He

Ross of Hamlake, Werke, Belvoir, and Trusbut;—and had summons to parliament, from 11 Edward II, to 16 Edward III. He was also appointed Lord High Admiral; and was one of the commissioners with the Archbishop of York, and others, to treat of peace betwixt the king and Robert de Bruce, who had assumed the title of king of Scotland. married Margery de Badlesmere;* by whom he had, William, Thomas, John, Margaret, and Matilda; and dying in 1342, was buried at Kirkham, under a stone mausoleum, near the great altar. His widow survived her husband many years; and was one of the very few persons from England, present at the Jubilee, at Rome, in 1350; the king having discountenanced the attendance of his subjects at this ceremony, on account of the large sums of money usually taken out of the kingdom on such occasions.

Nichols, quoting from Dugdale's Baronage, and the Rolls of Parliament, gives an account of John, the brother of the last mentioned William de Ros; upon whose monument, in the chancel of Stoke Albany Church, (in existence before 1790,) there was an inscription of the following tenor. “Hic jacet Johannes Ross, le bon compagnon.”

The account is too long for transcription in this sketch. He appears to have been a high-spirited, gallant man, of a convivial turn.

During the sitting of the parliament in the Cathedral Church at Lincoln, on the Sunday before Lent, previous to the year 1319, the king, and his nobles being present, John de Ros had an affray with Hugh Despenser; which, beginning with insulting words and mutual reproaches, proceeded to blows with the fist, (usque ad sanguinis effusionem,) and to drawn swords, in the church. Both parties were committed to the custody of the king's marshal, till they had

* Badlesmere. Arms-Argent, a fess between 2 bars, gemelles, gules.

given security for keeping the peace. The process was cancelled by the king in 1319. The cause of the dispute was, the arrest of one of the knights of Despenser, at the instigation of John de Ros. John de Ros was of the party of Queen Elizabeth, and others, whom Edward II, by the persuasion of the Spensers, had banished. On the deposition and barbarous murder of the second Edward, John de Ros was in great favour with the young king, his son, to whom he had recommended himself by his convivial qualities; and to the queen mother, by his daring gallantry, as a partisan against the powerful and unworthy favourites of her husband. He was made steward of the young king's household, and appointed one of the twelve guardians, by whom, it was resolved, the king, in his minority, should be governed. In 1336, he was constituted admiral of the sea, from the Thames northward, under his brother William, as Lord High Admiral. He is supposed to have built the tower, if not the whole of Stoke Albany Church, on the south side of which are the arms of De Ros. He died in 1337, in embarrassed circumstances; and his brother obtained two hundred marks from the king, towards his burial.

WILLIAM DE Ros III, was at the raising of the siege of Arguillon, in 1346, and was knighted near La Hogue, being then only nineteen years old. In the same year, he was one of the lords, who led the second division in the celebrated

battle of Cressy. He afterwards commanded (see Notes) the fourth division of the English army against the Scots, near Neville's Cross, when David Bruce, with many of the Scottish nobles, were taken prisoners, on the seventeenth of October, in the same year. In 1348, he was with Edward, the Black Prince, at the siege of Calais, when it was taken by the English. He was summoned to parliament in 24 & 25 Edward III. In 1352, he accompanied Henry, Duke of Lancaster, to fight against the Saracens; but died the same

year, before the feast of St. Michael, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, on his journey to the Holy Land, and was buried abroad. He married Margaret, daughter of Ralph, Lord Neville, but died without issue. His widow afterwards married Sir Henry de Percy, and died in 1372. This limited statement, amounting to scarcely more than a few facts and dates, is, yet, sufficient to prove William de Ros, one of the most distinguished characters of his age.

THOMAS DE ROs, of Hamlake, brother and next heir to William, married, in 1359, Beatrice, the widow of Maurice Fitz-Maurice, Earl of Desmond, and daughter to Ralph, Earl of Stafford ;† by whom he had issue, John, William, Thomas, Elizabeth, and Margaret. In 1364, he accompanied the king of Cyprus to the Holy Land; and was in the French wars, from 1369 to 1371. He was summoned to parliament, from 35 Edward III, to 7 Richard II, inclusive. He died at Uffington, June 8, 1383; and was buried at Rievaulx Abbey. His widow became the wife of Sir Richard Burley, knight of the garter, and one of the privy councillors to the Duke of Lancaster; of whose army he was field marshall, in Galicia; where he died in 1386, of a sickness, which carried off many others. His body was buried with much pomp, in old St. Paul's Cathedral, where a splendid monument, of the perpendicular style of English architecture, was erected to his memory; a drawing of which has been preserved by Dugdale, of which, Gough and Nichols have given a copy. There is no evidence, that the Lady Beatrice, now again a widow, married a third time; though she seems to have survived her husband many years. ed the royal permission to found a chantry, for one priest, within St. Paul's Church, to pray for the souls of Sir Richard Burley, knight; his father, and mother; and, also, Sir Richard

For in 1409, she obtain

Neville. Arms-Gules, a saltier, argent. + Stafford. Arms-Or, a chevron, gules.

de Pembruges, Sir Thomas de Ros, his parents, and all the faithful departed; and, finally, for the good estate of herself during life, and her soul afterwards. Twelve marks were allotted for the maintenance of the priest, charged on certain messuages and shops, in London.-An inscription in the church of Owersby, in Lincolnshire, proves, that Thomas de Ros, the third son, was knighted, and was lord of the manor of Owersby, as well as patron of the church; and that he died in 1452. There was also a Ros, of Gedney, as appears from the fragment of an inscription, on a marble tomb, in the chancel of Gedney Church. This person was interested as a proprietor or patron, or both, in the parish of Tidd St. Mary, on the Norfolk edge of the county of Lincoln. Nichols records an inscription, painted with the arms, in the windows of the church, of this latter place, to the effect, that Richard de Ros had presented one of the windows. There are similar traces of the De Ros family, according to the same authority, in Scotton and Ropsley Churches.

JOHN DE ROS, of Hamlake, eldest son and heir of Thomas, who died in 1383, took a prominent part in the splendid pageantry at the coronation of the ill-advised, and ill-fated Richard II, then only in the tenth year of his age. We can hardly suppose a youth of so immature an age, competent to direct the magnificent and improvident display on this occasion. Amidst other devices for the royal amusement, was a passage of arms during dinner; for which, John de Ros, scarcely less youthful than the sovereign, was created a knight, before dinner. This selection proves, that though young, he had already distinguished himself, in the graceful accomplishments of chivalry; a warlike science, if it may be so called, of essential benefit to society, as being, in the absence of all other means, of a civilising tendency. The crusades, though of a more decidedly religious character, were really, an exemplification of chivalry on a splendid

scale.

But these, as well as knightly adventures, in the time of John de Ros, had, with all their contemplated be

nefits, been long abandoned. A less striking, but to the individual, more interesting, developement of love for the scene of so many divine wonders, had succeeded; that of a painful, self-denying, perilous pilgrimage. To satisfy these longings of fervent piety; which, if they savoured too much of ill-regulated enthusiasm, were, surely, something better in their spirit, than the cold, calculating, utilitarian selfishness of modern times, Thomas de Ros embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; but died (whether on his way there, or on his return, is not so clear,) at Paphos, in the Isle of Cyprus, in 1394; and was buried at Rievaulx Abbey, in the course of the same year. He married Mary Percy," sister of the Earl of Northumberland, and widow, says Nichols, of - Orby, of Lincolnshire. Bishop Percy makes her the daughter of Henry, Lord Percy, by his second wife, Joan, daughter of John Orby, who was a baron in the time of Edward III. She died the year after her husband, being rather more than forty years of age.

*

John de Ros was succeeded by his next brother, SIR WILLIAM DE Ros, knight, then aged twenty-four. He was employed by the king, in the same year, with Walter, Bishop of Durham, Henry, Earl of Northumberland, and others, in negociating a treaty of peace with Scotland. He seems to have been an especial favourite with Henry IV, who made him of his council, and employed him in various civil affairs of great importance; giving him in 1411, for his residence, for the lodging of his servants and horse, (on account of the convenience of having him near the court,) the town of Chingford, in Essex, which had descended to him by the marriage of his grandfather with Margaret Badlesmere and honouring him, in the same year, with the

*Percy. Arms-Azure, 5 fusils in fess, or.