• General Notes

  Sources:
  1. Title: The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999
  Page: 132-6
  
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  GEN-MED ARCHIVES:
  From Douglas Richardson
  Subject: C.P. Addition: Maud de Bernake, wife of Sir Ralph de Cromwell, Lord Cromwell
  Date: 14 Aug 2005
  
  In 17 Edward II [1323-4] Joan de Driby made a settlement of the castle and manor of Tattershall, Lincolnshire on her younger son, Robert de Driby, for life, with reversion to Maud's paternal grandparents, William and Alice de Bernake [see Document #1 below]. It appears that this settlement did not take effect, as the castle and manor of Tattershall were afterwards held by Joan de Driby's eldest son and heir, John de Driby.
  
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  The source for Documents #1-3 below is the online National Archives catalog at
  http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search.asp?j=1
  
  Document #1:
  C 143/168/1: Joan late the wife of Robert de Driby to settle the castle and manor of Tattershall, and messuages and rent in Boston, the manor of Bredon (Leic.), messuages, land, and rent in New Buckenham, Old Buckenham, Attleborough, and Ellingham, the third part of the manor of Wymondham, and the eighth part of the manor of Buckenham, with the advowsons of the church of Tattershall and Kirkstead abbey, on herself for life, with remainder as to the messuages, land, and rent in New Buckenham, Old Buckenham, Attleborough, and Ellingham, the third part of the manor of Wymondham and the eighth part of the manor of Buckenham to William de Bernak, Alice his wife, and the heirs of their bodies; and as to the castle and manor of Tattershall, tenements in Boston and the advowsons, to Robert son of the said Joan for life, remainder to the said William and Alice and the heirs of their bodies; and as to the manor of Bredon to John son of the said Joan for life, remainder to the said William and Alice and the heirs of their bodies, remainder to the right heirs of Joan, retaining the manors of Holwell and Kettleby (Leic.), Tumby and Kirkby-upon-Bain (Lincoln), the manor of Babbingley, and a part of the Tolbooth of Lynn (Norfolk). Lincoln. Leic. Norfolk. Date: 17 Edward II [1323-4].
  
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  Robert de Bernake's place in the Bernake family is proven by several charters abstracted below [see Documents #1-12], the first being a charter of Lady Maud de Cromwell's paternal grandparents, William and Alice (de Driby) de Bernake, in which they granted property at Baston for life to their younger son, Robert. The seal on this charter displays the Bernake family arms: ermine, a fess.
  
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  The source of the documents below is Report on the Manuscripts of Lord de L'Isle & Dudley Preserved at Penshurst Place, 1 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 77) (1925): 16.
  
  Document #4:
  1334, November 10. - Charter of William de Bernake and Alice his wife confirming to Robert their son for life all their lands in Baston which came to them by the death of John de Dryby. Witnesses: Sir Nicholas de Cauntelow, Sir William de Grey and others. Dated at Kynthorp [Kingthorpe, Lincolnshire]. French. Seal: round, 1/2 inch; shield, ermine, a fess. S. WILLELMI DE BERNAK."
  
  Document #6:
  1339, June 13. - Charter of Alice, widow of Sir William de Bernake, confirming to her son Robert the lands in Baston. Seal: round, 3/4 inch; three small shields; the seal is somewhat defaced, but one shield in Bernak, and one of the others apparently Driby.
  
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  From Collins's Peerage of England:
  
  Which Sir JAMES BYRON, Knt. married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Bernake, whom he left a widow before the 24th year of King Edward III. 

Details of William's family with Alice de Driby