Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/159

 ii s. ix. FEB. 21, 19R] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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occasionally; and that Falstaff and others are characters alike in the ' Merry Wives ' and in ' Henry IV. ' In spite of this, I doubt whether Shakespeare really wished us to regard the action in the ' Merry Wives ' as taking place in Henry's reign ; and if we may regard it as a play of his own time, then I know no reason for doubting the truth of the tradition that Herne was a keeper who committed suicide in the reigri of Elizabeth. W. A. FROST.

16, Am well Street, E.C.

DE GLAMORGAN (11 S. viii. 468). The Glamorgans were an Anglo-Norman, not, as the name would suggest, a native Welsh family. I may quote from E. Boucher James ('The Isle of Wight,' i. 324), who writes :

"It may be assumed that they belonged to the crowd of Anglo-Norman knights and their followers who, after the death of William the Conqueror, swept down on the South Welsh districts of Gwent, each man seeking to carve out a lordship for himself."

And he goes on to say :

"A large proportion of the names of persons are derived irom the names of places. We have an instance of this in the local and personal name of Glamorgan, part of the ancient \VelshGwent. In the tenth century the portion of Gwent which lay to the west of the Usk river was governed by the Welsh prince Morgan, from whom it took the name of Gwlad-Morgan, the country of Morgan, now corrupted into Glamorgan. The district in its turn gave its name to one of the Anglo-Norman adventurers who by the sword made themselves the masters of the land."

The Glamorgan family by marriage be- came landowners in Surrey and Sussex, for which counties Robert de Glamorgan was Sheriff from 21 to 26 Edward I. By an alliance with a daughter of D'Evercy parentage the family later held estates in Somersetshire. A Robert de Glamorgan was engaged in litigation, 1 John (1199), respect- ing five hides of land in Hardington (' Rot. Cur. Reg.,' i. 245).

We find the family located in the Isle of Wight at a very early date. Walter de Glamorgan must have been a man of some influence, since he is named one of the wit- nesses at Carisbrooke to the grant, made between 1148 and 1156, by Adeliza, widow of Earl Richard (I.) de Redvers, lord of the island, of the manor of Ouvelay (Wolves- ley), co. Berks, to the Norman abbey of Montebourg ('Mag. Rot. Scac. Norm.' Stapleton, ii. 274).

Ralph de Glamorgan, presumably his son, though no documentary evidence in support of the conjecture has been traced, witnessed

the Newport charter of Earl Richard (III.) de Redvers, lord of the island, 1180-84. Ralph married the daughter and heiress of William Mascarell of Brooke, I.W., and by this alliance acquired large estates in the island. The confirmation charter of William de Vernon to the abbey of Lyre shows he held lands, presumably " in jure uxoris," at Yaverland : "to wit, the tithes of the demesnes of Ralph de Glamorgan at Iverlond " (Add. MS. No. 24,789, Br. Mus.) He witnessed jointly with Philip de Gla- morgan a grant of land to Quarr Abbey by William de Oglander (Worsley, App., No. 74).

Philip de Glamorgan, conjecturally son and heir, was a donor of land, c. 1190, to the church of Brading, and he attested in 1206 a charter of John de Marisco, then rector of the church, reference being made in the deed to the aforesaid donation. He is named ('Gal. Cl. R. 1231-4') a "collector of fortieths" for the Isle of Wight in 1232. Dying in 1247, he is shown at the Inquisition following thereon (31 Henry III., No. 9) to have had custody of the lands and heir of the lord of the Isle of Wight :

"Philippus de Glammorgan qui tenuit de Rege ratione custodies terrse et hferedis Baldewini de Insula quondam comitis Devon." ' Calend. Geneal.,' i. 14, Chas. Roberts.

Sir William de Glamorgan, Knt., of Brook is named in the Inquisition " Willielmus de Glammorgan, miles et hseres prefati Philippi " as heir to the estates, and is further named in 1234 as one of the coheirs of Sir Brien de Insula of Mottiston, Isle of Wight, and Blandford, co. Dorset, " a great person- age in his day, and, according to Burke (' Ex- tinct Peerage '), at one time [id est, King John] the most powerful subject of the realm." Sir Brien was twice married, but left no issue to succeed to his wide estates. Entered in the Fine Rolls is the following : " Thoma Brito et Alicia uxor ejus. Will's de Glamorgan, et Rad'us de Scopham simt hseredes Briani de Insula " (Roberts, ' Ex- cerptae Rot. Fin. 18 Henry III. [1234]).' It is clear from this excerpt that Alice, one of the coheirs, was then living and married to Thomas, one of the sons of William Brito, the right of marriage of whose sons had been purchased by Brien in 1200 (Hardy r ' Rot. Obi. et Fin.,' p. 98) ; that William de Glamorgan was then clearly of age, conse- quently born by 1213; and further, that his mother was a niece of Brien's, and must have been dead in 1234, otherwise she, and not her son, would have been found coheir. The third heir, Ralph de Scopham, was a minor,