LINCOLN. So Nicolas, following " Vincent," makes William da Hoinare to be the tint Earl of Lincoln, and this version (as there appears to he no really valid authority for the existence of any previous ones) has been followed in the text below. Courthope, however, in his edition of Nicolas' work, introduces one of the Earls of Chester as an Karl Of Lincoln as [allows, " Handle de Mesohines, :id Karl of Chester, possessed the Karldom uf Lincoln!') in right of his wife, Lucy.C 1 ) da. and h. of Ivo de Tailleboys Iby Lm v. sister and fi of Morcar, the Saxon Karl of Northumberland and Lincoln), willow of Robert de Honiara : tf. 112.S," but this statement appears to be based on an error.^'l It has also been argued that the allusion to the rights of a " Comes " in the Domesday survey of Lincoln implies the existence at that time of an Earl of Lincoln, but this apparently (to judge from other causes) is a groundless assumption. Passing over, however, iuiy supposed right either of (1) the above named Handle, Karl of Chester, or of ;l>) Morcar, the Saxon Earl of Northumberland to be Karls of Lincoln, there remains the remarkable fact that William (de Albini), 1st Karl of Arundel (the husband, in 1138, of the Queen Dowager Adelicia) appears (possibly by mistake but yet) in iKO distinct documents as an Karl of fAncoln.i' 1 ) Earldom. i. "William de Koi.maui:, of Bolingbrokc, co. Lincoln, 1 11-10? ^ e, S n, ' ,,r Roumare;*') in Normandy, s. of Roger Fitz-Geroi.d j (i Seigneur de Hoiiniare. by Luey. heiress of Spalding, co. Lincoln> ^generally considered( r ) to have been da., but sometimes called the 100 I N-jdm^ ( ,f i vo m Taii.i.kbois), was b. about 10!)? : Gov. of Neufmareho in Normandy, supporting at first the authority of the Kiug of Eng- X.S. (vols, v to ix), 18>S-92, are various very elaborate articles by " R. E. G. Kirk," and (chiefly as comments thereon) by Mr. J. Horace Round (to whom the Editor is in this article especially indebted'! entitled " The Family of Lincoln" " The Countess Imc<i, lingular or plural," " Adeliza the Viscauntctz," &c. " In a catalogue of tenants of land co. Line., made previous to his succession to the Earldom of Chester, the words ' Comes Line.,' are twice placed over his name. Cotton MS. Claud., C. v. t S, !>. quoted in Cull, Top. cl Cen." [Court/tope.] These words, however, are a subsequent addition (as is shewn by Mr. Greeustreet's pub- lished facsimile of the MS.) and. therefore, of to authority. ( b ) This Lucy is a great "crux" in the genealogy of these Earls. Mr. Hound remarks that " she has been sometimes represented as the widow of Ivo Tailbois and sometimes :is his daughter by another Lucy there being thus two not one. The latest writer on the subject, Mr, R. E. G. Kirk (see p. 81, note "b") considers there was only one and that she married thrice and was the daughter of " Thorold the Sheriff." ( c ) " In spite of the network of speculation that has been spun about this Earldom [of Lincoln] we have no ground in the contemporary evidence or records for asserting that Handulf [Karl of Chester 1129—1153] or his father before him, held or even professed to hold the Earldom of Lincoln." See Round's " Adcliza the Viscountess" in " the Genealogist, vol. viii, pp. 148 — 150. (■') " That he held this title is a fact so utterly unsuspected and indeed so incredible that Mr. Eyton, finding him so styled in a cartulary of Lewes Priory, dismissed the title without hesitation as an obvious error of the scribe. [Hist, of Shropshire, ii, 273.] Rut I have identified in the Public Record office the actual charter from which the scribe worked and the same style is there employed. Even so, error is possible ; but the evidence does not stand alone. In a cartulary of Heading [JJarl. MS. 170S, fo. 97], we find William confirming, as Earl of Lincoln, a grant from the Queen, his wife, and here again the orig. charter is there [Add. Cart., 19,586], to prove that the cartulary is right. The early history of the Earldom of Lincoln is already difficult enough without this additional complication, of which I do not attempt to offer any solution." See Round's " Geoffrey de Mandcrillc," p. 324. (•) " Roumare, the place from which the name of this family was derived, is a vill not far distant from Rouen and gives name to the forest of Roumare, " [Top. ami Gen., j, 17.] ( r ) Her parentage and even her individuality whether " Singular or Plural " is a matter of great difficulty and has been much discussed. See note " b " next above. She in., after Roger Fitz-Gerold's death, Randolph, Earl of Chester [1121-291, by whom she was mother of Randolph ("de Gernon "), Earl of Chester [ll 29-53] sometimes reputed to have been Earl of Lincoln. See note " c," nest above.
