70 Erlcdoke and its Manor Lords. 



to Pope Boniface protesting against his claim to the reahn of 

 Scotland,^ and his seal, which is found among those of the signa- 

 tories, is described in the Ancestor ^ as : — A shield of arms — three 

 lions in a parti-coloured field — upon a shield-shaped seal.^ After 

 his signature, Matthew Fitz-John describes himself as Lord of 

 Stokenliam, which seems to suggest that he made some claim to 

 hold that manor as a barony, in accordance with the report of the 

 Wiltshire Jurors in the Inquest of Hundreds, and it is a fact that 

 in 1321-22 Hugh de Courtenay, then the representative of the 

 true overlords of Stokenham, found it necessary to make petition 

 for the recognition of his rights over the manor which had been 

 ignored by the King,* but a study of the writ by which Matthew 

 was summoned on this as well as on a former occasion shows that 

 it differed from those usually addressed to barons, and the opinion 

 is that on both these occasions he attended in his capacity of 

 Governor of Devizes.^ 



In July, 1309, Matthew died without issue, and his lands having 

 reverted to the King, on the loth of that month the manor of 

 Erlestoke was committed to the charge of John de Weston, and a 

 writ was issued to Walter de Gloucester, King's Escheator, bidding 

 him call a jury to make a survey of the lands in order to discover 

 their extent and value, so that an answer might be made to the 

 petition of Eleanor, the widow, for a reasonable dower.*^ The report 

 of the jury, made on tlie 15th August, is of great interest, but will 

 be best dealt with in the chapter devoted to the manor, where 

 several records that have already been referred to briefly will be 

 considered in detail. On September 11th the King issued a Letter 

 Closed to the Escheator informing him that he had assigned the 

 following lands and fees to Eleanor Fitz-John as her dower : — '^ 



' Eyiner's Fadera, ed. 1705, ii., 874. 

 - Jan., 190J,, p. 108. 

 3 rf. Maitheio Paris, ed. Madden, ii., 500. 

 " Eoll.s of Pari., Petitions, vol, i., p. 4056. 

 5 Sir H. Nicholas, Synopsis, ed. 1825, pp. 242—244. 

 6 Pipe Roll (173), 2 Edw. III., Ro. 33</. ; Chanc. Inq^.,-p. m. 3 Edw. II., 

 No. 49. 



-' Close Roll (132), 3 Edw. II., m. 21. 



