Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lumley, George
LUMLEY, GEORGE, fourth Baron Lumley (d. 1508), was son of Thomas, third baron, by Margaret, daughter of Sir James Harrington, and was grand-nephew of Marmaduke Lumley [q. v.], bishop of Carlisle. His great-grandfather, Ralph, first baron, was summoned to parliament in 1385; obtained a license in 1392 to make the manor-house of Lumley into a castle; afterwards joined Thomas Holland, earl of Kent [q. v.], and was killed in battle at Cirencester in 1400 and attainted; his son, John, called second baron Lumley, but never summoned to parliament, recovered his father's lands, and fell fighting in Anjou, 13 April 1421. George's father, Thomas, the third baron, was made governor of Scarborough Castle for life in 1454. He was a Yorkist. The attainder of his grandfather was reversed in his interest, and he was summoned to parliament in 1461. He died in 1485. At the end of 1462 George went with Edward IV against the Scots and Lancastrians in the north of England, and was knighted. On 23 April 1467 he was elected member of parliament for Northumberland. He held the office of sheriff of Northumberland from 1462 till 1464 and from 1468 till 1473. In 1480–1 he was made lord-lieutenant of Northumberland; and taking part in the Scottish expedition under Richard, duke of York, afterwards Richard III, he was made a knight-banneret 22 Aug. 1481. Though a Yorkist by tradition, he submitted to Henry VII, and 25 Sept. 1485 was commissioned to hold himself in readiness with others to resist an expected invasion of the Scots. On 12 May 1486 he had a royal license to enter on the inheritance of his father, without proof of age or livery. He took part in the expedition against the Scots of 1497–8, in which the siege of Norham Castle was raised. When the Princess Margaret was married in 1503 at Richmond to James IV of Scotland, Lumley accompanied her from Darlington to Berwick. He died in 1508, and was buried at Chester-le-Street. Lumley enriched his family by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Roger Thornton. This Roger Thornton's father, another Roger, is improbably stated to have died in 1429; he was mayor of Newcastle, and was ‘wonderful riche. Sum say by Prices of Sylver owre taken on the se’ (Leland). A dispute arose as to Lady Lumley's inheritance with one Giles Thornton, either an illegitimate son of Roger Thornton the younger, or a son by a second marriage, and the lady's half-brother. Lumley's son, Thomas (who died in his father's lifetime), killed Giles Thornton in a ditch at Windsor Castle, an achievement with which Lumley himself is often wrongly credited. Lumley was succeeded by his grandson, Richard, fifth baron Lumley. The latter, who died 26 May 1510, left two sons, John, called fifth, but really sixth baron Lumley (d. 1544) [q. v.], and Anthony, from whom descended Richard, viscount Lumley of Waterford [see under Lumley, Richard, first Earl of Scarborough].
[Sharpe's Peerage, 5 n. 7; Burke's Extinct Peerage, and Peerage and Baronetage; Surtees's Durham, ii. 156 sq.; Lansdowne MS. 902, f. 419; Journal Brit. Arch. Assoc. xxii. 29 &c.; Leland's Itinerary, vi. 62; Campbell's Materials for a History of Henry VII (Rolls Ser.), i. 63, 432; Three Fifteenth-century Chronicles (Camd. Soc.), p. 157; Metcalfe's Knights; Return of Members of Parliament.]