The Stately Homes of England

by Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt; S. C. Hall

To him, Mr. Hodgson is of opinion, is to be ascribed the first foundation of the manor. The descendant of Dolfin, Robert Fitz-Maldred, lineal heir to Ughtred, Earl of Northumberland, was described as “Dominus de Raby,” when, early in the thirteenth century, he married Isabel de Nevil (daughter to Geoffrey de Nevil, the grandson of Gilbert de Nevil, who came over with the Conqueror, by the daughter and sole heiress of Bertram de Bulmer), who, by the death of her brother, the last male of his line, became sole heiress and representative of the great Saxon house of Bulmer, Lords of Brancepath and Sheriff-Hutton. Their son Geoffrey assumed his mother’s surname of Nevil, and thus laid afresh the foundation of the great house of that name. He had issue two sons—Robert, who succeeded him, and Geoffrey, who became Constable of Scarborough Castle and Justice Itinerant, and from whom the Nevils of Hornby, afterwards merged in the Beauforts, descended. Robert de Nevil, who was Governor of Norham, Werke, York, Devizes, and Bamborough Castles, Warden of all the King’s forests north of the Trent, Justice Itinerant, General of all forces beyond the Trent, and Sheriff of Yorkshire, joined the rebellious barons, but was afterwards restored to favour. His son Robert, called the “Peacock of the North,” dying without issue during his lifetime, this elder Robert was succeeded by Ralph de Nevil, who took a prominent part in the troublous internal wars of his time. He in turn was succeeded by his son, John de Nevil, Baron of Raby, who was Admiral of the King’s fleet from the Thames northward, Warden of the East Marches, Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine, and Seneschal of Bordeaux. He died 12th Richard II., and was succeeded by his eldest son, Ralph, his second son being Thomas, Lord Furnival. This John, Lord Nevil, was the builder of the present castle of Raby.

Ralph, Lord Nevil of Raby, held many important offices, and founded the collegiate church of Staindrop. By his first wife, Margaret, daughter of Hugh, Earl of Stafford, he had issue two sons—John, who died during his father’s lifetime, and Ralph, “who married the daughter and heir of Ferrers of Oversley, by whom he had John Nevil, called Lord Ferrers, whose daughter Joan (heir to the baronies of Oversley and Newmarch), being married to Sir William Gascoigne, brought forth Margaret Gascoigne, their daughter and heir, wife to Wentworth; whence the Barons Raby of that surname do descend”—and seven daughters: Maud, married to Baron de Mauley; Alice, to Sir Thomas Grey; Philippa, to Baron Dacres of Gillesland; Margaret, to Baron Scrope; Anne, to Sir Gilbert de Umfraville; Margery and Elizabeth, nuns. His second wife was Joan, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, “by whom he had issue eight sons—Richard, Earl of Salisbury; William, Baron Falconberg; George, Baron Latimer; Edward, Baron Bergavenny; Robert, Bishop of Durham; Cuthbert, Henry, and Thomas, which three last died issueless. Also five daughters—Catherine, married first to John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, secondly to Thomas Strangways, Esq., thirdly to John, Viscount Beaumont, and lastly to Sir John Widville, Knight; Eleanor, or Elizabeth, to Richard, Baron Spencer, secondly to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland; Anne, to Humphrey, Duke of Bucks, and afterwards to Walter Blunt, Baron Mountjoy; Jane, a nun; and Ciceley, to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York.” He was created Earl of Westmoreland, being “the first who was made earl of this county;” and at his death, in the 4th of Henry VI., he was succeeded by his grandson, Ralph Nevil, as second Earl of Westmoreland and Baron Nevil of Raby, who in turn was succeeded by his cousin, Ralph Nevil, son to Sir John Nevil, as third Earl of Westmoreland. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir Roger Booth, by whom he had issue, with others, one son, who died in his father’s lifetime, leaving a son, Ralph, who in turn succeeded his grandfather.

Ralph, fourth Earl of Westmoreland and Baron Nevil of Raby, married Catherine, daughter of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckinghamshire, by whom he had issue seven sons and five daughters, and was, at his death, succeeded by his eldest son, Henry Nevil, as fifth earl. This earl married Anne, daughter to Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland, by whom, amongst others, he had issue a son, Charles, who succeeded him as fifth Earl of Westmoreland and Baron Nevil of Raby.

This nobleman, Charles, fifth Earl of Westmoreland, having taken an active part in the rebellion against Queen Elizabeth, known as the “Rising in the North,” was defeated, and all his possessions confiscated to the Crown. He left only female issue.

Raby, having passed into the hands of the Crown, was afterwards sold to the Vanes, to which family we now draw attention.

It will thus be seen that Raby Castle holds a very high rank among the ancient castles of England, and is one of the few of its old glories that continue to be the habitation of its lords.

The family of Vane, of which the Duke of Cleveland, the owner of Raby Castle, is the head, is of very high antiquity, and, unlike many of our noted families, has been continued in unbroken succession from at least the time of the Norman Conquest down to the present hour. The first of whom we have any authentic record—although doubtless the family might be traced much further back still—is Howell ap Vane, who was living in Monmouthshire antecedently to the Conquest. His son, Griffith ap Howell Vane, married Lettyce, daughter of Bledwyn ap Kynvyn, Lord of Powys, who was founder of three noble tribes of Wales, and by usurpation sovereign of North and South Wales. Their son was Enyon, or Ivon, “the Fair,” who married a daughter of Owen ap Edwyn Meredith. Passing on through the next three generations, we come to Sir Henry Vane, knighted at the battle of Poitiers, in 1356, where he claimed to have assisted in taking prisoner John, King of France, who, in token of his captivity, took off his dexter gauntlet and gave it to Vane: from that moment he adopted it as his cognisance, and it has been continued both as a crest and as a charge on the shield of arms.

South and East Sides.

He married Grace, daughter of Sir Stephen de la Leke, and was succeeded by his son, John Vane, whose great-grandson, Henry Vane (his elder brother having died without issue), married Isabella, daughter of Henry Persall, or Peshall, by whom he had a family of eight sons and two daughters, and, in default of issue of the eldest two, was succeeded by his third son, John Vane (whose younger brother, Sir Ralph Vane, married Elizabeth, known as “the good Lady Vane,” and was knighted at the siege of Bulleyn, in 1544; he afterwards purchased Penshurst, was attainted 4th Edward VI., executed on Tower Hill, and his estates forfeited). John Vane, who was of Hilden, in Kent, assumed the name of Fane in lieu of Vane, and married Isabella, daughter of John Darknoll, or Darrell, and was succeeded by their second son, Richard Fane, of Tudeley, at whose death, in 1540, he was succeeded by his only son, George Fane, of Badsall, who married Joan, daughter of William Waller, of Groombridge, from whom the present Earl of Westmoreland is descended. The fourth son of John Vane, or Fane, of Hilden, was John Fane, who was in possession of Hadlow when his uncle, Sir Ralph, was executed. He married Joan, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edward Hawte, of Tonbridge, by whom, with others, he had a son, his successor, Henry Fane, of Hadlow, who took part in Wyatt’s insurrection, was committed to the Tower, but afterwards pardoned and released.