William III de Lancaster

• Born 1189 in England
• Died 20 Nov 1246 at about age 57 in West Ward, Westmorland, England

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lancaster-456
Lancaster-456 created 14 May 2012 | Last modified 12 Jul 2022

Parents: Gilbert fitz Roger fitz Reinfrid (d.1216/20) and Hawise de Lancaster (the heiress of William II de Lancaster and Helewise de Stuteville)

He was adult by 1215, and died in 1246.

m. Agnes de Brus. No issue.[1]

His sisters were his co-heirs and split the Barony of Kendal between them into "fees":

1. Helwise de Lancaster m. Peter de Brus II (Marquis Fee)
2. Alice de Lancaster m. William de Lyndesey (Richmond Fee)
3. Serota de Lancaster m. Alan de Multon (no children)

(There is a mistaken entry, on Peerage.com which says William was the father of Alice, his sister.)

From the calendars of the patent rolls (short-form references in parentheses):

He was appointed to custody over the county and castle of Lancaster in 1240 (HIII Vol.3 p.239) and the honour of Lancaster in 1234 (p.42) and 1241 (p.250).

He was given licence by the king to make a will in 1246 (p.480).

He died in November 1246. There is a detailed record of the inquest made into his deathbed enfeoffments.[2]

From the website of Andrew Lancaster:[3]

William spent some part of his young life as a hostage and prisoner for the part he and his father and he had played in the rebellion of the Barons against King John Lackland. On 22 Jan 1215/16 he and his knights, Ralph de Aencurt and Lambert de Bussay were taken at the castle of Rochester in arms against the king. From many records it is clear that as soon as his father passed away, although he was allowed to take up high positions, he was constantly being pressed by the king to pay debts which possibly went back to the damages of the rebellion.

He left enormous debts amongst England’s Jewry which passed along with many of the family’s rights to the heirs of his legitimate sisters. :Administration of these debts became a concern of the King himself. “1248 The debts of William de Lancastre due to the king, or to Aaron and Samuel, Jews of York, and David, Jew of Oxford, are granted to William of Valence, the king's [half] brother; Peter de Brus is ordered to pay off his part of the debts at the rate of £200 yearly; Cal. Pat. R., 1248, p. 33, cf. ib., 547.”[4]

Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem and Other Analogous Documents preserved in the Public Record Office (H.M. Stationery Office, London, 1904) Vol. 1: Henry III., 1217-1272. Page 27: #114 William de Lancaster. "Peter de Brus(Bruce), of full age, and Walter son of William de Lyndeseya, age 16, are heirs." Archive.Org >

Lancaster, Andrew (2007), "The de Lancasters of Westmorland: Lesser-Known Branches, and the Origin of the de Lancasters of Howgill", Foundations: Journal of the Foundation of Medieval Genealogy (FMG) 2 (4) https://web.archive.org/web/20210212015805/http://users.skynet.be/l...

https://web.archive.org/web/20201029232525/https://fmg.ac/publicati...

Excerpt from Barony of Kendal (Wikipedia, 12/23/2016)

There is some doubt about who should be named as the first true Baron of Kendal. It is generally associated with the family of William de Lancaster I, and before him, with his apparent relatives, the Norman, Ivo de Taillebois, and William's uncle, the Anglo-Saxon Ketel (or Chetell) son of Eldred of Workington. William de Lancaster I was in any case the first administrator of the region after England recovered the area from King David I of Scotland.

The blazonry attributed to William de Lancaster I and several of his descendants who were Barons of Kendal. William is thought to be related to Ivo de Taillebois, who helped administer the Cumbrian region and formed Kendal into what would become the barony, under the first two Norman kings, William the Conqueror and William Rufus. Ketel fitz Eldred is known to have been lord over similar areas after the death of Ivo, and before the time when William took over. But between Ivo and William, a period which included Scottish occupation, the history of the Barony of Kendal is very unclear.

The arms of Westmorland. In modern times, the two red bars were incorporated into the arms of the traditional county of Westmorland, as a representation of the Kendal half of that county. The apple tree represents Appleby, or Northern Westmorland.[6]

Two historical records claim a direct line of father-son descent from Ivo to Eldred to Ketel to Gilbert, which was the name of the father of William de Lancaster (also known as "William son of Gilbert"). These were records made much later in Cockersand Abbey and St Mary's Abbey in Yorkshire. But modern commentators believe this to be impossible, and made by placing a sequence of lords into the simplest possible family tree.[7] Furthermore, records have been found which describe Ketel not as William's grandfather, but as his uncle (Latin avunculus, so probably a maternal uncle).[8]

More contemporary is a record in the Coucher Book of Furness Abbey. Helewise, granddaughter and heir of William is a party, and it was asserted there that William de Lancaster I had first been known as William de Tailboys, before receiving the right to be called "Willelmum de Lancastre, Baronem de Kendale".[9] This is the only relatively contemporary evidence that William had a Taillebois connection, probably through his father Gilbert, and it also suggests that during the 12th century, Kendal was associated somehow with the honour of Lancaster, because William was described as becoming Baron of one, and taking up the title from the other. William Farrer argued that such links go back before 1066. He argued that Kendal and the neighbouring parts of Lancashire, Furness to the west, and northern Lancashire to the south, formed a single administrative district in the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria.

Furness, Kendal, and North Lancashire, bounded on the north by the river Duddon, Dunmail Raise, Kirkstone Pass, and Borrow Beck, and on the south by the river Ribble, formed a complete fiscal area of five hundred teamlands for the levying of Danegeld.[10]

So during the lifetime of William de Lancastre, the link between Kendal and Lancashire was by this account an older link, which was only broken later as the honour of Lancaster came under more direct royal control, and Furness came under the control of the powerful Abbey of Furness. Documents show that disputes concerning control of Furness continued between the Barons of Kendal and the Abbey of Furness for several generations.

Despite common assertions to the contrary, Farrer and Curwen thought that William was probably not a true "Baron" of Kendal, in the sense of being a direct tenant of the monarch, because he appears to have had lords above him apart from the king. Farrer wrote in the Introduction to Records of Kendal:

After a careful review of the evidence which has been sketched above, the author is of opinion that no barony or reputed barony of Kentdale existed prior to the grants of 1189–90; and that neither William de Lancaster, son of Gilbert, nor William de Lancaster II, his son and successor, can be rightly described as "baron" of Kentdale.[5]

Instead, Farrer and Curwen believed that William I and II were actually tenants of the lord controlling northern Westmorland. Therefore, the eventual county of Westmorland was not originally a merger, but a takeover, which was then re-structured in the time of King Richard I of England. On 15 April 1190, Richard acquitted the then Baron of Kendal, Gilbert fitz Reinfrid, of his dues to northern Westmorland. It was only 13 years later, on 28 October 1203, that King John granted to Robert de Veteriponte in fee "Appleby and Brough with all their appendages with the bailiwick and the rent of the county with the services of all tenants (not holding of the king by military service) to hold by the service of four knights." The service to the crown for Kendal was by comparison the service of two knights.[11] There was a second William de Lancaster, son of the first, who was either the next baron, or according to Farrer the first definite Baron of Kendal. And after him came the above-mentioned Gilbert son of Roger fitz Reinfrid, the husband of Helewise, who was the daughter and heiress of William de Lancastre II. Gilbert was one of the barons whose seal is found on the Magna Carta, and he participated in the so-called First Baron's War.

The last true Baron of the whole of the Barony of Kendal was the son of Gilbert fitz Reinfrid, who used the name William de Lancastre III. After his death, the Barony was divided between the husbands of his daughters.

Sources

Farrer's Introduction to his Records of Kendal British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/kendale-barony/vol1/vii-xvii & Edenlinks website:

http://edenlinks.rootsweb.ancestry.com/1gp/RECORDS/FAR/INTRO.HTM .

References

1. Jump up ^ Vision of Britain - History of Kendal ward
2. Jump up ^ Records relating to the Barony of Kendale: volume 2
3. Jump up ^ Vision of Britain - History of Lonsdale ward
4. Jump up ^ Wainwright, "Grey Crag", The Far Eastern Fells
5. ^ Jump up to: a b Farrer; Curwen (1923), "Introduction", Records of Kendal, 1. Also at [1].
6. Jump up ^ 'Appendices: Kendal Castle and the Westmorland coat of arms', in Records Relating To the Barony of Kendale: Volume 3, ed. John F Curwen (Kendal, 1926), pp. 308-312. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/kendale-barony/vol3/pp308-312 [accessed 18 March 2016].
7. Jump up ^ For William Farrer's remarks on this see Farrer, William (1902), Lancashire Pipe Rolls and Early Lancashire Charters, p. 305 and p.vii (Addenda and Corrigenda) concerning p. 389 I.18, and Farrer (1909), The Chartulary of Cockersand Abbey of the Premonstratensian Order, Volume I, Part II, pp. 305–8
8. Jump up ^ F. W. Ragg (1910), "De Lancaster", Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society: 395–493)
9. Jump up ^ Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, 1887, pp. 344–345
10. Jump up ^ Farrer, "The Domesday Survey of North Lancashire and the Adjacent Parts of Cumberland, Westmorland, and Yorkshire", Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society: 88
11. Jump up ^ "North Westmorland: The barony of Appleby", The Later Records relating to North Westmorland: or the Barony of Appleby, 1932, pp. 1–2
12. Jump up ^ Nicholson; Burn, The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, Volume 1, retrieved 9 July 2013
13. Jump up ^ Nicolson; Burn, The History and Antiquities of the Counties of Westmorland and Cumberland, Volume 1, retrieved 9 July 2013

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From the Celtic Casimir online family tree:

William DE LANCASTER Lord of Kendal 593,2937,8333,8335

Born: Abt 1189, Kendal, Westmorland, England

Married:

Died: 1246

Marriage Information:

William married Agnes DE BRUS, daughter of Peter I DE BRUS Baron of Skelton and Joan LE GRAMMARIE 593. (Agnes DE BRUS was born about 1192 in Skelton Castle, Yorkshire, England.)

From Darryl Lundy's Peerage page on William de Lancaster:

William de Lancaster, Lord of Kendal1

M, #137762, d. 29 November 1246

Last Edited=21 May 2007

William de Lancaster, Lord of Kendal was the son of Sir Gilbert FitzRoger FitzReinfrid, Lord of Kendal.1 He died on 29 November 1246.1

William de Lancaster, Lord of Kendal gained the title of Lord of Kendal [feudal barony].1

Child of William de Lancaster, Lord of Kendal

1.Alice de Lancaster+2

Citations

1.[S2] Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 84. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage, Volume XIV.

2.[S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 950. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.

1.[S2] Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 84. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage, Volume XIV.