with his prince; he inherited the lands of his father, except this manor and those of Hemenhale and Theye, which were held in dower by Rose his stepmother, who possessed them to 1256, from which time he held them, and dying seized in 1258, was buried in the conventual church of Dunmow, leaving
Robert, his son and heir, then ten years old, who was knighted in 1274, and had a great part of his possessions in his own hands before that time, though this manor, with Hemenhale and Theye, was in the hands of Stephen Fitz-Walter, his uncle, (as I take him to be,) as guardian and trustee to the said Robert. This Stephen in 1286 claimed a market every Wednesday and Friday, with all rights belonging to a market, and it was allowed in Eire. It seems that King Henry I. established this market, for he granted it to Sir Richard de Lucy, along with the manor; at this time the jury also find, that the said Stephen held a third part of the hundred, which was worth five marks yearly; that Ernald de Montiniaco (Arnold Mounteny) held of him another third part, which was worth 60s. per annum, and that Richard de Boyland held of the said Stephen another part, which was worth 28s. per annum; and that this Stephen, as capital lord of the whole, paid into the Exchequer a rent of 40d. a year, being entitled, in his part, to view of frankpledge, assize of bread and ale, infangenthef, weyf, and all other liberties which belonged to a hundred, all which soon after came to Robert Fitz-Walter aforesaid, for I find him in possession in his own name. In 1293, he was summoned to attend King Edward I. into Gascoign, in order to recover his inheritance from the French King, to which place he went, in the retinue of Edmund Earl of Lancaster. In 1296, he was in the Welsh expedition, and in 1299, in the Scotch wars. It was this man that aliened Baynard castle in London, and Montfitchet Tower, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, reserving his Barony that belonged to it, to himself and his heirs: he was the first of this family that styled himself Lord of Wodeham in Essex, where he had a seat and a fine park. He had two wives, Devorgil, daughter and coheir of John de Burgh, son of Hubert de Burgh, late Earl of Kent, and Chief Justice of England, and Eleanor daughter of Earl Ferrers, by whom he had Robert his son, who succeeded him. In this year he obtained a charter of confirmation for a fair every year at his manor of Diss, upon the eve, day, and morrow after the feast of St. Simon and Jude, and three days following. He was one of those parliamentary Barons that sealed the letter to the Pope anno 1301, denying that the kingdom of Scotland was his fee, or that he had any jurisdiction in temporal affairs. He sealed with his paternal coat, supported by two harpies, which seal of his I have
