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Edward Weldon, Clerk of the Green Cloth. He d. s.p.m., 10Feb., at Comfort, in Birling, Kent, and was bur. 21 Mar. 1586/7, at Birling.[1] Admon. 9 May 1587, wherein he is styled "Sir Henry Nevill, Baron of Abergavenny" to "Lady Elizabeth Nevill," the widow: Lady Mary Fane, the da., renouncing. His widow m. Sir William Sedley, 1st Bart., of Southfleet, Kent, (who d. 27 Feb. 1618) and was living Feb. 1601/2. | |
| VII. 1587. | 7. Edward Nevill, of Newton St. Loo, Somerset, cousin and h. male, who[2] in the grant of livery (1588) |
- ↑ Mary, his da. and sole h. (by his 1st wife), who, at the time of his death, was aged 32, and the wife of Sir Thomas Fane, was unquestionably entitled to any Barony in fee possessed by her late father. She, however, by patent 25 May 1604, was granted the Barony of Le Despenser (a Barony originating by writ of 1264), of which she was a coh. [see pedigree, p. 41]. As this was a much more ancient Barony than the Barony of Bergavenny, under the writ of 1392, which was all she could claim (being neither the representative nor even a descendant of any of the former holders), this practically put an end to her claim to the latter Barony. Whether or no her claim, and that of her representatives thereto, is legally barred by this, or by the subsequent proceedings of the Crown and the House of Lords, as to such Barony, is open to grave doubt. The Barony "came with a lass" (the h. gen. of the Beauchamps of Abergavenny) to the Nevills, and ought apparently to have left them "with a lass" (the h. gen. of the Nevills), and gone to the Fanes, more especially as the subsequent proceedings of the House in giving it a precedency inferior to that of Le Despenser (cr. by writ of 1264) shew that their Lordships held it to be personal dignity of the Beauchamp family, and not one attaching to the tenure of the Castle, whose owners were Barons at a much earlier period.
This Lady inherited, though only by agreement with the heir of entail (confirmed by Act of Parl. 35 Eliz.), the estate of Mereworth, Kent (which had come to the Nevills through the Beauchamps and Fitzalans), and also the manor and park of Althorne, Essex. Her s. and h., Francis Fane, was, in 1624, cr. Earl of Westmorland, in which title till 1762 (when the h. male was no longer the h. gen.) the Barony of Le Despenser continued merged.
- ↑ In Coke's Reports (vol. xii, p. 70) it is stated that this Edward had summons to Parl. 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, but d. before Parl. met; the writ is given at length, and Coke takes occasion to state that it was decided 8 Jac. I (1610–11) that the direction and delivery of the writ did not make him a Baron or Noble until he came to Parl. and there sat according to the commandment of the writ, and hence that no hereditary dignity was cr. by the writ directed to him in consequence of his never having sat under it. (See Lord's Reports, vol. i, pp. 482–486). As to Coke's statements, it should be noted that (i) no writ was addressed to "Edward Nevill de Abergavenny" for that Parl., though there is one, of the alleged date, 21 Jan., to "Henry Nevill de Bergavenny." (ii) In this same Parl., 31 Jan., is the petition above related [note "a" p. 33] of this same Edward as "Edward Nevill esquier." (iii) This Edward did not die, as Coke falsely asserts, in 1555/6, but lived till 1588/9, as in the text. Charity itself cannot suppose that such a wholesale misrepresentation of facts, which must indeed have been common knowledge, was anything but wilful. This, which is famous as "Lord Abergavenny's case," is the foundation of the doctrine that a writ does not create a barony unless a sitting under it is proved. It is discussed at some length in J. H. Round's Peerage and Pedigree, where the facts alleged by Coke are shown to be fictitious and a different version of the case is suggested. V.G.
