THE LATER RECORDS OF NORTH WESTMORLAND.
THE BARONY.
The county to which the name "Westmaringaland" and subsequently "Westmarieland" exclusively applied was conterminous
with the later Honour or Barony of Appleby. Henry II enfeoffed
this county to Hugh de Morvill to hold it as a fief of the English
Crown. Morvill remained in possession until Michaelmas, 1174,
when he was ejected, not as has been generally supposed on account
of his participation in the murder of Becket, which occurred on
29 December, 1170, but for his aiding the Scottish invasions and
Northern Rising of 1173–4. Then in 1179 Henry granted the Honour
to his chief justice, Ranulph de Glanvill, who took all the revenues
of Westmarieland until Easter 1190, when Richard 1 deprived him and
the Crown once again resumed possession.
On 31 March, 1203, Appleby and Brough and the bailiwick of
Westmarieland were committed to Robert de Veteripont "to keep
during the king's pleasure," but on 28 October of that year King
John granted to him in fee "Appleby and Brough with all their appendages with the bailiwick and the rent of the county with the services
of all tenants (not holding of the king by military service) to hold by
the service of four knights." As the late William Farrer wrote,
"this undoubtedly marks the commencement of military service due
from a Barony at Appleby."
Sometimes we find the Barony termed "Appleshire" but more
commonly it was known as the "Bottom of Westmorland" by reason
of it having a considerable quantity of low lying ground surrounded
by fells.
The lordship passed down from Robert de Veteripont to his great
grand-daughter, Isabella, who married Roger de Clifford in 1269;
and from them it passed down through twelve generations to Lady
Anne Clifford whose daughter, Margaret, married John Tufton, 2nd
Earl of Thanet in 1629.
With regard to the district known as the Barony of Kentdale it
would appear that the lordship over it had been taken from Roger de
Mowbray, at or before the accession of Henry II, and united to
Westmarieland as a mesne lordship held by the service of £14. 6s. 3d.
for noutgeld. So that the Williams de Lancaster, the first and the
second, were ipso facto tenants of Hugh de Morvill.
William de Lancaster, the second, died in 1184 and left an only
daughter, Helewise, who was given in marriage by Henry 11 to
Gilbert, the son of his steward Roger fitz Reinfrid, with her entire
inheritance. Richard 1 confirmed this marriage and, on 15 April
1190, by three charters granted practically the whole of southern
Westmorland to Gilbert, together with acquittance of the noutgeld,
suits of shires, etc. due to northern Westmorland. By these grants
of the same date Gilbert fitz Roger fitz Reinfrid was endowed with
full baronial status throughout Kentdale and the outlying members,
including the manor of Morland and a considerable part of Barton.
His service to the crown for the same being definitely fixed at the
service of two knights. Thus the Barony of Appleby was created
some thirteen years after the Barony of Kentdale.