Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/769

 APPENDIX H 747 (v) The heir or licirs (if any) of the said Frances Coppinger who dicJ in or before the vc:ir 1619; (vi) Emma Harriet Baroness Berners, wlio has presented no petition and makes no claim; (vii) The heir or heirs (if any) of Lucy Knyvett wlio married Thomas Holt and John Field and died in the year 174O; 5. That the Barony of Burgh is in abeyance and at His Majesty's dispos;il. That their Lordships should violate the Common Law rules of evidence by basing their decision on a document which had not been admitted (and was not admissible)('') in the case is sufficiently surprising, but that they should go out of their way to upset, bv implication, the date of the Barony of Windsor is even more so. For if Thomas Burgh took his seat in 1529 "next after Lord Windsor," the latter must either have sat in the House about five years before he was a peer or his peerage was five years earlier than it was decided to be in 1855, when the abeyance was determined, and it was dated 1534. Further, not satisfied with upsetting the date of creation of Windsor, they also upset their own decision on Burgh bv their resolution in the Strabolgi case, where the wording of the resolution assigns 1487 as the date originating Burgh. Strabolgi David of Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl, was son of John of Strathbogie, Earl of AthoII, who, being an adherent of Robert Bruce, was executed and forfeited by Edward I in 1306, whereby he lost not only his Earldom and Scottish estates (which were given to Ralph de Monthermer, the King's son-in-law), but also the castle, manor, and honour ot Chilham in Kent, which had come to him from his mother. David, who submitted himself to Edward II, was restored to the Earldom and Scottish estates by the surrender of them by Ralph de Monthermer, who was paid a large sum. The incursions of the Scots compelled the King on 10 June 13 18 to issue ■wnts of equis et armis to assemble the host on 22 July following. Owing to the disturbed state of the country which was occasioned by the quarrels of Edward and Lancaster (in which David had sided with the Earl), the responses to the military summonses were quite inadequate, and the King was driven to make a composition with the Earl by an agreement concluded at Leake on 9 Aug. On 25 Aug. following writs were issued for a Parlia- ment to meet on 20 Oct. at York, and it is on the circumstances attending this meeting that the petitioners' case hinged. No writ of summons of David to York is extant, and Mr. Cozens- Hardy (for the petitioners) tried to account for the absence of a writ by pointing out that, being yet one. of the unpardoned followers of the (") Sitting must be proved by a record of Parliament.