Jack Musgrave Capt. of Bewcastle, Knt.

A hero of the battle of Solway Moss.  Fought December 14, 1542, between the Scottish invading army, under Oliver Sinclair, and a band of 500 English borderers, under Thomas Dacre and John Musgrave. The Scots were totally defeated, and many important nobles captured. Gervase Phillips has estimated that only about 7 Englishmen and 20 Scots were killed but 1,200 Scottish prisoners were taken, including Sinclair, the Earls of Cassillis, Glencairn and Maxwell. James V died two weeks later, leaving a one week old daughter, Mary Stuart, as Queen of Scotland.

"The notorious Jack a Musgrave, claimed by the gossiping old chronicler, Edmond Sandford, as the ancestor of the Plumpton Musgraves, has already been noticed. Sandford says of him (7):"

This Jack a Musgrave was so metaled a man, as the country people wold say, if they had a spirited boy he would even be a Jack a Musgrave. 

Family

• parents:  William Musgrave b: PRE 1506 in Edenhall & an unknown mistress

Married

1. Jane Chamber, daughter of Thomas Chamber.  6 children.
2. Agnes Thirlwall, daughter of Robert Thirlwall & Eleanor Fetherstonhaugh, as her 1st husband; 2 children.  She married Richard Coledale 2nd & Henry Fletcher 3rd.

Bewcastle

BEWCASTLE, in Eskdale ward, lies nearly eleven miles from Brampton, and about twenty from Carlisle. It comprises the townships of Bailey, Belbank, Bewcastle, and Nixons, and in 1811, contained 215 houses and 1069 inhabitants. This parish, which in ancient records is written Bothcastre and Buethcastre, is supposed to have obtained that name from its ancient fortress. Bueth was Lord of the manor at the time of the Norman conquest, and is mentioned in one of the early charters of Lanercost priory.

The castle at Bewcastle, from its situation near the borders, was an important post: Jack Musgrave, an active officer in the wars with the Scots, was the captain or governor in the reign of Henry VIII.

Notes

• Two Lintels: " ... From the time of Thomas Musgrave and his wife Joan Stapleton (1472) to the commencement of the Penrith parish registers in 1556, there are, besides the Edenhall and Crookdyke Visitation pedigrees, only occasional brief records of the Musgraves of Edenhall and their branches of Penrith, Plumpton, and Catterlen. The notices of them I have met with in State records and county histories are the following :  ...   1531. April 25th. John, alias Jak, Musgrave of Bewcastle. Pardon, but no offence stated."
•  Edmond Sandford's statement in his "Antiquities and Families" (1675) that Jack a Musgrave in Henry VIII. 's time got a hundred years lease of Plumpton Park, and planted five of his sons in it, has been popularly accepted as accounting for the several families of Musgrave in Plumpton. The statement, however, is discredited by the non-existence of any State or other record of Henry VIII's reign of such a grant; by a record of Queen Mary's reign that the Captain of Bewcastle should have £100 a year with Plumpton Park in lease during the time he held  the office ; and by a State record of James I. in 1605, May 22nd, granting a lease for forty years to John Murray,  Groom of the Bedchamber, of lands called Plumpton Park, the Park Head, &c. It was a sore grievance with the English that King James brought so many needy Scots to his Court and lavished money and favours upon them.
•   Here at least Sandford is confirmed by history. Jack was deputy to Sir William Musgrave in his office of Captain of Bewcastle, and during the eventful period of Aske's Rebellion in 1536-7, he, in conjunction with his principal, Sir William Musgrave, was actively employed in the King's  service. The Duke of Norfolk, the King's lieutenant in the North for the suppression of the rebellion, in his letters to Cromwell, the King's minister, complains of Jack being only too " metaled a man," not always employing his metal in a proper manner. (7) 
•  This was probably the famous Captain Jack Musgrave, who had charge of the watch along the Cryssop, or Kershope, as appears from the order of the watches appointed by Lord Wharton , when Deputy-Warden-General in the 6th Edward VI.(8)  

Sources

1. Mentioned in the will of half brother Richard Musgrave (#15528), 26 Jan 1552.
2. C.W.A.A.S., Tr. N.S., Vol. 1, 1901, 194-234. "The Chambers Family of Raby Cote" by Francis Grainger. C.W.A.A.S., Tr. N.S., Vol.11, 1911, 233-258. "Extinct Cumberland Castles" (Part 3) by T.H.B. Graham.
3. C.W.A.A.S., Tr. N.S., Vol. 22, 1922, 186-197. "Bewcastle" by John F. Curwen, F.S.A..
4. C.W.A.A.S., Tr. O.S., Vol. 8, 1886, pages 257-262. "Solway Moss" by W. Nanson, B.A., F.S.A..
5. Daniel and Samuel Lysons. "Parishes: Bewcastle - Brigham." Magna Britannia: volume 4: Cumberland (1816): 26-40. British History Online. Web. 31 May 2012. <http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50680>
6. Images of Cumbria - Bewcastle Parish
7. Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archæol. Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society (Volume vol 15 no 1). (page 8 of 23)
8. An Ancient Border Gathering Song From Tradition  

Links

• http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=wars&FileName=...
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Solway_Moss
• http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1764167
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=allerton%...