to parliament was on 16 June 1311 (Parl. Writs, ii. 1597), in which year he died.
His wife Joan, who was jointly seised with him of the manor of Wyberton, survived him. His estates at the time of his death are enumerated in ‘Calendarium Inquisitionum post mortem,’ i. 247–8. Save a small property in Northamptonshire, they were all in Lincolnshire, including the whole or parts of seventeen manors, five and a half knights' fees, and five advowsons.
His eldest son, Robert, succeeded to the lands. He had two younger sons, Adam and John, who in 1319 were declared to have equal rights of succession to Wyberton with their elder brother. Robert was never summoned to parliament, and died in 1320 without issue from his wife. Adam (d. 1345) then succeeded, and was summoned as a baron from 1332 to 1343. His direct descendants in the male line continued to hold the barony until the latter part of the fifteenth century [see Welles, Lionel de, sixth Baron].
[Parliamentary Writs, vols. i. and ii.; Calendarium Rotulorum Cartarum; Rymer's Fœdera, vols. i. and ii.; Calendars of Patent and Close Rolls; Rolls of Parliament; Memoranda de Parliamento, 1305 (Rolls Ser.); Nicolas's Siege of Carlaverock, pp. 32, 206–7; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 10–11.]
WELLES, LIONEL, LEO, or LYON de, sixth Baron Welles (1405?–1461), soldier, born about 1405, was son of Eudo de Welles by Maud, daughter of Ralph, lord Greystock. From Adam de Welles, first baron Welles [q. v.], descended John de Welles, fifth baron, summoned to parliament as baron from 20 Jan. 1376 to 26 Feb. 1421, and distinguished in the French and Scottish wars. He died in 1421, leaving by his second wife, Margaret (or Eleanor), daughter of John, lord Mowbray, the son Eudo above-mentioned, who predeceased him. Eudo's younger son, William, occasionally acted as deputy to his brother when lord lieutenant of Ireland, of which he was in 1465 lord chancellor (O'Flanagan, Lord Chancellors of Ireland).
Lionel, the eldest son, succeeded his grandfather in 1421, was knighted with Henry VI at Leicester by the Duke of Bedford on 19 May 1426, and went with the young king to France in 1430. He was summoned to parliament as sixth Baron Welles from 25 Feb. 1432 to 30 July 1460. In 1434 he became a privy councillor. He was sent to relieve Calais in 1436, when the town was feebly besieged by the Burgundians. He served as lord lieutenant of Ireland from about 1438, and was afterwards specially exempted from acts of resumption, because of the sums owed him by the crown in respect of his expenditure. He was a friend—indeed a connection—of the king, and constantly at court. In 1450 he was appointed a trier of petitions for Gascony and the parts beyond the seas. In 1454 he was stated to be beyond the sea by the king's commandment. He was probably then at Calais, where he had been sent in 1451, with Lord Rivers; he remained in command as lieutenant of the Duke of Somerset until 20 April 1456, when Warwick secured possession. He was elected K.G. before 13 May 1457. As a Lancastrian he took the oath of allegiance at Coventry in 1459. He joined Margaret of Anjou on her march south, was at the second battle of St. Albans on 7 Feb. 1460–1, and was killed at Towton on 29 March, and attainted in the parliament which followed. He was buried in Waterton church, Methley, Yorkshire.
He married, first, about 1426, Joan (or Cecilia), only daughter of Sir Robert Waterton of Waterton and Methley, and had issue a son, Richard (see below), and four daughters; and, secondly, between 27 May 1444 and 31 Aug. 1447, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Beauchamp of Bletsoe; she was widow of Sir Oliver St. John and of John Beaufort, duke of Somerset, by whom she had had a daughter, the Lady Margaret Beaufort [q. v.]; by her Welles had a son John (see below).
Richard Welles, seventh Baron Welles (1431–1470), son of Lionel, sixth baron, by his first wife, married Joane, daughter of Robert, lord Willoughby de Eresby, and was summoned in her right as Lord Willoughby from 26 May 1455 to 28 Feb. 1466. His first wife died before 1460, and he married secondly Margaret, daughter of Sir James Strangways and widow of John Ingleby, who took the veil in 1475. He was a Lancastrian and present at the second battle of St. Albans (7 Feb. 1460–1), but soon managed to make his peace with Edward, who pardoned him at Gloucester, in the first year of his reign; and so he soon got his family property again, and in 1468 his honours. Doubtless his family connection with the Nevilles helped him. His son Robert, however, took part in Warwick's plots, and in March 1470 attacked the house of Sir Thomas Borough, a knight of the king's body, spoiled it, and drove its owner away. Edward now summoned Lord Welles (the father) and his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Dymock, to London. At first Welles refused to go on the plea of illness; but afterwards went, took sanctuary at Westminster, and then rashly
