General Notes

William de Montacute, who succeeded to the barony, and in the sixth year of Richard I (1196), paid £5 1s. 6d. for his estates in the county of Somerset as scutage for the king's ransom. He was sheriff of Dorsetshire and Somerset in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th years of King John [1205-1209], which fully proves his importance at that time when none but persons of the greatest rank and property were admitted to that office. For the first of these years, he had under him Osbert, the clerk, his deputy. Being one of the great barons of that reign who stood up for the liberties of their country, and being found (7th John) in arms with the rebellious barons against the king, he was stripped of all his lands in the counties of Somerset and Dorset, which were seized by the king and given to Ralph de Ralegh. He died 18th King John [1217]. He married Isabel and left an only son and heir who succeeded to the estate, William Montacute. [Montagues in Great Britain, Terry and Jason Fritts, The Montague Millennium, Gladstone, Missouri]