Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe. 



139 



the heir, William de Montfort sold his reversionary right to them 

 in the year 1309, to Bartholomew, Lord Badlesmere, for £1,000 

 sterling, by a deed executed before Henry Le Scrope, one of the 



king's justices. And thus the Barony 

 of Castle Combe passed out of the line 

 of the De Dunstanvilles, who had held 

 it from the time of Henry I. or for 

 about a century and a half. 



During that entire period the Lords 

 De Dunstanville appear to have re- 

 sided for the most part in the Castle 

 of Combe. One of them, the first 

 Walter, was, however, buried in the 

 Church of the Priory of Wombridge, 

 near Ideshale or Shifihall, in War- 

 wickshire, which manor he obtained 

 as part of his wife's dower. A sculp- 



tured slab dug up in the ruins of 



Monkton Farleigh, and still preserved 

 in Mr. Wade Brown's tower, attests 

 the burial there of another, the arms 

 of De Dunstanville being on the shield 

 of the cross-legged knight represented 

 in relief; and the third was in all 

 probability buried in the Church at 

 Castle Combe, in the altar- tomb bearing 

 a stone- sculptured figure, likewise cross- 

 legged and in chain armour, which is 

 still to be seen there. On this shield, however, the arms are at 

 present undecypherable. 



Sir John de la Mare survived but a few years the sale of the barony, 

 which on his death in 1313, became the property of Lord de Badles- 

 mere, who in the year 1316, exercised the right of presentation to 

 the Eectory of Castle Combe, and certified as Lord of Combe, 

 Colerne, Stert, Herdecote, and the Town and Hundred of Heytes- 

 bury, and joint Lord of Polton and Bluntesdon St. Andrew, in the 



