TARRANT GUNVILLE. l6l 



as also in Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Devon, Gloucester, Hants, 

 Herts, Somerset, and Wilts, consisting of no less than 77 manors, 

 were forfeited to the Crown, and the bulk of them were sub- 

 sequently bestowed upon Walter de Clare, founder of Tintern 

 Abbey. All this proves that William de Ow was an entirely 

 different person from (though cotemporaneous with), Count 

 William de Ow, whose lands were never forfeited. 



The Manor of Tarrant Gunville, at least the greater part of it, 

 was now in the family of the Clares, and appears in all their 

 Inquisitions post mortem, and formed part of the Honour of 

 Gloucester, and continued in this family till the death of Gilbert 

 de Clare, fourth and last Earl of Gloucester and Hertford at the 

 battle of Bannockburn in 1313, 7 Edward II. 



His heiresses were his three sisters, and on a partition of his 

 vast estates Tarrant Gunville, amongst other property, was given 

 to Elizabeth, wife of John de Burgh. Her grand-daughter, 

 Elizabeth de Burgh, brought the property again into the hands 

 of royalty on her marriage with Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and 

 their grand-son, Roger Mortimer, fourth Earl of March, and his 

 son Edmund, fifth Earl of March, both held the manor at their 

 deaths in 1398 and 1424 respectively. 



It was during the tenure of this place by the Mortimers that 

 a most interesting document (now in the British Museum) was 

 compiled, called " The Register of the Muniments of Edmund 

 Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March." Their head or principal abode 

 was Wigmore in co. Hereford, and at some period between 1360 

 and 1381 an inventory was taken of all their possessions in 

 England, and under the heading of " Tarent Gundeville " 

 appears a list, or rather abstracts, of 40 deeds then existing 

 relating to this place. Many of the earlier ones are not dated 

 but it is presumed that they are in their chronological order. It 

 forms quite an authentic " Abstract of Title " first of the Clares 

 and afterwards of the Mortimers, to the Manor, and shows how 

 by degrees the different owners of parts of the manor, such as 

 Sibilla de Gunvil, wife of Hugh de Gunvil, Ralph de Stopham 

 and William de Glammorgan (who were two of the heirs of 



