BARONY OF BURFORD - British Archaeological Assocation

Journal of the British Archaeological Association (Volume 24)
ON THE BARONY OF BURFORD
BY EDWARD LEVIEN, ESQ., M.A., F.S.A., HON. SEC.

It is an established fact in modern society, that those whose privilege it is to associate with " the upper ten thousand" are considered, by those who do not participate in the same so-called advantages, as somewhat superior to the ordinary class of mortals; and people whose experiences are derived from habitual intercourse with the higher circles, are ever treated and listened to with more distinctive marks of respect and attention than those who herd with the iroWot.

A Fitz-Plantagenet in corduroys is more acceptable than a Jenkins in broadcloth, and a Stanley Howard reduced to suavely and small beer would be better "received" than a John Tomkins elevated to turtle and champagne. On this ground, therefore, if upon no other, I venture to hope that the parish of Burford may be deemed worthy of our attention, inasmuch as it abounds with reminiscences of the great folks to whom it belonged in times now long since passed, and is described by George Nicholson, writing of it even so late as 1813, as "a beautiful village stationed upon the banks of the Teme, the residence of genteel families only." Whether in these reforming days of compound householders and pot wallopers it retains its exclusiveness, and still continues to act upon the "odi piofanum vulgus et arced' principle, I am unable to say; but as we are more especially concerned with it as archaeologists, I must ask you to transfer your thoughts with me to " the days of auld lang syne," and to regard it in connexion with those noble and illustrious personages whose effigies still deck its church, and who " bemg dead still speak," to call to our miuds those long past ages when deeds of valour and patriotism first kindled that torch of liberty which has since gleamed so brightly over our island; when piety and munificence joined hand in hand to rear those venerable piles sacred to region or learning, whose very ruins, as we gaze upon them, fill us with admiration and awe ; when the arts of peace and war secured to us those glorious monuments and institutions of bygone ages which we meet, upon occasions like this, to contemplate and discuss, with the hoj)e perchance, though scarcely with the expectation, that among us, too, may be found some who may be as useful in our generation as those worthies who have preceded us were in theirs; so that our names and memories may be handed down to posterity as benefactors to our species with the same respect and veneration as theirs have been ; and that of us, too, it may be sung as it was of them of old, that although

*' The knights are dust, Ami their good swords arc rust, their souls are with the saints we trust."

Burford, then, as Eyton tells us, was the caput of Osborn Fitz Kichard's Shropshire barony, and it is thus described in Domesday, — "Oshern Fitz Richard holds Burford of the king. Richard his father held it." Now this Eichard, his father, who was its lord in the Saxon times, was Eichard Scrupe, or Scrob, or Fitz Scrob, one of the favourites of Edward the Confessor, who conferred upon him this manor, with four others in Worcestershire, and one in Herefordshire, viz. Yarpole, about four miles south of Eichard's Castle, of which this Eichard Scrupe is believed to have been the builder. He survived the Norman conquest, but died before the completion of Domesday; of which I may remark, that although the exact date of its various surveys are in many cases uncertain, yet we are fortunate to be able to ascertain it with regard to this particular county, for on folio 252 the Abbey of Shrewsbury is mentioned with the words " quam facit ibi comes!' Now we are informed by Ordericus Vitalis that the foundation of this abbey was vowed by Eoger de Montgomery in 1083; while Dugdale, quoting from a register of the abbey, formerly in the possession of Sir Eichard Leveson, tells us that it was finished in 1087; and the Conqueror's charter shews that the monks were not settled there till the latter year, which would be the date of the Shropshire Survey.

But to resume our history of the barony. Upon the death of Richard Scrope, his Shropshire manor (with others in this county and in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Bedfordshire) was granted to his son Osbern, who was lord of it in 1087.

As Eyton has given an account of the baronies of Burford and Eichard's Castle, and a genealogical table of their descents through the families of the Osberns, the Says, the Stutevills, the Mortimers, and the Zouches, from 1052 to 1307, with short notices of the successive lords, and of the extent of the parish and townships of Burford, together with particular’s relating to its ancient manorial and ecclesiastical possessions and privileges, there is no need for me to recapitulate the information contained in his learned and valuable work, particularly as up to the reign of Henry III there is no person or event immediately connected with its history which would seem worthy of especial notice.

Under this monarch, however, Burford seems to have become a place of some importance, for in the fifty-first of his reign (1266) a charter dated at Kenil worth, 16th November, grants to Hugo de Mortuomari (Hugh Mortimer) a weekly market on Saturdays, and an annual fair of three days on 4th, 25th, and 26th March. Various privileges were also ceded to him, such as liberty to hunt in the royal forests in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, and Shropshire, in acknowledgment, no doubt, of the assistance he had afforded to Henry in his operations against Lewellyn, Prince of Wales, and his personal valour at the battles of Lewes and Evesham. After his decease the manor descended to his son Robert, and upon his death the king's writ of diem clausit extremum issued, and an inquisition as to the state of the hundreds of Overs was held at Shrewsbury. The jurors there spoke of the barony and manor of Burford as being in the king's hand or that of his escheator till the heir should have fined for his livery. They also said that the late Hugh de Mortimer had procured Burford to be made a free borough by Henry III after the battle of Evesham, but that no " ferm" (or tax) was paid to the Crown on that account. And they found also that since the said battle the "Baron of Burford" had appropriated a right of free warren in Burford, "but," as they added, "the jurors knew not by what warrant," a fact which, considering the usual sagacity of British juries, is not very remarkable, especially as the "Baron," in all probability, helped himself to his rights without any warrant whatsoever. After the death of Baron Robert, in 1287, the manor descended to his son Hugh, and upon his death, circa 1304, to his younger daughter Margaret. This lady, marrying in 1307 Geoffrey de Cornwall, conveyed the manor to him, and the barony thus became vested in that ancient family which was so distinguished in this county, with whose name Burford was SO long associated, and many of whose ancestors were so illustrious that the remarks which I shall make with regard to some of them will not, I trust, be thought unworthy of our attention.

First and foremost stands Richard Plantagenet, the second son of King John, and brother of King Henry III., who was born in 1209, and in 1229 was created Earl of Poictou and Cornwall. This prince, who was one of the leading political and military characters of the important period during which he lived, was, in 1226, elected King of the Romans, and on the 27th May, 1227, was with great pomp and circumstance crowned in Germany as "King of Almaine." He died in 1271, and as an account of him will be found in Dugdale, and the various details of his eventful life are set forth in all our ordinary histories, I will not detain you by any further reference to them, except merely to call to your minds a curious fact which is far less generally known, — that it was this "Richard of Alemaigne" who was the subject of the first politico satirical ballad which occurs in the history of our language.

The circumstances under which this ballad was composed were these: — In the year 1264 took place the battle of Lewes, which proved so fatal to the King, and in which the Sovereign himself, Prince Edward, and the King of the Romans were all taken prisoners by the forces of the victorious Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and Clare, who espoused the cause of the barons against the King. The ballad itself, which was evidently written by one of De Montford's adherents, alludes to the fact of an offer of £30,000 having been made to Richard to reconcile the King and the barons, but represents him as demanding even more than this. It accuses him of being a trickster, a spendthrift, and a debauchee; insinuates that he hid himself in a mill during the engagement, and, as Don Quixote did in later times, took its sails, not for giants' arms, but for manganese or battering-rams. In fact, it sums up his character as being anything but that of an "officer and a gentleman," let alone a prince of the blood and a king in foreign parts. In order, however, to give you a taste of its quality, I will read you the first three stanzas —

Sitteth all stille and licvknctli to me

The kj-n of Alemaig-ne, liy mi leaute,

Ti'itti thouscnt pound askede lie

Forte make tlie pcos in the couiifvc

And so he dude more.

Richard, thah thou be euer richard

Trichten shal thou neuermore.

Richard of Alemaigne, whil that he wes kyng,

He spende al his tresour opon swyuyng*.

Haveth he nout of Walingford oferlyng '

Let him habbe, as he brew, bale to dryng"

 

Maugre Wyndesore.

Richard, thah thou, &c.

 

The kyng of Alemaigne wende do ful wel

He saisede the mulne for a castel

With hare sharpe swerdes he grounde the stel

He wende that the sayles were mangonel *

 

To helpe Wyndesore.

Richard, &c.

And SO on for six more stanzas. As the whole, however, is printed with explanatory notes Historic of English Poetry (i,p.42,Lond. 1846), there is no occasion for me to go through the rest. I will only remark that whatever may have been the individual conduct of the Earl of Cornwall upon this occasion, we may readily suppose that the "chaff" thus administered to one of the principal leaders of the royal cause must have tended very much to damage it, and to advance that of Leicester, while the literature of the period, as exemplified in Matthew Paris, Eobert of Gloucester, and other contemporary writers, is worthy our patient study, not only on account of the language in which it is couched, and the details into which it enters with regard to the domestic habits and usages of our ancestors, but in reference to those most momentous political events which were then in progress events which even now breathe their influence through our institutions and involve questions of the greatest interest with regard to the progress and development of our national liberties. I refer more particularly to the origin of the two houses of our leo;;islature as first exhibited in a distinctive form under Simon de Montfort, to whom the learned professor Eeinhold Pauli, in his work lately published upon the earl's life, has not hesitated to call " der Schopfer des  /. e., he has not even so much as one furlong left of Wallingford, which was one of the honours granted to him under a patent dated 2 Hen. III. See Dugdale's Baronage, sub tit. Earl of Cornwall. '-' As he brews misery for others, so let him have it to drink himself. ^ /. e., in spite of the help and patronage of the king, one of whose chief strongholds was Windsor Castle. He thought that the sails were battering-rams. Ilauses cler Gemeinen, i.e., " the creator of the House of Commons."

The next of the Cornwall’s, or rather a Cornwall by marriage, who claims our attention, is the Princess Elizabeth, second daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and sister to Henry IV. This noble lady was the wife of John Holland, third son of Thomas de Holland, Earl of Kent, by Joan Plantagenet, so celebrated in history as "the fair maid of Kent." Her husband was afterwards raised to the dignity of the Earldom of Huntingdon (1387), was next constituted great Chamberlain of England for life, and in 1397 was created Duke of Exeter by King Richard H. Upon the deposition of that unfortunate monarch, he was one of the nobles who still upheld his cause against Henry IV in the west, and after the reduction of Cirencester he was captured in the neighbourhood of London, whence he was taken to Pleshey, near Chelmsford, and there beheaded. Thus Henry Bolingbroke carried out the threat which Shakespeare has put into his mouth in King Richard II (act v, scene iii) in these words —

But for our trusty brother-in-law, and the abbot

With all the rest of that consorted crew, —

Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels, —

Good uncle, help to order several powers To Oxford, or where’re these traitors are :

They shall not live within this world, I swear,

But I Avill have them, if I once knew where.

Uncle, farewell; and cousin, too, adieu:

Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true!

 

After his death (a.d. 1400) his widow married Sir John Cornwall, afterwards Lord Fanhope, K.G. This gallant nobleman, who was renowned for his skill in martial accomplishments, appears to have set up at the beginning of Henry IV reign, so to speak, as a professional tiltcr, and to have held himself open to all comers. Belz, in his Memorials of the Order of the Garter, observes that „the frequency of challenges to passages and single feats of arms during this reign may probably be ascribed to the unwelcome leisure which was afforded to the chivalry of England and France by Henry's pacific policy. Monstrelet records two defiance’s to the King himself — the one from Louis, Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VI., the other from Waleran Count of St. Paul, the brother-in-law of Picliard

11. The former was courteously declined by Henry, partly on the ground of a subsisting treaty of amity, made before his accession, with Orleans, but principally on that of present inequality of rank. The defiance of the Count of St. Paul was treated with contempt. The most prominent among the other challengers of the time were Johan de Werchin, the renowned Seneschal of Hainault, and his equally brave antagonist, Sir John Cornwall." In a MS. in the Bibliotheque Imperiale at Paris (No. 8,417) entitled Lettres dii Seneschal de Hainaidt, an account is given of the various feats at arms performed by the redoubtable Johan de Werchin, and a letter addressed to Henry informs him of the writer's anxiety to encounter some of his most famous knights. This letter is too long to be given here in extenso, but the purport of it is that the Seneschal, having read the history of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and heard that a certain King of England had revived that association by founding an order called the Garter, having the same object in view, to wit, the training and encouragement of knights in chivalric exercises, now he (the writer), although but an humlJe professor of the same arts, is desirous of inviting them all, individually and severally, to a personal encounter with him in the presence of the King, or of his eldest son, on a day to be fixed, at some place about forty miles from London. And should the King be pleased to grant this request, he prays for safe conduct by his herald, the bearer. To this the King replies, that with all due deference to the gallant Seneschal, he cannot permit any of his knights to go any distance to meet him, for that it is nowhere stated in any of the histories of King Arthur and the Round Table that such was the custom in old times; so that it would be contrary to all precedent for a knight to 2:0 forth to encounter a strano;e knight. In order, however, that the Seneschal may not think that his knights are deficient in "pluck," he reminds him that it is frequently recorded that one knight, in whatever spot he had happened at the time to be, had gladly encountered from ten to forty knights from foreign countries, and honourably acquitted himself in the contest. He is perfectly willing, therefore, to accommodate the Seneschal if lie will come to London, but he cannot break through the rules of efifjiiette so far as to allow any of his knights to meet him halfway. The King's letter is dated London, 20th February, 1408, and fixes the first May, 1409, O.S., as the day on which the contest was to be held. The Seneschal, in his reply, dated Paris, 27th (March), after acknowledging the receipt of the King's letter, says that he shall be most happy to accept Henry's polite invitation, but that a previous engagement prevents his having the pleasure of attending on the day named. This engagement was an appointment with Sir John Cornwall to a combat " a oultrance' in the presence of his (the Seneschal's) liege lord, the renowned Jean sans Peur, Duke of Burgundy, on 1st June. He proposes, however, to be in London on 1st July for the purpose of " polishing ofi"" any given number of Knights of the Garter, if the King will send him safe conduct for himself and one hundred men, with as many horses, "available," as we say in these railway times, from 1st June to the end of the following month. The match with Sir John appears for some reason or other to have been put off, but a long paper-war between the two intending combatants with regard to the settlement of various points of detail in matters of precedence and etiquette was kept up till the end of the year. The safe conduct for England was granted to the Seneschal, and will be found in Rymer's Fcedera, couched in the following terms: —

"Rex universis et singulis admirallis, etc., ad qnos, etc., Salutem. Sciatis quod suscepiraus in salvum et securura couductum ac in protectionem, tuitionem, et defensionem nostras speciales Johannem Dominum de Wrechen Senescallum de Ha3-nau, infra regnum nostrum Anglia?, ad certa (sic) punctus et facta armorum in ibi perficienduni, cum centum personis, equitibus in comitatu suo, una cum bonis et hernesiis, etc., ut in similibus de conductu literis. In cujus etc, a sextodecimo  die Aprib's proximo futuro per duos menses tunc proximo sequentcs  duraturas. Teste Hcge apud Westmouasterium vicesimo tertio die Februarii."

Accordingly the Seneschal came to London with a splendid retinue, and jousts were held at Smithfield, of which we find the following entry in Leland's Collectanea: — " In the x yere  of King Henry the senescal of Henaud came to seke aventures yn England, and the Earl of Somerset answered him. The next day an Henaud an Sir Richard of Arundek (sic) knight. The 3 day an Henaud and Sir John of Cornwall" so that, although the knight who proved victorious over the seneschal was John Lcaufort, Earl of Somerset, yet Sir John Cornwall held his own against one of the "distinguished foreigners," and no doubt created a favourable impression not only among tlie sterner sex, but among those of the spectators whom he was even more anxious to please, and to whom Henry, in his letter, refers in the following gallant words: —

"Considerant que les belles dames de n'r'e diete royaume vouldroient estre aussi courroucies, si pardecza nestoit trouve aucun leur chl'r par amoureux liardement ousast rendre et delivrer ung estrange chrr de tout ce qu'il voiildroit demander touchant le dit mestier darmes un pour un, come noxis tenons que se serraient les vostres de pardela, et nous qui de tout nostre cueur somes desirans de leur bonne et belle grace acquerir et leurs couroux escheuir, aussi que vous etes aux v'res, semble que de gentilesse devez assertenir de ceste responce pour content"; Anglice,

"Seeing that the beauteous ladies of our kingdom would be highly indignant to think that none of our knights were sufficiently bold for their love to encounter and give all the satisfaction he might desire to any stranger knight, just as your ladies would feel towards your knights, so we, being anxious with all our hearts to earn their goodwill and sweet favour, and to avoid their resentment, as you would do that of your ladies, think that this our answer should prove satisfactory to you."

Whatever impression the gallant Sir John may upon this occasion have created among the "Stores of ladies whose bright eyes Rain influence and adjudge the prize,"  certain it is that, at a previous tilting match, he displayed his prowess with considerable advantage to himself, for we are told that, in 2nd Henry IV [1400-1] : — " Sir John, having deported himself with great bravery in jousting against a Frenchman, at York, in the presence of the king, won the heart of that monarch's sister, Elizabeth, widow of John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon " (he having been degraded from his rank as Duke of Exeter on account of his opposition to Henry), " whose hand he soon afterwards obtained, and with her considerable grants from the Crown to enjoy during the lady's life, with a rent-charge of four hundred marks per annum for his own." I may further remark of this nobleman that, although he obtained the sobriquet of "green" Cornwall, from the fact of his having been born at sea near St. Michael's Mount, his conduct proves that he was far from deserving that epithet. At any rate, he certainly was not the original "green man and still," for not only was he constantly employed in tournaments and sham fights, but he was also frequently engaged in active service in the field. In 1415 he fought valiantly at Agincourt, and in 1417 was appointed a commissioner with Richard Jjcauchamp, Earl of AVarwick, to treat with Guillaume de ]\Iontenay, captain of the Castle of Caen, for the surrender of that fortress.

In 1420 "over sovereign lord the king,"as Rymer tells us," was wedded with great solemnity in the cathedral church of Treys (Troyes) about midday on Trinity Sunday"; and on the 9th of February, 1541, his queen was crowned at Westminster. During the rejoicings which took place on this occasion Sir John Cornwall gave a banquet to the king; and as it may interest us as antiquaries to know what was considered worthy of being royal cheer in those days, as compared with the more elaborate and sumptuous entertainments of these modern times, I will lay before you the l)ill of fare, which I have taken from Add. MSS. 18752 in the British Museum and which has never yet been printed: —

First course, " grene pese wt veneson, graunte chare" (possibly a large char)," a capon of hawte gTese"(or, as we should say, a fat capon), " signet, blawnche custarde dyaburd with byrdys" [i.e., disposed or ornamented with birds), "leche maskelyn" (a cake or pudding of wheat or rye mixed).

Second course, "roe in brothe" {i.e., broth made of the flesh of a roedeer), "rosey" (a stew of fruits in milk flavoured with almonds, spice, and white roses), " kydde, heronshewes, mownter in mantell" (probably a dish made in the shape of a mounted or hooded hawk, and named after the bird, just as our modern dishes known as dog-in-a-hlanhet or toad-in-a-liole receive their not very appropriate or euphonious designations from some fancied resemblance to the animals whose names they bear),"chykyn diaburde, veneson ybake'' (baked venison), "frutter lumbarde" (Lombardy fritters), "leche ruwy" (1 a rye pudding). For the " suggerarke" (sugar-work),or,as we should call it," sweets," or third course, there were " datys in composte, l^lawnche creme w' annysin cofete" (comfits), "lardys of veneson" (larded venison), rabbets, qwayles, larkys, ryssewes" (rissoles), " vyandys couched w^ lyons" (^. c, meat served up in the shape of, or garnished with, representations of lions, or on a dish supported by lions), " one leche of his armys" {i. e., a cake orpudding made in a mould so as to represent the royal arms; such dishes as resembled animals, coats of arras, or any similar device, being usually termed " subtleties". At the foot of tins carte are written the words, '' Hoc festum fecit D'n's J'fioies Corne'iueU Regi Anglie."

On the following page of the same MS the menu of the coronation dinner and supper are written out; but as I am unwilling to occupy too much of our time in the study of culinary antiquities, I shall not on the present occasion reproduce it. Suffice it to say, with the addition of some substantial joints to the first, and teal, pigeons, plovers, and "such small deer," to the second course, and jelly and other sweets to the third, it closely resembles Sir John Cornwall's banquet. The total number of dishes at the dinner consisted only of thirty- three ; and at the supper, of twenty "plats; and at the latter, i\\Q ^nece de resistance was a shoulder of mutton, which in our own more luxurious days would hardly, I fancy, be considered as "a dainty dish to set before the king."

So much, however, for our investigation into gastronomically science during Henry V's reign. Should any housekeeper or archaeologist with epicurean tastes wish to pursue the subject further, I can with confidence refer them to the Antiquitates CuUnarice, or Curious Tracts relating to the Culinary Affairs of the old English, by the Eev. Richard Warner of Sway near Lymington, Hants (London, 1791), who has prefixed to his work, as one of its mottoes, this memento more to those who are inclined to indulge their appetites too much.

Which may be translated, "More men by feasting than by fasting perish."

On the 17th July, 1443, Sir John Cornwall was created baron of Fanhope, county of Hereford, in recognition of his attachment and services to the crown; and in 1440 he was in France acting as viceroy in those parts which had been conquered by Henry. In the British Museum (Add. Charter, No. 12,074) is an acquaintances from the king dated 28th Nov. 1440, having attached to it a seal of red wax (now unfortunately much broken) with the coat of the Cornwalls, —ermine, a lion rampant ducally crowned within a border, engrailed bezantoe. The document is an acknowledgment of the receipt of 8,700 golden crowns from Charles Duke of Orleans, in jKirt payment of his ransom of 10,000 crowns, for which his brother, Jehcan Comte cl'AngoulemG, was detained a hostage in England for thirty years after the capture of the duke and his fellow prisoners at Agincourt. On the 30tli January, 1442, Sir John received the additional dignity of the barony of Milbroke, county Bedford; but he was always summoned to Parliament as " Sir John Cornwall, Chevalier. „His case, in this respect, was very remarkable, as although both his creations were in Parliament, and enrolled in Parliament, the former only was exemplified by patent; and in the latter, creating him baron of Milbroke, he is still styled Sir John Cornwall, without any reference to his former creation as Baron Fanhope. In neither instance are there any words of inheritance ; and although the absence of such words under ordinary circumstances would give only a life estate to the grantee, the late Lord Lyndhurst in his celebrated argument on the Wensleydale peerage held that his being created a baron in Parliament, " with all and singular rights, privileges, and immunities, in every place within the realm of England, as fully, entirely, and in the same form, as other barons of the same realm before this time have used and enjoyed, gave to him, amongst those rights, the privilege enjoyed by other barons of transmitting his title to his posterity." Be this, however, as it may, he died in 1443 without legitimate issue, and his honours became extinct. His wife, the Princess Elizabeth, died in 1426, and was buried at Burford. The recumbent white alabaster figure in the church, which represents her, was formerly daubed over with common paint, but was restored in 1848. The last of the barons of Burford, to whom I shall call your attention, and whose likeness, with those of his father and mother, is in a triptych on the north side of the altar, painted Ity Mechior Salaboss in 1588, is Edmund Cornwall, " the giant," or, as he is styled in the Cotton Poll, xiv, 3 (which is a pedigree of the Cornwall family from the king of the Romans to circa 1625), " Edmund Cornwall de Burford, Esquire, commonly called the strong and bold baron." He is said to have been seven feet three inches in height; but the recumbent figure of him, which is below the triptych I have mentioned, makes him even taller than this. The following: account of him, although it has been several times printed, is so quaint and characteristic, that I cannot resist the temptation of reproducing it once more. "He was," says Habington, "in mind an emperor, from whom he descended; in wit and style so rare, to comprise in a few words, and that so clearly, such store of matter, as I scarce ever saw to equal him, none to excel. He was mighty in body, but very comely, and exceeded in strength all men of his age. For his own delight he had a dainty touch on the lute; and of such sweet harmony in his nature as, if ever he offended any, where he never so poor, he was not friend with himself till he was friend with him again. He led a single life, and before his strength decayed entered the gate of death." At his decease his brother Thomas became baron of Burford, and was living circa 1650. After him the manor descended to his son Thomas.

In later times George Legh, Esq., of High Legh, county Cheshire, who was born 10th July, 1703, married Anne Maria, daughter and heir of Francis Cornwall, baron of Burford, and assumed the name of her family. Thus the senior branch of the once princely Cornwall’s is now represented by the Cornwall Leghs of Cheshire, whilst the junior is represented by the Cornwall’s of Delbury in this county, through their descent from Sir Rowland or Sir Richard Cornwall of Berrington, county Hereford, second son of Thomas Cornwall, baron of Burford, by Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Sir Rowland Lenthall, Knt., of Hampton Court, county Hereford. Among their more celebrated descendants in modern times may be mentioned Charles Woifran Cornwall, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1780-84; and the Right Rev. Folliot Herbert Walter Cornwall, D.D., successively Bishop of Bristol, Hereford, and Worcester, who died 5th September, 1831.

It does not appear from the Rolls of Parliament that the Barons of Burford were ever summoned to the national council by the title of their barony, for, as we have already seen, even as late as 20th Henry VI (1442), Lord Milbroke was summoned as Sir John Cornwall. With regard to the summonses of barons in general to Parliament, it may be observed that it was by no means a matter of course in ancient times that all who enjoyed that dignity should be, as Dugdale calls them, Barones Farliamentarii, or Lords of Parliament, of whom he says that they arc those "ex majorihus regni Baronihus qui d Rege nude pendent, ef ad Parlamentum, sive consilium 'p'*(hlicum diplomatibus Regis evocanhir ; nam constat in Anglid, tit et in Francid, non omnes qui a rege prcedia sua immediate tenehant ad Parlementa admissos, cum nimius e.ssct e.orum nurnerus; sed illos tantum qui 2Jroximi essent a rege et digmtate et vassalorum numero cceteros anteirent" After the Conquest all dignities were attached to the possession of lands held immediately of the king upon condition of performing certain services, and such tenure conferred nobility on the individual to whom the grant was made. But by the time of King John the alienation of their knights' fees by the barons increased the number of those who held of the king in capital, so much that King John, or at any rate his son, Henry III, obtained a discretionary power of calling to his Great Council only such persons as he thought fit so to summon, and the Great Council of the Realm came to be divided between those whose possessions and influence procured them a writ and those who, not holding per harmonium, were yet, on account of their known loyalty to the crown, summoned at the king's pleasure, and also by a writ, as were the tenants per harmonium. All these were styled the Barones Majores or Greater Barons, whilst those who were possessed of subinfeudation’s giving manorial rights were styled the Barones Minores or Lesser Barons; and became afterwards the germ of the present House of Commons. Henceforth, as Blackstone observes, "the dignity of the peerage became personal instead of territorial; a proof of tenure per haroniam became no longer necessary, and the record of the writ of summons came to be sufficient evidence to constitute a lord of Parliament." I am, however, now drifting into matters which are quite sufficient to supply materials for a separate treatise, and which are beyond the scope of this paper. I would refer those who would wish to investigate the interesting details connected with the history of our national titles and dignities, to the able essay upon this subject prefixed by William Courthope, Esq. (a worthy predecessor of our learned associate Mr. Blanche, in his office of Somerset Herald), to Sir H. Nicolas's Historic Peerage of England, published in 1857. For the present I will conclude by expressing a hope that the facts I have laid before you as connected with the Barony of Burford will serve to show how full of historical interest those spots which are designated as "out-of-the-way places" often are. They will jit any rate prove to you tlie truth of worthy Master Nicholson's remark as quoted at the commencement of this paper, viz., that Burford, however much it may have degenerated since, was at one period of its history "the residence of genteel families only," and that more than one of its former lords might justly have asserted of himself, in the words of the motto borne by the present noble owner of its baronial halls, that he was par ternis suppar — a peer who was almost a match for any other three.