85 
Sir John de Seagrave was named by Edward II. to succeed Sir 
Simon, being allowed to retain out of the first issues of the manor, 
the sum of £513 18s. 8d., due to him for services rendered to the 
king as warden of Scotland. By 1319, Sir Thomas, the son, had 
come of age, and though not present in person, sent sixty-five 
soldiers to assist the king’s army at the Siege of Berwick. This 
Thomas married Blanche, daughter of, Henry Plantagenet, Earl of 
Lancaster, and in 1324 he is styled the king’s cousin, and is named 
as going in his service to Aquitaine, with thirty men-at-arms. At 
a later period, his loyalty to the king fell under suspicion, and his 
lands were seized, but restored upon his exonerating himself. Under 
Edward III. he was named, in 1340, along with Anthony de Lucy 
and Peter Tylliol, as commissioner to put down the evil doers who 
infest the woods and passes, and slay the king’s lieges both Scots 
and English. A year later (perhaps he was getting old and pre- 
paring for his latter end,) a safe conduct is granted to him to go on 
a pilgrimage to Saint Jake, Saint James at Melrose, Eight years, 
however, of life remained to him, for he did not die till-1349, on 
the vigil of Pentecost. The value of the manor is now returned 
at only £70 16s. 2d., or less than one-fourth of what it was in 
1276—so troublous the period that had been passed through. His 
wife Blanche survived him, and their son dying without issue, the 
next heir was his sister Margaret, married to Edward Plantagenet, 
Earl of Kent, third son of King Edward I. In the end the barony 
reverted to King Edward III., through failure of male issue, and 
remained in the Crown till 1604, when it was given by James I. to 
the Earls of Cumberland, who sold it in the reign of Charles I. to 
Richard Graham, who, following the fortunes of the king, was 
nearly killed at Edgehill. 
These centuries that followed the Normanconquest were centuries 
no doubt of trial for all who had the misfortune to inhabit this district. 
The constant incursions of the Scotch, and thereprisals to which they 
too naturally led, must have made residence here anything but an 
enviable position. It would be needless to pursue the details of 
these ever recurring Scottish raids. It is enough to say that they 
were incessant. John Halton, Bishop of Carlisle, in 1304, speaks 
