Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/169

Marisco also received a grant of land from the king for his support in 1228 (ib. No. 1640). Geoffrey appears to have been vigorous and able, a successful commander, and on the whole a just and skilful ruler. Like most of the great men of Ireland at the time, he did not scruple to act treacherously. To the king, however, he seems to have been a faithful servant. The accusation of treason brought against him and his son William is extremely improbable, and their ruin must be considered as a result, of the indignation excited by the fate of the earl-marshal. Geoffrey founded an Augustinian monastery at Killagh, co. Kerry, called Beaulieu (Monasticon Hibernicum, p. 304), and commanderies of knights hospitallers at Any and Adair, co. Limerick. An engraving of a tomb in the church of Any, which is said to be Geoffrey's, is in the 'Genealogical Memoir of Montmorency.'

Geoffrey married Eva de Bermingham (Documents, Nos. 817, 1112), and apparently, for his second wife, a sister of Hugh de Lacy (, iv. 304;, iii. 277), named Matilda (Documents, No. 2853). Geoffrey told Richard, the earl-marshal, that his wife was Hugh de Lacy's sister, but the genealogists assert that his second wife was Christiania, daughter of Walter de Riddlesford, baron of Bray, and sister of Hugh de Lacy's wife, Emmeline (Genealogical Memoir, Pedigree, p. ix). This is an error, for Christiania de Riddlesford married Geoffrey's son Robert (d. 1243), by whom she was the mother of Christiania de Marisco, an heiress of great wealth (Documents, No. 2645 and other numbers; comp. also Calendarium Genealogicum, i. 171). Of Geoffrey's many sons, William, Robert, Walter, Thomas, Henry, John, and Richard appear in various public records (see Documents passim). He is also said to have had an eldest son Geoffrey, who settled in Tipperary and died without issue; William was reckoned as his second son; a third and eldest surviving son, named Jordan, married the daughter of the lord of Lateragh, and continued his line; his youngest son was named Stephen (Genealogical Memoir, Pedigree, pp. x, xi, App. p. xl); a daughter is assigned to him named Emmeline, who is said to have married Maurice FitzGerald, 'earl of Desmond' (ib. and App. p. clxvii). The first Earl of Desmond, however, lived much later [see under, d. 1356], and the genealogist seems to take for a daughter of Geoffrey de Marisco, Emmeline, daughter and heiress of Emmeline de Riddlesford, wife of Hugh de Lacy, and Stephen Longespee, who married Maurice FitzMaurice (see under , 1238?–1277; , Earls of Kildare, p. 17). Geoffrey had a daughter who married Theobald Fitz Walter. The assertion (Genealogical Memoir, Pedigree, p. x) that his son John was viceroy of Ireland in 1206 is erroneous. The father of the viceroy was Geoffrey FitzPeter. Geoffrey the justiciar had nephews named Richard, John Travers, and William FitzJordan (Documents, No. 2119).

 MARISCO, HERVEY (fl. 1169), Anglo-Norman invader of Ireland. [See ]

 MARISCO or MARSH, RICHARD (d. 1226), bishop of Durham and chancellor, was perhaps a native of Somerset; we know that Adam Marsh or de Marisco [see under ] was his nephew (Cal. Rot. Claus. ii. 136; Chron. Lanercost, p. 24). The first mention of Richard de Marisco is as an officer of the exchequer in 1197 (, Hist. Exch. ii. 714), and as one of the clerks of the exchequer he was in constant attendance on the king after 1207 (Cal. Rot Pat. i. 89–100). In 1209 he received a prebend at Exeter, which he soon after exchanged for the rectory of Bampton, Oxfordshire (ib. i. 80, 87). In the following year he was John's adviser in the persecution of the Cistercians, the beginning of a long course of action which made him exceedingly unpopular with the clergy and monastic orders. He was archdeacon of Northumberland before 4 May 1212 (Cal. Rot. Chart. p. 186). On 20 July 1212 he was presented to the vicarage of Kempsey, Worcestershire (Cal. Rot. Pat. i. 93), and in November of the same year was sheriff of Dorset and Somerset. As one of the clergy who had officiated for the king during the interdict, he was in this year suspended, and