Ian Mortimer The Medieval Mortimer Family An outline lineage This document lays out the basic genealogies of the various medieval families that bore the Anglo- Norman name ‘de Mortemer’ or its Latin equivalent, ‘de Mortuo Mari’ and the later anglicised variations, such as ‘Mortimer’ and ‘Mortymer’. The prime purpose is to distinguish between the major landowners who appear in the pre-1500 records. It is not an attempt to identify all the significant individuals called ‘Mortimer’; still less is it an attempt to show speculatively how they all might be related. Although it is tempting to say that the medieval Mortimer families all descend from Roger fitz Ralph, lord of Mortemer-sur-Eaulne, who was known after 1054 as Roger de Mortemer, the evidence is not strong enough to prove the matter one way or another. Thus they are each dealt with separately. The arrangement is as follows. The oldest family is dealt with first, in part one, this being the Mortimers of Wigmore. Their genealogy is followed by that of each cadet family, arranged in order of the date at which it branched off from the main line. Next, in part two, the Mortimers of Attleborough appear, with their cadet families, again in order. The Mortimers of Wilsthorpe and their probable branches are dealt with in part three. Some notes on the Mortimers of Coedmore form part four, and on the obscure Mortimer families of Cliffe, Kent, and Cuckfield, Sussex, parts five and six. Finally, there is an appendix dealing with the origin of the family in Scotland. 1a. The Mortimers of Wigmore, Herefordshire 1b. The Mortimers of Chelmarsh, Shropshire, and Luton, Bedfordshire 1c. The Mortimers of Chirk, Denbighshire, and Tedstone Wafer, Herefordshire 1d. The Mortimers of Great Bromley, Essex 1e. The Mortimers of Couhé, Poitou 2a. The Mortimers of Attleborough, Norfolk, and Kingston, Cambridgeshire 2b. The Mortimers of Richard’s Castle, Herefordshire 2c. The Mortimers of Bec, Normandy 2d. The Mortimers of Preston, Suffolk 3a. The Mortimers of Wilsthorpe, Lincolnshire, and Helpston, Northamptonshire 3b. The Mortimers of Ingoldsby and Dunsby, Lincolnshire 3c. The Mortimers of Tholthorpe, Yorkshire, and Eakley, Buckinghamshire 3d. The Mortimers of Grendon, Northamptonshire 4. The Mortimers of Coedmore, Cardiganshire 5. The Mortimers of Cliffe, Kent 6. The Mortimers of Cuckfield, Sussex Appendix: The Origins of the Scottish Mortimers OUTLINE LINEAGE OF THE MEDIEVAL MORTIMER FAMILY The distinction between the various families has largely been predicated by heraldry. Basically, if a cadet branch used different arms from the main line, it has been regarded as a separate family, even if its ancestry is well evidenced. A single generation using arms that are merely differenced has not been treated as a cadet branch. In considering the heraldic evidence, however, readers should remember that the Mortimer family is much older than the practice of heraldry, and that heraldic rules and symbols of difference did not emerge overnight. The earliest known instances of distinctive arms in England date from the middle of the twelfth century but they were not initially universal. Nor were they necessarily hereditary. Before about 1190, two brothers might have borne completely different shields. In the later thirteenth century, certain families chose to change their arms completely (the Mortimers of Richard’s Castle and those of Grendon are examples). The fact that the Mortimers of Richard’s Castle and Bec previously used near-identical arms shows the design of barry of six, or and vert, with a semy of fleurs-de-lys counterchanged was in use before the fall of Normandy in 1204 and probably during the lifetime of their father, Robert Mortimer of Essex (fl. 1168-80). But the lord of Richard’s Castle still opted for a completely new design about 1275 – for reasons that remain unknown. It is useful also to be aware that most of the Mortimer families followed a common naming pattern: they named the eldest legitimate son after his paternal grandfather. The Mortimers of Wigmore followed this from the eleventh century all the way down to the extinction of the male line of the family in 1425 with only one possible aberration (which may be due to an incorrect assessment of the genealogy). The Mortimers of Attleborough also followed the pattern down to the time of Constantine Mortimer of Attleborough, who was born around 1279; the Mortimers of Richard’s Castle named their eldest son in this manner all the way down to the extinction of the male line in 1304. Other families also show signs of applying the same pattern – especially Bec, Chelmarsh and Wilsthorpe – albeit with one or two exceptions. Much of the basic information in the genealogical tables that follow has been drawn from The Complete Peerage (CP) and The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB). In these cases footnotes have rarely been given. Supplementary matter has been added from the Fundatorum Historia, the Mortimer family chronicle, which was originally composed at Wigmore Abbey in 1262, and extended in the 1390s. It survives in a unique fifteenth-century copy in Chicago University Library. The basic text was printed by William Dugdale in his Monasticon. Other sources necessary to understand the chronology proposed are mentioned in the notes but citations have been restricted to problematic details or hitherto unrecorded original manuscript locations. Finally, I am grateful to Prof. David Bates, Prof. Daniel Power, Dr Paul Dryburgh, Dr David Crook, Hugh Wood and Chris Philips for their help and advice in identifying and correcting some of the slips in this and earlier drafts of this document and the research on which I have based it. Ian Mortimer, BA MA PhD DLitt FSA FRHistS Version 6.1, 17 May 2019 2 OUTLINE LINEAGE OF THE MEDIEVAL MORTIMER FAMILY Part 1a The Mortimers of Wigmore, Herefordshire Arms of the Mortimer family of Wigmore from the tomb of Blanche Mortimer (d. 1347) Most people who have looked at the origins of the Mortimer family know three things about the founder, Roger de Mortemer. The first is that he was a kinsman of William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy. That is true: his maternal grandmother was a niece of Gunnor, wife of Duke Richard I of Normandy.1 The second is that he won the Battle of Mortemer-en-Bray on behalf of Duke William in 1054 – and ended up being punished for it. That also is true. Despite leading the Normans to victory and capturing Duke William’s enemy, Ralph de Montdidier, Roger released the man after the battle and thus incurred his overlord’s wrath. Duke William seized all of Roger’s estates. They were eventually restored, with the exception of Mortemer itself, which was bestowed on Roger’s nephew, William de Warenne. The third famous ‘fact’ concerning him is that he fought at the Battle of Hastings. That is more problematic, as we shall see. But the one thing people don’t know – and undoubtedly the most interesting thing about him – is the reason for his name. Why did he come to be called ‘de Mortemer’? Generally it is assumed that Roger took the name on account of his principal seat being Mortemer- sur-Eaulne. This would be the usual thing to do: in the eleventh century, hereditary names normally referred to the caput or chief manor of a noble family. However, historians have overlooked a small but important point. When Roger was lord of Mortemer-sur-Eaulne, he did not call himself ‘de Mortemer’: prior to the battle he was known as Roger fitz Ralph de Warenne.2 He only started to use the name ‘de Mortemer’ after the battle, when he was no longer lord of that place and his caput was at St-Victor-en-Caux, twenty-five miles to the west. Had ‘de Mortemer’ been a mere toponymic, one would have expected him to have been known as ‘Roger de Saint-Victor’. Had he instead preferred a hereditary name, he had one already lined up – in his father and elder brother 1 See K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, ‘Aspects of Robert of Torigny’s Genealogies Revisited’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, xxxvii (1993), pp. 21-7 for the origins of the family. 2 Keats-Rohan, ‘Aspects’, p. 10 (note 10). 3 OUTLINE LINEAGE OF THE MEDIEVAL MORTIMER FAMILY using the surname ‘de Warenne’. But he didn’t. He stuck to ‘de Mortemer’, which perpetuates the memory of a significant territorial loss. This is extraordinary in a feudal society. There is only one other parallel, that of Geoffrey de Neufmarché. This is interesting as Geoffrey’s son Bernard de Neufmarché and Roger de Mortemer’s son Ralph both fought together in the Norman push into Wales. Both families retained the title of a Norman castle that they had lost. It has been argued that the reason why they retained these names was because to have been lord of a frontier castle was a badge of honour.3 However, Mortemer was not exactly on the frontier of Normandy. It seems likely that he did indeed adopt the name as a ‘badge of honour’ – but because he had famously defended the duchy against the French there. In other words, the family is named after a battle, not a lordship. Roger de Mortemer (fl. 1054-78), seigneur of Mortemer-sur-Eaulne (until 1054) and St- Victor-en-Caux, in the Neufchâtel region of Normandy. He was the son of Ralph I de Warenne (fl. 1035-50) and Beatrice de Vascoeuil, whose mother was a niece of Gunnor, the wife of Duke Richard I of Normandy (933-996).4 Thus he was a third cousin of William the Conqueror. He first appears in the documentary record as Roger, son of Ralph de Warenne, in a charter dating from 1040x53.5 He successfully led a contingent of troops at the Battle of Mortemer in 1054, defending his town against the incursions of the French under the command of Ralph de Montdidier, later count of Valois (d.