General Notes

BARONY OF MONTAGU (I)

SIMON DE MONTAGU, son and heir, was under age at his father's death. In 1277 he acknowledged that the service of one knight's fee was due from the barony of Shipton Montagu, to be rendered by himself and a serjeant, in the expedition against Llewelyn. In 1280 he was in prison for a forest offence. He was engaged in the Welsh wars in 1282 and later, and in July 1287 was thanked by the King for his service in West Wales, being ordered in Dec. to go thither again instead of to North Wales. On 28 June 1283 he was summoned to attend the assembly at Shrewsbury. In. 1290 he made a settlement of his estates by surrendering them to the King, and receiving a re-grant with remainders to his sons William and Simon. In June 1294 he was summoned to attend the King on urgent affairs concerning Gascony, whither he was sent immediately, and where he apparently stayed till the beginning of 1297. While on this service, in 1296, when the English were besieged in Bourg-sur-Mer, he took a relief ship through the line of French, vessels and brought about the raising of the siege. In November 1298 inquiry was ordered into the crimes of men alleging themselves to be in his service, to his scandal and loss. In 1299 and in many later years he was summoned for service against the Scots; in September of that year he was appointed custodian of Corfe Castle, being replaced in February 1300/1 by Henry (de Lacy), Earl of Lincoln. He was summoned to Parliament from 29 December 1299 to 16 October 1315, by writs directed Simoni de Monte Acuto, whereby he is held to have become LORD MONTAGU. In July 1300 he took part in the siege of Carlaverock, where he brought up the rear of the third division, and after the capture of the castle was sent to Ireland, probably for provisions. On 12 February 1300/1 he joined in the Barons' letter to the Pope, as Simon, lord of Montagu. In October 1302 he went again to Gascony with John de Hastinges, and was still there in 1303. At Thurlbear, in June 1304, Aufrica de Connoght, heiress of the Isle of Man, quitclaimed all her rights therein to Simon de Montagu, knight. On 30 January 1306/7 he was made captain and governor of the fleet , against the Scots, and was in Scotland, with his son William, in February, being consequently excused attendance in Parliament. He was summoned to attend the Coronation of Edward II, 25 February 1307/8. He appears to have been in favour with the new King, for in 1309 he was made custodian of Beaumaris Castle. In August 1310 he was again admiral of the fleet against the Scots. He had licence to crenellate his house at Yardlington, Somerset, in 1313. In August 1315 he was ordered to remain in the North during the winter campaign. In these later years he was appointed on various commissions-of the peace, oyer and terminer, &c.

He married 1stly, circa 1270, Hawise, daughter of Amauri DE ST. AMAND (a). She was dead in 1287. He married, 2ndly, in or before 1287, Isabel, whose parentage is not known. She was living in the spring of 1290. He died 26 September, and was buried 2 November 1316, in Bruton Priory. [Complete Peerage IX:78-80, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(a) His guardian, Philip Basset, sold the marriage to Amauri for 300 marks.

----------------------------

Note: The accounts below to a marriage of Simon de Montacute/Montagu to Africia, heir of the Isle of Man do not agree with the CP account, which I am sure is correct.  However CP states that Aufrica de Connought quit-claimed the Isle of Man to Simon in 1304, with no explanation of why.  Turton's Plantagenet Ancestry also has Aufric de Courcy (heiress of Isle of Man) married to Simon de Montagu.  Because there is such a wide gap (according to CP probably 45) between the birth of Simon and his father William, I am postulating another generation Simon de Montagu who married Aufric heir of the Isle of Man, who was mother of this Simon.

----------------------------

The first baron Montacute by writ was Simon de Montacute, one of the most eminent persons of the period in which he lived. In the 10th Edward I [1282], he was in the expedition made into Wales, and within a few years after, received considerable grants from the crown. In the 22nd [1294], he was in the wars of France, where he appears to have been engaged for the two or three following years, and them we find him fighting in Scotland. In the 27th [1299], he was constituted governor of Corfe Castle, and summoned to parliament as a Baron from the 28th Edward I [1300], to 9th Edward II [1316]. In the 4th Edward II [1311], his lordship was appointed admiral of the king's fleet, them employed against the Scots; and he obtained, in three years afterwards, license to make a castle of his mansion house, at Perlynton, in Somerset. He m. Aufrick, dau. of Fergus, and sister and heir of Orry, King of the Isle of Man, and had issue, William, his successor, and Simon, m. to Hawise, dau. of Almeric, Lord St. Amand. His lordship d. about the year 1316, and was s. by his elder son, Sir William de Montacute. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 317, Montacute, Barons Montacute, Earls of Salisbury]

----------------------------

In the reign of Edward II, Sir Simon de Montacute obtained a grant to a weekly market on Tuesday at his Manor of Yardlington, county of Somerset, and a fair on the eve day and morrow after the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. In the 7th of Edward II [1314], he obtained a license of the King to fortify his Manor house at Yardlington. This Manor was very beautifully situated in a picturesque locality upon a very fine lawn, and remained in this family through many descents until, through the last Countess of Salisbury, who was beheaded at the age of 70 years by Henry VIII, it passed to the Poles and thence to Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. Sir Simon also owned the Manor of Goat-hill, granted to him by Edward I, and it descended to Gen. Thomas Montacute, 4th Earl of Salisbury, thence to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and to John Neville, Marquis of Montacute. Sir Simon bore as his coat of arms the original shield of his ancestor Drogo, viz., "Azure - a gryphon segreant, or," but later changed the arms to "Argent three fusils in fess gules."

Sir Simon married Aufricia, daughter of Fergus, King of Man, descended from Orry, King of Denmark. The Historian records that Aufricia, daughter of Fergus, King of Man, having fled to King Edward when dispossessed by Alexander III, King of Scots, Edward bestowed her in marriage upon Simon, Lord Montague, baron of Shipton Montague, who, by the King's assistance, recovered the island and enjoyed it in her right many years. Their issue was William and Simon, the former succeeded his father and continued the line, the latter was married to Hawise, daughter of Almeric, Lord St. Amand. He had been summoned to parliament from the 28th of Edward I [1300] to the 8th of Edward II [1315], soon after which he died. [Montagues in Great Britain, Terry and Jason Fritts, Gladstone, Missouri]