General Notes

Following is excerpted from a posting by Rosie Bevan to soc.genealogy.medieval newsgroup:

From: "Rosie Bevan" (rbevan@@paradise.net.nz)
Subject: Montgomery of Cubley Part 2
Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.medieval
Date: 2002-11-24 15:50:02 PST

11. SIR NICHOLAS DE MONTGOMERY I. Born c 1357, heir of his father Walter [Nottinghamshire Archives DD/FJ/4/26/6]. Six pounds in rent from the manor of Cubley and a moiety of the manor of Snelston was settled on him and his wife Ann and their heirs in 1364 presumably as a marriage settlement [H.J.H Garratt (ed), Derbyshire Feet of Fines 1323-1546; no.874].

His first appearance in the records was in 1377 when serving on a local commission. In 1380/81 he was in the service of Thomas of Woodstock overseas when Thomas Foljambe administered his affairs (at a time when Nicholas may have been married to Foljambe's niece Margery, daughter of Sir Godfrey Foljambe d.1375), knighted by 1381 and in 1388/89, 1410, 1413, 1415 was Knight of the Shire for Derbyshire. He held local positions as Justice of the Peace, Commissioner of Array, Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer, Commissioner of the Peace between 1381 and 1424. He was Constable of Tutbury castle, master forester of Tutbury and Needwood chase, parker of Agardsley and Rowley, Staffs. for the duchy of Lancaster 23 July 1403-16 Dec. 1408 [J.S.Roskell (ed), The House of Commons 1386-1421, v.3 p.760]. 

Nicholas was married subsequently to Margaret, widow of Richard Baskerville (1370-1394), and mother of John Baskerville, probably by 1403 when he was ordered by Henry IV to fortify Eardisley castle, a Baskerville possession, against the Welsh.  [Pedigrees of the Plea Rolls, The Genealogist, v.16 p.86 ; M.Salter, The Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, 1992. p.19].

In the scutage of 13 Henry IV Nicholas was assessed at an income of £72 p.a and was receiving an annuity for life from the honour of Tutbury of 40 marks [J.P.Yeatman, A Feudal History of the County of Derby, v.1 section II, p. 484].

Margaret and Nicholas were involved in a suit over the manor of Chabnor, Herefordshire with Richard de la Bere in 1413 [The Genealogist v.16 p.86]. Nicholas died in 1424 and Margaret was still living in 1436 when she was assessed at £26 income in Derbyshire [English Historical Review 49:631-2]