Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 7.djvu/66

 G4 SAYE. SAYE AND SELE. Barony by 1. Ja.ves FiENNSS, Fienes, Fenys, or Fykes, 2d. s. Writ. 0 f si r William Fihnnes, of Hurstmonceaux, co. Sussex (d. 1402), by T 1447 Elizabeth, da. and h. of William BaWRPOED, of co. Sussex afsd., 1 "'' ivbieh William Fieunes was s. and b. of Sir William Fiennks (d. 1300) by Joan, 3d da. (whose issue, after 139?, became coheir) to William (de Sat) 3d Loud Sat, who d. in 3 37f». He was b. about 1395, and having distinguished himself in the wars with France, obtained from Henry V, in 1418. the lordship ui Court-le-Comte in Caux, and other lands in Normandy, being in 1419 made Gov. of Arques; Sheriff of Kent, 1436-37 and of Surrey and Sussex, M3S; Esquire of the Body, 1438; M.P. for Kent, 1441-42 and 1446; Knighted about 1145; obtained a grant in fee of the Wardenship of the cinque ports, in Feb. 1 440/7 ; and, " by reason that Joan his mother [should be " grandmother "] was third sister and [in her issue] coheir to William de Say, a descendant of the former Barons Sav,"( :l ) was sum. to pari, as a Baron (LORD SAYE AND SELE) by writs(>'; directed " Jamie it >»/>«'•», Militi, Domino de Sag et de &/■,"(<-') from 3 March 1 140/7 to 23 Sep. 1419.C 1 ) lie is said, but apparently without any valid ground, to have been cr. a Iiaron by that title on " the third day after " the said writ of 3 March 1440/7, with rem. to his issue in tail male.( c ) Ignoring the rights of his elder brother, who, as representing their grand- mother, was one of the coheirs of the Lords Say, he on Nov. 1-148 obtained from his cousin John, Lord Clinton, the senior coheir, a relinquishment of his rights as also n (*) Dugdale, quoting " Sol. Jin. 6, H. 4, m. 7." ( b ) There is proof in the rolls of Pari, of his sitting, but the earliest date of such sitting is in 1449. ( c ) This extraovdiuary compound title appears to have been territorial as far as " Sele " was concerned, and personal as to that of " Say," being commemorative of the grantee's descent from the old Lords Say, thro' his grandmother, whom, however, he in no way represented. The obtaining from the senior coheir the surrender of his rights shews a pricking of conscience on the part of the grantee. (<J) "Perhaps the obscurity and difficulties which have been considered to attend the Writ and (so called) Patent to Sir James Fieues, 25 Hen. VI. 1447, cannot he better explained than in the words of that most learned genealogist, Robert Glover Esq., Somerset Herald : — ' This S r James Fenys, knight, was summoned to be at the Parlement holden at St. Edmonds Bury in the xxv. yere of the reigne of King Henry the Sixt emong the other Barons, by the name of S r James Fenys, knight, lord of Say and of Sele, by writte bearing date the third of Mart-he the same yere, and within two* dayes after, being the fifte of that moneth and the hist day of th«t Parlement, the King caused the same writte which S r James Fenys, Lord of Say and Sele, there preseut had with him, to be openly read in his ovroe presence and before all the Lordes spirituall and temporall of that Parlement then assembled, and record to be made emong the other actes of that Parlement of his erecting the said S r James to the stat, degre, and dignitie of a Baron, by the name of Lord Say of Sele, of hie speciall grace and for Lis more. . . .at home and abroade, in the presence of the three estates of that Parlement and with the assent of the Lordes spiritual! and temporall of the same. And of the whole, as well of the wordes of the act establish- ing the said dignitie as is aforesaid recorded, as of the same writte, the said King Henry caused his charter of exemplification to be made under his great scale, bearing dat the said fift day of March and yer aforesaid at St. Edmondes Bury which retnayueth to be seene in the custody of Richard Fenys, of Broughton in the countie of Oxford, Esquire, couseyn and next heire to the seid S r James Fenys, Lord of Say and of Sele.' (Glover, 3-77 in Coll. Arm. 89.) Glover considers therefore that the Patent was but an exemplification of thn Writ, and as there are no words, In the Patent any more than in the Writ, that can be cnustrued as giving or conveying an estate of inheritance in the dignity, he is probably correct. The instrument will be fount! printed at length in the additions to Dugdale's Baronage, contributed to the Colled. Topog. et Guual. by Sir C. G. Young, Garter." [Courthope.] (e) " Dugdale, vol. ii, p. 2-15, states the remainder to have been to the heirs male of his bodg ; but neither Collins nor Cruise notices any limitation whatever, anil the latter writer expressly sayB of this creation, that ' nothing of the kind appears either in the Close or Patent Rolls '." [Nicolas.]