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The Demise of the de la Mares: Devious Deeds in Medieval Northborough
from Village Tribune 140
Galdfrid or Geoffrey de la Mare IV (died 1327) had a truly illustrious pedigree. His ancestor, Ralph, had fought alongside William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, in 1066, under the banner of Turold de Fécamp, a military monk. When William bestowed Peterborough Abbey upon Turold, in 1069, the abbot gave Ralph the manors of Northborough and Woodcroft and half of both Maxey and Thurlby [Lincolnshire], in exchange for 40 days’ annual military service of three knights for the king’s army in times of war.
In 1085, Ralph was appointed constable in charge of the Peterborough knights, whose duty was to lead them into battle. This entitled him to lodge at the abbey indefinitely, with a retinue of three squires, six grooms, six horses and two greyhounds and be supplied with ‘bread, wine, beer, meat, fish, hay, oats, and all other necessities, and two robes from the abbot’s wardrobe’. Ralph was also allowed to take timber from Peakirk Wood for fuel and for repairs to his manor houses at Maxey, Woodcroft and Northborough. Moreover (albeit in exchange for his destrier, his accoutrements of warfare and a third of his worldly goods), he would be buried with full military continued overleaf >>
>> honours within the Lady Chapel at Peterborough Abbey (virtually at God’s right hand) and perpetual Masses said for his soul. The constableship of Peterborough Abbey was jealously guarded by the de la Mares, passing through eight generations, namely: Ralph II (1130), Geoffrey I (1146), Hugh (1170), Geoffrey II (1190), Brian (1212), Geoffrey III (1226), Peter (1268) , Peter II (1272) and, debatably, Peter’s brother, Geoffrey IV (1282). However, from the twelfth century onwards, it seems that the de la Mares preferred to pay an annual ‘scutage’ fine, which exempted them from military service. The money went to fund mercenaries to fight for the king on their behalf.
In 1272, the de la Mares suffered a major downturn in their fortunes. Peter II and his neighbour, Joanna Wake of Deeping, were summoned to Edward I’s court for running a clandestine fishery on the Welland, near Walderam Hall, Northborough, for twenty years without paying any rent to the abbey. To receive a pardon and avoid his estates being seized as retribution, Peter ‘volunteered’ to join the king’s Welsh campaigns and was drowned crossing the Menai Straits, in 1282. His younger brother, Geoffrey IV, automatically inherited his lands, but apparently not the constableship. Geoffrey pursued Abbot Richard de London (127495) for what he regarded to be his hereditary right, but eventually was persuaded to relinquish his claim in return for ‘sixty marks sterling’ [roughly £40], paltry compensation considering the perks that he had lost!
Nevertheless, Geoffrey IV was determined to leave his mark on the landscape. In 1294, he purchased a charter from Edward I, permitting him to hold a weekly Wednesday market and an annual three-day fair at Northborough from 14-16 August. The events proved so popular that they deflected business away from the town of Peterborough, leading to complaints from the abbot, Geoffrey de Crowland (1299-1321), who was seriously strapped for cash because of his own ambitious building projects. He petitioned the king and, subsequently, the Northborough market and fairs ceased in 1301. name is not recorded (quite usual for these times), produced two sons, Geoffrey and Brian, both of whom predeceased their father, and two daughters, Joan and Mabel. Joan married Ralph de Cromwell, whilst Mabel wed John de Folville, whose six younger brothers formed the notorious Folville Gang of highwaymen and terrorised Leicestershire and beyond. Outlaws rather than wellconnected in-laws!
Undeterred, Geoffrey IV built himself a mortuary chapel at St Andrew’s church, Northborough, and upgraded his manor house, strategically positioned next to the old road to Lincoln. He erected a fine, single-storeyed great hall flanked by private apartments to the east (now lost) and a kitchen, pantry and parlour to the west. Entry was through an impressive gatehouse. In an age when wattle-and-daub dwellings were the norm, who could fail but to be impressed by such splendid edifice – or marvel at how Sir Geoffrey could afford it!
Despite his perceived wealth, the thrice-married Geoffrey’s personal life was far from idyllic. His first marriage, to a lady whose
When his wife died, Geoffrey took a younger bride (possibly Margaret but we can’t be sure). She bore him a daughter, Maud, who eventually married Hugh de Cressy. Later, Geoffrey discovered that his second wife had been secretly betrothed to and had ‘carnal knowledge’ of Geoffrey junior, so Geoffrey IV divorced her. Fast approaching 70 with his sons (Geoffrey and Brian) having died without issue, Geoffrey IV procured a third wife, Cecily de Gerberge, with the prime objective of fathering a male heir. Cecily swiftly fulfilled her obligations only for Geoffrey to die soon afterwards, in 1327.
Sensing trouble, she fled to the sanctuary of Peterborough Abbey, where Geoffrey V was born. He became the ward of Abbot Adam of Boothby (1321-38) until he was old enough to manage his own affairs, whilst Cecily was given the manor of Thurlby as her dower (widow’s retreat). A month later, young Geoffrey was abducted by Sir John Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex, on the grounds that his father had owed him ‘knight’s services’ in lieu of rent for the lands that he held from him. Despite Abbot Adam paying 100 marks [approx.£60] ransom, Bohun refused to release the infant, until King Edward III intervened on his behalf.
Meanwhile, Geoffrey V’s halfsisters (Joan, Mabel and Maud) and their powerful husbands were furious that his birth had robbed them of their share of the de la Mare estates. So, they claimed that Maud’s mother was far too mentally deranged to have agreed to a divorce from Geoffrey IV. Therefore, their father and Cecily could not have been legally married, resulting in Geoffrey V being born out of wedlock with no right of inheritance.
After much ado, during which Thurlby was seized by Hugh de Cressy, the matter was finally settled at Edward III’s court in Westminster, in 1345. The half-sisters and their surviving spouses were ‘ordered to desist’, Geoffrey’s estates were restored and Cecily was re-instated at Thurlby, in exchange for 200 marks. Just to be on the safe side, Geoffrey, still considered a minor, was hastily married to an anonymous daughter of Geoffrey le Scroope, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench!
Once in control, it appears that Geoffrey V commissioned two life-size effigies of his parents, with Geoffrey IV attired as the King’s Forester for Kesteven, another hereditary role. His mother, Cecily, is portrayed as pregnant, her hands resting on her swollen stomach. The monuments have reposed in at least three different locations, including the de la Mare chapel in Northborough church, before they were relegated to Glinton churchyard, where they suffered from exposure to the elements. They now stand to attention in St Benedict’s porch.
Geoffrey arrived well prepared, clutching a ‘receipt of payment’, purportedly signed by Bishop Roger, who promptly denounced it as a forgery. Consequently, Geoffrey was outlawed and all his assets seized, including his manors at Northborough, Woodcroft, Maxey and Thurlby.
The grave-slabs were evicted from Northborough either when John Claypole (Oliver Cromwell’s fatherin-law) requisitioned the chapel for his own family, or when Geoffrey V fell from grace. For, in 1351, he defaulted on the repayment of the 100 marks that he had borrowed from his distant cousin, Roger de Northborough, Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield, and was summoned to King Edward’s Court to give an explanation.
Geoffrey V died, c. 1373, impoverished. There was no lavish funeral or burial next to his kinfolk in Peterborough Abbey for him or even a place at Northborough next to his father. His once proud dynasty, that could trace its roots back to before the Norman Conquest, had been brought to its knees within three generations by avarice, extravagance, hunger for power, sheer dishonesty and a sense of entitlement. Have times really changed that much?
