VI.—THE FLEMINGS OF CONISTON HALL.
In 1196 the baron of Kendal was Gilbert fitz Roger fitz Reinfrid, who had got his lordship by marriage with Heloise, granddaughter of William I. de Lancaster. In her right he claimed Furness as well. So did the abbey, and the result of this dispute we have seen in the division of the fells.
There was a family at Urswick who, to judge by their name, might have been descendants of the old Norse settlers. Adam fitz Bernulf held land there of Sir Michael le Fleming about 1150; Orm fitz Bernulf was one of the thirty sworn men; Stephen of Urswick was another. Stephen was doubtless christened after the king, who had founded the abbey; for fashions in names followed royalty then as now. Gilbert fitz Bernulf was another of the family—a Normanised Norseman, it would seem. To him Coniston was let or assigned by Baron Gilbert of Kendal.
His son Adam was living in 1227. Adam's daughter Elizabeth was his heiress, and married Sir Richard le Fleming.
Le Fleming, or the Fleming, meant simply "the man from Flanders." William Rufus had invited many Flemings to settle as "buffer" colonies in Cumberland and Wales, and Sir Richard's ancestor Michael had received Aldingham in Low Furness. Sir Richard's grandfather, being a younger son, had got a Cumbrian estate with headquarters at a place called by the Cumbrian-Welsh Caernarvon. Ar mhon (arfon) means "over against Mona;" in Wales Caer-n-arfon is "the castle over against Anglesey (Mona);" in Cumbria the same name had been given to the castle over against Man (Mona). It was an oblong base-court with a ditch, and a round artificial hill (later known as Coney-garth or King's-garth, cop) exactly like the Mote at Aldingham. There Sir Richard's father lived, and dying was buried at Calder Abbey.
But when Sir Richard married Elizabeth of Urswick, and got with her the manors of Urswick, Coniston, Carnforth, and Claughton, they chose to live at Coniston; and being wealthy, they probably built a mansion which, rebuilt two hundred years later, became the Coniston Hall we now see. Their settlement here would be about 1250 or later.
Sir Richard, being a knight, must have brought his men with him, and let them have farms near at hand on condition of following him to the wars. No doubt he turned out the Norse holders of Heathwaite and Bleathwaite, Little Arrow (Ayrey, "moor") and Yewdale, or took on them as his men. Billmen and bowmen he would need, and we find a Bowmanstead in the village.
These tenants followed his son, Sir John, to Scotland in 1299 to fight Wallace; and got, with him, special protection and privileges from Edward I. for bravery at the siege of Caerlaverock. John's son, Sir Rayner, was in favour at Court, and held the office of King's Steward, Dapifer, for these parts, in the beginning of the fourteenth century. So West says.