Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 5.djvu/400

This page needs to be proofread.

398 MOUXTOOMERY — M<">rXT.TOY. MOUNTGOMERY, see Mi >XT< :< IMERY. MOUXTHERMER, st-c MONT.IERMER. MOUNTJOY, or MOXTJOY. /. Sir Walter Rm>ust, of Klvii^ton, eo. D.il.y (a family notcl for its Lancastrian allegianccl. was «. ami U. «.f sir Thomas Bi.or.vr,(' 1 ) of the Rime, Treasurer of Normandy, by hi- first wife, Margaret, da of Sir Thoirma Orbslky ; «tn;< his father in 1 I.SO ; was Treasurer for Calais, 1460} KB lit tin' ( '■.ion it ion of Kdivard 27 Jan. 14(31, :iml fought for that (ting at Towton, 2'.i March 1 I'll. From King Kdwar.l he received many of tin' estates forfeited by tin- K.nls of Devon ami oilier Lancastrians. He was Lord Hioh Trkasurrr, 1465 to 1 4 60, being ef. 21) June Hii'v, 1 ') BARON MOUNTJOY(«); el. KS., 24 Aj.vi! II,- m. firstly about 1 no. Helena, da. (*) In a most accurate ami erudite work, by M. Nichols, K.S.A., entitled " The Huttof LaKford Hull" will be fouuil a ginwl account of this braoch of the Blount family, who inherited Lawford from the family of Saye. (") This was one of the lii Baronies, which were granted by patent before the reign of Henry Vf II. Sees list thereof, vol. iii, p. 31, note "e," tub " Uanlwuy," (■'J Tin* title is so spelt in the patent. There is no addition of the territorial designation "of Thurvastoti eo. Policy (as is generally supposed) tbo' an annuity of 20 marks, some of which were out of the manor of Tluirvastoii, was added. Mr. J. Horace Round sends the following curious extract from a peerage claim in 1597. "Are not the 'iseoimtey of Montagu and the Kardom of Rivers iti Priinre ' the Barony of Mountjoy tit Spate t and yet all these. Boers of our Parliament." According to the following* statement, however, "Mountjoy" is more French than Spanish. 11 Monl-juie St. lkuis" was " a famous French war cry in the middle ages, and Montjnyt is the title- of the chief Herald of Prance, corresponding to our (tarter. Both tin- war cry and the heraldic title doiihlless refer to some victory, which was commemorated by the casting up of a mound of earth or a great heap of stones [Mnid-jnU] a practise of tin- highest antiquity. In diallers the name was written ludiffereutiy /it wnptt gondii, ami 0t nmntv /nets [Lower's " Family naaio."] "This creation " (remarks Mr. P. M. Nichols in bis "Lawford Hull." sec note "a" above) supplies one of the earliest examples of tile grant ol a Baronial title, nut being of a territorial character, nor the title of a dignity before existing ; the creation of a m-w Barony with a title distinct from tin- family mime, having been itself an innovation of the l.Mli century. The first examples of a title so borne seems to have been Sir John Cornwall, cr. a Baron by pat. 10 Hen. VI. with the express addition of the name and title of Baton of Kauuhopo, ami who tbo' his summons was addressed Johanni Cornmn/ll, Ckiwtler is called in the rolls of Purl.) It Mr tie Faunlmne. This was apparently a territorial title. Tin- nearest precedents for the Mountjoy title were those of (1) Sir James Penyser. in Pari. 1 117 Baron Say nf Stale, being a descendant but not heir of the older Lords Say, and (2) Sir Itichard Widevilo ci: by patent in the following year /.r>ri< Hirers. This title was also assumed to lie that of an ancient Barony, since among the Beignories granted with the dignity were those of the Baronia of Hirers ami Laid, under the latter [of which] the ancient Baron; of Widevilo bad been held." "The name of Afonljoic adopted by Sir Walter Blount from the surname of a maternal ancestor must have carried with it some chivaltic associations to the cars of those who bad taken part in the French wars, while tin; family name, both in its original foiiu of Le ISImid and in its Knglish fin lit of Jllimt, may have appeared of a homely cast. The title of Mountjoy (so spelt in the patent of creation) appears I" have been originally prounecd in Hie French fashion the ( not being beard. In later times the English pronunciation probably became more common. The seal of the first Lord bore this Inscription, Sigillvn ttulltri Domini Slonjoy lilii et lurcdit Tkome Jitmiul tjttontfam thetnrarii Xormiutnip." It is however very possible that the n ■ was in honour of the family of Mountjoy, in Derbyshire, the heiress of whom (Isolda, da. and b. of Sir Tliomaa de Mountjoy) m. Hie Great Grandfather of Hie grantee, who, tho' he did not descend from that match, is snid to have inherited her estates. Barony. 1. 1465.