Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/91

DARCY 75 DARCY, DARCY OF DARCY, and DARCY AND MEINILL, commonly called DARCY OF ASTONQ BARONY IN I. Sir George Darcy, s. and h. of Thomas, Lord TAIL MALE. Darcy, by his ist wife, Dowsabel, da. of Sir Richard Tempest, both abovenamed. He held a command at I. 1548. the battle of Flodden, 9 Sep. 1513, and was knighted by Henry VIII at Lille, in Flanders, 14 Oct. 1513. Sheriff of CO. York, 1535-36. He was restored in blood by Act of Pari. (1548) 2 Edw. VI to the dignity of BARON DARCY, to him and the heirs male of his body-C") He m. (indentures dat. 26 Mar. 151 1),('=) Dorothy, da. and h.() of Sir John Melton, of Aston, co. York, by Katherine, da. of Sir (^) This article is by G. W. Watson. V.G. C") As to this Act of restoration, Townsend, in his additions to Dugdale, observes that — "Though in the beginning of the Act it is enacted that he and the hcin male of his body shall be taken and known by the name of Lord Darcy, and shall have place and voice in Parliament, l^c. as a Baron of the realm; yet it is afterwards further enacted and declared that he and Ka heirs shall be restored in blood only as heir and heirs of the said Thomas, Lord Darcy, and that he and his heirs shall be enabled to demand, ask, have, hold and enjoy all and every such honours, castles, manors, lordships, and all manner of hereditaments, ^"c. Upon this view of the Act I cannot but think that the fair construction is, that upon the failure of heirs male of his body the heirs general are let into the inheritance, and this opinion will, I conceive, be much fortified, if not entirely confirmed, by what follows. When the restored Lord came to Parliament he was ranked and sat there as the junior Baron, and con- tinued during his life to hold only such place as was due to him according to the date of his restitution; but after his death his son's name was inserted in the old place, and in I Eliz. [/)£'] was admitted to the ancient seat of, and rank formerly enjoyed by, his at- tainted ancestor {Lords' Journals^ vol. i, p. 514). I do not find any steps taken by him to obtain this admission; but the fact itself appears to me to amount to a decision of the House, especially as the Lords Darcy continued in undisturbed possession of that precedence till the male line became extinct in 1635. It seems, however, highly probable that this admission of Lord Darcy was considered as a regular conse- quence of the then recent decision in favour of Lord Stafford, who stood precisely in similar circumstances under an Act of restitution, which, like this of Lord Darcy, limited the Barony at first to the heirs male of the body of the restored Lord." {Coll. Top. et Gen., vol. viii, p. 164). "No mention of this Act has been found on the Patent Roll, nor in the Certiorari bundle of that date." (App., 47th Rep., D.K. Pub. Records, p. 92). G.E.C. and V.G. (<=) Inq.p. m. (on Sir John Melton), Ch., II, vol. 70, no. 60, vol. 74, no. 44; Exch., II, file 241, no. 36; Court of Wards, vol. 2, no. 165. By the indenture, there re- cited, dated 26 Mar. 2 Hen. VIII, John Melton esquire agreed that before 25 Apr. next he would deliver Dorathe Melton his da. and h. ap. to Lord Darcy, and granted "that the sayd Dorathe by the grace of god shall mary and take to husbond George Darcy son' and heyre apparaunt of the sayd lord before the feast of saynt Micheli tharchaungell now next commyng, or at any tyme after at the appoyntment of the sayd lord." C^) She was also heir to any Barony of Lucy that may be held to have existed.