Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/134

 superior site called Eye, near the river Lug, whence he again removed it to Wigmore town. Thenceforth it was known as Wigmore Priory. But the brethren complained that their new abode was inconvenient, and Mortimer offered them a free choice of any of his lands. They ultimately found a fitting site about a mile from Wigmore, and Hugh, returning from the continent, visited their humble abode and laid the foundation-stone of their church. As he grew older he made fresh grants of lands and advowsons to the canons. The church was at last consecrated by Robert Foliot, bishop of Hereford after 1174, and dedicated to St. James. This event is dated by the inaccurate family annalist in 1179. A few years later Hugh died at Cleobury, 'full of good works.' On his deathbed he was admitted as a canon professed, and received the canonical habit from the Abbot Randolph. He was buried in Wigmore Abbey before the high altar. The date of his death is given by the Wigmore annalist as 26 Feb. 1185 (Monasticon, i. 349; cf. 'Ann. Wigorn.' in Ann. Monasttci, iv. 385). But the fact that Hugh's son I Roger was answerable at the exchequer for his father's debts in 1181 suggests that year as the real date (Errox, Shropshire, iv. 204-205). The misdeeds of his son Roger against the Welsh, and especially his murder of the South Welsh prince, Cadwallon, which were visited on Roger by two years' imprisonment, seem to have involved the old baron in the king's displeasure, and at the time of his death his estates were in the king's hands.

Hugh Mortimer is described by Robert of Torigny as a man of extreme arrogance and presumption (, iv. 184); and William of Newburgh says that his pride and wrath were greater than his endurance (ib. i. 105). Giraldus Cambrensis, who speaks of him as an excellent knight, holds him up as a terrible example for his signal failure in 1155 ('De Princ. Instruct.' in Opera, viii. 215, Rolls Ser.) The French historian of the foundation of Wigmore Abbey is more detailed and complimentary. Hugh was of 'lofty stature, valiant in arms, and very noble in speech. If the deeds that he had wrought in England, Wales, and elsewhere were put in writing, they would amount to a great volume' (Monasticon, vi. 344).

The name of Hugh's wife was apparently Matilda la Meschine (Journal of British Archæological Assoc. xxiv. 29). His sons were Roger I, his successor, Hugh, lord of Chelmarsh, Robert, founder of the Richard's Castle branch of the Mortimers, and Philip. Roger Mortimer I married Isabella de Ferrers, lost his Norman estates in 1204, and died on 24 June 1214. He was the father of Hugh Mortimer II of Wigmore, who died in 1227 without issue, and of Ralph Mortimer II, who married Gwladys Ddu (the dark), the daughter of, prince of Wales [q. v.], and was father of II (d. 1282) [q. v.]



MORTIMER, JOHN (1656?–1736), writer on agriculture, only son and heir of Mark Mortimer, of the old Somerset family of that name, by his wife Abigail Walmesly, of Blackmore in Essex, was born in London about 1656. He received a commercial education, and became a prosperous merchant on Tower Hill. In November 1693 he bought the estate of Toppingo Hall, Hatfield Peverel, Essex, which he greatly improved; a number of fine cedar trees planted by him on the estate are still in existence. Mortimer was thrice married. His first wife, Dorothy, born at Hursley, near Winchester, on 1 Aug. 1660, was the ninth child of Richard Cromwell, and it is supposed that the ex-protector's return to England in 1680 was prompted by a desire to be present at the wedding. She died in childbirth (14 May 1681) within a year of the marriage. He married, secondly, Sarah, daughter of Sir John Tippets, knight, surveyor of the navy, by whom he had a son and a daughter; and thirdly, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Sanders of Derbyshire, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. The second son by his third wife was Dr. [q. v.]

Mortimer's claim to remembrance is based upon his work entitled 'The whole Art of Husbandry, in the way of Managing and Improving of Land' (London, 1707, 8vo), which forms a landmark in English agricultural literature, and largely influenced husbandry in the last century. The writer states that he had read the best books on ancient and modern agriculture, and inspected the practice of the most diligent husbandmen in most countries. After duly digesting these he had added his own experiences. The book, which treats not only of the usual branches of agriculture, but also of fish-ponds, orchards, and of the culture of silkworms, and the making of cider, is justly said by Donaldson to 'form 