General Notes

Robert de Ros, surnamed Furfan, in the 1st Richard I [1189], paid 1,000marks fine to the crown for livery of his lands. In the 8th of the samereign [1197], being with the king in Normandy, he was committed to thecustody of Hugh de Chaumont, for what offence appears not; with especialcharge to the said Hugh, that he should keep him as safe as his own life;but Chaumont trusting William de Spiney with his prisoner, that personbeing corrupted, allowed him to escape out of the castle of Bonville. deRos eventually gained nothing, however, by this escape, for Richardcaused him nevertheless to pay 1,200 marks for his freedom, while he hadthe false traitor Spiney, hanged for his breach of faith. In the nextreign, however, Robert de Ros found more favour, for upon the accessionof King John, that monarch gave him the whole barony of hisgreat-grandmother's father, Walter Espee, to enjoy in as large and amplea manner as he, the said Walter, ever held it. Soon after which he wasdeputed, with the bishop of Durham, and other great men, to escortWilliam, King of Scotland into England, which monarch coming to Lincoln,swore fealty there to King John, upon the cross of Hubert, archbishop ofCanterbury, in the presence of all the people. About the 14th of KingJohn's reign [1213], Robert de Ros assumed the habit of a monk, whereuponthe custody of all his lands, viz., Werke Castle, in the co.Northumberland, with his whole barony, was committed to Philip de Ulcote,but he did not continue long a recluse, for we find him the very nextyear executing the office of sheriff for the county of Cumberland. At thecommencement of the struggle between the barons and John, this feudallord took part with the king, and obtained, in consequence, some grantsfrom the crown; but he subsequently espoused the baronial cause, and wasone of the celebrated twenty-five appointed to enforce the observance ofMagna Charter. In the reign of King Henry III he seems, however, to havereturned to his allegiance, and to have been in favour with that prince,for the year after the king's accession, a precept was issued by thecrown to the sheriff of Cumberland, ordering the restoration of certainmanors granted by King John to de Ros. This feudal lord was the founderof the castle of Helmsley, otherwise Hamlake, in Yorkshire, and of thecastle of Werke in Northumberland -- the former of which he bequeathed tohis eldest son--the latter to the younger, with a barony in Scotland tobe held of the elder by military service. In his latter days he became aKnight Templar, to which order himself and his predecessors had ever beenmunificently liberal, and dying in that habit, anno 1227, was buried inthe Temple Church. Robert de Ros m. Isabel, natural dau. of William theLion, King of Scotland, and widow of Robert de Brus, and had issue twosons, William, his successor; and Robert, Baron Ros of Werke. He wassucceeded by his elder son. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant,Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 458,Ros, or Roos, Barons Ros]

pg 89 & 146, "Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists etc"  by Frederick Lewis Weiss, 6th Edition

pg 779, Burke's "Extant Peerage and Baronetcies etc" 1970 edition

pg 458, " A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire" by Sir Bernard Burke,  published 1883