Person Page - 40745

     Martha Button was born at Alton, Wiltshire, England^G.¹ She was the daughter of Jane Lawrence.¹ She married Thomas Coningsby, son of Ralph Coningsby and Margery Whetehill, circa 1610 at Hertfordshire, England^G.¹ She was buried at Chapel at North Mimms, North Mimms, Herefordshire, England^G.¹
     Her married name became Coningsby.¹

     Ethel Margaret Morell Mackenzie was born in 1869 at Marylebone, London, England^G.¹ She was the daughter of Sir Morell Mackenzie and Margaret Bouch.¹ She married Theodore McKenna, son of William Columban McKenna and Emma Hanby, circa September 1890 at Marylebone, London, England^G.¹ She died circa 1929 at Etretat, Normandy, France^G.¹
     From circa September 1890, her married name became McKenna.¹

     Susannah Coningsby was born on 22 February 1628/29 at Alton, Wiltshire, England^G.^3,2 She was the daughter of Thomas Coningsby and Martha Button.² She married Robert Perot circa 1648 at Hertfordshire, England^G.^1,2 She married Thomas Lewin on 7 April 1656 at All Hallows, London Wall, London, England^G.²
     Her married name became Lewin.² Her married name became Perot.² Reference: 234.²

     Cath Coningsby was born before 10 August 1591 at Withington, Herefordshire, England^G.^1,2 She was the daughter of Gilbert Coningsby and Joyce Evans.²
     Reference: 235.²

     Dorothy Berkeley was born circa 1511.¹ She was the daughter of Richard Berkeley and Elizabeth Coningsby.¹

     Mary Francis Berkeley was born circa 1509.¹ She was the daughter of Richard Berkeley and Elizabeth Coningsby.¹

     Anne Berkeley was born circa 1507.¹ She was the daughter of Richard Berkeley and Elizabeth Coningsby.¹

     Richard Coningsby was born before November 1558.¹ He was the son of Humfrey Coningsby and Alice Corbett.¹
     Reference: 241.¹

     Sir Humphrey Baskerville was born at Eardisely Castle, Herefordshire, England^G.^2,3 He married Elizabeth Coningsby, daughter of Sir Thomas Coningsby and Phillipa Fitzwilliam.⁴ He died on 3 April 1647 at Eardisley Castle, Herefordshire, England^G.⁴
     Their connection with Herefordshire began with the ancestor who came over to help William the Conqueror, from Normandy, [They may have come over late in William I reign to assist Bernard Newmarch in his raid on Wales]. The name Baskerville is probably derived from Basquevillein in the Pays de Card, or Bosherville near Rouen. He was Nicholas de Basquerville a son of Balderic the Teuton, and was a cousin to William I.(From Nicholas and Baldric, so we learn from Wace's 'Roman de Rou' came from Martels de Basqueville, who fought at Senlec. The same name does not appear in Domesday Book, but we find the 'Martels' in Essex and Suffolk.] It is said that Nicholas de Basqueville name, together with that of the founder of the 'Mynors' was on the Roll of Battle Abbey,[1990 P.B.R. Along with hundreds of other families who contributed money to the building of the Abbey, at Hastings. I believe these rolls were lost and are no longer available to prove this point. It is said that in the Roll of Battle Abbey the name is spelt 'BECEURVILLE' with arms 'Argent, a chevron 3 hurts' This coat may be a later addition, for temp; Henry III. It was charged with 3-torteaux gules. Soon after the torteaux appears as 'hurts' i.e. blue spherical roundels were substituted for red torteaux]

Erdisley or Eardisley was the Herefordshire stronghold of the Baskervilles, called 'Herdelege' in the Domesday Survey. The castle of those days stood in a forest, of which it is said the great oak of Eardisley, was still standing in 1907. This forest was in the valley of the River Wye and on the way to Wales, the castle in consequence, was exposed to attacks from Welsh marauders, and was also in the center of the district where the Wars of the Barons waged with great violence in our early history. It stood on the west side of the present parish church on high ground and was surrounded by a triple moat and had a strong dungeon. [1990 P.B.R. In 1970 and 1990, the moat was still visible as a very wet circle surrounding a mound of about fifteen feet in height. The lime (?) stone, used to build the nearby farmhouse, was obviously taken from the castle ruins although the no vestige of the castle retained beyond a few broken stones]. This castle was burnt down during the Civil War in November 1645. There is a Richard de Baskerville listed in the church as a Rector of Eardisley in 1373, and Madeline Hopton writes 'The helmets of the Baskerville knights are in the side chapel of the parish church, now used as a vestry.

The Baskervilles also had another castle closer to the Wye at Bredwardine, which stood on the right bank of the river, commanding the ferry by which means alone it could be crossed.

The first Baskerville (died 1109) who is mentioned as living in Eardisley castle, about forty-three years after the Conquest, was one Robert, a knight, whose wife Agnes, was daughter and heiress of Nasta, daughter of Rees ap Griffiths, Prince of South Wales.

the Rev Charles Robinson in his work 'Thes Castles of Herefordshire' says :-

In the Domesday Survey ` Herdeslege' is described under the possessions
of Roger de Laci as situated in the middle of a forest of which we may see the last survivor in the celebrated oak which is still flourishing. The Castle is called 'a defensible mansion' and at that early period probably partook more of the character of a Saxon earth and timber work than of a Norman fortalice. Its occupant was one Robert and in Edward the Confessor's time Earl Edwin held it. It seems probable that it was converted into a regular fortress as early as the twelfth century, and at the commencement of the reign of Henry III it is returned in a list of Herefordshire Castles. Situated in the rich valley of the Wye and on the high road into England, Eardisley was exposed to frequent attacks from Welsh marauders and was also in the very centre of the districts where the Barons' wars were waged with the utmost violence. How many times it changed hands in that troublous time it would be very difficult to ascertain, for the King had so slight a hold on the nobility that the same Barons appear alternately as his partizans and his enemies, and the Castle which to-day opposed the insurgents might to-morrow afford them a friendly shelter.

In the year 1262 the Welsh were in open insurrection and under the leadership of Llywelyn made their way towards Hereford, plundering Eardisley and Weobley in their course and driving Roger de Mortimer, the king's chief supporter, into his Castle at Wigmore.

At the close of that year the Cathedral city was itself threatened and Bishop Aquablanca, unpopular alike from being one of the king's foreign favourites and a most inefficient prelate, applied to Henry III for support. Measures were immediately taken to check the progress of the Welsh, but Llywelyn had meanwhile made common cause with Simon de Montfort and the insurgent Barons and, defeating Mortimer, ravaged the lands of the king's partizans. Macy de Bezile, the foreign sheriff of Gloucester, was seized and with the obnoxious Bishop of Hereford, who had been haled from the very altar of his Cathedral, was imprisoned in the Castle of Eardisley. In whose hands the Castle at this time happened to be is, for the reasons already given, somewhat hard to ascertain. Probably it belonged to the de Bohuns, for it would appear that they were its chief lords throughout the thirteenth century and that Humphry de Bohun, the eldest son of the Earl of Hereford, obtained by his marriage with Eleanor de Braose most of the county which lies between the Arrow and the Wye. (see Huntington.) The de Bohuns were on the whole the most consistent supporters of the Baronial cause in Herefordshire and the Welsh Marches, fighting at Evesham and Lewes in the foremost ranks of the insurgent army, generally with success but occasionally suffering a temporary check. Thus in 1277, when the sceptre had fallen from the imbecile hands of Henry III into the vigorous grasp of Edward I, Eardisley Castle was taken from them and given to Roger de Clifford who had shewn himself a staunch adherent of the royal cause. A few years later the de Bohuns regained their position and continued lords of Eardisley till the extinction of the Earldom of Hereford in 1372, when the lordship of Eardisley vested in the crown. (Extenta 39 Edw. iii.) We find that in 1375 on the death of Richard de Baskerville, Chivalier, the mesne lord of Eardisley, the jurors declared ( though the fact was disputed by Sir John de Poyntz) that it was held by him of the heirs of Humphry de Bohun, late Earl of Hereford, and of William de Ferrers deceased, who were the tenants in capite of the crown (Placita, p. 390). From this we gather that Eardisley had belonged originally to Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, from two of whose daughters and co-heirs Bohun and Ferrers each derived his interest.

We must now give some account of the mesne lords of Eardisley, the Baskerviltes, ( Norman family either from Basqueville in the Pays de Caux or Boscherville near Rouen) whose connection with the place commenced at least as early as the thirteenth century. In 1251 Humphry de Bohun and Aleanore his wife, by a fine granted the manor of ` Irdesle' to Walter de Baskerville (Close Rolls 36 Hen. iii. m. 16) but there is good reason to believe that his ancestors had been settled in that place—certainly in the county—at a much earlier date. They claim, indeed, to have acquired possession of the manor of Eardisley by the marriage of Sir Ralph Baskerville with Sibyl, heiress of Adam de Port and of his wife who was a daughter of de Braose and a grand-daughter of Milo, Earl of Hereford ; nor must we omit Camden's statement that ' they deduce their pedigree from a niece of Dame Gunora, that most famous lady in Normandy.' (Camden's Britannia.) With greater certainty we may state that Ralph de Baskerville held lands under Adam de Port de veteri feoffamento, i.e. by inheritance from the reign of Henry I (Lib. Scut.) and that on the murder of Ralph Baskerville in Northamptonshire about the year 1194 his son Thomas succeeded him at Pickthorn, the Shropshire estate (Eyton's Shropshire), and another son, Roger, at Eardisley in Herefordshire.(Her. Visit.)

Walter de Baskerville, grandson of this Roger, had licence from the Bishop of Hereford in 1272 'to hold divine service in an oratory built within the walls of the Castle ' (Reg. Breton), and we may assume from this that Eardisley had then become the chief residence of the family, as it continued to be for the four succeeding centuries.

During that long period the house of Baskerville produced a series of knights, whom to mention by name would exceed our limits. They won their spurs not by wealth or by waiting upon the Court, but by active service at home and abroad, and on the grave of each might be inscribed the quaint old epitaph
Eques Auratus well may he be said
Whose coyne, not warlike courage, such hath made ;
To Baskerville, we Miles do afford
As knighted on the field by his flesht sword.

The most eminent members of the Eardisley line were Sir John Baskerville who, while yet a boy, followed King Henry to the battle field of Agincourt and his son, Sir James, one of the three Herefordshire heroes who were made Knights Banneret by Henry VII after the battle of Stoke in 1487. The latter married Sibyl, sister of Walter Devereux, first Lord Ferrars, who fell at Bosworth fighting against the cause which his brother-in-law supported. A descendant was Sir Thomas Baskerville who died in 1597 commanding Queen Elizabeth's troops in Picardy. There was a tablet to his memory in old St. Paul's setting forth the glories of ` the right worthy and valient Gentleman' and his services in the Netherlands, Indies, Spain, and France and attributing to him

'A pure regarde to the immortall parte
A spotless minde and an unvanquisht hart.'

In the Civil war Sir Humphrey Baskerville of Eardisley took the side of the king but was not actively engaged in the struggle. Indeed, the importance of the family had then begun to decline and Symonds states that the income of the knight ( whom he calls a traveller) had dwindled
down from JJ300o per annum to X300. (Symonds's Diary p. 196.)
Misfortunes continued to attend the family. The Castle was burnt to the ground in the Civil war, only one of the gatehouses escaping, and in this the representative of the family was living in 167o in comparative poverty. (Blount's MS.) The Parish Register contains the burial entry of Benhail Baskerville in 1684 to whose name are added the words
Dominus Manerii de Erdisley.' At his death the family became extinct in the direct male line, and the remainder of the property ( most of which had been sold by Sir Humphrey Baskerville in the reign of James I) was purchased by William Barnesley, Bencher of the Inner Temple. His son, having offended his father by a marriage with a portionless London girl, was disinherited either in fact or in intention and the estate became the subject of tedious litigation, the details of which may 'be found by those interested in causes celebres in the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 61. William Barnesley, junior, was weak in mind and body but his wife fought the battle manfully and celebrated the legal triumph by inscribing on their grave stone,

-‘at length they overcame and died conquerors.'
' Blessed are they which die in the Lord.' '

The heir of Barnesley was a lunatic and the Castle and Park were sold to Dr. Pettit, from whom they were purchased by Mr. Perry who bequeathed them to W. Perry Herrick, Esq. of Beaumanoir, Leicestershire, their present possessor.

The Castle stood upon the western side of the Church on high ground insulated by a triple moat. The mound on which the donjon stood and the wet ditches which encircle it are all the traces of the ancient fortress which now exist. Not a fragment of the Castle remains and even the few chiselled stones which are visible in the Farm house walls seem rather to have belonged to the Manor House which occupied the Castle site than to the older building. Spear heads and armour have been found from time to time in the inner moat and the labourers employed in cleansing it a few years ago, discovered a massive piece of masonry which had probably formed a part of the ancient draw-bridge or sluice-gate.³

     Beaumont Coningsby was the son of Richard Coningsby and Dorothy Glenham.² He died before 30 January 1633/34.²
     Reference: 247.²