ISORIUS FITZ ALEXANDER, surnamed de Reresby, party to suit 1194. A juror in the Testa de Nevill for the Wapentake of Wraghou(p. 13.) Held lands in Reresby, Steynton, Snellislund, Suntorp, and Hyngham, co. Linc. (p. 18.) Lord of Plesley, co. Derby, in right of his wife. Died before 1248.

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With Isidore Fitz Alexander, a landowner in Reresby (close to Lincoln), and the adjoining villages, at the end of the twelfth and commencement of the thirteenth century, the herald's visitations ... genuine evidences begin; but curiously enough the hiatus between that date and the conquest can now be filled in, for Isidore's pedigree for four generations was legally proved in the court of Richard Coeur de Lion in 1194. His cousin and opponent, Sir Richard de Ormesby, explained his title to certain lands in Lincolnshire, by setting out in detail their common descent from a certain Hugh le Blount, whose identity I have proved with Hugh, the Earl of Chester's domesday tenant at Ormesby, co. Lincoln, the same person as Hugh Fitz Osbern, one of the Earl's greater tenants in Cheshire. I have given on pp. 87, 88 a table of the descendants of this Hugh...

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Isore¹ (or Isidore) Fitz Alexander was probably born in [1174], or not long before, had a long minority, and first appears in an undated suit concerning land in Reresby in the company of Juliana de Reresby his mother, who was evidently an heiress. From this place (Reresby,near Lincoln) he assumed a surname, and the site of his manor house was probably the orchard behind the present hall, an area of irregular shape which is surrounded by a great earthen rampart and by a moat lately half filled up. In 1194 he brought the suit at Westminster in the court of Richard Coeur de Lion to which I have so often referred, and of which I have given a facsimile, a translation on page 1, and an extended,copy of the Latin text in the appendix. Isore, the plaintiff, demanded against Richard de Ormesby seven bovates [210 statute acres] in Marton, co. Lincoln, and offered trial by battle by the body of a certain champion named Robert Botolf (the surname should, I think, be de Sancto Botulfo), whose father had seen Alexander, the plaintiff's father, receive the revenues of the land in question in the reign of Henry the Second.

Isore acted as a juror for the wapentake of Wraghow in the drawing up of one of the surveys contained in the Testa de Nevill, and I have printed a considerable number of entries concerning him, besides two charters and as many fines in which he was a principal. I have not been able to discover that he was ever engaged in war. In early life he owed homage and service to the Ralph de Normanville who accompanied King Richard to the Holy Land, and later on he became a tenant in capite by knight's service; but there is no evidence whatever that he performed in person the military service that was due. With Amicia
his wife, eldest daughter and co-heir of John Deincourt, and co-heir to her grandfather Serlo, Lord of Plesley and Ashover in Derbyshire, he obtained lands in the soke of Ashover in free marriage. After the death of her father the lordship of Plesley fell to her share, and Isore became a tenant in chief, and was no doubt summoned to parliament amongst the barones minores. At this place he had a park, the fence of which his free tenants were bound to keep in repair, and the site of his hall (or perhaps of the residence of his wife's ancestor, Serlo, lord of Glapwell and Ashover in 1086) may perhaps be marked by the great earthworks which are described in the local guide-books. He died before 1248.

[1] (p6) Isore, Ysore, or Isorius is the Norman French form of the name Isidore, which is of such rare occurrence in England that I doubt whether a single other instance in early times is known...Under the name of Ysore or Isore as in the suit of 1194, or as Isore de Reresby, notices of him can be found both in the public records, and in many original charters in the British Museum.

...New Hall Manor which Isidore Reresby had acquired, about 1282, from his marriage with Amicia Deincourt. He acquired also the Old Hall Manor from the Willoughbys, for which he exchanged Pleasley. The splendour of the Reresbys commenced when the son of Isidore and Amicia mated with the heiress of the Normanvilles (Margaret), who brought him Thriburgh, Brinsford, and other lordships

Osbert Fitz Hugh, the second baron of Pulford, succeeded his father before 1119, for in that year he was with Earl Richard at Graham in Lincolnshire, and there witnessed his charter of confirmation to the Abbey of St. Werburgh. Not long after he was present at a similar act by Earl Ranulph Meschines, which I suppose was granted at Chester. The only other direct evidence concerning him which I have been able to find is contained in the record of 1194, which tells us that his brother Simon did homage to him for the land at Marton, and that he had three sons, Hugh, and Alexander, and Simon. One of the lords of Pulford gave in the twelfth century a part of the township of Wardle to the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, and it is possible that he was the donor.

I have not been able to trace many of the actions of this Osbert, but his possession of the barony and attendance upon the Earls tell much by inference. In these early days before the invention of scutage, and especially in a military principality like that of Chester, real military service had to be rendered by the holder of a fief to the lord of whom he held it, and it was even sometimes the case that an eldest son was disinherited because his younger brother was the better knight. A feudal tenant in the first half of the twelfth century could no more avoid doing his military devoir than he could avoid paying the debt of
nature, and the very fact that he held his fief is direct evidence that he followed his lord to all the wars in which the latter was engaged. Had it not been that the Scrope and Grosvenor controversy in 1386 put the facts, as kept alive by tradition, upon record, we should never have known that Ralph de Grosvenor was present at the battle of Lincoln in 1141, and at that battle two years later, in which the Earl was captured. We should, however, had we possessed independent proof of his existence at this date, have been justified in guessing that he was present, for there can be no reasonable doubt that every one of the Earl's military tenants, lesser as well as greater, followed him to war.

Osbern Fitz Hugh possessed several manors within a few miles of Lincoln, and we have therefore the better reason to conjecture that he may have been present at the great battle there in 1141, when King Stephen was captured by the Earl. He may have, and probably did, follow his chief in all those bewildering and selfish changes of alliance, those desertions now of the Empress now of the King, which remind one of a later king-maker and in the constant sieges, assaults and battles by which they were enlivened. We cannot doubt that all the Earl's feudal tenants were concerned in the sally which routed Stephen at the second siege of Lincoln; in the capture of Bedford by assault, and the Earl's subsequent reconciliation to the King, to whom he brought three hundred well-appointed horse to aid in the siege of Wallingford. To follow the Earl's fortunes at Coventry and in Wales would be tedious, and little to the point, for I do not believe that Osbern lived so long, but it may be remarked that the stronghold of Lincoln, which, together with the Earldom and Constableship of the county, Ranulph claimed as his inheritance, seems to have been constantly the base of his operations. Osbern Fitz Hugh and his eldest son, Hugh Fitz Osbern, the third baron of Pulford, both died before the accession of Henry the Second [1154]. The record tell us that this second Hugh Fitz Osbern had two brothers, Alexander, who, as I shall presently show, was disinherited, and Simon Fitz Osbern.

RALPH DE RERESBY, lord of Plesley. Exchanged the manor of Plesley for the manor of Ashover with his cousin Sir Robert de Willoughby. Coroner for Notts and Derby 1269. Gave his Lincolnshire estate to Barlings (p.14.) Died c.1275, when his goods were seized by the King.

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Ralph de Reresby ... must also have served in parliament among the barones minores, and perhaps it was this position as an immediate vassal of the crown, which saved him from sharing in the rebellion, death, and forfeiture of his brother-in-law, Ralph de Normanville, in 1265. I suppose that he remained loyal to the crown, for in 1269 he was elected in the county court to serve as coroner for Derbyshire; an office then confined to the knightly class, the chief duties of which were to watch over the pleas of the crown and the interests of the crown» to enquire into deaths by violence, and to administer to criminals in
the sanctuaries in which they had taken refuge, the oath by which they abjured the realm.

Ralph de Reresby married Margery, sister and co-heir to the Ralph de Normanville, Lord of Thribergh and Stainton, who was slain at Evesham, and to Sir Adam de Normanville who soon after bought back the forfeited estate. His wife's portion at marriage was the land which had been formerly given by Ralph de Normanville to [Richard de Savile] the father of Ralph de Seiwell with Iclonia his wife 'ad liberum maritagium,' and this must have included the site of the manor house called The Ickles, for in 1252 Ralph de Reresby leased to Simon Scot of Rotherham "totam terram suam de Th' Ickles."

Shortly before his death Ralph de Reresby passed away the paternal estate in Lincolnshire, or the greater part of it, in free alms to the Abbey of Barlings, and exchanged, in a charter of three or four lines, the lordship of Plesley with his cousin Sir Robert de Willoughby for the romantic valley of Ashover, a domain which long remained with his descendants. The Greenhall close on the North side of the church is the site of the Old Hall at Ashover, but before the year 1302 Margery de Reresby had built for herself the New Hall which she afterwards bestowed upon her younger son.

...

[Ralph] must have died in 1275, for on the 19th January of the succeeding year, the sheriff of Nottinghamshire was commanded to seize upon the manor of Plesley, which Ralph de Reresby, lately deceased, had held in capite¹, and had alienated without license², and on the 3rd of February the sheriff of Derbyshire had an order to seize upon all his goods and chattels as of one who had died in debt to the King. It was the custom of the age to be buried in the nearest monastery, and I suppose that he found interment at Barlings, to which he had been so considerable a benefactor.

...

Ralph de Reresby's children and grandchildren found perhaps a resting place at Beauchief Abbey, and the earliest monument of a member of the family known t_ the Elizabethan heralds, was that at Thrybergh recording the death of Sir Thomas Reresby in 1439.

Footnotes
[1] i.e. held directly of the Crown
[2] i.e. given to someone without Royal approval

...James Maule was engaged in the rising of '15 and fought at Sheriffmuir. He was the author of Travels on the Continent made in company with the Chevalier St George [This was James Stuart, son of James II] and the Earl of Panmure [James Maule, 1658-1723], and he wrote also a genealogy of the Maules, both of which are extant.

... a descendant of the noble family of Panmure, who enagaged in the rising of 1715, and fought at Sheriffmuir; he was author of Travels on the Continent and A Genealogy of the Maules

Mr Maule [i.e. James Maule] ... had spent 3 years in France - after the 1713-1716 [uprising?] and had travelled much in the country during that time."

Adm. pens. (age 18) at PETERHOUSE,
July 5, 1736. Of Hunsdon, Herts. S. of Matthew, above.
School, Felstead. Matric. 1736; Scholar, 1737; B.A. 1741-2.
Ord. priest (London) Dec. 21, 1755. R. of Hunsdon, Herts.,
1756. Died Nov. 30, 1765. Tablet in Hunsdon Church. He
took his mother's name, Martin, in 1760. ( T. A. Walker,
274; Cussans, Herts., I. 44.)

930s Makuyu - Next down the road was Cornforth, for long a bachelor. His friend, Hugh Mitchell did marry a lovely girl called Ibby, but she died tragically, very young. Hugh then married again, Nina. He was an old Marlburian and we were often mistaken for each other, though he was at least ten years older. Nina was a great character and organiser. She was buxom and never carried a handbag, everything was kept in her bra!

Retired to Malindi in Kenya.

I now return to the disinherited heir of the second baron of Pulford. The record of 1194 tells us that Osbern Fitz Hugh had three sons, Hugh, Alexander, and Simon, and that the eldest died and was succeeded by his brother Simon Fitz Osbert, whose career I have sketched. No explanation is given why Alexander was thus passed over, although the words of the record make it impossible to question his legitimacy, and difficult to argue that he was the youngest son. We can only infer that at the death of his eldest brother, the third baron of Pulford, which must have taken place towards the end of the troubled reign of Stephen [1154], he was either ousted forcibly by his younger brother, or legally disinherited, perhaps as being born out of England or unfit to perform in person the military service due to the Earl. He seems to have obtained the manorial estates, which his son afterwards held, in Reresby, Stainton, Snelland, Suntorp, and Hyngham, near Lincoln, in marriage with his wife Juliana de Reresby, and not as a subinfeudation out of those two fees in Marton, Holm, Wilfrikeby, Scapewic, Reresby, and Snelland, which his brother Simon Fitz Osbert was holding in 1166. Part of this property is described in his grandson, Ralph de Reresby's, gift to the Abbey of Barlings of "lands and tenements in the townships and territories of Rerisby, Steynton, Snellislund, Sunthorpe, and Hyngham, with his capital messuage in the town of Rerisby, with tofts and crofts, meadows and pastures, moors and marshes; with all homages and services both of free tenants and of cottars, wardships, reliefs, escheats, and all manner of revenues and liberties."

There can, I think, be no doubt that Alexander was in possession of this manor of Reresby with its extents, held of the fee of Steyton though not owing suit of court to it; and that like his son and grandson he held it - not of the lords of Pulford - but under the de Normanvilles, a family which afterwards became united with his own. If this view be correct Alexander was wholly disinherited, and did not receive even a younger son's portion out of the ancestral lands, and yet, in spite of this injustice, he made a fortunate match with an heiress of considerable wealth, and the fortunes of his home were more than restored by the brilliant marriages of his son and grandson. I am not able to give an account of the earlier family of Reresby to which this Juliana belonged, but she seems to have been of the race of the lords of Snelleslund, and was probably nearly related to the William Fitz Endo de Reresby, whose charter and seal I have described on page 19. The court at Chester must have decided against Alexander before 1154, but there is evidence that early in the reign of Henry the Second he was receiving, or at least claiming, service and rent from his cousin Richard de Ormesby, and this seems to indicate that he made an attempt to recover that part of his inheritance which was subject to English law; for he could only have claimed the overlordship of the land at Marton as being heir of Hugh Fitz Osborn. Alexander must have been living as late as in 1174, but I have unfortunately failed to find any charter in which he was concerned either as principal or witness.

Serlo, the Saxon, who held Ashover at the Survey under Fitzhubert, had two granddaughters (co-heiresses), who took the manor in moieties to their husbands - Willoughby, of Lincoln, and Deincourt, of Nottingham. The Lincolnshire Willoughbys were descendants of John, the Norman Knight, who fought at Hastings, and direct ancestor of the Barons Middleton, Willoughby de Eresby, Willoughby de Broke, and
Willoughby de Parham. The lads of this house distinguished themselves at Falkirk, with Edward I.; at Cressy, with Edward III.; at Poitiers, with the Black Prince; at Agincourt and Vernoil, with Henry N'.; at
Bosworth, with Richmond. But the Banks of the Amber were soon forsaken, and the lands exchanged for Pleasley with Isidore Reresby, who had married a daughter and co-heiress of Deincourt. This would be about
1282. The Reresbys would now be holding the entire manor, but from another co-heiress of Deincourt, who shared with her sister their father's moiety of Ashover and espoused Musters, of Nottinghamshire.

received a charter of the family estates in 1503, and on 20 September 1504 granted a charter as superior of Pettyntoskane (now Bantaskine) in the barony of Callendar, in favour of Patrick Hepburn, his wife's uncle. For a debt of 250 merks he was obliged to submit to a distraint upon part of his lands in favour of Sir James Schaw of Sauchy, 4 November 1507. A charter of confirmation, dated 21 January 1509-10, of part of Callander in Menteith, Culter in Lanarkshire, and Cragston in Stirlingshire, in favour of himself and Agnes Hepburn, his spouse, was granted to Lord Livingston on his own resignation for conjunct infeftment, and a month later he resigned the whole of his estates in favour of Alexander, his son and heir-apparent, reserving his liferent and a reasonable terce to his wife.

His domestic affairs appear to have become disordered about 1512, when his son took forcible possession of Callendar House, while in the following year his wife obtained decree of divorce against him for adultery with Mariota Taylor, and having issue by her

Burn-Murdoch On Sept 13 1938 at Gartincaber, Doune, Perthshire, Thomas Monch Burn-Murdoch MB CM FRCPE of Gartincaber. Loved husband of the late Anne Regiaulde de Maule Burn-Murdoch, and last surviving son of the late John Burn-Murdoch of Gartincaber, aged 83 years. Funeral at Edinburgh Crematorium today (Thursday) at 3.30pm, at which time also a memorial service will be held at Kilmadock East Church Doune. No flowers, by request.

All residue to my great nephew Scrope Joseph, son of Gilbert Fleming.

When I was a girl of about fourteen, I was as much in love with her [Sophia Oakeley] as any of the young men admirers. Besides her beauty she had a fine mellow contralto voice, and was most amusing and attractive, very unreasonable and changeful, but that seemed only to rivet my chains. I never knew if she would neglect me as a mere child, in which case I was miserable, or make me a friend and a confidante. The confidences were all about her lovers, and I expect I should have been better without them. Once she told me she had accepted a man whom she hated. When I said “Why had she accepted him”, she said “It was to get rid of him.”

She was very like Cynthia in Mrs Gaskell’s “Wives and Daughters”. Like it was with Cynthia whatever she put on looked right. When my mother was going to take her to a ball she was a little dismayed to see rather a dirty old frock put out for her, till Toto said “But Aunt Sophy they never look at my clothes”. She was an admirable mimic, and got fun out of the quietest sort of life, but was delighted at the prospect of a bit of gaiety. I have seen her before going out, rub her hands together saying, “Won’t I have a good flirtation tonight”? She did not much like offers – they spoilt the fun. One lover she did care for. She offered to run away with him to be married. He either was at the time, or was going to be, ordained, and prudently declined. She said it was dishonourable of him to refuse.

Oakeleys had a curious code of honour. Altogether they were eccentric. After being almost scrubbily economical, they would burst into extravagances. “Oakeleys must go fast”. Poor Toto! She made not a very happy first marriage with a Captain Cleveland [sic], a kind man but mostly at sea, and a disastrous second marriage. Under so much frivolity she had some generous qualities. She nursed a family of her brother’s (who with his wife, had died of yellow fever, in Bermuda) when the children arrived in London and doctors were afraid to attend them. I think she really loved and appreciated my Father and Mother.

1593: Elphinstone aisle built by Alexander Elphinstone. It lies just west of the Airth Aisle, separated from the nave by a semicircular arch of two orders, the inner one being chamfered. The aisle contains several fine tombstones, the earliest of which is dated 1593, which appears to be the date when the aisle was built. The gable is crow-stepped and has cavetto-moulded skewputs. The side walls are finished with a moulded eaves-course of similar section, and at the base there is a splayed plinth similar to that on the Airth Aisle. Centrally placed in the gable wall is a plain square-headed window with rounded arises, which has been contracted on its east side by the insertion of a chamfered jamb. The lintelled doorway, at the south-west corner, also has rounded arrises. An armorial panel set in the gable above the window is now virtually illegible through weathering, but a drawing published in 1896 shows it to have been parted per pale and charged for Elphinstone and Livingstone: Dexter, a chevron between three boars’ heads erased; sinister, quarterly, 1st and 4th, three gillyflowers, 2nd and 3rd a bend between six billets. It is flanked by the initials M/AE for Master Alexander Elphinstone, who became the fourth Lord Elphinstone in 1602, and IL/ME for his wife Jane Livingstone, Mistress Elphinstone, daughter of William sixth Lord Livingstone. The date 1593, which appears below the shield, is presumably the building-date of the aisle.

...excused by Queen Mary and Lord Darnley from attending their army 'ost' 1565, because of his minority, and from attending the wars all his life for the good services of his predecessors, this privilege being renewed by James VI, with whom he was in high favour

John Stewart, also called 'The Black Stewart', first of the house of Bute, was a natural son of King Robert II.

He received from his royal father and his brothers, King Robert III and the Regent Albany, a 'fair estate' in the Principality and Stewartry of Scotland. In this way, by the gift of Robert II, he became the hereditary Sheriff of the islands of Bute and Arran, probably on their first erection into a sheriffdom, in 1385. From Robert III he received on 11 November 1400 a confirmation of the office of Sheriff, and a charter of the lands of Ardmulese and Grenane in Bute, and of Coregelle in Arran, and grants of annual rents of ten pounds a year out of the maills of the King's Bute lands, and of ten merks yearly from his lands in Arran. From the Regent, who like Robert III styles him his brother, John Stewart and his wife received, in 1418, a charter of the half lands of Fennok in the barony of Renfrew, which he had purchased from Richard de Barde and in the following year a charter, to himself and his wife, of the lands of Barrone in Bute, on the resignation of 'Agnes, daughter of Walter.'

Stewart received also from Robert III a charter of an annual rent of twenty merks out of the barony of Albernethy, in Perthshire, and in 1398 he paid into the Exchequer the ferms of the lands of Ormysdale. An expenditure of nine chalders of barley, which he had appropriated for the repair of Rothesay Castle, was repudiated by the Exchequer, and continued in the accounts against him, and, after his death, against his son.

He was one of the hostages for James I of Scotland in 1424.

Tradition says that the name of the Sheriff's mother was Leitch. A family of that name held property in the Island of Bute at a very early date, and probably derived its surname from its hereditary profession of medicine. It has also been stated that the mother was the lady named Mora, mentioned in several of Robert's charters, another person, however, from Elizabeth More.

He was shortly after appointed steward of Monteith, and captain of the Castle of Doune in Perthshire, for, in the following year, 1503, with George, Abbot of Holyrood, Walter Scott of Buccleuch, and others, he is witness to the saisine of Margaret of England, in the county (or district) of Monteith, in consequence of her marriage contract, in which this is included with many other appanages as her dower, dated Edinburgh, 6th May, 1503, 15th of James IV. Also to the same for her saisine, 'dominii de Strivelinshire,' William Edmonstone de Duntreath, captain of Doune, is witness among others. There is, moreover, an original infeftment, 20th January 1507, upon a royal precept of Archibald Napier of Monteith, in lands in Monteith, to which officially the seal of arms of William Edmonstone of Duntreath, as steward of Monteith, is appended. The arms are emblazoned with supporters and crest as now borne. Crauford, moreover, mentions a decreet, obtained at the instance of Sir James Haldane of Glenegles before William Edmonstone, as steward of Monteith.

He married first, Sibylla, daughter of Sir William Baillie of Lamington, an old and distinguished family now extinct. This marriage is attested by a charter in 1497 to William, son and heir of Archibald Edmonstone of Duntreath, and Sibylla Baillie, his wife, of the lands of Gartbarron; also by another charter to the same parties, of Argety and Rednock, dated 1506. Sir William's second wife was Elizabeth Leslie, daughter to George, first Earl of Rothes, who had been previously married to William, third Earl of Errol. This marriage took place probably about 1507 or 1508, but the lady did not very long survive, as there is an action before the Court of Session in 15 1 1, by William Edmonstone of Duntreath, as executor to 'Umquhile Dame Elizabeth Leslie, Countess of Errol', his spouse. Sir William married thirdly, as appears by a charter, in 1510, to William Edmonstone of
Duntreath, knight, and Katherine Forrest, his wife, of the lands of Glenboig and Cambusvvallace, but who this lady was I know not, as neither she nor the Countess of Errol are mentioned in Crauford's genealogy. Sir William married fourthly, Sibylla, daughter ofSir John Carmichael of that ilk, as is attested by a charter under the Great Seal, of the same lands of Glenboig and Cambusvvallace, to Sir William Edmonstone and Sibylla Carmichael, his wife, on his own resignation. It is dated August 15, 1513, and on the 9th of September he, together with his brothers-in-law, the Earl of Montrose and Lord Ross, fell at the fatal battle of Flodden.

The old Kentish family of Brockman, whose estates the existing house (formerly [belonging to the] Drake [family]) inherited under the will of James Brockman in 1767, appears upon record so early as the time of Richard II.

It is stated that the first Scottish Presbyterian Minister introduced into Ireland was invited by him [William Edmonstone], and located in his parish of Broadisland, in 1611.

Henry Burtsal, Marianne’s brother, joined the army in his youth and was in South Africa with the Kelsos [his sister Marianne married Robert Kelso]. However, he didn’t go on to India and left the army in 1804, after which he farmed in various places, married but had no children and ended up living in Rose Hall in the 1840s. I think he must have acquired it when Marianne died.

Footnotes
[1] Miscellaneous mortgage: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/9eadfd5a-58ff-497c-895c-5994870270a5