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THE ANCESTOR 179 his (sic) claim to dower on Budworth, said to be made con- trary to an agreement between Randle Grosvenor of Budworth, his father, and Robert son of Robert le Grosvenor, brother of Randle. This statement is reported to be taken from that mysterious source, the Cheshire Domesday, and appears in a very unsatisfactory form. Unfortunately it cannot be verified, being earlier than any of the existing Plea Rolls, and we must make the best of it. Probably it will be safe to accept as a fact that Robert Grosvenor (that is to say, either the grantee of Budworth, as Ormerod assumes, or possibly a successor of his) had issue two sons, Randle and Robert, and that Randle died before 1232, leaving Robert his son. This last Robert was recently dead in May 1241, when Margery, his widow, had dower assigned to her, and a grant of the custody of the heir.-^ According to the pedigree given by Ormerod (or Mr. Helsby), Robert was succeeded by a son named Richard. But in 1270 Warin le Grosvenor was the forester ; ^ no doubt the same Warin who made purprestures in the forest to the extent of fourscore acres ' after the death of the earls ' (i.e. later than 1237), and was bailiff of Darnhall 'before the abbey came there' (before 1270 or 1273).^ Richard le Grosvenor, it is said, in 1295 held a knight's fee (elsewhere it is half a knight's fee) in Budworth en le Frith. Ormerod (quoting Collins) refers for this statement to the Red Book of the Exchequer^ but I have failed to trace his reference, there or elsewhere. However it is supported by the further statement that, in 23 Edward I., Richard, son and heir of Richard le Grosvenor, was suing Richard Done for his share of the forestership.* Meanwhile a Richard Grosvenor, son of Randle, had ac- quired an estate at Hulme in AUostock. The authority for this is a deed quoted by Ormerod from Sir Peter Leycester's MS. collections — the first of a series which enabled him to set out in considerable detail the pedigree of the Grosvenors of Hulme.^ By this deed Gralam de Lostock grants, for his homage and service, Richardo filio Ranulpbi Grossovenatoris the whole of the land in Hulme within the hedges which Richard ^ Roberts, Excerpta e Rot. Fin. i. 343, 351. ^ Pleas of the Forest, in Ormerod, ii. 108. 3 Vale Royal Ledger Book, MS. Harl. 2064, if. 254, 276.

  • A somewhat suspicious circumstance is that an inquisition was taken upon

a Richard Grosvenor in 23 Edward III., and Richard was his son and heir. 5 Tabley MSS. book C. fF. 120 seqq.