Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 7.djvu/171

 SOMERSET. 169 SOMERSET [County of] [Remarks. — This county, was originally undei the mine Sheriff as that of Dorset. See under " Dorset " for notices of some who are said, at an early period, to have borne the title of Ear! of Somerset( a ) or of Dorset.] See " ReaucBAMF de Somerset," Barony (Beauchamp) cr. 1299 ; in abeyance 1361. 1. .Ioiin Ueaufort, eldest of the three illegitimate Earldom. sons( b ) of John (Plantaoenet, styled " of Gaunt "), Duke of Lan- I 1397 PASSIM (4th s. of Edward III), by Dame Katharine Swinford, wife of Sir Hugh SwiNFORD( e ) (who d. 1372), da. and coheir of Sir Marquessate. Payne Koklt. He was h about 1370, being (as stated by Richard . ion- "'•) double advoutrow gotten"^); was a Crusader (against " • Tunis) and made Knight Eanueretin 1390; was legitimated (together l " with his b rot hers ( b ) and sister) St Feb. (1396/7), 20 Ric. II, which I '99. act was confirmed 10 Feb. (1406/7) 8 Hen. IV, the words " extepta ttignitiitt rer/'li" having been, apparently, added (prob- ably, however, only ex ii'iiindanti cauttld) to the original. (*) He was a few days later nr. 10 Feb. (1396/7) 20 Kic. II. KARL OF SOMERSET, with place in pari, between the Kail Marshal and the Earl of WarwiokO; was made K.G. about 1397 ; Lieut, of the Duchy of -Vquitaiuc, 1397-1401 ; was cr. in Pari. 29 Sep. 1397, M.UUJl'KSS;*, OF DORSET, but, inasmuch as the enrolment of this creation on the charter roll is crossed out (with the remark u Vocat, qnii nihil hide actum est") he was ei: by a charter of the same date MARQUESS OF SOMERSET, as appears a little lower down on the roll. The latter title would therefore appear to be his more correct designation : nevertheless, as Wat qua* of Dorset, he was sum. to fordshire, the Reigate estates, co. Surrey, and that at Soniers town, co. Midx,, went to his eldest da., I.ady Henry Somerset, for her life, with divers remainders over. (") A good account of these, as also of the later Earls of Somerset, by J. R. Planche, is in the " SntM drch. Assoc." Journal, vol. xii, pp. 313 — 327. i b ) The whole of what Baker (•« Oh ronicles," p. 141), calls the " valoiirous offspring "' of John of Gaunt {i.e., the adulterous progeny born in his wife's lifetime) consisted of three suns and one da., viz. (1) John, as in the text (2) Henry Beaufort, the well- known Cardinal, who d. unm. 11 April 1447, and (3) Thomas Beaufort, cr. Duke of Exeter, who d. s.p. 30 Dec. 1420, aged about 50, and (4) Joan, second wife of John (Nevill), 1st Karl of Westmorland, who d. a widow 13 Nov. 1440. They took their name from their birth place, Beaufort Castle, in Anjou. ( c ) An interesting account of the Swinford family and of the issue of Katharine Roelt, both by Sir Hugh Swinford and by John of Gaunt, and the respective legitima- tion of her issue by each, &c, is in " Excerpta Historica " (1831), pp. 152—159. ( d ) Ellis' Oriii. Letters, 2d Series, i, 164, and Piston Letters, ii, 519, as quoted in the article mentioned in note " b " above. His younger brother, Henry, was a Bishop in 1397 and he himself was a Knight Banneret in 1390 so that his birth was probably before 1372. His mother's character may be judged by the fact that the legitimacy ot her eldest son, Thomas Swinford (undoubtedly born during her coverture) was questioned and had to be established by letters patent 5 Oct. 1411, before be could inherit us heir. See note " b " above. ( c ) See as to the arms of him and his brothers before their legitimation in " Sandford," p. 322, where it is stated that after that act " their distinction of bastardy was dis- continued " and that the bordure ''gobouy " does not denote bastardy, but is only a mark of cadency. C) Rot. Pari, iii, p. 343. See vol. i, p. 229, note " a," sub " Banbury," for some recount of " Precedency of Peers in Pari, by royal warrant." This appears to be the earliest instance of a grant of precedency. (*) This was but the second Marquessate conferred in England, that of Dublin, in 1385, being the first. See vol. iii, p. 146, note " g," sub " Dorset," as to the earlier Marquessates, and see the same vol., p. 176, note "a," sub "Dublin," as to the 'I'elhug thereof as "Marquess" and not "Marquis."