EXMOOR UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS. 193 



on Anne, who married Richard of Cambridge, and 

 thus the office came to be vested in the Dukes 

 of York, and so in time became merged in the 

 Crown properties. 



This appears to be the simplest explanation of 

 how the forestership passed from the Mortimers 

 to the Dukes of York, and it Is borne out by the fact 

 that an inquisition post-mortem held in 1425 into 

 the estates of the late Edward Mortimer, Earl of 

 March, enumerates Exmoor among his other posses- 

 sions. Yet we find in 1409 Edward, Duke of York 

 — who we know owned the Manor of Cutcombe in 

 right of his wife Philippa Mohun — described as 

 " Chief Forester of the Royal forest this side of 

 Trent," and giving orders about the Forest of 

 Petherton, which, equally with Exmoor, was vested 

 in the Mortimers. This is the Edward Duke of 

 York who wrote the " Master of Game," and was 

 the father of the Duke of York who subsequently 

 was Forester of Exmoor. 



The Mortimers held the office of foresters of 

 the other Somerset forests as well as of Exmoor, 

 but their personal connection with the county was 

 of the slightest kind. They were the first holders 

 of the office to appoint deputies with full powers. 

 Edmund Mortimer, who succeeded in 1361, was a 

 minor, and Richard de Acton, a Somerset man, was 

 his deputy from 1362 to 1365, with James Payn as 

 a locum tenens ; after him Guy de Brien, a large 

 landowner in West Somerset— there are Bryants 



O 



