Welsh Journals

MAELIENYDD 30-31 EDWARD III By E. J. L. COLE, F.S.A. Unpublished Crown-copyright material in the Public Record Office has been reproduced by permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office. An Inquisition1 was held in Hereford castle about midsummer in the year 1356, upon the lands of Elizabeth, late the wife of William de Bohun, earl of Northampton, sometime wife of Edmund Mortimer, in Hereford and the adjacent marches of Wales. The only possessions named were "Kenthlees. The castle and town and the cantred of Melenyt in Wales held in dower of the King in chief by service of a knight's fee. She held no other lands in the said county or march. She died on Monday before St. Barnabas. Roger son of Edmund Mortimer, of full age, is her heir". On 4th July, 1356 an order2 was addressed to Thomas at Barre, es- cheator in co. Gloucester and the adjacent march of Wales, not to intermeddle further with the castle and town of Henthles (sic) and the cantred of Melenyt in that march, delivering the issues thereof to Roger Mortimer, earl of March, son and heir of Edmund Mortimer tenant-in- chief, as the king has learned by inquisition taken by the escheator that Elizabeth late the wife of William earl of Northampton and formerly the wife of the said Edmund, held at her death the said castle and town and cantred in dower of Roger's inheritance, and the king has lately taken Roger's homage for all the lands which are of his inheritance after his father's death From that same year there exists in the Public Record Office a Ministers' Account, No. SC.6/1209/11, described officially as "30-31 Edward III, Maelienydd Forest etc. Divers Ministers", of which a translation follows below. Its preservation doubtless owes something to the transfer of revenue to the young earl following upon the death of the dowager Elizabeth. The roll consists of two membranes of unequal length, stitched together to form a total length of 38 inches, and about 10 inches wide, the whole being fairly well preserved except at the edges, and mostly legible save for a section at the beginning of the dorse of the larger mem- brane. It is headed: Melenyth. Account of ministers of the lordship of Sir Roger Mortimer earl of March there, from the feast of St. Michael in the 30th year of the reign of King Edward the Third after the Conquest until the morrow of St. Michael in the 31st year of the reign of the said king' (i.e. Michaelmas 1356 to Michaelmas 1357). Each section is distinguished by an appropriate marginal note (e.g. Arrears '), but some are mutilated and some are illegible. Here follow the sections in the order in which they appear on the roll. Melenyth.3 Roger Perkyns forester there renders account of 117s. 3d. of his arrears for this office for the preceding year. Total: 117s. 3d.