52 The Society's ItSS. Chiseldon. 



nature and the result of Lord Rutland's suit against Darell. For 

 serious students, then, it will be well to read Draycot history, as set 

 out in the following document, and to interpret Chilton history by it. 



Eleanor, Duchess of Somerset, was the second daughter and 

 coheir (she had two sisters, the Countess of Shrewsbury and Lady 

 Latimer, whose issue is represented at the present day) of Richard 

 Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, by his first wife, Elizabeth Berkeley, 

 sole heiress of the lords de L'Isle and the lords le Tyes. She in 

 no way represented her father, who left male issue by a second wife, 

 and the estates which came to her were all derived from her mother. 

 She married, first, Thomas, Lord Roos. He died in 1431, and she 

 re-married with Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. By the 

 first husband she had a son and heir, Thomas, Lord Roos ; by the 

 second, three sons, who all died without lawful issue (the present 

 Duke of Beaufort is the male descendant of a bastard son of the 

 eldest of them) , and five daughters, co-heirs to their father. It is 

 clear, therefore, that, on the death of the duchess, her lands would, 

 in normal course, have descended to her eldest son, and heir, Lord 

 Roos. It so happened, however, that this son and heir died three 

 or four years before her, and that, before his death (he was beheaded) 

 he had been attainted. Accordingly, on her own death, all her 

 lands came into the possession of the Crown. This was in 1467 or 

 1468. They remained in the possession of the Crown till 1485, 

 when Henry VII. came to the throne. Very shortly after this 

 King's accession the attainder of Lord Roos was annulled and his 

 son, Edmund Roos, restored to his inheritance. The joy of his 

 restoration, it is stated, proved too much for him, he was found to 

 be incapable of managing himself, or his estate, and the custody of 

 his person was committed to his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Lovell, 

 K.Gh It is a matter of common knowledge that King Henry VII. 

 was a thrifty man. An early proof of it was a clause specially 

 inserted in the Act restoring Lord Roos, whereby, "during 

 pleasure," the estates of the poor distraught lord were to remain in 

 the King's hands. Edmund, Lord Roos, died 15th October, 1508, 

 the King died 21st April the year following ; but neither event led to 

 the surrender by the Crown of its hold on the duchess' inheritance- 



