Page:VCH Lancaster 1.djvu/459

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FEUDAL BARONAGE Theobald III., his son and heir.^ This wife hved but a few years, for in 1225 he married, through the instrumentality of his royal patron, Roesia, daughter and ultimately sole heiress of Nicholas de Verdon.^ In the autumn of 1229 he crossed with the king to Brittany,' continuing abroad at least seven months engaged in the Gascon campaign, in which almost all the Lancashire barons, and indeed the strength of the nation, took part.* From this expedi- tion he apparently did not return, for he was dead on 1 9 July,' and his lands in this county and in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Ireland, as well as those of his first wife's inheritance in the hundred of Norton, co. Somerset, together with the heir and his marriage, were committed to the charge of Richard, earl of Cornwall.* His widow Roesia survived him, and upon the death of her father, Nicholas de Verdon, about a year after her husband's death, inherited a great estate, giving 700 marks for her relief and that she might not be constrained to marry. By Theobald Butler she had with other issue a son, John de Verdon, who gave 1,300 marks in 1247, after his mother's death, for livery of his inheritance.* From him descended the Lords Verdon, who in 1857 were represented by the Lords Stourton and Petre, the Baroness le Despencer, and the duke of Buckingham and Chandos.^ The direct heir of Theobald 11. was Theobald III., who was under age at his father's death, still under age in 1236, when he held half a knight's fee in Weeton and RawclifFe, of ancient feoffment,^" and in 1243, when the 'heir of Theobald Walter ' was returned as holding one-third part of a knight's fee in Weeton and Treales." In 1 247 he held four knights' fees in Gowran, co. Kilkenny, of the earl of Gloucester.^* He is said to have married Margery, eldest daughter of Richard de Burgh, feudal lord of Connaught and Lord Deputy of Ireland. Theobald did not long enjoy his inheritance, for he died before 5 November, 1248, and was buried in the conventual church of the Friars Preachers at Arklow.^* The year following, his Irish estates, together with those of Richard de Burgh, were committed to the custody of Peter de Birmingham." He also held in addition to his estate in this county the vill of Shepley, co. York, and the manor of Belaugh, co. Norfolk. Theobald IV., his son and heir, was aged about six years at his father's death." In 1250 the issues of the land and the marriage of the heir were given to Peter of Savoy," but the following year John fitz Geoffrey, justiciary of Ireland, gave 3,000 marks for the custody of the same." Theobald IV. attained his majority about 1265. The same year he was one of the Irish nobles who aided Prince Edward against the Mortimers in 1 Geoffrey, reporting to the king in 1226 that Theobald was ill-affected and counselling his removal from the castle of Roscray, mentions that Theobald had married his daughter and had issue by her. Royal Letters Hen. III. (Rolls Ser.), i. 293. 2 Close R. (Rec. Com.), ii. 60, 60b. * Close R. 1227-31, 256.

  • Ibid. 413 ; Pat. R. 1225-32, 360. * Ibid. 421-3.

« Close R. 1227-31, 370 ; Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i. 200 ; Testa de NevilH^tc. Com.), 161^. 7 Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i. 217-8 : cf. Dugdale, Baronage, i. 472. 8 Excerpta e Rot. Fin. ii. 1 1. » Cokayne, Comp. Peerage, viii. 24-5. 10 Testa deNevilHRcc. Com.), 411 ; Lanes. Inj. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 145. 11 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 397^. 1* Cal. Pat. R. 1 272-8 1,353- He is said to have been lord justice of Ireland in 1 247 with John de Cogan (Haydn, Bk. of Dignities, ed. 185 1, 438), but this appears very unlikely, and is probably an error founded on the fact'that Edmund Butler acted in 1 3 1 2 as deputy of John Wogan. Sec p. 3 5 7 below. w Cokayne, Comp. Peerage, ii. 95. " Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), ii. 44. 16 Cal. Inq.p. m. i. 37 ; Inf. p. m., Yorks. Rec. Soc. xii. 18. i« jiiirev. R. Original. (Rec. Com.), i. 1 2. " Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), ii. 96. 355