I20 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1913 



From the School the Members proceeded to " Lisle House," outside 

 which Mr St. Clair Baddeley made some remarks on 



THE WOTTON BRASS AND LISLE HOUSE.' 



To the Antiquarian at Wotton-under-Edge, there is no object con- 

 centrating in itself so much of local historical interest as the brass of Margaret, 

 Lady Berkeley, at the head of the north aisle, and that of her Lord, Thomas, 

 5th Lord Berkeley. For, being born in 1352-3, the latter became ward during 

 his minority to Warin de Lisle Viscount Lisle, who, at the age of fifteen 

 years, married him to his sole daughter and heiress, Margaret, aged 7, in the 

 year 1367. This juvenile pair remained apart until she was 12-13. Nine- 

 teen years later, in 1386, was born to them Elizabeth, their sole offspring and 

 heiress, who married Richard Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick. In right 

 of his wife. Lord Berkeley styled himself Lord de Lisle ; and it is from this 

 fact that the castellated Manor House at Wotton-under-Edge took its name of 

 Lisle House. Margaret died March 20th, 1391-2, while her husband sur- 

 vived until 141 7 (July 13th). Both were buried at Wotton, where they 

 had so much lived. 



Now, Wotton was, of course, long previous to this date, a member of 

 the barony of Berkeley. According to Smyth {Lives of the Berkeleys) the 

 house was built by Thomas, Lord Berkeley, in c. 1210, whose wife was known 

 in her widowhood as Doniine de Wotton, or Lady de Wotton (daughter of 

 Ralph de Somery). Therefore, the house merely may be supposed to have 

 been given a new name when it became amplified in honour of the great 

 heiress and daughter of Warin de Lisle in Edward the Third's time, as above 

 shown. After the decease of Lord Berkeley in 141 7, his nephew and heir 

 male, James (b. c. 1394), succeeded to the Castle of Berkeley and other estates 

 of his great-grandfather, and he was summoned to Parliament as Baron 

 Berkeley by a Writ in 142 1. 



Now began the trouble that was to be crowned by that great tragedy, 

 the last private battle in England, which took place at Nibley Green fifty 

 years later. 



For, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in right of his wife, the great 

 heiress-general of the last lord, as well as of the De Lisle heritage, finding 

 themselves, at the last Lord's death, in actual possession of Berkeley, with all 

 the title-deeds, obtained from King Henry V. a grant of the custody of all 

 the late lord's Castles, Manors and lands, so long as these should be in the 

 King's hands, to the exclusion of Lord Berkeley. 



The latter, in consequence, procured the issue of a Writ of " diem clausit 

 extremum " addressed to the King's Excheator for the County of Gloucester 

 Robert Gilbert, under whom a competent jury presently came to the conclusion 

 that James, Lord Berkeley, was indeed the heir male to his late uncle and 

 should inherit the Castle of Berkeley and the twelve manors which con- 

 stituted the Barony (of which we have seen that Wotton was one), together 

 with the advowsons of Wotton and Slimbridge ; but that all the late Baron's 

 other lands had descended to the Countess of Warwick. Upon this, Lord 

 Berkeley became accepted as the King's tenant-in-chief, and he did fealty 

 for the Castle and his barony. 



None the less, and although the Earl and Countess sued their livery 

 and paid relief for their own manors, they continued, as Executors of the 

 last lord, to hold the Castle and estates, and, what is more, the documentary 

 evidences, the Manor-Courts, and to receive the rents thereof. In the last 

 year of Henry V. that King is said to have ordered their surrender by Lord 



I. Mr Baddeley, in response to a request, has very kindly furnished this account.— Ed. 



