Kendal Barony
Comprising the whole of the Kendal and Lonsdale Wards, and several places in the other divisions of the county, was given by William the Conqueror to Ivo de Talebois, together with that part of Lancashire adjoining to Westmorland. This Ivo, the first Baron of Kendal, gave the church of Kirkby-Stephen, with all the churches in his great barony, to the abbey of St. Mary’s in York. The manors of Barton, Patterdale, Hackthorp, Melkenthorp, and Morland, in the West Ward, appear to have belonged to his family. To his grandson Ketel, son of Eldred, William de Meschiens gave several places in Cumberland. William de Talebois, the fifth Baron of Kendal, by license of Henry II took the surname "DE LANCASTRE." From his uncle Orme are descended the Curwens of Workington. Wm. De Lancaster married Gundred, Countess of Warwick, and left issue Wm. De Lancaster the second, who only issue and heiress, Helwise, carried her family possessions in marriage to Gilbert Fitz-Reinfred, to whom Richard I in 1189, granted the forests of Westmorland, Kendal, and Furness, to hold to him and his heirs, "as fully and freely as Wm. De Lancastre and Nigel de Albiny had held the same;" together with the following privileges in the two former, vix. Freedom from "noutegeld, suit to the shire court, hundred, or trithing courts, and aid to the sheriff or his bailiffs." He had also another grant from the same king, of lands in "Levenes, Farleton, Detene, Preston, Holme, Berton, Hencastre, and Loppeton, with the fishery belonging to the said lands, and all other liberties and privileges." His son, William, assumed his mother’s name De Lancastre, and was justice itenerant for Cumberland, in the 10th of Henry III. The male line failing again in this Wm. De Lancaster the third, the barony was divided between Helwise and Alice, daughters of the aforesaid Gilbert and Helwise Fitz-Reinford. Alice married William de Lindesay, and her share of the barony was afterwards called the RICHMOND FEE. Helwise married Peter de Brus, and her portion was subsequently divided into two seigniories, designated the MARQUIS FEE and LUMLEY FEE. Christian de Lyndsay, sole issue and heiress of Wm. De Lyndsay, married Ingelram de Guisnes, lord of Coucy in France, who, as well as his son, being an alien, the Richmond Fee, escheated to the crown, but was afterwards granted to his grandson William, who died without issue, and the estate again went to the crown, and was granted by Edward III to John de Coupland, of Northumberland, to be held during his life, and then to go to the kind’s son-in-law, Ingelram, lord of Coucy, in France, and nephewof the before-named William de Guisnes, but he died without male issues, and the estate again reverted to the crown, and was granted by Henry IV to his third son John, Duke of Bedford, to be held by the service of one knight’s fee. Henry VI granted it to "John de Beaufort, Duke of Somerset and of Kendal," from whose daughter and heiress, Margaret, Countess of Richmond, this division of the barony obtained the name of Richmond Fee, and passed to her son, King Henry VII, whose successor, Henry VIII granted it to his natural son, Henry, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, who died without issues, and the Richmond Fee reverted the eighth time to the crown. The MARQUIS FEE continued in the family of De Brus only till the 7th of Edward I when it passed in marriage with Margaret, one of the four sisters of Peter de Brus, to Robert de Ross, or Roos, who descendants possessed it till the reign of Richard II when their sole heiress married William del Parre, one of whose descendants, Wm. Parr, Esq. was created by Henry VIII Lord Parr and Ross of Kendal, and Baron of Hart, in Northamptonshire; and finally, in the 1st of Edward VI was raised to the dignity of Marquis of Northampton, from which circumstance this division of the barony obtained the name of Marquis Fee, which it still retains. His eldest sister, Katherine Parr, daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, was the last queen of Henry VIII. The Marquis died in the 13th of Elizabeth, without issue, and the "Marquis Fee" passed by marriage to William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, ancestor of the present Earl of Pembroke, who has still amongst his titles that of Baron Ross and Parr of Kendal. The castle of Kendal, with its demesne and parks, afterwards passed to various families, and the rest of the Richmond and Marquis Fees was granted by James I to his son Charles Prince of Wales.Amongst King James’s schemes for raising money, was that of taking all the crown lands in Cumberland and Westmorland into his own hands, under the pretence, "that, as the border service had then ceased by the union of the two kingdoms in his royal person, the estates were determined likewise, which the tenants held by that service." And to keep his despotic avarice in countenance, "he encouraged all the other lords of manors, within the said counties, to take to themselves the absolute estate of the several tenants, and refuse to admit the heirs to their ancestor’s estates." But though the service was gone, the Border spirit still remained, and a long struggle ensued between the lords and tenants, the latter entering into a resolute combination to defend each other, "even by force, if no other course should be effectual," pursuant to the articles which they had sworn to at their meeting held at Staveley, by order of James Smith, high constable, "under colour of viewing a bridge." For this, and other "unlawful assemblies," several of the leaders were arraigned before the "Star Chamber," which, for once, administered an act of justice, be acquitting the accused, and confirming tot he tenants their estates, as being held, not by border service only, but by the "general military tenure by which all other tenants in capile were obliged;" and there are numerous instances "when, at the same time, that they were subject to be called to the border service, they were required to attend their lord in a military capacity in other parts of the kingdom, and not seldom in France." Soon afterwards the tenants of many of the manors made compositions with their lords, for reducing the tenements to a fine certain; and others purchased their tenements to freehold. Charles II granted the Richmond and Marquis Fees, which comprise three-fourths of the barony, in jointure to his Queen Katharine, and from her they received the name of Queen’s Land. When a RENTAL was made of these fees, in the 28th of Charles II, the jury "set down the free, and other dry rents of the Marquis fee, at £20 17s. 4 ½ d., and of the Richmond Fee at £36 10s. 8 ¾ d. The other yearly rents they stated as follows:IN THE MARQUIS FEE.
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£. |
s. |
d. |
£. |
s. |
d. |
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|
Burgage Rents in Kendal… |
9 |
17 |
11 |
Skalthwaite Rigg………… |
12 |
5 |
3/4 |
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|
|
|
|
|
Hay……………………… |
13 |
3 |
3 |
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Customary and other Dry Rents. |
|
|
|
Hutton-in-the-Hay………. |
8 |
18 |
2 ½ |
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|
Kendal and its vicinity……. |
4 |
0 |
0 |
Stickland Roger…………. |
13 |
14 |
11 |
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|
Grasmere………………….. |
11 |
6 |
2 |
Greenhead……………….. |
10 |
16 |
10 |
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|
Langdale…………………… |
5 |
4 |
11 |
Hugill……………………. |
3 |
19 |
9 |
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|
Underbarrow………………. |
20 |
8 |
1 |
Crosthwaite……………… |
0 |
15 |
0 |
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|
Stavely and Hugill…………. |
9 |
3 |
7 ½ |
|
|
|
|
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|
Nether-Graveship………….. |
10 |
16 |
8 |
Total: |
£134 |
10 |
4 ¾ |
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IN THE RICHMOND FEE.
Customary and other Dry Rents.
|
£. |
s. |
d. |
£. |
s. |
d. |
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|
Grasmere………………...… |
11 |
11 |
3 |
Crosthwaite and Lyth……. |
19 |
3 |
7 |
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|
Langdale…………………… |
7 |
12 |
5 ¼ |
New Hutton……………… |
10 |
9 |
9 ½ |
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Loughrigg………………… |
2 |
16 |
1 |
Casterton………………… |
12 |
9 |
4 |
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|
Ambleside…………………. |
26 |
17 |
0 |
Strickland, Ketel, & Helsington………………. |
3 |
10 |
10 |
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|
Undermilbeck……………… |
13 |
8 |
0 |
Thornton, Westhouse, & Maysing-Hill……………. |
12 |
14 |
10 |
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Troutbeck………………….. |
27 |
0 |
10 |
|
|
|
|
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Applethwaite………………. |
24 |
10 |
10 ½ |
|
|
|
|
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Fishing & ferry of Windermere……………….. |
6 |
0 |
0 |
Total…… |
£178 |
4 |
10 ¼ |
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After the decease of Queen Katharine, these fees were granted to the Lowther family, who obtained a renewal of the lease from his late Majesty George III, so that the Earl of Lonsdale is the present lord. The LUMLEY FEE, containing nearly all the remaining third part of the ancient barony of Kendal, was the portion of Lucky, third sister and co-heiress of the before-named Peter de Brus. She married Marmaduke de Thweng, Lord of Kilton Castle and Thweng, by whom she had a son of the same name, whose son William was succeeded by his brother Robert, and he by his brother Thomas, who also died without issue. Lucy, the eldest of his three sisters, was married to Marmaduke de Lumley, and from hence came the denomination of the Lumley Fee, she having for her portion the manors of Helsington, Crosthwaite, and Lyth, and one-fourth part of the town of Kendal, with the turbary of Sampool. In the 6th of Henry VIII John Fleming, of Rydal, the king’s escheator, paid into the exchequer £115 17s. 7d., as the issues of the manors of Kirkby, in Kendal, belonging to the Lumleys; and £1,224 9s. 10 ¾d. as the issues of the Richmond Fee belonging to the king. John, Lord Lumley, in the 23rd of Henry VIII, exchanged his part of the barony with the king for certain lands in the South, and his majesty afterwards granted it and the Richmond fee to the Duke of Richmond and Somerset aforesaid, after whose death they were granted by the same monarch to Alan Bellingham, whose grandson sold the Lumley fee to Colonel James Grahme, whose daughter and heiress, Katharine, married Henry Bowes Howard, Earl of Berkshire, but it is now possessed by the Hon. Fulk Greville Howard, of Levens Hall. In the 20th of Elizabeth it was found that Alan Bellingham, Esq. died seised "of the manor of Over Staveley, and divers messuages, etc., in Over Staveley, Nether Staveley, Hugill, Sadgill, Respton, (with the moiety of Respton mill), Firbank, Grasmere, Langden, Potter-Fell, Vowflatt, Ulthwaite, Rotherhead, Sabergh, Crook-Fell, West-Wood, and Roger Holme, (an island in Windermere), with a fishery in the waters of Windermere, Skelswater, and Grasmere." Ladarina, the youngest daughter of the last Peter de Brus, was espoused by John de Bella-aqua, of Yorkshire, and had the remaining part of the barony of KENTMERE, assigned as her portion, but this manor was in the reign of Charles I sold by the Stapletons to the Fishers of Stanebank Green, of whom it was purchased in 1745, by the Wilsons of Kendal, one of whom (Thomas) took the surname of Fenwick, pursuant to the will of Robert Fenwick, of Burrow-Hall, in Lancashire. The various branches of the families in this brief sketch of the superior lords of the great barony of Kendal, are noticed in the histories of the parishes in which they were or are still seated.