DICKERING. 287 



and stands on a high slaty hill. The other part of 

 the town is not so large as this. In the church I 

 saw two or three tombs of the Brus' family;* one 



* The first of this family was Robert le Brus, or 

 Bruis, a noble knight of Normandy ; who accompanied 

 William the Conqueror into England, and was regarded 

 by him after the battle of Hastings with no less than 34 

 lordships in the county of York ; of which the manor 

 and Castle of Skelton was the capital of his barony. 

 He died about the year 1100, leaving as his successor, 

 his son Robert. Robert de Brus married for his first 

 wife Agnes, daughter of Fulk Faganal, by whom he had 

 issue a son, Adam, who was his successor in most of his 

 English estates. His second wife was Agnes Annand, 

 heiress of the lordship and vast estate of Annandale in 

 Scotland; by whom he had issue two sons and a daugh- 

 ter; the eldest of whom succeeded to the lordship of 

 Annandale in right of his mother. The eldest branch 

 of this illustrious family of Brus, viz. the lords of Skel- 

 ton, became extinct in the male line in Peter de Brus, 

 the last lord; who died without issue in the reign of 

 Edward I. ; son of Peter de Brus and Helewise de 

 Lancaster, leaving his four slaters his heirs ; of whom 

 Margaret married Robert de Ros, or Fursan de Ros, of 

 Helmsley ; Agnes Walter de Fauconberge ; Lucy, Mar- 

 maduke de Thweng ; and Laderine, John de Bellow, 

 (or Bella Aqua,) by whom she had two daughters ; 

 Sibella, married to Milo de Stapleton, and Joan, to 

 Aucker Fitz- Henry. 



Henry de Percy, ancestor of the earls of Northumber- 

 land of that name, had in marriage with Isabella, daught- 

 er of Adam, fourth lord of Skelton, the manor of Lokin- 

 field, near Beverley, in Yorkshire; for which he and 

 his heirs were to repair to Skelton castle every Christ- 

 mas day, and lead the lady of the castle from her chamber 

 to the chapel to mass, and thence to her chamber again; 

 and after dining with her to depart. 



Arms : Or, a saltier ingrailed, gules, n chief per fess 

 indented of the first and second. 



Bruce of Annaixiale. Robert de Brus. second lord of 

 Skelion, had by his second wife, Agnes Annand, three 

 children j the eldest of which (William,) succeeded, in 



