General Notes

Ranulph III le Meschin, de Briquessart, d. c 1129, buried St Werburg's, Chester, lord of Cumberland, vicomte of Bayeux in Normandy, Earl of Chester in 1120, following the death of his first cousin Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester; in 1124 commander of the Royal Forces in Normandy; m. probably c 1098 Lucy, living 1130, widow susscessively, of Ives Taillebois and Roger Fitz Gerold.  [Ancestral Roots]

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EARLDOM OF CHESTER (IV, 1)

RANULPH LE MESCHIN (a), styled, also, "DE BRIQUESSART," VICOMTE DE BAYEUX in Normandy, son and heir of Ranulph, VICOMTE DE BAYEUX, by Margaret, sister of Hugh (D'AVRANCHES), EARL OF CHESTER, being thus 1st cousin and heir to the last Earl (whom he succeeded as VICOMTE D'AVRANCHES) &C.) in Normandy), obtained, after the Earl's death in 1120, the grant of the county palatine of Chester becoming thereby EARL OF CHESTER. He appears thereupon to have surrendered the Lordship of the great district of Cumberland, which he had acquired, shortly before, from Henry I. In 1124 he was Commander of the Royal forces in Normandy. He married Lucy, widow of Roger FITZ-GEROLD (by whom she was mother of William de Roumare, afterwards Earl of Lincoln). He died 17 or 27 January 1128/9, and was buried at St. Werburg's, Chester. The Countess Lucy confirmed, as his widow, the grant of the Manor of Spalding to the monks of that place (f). [Complete Peerage III:166, XIV:170, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(a) ie. "The young" from the Latin "Mischinus"; French "Meschin" (Le Jeune).  "Apud Francos mediae aetatis scriptores sumitur vox "Meschin" pro adolescente et juvenculo."  Ducange.

(f) She paid 500 marks to King Henry in 1130 for license to remain unmarried for 5 years.

Note: The name should be "le" instead of "de" Meschin because "de" implies a place that the person was from, which is not the case here.

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Ranulf or Randle de Meschines, surnamed de Bricasard, Viscount Bayeux, in Normandy, (son of Ralph de Meschines, by Maud, his wife, co-heir of her brother, Hugh Lupus, the celebrated Earl of Chester), was given by King Henry I the Earldom of Chester, at the decease of his 1st cousin, Richard de Abrincis, 2nd Earl of Chester, of that family, without issue. By some historians, this nobleman is styled Earl of Carlisle, from residing in that city; and they further state that he came over in the train of the Conqueror, assisted in the subjugation of England, and shared, of course, in the spoil of conquest. He was lord of Cumberland and Carlisle, by descent from his father, but having enfeoffed his two brothers, William, of Coupland, and Geffrey, of Gillesland, in a large portion thereof, he exchanged the Earldom of Cumberland for that of Chester, on condition that those whom he had settled there should hold their lands of the king, in capite. His lordship m. Lucia, widow of Roger de Romara, Earl of Lincoln, and dau. of Algar, the Saxon, Earl of Mercia, and had issue, Ranulph, his successor; William, styled Earl of Cambridge, but of his issue nothing in known; Adeliza, m. to Richard Fitz-Gilbert, ancestor of the old Earls of Clare; and Agnes, m. to Robert de Grentemaisnil. The earl d. in 1128 and was s. by his elder son, Ranulph de Meschines. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages,. Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 365, Meschines, Earls of Chester]