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Vol II File 23: The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James

Ref: Wurts: pp. 100-101, 125-126.

• 1. William de Saye, came to England with William the Conqueror. He had a son, William.

• 2. William de Saye, also had a son, William.

• 2. William de Saye, Lord de Saye, married (as her second husband) Beatrix Mandeville, only daughter of Geoffrey de Mandevilla, who obtained as his share of the spoils of the Norman Conquest many valuable manors in a dozen English counties, and seated himself at Waldene. He was made constable of the Tower of London for life. Her mother was Margaret, only daughter of Eudo, steward for Normandy. One account has Geoffrey de Mandeville married to Rohese Vere. Check this. Beatrix was married (1) to Hugh de Talbot, Lord Talbot, from whom she was divorced. William and Beatrix had the following children:
  
  • 1. William de Saye, eldest son. See below.

  • 2. Geoffrey de Saye, whose son Geoffrey de Saye, was one of the sureties of the Magna Charta.
    

  • 3. William de Saye, died in his father's lifetime leaving as his only child, a daughter, Beatrix. He was an ancestor of the Surety Geoffrey de Mandeville, and of Maud, wife of Surety Henry de Bohun......See page 125-126 of Wurts.

  • 4. Beatrix Saye, married (as his first wife) Geoffrey (Peter) FitzPiers, who became Baron Mandeville, in right of his wife.
    

    She was a first cousin to Geoffrey de Saye, the Surety. Geoffrey (Peter) FitzPiers was made Justiciar of England by King Richard I., and was created Earl of Essex by King John on May 27, 1199. He died October 14, 1213. They had the following children:
    

    • 1. Maud FitzPiers. See below.

    • 2. William de Mandeville, Earl of Essex. He, like his deceased kinsman, espoused the cause of the barons, and maintained it even after the decease of King John; being one of those who assisted Louis of France, in the siege of the Berkhamstead Castle, occupied by the king's forces. He made his peace soon after, for we find him engaged in the Welsh wars. He died in his early years on December 25, 1227, and as he left no issue, the Earldom of Essex devolved upon his sister, Maud, Countess of Hereford (See the Bohun Line in Volume II.), while the lands he inherited passed to his half-brother, John FitzPiers. Sheriff of Yorkshire, who married Isabel Bigod, and whose son was John Fitz-John Fitz-Geoffrey, whose son, John Fitz-John, was summoned to parliament as a Baron, in the time of King Henry III.

    • 3. Geoffrey de Mandeville, the Surety. Upon payment to King John of twenty thousands marks, he obtained in 1214, license to marry Avisa (Isabella) Meullent, daughter of William Meullent, Count of Meullent, which lady had been the wife of King John himself, but was repudiated in 1200 on account of consanguity, both being great-grandchildren of King Henry I. Her second husband, having died two years after their marriage, Isabella was promised in marriage to Hubert de Burgh, but his was not accomplished and she died without issue. In the right of his wife, Geoffrey de Mandeville became the Earl of Gloucester, and was placed in full possession of all the liberties belonging to this earldom, and the lordship of Glamorgan, in Wales. He was one of the wealthiest of the barons opposed to King John, and for adhering to them he was excommunicated, but lived only a short time, as in February 1216, he was mortally wounded in a tournament in London and dying on February 23, 1216, without issue, was interred in the priory of the Holy Trinity, in the suburbs of the city. He was succeeded by his brother, William de Mandeville, who also took the part of the barons, and maintained it even after the death of King John, being one of those who then assisted Louis of France in the siege of Berkhamstead Castle, occupied by the king's forces. William died without issue January 8, 1227, when the earldom of Essex devolved upon his sister, Maud, wife of Henry de Bohun, Countess of Hereford, while the lands that he inherited passed to his half-brother, John FitzGeoffrey, whose wife was Isabel Bigod, widow of Gilbert de Lacy and daughter of Hugh Bigod, the Surety.
      

  • 5. Maud FitzPiers, married Henry de Bohun, the Surety of the Magna Charta. She was the sister of Geoffrey de Mandeville, the Surety.
    

    See continuation of this lineage in the Bohun Line.
    

The following is extracted from Burke, pp. 352-353.

• 1. Geoffrey de Magnavil

• 2. William de Magnavil, corrupted into Mandeville, married Margaret Rie Dapifer, daughter and heiress of Eudo de Rie Dapifer, Steward to King William for Normandy. He had the following two children:
  
  • 1. Geoffrey de Mandeville, Senior, was made 1st Earl of Essex by King Stephen. He had the following children:
    
    • 1. Ernulph de Mandeville, d.s.p., succeeded by his brother, Geoffrey.

    • 2. Geoffrey de Mandeville, Junior, 2nd Earl of Essex, d.s.p., also.

    • 3. William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex, married (1) Hawise le Gros, daughter and heiress of William le Gros, Earl of Albermerle, and (2) Christian FitzWalter (daughter of Richard FitzWalter, Lord FitzWalter), who married after the death of William, Raymond De Burgh. There was no issue by either wife. He died in 1190, and his earldom devolved upon his aunt, Beatrix.

  • 2. Beatrix Mandeville, married (1) Hugh Talbot, from whom, she was divorced; and (2) William de Saye. See the continuation of this lineage above in this Saye-Mandeville Line.
    

The county which gave designation to the earldom of Huntingdon was, according to Dr. Heylin, a thickly wooded forest, until the reign of the 2nd Henry, when the timber was first cleared away; the chief town, from the celebrity of the forest as a chase, was called Huntingtown, which soon became Huntington, or Huntingdon. The earldom of Huntingdon was conferred, by William the Conqueror, upon Waltheof.

• 1. Syward, Saxon Earl of Northumberland, was the father of Waltheof.

• 2. Waltheof married Judith, the daughter of William the Conqueror's sister, by the mother's side. He was also the Earl of Northampton, and of Northumberland; but conspiring against the Normans, he was beheaded, in 1073, at Winchester, leaving the following children:
  
  • 1. Maud. See below.

  • 2. Judith, married (1) Ralph de Toney, and afterwards to Robert, 5th son of Richard de Tonbridge, ancestor of the Lords FitzWalter.
    

    After the execution of Waltheof, King William offered Judith, his niece, the deceased earl's widow, in marriage to Simon St. Liz, a noble Norman, but the lady peremptorily rejected the alliance, owing, Dugdale says, to St. Liz's halting in one leg; which refusal so displeased the Conqueror, that he immediately seized upon the castle and honor of Huntingdon, which the Countess held in dower, exposing herself and her daughter to a state of privation and obscurity in the Isle of Ely, and other places; while he bestowed upon the said Simon St. Liz the town of Northampton, and the whole hundred of Falkeley, then valued at 40 pounds per annum, to provide shoes for his horses. St. Liz thus disappointed in obtaining the hand of the Countess of Huntingdon, made his addresses, with greater success, to her elder daughter, the Lady Maud, who became his wife.

  • 3. Maud married (1) Simon de St. Liz, and (2) David, brother of Alexander, King of Scotland. Simon de St. Liz was given the honor of the Earldoms of Huntingdon and Northampton by King William. He built the castle of Northampton, as also the priory of St. Andrews there, about the 18th year of the Conqueror's reign, and was a liberal benefactor to the church. He was a witness to King Henry I.'s laws in 1100, after which he made a voyage to the Holy Land, and died on his return In 1115, at the Abbey of Charity, In France. He and his wife, Maud, had the following children:
    
    • 1. Simon de St. Liz, who succeeded to the Earldom of Northampton, but was excluded from that of Huntingdon. He was subsequently, however, restored.

    • 2. Waltheof de St. Liz, Abbot of Melrus, in Scotland.

    • 3. Maud St. Liz, married (1) Robert de Tonbridge, son of Richard de Tonbridge; and (2) William de Albini, according to Dugdale; but Hornby, in his remarks on Dugdale's errors, proves that such alliances, if not impossible, were very improbable. A Maud de St. Liz is mentioned as wife of Saier de Quincy, being father and mother of Saier, 1st Earl of Winchester. Burke so states in his description of the Quincy family. See the continuation of this lineage in the Quincy Line.
      

      Upon the death of Simon de St. Liz, Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton, his elder son, Simon, should have succeeded to both dignities, but it appears he only inherited the former. The Earldom of Huntingdon being assumed by David, son of Malcolm III, King of Scotland, who had married the deceased earl's widow, the Countess Maud, under the especial sanction of King Henry I. This nobleman succeeded to the Scottish throne, on the decease of Alexander, his elder brother, in 1124; and invading England, was met upon the border by King Stephen, when their differences were amicably adjusted; and Henry of Scotland, son of the said David, King of Scotland, on condition of swearing allegiance to Stephen, had the Earldom and honor of Huntingdon, with the borough of Doncaster and Carlisle as an augmentation thereof. He married Ada Warren, sister of William de Warren, Earl of Warren and Surrey (See Burke, pg. 468).
      

      See the continuation of this lineage in the Scottish Kings Line of Volume I.

Ref: Burke, pp. 484-486.

• 1. Gilbert de Segrave, Lord of Segrave, co. Leicester (whence he assumed his surname) in the 12th year of King Henry II., held the fourth part of one knight's fee of William de Newburgh, Earl of Warwick, and in the 4th year of King Richard I., he was joint sheriff with Reginald Basset, for the cos. of Warwick and Leicester, under Hugh de Novant, Bishop of Coventry, in which office he continued two whole years. He subsequently, in the 10th year of King Richard I., gave 400 marks to the king towards the support of his wars. This Gilbert was succeeded by his son, Stephen.

• 2. Stephen de Segrave, who in the 5th year of King John, was Constable of the Tower of London, and remained faithful to that monarch in his conflicts with the barons, obtained a grant in the 17th year of John of the lands of Stephen de Gant, lying in the cos. of Lincoln and Leicester, with the manor of Kintone, co. Warwick. In the 4th year of King Henry III., he was made Governor of Saubey Castle, Leicestershire, and the next year constituted Sheriff of the cos. of Essex and Hertford, and afterwards Leicestershire. In the 8th year of the same reign, he was Governor of the Castle of Hertford, and in two years after, one of the Justices Itinerant in the cos. Nottingham and Derby. About this period we find this successful person, whom Matthew Paris says, in his young days " from a clerk was made a knight," acquiring large landed property by purchase. In the 13th year of King Henry III., he bought the manor of Cotes, in the co. Derby, from the daughters and heirs of Stephen de Beauchamp, and he afterwards purchased from Ranulph, Earl of Chester and Lincoln, all the lands which that nobleman possessed at Mount Sorrell, co. Leicester, without the castle; as also two carucates and a half lying at Segrave, which himself and his ancestors had previously held at the rent of 14 shilling per year. In the 16th year of Henry III., he obtained a grant of the custody of the castle and county of Northampton, as also of the cos. Bedford, Buckingham, Warwick, and Leicester, for the term of his life.; taking the whole profit of all those shires for his support in that service; expecting the ancient farms, which had usually been paid into the exchequer. And, having been of the king's council for several years, as also Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, he succeeded in the 16th year of Henry III., Hubert de Burgh in the great office of Justiciary of England, being at the same time constituted Governor of Dover, Canterbury, Rochester, etc., and Constable of the Tower of London. After this we find him, however, opposed by the bishops and barons, and his manor house at Segrave burned to the ground by the populace, as well as another mansion in the co. Huntingdon. The king, too, in this perilous crisis, deserted him, and cited him, along with Peter de Rupibu, Bishop of Winchester, and others who had been in power, to appear forthwith at court in order to answer any charge regarding the wasting of the public treasure, which might be preferred against them. Some of those persons, conscious of guilt, fled to sanctuary, and Stephen de Segrave sought asylum in the abbey of Leicester, where he openly declared that he was and had been a priest, and that he resolved to shave his crown again to be a canon of that house. Nevertheless upon second thoughts, he braved the storm, and appeared at court, under the archbishop's protection; where the king called him a wicked traitor, and told him that it was under his advise that he had displaced Hubert de Burgh from the office of Justiciary, and cast that eminent person into prison; nay, that had he gone the length of his council, Hubert would have been hanged, and divers of the nobility banished. In twelve months subsequently, however, Stephen de Segrave made his peace by paying 1000 marks to the king, and he afterwards grew again into such favor, that in the 21st year of Henry III., he was the means of reconciling the king with some of his most hostile barons. Subsequently, he was made Justice of Chester, and the king's Chief Councilor, and "being now," says Dugdale, "advanced in years, deported himself by experience of former times, with much more temper and moderation than heretofore." This eminent person married (1) Rohese Despencer, daughter of Thomas le Despencer, and (2) Ida Hastings, sister of Henry de Hastings, with whom he had in frank-marriage, the manor of Bruneswaver, co. Warwick. Of Stephen de Segrave, so distinguished in the reign of Henry III., Matthew Paris, thus speaks, "This Stephen, though come of no high parentage, was in his youth, of a clerk made a knight; and in his latter days, through his prudence and valor, so exalted, that he had the reputation of one of the chief men of the realm, managing the greatest affairs as he pleased. In doing whereof, he more minded his own profit than the common good; yet for some good deeds, and making a discreet testament, he died with much honor." He died in 1241, and was succeeded by his son, Gilbert.

• 3. Gilbert de Segrave. This feudal lord married Annabil Chaucumbe, daughter and co-heir of Robert de Chaucumbe, obtained a grant in the 15th year of King Henry III., from Simon de Montfort, Lord of Leicester, of the whole town of Kegworth, co. Leicester, and in two years after, had a grant from the crown, of the manor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, co. Stafford; being the same year constituted Governor of Bolsover Castle. In the 26th year of Henry III., he was made Justice of all the royal forests, south of Trent, and Governor of Kenilworth Castle. In the 35th year of the same reign, he was constituted one of the justices of Oyer and Terminer, in the city of London, to hear and determine all such causes as had usually been tried before the justice itinerant, at the Tower of London. But in three years afterwards, being deputed, with Roger Bigod, Earl Marshal, on an embassy, was treacherously seized (along with John de Plassets, Earl of Warwick, and divers others of the English nobility,) by the French, as he was returning, and died within a short period, sometime in 1254, of the severe treatment he had received in prison. He was succeeded by his son, Nicholas.

• 4. Nicholas de Segrave, who, in the 43rd year of King Henry II., attended that monarch into France, but soon after espoused the cause of the barons, and became one of their most active leaders. In the 47th year of King Henry III.'s reign, he was among those who appeared openly in arms, and fortified Northampton, for which proceeding, his lands were seized by the crown. Upon the subsequent fall of Northampton to the royalists, Nicholas de Segrave fled to London, where the citizens having raised a large army for the barons, made him their general. At the head of this force, he marched with Gilbert de Clare, and Henry de Hastings, to the siege of Rochester, and thence to Lewes, at which place, the celebrated battle, so disastrous to the king, commenced, by a charge made by Segrave, at the head of the Londoners; in this, however, he was defeated by Prince Edward, who, flushed with success, pursued his advantage too far, and thus mainly contributed to the defeat which the royal arms sustained. The issue of this battle is well known. The king, Prince Edward, and the chief of their adherents became prisoners to the rebels, who followed up their triumph, by immediately summoning a parliament in the king's name, to which Nicholas de Segrave was summoned as Baron Segrave, on December 24, 1264. But the tide soon ebbing, he was among the defeated at Evesham, where he was wounded and made prisoner. He was, however, admitted to the benefit of the Dictum de Kenilworth, and obtained a full pardon, with restoration of his lands, which had been seized. In four years afterwards, he attended Prince Edward to the Holy Land, and when that prince ascended the throne, he appears to have enjoyed a large share of royal favor. In the 4th year of Edward's reign, he was with the king in a campaign against the Welsh, and was subsequently employed in Scotland and Ireland, having had a second summons to parliament, June 25, 1295. He married Maud de Lucy. They had the following children:
  
  • 1. John de Segrave, his successor. See below.

  • 2. Nicholas de Segrave, summoned to parliament by writ directed to "Nicholas de Segrave, jun.," from June 24, 1295, to January 26, 1297, and to "Nicholas de Segrave," from the latter date to May 25, 1321. He left at his death in 1322, an only daughter and heiress, Maud Segrave, who married Edmund de Bohun, in whose descendants and representatives this Barony of Segrave is now vested.

  • 3. Geoffrey de Segrave, Sheriff of the co. Leicester, in the first year of King Edward II.

  • 4. Peter de Segrave.

  • 5. Gilbert de Segrave, Bishop of London.

  • 6. Annabel Segrave, married John de Plessetis, son of Hugh de Plessetis, Knight.
    

    Nicholas de Segrave died in 1295, and was succeeded by his eldest son, John.

• 5. John de Segrave, 2nd Baron Segrave, was born in 1256, summoned to parliament, from August 26, 1296, to May 6, 1325. This nobleman, in the life time of his father, having been taken prisoner in the wars of Scotland, in the 9th year of Edward I., obtained from the king, in consideration of his services there, the grant of 100 pounds towards the liquidation of his ransom. He was subsequently much engaged in the Scottish wars, and in the 24th year of the same reign was Constable of the English army in that country. The next year he was by indenture retained to serve Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, with six knights, himself accounted, as well in time of peace as in war, for the term of his whole life, in England, Wales, and Scotland. For the performance of this covenant he had a grant of the manor of Lodene, co. Norfolk. In the 26th year of Edward I., he was again in Scotland, and had a principal command at the battle of Falkirk. In three years after, he obtained license to make a castle at his manor house, of Bretteby, co. Derby, and he was next constituted Governor of Berwick-upon-Tweed, as also warden of Scotland. Subsequently we find him with King Edward I. at the siege of Caerlaverock. After the accession of Edward II., he was again made warden of Scotland, and within a short time, attending the king into that usual theater of war, was among those beaten in the great defeat sustained by the English army at Bannockburn, and was made prisoner by the Scots, who detained him for a year, until he was exchanged for Thomas de Moram, and other prisoners of that realm, who were incarcerated in London. His lordship eventually lost his life in Gascony, where he was sent by the king, who had conceived some displeasure against him, for the escape of Roger Mortimer out of the Tower of London, under pretense of defending those parts, with Edmund, Earl of Kent, and others, where, being a great mortality, he died in 1325. He married in 1270 Christian Plessetis, daughter of Hugh de Plessetis, Knight. They had the following children:
  
  • 1. Stephen de Segrave. See below.

  • 2. John de Segrave, married Julian, daughter and heir of John de Sandwic, and died in the 23rd year of King Edward III., leaving a daughter and heiress, Mary.

  • 3. Eleanora Segrave, married _______ Kiriel.

  • 4. Margaret Segrave, married William Ferrers, Lord Ferrers, of Groby. See the continuation of this lineage in the Ferrers Line in Volume II.

  • 5. Alice Segrave.

  • 6. Christian Segrave de Moune.
    

    The baron was succeeded by his grandson, John.

• 6. Stephen de Segrave, the companion in arms of his gallant father in the Scottish wars, but in the 12th year of Edward II., one of the partisans of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, yet submitting himself, he obtained his pardon, and in the 16th year of Edward II., was made Constable of the Tower of London. In the 18th year of Edward II., he attended his father into Gascony, and died there, while his father was still living. He married Alice of Arundel and they had the following children:
  
  • 1. John de Segrave, successor to his grandfather. See below.

  • 2. Stephen de Segrave.
    

  • 6. John de Segrave, 3rd Baron Segrave, succeeded his grandfather, and was summoned to parliament from November 29, 1336, to November 15, 1351. This nobleman appears, like his predecessors, a distinguished personage in the field, during his comparatively short career; for he did not live beyond the age of thirty-eight. In the wars of France and Scotland, in the time of Edward III., he took an active part, and was more than once retained to serve the king by indenture. He married Lady Margaret Plantaganet of Norfolk, daughter and eventual sole heiress of Thomas of Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, Marshal of England, younger son of King Edward I. They had the following only daughter:
    
    • 1. Elizabeth Segrave. See below.
      

      John Segrave died in 1353, leaving his only daughter and heiress, Elizabeth.

  • 7. Elizabeth Segrave, married John de Mowbray, 4th Baron Mowbray.
    

    See the continuation of this lineage in the Mowbray Line.
    

    They had the following children:
    

    • 1. John de Mowbray, 5th Lord Mowbray, who was created Earl of Nottingham, but died soon after while still a young man, unmarried.

    • 2. Thomas de Mowbray, 6th Lord Mowbray, created after the death of his brother, Earl of Nottingham, and Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal, and Knight of the Garter. He married twice but had issue by his 2nd wife (Elizabeth Strange, daughter of John Strange, Lord Strange, of Blackmere,) only, viz.,
      
      • 1. Thomas de Mowbray, who never bore the title of Duke of Norfolk, but was nominated simply, Earl Marshal; beheaded, in the 6th year of King Henry IV., and d.s.p.
        

        Thomas, the elder, was restored to the Dukedom of Norfolk, and was succeeded in 1432 by his next son, John.
        

      • 2. John de Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, died in the first year of King Henry IV., and was succeeded by his son, John de Mowbray, who left at his decease, an only daughter, Anne, who d.s.p. Thus the Baronies of Mowbray and Segrave reverted to the descendants of the daughter of Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk.

      • 3. Isabel Mowbray, married (1) Henry de Ferrers, Knight, by whom she had an only child, Elizabeth.
        
        • 1. Elizabeth Ferrers, who married Edward Grey, 2nd son of Reginald Grey, Lord Grey, of Ruthyn. She married (2) James de Berkeley, 5th Lord Berkeley, from whom the extant Earls of Berkeley derive.
          

      • 4. Margaret Mowbray, married Robert Howard, from whom the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk derive.
        

        Since Lady Anne Mowbray, only daughter and heiress of John de Mowbray, 4th and last Duke of Norfolk, of that family, d.s.p., the Barony of Segrave reverted to the descendants of the two daughters of Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk, above, namely Lady Isabel (Mowbray) Berkeley and Lady Margaret (Mowbray) Howard, and fell into abeyance among them, as it still continues.

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