Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/456

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. XL JUNE 12, 1915.

daughters are known," implying thereby that Isabel was not likely, therefore, to have been their child an inference which he pro- ceeds to emphasize by saying :

" That Isabel may have been daughter of some as yet unknown Ralph Bigod cannot well be denied. That she was the daughter of this Ralph and Berta

de Furnival is a chronological impossibility.

The indication that she was of the line of the Marshals in some way arises from the fact that Connell was her ' maritagium.' " This latter statement is, I venture to submit, one which destroys the possibility of Isabel belonging to any other family of Bigods than that of- the Earls of Norfolk.

The record regarding Isabel's " marita- gium " is to be found duly set forth in ' Cad. Doc. Ire.,' i. 2121, and to my mind destroys the accuracy of the entry in the claim to the Barony of Slane describing her as the daughter of Roger Bigod, because one may be pretty safe in asserting that a Marshal manor, which Connell was, would not have formed the "maritagium " of a sister-in-law of Maud Marshal's ; and Mr. Hamilton Hall's very sensible conclusion that Isabel must, owing to the dates of her issue, have been born about, if not actually in, the year 1205, disposes of those writers who describe her as sister of John Bigod, as his (John's) daughter, or as daughter of Ralph Bigod.

Having got thus far, and bearing in mind two things namely, the date assigned by Mr. Hamilton Hall for Isabel's birth, and the fact that she received a Marshal manor as her "maritagium " one may now pro- ceed to consider the following passage, which I have discovered in perusing the ' Annals of Ireland ' as recorded by Gilbert in his ' Chartularies of St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin,' vol. ii. p. 313 a passage which, I respectfully submit, clearly shows Isabel to have been the daughter of Hugh Bigod by his wife Maud Marshal, and thereby fully accounts for her receiving Connell, a Marshal manor, as her " maritagium " :

"Hugo Bygod, Comes Norfolcie, desponsavit Matildem Mareshall, qui fuit Comes Mareshallus Anglie, jure uxoris sue, qui Hugo generavit Radulphum Bigod, patrem Joannis Bigod, qui fuit films Domine Berte de Furnyvall, et Isabelle de Lacy [there is a foot - note which reads " vidua, scilicet, Gilberti Lacy," Camden], uxoris Domini Johannis Fitz - Geffery, et quando Bigod Hugo, Comes de Northfolk, fuit mortuus, Johannes de Garenne, Comes de Surrey, ex filia filium nomine Ricardum et sororem Isabellam de Albeney, Comitissam de Arondell."

The ' Annals ' in question, which are all in Latin, form a portion of the MS. (now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford) known as " Laud MS. No. 526."

It may be asked by whom these * Annals * were written, and when.

According to Gilbert (Preface, vol. ii. p. cxv),

"The 'Laud Manuscript' supplies no informa- tion as to the original compiler. It contains annals

of Ireland from 1162-1370 and consists of 41 leaves-

of vellum and paper. Each of the pages is in a small Chancery hand of the 15th century. The book belonged to William Preston, Viscount Gormanston, Deputy Lord Treasurer of Ireland 1493, and the ' Laud Manuscript' was brought to England in the reign of Henry VIII. from Ireland by Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, who retired from the Viceroyalty in 1521."

As regards the authorship, we find Sir James Ware in 1639 attributing these ' Annals ' to " Pembrigius or Pembrige,' r who flourished in 1347, and whom he con- jectured to have been a Dublin writer ; but, says Gilbert (ib. t p. cxviii),

" Ware did not state the grounds for ascribing th work to him, nor are particulars accessible relative to any writer named Pembrige connected with Ireland."

Gilbert, however, admits (ib., p. cxx) that "the Annals are, as Ware conjectured, probably the production of a resident in Dublin or it* vicinity. Many of the entries relate to matters connected with that city, its magistrates, people, and religious institutions."

The passage I have quoted occurs in the middle of a pedigree of the Marshals and their descendants, which is recorded, under the year 1219, in connexion with a reference to the decease of William, Earl of Pembroke, in that year.

It is perfectly clear from the particulars contained in this pedigree that it was not written in 1219, and not until a long time after. For example, at the time it was written Isabel was married to her second husband, John Fitz - Geoffrey. Now her first husband, Gilbert de Lacy, died, ac- cording to Mr. Hamilton Hall ( ' The Marshal Pedigree '), between 12 Aug. and 25 Dec., 1230, and (Watson's Genealogist, N.S. xxi., 1904) she had married again before 11 April, 1234. (Her second husband died in 1258.) We also find references to names of indivi- duals who lived into the early years of the following century.

It would seem clear, therefore, that the entry was not made prior to 1234, whilst Ware would assign the date to some period during the lifetime of Pembrigius, who flourished in 1347. Gilbert asserts that the writing is that of a Chancery hand of the fifteenth century, but may it not perhaps be possible that the Chancery official hand of the fifteenth century was so little unlike that of the corresponding hand in the fourteenth