Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/42

 20 ABERGAVENNY. of George 5tb, Lord Bergaveniiy. He inherited the Castle, &c, of Abergavenny ond the entire estates of the family, under the entail thereof to heirs male made by his uncle, the 5th Lord (a8 above-named), notwithstanding the attainder of his father, being enabled so to do under Acta of Pari. 30 Henry VIII. (1688-39), and 2 and 3 Ph. and Mary (1555-56). He is spoken of as having been deaf. He m. firstly, Catharine, da. of Sir John Buome, of Halton, Oxon, by Margaret, da. of John RoWsE, of Ragley, co. Warwick. She was Maid of Honour to Queen Mary. He m., secondly, Orisold, da. of Thomas Huohks, of Uxbridge, Middlesex. He d. at Usbridge, 10 Feb. 158S-P. lnq, post mortem at Maidstone 7 July 1589, in which he is styled " Edward Nevill, deed., s. and. h. of Sir Edwd. Nevill, Hat., also deed." Admon.. in which he is styled "Edward, Lord Abergavenny, alias Edward Nevill, Esn.,'' granted 15 May 1590 to his s. Henry Nevill. His widow m. about, 1 580, Francis (Clifford), 4th Eari. of Cimberi.and, who d. 21 Jan. 1641. She d. 1G June 11313. VIII. 1588-9. 5 or 1. Edward Neviu,, who on the same grounds as . rr . . his father, may, on his death, be considered as entitled to be reckoned as „ loti Loei) Bf.hgavknny, s. and h. by first wife.f 1 ) He was 38 years old in 1588-9. "Being seised of an estate in tail male by virtue of the Act of Restoration, 2 and 3 Ph. and Mary (1555-6) in the Castle and Lordship of Bergavenny, he claimed in 1 598 the dignity of Baron of Bergavenny, not, as has been generally supposed, on the sole ground that the dignity was attached to the Castle of Bergavenny, but that he, as being seised of that Castle, ami as h. male of the hist Lord, was the more eligible person. On this occasion the Lord Chief Justice of England (Sir John Popham) determined that there was ' no right at all in the h. male, and therefore he must wholly rely on the favour of the Prince — the common custom of England doth wholly favour the h. general — that Her Majesty may call by new creation the h. male, and omit the h. gen. during her life, but yet a right to remain to her [i.t. the heir general's] son, having sufficient supportacion. No entail can carry away dignity but by express words or patent : ' the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was of the same opinion. Upon these opinions Lady Fane, who, as da. and h. of Henry, Lord Bergavenny, churned as h. gen., prayed to be allowed the Barony, but nothing further took place until 1604, when the claims being renewed, the House of Lords avoided a formal decision, being ' not so perfectly and exactly resolved as might give clear and undoubted satisfaction to all the consciences and judgements of all the Lords for the precise point of Right ; ' it was agreed therefore that suit should be made to the King for ennobling both parties by way of restitution, the one to the Barony of Le Despencer, the other to the Barony of Bergavenny ; and by a further resolution it was determined that Bfruavenny should go to Nevill, and Le Despencer to Fane ; this arrangement was approved of by the King, and a Writ of Summons was directed 'Edwardo Neville de Bergavenny Ch',' 25 May, 2 Jas. 1604, and letters patent dated the same day confirmed the dignity of Le Despencer to Lady Fane." — [See " Court- hope," p. 17.] Edward (Nevill), Lord Bergavenny, so sum. in 1604 as above, though neither h. nor even a coheir of any llarony er, by writ of 13V2, was, with a singular inconsistency, placed by the House in the precedency of that date.( b ) This (") A survey of his numerous estates in the counties of Sussex and Monmouth, together with some in Kent, Surrey, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Warwick. Worcester, Hereford, Salop, Wilts, and Somerset, including " Burgavenny House " in the parish of St. Martin, Ludgate, London, is given in Rowland's "Nevill family," p. 151, see also p. 104 of that work. ( b ) The award made by Edw. IV, 1 4 Ainil 1 473, in the case of the Barony ov Dacre, is a very similar one to that made by James I as to the Barony of Bergavenny. Edw. IV, after awarding the old Barony to the h. yen., declares that the h. male should be "called the Lord Dacre of Gillesland, and he and the heirs male of the said Thomas, late Lord Dacre to have place in our Pari, next adjoining beneath the place the said Richard Fenys, Knt., Lord Dacre fthe h. gen.] now hath." Here then is a spec, precedency, extending even to Pari, (where, in this case, it has always been allowed), granted by the Crown to a newly created Barony. Neither in the case of Doere ov of Bergavenny was the King's award carried out by patent, but in both by virii. The effect of this as to the Barony of Dacre of Gillesland was, that this Barony (when claimed in 1569 by Leonard Dacre, the h. male of the body of the grantee, as against his nieces,