Robert de Mortimer

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Robert de Mortimer, son of Robert de Mortimer, for his soul and the soul of his wife Margret de Say, daughter of Hugh de Say, confirmed to [? Lanthony] Abbey the give of Roger de Alreton in Bilbury, which had be granted to Roger by Hugh de Say, lord of Castle Richard, son of Hugh de Say, and confirmed to him by Hugh de Ferrières [Harl. MS> 6821, fos. 101, 110 d-a collection of papers formerly belonging to Gregory Kin, Rouge Dragon.]

Robert the father on his marriage [apparently wife's name not known] received Little Woodham (Woodham Mortimer) in Essex from Henry II by the service of ½ fee and probably Amberden (in Debden) as another ½ fee. In 1190/1 he, or his son, was assessed to the scutage of Wales for one knight's fee of the Honour of Peverel of London in Essex. Woodham and Amberden were held by Robert the son in 1212 as one fee. The father's marriage presumably took place in or before 1168, when he was pardoned a debt in the account of the sheriff of Essex.

It is not easy to distinguish this Robert from his son Robert at a time when either might have been the tenant of Woodham, or to distinguish them from their namesake and contemporary Robert de Mortimer of Attleborough. . . There seems to have been as close a connection between the Mortimers of Attleborough, and their said overlords as between Robert of Essex and the King. It would appear likely that it was Robert of Essex, the protege of Henry II, who witnessed at Valoignes the later version of the treaty of Falaise, some time in the early months of 1174, as being in the train of King Henry, while William de Mortimer of Attleborough was one of the hostages under that treaty for William the Lion--Earl of Huntingdon until his deafeat at Alnwick in Jul 1174; also that it was Robert of Essex who, at Le Mans, witnessed a charter of Henry II, dated 1175-81 or 1177. That there was a close connection between the families of Attleborough and Richard's Castle is suggested by heraldic evidence; by the recurrance in both families of the names Robert and William (Hugh probably came in at Richard's Castle from Say).

~ Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, Vol. IX, footnote j, pp. 258-259