FEUDAL BARONAGE
third penny of these counties in the farm of the honour of Lancaster is difficult to explain except on the supposition that when Henry II. gave the honour to his younger son, John of Mortain, he added this sum in augmentation of the issues of the honour.
The tenure of three Lancashire manors by the Peverels, as part of their honour of Nottingham, seems to suggest that Henry I. had given these manors to William Peverel before he gave the honour to his nephew, Stephen of Blois.[1] The date of the grant of the honour of Lancaster to Stephen can only be surmised, as there are no charters of Henry of later date than 1102,[2] nor of Stephen of earlier date than 1123,[3] to tell us who was in possession of the honour during the years intervening between these dates. But we know from the Lindsey Survey that in, or perhaps a year or two before, 1118, Stephen was in possession of the lands in Lindsey which had belonged to the honour of Count Roger.
The principal acts recorded of Stephen, whilst count of Mortain, in reference to the honour, were the foundation in 1123 at Tulketh, near Preston, of a monastery in connexion with the abbey of Savigny in Mortain;[4] a confirmation to Robert de Molyneux of Sefton of his land in Downlitherland;[5] the translation in 1127 of the monks from Tulketh to Furness and their endowment with half the land of Furness;[6] the re-grant in 1123 of the church of St. Oswald at Winwick to Nostell Priory, which Roger of Poitou had formerly granted;[7] the infeudation of the ancestor of Leon de Manvers in lands in Anston in Yorkshire, and in Holme and Gamston in Nottinghamshire.[8] These grants were all made while Stephen was count of Mortain. The Pipe Roll of 1130 records some important agreements made in the king's court by some of Stephen's principal thegns between Ribble and Mersey with their chief lord.[9] As king he confirmed his grant of Furness to the monks from Savigny and also confirmed to them the grant of Muncaster made by William de Lancaster, 'quæ est de feodo meo,' words which suggest that Stephen had received Coupland also, when he acquired the honour of Lancaster.[10]
The history of the honour during Stephen's reign presents many difficulties. Between 1141 and 1143 we find David of Scotland in possession of the land north of the Ribble,[11] and in 1147 we find the earl of Chester in possession of the land between Ribble and Mersey.[12] The former claimed 'Lancaster' as part of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria; the latter had either forcibly seized the southern region or claimed it on the grounds of a former grant to Ranulf Meschin, the possibility of which we have hinted at above. In the former case, which is the more probable, the earl's possession of this region may have dated from the time between 1140 and 1146, when
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- ↑ It has been suggested by Mr. Planché (The Conq. and his Companions, ii. 269) that Adeline de Lancaster, wife of William Peverel of Nottingham, was a daughter of Roger of Poitou. If this were so, a more probable explanation of the connexion of these manors with the honour of Peverel would be that they had formed part of Adeline's endowment.
- ↑ Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 382.
- ↑ Ibid. 427; Symeon of Durham (Rolls Ser.), ii. 267.
- ↑ Ibid. ii. 267. The Coucher of Furness gives the date as 1124. (p. 8).
- ↑ Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 427.
- ↑ Ibid. 301.
- ↑ Mon. Angl. vi. 92; Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 405b.
- ↑ Lanc. and Ches. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 105.
- ↑ Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 1.
- ↑ Coucher of Furness (Chetham Soc), 125.
- ↑ Tait, Mediæval Manchester, 167-8.
- ↑ Ibid. 169; Farrer, Lancs. Pipe R. 275-7.
