Nicholas de Meriet

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹²⁸²
Nicholas de Meriet, in 6 K.Ric. I. (1195), was pne of the King's Justiciars in Dorset and Somerset for assessing the tax on lands towards the King's ransom [Madox's Exchequer, i. 592]. In 3 John (1201), he paid 20 marks scutage for one knight's fee held in chief, for one knight's fee and a half held of the Honor of Moretain, and for half a knight's fee held of the Honor of Gloucester [ibm. 665]. Nicholas de Meriet and Agatha his wife, in 1203, owed 20 marks for peaceably holding a hide of land in Wily, Wilts, and the fee farm of the said ville of Earl Reginald [Pipe Roll, Wiltescir 5 Joh. Nova Oblata: Dodsworth MSS. in Bodl. Lib. vol. 14, fol. 78b]. In 14 John (1212), the sheriff of Dorset and Somerset accounts for £12 6s. 6£d., being the issues for two years of the lands of Nicholas de Meriet which John Wac had in farm [Dodsw. MSS.]. Nicholas de Meriet, with the consent of Agatha his wife and Hugh his son and heir, gave, by charter, to the Priory of Bruton his chapel of Lopene. Among the witnesses to this charter are his brothers, Henry and Thomas de Meriet [Bruton Cartulary, penes the Earl of Ilchester, p. 146]. This charter is without date, but there follows a confirmation of it by Jocelyn, Bishop of Bath and Wells; and as Jocelyn was consecrated to the See, 28 May, 1206, the gift must have been made subsequent to that day.

~Genealogy of the Somersetshire Family of Meriet, pp. 7-8

• Background Information. ¹²⁷¹
At the time of the Conquest the later manor of Merriott formed two estates. The second estate, of five hides, occupied in 1066 by Godwin, had passed by 1086 to Harding son of Eadnoth the staller.

The manor evidently passed from Harding son of Eadnoth, or Harding de Meriet, to his son Nicholas FitzHarding (d. by 1171), followed by his grandson Henry de Meriet (d. by 1192). [Proc. Som. Arch. Soc. xxviii. 100-4.] Nicholas de Meriet (d. by 1229) inherited his father's lands in 1212, and in 1229 was succeeded by his son Hugh (d. c. 1236). [Pipe R. 1212 (P.R.S. n.s. xxx), 119, 223; Cal. Inq. p.m. i, p. 2] From Hugh's son Nicholas (d. c. 1258) the manor passed in turn to Nicholas's son John (d. 1285), and grandson, also John. The last succeeded as a minor and received his lands in 1297. [Cal. Inq. p.m. ii, pp. 341-2; Plac. Abbrev. (Rec. Com.), 293] On his death in 1308 he was followed successively by his sons John (d. by 1322) and George (d. 1328). [Proc. Som. Arch. Soc. xxviii. 104-24; Cal. Inq. p.m. vii, p. 119.] From George's son, Sir John de Meriet (d. 1369), the manor descended to his son Sir John (d. 1391), and subsequently to the latter's daughter Elizabeth, wife of Urry Seymour.[Cal. Inq. p.m. xii, pp. 376-7; Proc. Som. Arch. Soc. xxviii. 126-64] On Elizabeth's death without issue c. 1395 the estate was inherited jointly by her cousins Elizabeth and Margaret d'Aumale, granddaughters of George de Meriet (d. 1328) and wives of Sir Humphrey Stafford and Sir William Bonville (d. 1408) respectively. [Proc. Som. Arch. Soc. xxviii. 164-7]

~A History of the County of Somerset, Volume IV, p. 53-55

Nicholas married Agatha. ¹²⁸²