General Notes

Ralph de Mortimer, the presumed son of Roger de Mortimer, accompanying the Duke of Normandy in his expedition against England, was one of his principal commanders at the decisive battle of Hastings; and shortly after, as the most puissant of the victor's captains, was sent into the marches of Wales to encounter Edric, Earl of Shrewsbury, who still resisted the Norman yoke. This nobleman, after much difficulty and a long siege in his castle of Wigmore, Mortimer subdued and delivered into the king's hands, when, as a reward for his good service, he obtained a grant of all Edric's estates and seated himself thenceforward at Wigmore. Independently of these great Welsh territorial possessions, Ralph Mortimer enjoyed, by the bounty of his royal master, sundry lordships and manors in other parts of the realm which he held at the time of the general survey. In the beginning of Rufus' reign, Mortimer took part with Curthose, but he subsequently changed sides and, being constituted general of the forces sent by King Henry I to oppose that prince in Normandy, he totally routed the enemy and brought Curthose prisoner to the king. This gallant person m. Millicent, dau. of ---, by whom he had issue, Hugh, his successor; William, Lord of Chelmhersh, and afterwards of Netherby; Robert, ancestor of the Mortimers, of Richard's Castle; and Hawise, m. to Stephen, Earl of Albemarle. He was s. by his son, Hugh de Mortimer. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, England, 1883, p. 382-3, Mortimer, Barons Mortimer, of Wigmore, Earls of March]