Stephen, Lord of Musgrave

Stephen de Musgrave was the son of Wascelinus, Lord of Musgrave. He was born c. 1095 in Westmorland County, a border county between Scotland and England. Control of this county changes hands several times during Stephen's life (see general notes below). Stephen succeeded to the title Lord of Mugrave upon his father's death. The name of his wife has not survived, but the name of one son has, Peter de Musgrave. Stephen died after 1157 in Great Musgrave, Westmorland, Scotland.

Stephen's name is found in a list of pleas during the reign of King Henry II:

• Stephen fil. Wascelini, lord of Musgrave in Westmorland, seised of lands in the county of Cumberland temp. Hen. I and King Stephen; owed the King three marks in silver for a plea, 4 Hen. II (c.1157).

Child of Stephen, Lord of Musgrave:

• Peter de Musgrave

General Notes:

In Coat of Arms "An Ordinary of Scottish Arms contained in all Public Register of all Arms and Bearings in Scotland: Annulets (6):Azure six annulets, 3,2,1 or (gold). Musgrave of Hayton

The northern part of the county of Westmorland did not form part of the England which passed to William of Normandy at the battle of Hastings.

It was not till the reign of his son, William Rufus, that it passed from the Kingdom of Scotland to that of England. In 1092, however, Rufus first entered into an arrangement with the Scottish King, Alexander, whereby Cumberland and Westmorland became part of the former's dominions, and he consolidated his new possessions by building the castle of Carlisle.

Despite this, Alexander's successors still claimed the two counties as part of their kingdom, till in 1157 Henry II forced the young Scottish King, Malcolm (Canmore) to give up all claim to them, and the boundary between England and Scotland was fixed as it is today; though for some time after the Scottish kings kept reviving their old claim.

Finally at a conference held at York in 1237, Alexander III, King of Scotland, gave up all claim to the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland in exchange for lands of annual value of £200 to be held of the King of England by the annual render of a falcon to the Constable of Carlisle Castle. (a) However, in the quarrels between Edward II and King John Baliol all these lands were seized and reverted to the Crown. The lands included the Honour of Penrith, which in consequence suffered heavily at the hands of the Scots for several generations as a result of the King of Scotland's claim to that manor.

The new subjects thus brought under the English crown seem to have been chiefly of Norwegian descent - the descendants of the Viking who in the 10th century conquered and overran the North of England.

In no part of England today is the appearance of the peasantry so typically Scandinavian, and the place names for the two counties, together with the local speech, bear out this contention very completely.

The Scandinavian termination

• "by" a town,
• "thorpe" a village,
• "thwaite" a forest clearing,
• "holme" a river island,

to name a few, far outnumber the names of Celtic and Saxon derivation, while such words as

• "beck" a stream,
• "fell" a hill,
• "garth" an enclosures

all pure Scandinavian - are in common use today

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Musgrave Great and Little, are two small Villages of no note, but for giving a name to the warlike Family of the Musgraves. For the Name of Musgrave is to be reckoned among those that are taken from Offices, and civil or military Honours, and is of the like Original as Landt-graff, Markgraff, and Burghgraffe; and 'tis probable that this Name, and Markgraffe, (now turned into our English Marquis) are much the same. Their Signification is Dux Limitaneus, which we call a Lord Warden of the Marches: 'Tis probable that this Family of Musgraves had a Seat here, because Thomas Lord Musgrave, 32 Edw. III. obtained a Charter of Free Warren in all his Demesne Lands here, with a Power to impark his Woods called Hevenings in these Towns, containing Two hundred Acres. What more is remarkable of this Family, see above in Herkla-Castle, and Heartley Castle. The family of Musgraves, though none of them noble after the Death of the said Thomas, yet have continued almost ever since Men of Note; but these Lordships after his Death must have been some Way alienated from his Posterity, because we find Roger Lord Clifford 4th died possessed of these Manors 13 Rich. II. and left them to his Son and Heir Thomas, Etc. Milburn, or Milneborn, the Lordship of the aforesaid Lord Clifford 4th, left to his Son Thomas, with other his large Estates, as above mentioned, as was also Murtone another Village, as also Naceby, and New-bigging, two Lordships of no Note in any other Respect.