NOTES EXPLANATORY. ABEYANCE. On the death of a baron, whose dignity originated in a Writ of Summons, without issue male, the barony becomes vested in his daughters; if he leave an only daughter, she succeeds to the dignity, but if there be more daughters than one, the title falls into ABEYANCE amongst them, and continues in that state until all but one of the daughters, or the sole heir of only one daughter survives; in which case, the barony devolves on the surviving daughter, or on the heir of her body. The CROWN can, however, at any time, terminate an ABEYANCE in favor of one of the heirs. AIDS PAYABLE TO THE KING. Among the ancient aids payable to the king, from the immediate tenants of the crown, (and likewise to inferior lords from their immediate tenants,) were these three, namely, to make his eldest son a knight; to marry his eldest daughter; and to ransom his person when made prisoner in war. BULLS AND BRIEFS. Apostolical letters were of two description-one denominated Briefs, because comprised in a compendious way of writing, and sealed on wax only Cum annullopiscatoris, that is, with the impression of a signet ring. The other called BULLS, from the leaden Bulla hanging thereto. Bulla, amongst the antients, is supposed to have been a golden badge, which persons that triumphed over their enemies wore on their breasts like a medal; and it came afterwards to signify a deed, instrument, or writing, described on parchment, or vellum, with a piece of lead suspended thereto by a string. On this piece of lead, the heads of the two Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul, were impressed from the papal seal, which being affixed to the pope's letters, the BULL was considered then to be complete. CROWN LANDS AND REVENUE. These anciently comprised 1422 manors or lordships, in several counties, besides farms and lands in Middlesex, Shropshire, and Rutland, in the last of which, the king had also £150 of rent in white money -to which may be added the escheats and forfeitures. In short, the revenue of the king was so great, that ODERICUS VITALIS, says it was reported to be one thousand and sixty pounds sterling, thirty shillings, and one penny halfpenny, of the just rents and profits of England, every day of the year-besides gifts and pecuniary punishments. DICTUM OF KENILWORTH. An edict or award between Henry III. and those barons who had been in arms against him. It was so called because made at Kenilworth Castle, in Warwickshire, (in the 51st year of that monarch). It provided that those involved in the rebellion should pay a compensation of five years' rent for the recovery of their estates. This celebrated statute is to be seen at large in a MS. copy in the Cottonian Library. It was proclaimed in the camp before Kenilworth, 31st October. GENERAL SURVEY. The survey was begun in the year 1080, and finished in 1086. It was made by verdict or presentment of juries, or certain persons sworn in every hundred, wapentake, or county, before commissioners consisting of the greatest earls or bishops, who inquired into, and described, as well the possessions and customs of the king, as of his great men. They noted what and how much arable land, pasture, meadow, and wood every man had, with the extent and value in the time of EDWARD the Confessor, and at the period of making the survey. They also noted the mills and fisheries, and, in some counties, the number of freemen, socmen, villains, borders, servants, young cattle, sheep, hogs, working horses, &c. in every town and manor, and the name of the proprietor. Always setting down the king's name first, then the bishops, abbots, and all the great men that held of the king in capite. This survey was chiefly intended to afford the monarch a true statement of his own lands and demesnes, and also what were held by his tenants. All England, except Westmorland, Cumberland, and Northumberland, was described, with part of Wales, and the description or survey written in two books called the GREAT and LITTLE DOOMSDAY BOOKS, which were deposited in the Exchequer. The smaller book contains only Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. This survey being the highest record in the kingdom, was then, and is to this day, a decisive evidence in any controversy on which there may be occasion to consult it. HOMAGE AND LIVERY. When the king's tenant in capite died, his lands were in the king's hands until the heir had done homage, and was of age. When the heir sued to have his estate out of the possession of the crown, his obtaining it was called LIVERY, and the profits received in the mean time by the king were denominated primer seisin. For this livery or relief the heir paid certain fees. By the laws of the CONQUEROR, the relief of an EARL was eight horses saddled and bridled, four helmets, four coats of mail, four shields, four spears, four swords, four chasers, and one palfrey saddled and bridled. That of a BARON, half as much, with a palfrey. That of a VAVASOR to his lord, his best horse, helmet, coat of mail, shield, spear, sword, or, in lieu of these, a hundred shillings. That of the countryman, his best beast; and of him that farmed his lands, a year's rent. These were afterwards turned into money. KNIGHTS' FEE. An ancient law term, signifying so much land of inheritance as was esteemed sufficient to maintain a knight with suitable retinue, which in the time of HENRY III. was reckoned at £15 per annum; and, by stat. 1 Ed. II., such as had £20 per annum in fee, or for life, might be compelled to accept of knighthood. But this statute was repealed by the 16th Charles I. Stow says, that in the time of the Conqueror there were in England 60,211 knights' fees. SCUTAGE. Escuage or Scutage, was a duty or service arising out of baronies and knights' fees. It denoted Servitium Scuti, the service of the shield; and was wont to be rendered thus: for every knight's fee, the service of one knight; for every half fee, the service of half a knight; and so in proportion. Baronies were charged in a similar manner, according to the number of knights' fees, whereof the barony by its original enfeoffment, consisted. The service of scutage was performed, either personally, in the king's army, or else by pecuniary commutation. VAVASORS. The Vavasors in Lombardy, whence they appear originally to have come, were inferior to the capitanei, which comprehended dukes, marquisses, counts, &c. ; but they were invested, either by the sovereign or lord, with some territory of feudal command, without any of these designations of nobility. So that vavasor meant a powerful description of vassal; validus Vassallus. ABBREVIATIONS. b. born. m. married. d. died. s. p. sine prole. 8. succeeded. CONTENTS. ERRATA. AUDLEY, Baron Audley, of Heleigh, was summoned to parliament in the 6th Edward II., 8th January, CARR, Viscount Rochester-for Rochdale, at the conclusion of the article, read Rochester. HOLLES (Pelham) Duke of Newcastle. His grace d. in 1768. MULTON, Barons Multon, of Gillesland. be Hubert, not Thomas de Vaux. In the note to this article, the father of Maud de Vaux should The Fourth Edition, revised and much enlarged, of A GENERAL AND HERALDIC DICTIONARY OF THE PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Dedicated, by Permission, to HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY, BY JOHN BURKE, Esq. This Work, which has undergone another very laborious revisal, will be found to comprise a great mass of new matter, and several curious documents long out of print, or never printed before. The armorial bearings have been newly and splendidly engraved. This popular work justly deserves to be considered as a History of the British Nobility. It is enriched by a variety of personal anecdotes, never before published, relative to many illustrious houses, in addition to numerous authentic details connected with their lineage, and communicated to the author by the noble inheritors of the titles. The Editor's attention having also been directed to collaterals, he has introduced all those who come within the most remote remaindership of family honours; and he has used more than ordinary care in tracing presumptive heirs. To the Baronetcies of Scotland and Ireland, appertaining to more than 200 ancient families, whose lineage is given exclusively in this Work, the utmost attention has also been paid. "The work which Mr. Burke has just given to the public, is equally well planned and well executed. The author justly observes in the preface, that the grand object in a work of reference is the facility afforded to the reader, of finding any information he may want. Mr. Burke's arrangement is excellently adapted to this purpose. Great ability is also shewn in the condensation of all the requisite matter, which, owing to the clear and beautiful mode of printing and engraving, is justly entitled to be called a cheap one, not only in comparison with the tedious and expensive works on the same subject, but in reference to the quantity of reading it contains, and the superior style of its execution."-Examiner. Also preparing for publication, A DICTIONARY OF THE COMMONERS OF ENGLAND, QUALIFIED BY LANDED PROPERTY TO BECOME COUNTY MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT, BUT UNDISTINGUISHED BY AN HEREDITARY TITLE OF HONOUR. BY JOHN BURKE, Esq. Author of the "General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage." This original work has been undertaken by Mr. Burke as a sequel to his very popular Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the United Kingdom, and upon an exactly similar plan; so that when completed, the two publications will embrace the entire of the Peerage, Baronetage, and Gentry of the empire. Communications for the Author, in answer to the circular letters transmitted to the parties interested, are requested to be addressed, free of expense, to the Publishers. Upon the detention, a prisoner in Flanders, of GHERBOD, a Fleming who first held the Earldom of Chester, that dignity was conferred by the CONQUEROR, upon (his sister's son) HUGH DE ABRINCIS, surnamed LUPUS, and called by the Welch, Vras, or "the Fat." "Which Hugh," says Dugdale, being a person of great note at that time amongst the Norman nobility, and an expert soldier, was, for that respect, chiefly placed so near those unconquered Britains, the better to restrain their bold incursions: for it was, ⚫ consilio prudentum,' by the advice of his council, that King William thus advanced him to that government; his power being, also, not ordinary; having royal jurisdiction within the precincts of his earldom-which honor he received to hold as freely by the sword as the King himself held England by the crown. But, though the time of his advancement was not till the year 1070, certain it is, that he came into England with the conqueror, and thereupon had a grant of Whitby, in Yorkshire, which lordship he soon afterwards disposed of to William de Percy, his associate in that famous expedition." In the contest between WILLIAM RUFUS, and his brother ROBERT CURTHOSE, this powerful nobleman sided with the former, and remained faithful to him during the whole of his reign. He was subsequently in the confidence of Henry the First, and one of that monarch's chief councillors. "In his youth and flourishing age," continueth the author above quoted, he was a great lover of worldly pleasures and secular pomp; profuse in giving, and much delighted with interludes, jesters, horses, dogs, and other like vanities; having a large attendance of such persons, of all sorts, as were disposed to those sports: but he had also in his family both clerks and soldiers, who were men of great honor, the venerable Anselme (Abbot of Bec, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury) being his confessor; nay, so devout he grew before his death, ABR that sickness hanging long upon him, he caused himself to be shorn a monk in the abbey of St. Werburge, where, within three days after, he died, Anno 1101." His lordship m. Ermentrude, daughter of Hugh de Claremont, Earl of Bevois, in France, by whom he had an only son, RICHARD, his successor. Of his illegitimate issue, were Ottiwell, tutor to those children of King Henry the First, who perished at sea. Robert, originally a Monk in the Abbey of St. Ebrulf in Normandy, and afterwards Abbot of St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk, and Geva,* the wife of Geffery Riddell, to whom the Earl gave Drayton Basset, in Staffordshire. That this powerful nobleman enjoyed immense wealth in England is evident, from the many lordships he held at the general survey; for, besides the whole of Cheshire, excepting the small part which at that time belonged to the bishop, he had nine lordships in Berkshire, two in Devonshire, seven in Yorkshire, six in Wiltshire, ten in Dorsetshire, four in Somersetshire, thirty-two in Suffolk, twelve in Norfolk, one in Hampshire, five in Oxfordshire, three in Buckinghamshire, four in Gloucestershire, two in Huntingdonshire, four in Nottinghamshire, one in Warwickshire, and twenty-two in Leicestershire. It appears too, by the charter of foundation to the Abbey of St. Werburge, at Chester, that several eminent persons held the rank of Baron under him. The charter runs thus:-" Hæc sunt itaque dona data Abbatiæ S. Werburge, quæ omnia ego Comes HUGO et RICHARDUs filius meus et Ermentrudis Comitissa, et mei Barones, et mei homines dedimus, &c.," which Barones et Homines mentioned therein, were the following: * The legitimacy of this lady is maintained from the circumstance of her father having bestowed upon her the Manor of Drayton, in free marriage, which the lawyers say could not be granted to a bastard; but had she been legitimate, she would surely have succeeded to the earldom before her aunt. |