Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 9: Mortimer of Chirk

MORTIMER of Chirk

Volume 9, page 254:
He [Roger de Mortimer (d. 1326)] m. Lucy LA WAFRE.

Presumably they were married by 8 June 1286, when Roger de Mortimer presented to Tedstone Wafer [Canterbury and York Society, vol. 6, p. 526 (1909); cf. J. Duncumb, Collections towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford, vol. 2, part 1, p. 263, which gives the date as 1285]. According to the History of the Foundation and Founders of Wigmore Priory, Lucy was the daughter of Robert de Wafre [Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol.6, part 1, p. 351 (Caley's edn, 1817-30)].

[The statement from Dugdale's Monasticon was quoted by Charles Evans, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 116, p. 14 (1962).
Item last updated 26 August 2004.]

Volume 9, page 254:
ROGER DE MORTIMER, s. and h., and, according to modern doctrine, LORD MORTIMER. He was not sum. to Parl. He m. Juliane. He d. before Oct. 1333.

Juliane survived Roger, and presented to Hampton Wafer, 18 August 1349 and (as lady of Hampton) 5 April 1350 [Canterbury and York Society, vol. 8, pp. 379, 382 (1912)]. The History of the Foundation and Founders of Wigmore Priory calls her "Johanna de Tubervyle" [Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol.6, part 1, p. 351 (Caley's edn, 1817-30)].

[This evidence was cited by Charles Evans, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 116, p. 14 (1962).
Item last updated 26 August 2004.]

Volume 9, page 256 (as modified by volume 14):
... The younger John Mortimer presented to the living of Tedstone Wafer on 20 Apr. 1347 and again in 1367, and "John le Mortimer" of Tedstone Wafer is mentioned as a subtenant of Humphrey de Bohun, 10th Earl of Hereford in 1361.(a) In his will Humphrey bequeathed £100 for the purchase of land to be settled on John Mortimer and the heirs of his body.(b) This John died before 4 Jan. 1395/6, when his son Roger presented to the living of Tedstone Wafer. Roger was married to Maud Herle, and died 13 Dec. 1402, when his son John was 14 (b. 13 Dec. 1388).(c) The Mortimers of Chirk probably died out in the male line in 1513, when the last recorded John Mortimer died.(d)
Note a:
Register of John de Trilleck, Cant. and York Soc., vol. 8, 1912, p. 374; John Duncumb, Herefordshire, vol. 2, part 1, 1812, pp. 262-4; Cal. Inq. p.m., vol. xiii, no. 167, p. 140. I am grateful to Dr Neil Thompson for giving me these and subsequent references to the later Mortimers.
Note b:
Test. Vet., p. 68.
Note c:
Register of John Trefnant, Cant and York Soc., vol. 20, 1914, p. 180; Cal. Inq. p.m., vol. xvii, no. 1059; vol. xviii, no. 1094.
Note d:
Note d: V.C.H. Worcester, vol. 4, p. 282.

The account above should be corrected as follows:

• It is unclear whether the John Mortimer who presented to Tedstone Wafer in 1347 was the elder or the younger of the name.
   
• There is no record in the published edition of the bishop's register [Canterbury and York Society, vol. 14 (1914)] of a presentation to Tedstone Wafer by John Mortimer in 1367. The 1367 presentation given by Duncumb is presumably an error for the 1347 presentation, which he omits.
   
• A John Mortimer is recorded as holding a quarter of a knight's fee in Tedstone Wafer in an extent of lands taken 25 January 1372/3 after the death of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex [Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 13, no 167 (p. 140)].
   
• A Roger Mortimer presented to Hampton Wafer as early as 21 April 1378 [Canterbury and York Society, vol. 18, p. 115 (1915)]. He was clearly the successor of the Mortimers of Chirk, but there is no evidence as to the exact relationship.
   
• Roger Mortimer of Edvin and his sons Richard and Roger were accused in July 1397 of a particularly unpleasant assault against John Asteley at Kyre Wyard, Worcestershire, (in testiculos suos acos posuerunt) and of carrying away many boxes of charters and muniments, on 23 June 1396 [B. H. Putnam, ed., Proceedings before the Justices of the Peace in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, p. 408 (1938)]. This would appear to be the same Roger Mortimer who died in 1402 - his Herefordshire inquisition post mortem included a carucate of land at Edvin Loach [Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 18, no 1094 (p. 373)] and Kyre Wyard was part of his wife's inheritance [Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 18, no 771 (p. 255)] - but, if so, the presence of adult sons Richard and Roger in 1397 obviously presents a problem, as his son and heir John was not born until late 1390 (see below). The explanation may be that Richard and Roger were illegitimate sons of Roger - certainly he left an illegitimate adult son named John at his death [Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 18, no 1094 (p. 373)].
   
• At the inquisition held after the death of Roger Mortimer, 31 July 1405, his son John was said to have been aged 14 years on the previous 13 December, implying that he was born 13 December 1390 (other inquisitions held in 1398 and 1402/3 imply he was a year younger than this) [Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, vol. 17, no 1059; vol. 18, nos 771, 1094].
   
• The last Sir John Mortimer died between 2 March 1503/4 [Calendar of Close Rolls 1500-1509, p.132] and 12 November 1504 [Calendar of Patent Rolls 1494-1509, p.386].
   

[Some of this evidence was cited by Charles Evans, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 116, pp. 13-17 (1962). This family was discussed in October and November 2003 by Jim Weber and Brice Clagett.
Item last updated 13 July 2004.]