General Notes

Sheriff of Somerset.

The first of this Somerset family of whom mention is made by Dugdale is Robert de Beauchamp, who, in the 3rd of Henry II (1156-7), accounted to the king £6 for a mark of gold and, in the 9th of the same monarch [1163], was sheriff of the cos. Somerset and Dorset. In three years afterwards, this Robert, upon the assessment of the aid for marrying the king's dau., then levied, certified his knight's fees, veteri feoffamento, to amount in number to seventeen, for which, in the 14th of Henry II [1168], he paid £7 1s. 8d., that is 8s. 4p. for each knight's fee. In the 22nd of the same Henry [1176], he again enjoyed the sheriffalty for the same cos., and continued in office for five years, and one half of the sixth year following. This feudal lord d. in 1228, leaving in minority, and in ward to Hubert de Burgh, his son and heir, Robert de Beauchamp, who d. before 1251. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 33, Beauchamp, Barons Beauchamp, of Hache, in the co. Somerset]