FEUDAL BARONAGE We now return to Robert Banastre, the younger brother of Thurstan II. In a petition presented in Parliament in the sixth year of Edward I., 1278, the great-grandson of this Robert declared — that his ancestor Robert Banastre, came to England with the Conqueror and had the manor of Prestatyn 'in Englefeld ' (co. Flint) and other lands' which the petitioner still holds of conquest by the Conqueror (du Cunquestre par le Cunqueror), which the said Robert held for a long time. Who died possessed of that land, leaving his son Robert Banastre, who during the time of King Richard built a tower at Prestatyn which still remains. In whose time Owen Gwynedd, lord of Wales, made war in the land whilst the king was over the sea, and having taken the king's castle of Rhuddlan, drove all the king's subjects out of the land. Thus Robert, the son of Robert Banastre, lost his land in Wales and brought all his people from Prestatyn, and from thence into Lancashire, where they are still called Le Westroys.* At his death Robert left three sons, Richard, Warin, and Thurstan, and during all his time Llewelyn, the elder, made war. When Thurstan died he left one son named Robert, aged but one year at his father's death, being twenty years in ward, who when he came of age, lived but three years before he died, leaving one son, Robert, the petitioner, who was in ward nineteen years. He prays the king for an inquest to be held by Englishmen, to declare his right to the manor of Prestatyn, because the king has twice before commanded inquest to be made by Englishmen and Welshmen jointly assembled, but the Welsh refused to attend, declaring it to be contrary to their franchises, unless all the people of the district be at the inquest, whereby Robert suffers delay to his great loss, and prays the king for remedy, if it pleases him.^ By inquest held in accordance with the king's writ dated 24 October, 1 279, it was found that King Richard gave the manor of Prestatyn to Robert Banastre, the petitioner's grandfather (sic), to hold by his service in fee and inheritance, that Robert thereafter held the manor in peace by the space of 3 J years, within which time he built a tower which remained in part to that day, and thereupon Owen Gwynedd, Prince of Wales, drove him out of the manor and threw down his tower there.* Whilst the petition and inquest contain some genealogical and chrono- logical inaccuracies, they no doubt in the main record the true fact that Prestatyn was granted by Henry II. to Robert Banastre, possibly for his good services in the war of 1 165, when he, with Randle de Baelines and William de Curcy, was commissioned to munition and defend the castles of Basingwerk, Rhuddlan, and Prestatyn.^ Between 11 54 and 11 57 the king confirmed various grants to the abbey of Basingwerk, including land called Kethlenedei given by Robert Banastre.* The grantor of these lands was no doubt that Robert who takes an important place in the attestation clause of several of the charters of Ranulf, third earl of Chester of his line, which belong to the period 1 141-9/ but he belongs rather to the generation of Thurstan I., whilst the grantee of Prestatyn was a younger brother of Thurstan II. About the year 1165 the vills of Walton-le-Dale, Mellor, Eccleshill, Little Harwood, Over and Nether Darwen, all within the hundred of Blackburn and honour of Clitheroe, were granted by Henry de Lacy, lord of Pontefract and Clitheroe, to Robert Banastre to hold 'by the service of one knight's fee.' Soon after Robert's expulsion from Prestatyn with his Welshmen or Westreys as they 1 This no doubt refers to Robert de Rhuddlan named above, amongst virhose lands Prestatyn was included. 2 This happened in the year 1 167. ' R- o/Pari. (Rec Com.), 1. 2«.
- Lanct. Inquests (Rec. Soc), xlviii. 242. " Pipe R- Soc. ix. 67.
6 Mon. Jngl. V. 263. A charter of Ranulf Gernons, earl of Chester, to the monks of Lancaster which passed at Lancaster in or about 1 149 is attested by Robert Banastre (Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 296). This Robert may have been a younger brother of the elder Thurstan. 7 CAes. Sheaf, iv. 1 14, from the Chartul. of St. Werburgh. Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 296. 8 Kuerden MS. Chetham Lib. Fol. vol. 248, No. 268. I 369 +7
