Walter de Goushill

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁰⁷⁰
From The Old Halls, Manors and Families of Derbyshire, "North Lees Hall," p. 171:

On the 25^th October, 1248, the right of free warren was granted by Henry III to Matthew de Hathersage; this franchise applying to Hathersage, of which manor Matthew was lord. Free warren was a right in perpetuity, wherein the holder could convey away his lands and yet retain to himself and his heirs the right of sport to themselves over those lands. We believe (though we are nowhere told so) that Matthew had acquired the manor with his wife, heiress of the Meynells, who had been demesne tenants of Ralph Fitzhubert, who, in Domesday Book, is shown as holding it. Old Ralph came in the Survey (1086) for twenty-four lordships in the county, and moieties of ten other, while he held Hopwell under the Bishop of Chester.

"Was it the beauty of the Derbyshire landies of time past that atttracted the attention of the squires of Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, or the dowries they had in their pockets? We trow it was a matter of affection, but whether for the lands of the women presents a difficulty. The union of Matthew de Hathersage and the hieress was blest with two daughters: Cecilia, afterwards the wife of Niegel de Longford, and Mitilda, who mated with Walter Gousell. The Gousells were of Hoveringham, Nottinghamshipre, where they had been located for several generations, but no as lords, for we find that Matilda Hathersage, after she became the wife of Walter, purchased lands from the family of Hoveringham, who were in possession of that manor*. Although little is known of the Gousells, we gather that they were extremely lucky fellows, for, after securing one-half of the extensive lands of Matthew de Hathersage, who held at least twenty lordships, one of them married Elizabeth, an heiress of the Fitzalans, Earls of Arundel. Robert Gousell acquired with this lady, plus her dowry, the heraldic quarterings of the baronial and princely houses of Peverell, Albany, Meschines, Lupus, Plantagenet, Warren, Marshall, de Clare, MacMurrough and Pargiter. In the reign of Henry VIII, the male line ceased, when two coheirs allied themselves with Wingfields and Stanleys."

* It is more likely that Hoveringham came to Walter de Goushill from his mother, the daughter of Hugh de Hoveringham.

Walter married Maude de Hathersage, daughter of Matthew de Hathersage and Emma Meinhill, in 1241 in North Lees Hall, Derbyshire, England.¹⁹³ (Maude de Hathersage died after 22 Sep 1263 in England ¹⁹³.)