Page:The Complete Peerage (Edition 1, Volume 8).djvu/194

 184 WiNDSOtL NAnroRD{*) and who appears to have been, as earlj as 1366, ike mittrMS of Eilwanl III., over WhoD], till the day of Iim death, she exercised unbounded influence, receiving large gifts from him, and being twice censured by Pari, for her interference with justice. Her parentage is unceiiain, slie was very possibly related to Sir Riclinrd rKiiUKiis, SheriiT for llorts and liliisox, temp. Kd. if. and Kd. III.(^) She was ^* domiedla Cameric Begina" before Oct. 1366, a position which phduly implies that she was of gmxl birth, Iho' she is sometimes expressly stated to be otherwise. In 1 875, attired as "the lindy of the Sun," she rode thro' London to the tourunnient at Smithflold and on 20 May 1376, "apparel for the Countess of Bedford [da. of the Kinv] and for Alice Ferrers " was ordered by privy seal for a like occasion. (^) I^rd Wyndesore d, s.p., or s.p. legit., at Neversham, co. Westmorland in the diocese of Chester, 15 Sep. 1384, when the Harony became extinct {^) Nunc will dat. at Heversham, 15 Sep. and pr. 12 Oct. 1384. His widow, after a series of lawsuits with her husband's relatives, ci. at Upminster, co. Essex, in 1400. WUl dat 15 Aug. 1400, pr. 8 Feb. 1400/1. having become " the mistress of Ed. III. in the lifetime of Queen Philiiipa," it being added that other writers '^ as well as the hostile St. Albans* chronicler " refer to her as such, and that " tho* the charges of avarice and intrigue may be exaggerated it is iui|KMisibIo to doubt the substantial accumcy of the atory." (A) She waa a **ftmme Bole*' in 1371(Uid 137*1, but thin, presumably, could lie equally well ssdd of her lui a spinster or a-i a widow. It is certain that uhe had two daughters mentioned in her will (who were probably child r<>n of Sir Thomas do Karford) and it is equally certain that neither was a child of William de Wyudesore. (»•) See note •* d,'' p. 188. (0) Beltis's Order of the OarUr, p. 10. l^) According to five inquisitions taken at his death, his coheirs were his three sisters, (1) Isal>olla, then aged 60, or 38, and then unm. (2) Chritftisinn, m. Sir William de Morors, of Klviugtun, co. York, and thun aged ^t», or 38, ami (3) Mai^^ery, m. John Diiket, and then aged 50, or 34. Of these inquisitions, those in Dorset, Kssex and Middx., give the greater age, while those in Berks and Wilts give the lefeser one. This coheirsliip, however, is complicated by the Baron's will, in which lies|)eaks of Robert, Itoger, William, Klias and Peter, *'sons of my brother [Qy., if br.of the whole blood] John de Wyndesore, deceased,'* which John ap}ieai-s to have had iil«o an eldest son John, sometimes calle<l heir to testator and nientioneil in will of his relict, sue below. This lastname<l John was, for a short time, of Manorbeer and Pennlly, co. Pembroke,* and was bur, in Westminster Abbey, 7 April 1114, having himself a son, John. Courthope states in his text (tho* on what ground is unknown) that this Barony is in abeyance among the descendants of the three iittert [sic] of the grantee (mu anonm- lous devolution of a Barony in fee, tho,' doubtless, correct enough as to the estate*) altering the, apparently, more rational statement in *^Nieola$" that in 1884 it "is presumed to have become extiiict. He appends the following note (alightly altered from one in ** Nieolae ") to the word ** abeyance,'* viz. : — " The statement in the text [that the three sisters were the coheirs] rests on the authority of sevend Inquisitions taken 8 Rio. II. ; but Dugdale, in his Warwickshire, p. 481 (cited in Banks* Stemmata AnyliMna), states, that he left his dauyhtert his heira, of whom ^ Joane, the eldest, married Skeme. Alice, widow of Ix>rd Wyndsore, in her testament dated in 1400, S|)eaks of three daughtera, Joane, Jane, and another Joane: to the latter (whom she describes as her youngest daughter) she gives her manor of Qaiufs in Upminster, and bequeaths to her two other dunghtei-s all her manors, &i, which John do Wyndesore, or otliers by his consent, had usiir|Ksd,and orders her executors to recover them ; for, she emphatictdly adds : ' I any on the [min of my soul he liuih no right there, nor never had.' It is probable, therefore, that he left illegitimate issue, born before his marriage with the said Alice." succession whereof the said John de Wyndesore got a confirmation, which was subsequently cancelled on the score of misrepresentatitm. This certainly points Ui illegitimaov, and in his M.I., he is not spoken of os heir at law to his uncle, William, the words being " contUiU, hcaredem avunculus ista." See this matter fully discussed in an exhsuttive ocoount of " Manorbeer Castle and ita Early Owners/' by Sir O. F. Duckett, Bart, in the Arehanlogia Cam!l>reniii»
 * William de Wyndesore had a grant of Manorboer Castle from the King, to the