Sir Simon Musgrave, of Harde Castle, MP

MUSGRAVE, Sir Simon (d.1597), of Eden Hall, Cumb and Hartley Castle, Westmld.After 40 years of service on the borders, Musgrave died on 30 Jan. 1597. Eden Hall and other property in Cumberland and Westmorland passed to his grandson Richard, Christopher’s son.7

• from http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/mu...

Biography

The Musgraves were among the oldest and most numerous of the west border families, with estates in Cumberland and Westmorland, and connexions with such prominent north country families as the Cliffords and Whartons. To these estates, and others in Northumberland and Yorkshire, Simon Musgrave succeeded when the male line failed in 1565. Next year he even tried to usurp the rights of his great-niece Eleanor (who about this time married Robert Bowes I) on the grounds of her bastardy. Sir Thomas Gargrave, in 1572, listed him as a protestant and one of the principal gentlemen of the West Riding; but it was in the border counties that he had his roots.

As constable of Bewcastle, where he had succeeded another Musgrave, his patent being re-issued in December 1558, his income was estimated in 1594 at not less than £400, derived from lands, rents and fees, but it was an onerous and at times dangerous appointment. The castle, where the constable was required to reside, faced across the ‘wastes’ into Liddesdale, home of the unruly Grahams and Armstrongs, between whom and the Musgraves there was a violent personal feud. In one raid, the constable’s own mill and barns were burnt down, and in another he narrowly escaped with his life. So intense became the raids, which drove away the tenants on whom the castle depended for its defence, that reinforcements were brought in from Berwick, but they quickly departed, leaving the area again open to attack. The ultimate cause of these disorders, in Musgrave’s view, was the instability of government in Scotland and the frequent changes among Scottish border officials. He advised more rigorous punishment of offenders and the prohibition, except on licence, of marriages between English and Scottish borderers, ‘the greatest occasion of the spoils and robberies’.4

Family

3rd s. of Sir Edward Musgrave of Hartley Castle by his 2nd w. Joan, da. and coh. of Sir Christopher Ward of Givendale, Yorks. m. Julian, da. of William Ellerker of Ellerker, Yorks., 4s. (inc. Christopher d.v.p.) 1da. Kntd. 28 Aug. 1570.1

Mention is made to a wife known as "a Scotch woman"

Links to additional material:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coanwood
• https://sites.google.com/site/fivegateways/alphabetical-index-m/mus...
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=allerton%...

Sources

1. Pedigrees recorded at the heralds' visitations of the counties of Cumberland and Westmorland made by Richard St. George, Norry, king of arms in 1615, and by William Dugdale, Norry, king of arms in 1666. Edited by Joseph Foster. Published 1891 by C. Thurman and sons in Carlisle . Written in English. Page 92-93 "Musgrave, of Eden Hall."
2. The history and antiquities of Leath Ward: in the county of Cumberland: with biographical notices and memoirs (Google eBook) Samuel Jefferson. S. Jefferson, 1840 - Leath Ward (England) - 515 pages.  "Parish of Edenhall.". Page 415. "3. Simon, who afterwards succeeded to the inheritance."