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1. The inheritance of Richard Foliot of Grimston, Nottinghamshire, 1236

David Crook, director of the project and a leading expert on the history of medieval Nottinghamshire, examines the history of Grimston and the fortunes of its owners, the Foliots. He shows, through a number of entries to be found on the Fine Rolls, the closeness of the relationship of this knightly family to the Crown and its principal benefactor, ensuring the continued possession of the estate throughout the thirteenth century.

⁋1Jordan Foliot was, in the reign of King John, the head of an established knightly family in southern Yorkshire, tenants of the Lacy lordship of Pontefract. The Foliots of Norton and Fenwick can be traced back to the reign of Henry I, and a rough pedigree has been constructed. ¹ Their principal residence was probably a fortified manor house in Fenwick, which was later once, in 1272, described as a castle. Jordan Foliot was the third of that name in the family, and his grandson became a fourth. Jordan was militarily active in the service of King John in the troubled later years of his reign after 1212. He may have accompanied the king on his military expedition to Poitou, which, after many delays, including opposition by northern barons against performing military service outside England, finally began early in 1214. It is unlikely that he joined his fellow Yorkshiremen in their protest against service, because John persuaded Jordan’s lord, John de Lacy, to accompany him on the campaign. There is no evidence to show which side Jordan Foliot took in the conflict between John and the barons after the failure of Magna Carta to bring peace in the summer of 1215, but it is most likely that he followed Lacy into rebellion and returned to his allegiance when Lacy did.

⁋2Grimston came into the hands of the Foliot family as a result of the break-up of the estate of Robert Bardolf of Great Carlton, Lincolnshire, and Hoo, Kent, who died in 1225, when his lands in Kent, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire were divided between his two nephews, Jordan Foliot and Ralph Paynel, and his niece Isolda de Gray. ² Jordan Foliot’s mother was one of the five sisters and co-heirs of Bardolf. ³ In the division Grimston fell to Foliot, to add to his existing Yorkshire manors. The area of Nottinghamshire where Grimston lay was disafforested at just that date, following years of dispute between the king’s advisors and the local knights. Jordan, who is unlikely to have been involved in any way in that process, was nevertheless one of the first to benefit, soon creating a park just to the north of his new manor house. ⁴ The building was probably very similar to that at Fenwick on his Yorkshire estate, and since at least the early nineteenth century it has been known locally as ‘Jordan Castle’. Only two years after his arrival at Grimston, Jordan was privileged to entertain King Henry, now over 20 years old, at his home there.

⁋3Between 1227 and 1229 Henry and his entourage stayed with the Foliots on three occasions while travelling to the north. It was uncommon for the monarch to stay with a family of relatively modest importance, with two manors in Yorkshire and one, only recently acquired, in Nottinghamshire. A more obvious place would have been nearby Laxton, the home of the hereditary keepers of Sherwood forest, and a place visited several times by his father during his reign. ⁵ It is even more surprising in that Grimston was only about seven miles from the king’s own houses at Clipstone in Sherwood, established by Henry II and frequently visited by King John. There is, however, a quite simple explanation for this. Henry did not stay at Clipstone because his chamber there had not been sufficiently repaired in preparation for a visit. In September 1228, when committing the manor of Clipstone to the custody of the sheriff of Nottinghamshire, he ordered Brian de Lisle to cause the money that he had received to repair the king’s chamber there, and had not yet spent, to be delivered to the sheriff, who was himself to have the chamber repaired. ⁶ It was then over five years since, in February 1223, Brian, then temporary keeper of the forest in the county, had been ordered to provide the sheriff with timber from Sherwood forest to repair the chamber, and then in May that year instructed to get it repaired himself. ⁷ In fact it was rebuilt for 15 marks by Master Robert de Hotot, one of the king’s carpenters, probably late that year or sometime during 1224, ⁸ but evidently that work was only part of what had been needed. Henry, an infrequent traveller north of the Trent, did not visit Clipstone until the 1250s. ⁹

⁋4The king first visited Grimston on 26 November 1227. He had been at Nottingham earlier on that day, and reached Blyth by 28 November, so he possibly spent two nights there. ¹⁰ It seems likely that he stayed at Jordan Foliot’s residence. His second visit was on 4 January 1228, on his return from the north after spending Christmas at Beverley, and travelling via Blyth, where he had been on the previous day. He was accompanied by his chief minister, the justiciar Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent, and six other courtiers. While at Grimston he issued four charters, all dated 4 January, and witnessed by those men. ¹¹ He may have spent several days there, because the next charter issued was dated 12 January, at Sempringham in Lincolnshire. While he was at Grimston, Henry granted Jordan Foliot a respite of an Exchequer demand concerning Jewish debts relating to his Yorkshire lands. ¹² This was not his only favour to the Foliot family. On his third and final visit, about 17–19 December 1229, by when he must have become well acquainted with Jordan Foliot, he granted him a buck and eight fallow does from Sherwood forest to stock his new park at Grimston. ¹³ Foliot was probably not the earliest local landowner to have taken advantage of the disafforestation, because his Yorkshire lord, and also his Nottinghamshire neighbour at Kneesall, John de Lacy, constable of Chester, had already created one there by 1226. ¹⁴

⁋5By 1229 Jordan Foliot was apparently firmly established at Grimston as well as continuing to be deeply involved in the affairs of his part of Yorkshire. He may have been the first frequently resident lord of Grimston, since the earlier holders of the manor had bigger interests elsewhere, and his clear interest in establishing the park suggests that he did not disregard his new Nottinghamshire estate in favour of Norton and Fenwick. He and his heirs remained very closely associated with Grimston for the rest of the thirteenth century. Jordan Foliot died in early 1236, his son and heir Richard not having yet reached his majority, and at that point King Henry granted a very significant favour to the heir to Grimston. On 5 March 1236, in return for a fine of 25 marks, he permitted Richard to take livery of his father’s lands before he came of age. ¹⁵ This was a significant favour to the young man, who he may have seen during his visits to Grimston in the late 1220s. The agreement of the king is said in the fine roll entry to have been at the request of John de Lacy, since 1232 earl of Lincoln as well as constable of Chester, and other faithful men. It was a significant act of patronage by the earl, now in his forties, in favour of his young neighbour and tenant. How many years below the age of 21 Richard Foliot was in 1236 is unclear, but he could have been quite young because his eldest surviving son and eventual heir was not born until about 1249. ¹⁶ It is conceivable that he was only ten or even slightly younger than that.

⁋6The motives of the earl in making the request can only be surmised, but it was probably in his own interest for Richard Foliot to succeed to the estate immediately after his father’s death; indeed it seems likely that Lacy paid the fine himself. Perhaps he feared that the wardship of the young heir, which would normally fall to himself as the lord of the fee, would fall to the king if any of Jordan Foliot’s land was held in chief of the crown. That holding had mainly fallen to Isolda de Grey, who still held it for the fee of half a knight in 1242–43, but the fine roll entry indicates that a fifth of a fee at Hoo had been held by Jordan Foliot before his death. ¹⁷ The fine overcame this difficulty in 1236; many years later the Hoo property again caused a problem over the wardship of another Foliot heir for a later earl of Lincoln, Henry de Lacy.

⁋7Richard Foliot continued to enjoy his inheritance for 63 years, during which time he was a royal household knight in the 1250s, rebelled against the crown in 1261–63, becoming a baronial sheriff, before once again becoming a trusted supporter of the king in December 1263; he was one of those who went to Amiens on Henry’s behalf to receive the Mise made there by Louis IX early in 1264. He benefited from the distribution of rebel lands after the battle of Evesham, and survived an episode in 1272 when his castle at Fenwick was confiscated because he had harboured outlaws. In 1289 he transferred the Nottinghamshire lands to his son and heir, the fourth Jordan Foliot, but received them back as a life tenant. ¹⁸ He finally died in late March 1299, when Jordan succeeded him briefly before his own death five weeks later at the age of fifty. ¹⁹ From that point the connection of Grimston with the male line of the Foliot family came to an end. Jordan’s widow Margery Foliot retained her life interest in the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire estates, holding Norton and Fenwick from Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, for the service of three knights’ fees, and Grimston, with other lands in Nottinghamshire, of the earl and his countess, Margaret, for one knight’s fee. ²⁰ In October 1299 the king’s escheator was ordered to give up custody of Jordan’s lands because he had held nothing in chief of the king, but two years later this was reversed because an inspection of Chancery and Exchequer records showed that Jordan had held a fifth of a fee at Hoo in Kent in chief of the king, and so the wardship and marriage of the young heir Richard did belong to the crown. The tenants from Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Kent, as well as those from Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, were to appear before the king in November 1301 to show any reason why the king should not have the wardship. ²¹ The outcome of this is not known. When Margery herself eventually died in 1330 the Grimston estate, along with the Yorkshire manors and two in Norfolk, was divided between the husbands of her two grand-daughters. ²²

1.1. C 60/23 Fine Roll 9 Henry III (14 June–27 October 1225), membrane 3

1.1.1. 228

⁋1 Concerning homage taken. The king has taken the homage of Jordan Foliot, Isolda de Gray and Ralph Paynel for the portions that fall to them of the lands formerly of Robert Bardolf, their uncle, which he held of the king in chief. Order to the sheriff of Kent that, having accepted security from them for rendering as much of their relief to the king as they ought to render by judgement of the king’s court, he is to cause them to have full seisin of their portions of the aforesaid lands in his bailiwick falling to them by inheritance. Having also accepted security from Robert Wolf, in the place of Matilda Bardolf, his mother, who is one of the heirs of the aforesaid Robert, for rendering as much of her relief as pertains to her, similarly, for her part of the lands formerly of the same Robert, he is to cause the same Robert to have full seisin in the place of his mother for the portion falling to her by inheritance of the aforesaid lands. He is, however, to keep safely the portion falling to the son and heir of Hugh Poinz , who is similarly one of the heirs of the same Robert and is under age and in the custody of the king, until the king orders otherwise. [Westminster, 1 July 1225].

1.2. C 60/23 Fine Roll 9 Henry III (14 June–27 October 1225), membrane 3

1.2.1. 229

⁋1 Concerning homage taken. It is written in the same manner to the sheriffs of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, excepting security. [Westminster, 1 July 1225].

1.3. C 60/27 Fine Roll 12 Henry III (28 October 1227–27 October 1228), membrane 8

1.3.1. 55

⁋1 For Jordan Foliot. Order to the sheriff of Yorkshire to place in respite the demand that he makes by summons of the Exchequer from Jordan Foliot to the king’s use for a debt of the Jews, until Hilary in 15 days. [Grimston, 4 Jan. 1228].

1.4. C 60/27 Fine Roll 12 Henry III (28 October 1227–27 October 1228), membrane 2

1.4.1. 268

⁋1 Concerning the manor of Clipstone. The king has committed the manor of Clipstone to the sheriff of Nottinghamshire to keep to the king’s use for as long as it pleases the king. Order to B. de Lisle to cause the money that he received to repair the king’s chamber of the same manor and has not yet put towards the repair to be delivered to the sheriff of Nottinghamshire, whom the king has ordered to cause that chamber to be repaired. [Shrewsbury, 31 Aug. 1228]

1.5. C 60/35 Fine Roll 20 Henry III (28 October 1235–27 October 1236), membrane 13

1.5.1. 168

⁋1 Concerning the fine of Richard Foliot . Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. To Roger of Essex, the king’s escheator . Because it has been attested before the king by his beloved and faithful J. earl of Lincoln and constable of Chester and other faithful men that Jordan Foliot did not hold of the king in chief save for the fifth part of a knight’s fee in Hoo in Kent, and that Richard Foliot, son and heir of the same Jordan, is not yet of full age, the same Richard has made fine with the king by 25 m. for his relief and for having seisin of all lands formerly of the same Jordan, of which he was seised as of fee on the day he died and which fall to Richard by inheritance . Order that, having accepted security from Richard for rendering the aforesaid 25 m. to the king, he is to cause him to have full seisin without delay of all lands formerly of the same Jordan, which he took into the king’s hand by reason of his death, notwithstanding that Richard is not yet of full age, as aforesaid. Northampton, 5 March [1236].