THE BLUET ESTATE

James, younger son of Maurice (IV) Lord Berkeley, married Elizabeth, daughter or granddaughter and heir of John Bluet. [The sources are unanimous in stating that James's wife Elizabeth was Bluet's daughter. That daughter was presumably of age, i.e. 14 or more, in 1368, when, as Bluet's daughter and heir, she and Bartholomew Pycot quitclaimed the manor of Daglingworth: CCR 1364-8, 466. She would have been in her forties when James's wife bore his sons in 1394 and 1396. It is therefore possible that James's wife was in fact the daughter of Bluet's daughter Elizabeth by her husband Bartholomew Pycot.] Bluet's daughter's first husband, Bartholomew Pycot, died in 1389 leaving a 14-year-old son, Bartholomew, [CIPM xvi, no. 757, which mentions only a manor in Dorset held for term of life.] who presumably died without issue.

Elizabeth's inheritance was the manor of Daglingworth (Glos.) and the lordship of Raglan in the March, which had been granted to Walter Bluet by Richard de Clare earl of Pembroke, called Strongbow, during the reign of Henry II. [Smyth, i. 375] At some point Daglingworth and Raglan had been held by different branches of the family. By an undated charter Ralph son of Sir Ralph Bluet granted 9 a. of land in Raglan to William Bluet, son of Sir William Bluet of Daglingworth, for his service. [Below, BCM/C/1/2/1 [GC 1250]. In 1267 Sir William Bluet and Sir Ralph Bluet had witnessed a Herefs. charter: CChR 1257-1300, 304.] In 1284-5 Ralph Bluet was holding two knights' fees in Daglingworth of William Bluet of Lackham, who held them of the Earl Marshal, and in 1346 another Ralph Bluet was holding two fees in Daglingworth which Ralph his ancestor had held; a Ralph was lord of the manor in 1316. [Feud. Aids, ii. 242, 270, 278.] Ralph Bluet had acquired the lordship of Stradewy (later called Tretower) in the March and the manor of Thruxton (Herefs.) by marriage to Amicia, sister and heir of Roger Pychard (d. by 1308). Roger's father John (d. 1305) had married Katherine, daughter of Reginald FitzPeter of Blaen Lyfni (of whom Stradewy was held) in 1277, when John's father, Roger (d. 1297-8), had agreed not to alienate Stradewy and the manors of Ocle Pychard, Almeley, Thruxton and 'St. Alufe' (Herefs.) away from John and his heirs by Katherine. [Radford, 'Tretower', 11-12.]

Amicia may have had the manor of Thruxton as her marriage portion, since Bluet was already holding it in 1303, and in 1308 they granted the reversion of the manor of Almeley to Peter Pychard, a younger brother of Amicia's father John. [Feud. Aids, ii. 381 (a quarter of a fee in Thruxton, held of the earl of Hereford); Radford, 'Tretower', 12-13; Calendar of Ancient Petitions relating to Wales, ed. William Rees (1975), 304.] Ocle Pychard and 'St. Alufe' may also have been granted to Peter, or otherwise alienated, as they are not recorded in Bluet hands. Ralph had died by 1322, when Stradewy was recognised to be the inheritance of Amicia, and she was still living in 1346. [Radford, 'Tretower', 13; Feud. Aids, ii. 397.] Their son Ralph (II) Bluet married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Rees ap Rees, one of the younger sons of Mr. Rees ap Howell, and the elder Ralph settled Daglingworth on Ralph and Elizabeth and their issue. [Smyth, ii. 164. In 1335 Ralph was granted free warren in Daglingworth: CChR 1327-41, 339.] In May 1352, when the Shropshire manor of Shifnal was granted to Rees's elder brother Sir Philip, it was settled on Philip and his wife Joan and their issue with remainder to Rees ap Rees and his issue, and to John Bluet, son of Elizabeth Bluet. [CPR 1350-4, 261-294.] Elizabeth had presumably died by that date and it is not clear whether Ralph was alive at the time, but after Elizabeth's death he married Margaret, sister of Anselm Guise of Gloucestershire. Ralph was certainly dead by Nov. 1361 when his son and heir John was a minor and a presentation was made to Stradewy church. [CPR 1361-4, 117.] Margaret later married Sir John Poyntz of Gloucestershire (d. 1376) and died in 1377 holding Thruxton (Herefs.) in dower. [CIPM xiv, no. 321; xiv, no. 311.] John Bluet had died by 1368 when his daughter and heir Elizabeth and her husband Bartholomew Pycot quitclaimed the manor of Daglingworth to the duke of Clarence. [CCR 1364-8, 466. This was probably a settlement only.] Soon after Pycot's death in 1389 Elizabeth married James de Berkeley. Their eldest son James was born at Raglan in 1394 and another, Maurice, in 1396. Pycot's son Bartholomew died presumably without issue, since his lands passed to Elizabeth's Berkeley descendants. [CIPM xvi, no. 757.]

Strongbow's grant to Walter Bluet of Raglan, and a market and fair at Stradewy, were confirmed to James and Elizabeth by Henry IV in 1399-1400. James died in 1405, having been ordered to defend Stradewy against Glendower. [Smyth, i. 375; CCR 1402-5, 111.] His sons came to Berkeley, where Thomas (IV) Lord Berkeley recognised them as his heirs male and arranged their marriages.

In 1403 their mother Elizabeth had become heir to the lands of her cousin Sir Philip ap Rees, alias Philip de Bronllys. Philip's father Rees ap Howell had in 1305 been granted the manor of Pontesbury (Salop.) and a portion of Talgarth by John FitzReginald, who in 1307 granted the reversion of all his Welsh lands (Talgarth, Blaen Llyfni and Bwlch-y-Dinas) to Edward II. [GEC v. 466-7.] In 1309 the king granted the reversion of the whole of Talgarth to Rees in exchange for Pontesbury and in 1312 Rees settled Talgarth on himself and his probably illegitimate family of four sons and a daughter (see below). He served both Mortimer of Wigmore and the earl of Hereford and became involved in the Marchers' opposition to the Despensers. [J. R. Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster 1307-1322 (Oxford, 1970), 261-2.] He surrendered to the king in Jan. 1322 and forfeited the manor of Talgarth, which was granted to the younger Despenser in Aug. 1324. [CChR 1300-26, 469; J.R. Maddicott, Thomas of Lancaster 1307-1322 (Oxford 1970) 305] In 1326 he took his revenge by guiding Henry of Lancaster in his pursuit of the king and the younger Despenser from Hereford to Neath abbey. [May McKisack, The Fourteenth Century 1307-1399 (Oxford, 1991), 86.] Later, probably in 1337, Rees acquired the castle of Bronllys, just across the Wye from Talgarth, with its associated lands in Cantref Selif, from Meurice ap Rees. In 1340 Meurice's brother William quitclaimed the lands to Rees's son and heir Sir Philip ap Rees, described as lord of Bronllys, and in 1347 there was a further settlement of Bronllys on Philip. [Below, BCM/C/2/1/15-16 [GC 3157-8].] In 1351-2, however, Philip granted Bronllys to William de Bohun, earl of Northampton, in exchange for the Shropshire manor of Shifnal, and when he died in 1369 his inheritance consisted of Talgarth 'English' and Shifnal, [CIPM xii, no. 313; CPR 1350-4, 261, 294.] worth around £150 a year. Although his two sons had been mentioned in 1340 they had evidently died without issue and his lands were divided between his widow Joan and two daughters, Elizabeth and Mabel. [CIPM xii, no. 313; xiii, no. 8.] Elizabeth's husband, Henry Mortimer of Chelmarsh, died the same year and she quickly married Adam de Peasenhall. Her mother Joan and her sister Mabel died the following year. Mabel had no surviving issue by her husband, Hugh Wrottesley, who continued to hold her portion by the courtesy of England and in 1370 reached an agreement by which he would hold the whole of Talgarth (Mabel's third, the widow's third and the Peasenhalls' third) paying £40 a year to the Peasenhalls. [CIPM x, no. 446; William Salt Archaeological Society, xiii. 106, 140 (agreement, 1370).] Wrottesley died in 1381, when the whole passed to the Peasenhalls. Elizabeth had died by 1389. Her two sons by Mortimer died without issue in 1390 and 1403, and her second husband held her inheritance by the courtesy until 1419. [PRO C 138/41, no. 64 (inquisition post mortem of Peasenhall, 1419). By May 1389 Peasenhall was married to Joyce, daughter of John Lord Botetourt and widow of Baldwin de Freville (d. 1388): GEC ii. 234.] In 1403 the heir was Elizabeth wife of James de Berkeley.

When James de Berkeley died in 1405 his son and heir, 11-year-old James, could look forward to a substantial inheritance from his mother, who held the two lordships of Raglan and Stradewy and the manors of Thruxton and Daglingworth, and was the prospective heir to Talgarth and Shifnal. He was deprived of much of his inheritance. After James de Berkeley's death Elizabeth married Thomas ap Harry, and at Easter 1408 she and Thomas sold Thruxton to Thomas's elder brother John ap Harry [PRO CP 25/1/83/51, no. 20.] In 1409 Peasenhall gave seisin of the lordship of Talgarth to Thomas and Elizabeth, and they settled the manor of Talgarth and 50 marks of rent on themselves and their issue. [Below, BCM/C/2/2/10; PRO CP 25/1/83/51, no. 22.] They evidently had no issue, and after her fourth marriage, to William ap Thomas (d. 1446), Talgarth was resettled in 1420 [She is said to have died in 1420: Radford, 'Tretower', 15]: on 1 May she and William granted Talgarth to a set of feoffees and it was conveyed to a second set on 1 Aug., to a third set on 13 Aug. and later to yet a fourth set, the survivors of whom in Aug. 1429 granted the lordship to James de Berkeley and his heirs. [Below, BCM/C/2/2/12-15 [GC 4126-8, GC 4161].] That may, however, have been part of a deal with William ap Thomas: in July 1425 James and his wife Isabel granted Raglan to William ap Thomas for life [Below, BCM/C/1/2/2 [GC 4145].] and in 1430 William bought Raglan outright for 1,000 marks, the purchase apparently including Stradewy. [R. A. Griffiths, The Principality of Wales in the later Middle Ages (1972), i. 148.] The Shropshire manor of Shifnal, did not come to young James either, as it was regarded as an escheat, despite the specific entail made in 1352 mentioning John Bluet by name, and Henry IV granted the reversion, on Peasenhall's death, to Thomas Neville, Lord Furnivall, for 500 marks. [CPR 1405-8, 144; PRO C 138/41, no. 64.] James therefore retained only Talgarth and Daglingworth. During the 1420s he was embroiled with his cousin Elizabeth Berkeley and her husband the earl of Warwick over his inheritance of the honour of Berkeley and may have been forced into selling Raglan and Stradewy by a shortage of cash. In 1420 he had offered to grant to the duke of Clarence the reversion of lands which he expected to inherit from his mother worth 400 marks a year in exchange for Clarence's assistance in being allowed to sue for livery of Berkeley. [Smyth, ii. 45.]

Daglingworth may have been temporarily lost. At his death in 1407 Anselm Guise, nephew and heir of Margaret, widow of Ralph Bluet, held a manor in Daglingworth. [GIPM vi. 263.] He was the son-in-law and accomplice of a notorious Gloucestershire 'fur-collar' criminal, James Clifford, who was the enemy of Thomas Lord Berkeley [Saul, Knights and Esquires, 176-7; CCR 1385-89, 672.] It is not inconceivable that Guise had seized the manor after James's death in 1405 as part of the campaign against Berkeley. Copies of Guise's charters concerning Daglingworth remain in the Castle: Guise granted his manor in Nov. 1406 to John Haresfield, who granted it in Feb. 1407 to a set of feoffees, who then granted it back to Haresfield in March 1409. Haresfield was a close associate of Thomas de Berkeley, who may therefore have been exerting himself on his nephew's behalf to recover the manor. There were, however, two manors in Daglingworth in 1316, one held by Ralph Bluet and the other by Richard de Hampton, and the second may have passed to the Guises, although only one manor is mentioned later. [Feud. Aids, ii. 270.] Another possibility is that the quitclaim by Elizabeth and Bartholomew Pycot to Clarence in 1368 was not for a settlement but was a genuine alienation of the manor which later passed to Guise. That copies of the charters of Guise and Haresfield (five in all) were made among a series recording the later settlements of manors by James on his younger sons suggests that the manor which they concerned was one in which James had an interest.

Talgarth and Daglingworth, along with Little Marshfield (Glos.) and half of the manor of Brokenborough, in Almondsbury (Glos.), were involved in settlements for the younger sons of James de Berkeley and his wife Isabel; they were not held in tail male, as the Berkeley patrimony was. James had inherited Little Marshfield from his father, whose father, Maurice (IV), had acquired it for him. James and Isabel had purchased half of the manor of Brokenborough. It had been inherited by John at Knust (alias de Knulle) of Almondsbury, son of Rees ap Joni (alias Rees ap Evan), from his mother Joan. John and his wife Alice had granted it to Henry Parmynter and his wife Alice, along with appurtenances in nearby places, apparently in 1368. On 3 June 1417 John and Alice at Knust granted lands in the same places, with the advowson of a chantry in Brokenborough, to Robert Poyntz and others. Henry and Alice Parmynter then granted half of the manor with the associated lands to James Lord Berkeley and his wife Isabel, some time between their marriage in 1423-4 and 1434. [The charters are copied into BCM SR 11 and SR 14 (cf. below, BCM/C/1/3/1, 3).] In 1434-5 Talgarth, Daglingworth and Brokenborough were granted to feoffees headed by James's cousin Maurice de Berkeley of Beverston for the payment of James's debts after his death and thereafter for regrant to his younger sons. Despite this, in Nov. 1440 James granted Daglingworth and Brokenborough, including the advowson of a chantry in Almondsbury and other possessions, to Nicholas Poyntz and his wife Elizabeth. [PRO CP 25/1/79/90, no. 87.] The earlier settlement remained effective, since in Oct. 1460 James quitclaimed the three manors to the two surviving feoffees, who in Oct. 1461 granted them to a new set headed by Richard Beauchamp. After James's death in Nov. 1463 the new feoffees granted Brokenborough, with the 'parish' of Almondsbury, to James's younger son Maurice and his wife Isabel and their issue, with remainder to Maurice's brother Thomas and their sister Isabel Trye. [BCM SR 14 (cf. below, BCM/C/1/3/3).]

Little Marshfield was in June 1433 granted, with Daglingworth and Portbury, by James and Isabel to feoffees, but was not involved in the major settlement of 1434-5. In Jan. 1441 James granted it to Nicholas and Elizabeth Poyntz, and in Sept. 1450 they granted it to the set of feoffees of 1434-5 holding Talgarth, Daglingworth and Brokenborough. [PRO CP 25/1/79, no. 88 (1441); above, BCM/A/2/30/4 [GC4270].] Although it was said to be granted to the fourth brother Thomas, it seems to have passed to Maurice: in Jan. 1460 Maurice granted it to Roger Kemes, who in Jan. 1470 granted it back to Maurice. [Smyth, ii. 83; BCM SR 14 (cf. below, BCM/C/1/3/3).]

Talgarth was included in the settlement of 1434-5: after the payment of James's debts, half was to be granted to James's second son James and his issue, with remainder to Maurice and then to Thomas, the other half to Maurice and his issue with remainder to James and then to Thomas, while Daglingworth and the half of Brokenborough were to go to Thomas and his issue with remainder to James and then to Maurice. There were provisions should any of the sons, including the eldest, William, die before the regrant. Daglingworth and Brokenborough were then granted to the Poyntzes in Nov. 1440 and, with Talgarth, regranted to the new set of feoffees in 1461. James the younger was killed at Chatillon in July 1453, and the arrangements of the 1434-5 settlement were clearly not observed. Daglingworth was included in settlements of 1472 and 1477 on William de Berkeley and his wife Joan, and Brokenborough was granted to Maurice after his father's death; he already held Little Marshfield, and Daglingworth too passed to him (who was William's heir in 1492) and to his son and heir Maurice (VI). The grants to the Poyntzes caused trouble later, another Nicholas Poyntz claiming the three manors from Maurice (VI). The dispute was settled by an agreement that Maurice should have Daglingworth and half of the half of Brokenborough, while Poyntz should have the other half and Little Marshfield.