Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/445

 ii s. XL JCNE 5, 1915.] NOTES AND Q UERIES.

435

The particulars of the grant are found on the Patent Bolls (1292-1301, m. 14), dated at Portsmouth, 15 July, 1294. Dugdale goes on to say :

" But in that year Charles, brother of the King of France, invading Gascoigne with a great power, laid siege to Risune, whereof John de Bretania was governor, who forsaking his charge exposed those in the garrison to the mercy of the enemy, amongst which this Ralph, being one, was carried prisoner to Paris."

Sir Ralph died during his captivity abroad. The writ to the escheator is dated Portsmouth, 23 May, 1297, ordering him to seize into the King's hands the lands of Ralph de Gorges. The text is entered on the Fine Rolls (25 Edw. I. m. 13), as follows :

" De terris capiendis in manum Regis. Quia Radulphus de Gorges qui de Rege tenuit in capite cliem suum clausit extremum, ut Rex accepit, mandatum est Malculino de Harlee, esch .... quod omnes terras et tenementa de quibus idem R \dulphus fuit seisitus . . . . Teste Rege, a,pud Portesmuth xxiii ? die Maii. ' Vacat.' "

It may be inferred from the closing word issued in ignorance of the grant made to Sir Ralph in 1294, and was quashed later when it was found that the King, in consequence thereof, had no interest in Ralph's lands and the escheator had no right to seize them. Since Sir Ralph died in France, it follows that he had been dead some little time before 24 May.
 * ' vacat " that the customary writ was

Evidence of Sir Ralph having married is supplied in the assignment of dower, entered on the Close Rolls (1296-1302, p. 114) :

" 1297, June 27. These lands [in Essex] are assigned to Maud, late the wife of Ralph de Gorges, as her dower for a third part of the lands that belonged to Ralph, by the assent of Robert son of Payn and the other executors of the will of Ralph of the one part, and John Lovel on the other, in place of Maud : the manor of Bradepol . . . .the manor of Ludeton. . . .with the advowson of the church, and also for [her] action to demand her dower against all persons enfeoffed by Ralph of any tenements. Memorandum that this assignment was made at Westminster, on June 27, by the assent of the said executors and of John Lovel, Maud's attorney."

The foregoing deed is of exceptional importance, for it shows that in the year* 1297 a Ralph de Gorges had died, leaving a widow, Maud, surviving, dower being assigned her from the Gorges estates. This Ralph must be " the Marshal," Lord of Knighton and other estates on the main- land ; father of, not identical with, Ralph, " Baron Gorges," who died 1325. Dugdale and other writers following him have con- fused two different personalities. Collinson

('History of Soms.,' art. ' Wraxall,' p. 156) writes : " Ralph de Gorges, son and heir by Elena his wife, was a Knight, and 21 Edward I. was Marshal of the King's army in Gascony," &c., and goes on to say : " 2 Edward II., he was summoned to Parliament among the Barons, and died leaving issue by his wife Eleanor," &e. G. E. C.'s ' Complete Peerage ' (iv. 54), art.
 * Gorges,' says :

" Ralph de Gorges, s. and h. of Ralph, Gov. of the castles of Shirburn and Exeter, and sometime Sheriff of Devon, by Eleanor, dr. and heir of John

Moreville, succ. his father 1272 was summoned

to Parl. as a Baron [LoRD GORGES] by writ. He married Eleanor," &c.

The recently issued volume (v.) of the ' Victoria County Hist, of Hampshire ' (art. ' Knighton,' p. 182) says :

"John, or Ivo de Morville, died in 1256, leaving a daughter and heir married to Ralph de Gorges

she died in 1291-2, leaving a son Ralph

(afterwards Sir Ralph), who married Eleanor, and had issue one son Ralph, who died without issue, &c."

Ventnor.

J. L. WHITEHEAD, M.D. (To be continued.)

HANGLETON : P R s v R Y, &c. = PERSE - VERB YE, &c. (11 S. xi. 318). MR. WAINEWRIGHT, in his note on Hangleton, asks whether a distich, which is a " curious exercise on, the letter E " is to be found elsewhere. He adds that nothing is now legible on the board mentioned. Presum- ably the distich was given, as a legend, in The Times of the date mentioned.

The following is taken from The Wonderful Magazine (1793-5), vol. iv. p. 279, under " Events of the present times. Containing all that's Strange and Whimsical in the Papers of the present Date " :

"By adding a vowel to the follow [sic] letters,

they will make two lines in verse :

PRSVRYPRFCTMN, VRKPTHSPRCPTSTN.

They were written over the ten commandments

in a Welch church, and remained a whole century

before the true sense was found."

The interpretation is, of course,

Persevere ye perfect men, Ever keep these precepts ten.

If The Wonderful Magazine is to be believed in this case, which I do not assert, this " curious exercise 0*1 the letter E " is some 220 years old at the least. Possibly it is much older. One would like to know of its present existence somewhere.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.