on his demesne lands (Wytoun, Chronicle, ii. 467; Archæologia Æliana, xiv. 15, 360; Dugdale, Baronage, 11, 262), Some remains of Ogle Castle, which was surrounded by two moats, are still to be seen. Ogle shared with John de Kirkby [q. v.], bishop of Carlisle, the honours of the resistance to the Scottish foray into Cumberland in 1345, when Sir William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, burnt Carlisle and Penrith (Walsingham, i. 266). In a skirmish with a detachment of the invaders, in which the bishop was unhorsed, Ogle ran the Scottish leader Alexander Stragan (Strachan) through the body with his lance, but was himself severely wounded. He fought at the battle of Neville's Cross, or Durham, as it was officially called, on 17 Oct. 1346, and took three prisoners — the Earl of Fife, Henry de Ramsay, and Thomas Boyd (Fœdera, v. 533). There is a tradition that the captive king David was taken in the first place to Ogle Castle.
Ogle was in command at Berwick as lieutenant of W'illiam, lord Greystock, who was with the king in France, when the Scots took the town by surprise on the night of 6 Nov. 1355 (Dugdale, i. 741). He made a brave resistance, in which two of his sons fell, and succeeded in holding the castle till help came (Rot. Parl. iii. 11). Greystock was condemned to forfeiture of life and property, but was afterwards pardoned on pleading that he had the king's orders to go to France. Ogle died in 1362 (Cal. Inquisitionum post mortem, ii. 254). His son Robert, who predeceased him, married Ellen, only child and heiress of Sir Robert Bertram of Bothal, three miles east of Morpeth, who in 1343 obtained a license to build the castle there. A splendid gatehouse, adorned with contemporary shields of arms, still remains (Archæologia Æliana, xiv. 283 seq.) Their son Robert, who succeeded his grandfather, was under age, and John Philipot [q. v.] became his guardian (Dugdale, ii. 262; but cf. Cal. Inquis. post mortem, ii. 288, 319). Bothal Castle came to him on the death of his mother's third husband, David Holgrave, in 1405 or 1406, and he immediately settled it upon his younger son, John, who had taken his grandmother's surname of Bertram. But the day after Ogle's death on 31 Oct. 1409, his elder son, Sir Robert, laid siege to it, and drove out his brother (Rot, Parl. iii. 629; Hodgson, History of Northumberland, ii. ii. 170). Bertram brought the matter before parliament, and the castle remained in his family until it became extinct in the direct male line. This was before 1517, when the fourth Lord Ogle styled himself Lord of Ogle and Bottell.' Robert, first lord Ogle [q.v.], however, seems to have been at least temporarily in possession in October 1465.
[Rotuli Parliamentorum; Calendarium Inquistionum post mortem, ed. Record Commission; Rymer's Fœdera, original edition; Walsingham's Historia Anglicana in the Rolls Ser.; Wyntoun's Chronicle in the Historians of Scotland; Dugdale 8 Baronage; Nicolas's Historic Peerage, ed. Courthope; Hogdson's Northumberland; Archæologia Æliana; Hexham Priory (Surtees Soc.); Calendarium Rotulorum Patentium, p. 229, and Calendarium Rotulorum Originalium, p. 301.]