Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/542

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. DEC. 4, 1920.

Rogers was claimed by Gilbert de Minors, and the dispute was finally settled in 1123, at a great council of prelates and barons held at Easter, at Winchester, as shown by this notification. Another royal charter, addressed to Bishop Sampson of Worcester, and to Walter de Gloucester the sheriff, relating to the gift, is attested by a number of important witnesses, most of them of the highest possible rank, with the King and -Queen to lead them, and the lord of the Isle of Wight, " Ricardi de Reviers,' ' being named as attesting the deeds. As Waldric the Chancellor (the third witness), became Bishop of Laon in November, 1106, the date of this charter must be after July, 1105, and before November, 1106. It may be readily conjectured that this attestation by Richard de Redvers is probably the last deed he witnessed before his demise.

Baldwin de Redvers, son and heir, suc- ceeded as Earl of Exeter to the lordship of the Isle of Wight. There is no record, that I am able to trace, referring to him earlier than the Winchester charter of 1123, in which the King made an important grant to the church of Exeter. Among the lists of barons witnessing the charter the name of "Baldwin de Redvers" occurs, and Dr. J. Horace Round ('Feudal England,' pp. 482-7), from whose pages I am quoting, emphasizes the fact by stating "he was the son of Richard de Redvers, and who became later first Earl of Devon."

In a later charter, granted to the church of Salisbury by Henry I., in September, 1131 (see Round, 'Geoffrey de Mandeville,' pp. 265-6), the name of " Baldwin de Redvers " occurs as one of the nineteen barons attesting the charter. It was in this year, 1131, that Baldwin founded the important island Abbey of Quarr, and there his remains were buried. That he was at this time, and sub- sequently, Earl of Exeter is borne out by an interesting charter granted by him to the Abbey of Lyra, in the reign of Stephen. 'The deed is given at length by Mr. Percy G. Stone ('Architectural Antiq. I. of W.,' ii. 149, Note B.), entitled 'The writinge of the Erie B. concerninge the Churche of Carisbrooke. ' The opening words of the charter read; "B(aldwin) Erie of Excetre to Hild(earius) abbot of Lyra, &c." In the body of the deed Baldwin alludes to "Richard de Redvers, my father."

^ He was at first a supporter of Stephen in his contest with the Empress Maud, but becoming disappointed at the non-fulfilment -of thejpromises Stephen had made to him.

he espoused the cause of the Empress. "The insolence," writes Rapin ('Hist, of England,' ed. Kelly, i. 183) ; " of Baldwin de Redvers, earl of Devonshire in taking it as an affront, that the King should deny him some favour, openly declared he would obey him no longer. Pursuant to this resolution, he fortified his castle at Exeter. The King laid siege to Exeter, which took up a considerable time. At length becoming master of the place, he pursued the rebel to the Isle of Wight, and compelling him to fly thence, banished him from the realm and disinherited him " (circa 1136).

Nevertheless, we find that Baldwin was present in Devonshire on the Empress's affairs in August, 1139. His name likewise occurs as a witness to the first charter granted by the Empress to Geoffrey de Mandeville after the decisive defeat sus- tained by Stephen at Lincoln, February, 1141. Soon afterwards the earldom of Devonshire was conferred on Baldwin, and when the Empress laid siege to Winchester, later in the year, the Earl of Devon was one of her leading followers. Towards the close of the year the Empress made Oxford her headquarters and it was here her second charter, to Aubrey de Vere, was granted, " Baldwinus Comes Deuonise " being amongst the earls attesting the deed.

On the pacification of Henry heir to the throne and Stephen, Baldwin was re- instated in his honours and possessions.

JOHN L. WHITEHEAD, M.D.

Ventnor.

THE TRAGEDY OF NEW ENGLAND. Before the celebrations of the tercentenary of the Pilgrim Fathers' voyage in the May- flower to New England have passed out of recollection if would be well if some mention were made of the names of a few of those who suffered from persecution on account of religion at the hands of the early Governors of the Colony. The poet Longfellow in the ' Tragedy of New England ' published in the sixties mentions two of these who paid the penalty with their lives one of them Giles Corey being pressed to death for refusing to plead. Amongst those banished from the colony for heres}^ were Roger Williams, the founder of Providence, and the following Quakers : Mary Fisher, Ann Austin, Chris- topher Holden, Thomas Thirston, William Brand, Sarah Gibbons, Mary Prince, Mary Weatherhead, Dorothy Waugh, John Cop- land, and Jonathan Upsall. Mary Clark, wife of John Clark of London, received fifty lashes, and Christopher Holden and John Copland each received thirty lashes.