• General Notes

  [charlemegne.FTW]
  
  See vol. XIV [1998] of the *Complete Peerage*, p. 52 (correctin g vol. I, p. 346, note (e), line 4) and p. 488 (correcting vol . IX, p. 283, note (m). line 4), referring to the conclusion tha t Isolt must have been a daughter of an early, currently unknown , wife of Edmund de Mortimer, as he married his only known wife , Margaret de Fiennes, in 1285.
  
  however... the reference cited can not be found. See below:
  
  Subject: Re: Audley-Mortimer
  Date: 4 Sep 2000 14:13:34 -0700
  From: DonStone@@plantagenet.com (Don Stone)
  Organization: RootsWeb
  mail-to-news gateway Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.medieval
  
  Earlier this year, there was some discussion about whether ISOLT , wife of HUGH AUDLEY of Stratton Audley, co. Oxford, was the si ster or daughter of EDMUND DE MORTIMER.  There was some hope tha t a charter contained in Addit. MSS. no 5485, cited by CP 1:347 , note e, might clarify the situation, but this charter has turn ed out to be quite elusive.  I summarize the background of thi s issue and then supply Margaret Baker's recent report on the ma nuscript.
  
  -- Don Stone
  
  BACKGROUND
  
  From an article by Josiah Wedgewood entitled "The Parentage of J ames de Audley, K.G.,", which appeared in Collections for a Hist ory of Staffordshire, ed. by the William Salt Soc., NS vol. 9, 1 906, p. 262: "Hugh d'Audelee, the elder, Baron Audley of Stratto n, b. c. 1260, m. Isolda, probably sister of Edmund Mortimer o f Wigmore and had with her Arley (Staffs.) for life."
  
  Compare this with CP, 1: 347, footnote (e) written by Vicary Gib bs, which comes right after the text has announced that Isolt wa s the daughter of Sir Edmund de Mortimer: "Her father, Edmund d e Mortimer of Wigmore, by charter, undated, gave to her and Walt er de Balun, her husband, the manor of Arley, co. Stafford, fo r life. (addit. MSS., no 5485, f. 160)."  It is not clear that G ibbs is claiming that the charter says that Edmund is the fathe r of Isolt; "her father" could be just syntactic glue, i.e., a t ransitional phrase intended to clarify.
  
  I have looked at (the printed version of) the Close Roll entry m entioned later in the same footnote (e) and another Close Roll e ntry mentioned in VCH Worc (Arley), as well as the relevant Arle y/Audley/Mortimer extract (by Wrottesley) from the Plea Rolls ci ted by Wedgewood in his Audley article.  None of them specify th e relationship between Edmund and Isolt de Mortimer.
  
  It may well be that the Addit. MSS. no 5485 is the key to solvin g the riddle of whether Isolt was daughter or sister of Edmund.
  
  REPORT ON ADDIT. MSS. NO 5485
  
  15 August 2000
  
  I had a look at this manuscript yesterday. It is a bound volum e of assorted notes, letters and transcripts, from pre-Conques t to the 19th century, put together by one of the heralds. Conse quently some of the pages had as many as four page or folio numb ers. I checked every f.160 but could find nothing that resemble d the charter. There was also an incomplete list of contents whi ch did not include all the charters. I checked the Complete Peer age (1910) and the Worcestershire VCH (1913) to make sure that n o error had occurred in copying the reference, but both had exac tly the same reference. I then consulted the superintendent of t he reading room to find out if there was any way of tracking dow n the document. I had already consulted the name and place index es without success.
  
  He checked the volume and also produced a calendar with a full l isting of the contents. I went through this but there was nothin g.
  
  I can only conclude that early last century someone found this c harter and passed on the information to another, making an erro r in the reference, and both thus published the wrong reference.
  
  My guide did suggest experimenting by transposing figures in th e false reference but this might be time consuming. Another time -consuming method would be to read through the calendar referre d to, looking for similar volumes and studying the list of conte nts. It may be that they occur close together if the Library acq uired a collection of heralds' notebooks and compilations at th e same time.
  
  Margaret Baker
  4 Pennyfields Brentwood Essex CM14 5JP
  01277 214308 fax: 01277 234024

Details of Isolt's family with Hugh Audley