Sir Walter de Espec died in 1153, and was buried at Rievaulx. Notwithstanding his munificent benefactions to the three monasteries, which he had founded, he left an ample portion of his property to his three sisters;-Hawisia, married to William Bussy;* Albreda, to Nicholas de Trailly; and Adelina, to Peter de Ros; and on her, he bestowed the patronage of his monasteries of Kirkham and Rievaulx. Peter de Ros was a considerable benefactor to the Abbey of St. Mary, at York. He also confirmed to the Priory of Kirkham, the gift which had been made by his father, of the advowson of Cold Overton, for the support of hospitality. He died in 1157, and was buried in the Abbey of Rievaulx. By Adelina his wife, he had ROBERT DE Ros, who appears to have paid a considerable sum of money to Henry II, for permission to take possession of his mother's inheritance. He married Sibylla de Valoines,† or according to Leland, Worlonge; who surviving her husband, became the wife of Ralph de Albini. Robert de Ros gave his manor of Ribstane to the Knights Templar, where, a preceptory of that order was founded; and becoming, it is supposed, a member of that fraternity, he was buried at the preceptory; though there is no record of either circumstance. EVERARD DE Ros, his son and successor, a minor at his father's death, married Rose, daughter of William, baron Trusbutt of Wartre, in Holderness; who, after the death of her three brothers, became with her two sisters, co-heir to her father's estate; and, also, to that of her mother, Albreda de Harcurt, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Pain Peverell,§ Standard-bearer in the Holy Land, to Robert Curthose, the Conqueror's eldest son. Her two sisters dying without issue, the posterity of Albreda became barons of Trusbut. Everard de Ros was a benefactor to the Priory of Bridlington; to the * Bussy. Arms-Argent, 3 bars sable. Trusbut. Arms-3 bolts. § Peverell, Arms—Azure, 3 garbs, and a chief, or. monastery of Newminster, in Northumberland; and to the Priory of Rievaulx. He died before 1186, leaving, by his widow, two sons, the eldest of whom was only thirteen, viz, ROBERT DE Ros, called Fursan, who, from some cause, fell under the displeasure of Richard I, in 1197: and was committed to close confinement. He was probably involved in some of the many intrigues of John, against his brother and sovereign. Richard, it is known, with a fraternal affection, which no ill conduct could abate, invariably forgave the head of the discontent excited against him, while he severely punished the subordinate abettors. He recovered his liberty upon payment of a heavy fine; and was so far in favour with John, when become king, (though he afterwards appeared in arms against him) that, he recovered the whole of the barony of his grandfather, Walter de Espec; and was employed as one of the commissioners to conduct William the Lion, king of Scotland, into this kingdom; whose daughter Isabel, after her father's death, in 1214, he married. He was founder of Helmsley Castle, which he soon after gave to his son William, with the patronage of the monasteries of Kirkham, Rievaulx, and Wardon. He was also the founder of Werke Castle, in Northumberland, which he presented to his son Robert, with a barony in Scotland. He confirmed the grant made by his father, of the manor of Ribstane, to the Templars, and was, in other respects, an especial benefactor to those soldier priests. He became a member of their body, and dying in 1227, was buried in the Temple Church, in London. Gough, in his Sepulchral Monuments, (vol. I, part 1, pp. 41-2) has described, as one of the most interesting monuments in the Temple Church, "the figure of a young knight in mail, and a flowing mantle, with a kind of cowl; his hair neatly curled at the sides; his crown appears shaven. His hands are elevated in a praying position; and on his left arm is a short pointed shield charged with three water bougets. He has at his left C side, a long sword, and the armour of his legs, which are crossed, has a ridge or seam up the front, continued over the knee and forming a kind of garter below the knee; at his feet a lion. The arms bespeak this knight to be one of the family of Ros or Roos; and Weever has confirmed this application, by the following fragment of an inscription, insculped upon one of these cross-legged monuments; as he found it among the collections of one studious in antiquities, in Sir Robert Cotton's Library: Hic requiescit—R.—Ep.—quondam visitator generalis ordinis milicie Templi in Anglia & Francia & Etalia. This, from the pedigree of the Lords Ros, he proved to have belonged to one Robert, a Templar, who died about the year 1245." Werke Castle was in the possession of the Greys, in the time of Camden. Grose, in his Antiquities, has given a representation of the ruins of Helmsley Castle, the keep of which was in tolerable preservation, till of late; but what the violence of civil war failed to effect, modern barbarism is endeavouring to accomplish. Some of the walls have been blown up with gunpowder, and the materials used to repair the roads. Helmsley, in the time of Edward IV, appears to have escheated to the king, after the execution of his brother, the Duke of Clarence, whose it was to have been on the death of Margaret de Ros. It became, many years afterwards, the property of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, by his marriage with the daughter of Francis, Earl of Rutland. It was sold in 1690, to Sir Charles Duncombe, and is now the property of Lord Feversham. WILLIAM DE Ros, the eldest son and heir of Robert, was of full age at his father's death; and, on payment of the customary fine to the king, was permitted to take possession of his paternal inheritance. common lot of some of his predecessors, in falling under the displeasure of the king; and was compelled to pay a fine for the "remission of the royal indignation." He was engaged, also, in a dispute with Hugh, Prior of Kirkham, in which the ecclesiastic appears to have been defending the rights of his monastery, as secured by the charter of foundation. The dispute was compromised by an arrangement satisfactory to both parties. He married Lucia, daughter to Reginald Fitzpiers, by whom he had three sons, Robert, Alexander, and Peter: and dying in 1258, was buried in the Church of Kirkham Priory, before the high altar. He seems to have inherited the ROBERT DE ROs, his eldest son, married Isabel, the rich heiress of William Albini IV; and obtained from Henry III, July 3, 1257, a grant of free warren, in the lordship of Belvoir, by which the boundary was determined. In 1258, he was actively employed in Scotland, in delivering Alexander III. out of the hands of his rebellious subjects; and at Chester, in resisting the hostile invasions of Llewellin, Prince of Wales. In the same year, he and his lady Isabel, had a controversy with the Prior and Convent of Belvoir, relative to the right of presentation to the Church of Redmile, which was amicably compromised by their relinquishing the patronage to the convent, for a certain compensation. In 1261, he obtained from the king, the grant of a weekly market, to be held at Belvoir, on Tuesday; and of an annual fair on the feast of St. John the Baptist, to continue three days. In 1264, he was one of the insurgent barons, who defeated Henry III, at the battle of Lewes, and took him and the prince prisoner, whom they confined in Hungerford Castle. In 1265, he was summoned to the parliament, which was called by the barons in the king's name. these offences, an execution was directed against his lands: but, being admitted to a composition, he, in 1267, raised a For new embattled wall at Belvoir. By his lady Isabel, Lord Robert de Ros had four sons, William, Robert, Nicholas, and John. He died in 1285, and was buried at Kirkham, under a marble tomb, on the south side of the choir; his bowels, before the high altar at Belvoir; and his heart, at Croxton Abbey. At the suppression of religious houses, part of the freestone monument, which lay over his heart, at Croxton, was removed to Bottesford, and let into the northwall of the chancel there, where it still remains. А сору of the inscription on this monument, is given in the account of Bottesford Church. Isabel, his wife, died in 1301, and was buried at Newstead. WILLIAM DE ROs, the eldest son, succeeded to the family honours and estates, on the death of his mother. In 1292, he had been an unsuccessful competitor for the crown of Scotland founding his claim on his descent from his great grandmother, Isabel, daughter to William the Lion, king of Scotland. He married Matilda, one of the two daughters and co-heiresses of John de Vaux,* a lineal descendant of Robert de Vaux, who came over with the Conqueror. By this marriage, the patronage of Penteney and Blakeney Priories, in Norfolk, and of Frestun, in Lincolnshire, came into the family of De Ros. He was a benefactor to the Priories of Belvoir and Blakeney. He died in 1317, and was buried under a marble tomb, on the north side of the monastery of Kirkham. By his wife, Matilda de Vaux, who survived him, he had three sons, William, his successor, John, and Thomas; and three daughters, Anne, married to Pagan, Lord Tiptoft, Margaret, and Matilda. The Lady Matilda Ros was buried at Penteney Priory. WILLIAM DE Ros II. completed in 1321 the religious foundation which his father had begun, at Blakeney. He was created Lord Ross, of Werke-took the title of Baron De Vaux. Arms-Ckecky, argent and gules. |