as right heirs after Aveline de Fortibus, the earldom of Albemarle and Holderness, with the great property annexed to it. Cecily was married to a person of the name of Eston or Aston, and had a son named Ranulph, and Ranulph had a son John, who was father of another John de Eston or Aston, who, as right heir after Aveline de Fortibus, claimed the earldom of Albemarle, in the 6 Edward I. anno 1278, and had certain lands in Thornton near Pickering, to the value of £100 per annum, assigned to him on engaging to give up his claim, which he did accordingly; and he also gave up his claim on all the lands and tenements in England, which did sometime belong to Alice de Fortibus, John de Fortibus, Thomas de Fortibus, William de Fortibus, and William le Gros, and Hawise his daughter, together with all the rights of all other his ancestors as well in England as in Normandy.* This compromise might not be made on equitable principles, which did not always prevail in those times, but it seems to have been conclusive against the heirs of Cecily. From this short account of William le Gros, and his descendants, and from other concurrent history of the times, it may be inferred that * Dugdale's Baronage, vol. 1, p. 62 and 63, Hedon and Ravenspurne were the property of Drogo de Beurere, alias Drogo de Holdernesse, and of the successive earls of Albemarle and Holderness, from the Norman conquest to the death of the third William de Fortibus, anno 1260; and from the year 1260, were the property of Aveline de Fortibus, countess of Albemarle and Holderness to the year 1276, when Edward I. had a mind to all the castles and lands which Aveline inherited from her ancestors.* ERRATA. A learned friend dissents very justly from Drake's derivation of the word Derwent, "i. e. the Ford of Deira," mentioned in page 27, Ocellum Promontorium, and suggests that Der-went means the stream, or water of the oaks. Derwent is certainly a common name of rivers far from the province of Deira, and is undoubtedly of Celtic origin; and may fairly be deduced from primitives of the meaning abovementioned, without reference to Deira. * Dugdale's Baronage, vol. 1, p. 60 to 66. The Burgh of Hedon went to the Crown at that time. Vide, page 230 preceding. It is here, also, necessary to correct a mistake which has been made in reading the figures in the inscription on the monumental stone in the floor of Welwick church, mentioned in page 260. The death of William the husband, was in the year of Salvation 1498, and the death of Margaret the wife in 1494. The figure, like a cipher, in three places in the inscription, ought to be considered as a figure of 4, according to the manner of writing in those times. The necessity of making this correction has furnished Mr. Child with an opportunity of kindly offering his drawing of the inscription, to be engraved for these sheets, as a specimen of the latinity and character, or letter used in writing epitaphs in the fifteenth century. An engraving is therefore given herewith, of the stone and the inscription upon it. A similar stone, on which an epitaph is engraved in a similar manner, may be seen at Tonstall in Holderness. It was once in the church, where it ought to have remained; but it is now turned out into the church porch, and is much injured. FINIS. |