EPONYMOUS FAMILIES OF DORSET. 1 29 



Edward de Rabayne, son of Elias, he asked that the forfeited 

 property might be restored, and this seems to have been done. 

 Moreover, the energetic Matilda de Rabayne petitioned King 

 Edward II. for the reversion of that part which had gone to the 

 De Vescis, and apparently with success, for her son, Peter de 

 Rabayne, in the next generation is found in possession of the 

 manor : his aunt, Joan, having been disposed of by her 

 marriage in France to a foreign subject, Pierre Bandral, of 

 Poitou, and thereby disqualified from holding land in England. 



Thus passed away the line of de Baieux, whose estate, though 

 small in size, was nevertheless held direct of the Crown as a 

 Barony by Tenure. One is rather tempted to suspect that some 

 near but unacknowledged relationship to the royal house secured 

 for this family the honour of a barony, while on the other hand 

 their questionable fidelity may have made it impolitic to place 

 them in a position of great influence. But whatever the cause 

 may have been, the remarkable fact is noteworthy, that so small 

 an estate should have constituted its owner a peer of the King 

 and an actual equal of the most powerful subjects of that 

 period. 



BARDOLF, OF BARDOLFETON. 



The family of Bardolf was one of some importance ; four of 

 this name are mentioned in the Roll of Arms temp. Edwd. II., 

 and from the strong resemblance of their armorial bearings one 

 may suppose them to have been of the same family. In the still 

 earlier Roll of Caerlaverock of June, 1300, there is mention of 

 Hugh Bardolf. This nobleman, and several knights of the same 

 surname, belonged to the county of Norfolk, where great 

 possessions had come to them through the marriage of Doun 

 Bardolf, great grandfather of Hugh, with Beatrix, daughter and 

 heiress of the great Baronial family of de Warren. Hugh's 

 father, William, had married Julian, daughter and heiress of 

 Hugh de Gourney, and died in 1290, leaving to his son large 

 estates in Norfolk and Suffolk, with the Barony by Tenure of 

 Wirmegay in the former county. Hugh Bardolf was thus one 

 of the most opulent nobles of the east of England, and 



