Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/336

 260 THE ALIEN PRIORY OF AXDWELL. Jolm's, probably a corruption of St. John's, House, unless the name be a lingering tradition of its having been honoured by the presence of the monarch, on a visit to its lord. " And now a question arises as to the descent of this Adam de Port, the husband of Mabell de St. John : assuming him to be a different person from the husband of the " Countess Sybilla," was he his son ? This does not seem probable ; since it can hardly be supposed that the father would continue in exile, while the son had such influence and consideration at Court, as it is evident he possessed. The Andwell charters, though they will not entirely clear up this point, mil probably supply a clue to its solution. They open to us a collateral branch of the family, who founded and endowed the Priory of Andwell, and bestowed it on the Abbey of Tyrone ; while the barons of the elder line endowed the house at Shirebourne as a dependency of the Abbey of Cerasie. Tliis branch must have descended from Adam, younger son of Hugh the first baron, whose grant of land to the monks of Andwell was confirmed by the charter of Henry I., at some period, in the latter part of his reign ; an approximate date only can be assigned to it by the fact of its being witnessed by Bernard, Bishop of St. Davids.- His wife Sybilla, it will be remembered, assented to the grant, as did also his sons Roger, William, and Hucrh. The coincidence of the name of his wife beino^ the same as that of the wife of Adam the fourth baron, at first induced me to suppose that the latter M-as the person who granted the lands to Andwell, but the fact of the con- firmation by Henry I. certainl}' puts that supposition out of the question. His eldest son Roger married Sybilla de Albigneio, and was himself as well as his widow, a great benefactor to the monks of Andwell. She was contemporary with one John de Port, son of Henry de Port, who witnessed her grant above mentioned, and whom I imagine to have been the third baron, inasmuch as his confirmation was necessary to the grant of some land at Andwell, that she gave to the monks in exchange for the land in Winchester which her husband had bestowed on them : " quia de feodo illius movet." The names of two of the sons of Roger and Sybilla, as appears by their charters, preserved at Winchester, were Adam and Henry ; and it seems highly probable that tliis Adam de Port was the liusband of Mabell de St. John, and if so, the direct line of Henry, the second baron, terminated - A.u. 1115—1148.