Occasional Papers, No. 31 BURKE’S LANDED GENTRY, 1972 An extract by Warren Skidmore In 1971 John Lucas-Scudamore of Kentchurch Court in Herefordshire asked me if I would revise the old 1952 account of his family in Burke’s Genealogic and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry for the new 18th edition which was then in preparation. I did, sending off a typed manuscript of 18 pages for the approval of the editor Hugh Montgomery-Massingberrd, who happily accepted my account of the family without a single exception. It went into print soon after in 1972, together with Commander Lucas-Scudamore’s addition on his Lucas family’s ancestry.1 There were two major changes in policy adopted for the 18th edition. A gentleman could now be included and known as “formerly OF” an earlier estate that had gone out of the family, and (far more importantly) it was now possible to include cadet branches with their older and more important cousins. I took advantage of this provision to include accounts of the other families at Upton Scudamore, Rowleston, Holme Lacy, Ballingham, and a good many more but less important places including Burnham. Later I broke down these segments, enlarged them, added others, and published this in a very small manuscript edition revised as Thirty Generations of the Scudamore/Skidmore Family in England and America.2 It simplified my life to retain Burke’s style of not numbering generations, but instead to move forward with a variety “of whom’s.” For the reader a major confusion was the listing all of a gentleman’s sons before his daughters, a Burke’s proviso carved in granite, which I did not presume to change. I am greatly indebted to Harry Manley, a grandson of Commander Lucas Scudamore, who has digitized the tiny typeface of the original edition into a new and eminently readable 12 point text. This has also given me the opportunity to footnote some errors that have since been found in the original piece (done some 37 years ago!) and to mention a few more important papers of probable interest. I still like to think that this old Burke’s piece remains the best brief history of the principal Scudamore/Skydmore families in England. (WS, April 2008) 1Landed Gentry (18th edition, London 1972) III, 811-6. 2The hardbound edition has long been out of print, but a revised second edition is now available on the Scudamore/Skidmore CD-ROM issued in 2006 (along with several other full-length books and innumerable articles). For a description see the Scudamore/Skidmore website. −1− 3 LUCAS-SCUDAMORE OF KENTCHURCH LT.-CMDR. JOHN HARFORD STANHOPE LUCAS-SCUDAMORE, of Kentchurch Court, Herefordshire, and formerly of Castle Shane, co. Monaghan (destroyed by fire 1920, the estate later sold), D.L. (1958) Herefordshire, served in H.M.S. Revenge as Midshipman R.N., and in World War II as Lt.-Cmdr. R.N.V.R., b. 16 Jan. 1902, educ. R.N. Colls. Osborne and Dartmouth, and Ch. Ch. Oxford m. lstly, 25 June, 1926 (m. diss. by div. 1939), Elsie Maude (d. 29 July, 1969), dau. of late Lieut. W. P. Scott, R.N., of Burnham, Surrey. He m. 2ndly, 2 Sept. 1939 (m. diss. by div. 1946), Constance Primrose, dau. of William Carpenter, of Bath, Somerset. He m. 3rdly, 24 Oct. 1947, •Lady (Evelyn) Patricia Mary, formerly wife of Lt.-Cmdr. Ian McDonald, R.A.N., and only child of 12th Earl of Chesterfield (see BURKE’S Peerage, 1967 Edn., STANHOPE, E.), and by her has issue, • JOHN EDWARD STANHOPE, b. 30 Nov. 1953, educ. Milton Abbey. • Charlotte Mary Frances, b. 5 July, 1949, m. 2 Oct. 1971, •Carlo Barbieri, only son of C. A. Barbieri, of Florence, Italy. Lineage (of SCUDAMORE)—This family owed its early prominence in both Wilts and Herefordshire to Alfred of Marlborough, a tenant-in-chief of William the Conqueror at the time of the Domesday Book. RALPH, living 1086, held “Opetone” (now Upton Scudamore) and “Fifhide” (later Fifield Scudamore, now Fifield Bavant), Wilts from Alfred of Marlborough. He is probably the same Ralph mentioned in Herefordshire under the Castle of Ewyas Harold (the caput of Alfred’s barony) as holding a nameless parcel of land in the environs of the castle (probably “Kaueros,” now Corras in Kentchurch, which was certainly held by 1120 by the Scudamores of the Honour of Ewyas). He is probably also the same Ralph who held “Poscetune” (now Poston, Herefordshire) and Little Hatfield from William of Scohies (both of which were held later by the Scudamore family of the Honour of Castle Maud). On 15 July, 1100, at the dedication of the new church at St. Peter’s, Gloucester, the Bishop of Hereford confirmed to the abbey at one time the tithes of Poston and the chapel of St. Keyne at Kentchurch (stemming as has been seen from two different honours) from which it is inferred that the benefactor was either Ralph or his Scudamore successor. Ralph, living 1086, and perhaps 1100, appears to have had three sons by an unnamed lady (who also had another son Reynold by a different husband), 1. REGINALD, of whom presently. 2. WALTER, ancestor of the Herefordshire family, of whom presently. 3. Hugh. The eldest son, REGINALD ESCUDEMOR, s. at Upton Scudamore,4 but gave a part of his father’s lands 3Burke’s genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry (Burke’s Peerage Limited, 18th edition, 1972,), III, 811-5. 4Most of the abbreviations in Burke’s are self-explanatory, but the uncommon italic “s.” is to be −2− to his brother Walter, d. ante 1148, leaving issue (perhaps by a dau. of the Mauduits of Dinton, Wilts), 1. GODFREY, of whom presently. 2. Matthew, perhaps the man of this name living 1175 in Wilts when he and Godfrey were witnesses to a charter of Walter of Chelk. The elder son, GODFREY ESCUDAMOR, adult by ca. 1120 when he, his father and his uncles (identified as brothers) were witnesses to a grant by Harold of Ewyas (d. ca. 1122), had by an undated charter ca. 1148 a confirmation from Robert of Ewyas of the whole vill’ of Upton Escudamore for which he was to do service at the Castle of Ewyas Harold and find a white warhorse each year. He had issue, 1. PETER, of whom presently. 2. (probably) James, a Clerk of the Chamber to KING JOHN, frequently employed by the King in his negotiations with the Papal Legate, living 1220. 1. Erneburga, m. Fulk of Auno, and was bur. ante 1217, at the Priory of Bath. The elder son, PETER SCUDAMORE, had s. at Upton Scudamore by 23 Feb. 1196 and was named Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset at Easter 1197, apptd. to a number of commns. by King JOHN (from whom he had the gift of a tun of wine 1 Oct. 1207), but was later party to the general quarrel with the King and forfeited all his lands 1216, these were restored to him 15 March, 1217, after John’s death, living ten days later, but d. soon after, leaving issue, SIR GODFREY SCUDAMORE, Kt, s. at Upton Scudamore by 18 Oct. 1222, when his lands were restored to him after his trespass in the royal forest, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset 1249, and Wilts 1258, m. Maud, dau. of Elias Giffard, and d. ante Oct. 1266, leaving issue, 1. PETER (Sir), of whom presently. 2. ELIAS, of whom presently. The elder son, SIR PETER SCUDAMORE, Kt., of Upton Scudamore, m. Mabel (who surv. him), a kinswoman of Henry of Woolavington, and was k. during a quarrel with Richard of Bath ante 8 May, 1293 (having in 1289 (or soon after) granted Upton Scudamore to his nephew Walter, leaving issue, a sole heiress, Alice, m. Sir Adam Bavant, Kt., and took to the Bavant family all the Scudamore fees in Wilts (except Upton Scudamore) as well as the overlordship of “Molteston” (in Kentchurch) and Poston in Herefordshire.5 His brother, ELIAS SCUDAMORE, had certain lands from his father at Tytherton Lucas (which Sir Godfrey held in 1242 from Elias Giffard) and at Hardenhuish (acquired by Godfrey and Maud in 1249 by exchange), d. ante 1291, leaving issue, read as “succeeded,” meaning that the parentage is unproven but the subject followed a predecessor who is presumed to have been a father but may in fact have been an uncle or elder brother. 5Molteston (or Mulstone) was not in Kentchurch as I once thought. It remains a lost place-name however, but was undoubtedly an extended part of Ewyas Harold. See Bruce Coplestone-Crow, Herefordshire Place-Names (BAR British Series 214, 1989) 109. −3− SIR WALTER SCUDAMORE, Kt., had Upton Scudamore by the gift of his uncle and Tytherton Lucas and Hardenhuish by inheritance from his father (Upton Scudamore was immediately a matter of dispute between Sir Walter and his cousin Alice Bavant, litigation not ending until 1358, when John Bavant finally renounced his claim), served in the wars in Wales and Scotland and was ktd. (with the Prince of Wales) 22 May, 1306, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset 1308 and 1311, and d. ante 11 Sept. 1318, leaving issue, 1. PETER (Sir), the heir, of whom presently. 2. John (Sir), a clerk, who served in Scotland and was Rector at Upton Scudamore 1311, living 1339 on his father’s manor at South Welles, Hants, his lands there reverting to his nephew Walter on his death. 3. Walter, pardoned 20 Aug. 1321, and living 23 Oct. 1334 at Upton Scudamore. 1. Alianor, m. as his 1st wife, Sir Harry Percy, of Great Chaffield, Wilts, and d.