134 DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



The raising of so enormous a sum within the given time was not, 

 however, accomplished, and the sureties, therefore, in consequence 

 of sucli default, conveyed the estates once more to Edmund, Earl 

 of Lancaster, and his heirs for ever. 



Notwithstanding this forfeiture, Robert de Ferrers exhibited his 

 bill in the Court of King's Bench, in the year of his release, and 

 again at the beginning of the reign of Edward I., complaining that 

 his estates were unjustly withheld from him. He could not get 

 behind the various bonds that he had signed before so many wit- 

 nesses at the time of his release, but his chief argument was that 

 he had signed them through fear when in custody at Chippenham, 

 " in quadam camera ubi jacuit sub stricta custodia," and that 

 therefore they were not binding. He seemed to forget that if it 

 had not been for his signatures and assurances, the question of 

 restoring to him his lands forfeited for repeated rebellion would 

 never have been even entertained. The judges dismissed the 

 suit, and amerced the complainant for a false claim.* 



In the year of his release, 1269, Robert de Ferrers married, 

 for his second wife, Eleanor, daughter of Ralph Lord Bassett, by 

 whom he had a son, John. Robert died in 1278, whereupon his 

 widow instituted a futile suit for a third part of the forfeited lands 

 of her late husband as dowry. But as he was not possessed of 

 them at the time of his second marriage, the Court did not enter- 

 tain the question. f 



John de Ferrers eventually received again from the king the 

 castle and honor of Chartley. He was summoned to Parliament 

 in 1299 as Baron Ferrers of Chartley. From him were descended 

 the Ferrers of Chartley, who became extinct in the time of 

 Henry VI.} 



* Placita coram Rege, 53 Henry III., and | Edw. I., rot. 6. 



t Placita coram Rege, 7 Edw. I., rot. 49. 



t In putting together these notes, Dugdale's Ba'-ona%e, the first edition of 

 Collins' Peerage, Mosley's History of Tictbury, and the chronicles of Matthew 

 Paris, Hoveden, Brompton,' Knighton, etc., have been freely consulted, but 

 no statement that could possibly be tested by consulting the original docu- 

 mentary authority has been accepted without going to the original source. 

 Every roll or document mentioned in the previous notes has been consulted 

 at first hand. 



