• General Notes

      ROBERT DE MORTIMER was son of Robert DE MORTIMER of Essex (j). It was either the father or the son after his father's death, the date of which is not known, who took part in the third Crusade, perhaps in personal attendance on Richard I. From 1200 onwards the son appears to have been frequently at court In 1203 he was excused scutage on Woodham and Amberden, probably in consideration of personal service; and in May 1206 had a grant of land in East Ham, Essex. From the time of his marriage (in 1210), by which he acquired the barony of Burford and Richard's Castle, he was active in the duties of a Lord Marcher, and in that year was in the King's service in Ireland. In 1213 he made an offer to serve the King with 10 knights, of whom he himself should be one, if the King would acquit him of the fine for having his wife. The same year he was one of the commissioners to inquire in Herefordshire as to the losses sustained by the clergy owing to the King's quarrel with the Church. In 1214 and 1215 he was again abroad with the King, to whom he remainel loyal throughout the differences with the barons. About this time he and his wife were in some way disturbed in possession of her inheritance. He was at Hereford with King John in July 1216. He took part in the Council called at Bristol within a month of that King's death, and was active in assisting the return of the "perverse" to their allegiance in the early days of Henry III. The last order issued to him, of which there is record, was on 26 January 1218/9, when he was required to assist the sheriff of Hereford in taking the castles of Grosmont, &c., from Reynold de Braose. He was still living in Easter term 1219, when he pledged himself to discharge the scutage due on Richard's Castle.
  
      He married, in 1210, Margaret, widow of Hugh DE FERRIÈRES, and daughter and heir of Hugh DE SAY, by Mabel, daughter of Robert MARMION. He died before 5 July 1219. Very shortly afterwards Margaret married, 3rdly, William DE STUTEVILLE. She appears to have died before the autumn of 1242. William de Stuteville died in or before May 1259, holding various lands in right of Margaret his late wife. [Complete Peerage IX:258-61, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]
  
      (j) "Robert de Mortimer, son of Robert de Mortimer, for his soul and the soul of his wife Margaret de Say, daughter of Hugh de Say", confirmed to (? Lanthony) Abbey the gift of Roger de Alreton in Bilbury, which had been granted to Roger by Hugh de Say, lord of Castle Richard, son of Hugh de Say, and confirmed to him by Hugh de Ferrieres. Robert the father on his marriage [apparently wife's name not known] received Little Woodham (Woodham Mortimer) in Essex from Henry II by the service of 1/2 fee and probably Amberden (in Debden) as another 1/2 fee. In 1190/1 he, or his son, was assessed to the scutage of Wales for one knight's fee of the Honour of Peverel of London in Essex. Woodham and Amberden were held by Robert the son in 1212 as one fee. The father's marriage presumably took place in or before 1168, when he was pardoned a debt in the account of the sheriff of Essex. It is not easy to distinguish this Robert from his son Robert at a time when either might have been the tenant of Woodham, or to distinguish them from their namesake and contemporary Robert de Mortimer of Attleborough. As to the latter difficulty, a clue is furnished by the inference to be drawn from an order of 28 Sep 1201, to assign to Robert de Mortimer reasonable exchange for what he had in Cossey, either in the Honour of Peverel, or elsewhere. If the Robert who at intervals held Cossey in Norfolk at fee farm from the Crown, as of the Honour of Richmond or Brittany, may be identified with the Robert, who held Woodham and Amberden of the Honour of Peverel of London, there appears to be a distinct and reasonable cleavage between his career and that of the Robert who (and his descendants after him) held Attleborough, Scoulton, Buckenham, etc. in Norfolk under Earl Warenne, and land in Cambs and Hunts under the Earl of Huntingdon. There seems to have been as close a connection between the Mortimers of Attleborough, and their said overlords as between Robert of Essex and the King. It would appear likely that it was Robert of Essex, the protege of Henry II, who witnessed at Valoignes the later version of the treaty of Falaise, some time in the early months of 1174, as being in the train of King Henry, while William de Mortimer of Attleborough was one of the hostages under that treaty for William the Lion--Earl of Huntingdon until his deafeat at Alnwick in July 1174; also that it was Robert of Essex who, at Le Mans, witnessed a charter of Henry II, dated 1175-81 or 1177. That there was a close connection between the families of Attleborough and Richard's Castle is suggested by heraldic evidence; by the recurrance in both families of the names Robert and William (Hugh probably came in at Richard's Castle from Say); and by the few details that are known about a shadowy Pernel de Mortimer, who seems to have belonged to both families. Of her it is known that before 1199 (probably before May 1194) she held land in Dengey Hundred, in which are Woodham Mortimer and Amberden, which later was given to Tiltey Abbey; that in July 1199, as a widow, she was R. del Ech for dower in Cambe (where Mortimers of Attleborough had large holdings); and in 1203 levied a fine with William de Buckenham as to the advowson of Buckenham and land there--a Mortimer of Attleborough manor.
  

Details of Robert's family with Margaret de Say