Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 12, Part 1: Somery

SOMERY

See also "proposed" section

Volume 12, Part 1, pages 111, 112:
WILLIAM PERCEVAL DE SOMERY ... was dead before 20 June 1222, when the Earl of Chester and Lincoln was granted the custody of his land and heir, with the heir's marriage. His wife is unknown.

NICHOLAS DE SOMERY, s. and h. He d. a minor before 4 July 1229.

William's wife, and the mother of his heir, appears to have been Rohese, the daughter and heir of Nicholas de Verdun of Alton, Staffordshire, by his wife Clemence. Rohese subsequently married, after 4 September 1225, Theobald Butler (d.1230) [Complete Peerage, vol.2, p.448].

In a charter for the priory of Grace Dieu, at Belton, Leicestershire, which she had founded, Rohese made provision for the souls of her husbands, although no husbands except Theobald have hitherto been identified [Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol.6, p.567 (Caley's edn, 1817-30); the charter was confirmed by the king, 10 December 1241 (Cal. Charter Rolls, vol.1, p.265)].

It seems clear that Rohese had previously married William Perceval de Somery, from the terms of two orders concerning the custody of William's heir. On 20 June 1222 the king notified Nicholas de Verdun that he had granted custody of the land and heir of William de Sumeri, with the marriage of the heir, to the earl of Chester, and ordered Nicholas to deliver the daughter [apparently an error for "son", either in the original, or the published transcript] and heir to the earl without delay [Rot. Lit. Claus., vol.1, p.500, col.b]. On 27 January 1222/3 the king ordered Nicholas de Verdun and Rohese, his daughter, to deliver without delay the son and heir of William Perceval of Sumery to the earl of Chester [Rot. Lit. Claus., vol.1, p.531]. Rohese's inclusion in this order is explicable only if she is William's widow, and the mother of his heir, who seems to have been named after her father Nicholas.

Volume 12, Part 1, page 115:
He [John de Somery (d.1322)] m. Lucy, who surv. him.

Lucy was the daughter of Sir Henry de Grey, of Codnor, Derbyshire (d.1308). The evidence for the identification is given in Complete Peerage, vol.6, p.124, note e.

As to the date of the marriage, an entry dated 27 December 1291 on the patent roll, recording the grant of the marriage of the heirs of Roger de Sumery to John de Bretagne, has an additional note that the same was later granted to Henry de Grey [Cal. Patent Rolls, 1281-1292, p.464]. A letter from Henry de Grey concerning the marriage of the son of Roger de Someri (indexed under Henry de Grey: his daughter), is dated "[1292]" in the calendar [Lists and Indexes vol.15, p.393 (Anc. Corresp., 26/36); Supplementary Lists and Indexes, vol.15, p.509].

[This identification was pointed out by Douglas Richardson, January 2002.]