General Notes

Hugh de Mortimer, being a person of a proud and turbulent spirit, opposed strenuously the accession of King Henry II upon the demise of Stephen, and induced Roger, Earl of Hereford, to fortify his castles of Gloucester and Hereford against the new monarch, himself doing the same with his castles of Cleobury, Wigmore, and Brugges (commonly called Bridgenorth). Whereupon Gilbert Foliot, at that time Bishop of Hereford, addressing himself to the Earl of Hereford, his kinsman, by fair persuasions soon brought him to peaceable submission. But Mortimer continuing obstinate, the king was forced to raise an army and, at the point of the sword, to being him to obedience. Between this rude baron and Joceas de Dynant, at that time Lord of Ludlow, existed a feud, carried to so fierce a pitch that Dynant could not pass safely out of his castle for fear of being taken by Mortimer's men, but it so happened that Mortimer, setting his spies to take all advantages of Dynant, was surprised himself and carried prisoner to Ludlow where he was detained until he paid a ransom of 3,000 marks of silver. He was oftentimes engaged against the Welsh and he erected some strong castles in Wales. He likewise finished the foundation of the abbey of Wigmore, begun by his father, and in his old age became a canon of that house. He m. and had issue, Roger, his successor; Hugh, who m. Felicia de Sancto Sydonio, and had, by her, by gift of his father, the manors of Sudbury and Chelmers; Ralph; and William. He d. in 1188 and was s. by his eldest son, Roger de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, England, 1883, p. 383, Mortimer, Barons Mortimer, of Wigmore, Earls of March]