General Notes

Sir Leo, or Lionel de Welles, as 6th baron, summoned to parliament from 25 February, 1432, to 30 July, 1460.  This nobleman received the honour of knighthood in the 4th Henry VI [1426] from the Duke of Bedford at Leicester, with the young king himself and divers other persons of rank.  His lordship for several years after served with great honour in France and was made lieutenant of Ireland for seven years in the 16th of the same reign.  When the fatal feud between the houses of York and Lancaster broke out, Lord Welles arrayed himself under the banner of the latter, and adhering to his colours with unbending fidelity, fell at the battle of Towton field on Palm Sunday, 1461.  His remains were deposited in Waterton Chapel, at Methley, co. York.  His lordship m. 1st, Joan, or by some accounts, Cecilia, only dau. of Sir Robert Waterton, of Waterton and Methley, co. York, and sister and heir of Sir Robert Waterton, also of Waterton, Knt., and had issue, Richard, Alianore, Cecily, Margaret, and Catherine.  Lord Welles m. 2ndly, Margaret, sister and heir of Sir John Beauchamp, of Bletshoe, and widow of John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset (by whom she was mother of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of King Henry VII) and had another son, John, created Viscount Welles.  An attainder followed his lordship's decease, under which the Barony of Welles became forfeited.  [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, p. 572, Welles, Barons Welles]

The rolls of parliament show that, in the first year of Henry VII [1485[, a statute passed finally reversing all acts of attainder or forfeiture which had ever been enacted aginst the Barony of Welles.  [Sir Bernard Burke, History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, England, 1883, Vol. II, p. 558, Walrond, of Dulford House]


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