• General Notes

  William Malet (fl. born before 1175–1215) was one of the guarantors of the Magna Carta. Also known as William II Malet. He was lord of Curry Malet and Shepton Malet in Somerset, and served as sheriff of that shire. The precise nature of his relationship to the earlier Malets is disputed. His first wife is unknown. His second wife was Alice Basset, daughter of Thomas Basset.
  (Wikipedia)
  
  William Malet, son and heir, who in 7 of Richard I, 1196, upon paying a fine of œ100, had livery of his inheritance. He resided at Curry, which was then the principal seat of his barony. In 12 of King John, 1211, he served the office of Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset. He appears to be first mentioned as a minor in 1194 in an expedition then made into Normandy, and in the ensuing year he had livery of his inheritance. His estates, including the principal one, curry-Malet in Somersetshire, were held by the service of twenty knight's fees. In 1210-14 he joined the barons in their insurrection. His lands in four counties were thereupon confiscated and given to Hugh Vivonia, his son-in-law, and to Thomas Basset, his father-in-law, and he was excommunicated by the Pope Innocent having become one of the sureties for the observance of the Magna Charta. He was also fined 2,000 marks, but which was not paid until after his decease, when 1,000 marks were remitted for military service for King John in Poitou. William Malet died in the 9th of Henry III. 1224/5, having issue by his wife. Mabel Bassett, who predeceased him, daughter of Thomas Basset and grandson of Ralph Basset, who was constituted Justiciary of England by Henry II. and introduced many salutary laws, especially that of frank pledge. Children: William, died sine prole in the lifetime of his father. Hugh.
  (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 165)
  
  William de Malet, Surety for the Magna Charta, appears first as a minor in 1194 in an expedition made into Normandy, and in the ensuing year he had livery of his inheritance. His estates, including the principal one, Curry Malet in Somersetshire, were held by the service of twenty knights' fees. In 1210-14 he was Sheriff for the Castles of Somerset and
  Dorset when he joined the barons in their insurrection. His lands in four counties were thereupon confiscated and given to Hugh de Vivonia, his son-in-law, and to his father-in-law, Thomas Basset, and he was excommunicated by the Pope, having become one of the Sureties for the Magna Charta. He was also fined 1,000 marks, but which was not paid
  until after his decease, when 1,000 marks were remitted, being found due him for military service to King John in Poitou in France. He married Mabel Basset, whose grandfather, Ralph Basset, was constituted Justiciary of England by Henry II and introduced many salutary laws, including that of frank pledge. William Malet died in 9th year of Henry III, 1224/5, having had issue by his wife Mabel, who predeceased him. A son William, o. s. p. v. p. (obit sine prole vitra patria), died without issue in lifetime of his father, and his two sisters were his heirs. Hugh and Mabel, who married Hugh de Vivonia, and Hawise de Malet.
  (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, page 540)
  
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  Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to American Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines 189-1, 234A-29
  Hollister, C. Warren (1973). "Henry I and Robert Malet". Viator 4: 115–32. 
  Hurt, Cyril. "William Malet and His Family". Anglo-Norman Studies XIX. 
  Lewis, C. P. (1989). "The King and Eye: A Study in Anglo-Norman Politics". English Historical Review 104: 569–87. doi:10.1093/ehr/CIV.CCCCXII.569
  

Details of William's family with Alice Basset