The Hissem-Montague Family

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The name Montague has at least three separate origins. The first comes from Normandy, de Monte Acuto. Translated as "of the Mountain Peak." Later this was spelled Montecute, Montagu or Montague. Drogo de Monte-Acuto is claimed to have brought the name to England in the time of William I.

The second comes from Ireland as MacTague, the son of Tague, eventually transforming into Montague. Descendants of the Irish Montague's were dispersed all over the British Isles and were already inhabiting England before the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The third comes from Germany as Montag which means Monday in German.

The Montague name came into England in the year 1066 from Normandy, and originated in the Latin de monte acuto, meaning "of or from a sharp or pointed mountain" [a mountain peak]. It has been written in various forms as de Monte Acuto, Monteacuto, Montacute, Montagute, Montaigut, Montaigu, Montagu, Mountagu, Mountague, Montague. There is a mountain in the Pyrenees of considerable height called Montacuto.

In the Department of Aisne, in Picardy, France, may be seen the ruins of an old feudal Castle, named Montaigu, situated in a town of the same name. This castle was an important fortress in the tenth century. It was besieged and taken by Louis d'Outre-mer in 948, was twice captured by the English, once in 1375 and again in 1424, and was finally taken by Charles VI in 1444. There was also a strong fortress of the name of Montaigu, in Vendee, that was twice besieged in the uprising of 1793. There are several other places in France bearing the name of Montaigu, but that from which the English family sprang was Montagu-les-Bois, in the district of Coutances, in Normandy. Of this place one writer says, "Its ancient lords were famous in the middle ages." In France there were Lords of Montagu, Counts of Chalon, and Eudes; there was Pierre Guerin de Montaigu, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in 1208; there was Gilles Aycelin de-Montai-gut, Archbishop of Rouen, and the founder of the college of Montagu at Paris, which existed from 1314 till about 1850. Two brothers of the family of this Archbishop attained the dignity of Cardinals.

The name Montagu is a word of three syllables, pronounced Mont-a-gue, and has no connection with the name of two syllables Mon-Tague, which is a corruption of the Irish name of Mac Teague, meaning the son of Teague. Montague, a thousand years ago in Normandy was spelled Montagu. In the Domesday book of William the Conqueror it is spelled Montagud, the "d" silent. The early generations in England spelled the name in Latin, Montacute. This was caused, Camden says, on account of continuous wars with France, there being a hatred of anything that was French. In English records of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, the name is often printed Mountague. In early records in America and upon tombstones it is spelled Mountague. County records of Spottsylvania and Orange, Virginia, have the name Mountague and Montecue. The name of Peter Montague on the Virginia Muster roll of 1624 is spelled Petter Montecue. [Montecue and Montigue are simply a misspelling] The old Peerages in England have the name variously, Mountague, Montague and Montagu.

The titled families however have invariably spelled the name Montagu. This includes the Viscounts Montagu, the Dukes of Montagu, the Earls of Halifax and Sandwich and the Dukes of Manchester, and they undoubtedly have the most ancient way of spelling it. The final "e," as the name is commonly spelled, adds nothing to it, though from long usage one may be as correct as the other.

Or Dreu. He was born in about 1040 in Montagu-les-Bois, Normandy, France. He became the trusted companion, follower, and intimate friend of Robert, Earl of Mortain, the favorite brother of William, Duke of Normandy. Drogo accompanied the expedition to England in 1066 in the immediate retinue of Robert, Earl of Mortain. Drogo died in 1125 in Somerset county. He married unknown.

From the Domesday Book, 1086, The following Tenants in Chief have holdings in Somerset / Barons and their holdings: Drogo de Montacute. Knowle Park." His brother, Ansger, held Preston.

His arms were Azure, a Griffin segreant (rampant with wings spread), or.

Drogo obtained the grant of several Manors, particularly in the county of Somerset, in the west of England. The original castle or seat of Drogo was at Montacute, an eminence and parish in Tintinhull Hundred, Somersetshire, four miles south from Ilchester. Its ancient name appears to have been Logoresburg and was also called Bishopston. Here the Earl of Mortain built a castle and named it after his friend Drogo de Monte-acuto. (Cappers Topog. Dict.).

Camden says of this place that "the Castle has been quite destroyed these many years and the stones carried off to build the Religious houses and other things, afterward on the very top of the hill was a Chapel made and consecrated to St. Michael, the arch and roof curiously built of hard stone and the ascent to it is around the, mountain up stone stairs for near half a mile."

While this was the original home of the Montagues, the seat of their barony was at Shepton Montacute a villa at no great distance from Montacute. This parish contains the hamlets of upper and lower Shepton *, Knolle, and Stoney Stoke, and was held by Drogo de Monte-acuto and his direct descendants until the time of King Henry VIII. when Sir Thomas Montacute leaving no male issue, this estate was divided between three sisters.

In Drogo's time, in demesne are two carucates, 8 servants, 8 Villanes (farmers), 5 cottagers, 3 ploughs, 2 mills, one not rated, the other pays seven shillings and sixpence. There are 30 acres of meadow, and wood ten furlongs long and four furlongs broad.

Drogo de Monte-acute also held of Robert Earl of Moriton, the following Manors. The manor of Yarlinton. Sutton Montacute, a small parish six miles east from Ivelchester, lying in a fruitful woody vale under the south west brow of Cadbury castle, with other high hills toward the east. It contains thirty houses which compose a long street in the turnpike road from Ivelchester to Castle Cary.

Thulbeer, (ancient name Torlaberie). Drogo held this manor from the Earl of Moriton and it descended through a long line of ancestry together with the manor of Chidzoy, to the unfortunate Edward, son of George Duke of Clarence.

Drogo also held of the said Earl one hide of land in Montagud in this county. Reverend John Collinson says, "it is altogether probable that the Earl of Mortain if he had any other reason than that of a Latin definition---imposed on his demesnes at Bishopton (Logoresburg) the appelation of Montagud in compliment to this Drogo, his favorite and confidential friend." But waving this matter, we find the said Drogo-de-Monte-acuto in possession of these estates until his death, which took place about the latter end of the reign of King Henry I, about 1125. He was living in Somerset county, England at that time. Drogo was succeeded by his son and heir.

He succeeded his father toward the end of the reign of Henry I. He erected a Monastery at Montacute Mountain and endowed it with the borough and Market of Montacute. An ancient record written about 1538 states, that, "within the ruins of the Castle at Montacute is now a mean house for a farmer, the town hath a poor market and is builded of stone as commonly all towns thereabout be" -(Leland's Itinerary, Vol. 1, Oxford, 1710.") Little is known about William except that he was an only son and took care of the estate left him by his father, and died leaving it entire to an only son.

Knight. In the second year of Henry II (1156) he paid £20 into the King's exchequer for the ancient pleas; and in the 7th year of Henry II (1161) upon the collection of the scutage then levied, he paid 20 marks for the Knight's fees (a yard land Of 40 acres paid two shillings and sixpence tax) which he at that time held, soon after which he died, leaving issue his son Drue, who was called "Drogo Juvenis" -or Young Drue. He died in 1161, marrying unknown.

Upon the assessment of the aid for marrying the King's daughter, 12th Henry II. (1167) certified his Knight's fees to be in number-nine, a half and a third part of the old feoffment and one of the new 1 (64o acres made a Knight's fee).

He married Aliva Basset, daughter. of Alan Basset, baron of Wiccomb in County of Buckingham. After his death she married second, Richard Sod of Gilbert Talbot, ancestor to the Earls of Shrewsbury.

Died during his father's lifetime (vita patris). However, he married and left two sons.

Seated at Marsh, in County Buckingham, a manor situated northwest from Alesbury and near the Oxford County line. He married Lucy. The Coat Arms of John de Montacute of Marsh in Buckinghamshire were- Five fusils in fess gules. Fusils are diamond shapes, in this case, red. The Montagu arms, below, had three fusils.

She married Warine Bassett.

He had no male issue.

She married William de Echingham.

She married Thomas de Audham.

He became Baron in 1196. In the sixth year of Richard I. (1196) paid £6-1s-6d for his estates in the County of Somerset as scutage for the King's ransom. He was sheriff of Dorsetshire and Somersetshire in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth years of King John (I205-I209). Being one of the great barons of that reign who stood up for the liberties of their country, and being found ('7th John) in arms with the rebellious barons against the King, he was stripped of all his lands in Counties of Somerset and Dorset, which were seized by the King and given to Ralph de Ralegh. He died 18th of King John (1218). He married Isabel and left an only son and heir who succeeded to the estate.

This son recovered all of the lands which his father had lost, but in the '7th of Henry III. (1233) he also had his lands, distrained by Virtue of the King's precept for omitting to repair to Court at the feast of Whitsuntide, there to receive the dignity of Knighthood, as was required by law. But the next year on doing his homage be was by the Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset reinstated in his possessions,. He died 31st of Henry III. (1247).

Born in 1210. Was summoned to attend King Henry III into Gascony, against Alphonse 10th, King of Castile, who had usurped the province. The 4th of Henry III. (I257) he was summoned to be with the King at Chester on the feast day of St. Peter, well furnished with horse and arms (ad vincula), thence to march against Llewellin ap Griffith prince of Wales. 42d of Henry III he had a similar citation. He married Berta, who was born in 1212.

Born in 1250 in Montacute, Somerset county. He died in 1316. He married Aufricia Fergus, who was born in 1252 on the Isle of Man. She was the daughter of Fergus, King of the Isle of Man. Was in several expeditions into Wales, particularly in that of 10th of Edward 1. (1286) when Llewellen lost his territory and life. He obtained from Edward I confirmation as Baron of the manor of Shipton Montague in Somersetshire with the woods thereunto belonging in the forest of Selwood and a grant of several other manors in the same county and in those of Dorset, Devon, and Oxford.

The same lord Montacute made several campaigns with reputation both in France and Scotland, in the reign of Edward I, in which he was also Governor of Corffe Castle in Devonshire. In the Reign of Edward II he again served in Scotland and was governor of the Castle of Beaumaris in the isle of Anglesey, and Admiral of the King's fleet. In that reign he also obtained a grant for a weekly market on Tuesday at his Manor of Yardlington, County of Somerset, and a fair on the eve day and morrow after the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The 7th of Edwd II (1314) he obtained a license of the King to fortify his Manor house at Yardlington This Manor was very beautifully situated in a picturesque locality upon a very fine lawn, and remained in, this family through many descents until, through the last Countess of Salisbury (who was beheaded at the age of 70 years by Henry VIII), it passed to the Poles and thence to Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. Sir Simon Montacute also owned the Manor of Goat-hill, granted to him by Edwd I, and it descended to Gen. Thomas Montacute 4th Earl of Salisbury, thence to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and to John Neville, Marquis of Montacute. He also owned the Manor of Laymore in Somerset.

Sir Simon Montacute bore as his Coat of Arms the original shield of his ancestor Drogo First, (Azure, a Gryphon Segreant, or, [gold]) as also did his father and all of his ancestors. However, Sir Simon changed the arms to "Argent (white) three fusils in fess gules (red)." It is however recorded that Sir Simon used both Coats of Arms, the one which he had made and the other which he received by inheritance. Fortunately we are not left in doubt as to what arms he really bore, for the Pope had at that time made unwarranted pretensions with regard to Scotland and had issued an insolent bull, to which all the barons of England had made reply in a letter which was signed by all the Barons, who affixed their names, as their seals, their Coat of Arms. This letter to pope Boniface VIII was written A.D. 1301, and was signed by Sir Simon de Montacute, with the other barons. A duplicate of this letter is preserved in the British Museum, and the plate of the Coat of Arms of Sir Simon Montague, appended to this work, is copied from his Seal to that letter. These Arms, with some modification for differences in families, have been the arms of all the succeeding English families of Montague.

Coat of Arms: Argent, three fusils in fess gules. That is, three red elongated lozenges, diamond shapes, joined in line. Simon also used the ancient arms of the family.

He had been summoned to parliament from the 28th of Edward I. to the 8th of Edward II (1315), soon after which he died.

The younger son of Sir Simon, he did not inherit. Married to Hawise, daughter of Almeric lord St. Amand. Almeric de St. Amand was a great baron of that age whose chief seat was at Grendon Underwood, a parish in the hundred of Ashendon in Buckinghamshire ten miles west N. W. from Aylesbury. The male line became extinct and the property passed (through daughters) to other families.

"From thence he (the King) passeth on to the Castle of Salisbury which Castle belonged to William Montacute Earl of Salisbury in right of his wife but himself being then prisoner in France, onely his Countesse, and one William Montacute, a cousin of his was in the Castle." - A Chronicle of the Kings of England by Sir Richard Baker, Knight." London, 1660.

This William Montacute, who is called a cousin of the first Earl of Salisbury, was therefore a son of Simon and Hawise (Amand) Montacute, as it is recorded that the Earl's father had only two sons. As this Simon Montacute was the younger son, his subsequent history (and that of his son William) is unrecorded.

Born in 1271 in Cassington, England. He died in 1320 in Gascony. Buried in Christ Church, Dorset county. He married Elizabeth Montfort, daughter of Peter lord Montfort of Beaudefert in the County of Warwick. They had four sons, the eldest died in his lifetime, and seven daughters. Elizabeth was born in 1271 in Beaudesert, Warwickshire.

Succeeded his father as Lord of Montacute. Served in several expeditions into Scotland, both before and after his father's death, in the reigns of Edward I and II. In the former he also received the honor of Knighthood, along with Edward prince of Wales; and in the second year of the latter, he obtained the royal charter for free warren at his manor of Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire, as he did afterward for those of Saxlingham, in the County of Norfolk, Knolle in the County of Somerset, and Woneford in the County of Devon. In the same reign he was governor of Berhamstead Castle and steward of the King's household; and had a grant of the bodies and ransoms of Rene ap Grenon, Madock ap Vaughan and Audoen ap Madock, Welsh barons who had rebelled and been taken prisoners.

Moreover, he obtained from the King a special license to make a Castle of his house at Kersington in the County of Oxford, and was appointed Seneschal of the duchy of Aquitain and at last in 1318 of Gascony. In the 11th and 12th of that reign he had summons to parliament and died in 1320 in Gascony, but was interred at St. Frideswide, now Christ Church Oxon *. William de Montagu, who held the Manor of Aston Clinton, in the County of Buckingham, held it of our Lord the King, by grant of Sergeanty, viz.---by the service of finding for our lord the King a lardiner at his own proper costs." Harl, MSS, British Mus.6126.---"The lord William Montacute holds the Castle of Denbigh, with the honour from the lord the King in Capite." Denbigh and its lordships, "William de Montacute held Wynford by the gift of Hugh de Courtenay by Sergeanty, viz. by the service of finding a bedell to serve in the hundred of Wynford in the office of bedell for all service."---Tenures of land---Blount.

The first son, but he apparently died young.

The 3rd son. Born in 1303 in Salisbury, he died in 1336. In the 8th of Edward III was made Bishop of Worcester and in 1336 was translated to Ely. He was a great benefactor to the University of Cambridge and laid out a large sum on the fine Lady Chapel, on the north side of the Cathedral of Ely, though he did not live to finish it.

The 4th son. Born in 1309 inSalisbury, he died in 1342. He married Alice Plantagenet, who was born in 1326. Was governor of the Castle of Werk.

He served afterward in the French wars with great reputation. In the 23rd of Edward III (1330) he had livery of all those lands which descended to his wife Alice, in another source called the daughter and co-heir of Thomas Brotherton, Earl of Norfolk, fifth son of Edward I, and Marshal of England. He died in 1342.

3rd Baron Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury and King of the Island of Man. Born in 1301 in Salisbury, Wiltshire county, England. He died on 30 January 1344. He is buried in White Friars, London. He married Katherine Grandison, who was born in 1304 in Ashford, Middlesex county. She was the daughter of Lord William Grandison and Sibylla De Tregoz.

Eldest surviving son. Made a banneret in the end of the reign of Edward II. In the first of Edward III (1327) he was present at the expedition then made into Scotland, and in the 3rd of same reign attended the King when he was summoned to do homage to the King of France for his duchy of Aquitaine. In the 4th year of same reign he again attended the King to France, and had also the honor to wait on his holiness the Pope with Bartholomew de Burgherth, as Edward's ambassador, to thank him for confirming a bull of his predecessor Honorius, in favor of the Monks of Westminster. But the best service, perhaps, which this brave man ever performed for his master, was his bringing the famous Mortimer Earl of March the Queen's gallant, to punishment*. A parliament being held the same year it was enacted that William lord Montacute and all others with him, at the apprehension of the Earl of March and others, since what they did was authorized by the King's command, should be "wholly acquitted thereof and of all murders and felonies they have done." This act of indemnity was not only passed in his behalf, but many manors and lands forfeited, by the attainder of the Earl of March and others, were bestowed upon him.

The lord Montacute, having laid before the young King the infamy which the course of the life of the Queen, his mother, had brought upon his family, and the dangers which Mortimer's greatness threatened to the Crown, met with a favorable hearing from his Majesty, who ordered him to associate himself with such of the nobility as be could trust, and then apply to Sir William Eland, Constable of the Castle of Nottingham, in which the Queen and Mortimer had shut themselves up for defence. As the Keys of the Castle were brought every night to the Queen and nobody permitted to come in or go out without her knowledge, Sir William Eland directed Montacute and his associates to a private passage, by which they entered the Castle and marched directly to Mortimer's apartment, where the lord Montacute before he could seize his prisoner, was forced to kill Sir Hugh Turplington, steward of the household, and Sir John Monmouth. Mortimer was then made prisoner and carried before the King, and a short time after he was with his chief friends and abettors put to death.

In the same year (1330) he was also appointed governor of Sherbourne Castle in the County of Dorset, and of the Castle of Corffe with the Chace of Purbeck.

In the 5th year of Edward III. he had a charter of free warren in all his lordships of Cookham in County of Berkshire, Swyneston in County of Southampton, Fulmere in County of Bucks and of Catsound and Lewisham in Kent. Likewise wreck, waif, stray goods of felons and fugitives, with fines and forfeitures of his tenants in his manors of Christ-church, Twyneham, Ringwood, and Swyneston, in the Isle of Wight and County of Southampton. Next year he obtained for John, his son-in-law, a grant of the Castle of Werk, on condition of his fortifying it and keeping it in repair; and for himself a release of all his Majesty's claim, right and title, in the isle of Man, and its appurtenances for him and his heirs forever. In 1335 he was constituted governor of the Isles Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, Alderney, and Seul. In 1336 he was made Constable of the Tower of London, and in consideration of his great expenses in divers services obtained a grant of the forest of Selkirk and Ellerick, with the town and County of Selkirk in Scotland to hold in farm to him and his heirs. In the same year he also obtained a grant in fee of several manors, lands, and hundreds lying in the Counties Somerset, Dorset, Wilts, and Buckingham.

In 1337 he was constituted Admiral of the King's fleet, from the mouth of the Thames westward, and the following year in consideration of his faithful services in the Scottish wars, and otherwise, he was advanced to the title and dignity of Earl of Salisbury, with a grant of the annual rent of £20 out of the profits of that County.

The same year he was one of the Commissioners that were sent to the duke of Bavaria to engage him on behalf of Edward against Philip, King of France. Upon his return he was immediately joined with Richard, Earl of Arundel, in the command of a body of troops designed for Scotland, in consequence of which he was present at the memorable siege of the Castle of Dunbar. The same year he attended the King to Brabant and obtained several more grants of lands, castles, fairs and advowsons in the Counties of Oxford, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Chester, Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincoln.

In 1339 he obtained the King's precept to the lord treasurer and barons of the exchequer for an allowance of five marks each day while he was abroad on his service, and for the reimbursement of all the expenses he was put to thereby. The same year, in consideration of his services both in the field and cabinet, he obtained a grant of the office of Earl Marshal of England.

In 1340 he had the command of the army jointly with the Earl of Suffolk. These two commanders having laid siege to Lisle, then in possession of the French, were both unfortunately made prisoners by the besieged, who sallied out and drew them after them into the town. During their captivity they suffered great indignities; and upon their arrival at Paris would certainly have been put to death, had not the King of Bohemia (possibly a relative of his wife) interposed in their behalf. Upon a conclusion of a truce with France they were exchanged for the Earl of Murray and £3000 in addition.

The Earl of Salisbury, immediately after his release, went with many other English Knights into Spain and joined the army of Alphonsus against the Saracens.

In 1341 he was again in Flanders, and in 1342 in France. In 1343 he served upon the borders of Scotland with the Earl of Ulster. And about this time he conquered the isle of Man, when King Edward (having before given him the inheritance thereof ) crowned him King of Man.

In conjunction with Robert of Artois, he had the command of the forces sent to France in aid of the Countess of Mountfort, by sea and land; where, after defeating the French fleet, they took Vannes, but a truce having been concluded for three years the Earl returned to England, where he exercised himself so immoderately, in jousts and tournaments, that he fell into a fever of which he died in the forty-third year of his age, January 30, 1344, and was buried at the White Friars in London * (Vol. I, p. 51, Edmondson's Heraldry). He was possessed at his death of a vast estate and bore the titles of Earl of Salisbury, King of Man, and lord of Denbigh.

His wife Katherine was daughter of William (and sister and heir to Otho) lord Grandison by Sibylla, daughter and heir of John de Tregoz, a great Baron. She was a brave woman, worthy of such a brave and noble man as was her husband the Earl of Salisbury. She 2 nobly defended and aided with heroic valor the defence of the castle of Werk, with her husband's brother, Sir Edward Montacute, who was its Governor, and also bravely defended her own Castle of Salisbury from King David of Scotland, with the aid of William Montacute, her husbands cousin, while her husband was a prisoner of war in France as before mentioned in the history of Sir Simon No. VIII.

They had seven children, three sons and four daughters.

The eldest son, succeeded his father and became the second Earl of Salisbury, but was killed in a tilting match at Windsor. Born in June 1328, he died in June 1397. He married first Countess Elizabeth Mohun, who was born in 1332 in Dunster, Somerset county, England. Second he married Joan Plantagenet. She was born on 29 September 1328 in Woodstock, Kent county. Before he was of age he was Knighted when Edward landed at La Hague. He afterward served at the siege of Can, and at the glorious battle of Crecy. When the Order of the Garter was instituted he was the seventh of its original knights, and when the Black Prince obtained Aquitaine he attended him to France and served under him in all his excursions and expeditions. At the battle of Poitiers he commanded the rear of the English army, and was highly instrumental in gaining that famous victory. In short, almost his whole life was a perpetual campaign under Edward III. and his son, the Black Prince.

In the succeeding reign, he was continued in all his posts and preferments, and also made governor of Calais, whence he harrassed the French with continual excursions. In the fifth of that reign he convoyed to England the King's intended Consort, daughter of Charles, King of the Romans, and in the seventh and eighth he served against the Scots. In the ninth, a grant was made to him during life, of the custody of the Isle of Wight and Castle of Carisbrook. In the twentieth, the year ,397, he departed this life, having ordered by his will, that every day until his corpse should be interred at Bisham, distribution should be made of one pound five shillings to three hundred poor people; likewise that twenty poor men should bear torches on the day of his funeral, each torch eight pounds weight, and each of them wearing a gown of black cloth with a red hood; also, that there should be nine wax lights about his corpse, and upon every pillar of the church there should be fixed banners of his arms; moreover that £3 should be given to the religious, to sing "rentals and pray for his soul.

He first married Joan, who by way of distinction was called Fair Maid of Kent, daughter to Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Kent, but having been separated from her upon a petition from Sir Thomas Holland to the Pope, in which he alleged that she had been pre-contracted to him, his lordship married second, Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of John lord Mohun, one of the original Knights of the Garter.

Died without issue, having been accidentally killed by his father in a tilting at Windsor in the year 1383. Married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel. His widow married in 1388 Thomas lord Mowbray, Earl Marshal of England.

The third and youngest son. Born in 1336, he was the Bishop of Worcester.

The second son. Born in 1327, he died around February 1389/90. He married Margaret Monthermer, daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Monthermer, son of Joan of Acres, daughter of King Edward I, in whose right he had summons to Parliament from the 31st of Edward to the 13th year of Richard II, when he died.

Second son. Dean of Salisbury.

Third son. This Richard lived about the year 1400. None of the English genealogies make any further mention of him except to state his name.

It is claimed that there was also a fourth son.

First son and heir who became 3d Earl of Salisbury. Was thirty-nine years of age at his father's decease, and forty when his uncle, the second Earl, died. Born in 1357, he died in 1400. Married Maud Francis, daughter of Sir Adam Francis. She was the widow, first of John Aubrey, second of Sir Allan Boxhull, Knight of the Garter.

He was early engaged in a military life and had been in most of the memorable battles during the reign of Edward III. In the 15th year of Richard II he obtained leave to serve in Prussia and from the 16th year until he became Earl of Salisbury, was summoned to Parliament as a baron, after which he not only had livery of all the lands of which his Uncle died possessed (as he had before of those of his mother, daughter and heir of Thomas lord Monthermer), but also obtained a grant to himself and his heirs, of several Manors in the Counties of Worcester and Norfolk.

This Earl of Salisbury was the only temporal Nobleman, who remained firm to King Richard's interest after the invasion of the duke of Lancaster, and even when Richard was deposed, and the duke had mounted the throne, he joined in a plan for the murder of the latter, which being discovered, he and the earl of Kent were pursued to a village near Cirencester where the rabble struck off their heads and sent them to London.

"The bones of John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, who was beheaded, were brought from Cirencester, (by order of his widow) and reinterred at Bisham Priory (which his ancestor the first Earl had founded)." Crosse's Antiquities.

Here were also laid the "mortal parts" of the 4th and last Earl of Salisbury, Gen. Thomas Montacute, killed at the siege of Orleans (1428). Here also rest the remains of John, Marquis of Montacute, killed at the battle of Barnet in 1470, and also his brother Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, called the "King Maker." Here also sleeps that unfortunate youth Edward Plantaganet, son of the Duke of Clarence, beheaded in 1499 for attempting an escape from confinement.

Born in 1388, he died in November 1428. The eldest son, who was afterward 4th Earl of Salisbury. He was only twelve years of age at his father's death. Though the great estate, of which the last Earl had been possessed, was now forfeited, yet a considerable part of it was recovered before his son became of age and at last, in the reign of Henry V, he retained a reversion of his father's attainder and was restored in blood.

This noble Earl was concerned in so many military exploits, that to give an account of them all, would be to write the history of the reign of Henry V. Suffice to say, that as he lived so he died in the service of his Country, for, having been mortally wounded by a stone, shot from a cannon at the siege of Orleans, he was carried to Meun on the Loire where he departed this life in November, I428.

He was twice married. First to Eleanor, at right with Thomas, the daughter of Thomas Holland, sister of Edmond, Earl of Kent. Second to Alice, daughter of Thomas Chaucer. He had but one child, a daughter Alice. His body was brought to England and interred by the side of his ancestors in the Abbey at Bisham.

Daughter of General Thomas, became at his death Countess of Salisbury. She married Sir Richard Nevil, who in her right became Earl of Salisbury. He was the eldest son of Ralph, first Earl of Westmoreland. He followed the York party, was taken prisoner in a battle at Wakefield and beheaded. At his death, their eldest son, Richard Nevil, succeeded to the title of Earl of Salisbury, and, in right of his father, Earl of Warwick.

The second son of John Montague and his wife, Maud Francis. He died unmarried and without issue, per court documentation at the time of his death.

Steve Hissem
San Diego, California