Barony of Kendal - The Division Into "fees"

The Division Into "fees"

The last true Baron of the whole of the Barony of Kendal was the son of Gilbert fitz Reinfrid, who used the name William de Lancastre III. After his death, the Barony was divided between the husbands of his heiresses. The most important division was into the so-called Marquis fee, that eventually passed from the de Ros family to the Parr family, and the Richmond fee, which passed the Lyndesey family until it came into the hands of the French lords of Coucy, upon which point the royal family took control, giving it for a time to John de Coupland for example.

The Marquis fee was further divided with the splitting off of the so-called Lumley fee, that originated with the portion of the Thweng family. In many cases old manors were themselves divided into parts. In the time of Charles II, not long before they both ended up in the possession of the Lowther Earls of Lonsdale, the two main fees were defined as follows:

• Richmond fee. Grasmere, Langdale, Loughrigg, Ambleside, Undermillbeck, Troutbeck, Applethwaite, Crossthwaite and Lyth, New Hutton, Casterton, Strickland Ketel and Helsington, Thornton, Westhouse and Maysinghill.
• Marquis fee. Grasmere, Langdale, Underbarrow, Staveley and Hugill, Overknotts or Nethergraveship, Skalthwaite Rigg, Hay, Hutton in the Hay, Strickland Roger, Greenhead, Hugill, Crosthwaite.

To which we can add, a description of the Lumley fee, which ended up in the possession of the Howard, Earls of Berkshire.

• Lumley fee. Included Helsington, Crosthwaite and Lyth, and one fourth of the town of Kendal.

And some smaller possessions also split off outside these large fees:

• John Hotham (shown below) received part of Staveley and other lands. It was much later merged into the Lumley fee.
• Rydal was granted by a niece to Roger de Lancaster, a bastard half brother to William de Lancaster III. (He also received parts of Barton, in Westmorland.)
• The Stapleton descendants of Laderine de Thweng received Kentmere.

A short summary of the historical dividing of the feudal barony can be summarised as follows: