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Vol II File 11: The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James

Ref: Burke, pg. 165-167.

Robert le Despencer appears to be the first person of this name in the records. In the 18th year of King William the Conqueror he was named as such from being the steward to the king. He was a witness to the royal charter for removing the secular canons out of the cathedral of Durham, and placing monks in their stead. This Robert was the brother of Urso de Abitot, then sheriff of Worcestershire, and he appears as well by his high official situation, as by the numerous lordships he possessed, to have been a person of great eminence; but it has not been ascertained whether he first came to England with his royal master, or whether he was of Saxon or Norman extraction; nor is it clearly known, whether he had ever been married or had issue. In the reign of Henry I. there was a William le Despencer, but whether he had the name from being son of Robert, or succeeded to the post of steward, cannot be determined. The next person we find holding this office, and in the same reign was Thurstan Dispencer.

• 1. Thurstan Dispencer

• 2. Almaric Despencer

• 3. Hugh Despencer

• 4. Son of Hugh ??

• 5. Hugh Despencer, grandson of Hugh. He married Aliva Basset daughter of Philip Basset, Lord Basset of Wycombe, co. Bucks, and afterwards she was the 1st wife of Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, but there were no children by this latter marriage. They had the following children:
  
  • 1. Hugh Despencer, Senior. See below.

  • 2. Eleanor (Alianore) Despencer, married Hugh de Courtenay, father of Hugh, 1st Earl of Devonshire.
    

• 6. Hugh Despencer, Senior. He married paid a fine of 2,000 marks for marrying, without license, Isabel Beauchamp, daughter of William de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and widow of Patrick Chaworth; by this lady he had an only son, the celebrated Hugh Despencer, Junior. He died in 1265, slain fighting for Simon de Montfort at Evesham.

• 7. Hugh Despencer, Junior, was born in 1262, died in 1326. Earl of Winchester, he bore the same christian name as his father (d. 1265) and his son (d. 1326). In the 22nd year of the reign of King Edward I., he was made Governor of Oldham castle, co. Southampton, and the same year had summons to attend the king in Portsmouth, prepared with horse and arms for an expedition into Gascony. In two years afterwards he was at the battle of Dunbar, in Scotland, where the English arms triumphed; and the next year he was one of the commissioners accredited to treat of peace between the English monarch and kings of the Romans and of France. In the 26th and 28th years of Edward I. he was again engaged in the wars of Scotland, and was sent by his sovereign, with the Earl of Lincoln, to the papal court, to complain of the Scots, and to entreat that his holiness would no longer favor them, as they had abused his confidence by falsehoods. To the very close of King Edward I.'s reign his lordship seems to have enjoyed the favor of that great prince, and had summons to parliament from him from June 23, 1295, to March 14, 1322; but it was after the accession of Edward's unhappy son, the second of that name, that the Spencers attained that extraordinary eminence, from which, with their feeble-minded master, they were eventually hurled into the gulf of irretrievable ruin. In the first years of Edward II.'s reign, we find the father and son still engaged in the Scottish wars. In the 14th year the king, hearing of great animosities between the younger Spencer and Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, and learning that they were collecting their followers in order to come to open combat, interfered, and strictly commanded Lord Hereford to forbear. About the same time, a dispute arising bestrewn the Earl of Hereford and John de Mowbray regarding some lands in Wales, young Spencer seized possession of the estate, and kept it from both the litigants. This conduct, and similar proceedings on the part of the elder Spencer, exciting the indignation of the barons, they formed a league against the favorites, and placing the king's cousin, Thomas Plantaganet, Earl of Lancaster, at their head, marched, with banners flying, from Sherbourne to St. Alban's, whence they dispatched the Bishops of Salisbury, Hereford, and Chichester, to the king with a demand that the Spencers should be banished; to which mission the king, however, giving an imperious reply in the negative, the irritated nobles continued their route to London; when Edward, at the instance of the queen, acquiesced; whereupon the barons summoned a parliament, in which the Spencers were banished from England; and the sentence was proclaimed in Westminster Hall. To this decision, Hugh the elder submitted and retired; but Hugh the younger lurked in divers places; sometimes on land, and sometimes at sea, and was fortunate enough to capture, during his exile, two vessels near Sandwich, laden with merchandise to the value of 40,000 pounds; after which, being recalled by the king, an army was raised, which encountered and defeated the baronial forces at Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire. In this action, wherein numbers were slain, the Earl of Pontefract, and there, after a summary trial (the elder Spencer being one of his judges), beheaded. The Spencers now became more powerful than ever, and the elder was immediately created Earl of Winchester, the king loading him with grants of forfeited estates. He was about the same time constituted warden of the king's forests on the south of Trent, the lands forfeited after the battle of Boroughbridge; but not satisfied with those, and they were incredibly numerous, he extorted by force whatsoever else he pleased. Amongst other acts of unlawful oppression, it is related that he seized upon the person of Elizabeth Comyn, a great heiress, the wife of Richard Talbot, in her house at Kennington, in Surrey, and detained her for twelve months in prison, until he compelled her to assign to him the manor of Painswike, in Gloucestershire, and the castle and manor of Goderich, in the marches of Wales; but this ill-obtained and ill-exercised power was not formed for permanent endurance, and a brief space only was necessary to bring it to termination. The queen and the young prince, who had fled to France, and had been proclaimed traitors through the influence of the Spencers, ascertaining the feelings of the people, ventured to return; and landed at Harwick, with the noblemen and persons of eminence who had been exiled after the defeat at Boroughbridge, raised the royal standard, and soon found themselves at the head of a considerable force; when, marching upon Bristol, where the king and his favorites then were, they were received in that city with acclimation, and the elder Spencer being seized (although in his 90th year), was brought in chains before the prince and the barons, and received judgment of death, which was accordingly executed, by hanging the culprit upon the gallows in the sight of the king and of his son, upon St. Dennis's day, in October, 1326. It is said by some writers that the body was hung up with two strong cords for four days, and then cut to pieces, and given to the dogs. Young Spencer, with the king, effected his escape; but they were both, soon afterwards, taken and delivered to the queen, when the unfortunate monarch was consigned to Berkeley Castle, where he was basely murdered in 1327. Hugh Spencer the Younger, it appears, was impeached before parliament, and received sentences "to be drawn upon a hurdle, with trumps and trumpets, throughout all the city of Hereford," and there to be hanged and quartered, which sentence was executed on a gallows 50 feet high, upon St. Andrew's eve, in the year 1326 (20th year of Edward II.) Thus terminated the career of two of the most celebrated royal favorites in the annals of England. The younger Hugh was a peer of the realm, as well as his father, having been summoned to parliament as a baron, from July 29, 1314, to October 10, 1325; but the two Baronies of Spencer, and the Earldom of Winchester, expired under the attainders of the father and son. Hugh the younger married Eleanor (Eleanora) Clare, daughter and co-heir of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, and his wife, Joane Plantaganet, who later married William Zouche, Hugh and Eleanor had the following children:
  
  • 1. Hugh Despencer, the successor, married Elizabeth Badlesmere, widow of Giles de Badlesmere, but d.s.p. in 1349, when the barony expired, but his lands devolved upon his nephew, Edward.

  • 2. Edward Despencer, married Anne Ferrers, sister of Henry, Lord Ferrers, of Groby, and dying in 1342, left an only son, Edward. He succeeded his uncle, Hugh. He married Elizabeth Burghersh, daughter and heiress of Bartholomew de Burghersh, Baron Burghersh, and had issue:
    
    • 1. Thomas Despencer, married Constance Plantaganet, daughter of Edmund Plantaganet, surnamed De Langley, Duke of York, 5th son of King Edward III.

    • 2. Hugh Despencer, died in 1424.

    • 3. Cicely Despencer, who died young.

    • 4. Elizabeth Despencer, married (1) John Fitz Alan, of Arundel, and (2) Hugh Zouch, Lord Zouch.

    • 5. Anne Despencer, married Hugh Hastings, and afterwards to Thomas Morley, Lord Morley.

    • 6. Margaret Despencer, married Robert Ferrers, Lord Ferrers of Chartley.
      

  • 3. Gilbert Despencer, of Melton Mowbray.

  • 4. Philip Despencer, married Margaret Gousell, and died in 1313.

  • 5. Elizabeth Despencer, married Maurice de Berkeley. See the continuation of this lineage in the Berkeley Line in Volume II.

  • 6. Isabel Despencer was the 1st wife of Richard Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel, who later married (2) Eleanor Plantaganet. See the continuation of this lineage in the Fitz Alan Line in Volume II.

Ref: Crispin and Macary, pg. 56.

Ref: Burke, pg. 196-199.

• 1. Walcheline de Feriers was a Norman (according to Burke).

• 2. Henry de Ferriers, son of Walcheline de Feriers, obtained from William the Conqueror, a grant of Tutbury Castle, co. Stafford, with extensive possessions in other shires, of which one hundred and fourteen manors were in Derbyshire. He must have been of considerable rank, not only from those enormous grants, but from the circumstances of his being one of the commissioners appointed by King William to make the Grand Survey, the Domesday Record, of the kingdom. He was the founder of the priory of Tutbury, which he liberally endowed.
  

  Crispin and Macary report: " Henry de Ferrieres is referred to by Wace thus;" Henri li sire de Ferrieres," and he who then held Tillieres. He was seigneur de Saint Hilaire de Ferriers near Bernay and the son, of Walkelin de Ferrers, who fell in a contest with Hugh de Montfort I. early in the reign of Duke William, in which both of these noblemen were killed. He had an older brother William, also reported at Hastings, undoubtedly well advanced in years at that time, who died before the compilation of Domesday, where his name does not appear. Henry de Ferrers received 210 manors, 114 of which were in Derbyshire. The seat of his chief barony was Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire, which had previously belonged to Hugh Lupus, but upon the latter becoming the Earl of Chester in 1071, it was granted to Henry de Ferrers, who founded nearby a Cluniac monastery. Henry was appointed one of the commissioners for the general survey in 1085 and richly endowed the priory of Tutbury in 1089. He married Berta _________, whose identity is unknown, by whom he had three sons: Enguenulf, William, and Robert."
  

  They also had two daughters. The following children are reported by Burke, 196-197:
  

  • 1. Enguenulf de Ferriers, d.s.p.

  • 2. William de Ferriers. d.s.p.

  • 3. Robert de Ferrers, his successor. See below.

  • 4. Gundred Ferriers.

  • 5. Emmeline Ferriers.
    

    He was succeeded by his only surviving son, Robert.

• 3. Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, having contributed, at the head of the Derbyshire men, to King Stephen's victory over King David of Scotland, at Northallerton (commonly called the battle of the Standard), was created by that monarch, the first Earl of Derby, in 1138.. He married Hawise, and they had the following children:
  
  • 1. William de Ferrers.

  • 2. Robert de Ferrers, his successor. See below.

  • 3. Walcheline de Ferrers., of Okeham.

  • 4. Isolda Ferrers, married Stephen de Beauchamp.

  • 5. Maud Ferrers, married Bertram de Verdon.
    

    The earl died in 1139.

• 4. Robert de Ferrers, 2nd Earl of Derby or Earl of Ferrers, was living in 1141. He was distinguished by his munificence to the church. He was buried at the abbey of Meervale, co. Warwick, one of the religious houses that he founded, wrapped in an ox's hide, according to his own desire. He had a daughter and a son as follows:
  
  • 1. Petronilla Ferrers, married Henry de Stafford.

  • 2. William de Ferrers. See below.
    

• 5. William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby. in the 12th year of King Henry II., upon levying the aid for marrying the king's daughter, certified the knight's fees then in his possession to be seventy-nine in number, for which he paid the sum of 68 marks. He was known as a favorite of King John, from whom he received large grants of land, among which was the great Northampton estate of William Pevrel, whose daughter one of his ancestors married. Earl William was largely instrumental in placing Henry II. on the throne and took an important part in the siege of Mount Sorrel and the battle of Lincoln. In 1230 he was one of the three chief counselors recommended to the king by the barons and died in 1240. He was also a liberal benefactor of the church. He married Margaret Peverel, daughter of William Peverel, of Nottingham, by whom he had two sons as follows:
  
  • 1. Robert de Ferrers, his successor. See below.

  • 2. Walcheline de Ferrers, Lord of Eggington, co. Derby, father by Goda, his wife, daughter of Robert de Toni, of Robert de Ferrers, Lord of Eggington and of Radbourne, who left at his decease, in the 9th year of King Henry III., two daughters and co-heirs, Ermentrude and Margery.
    

    He was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert.

• 6. Robert de Ferrers, 4th Earl of Derby, rebelled against Henry II., and marching at the head of the Leicester men (in the 19th year of Henry II.), upon Nottingham, then kept for the king by Reginald de Luci, got possession of the town, which he sacked, putting the greater part of the inhabitants to the sword, and taking the rest prisoners. He was soon afterwards, however, reduced to submission, and obliged to surrender to the crown his castles of Tutbury and Duffield, which were demolished by order of the king. He married Sibilla Braose, daughter of William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny and Brechnock, by whom he had the following children:
  
  • 1. William de Ferrers, his successor. See below.

  • 2. Millicent Ferrers, married Roger Mortimer, Lord Mortimer, of Wigmore. See the continuation of this lineage in the Mortimer Line.

  • 3. Agatha Ferrers was a concubine to King John, and had by that prince a daughter as follows:
    
    • 1. Joane _______, 3rd consort of Llewellyn the Great, Prince of North Wales ap Iorwerth Drwyndwn, by her, who died in 1237, and was buried at Llanfaes, Anglesey, where, over her tomb Prince Llewellyn erected the Friary of Llanfaes, had issue as follows:
      
      • 1. David ap Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales by usurpation, living May 5, in the 4th year of King Henry III., 1229; d.s.p. in 1246, having married Isabella Braose, daughter of William de Braos, of Brecknock.

      • 2. Helen _______, eldest daughter, married circa 1220, (1) John le Scot, 8th Earl Palatine of Chester and Earl of Huntingdon, brother of William the Lion, King of Scotland, who d.s.p. June 7, 1244. She married (2) Robert de Quincy, who died in the 41st year of Henry III., 1277, son of Saier de Quincy, created Earl of Winchester, circa 1210. See lineage elsewhere in Quincy Line.

      • 3. Margaret _____, married circa 1217 (1) John de Braose, surnamed Tadody, who died in 1231/2, and (2) Walter de Clifford, who died in 1263.

      • 4. Gwladys Ddu _____, married circa 1215, (1) Reginald de Braose, who dying 1221, left no issue by her. She married (2) Ralph de Mortimer, of Wigmore, who living November 1227, died in 1245/6. His widow died at Windsor, 1253. From the marriage of Gwladys Ddu and Ralph de Mortimer, derived by direct representation, Edward IV., King of England. See continuation of this lineage elsewhere.

      • 5. Angharad ______, married Llewellyn Vychan ap Maelgwyn, grandson of the Lord Rhys, Prince of South Wales, the only Welshman to marry into this family.
        

        The earl, who was a benefactor to the church, having founded the priory of Woodham, commonly called Woodham-Ferrers, in Essex, was succeeded by his son, William.

• 7. William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby, was ousted from his dignities of Derby and Nottingham by King Richard I., but they were soon afterwards restored to him, and we find him accompanying the lion-hearted monarch to the Holy Land, where he lost his life at the siege of Acon, in the year 1191. He married Sibel ________.

• 8. William de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, was ousted of his dignities upon the return of King Richard from captivity, took arms in his behalf, and joining the Earl of Chester, besieged Nottingham Castle, which, after a brief resistance, surrendered. For this and other acts of fidelity, he was chosen by the king to sit with the rest of the peers in the great council held at the said castle of Nottingham in the ensuing March. Moreover, at Richard's second coronation he was one of the four that carried the canopy over the king's head. Upon the accession of King John, William de Ferrers, with the Earls of Clare and Chester, and other great men, swore fealty to the new monarch, but on the condition that each person should have his right. William was present at the coronation of King John, and on June 7, following, being solemnly created Earl of Derby, by special charter, dated at Northampton, he was girt with a sword by the king's own hands (being the first of whom in any charter that expression was used). He had also a grant of the third penny of all the pleas before the sheriff throughout the whole country, whereof he was earl, to hold to him and his heirs as amply as any of his ancestors had enjoyed the same. Moreover, in consideration of 4,000 marks, he obtained another charter from the king of the manor of Higham-Ferrers, co. Northampton, with the hundred and park; as also of the manors of Bliseworth and Newbottle, in the same shire; which were part of the lands of his great grandfather, William Peverel, of Nottingham. King John also conferred upon him a mansion-house, situated in the parish of St. Margaret, within the city of London, which had belonged to Isaac, a Jew, at Norwich, "to hold by the service of waiting upon the king (the earl and his heirs) , at all festivals yearly, without any cap, but with a garland of the breadth of his little finger upon his head." These liberal marks of royal favor were felt so gratefully by the earl, that in all the subsequent struggles between the king and the refractory barons, he never once swerved from his allegiance, but remained true to the monarch; and after King John's decease, he adhered with the same unshaken loyalty to the interests of his son, King Henry III. He assisted at the coronation of the new monarch; and immediately after the ensuing Easter he took part with the famous William Marshall (governor of the king and the kingdom), the Earls of Chester and Albemarle, and many other great men in the siege of Mountsorell Castle, in Leicestershire, then held by Henry de Braybroke, and ten other stout knights. And the same year, was likewise with those nobles at raising the siege of Lincoln, which place the rebellious barons with Louis, King of France, had invested. He married Agnes ________, sister and one of the co-heirs of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, by whom he had two sons, William and Thomas. He died of the gout in 1246, and his countess died in the same year, after a union, according to some authorities of seventy-five, and by others, of fifty-five years. He was succeeded by his eldest son, William.

• 9. William de Ferrers, 7th Earl of Derby, who upon doing homage in the 32nd year of Henry III., had livery of Chartley Castle, and the other lands of his mother's inheritance; and the same year he sat in the parliament held in London; wherein the king made so stout an answer to the demands of his impetuous barons. He married (1) Sybil Marshal, one of the daughters and co-heirs of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. They had seven daughters as follows:
  
  • 1. Agnes Ferrers, married William de Vesci.

  • 2. Isabel Ferrers, married (1) Gilbert Basset, of Wycombe, and (2) Reginald de Mohun.

  • 3. Maud Ferrers, married (1) William de Kymes, and (2) William de Vyvon, and (3) Emerick de Rupel Carnardi.

  • 4. Sibil Ferrers, married (1) John de Vipont, and (2) Franco de Mohun.

  • 5. Joane Ferrers, married William Aguillon, and (2) John de Mohun.

  • 6. Agatha Ferrers, married Hugh Mortimer, of Chelmarsh.

  • 7. Eleanor Ferrers, married (1) William de Vallibus, and (2) Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winton, and (3) Roger de Leybourne, but had no issue.
    

    The earl married (2) Margaret Quincy, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, and had the following children:
    

    • 1. Robert de Ferrers, his successor, was the 8th and last Earl of Derby. See details of his life on pg. 197 of Burke. He married (1) Mary le Brun, daughter of Hugh le Brun, Earl of Angoulesme, and niece of King Henry III., by whom he had no issue; and (2) Eleanore Basset, daughter of Ralph Basset, Lord Basset, by whom he had an only son, John.
      
      • 1. John Ferrers, only son of Robert de Ferrers, after the forfeiture of his father was summoned to parliament as Baron Ferrers of Chartley, co. Stafford, February 6, 1299. This was a seat which came into the family of Ferrers, by the marriage of William, 5th Earl of Derby, with Agnes, sister and co-heir of Ranulph, Earl of Chester. This John inherited the turbulent spirit of his father, joined the Earl of Hereford and others, in the 25th year of Edward I., in opposing the collection of the subsidies granted by the parliament then held in St. Edmundsbury, to the crown, but the ferment was allayed by the king's confirming Magna Charta, and the charter of the forests; and by declaring that in the future no tax should be imposed upon the subject without the consent of the parliament, and at the same time granting a pardon to the discontented lords and their adherents, in which pardon John de Ferrers is especially named. Soon after this he petitioned Pope Nicholas III., that his holiness should interfere to procure him the lands of his late father which had been conferred upon Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, but his suit was ineffectual. He was subsequently in the Scottish wars, and was then raised to the peerage as stated above. He married as her 2nd husband, Hawise Musegros, daughter and heiress of Robert de Musegros, of Charlton, co. Somerset, by whom he acquired a great increase in fortune. She married (1) William de Mortimer, (2) John de Ferrers, and (3) John de Bures. In the 34th year of Edward I., he was again in the wars of Scotland, and, subsequently, in the 4th year of Edward II., the year following he was constituted seneschal of Aquitaine. He died in 1324, and was succeeded by his son, Robert de Ferrers, of Chartley, who married Agnes Bohun, daughter of Humphrey de Bohun VI., Earl of Hereford.
        

      • 2. William Ferrers, 2nd son of William, 7th Earl of Derby, obtained, by gift of Margaret, his mother, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Roger de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, the manor of Groby, co. Leicester, whereupon he assumed the arms of the family of De Quincy. He married (1) Joane Despencer, daughter of Hugh le Despencer, and (2) Eleanor, daughter of Matthew Lovaine. From the first marriage there two children as follows:
        
        • 1. William Ferrers, of Groby, his successor. William Ferrers did his homage and had livery of his lands in England, in the 21st year of Edward I., and in the 24th, of the lands which he inherited in Scotland. In the following year he was summoned to parliament as Baron Ferrers of Groby. He was engaged in the wars of Scotland in the reigns of King Edward I. and King Edward II. He married Margaret Segrave, daughter of John Segrave, 2nd Lord Segrave, and dying in 1325, left two sons and a daughter as follows:
          
          • 1. Henry Ferrers, 2nd Baron Ferrers, of Groby, summoned to parliament, from June 5, 1331, to November 20, 1342. He was actively engaged in the wars of King Edward III., both in Scotland and France, and acquired very large territorial possessions, by grants from the crown, for his services. He married Isabel Verdon, 4th daughter and co-heir of Theobald Verdon, 2nd Lord Verdon, and in the 5th year of King Edward III., upon doing homage, had livery of the lands of her inheritance lying in Ireland. They had the following children:
            
            • 1. William Ferrers, his successor. William Ferrers, 3rd Baron Ferrers, of Groby, summoned to parliament from March 15, 1354, to April 6, 1369. He married Margaret Ufford, daughter and co-heir of Robert de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk. They had the following children: Henry Ferrers, his successor; Elizabeth Ferrers, a nun, in the convent of Minoresses-without, Aldgate, outside London; Margaret Ferrers, married Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

            • 2. Ralph Ferrers, married Joan Grey, daughter of Richard Grey, Baron Grey, of Codnor, and widow of William Harcourt, of Bosworth, co. Leicester.

            • 3. Philippa Ferrers, married Guy de Beauchamp, son and heir of Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

            • 4. Elizabeth Ferrers, married David, Earl of Athol.
              

              He died in 1343, and was succeeded by his son, William.

      • 3. Joan Ferrers, married Thomas Berkeley, Lord Berkeley. See below.

      • 4. Agnes Ferrers, married Robert de Musegros, Lord of Deerhurst. See continuation of this lineage elsewhere.

• 10. Joan Ferrers married Thomas de Berkeley, Lord Berkeley.
  

  See continuation of this lineage in the Berkeley Line.

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