A faithful adherent to Matilda, daughter of Hen ry I. (commonly called the empress Maude, from her marrying Henry V. emperor of Germany) Gervase Paganel held Dudley Castle for her interests, in opposition to the doubtful claims of Stephen. This was about the year 1138. The time of his marriage with Isabel, daughter of Robert, earl of Leicester, is not known. It was, however, antecedent to his founding the Priory at Dudley, about the year 1161, in pursuance of his father's wish and directions: as in the Charterdeed, her name is mentioned.

About the year 1174, by attaching himself to the party of Henry the second's eldest son, against the king his father, Gervase incurred the displeasure of that monarch; who ordered the Castle of the offending Baron to be dismantled: but it is supposed the order was not fully executed; because, soon afterwards, the king received from the offender 500 marks as a peace offering.

In 1189, when Richard the first ascended the throne, Gervase was one of the attendant Nobles at his coronation; which he did not long survive : as in the sixth year of that king's reign, we are informed, that, leaving no male issue, Hawise, his daughter, became his heir: who having married John de Somery, this Castle descended to a son and heir of that union, in whom was renewed the ancient family name of Ralph.-To Ralph succeeded his son and heir William Percival de Somery, who died in 1222, leaving in wardship, a son named Nicholas de Somery, who died 7 years

after his father: when his uncle Roger de Somery became possessed of the Castle and its appendages; who, in 1233, having neglected or refused to appear before Henry III. to receive the honour of knighthood, a writ of seisure was issued, to hold the honour of Dudley, and all the lands of the recusant peer, for the king's use. During this period the Castle remained unfortified. In the 48th, however, of this king's reign (1263) Roger de Somery was permitted to restore it to its former strength, in consideration of his fidelity to the king, when some of the barons rose in rebellion against him. Having fallen afterwards into their power, at Lewes, Roger was made prisoner by them; and dying in the first year of the following reign, 1273, was buried in the neighbouring Priory. He was succeeded by his eldest son of the same name, the issue of a second marriage with Amabelle, daughter of Robert de Chaucumbe. In 1291, he also was removed by death to the sepulchre of his ancestors, leaving a son only 12 years of age; who, dying during his minority, his younger brother, John, succeeded him in the honours and estates of the family; which he retained to a very advanced age. A failure occurring of

male issue, after a large dower reserved for his widow, the estates were divided between his sisters, Margaret and Joan. Margaret the elder, having been married to John de Sutton, of a respectable family in Nottinghamshire, the Castle and Town of Dudley, with the manors of Sedgley and Kingswinford, and the Chase of Pensnet,

were assigned to her; and by her, transferred to her husband, who passed them away to Hugh le Despencer. But, it afterwards appearing that extortion or chicanery had been used in the transaction, the grant was annulled, in the early part of the reign of Edward the third.

This John de Sutton was succeeded by his son and heir: who, in the 12th of Edward III. styles himself (in virtue of a deed, bearing date that year) John, the Son of John de Sutton, upon Trent, Lord of Dudley, &c.: which deed is sealed with his arms-two lions passant-he bearing that coat in right of his mother, Margaret, the co-heiress of Somery.-He died, 1360, in the 35th of Edward III. seised of the town and castle of Dudley, the manors of Sedgley, Kingswinford, Rowley Regis, Himley, and Penn, &c. leaving John, his son and heir, of full age to succeed him: who, undistinguished by any recorded circumstance, was succeeded by a son of the same name, about the 6th of Richard II. 1382. After evincing a martial spirit in the wars with France, he died at the early age of 21, about the year 1400.

His son and successor of the same favourite name, John, then only 5 years old, lived to honour his family by steady principles of integrity as a man, by bravery, as a soldier, and wisdom as a statesman. He carried the standard at the funeral

of Henry V. 1422, under the title of Baron of Dudley. He was one of the knights of the Garter, in the reign of Henry VI. and was held in high regard even by the sanguinary and

licentious Edward IV.-By Elizabeth, his lady, daughter of Sir John Berkeley, he had three sons, and two daughters. "In a good old age," as full of honours as of years, he died, it is supposed about the 16th of Edward IV, 1475. Edmund, his eldest son, being married, having died before him, he was succeeded by his grandson John, the eldest son of Edmund; from whom the earls of Warwick and Leicester derived their origin.

In the first year of Richard III. 1483, John, Lord Dudley, obtained a grant to himself and his heirs, of several additional manors; and, by his will, bearing date August 17, 1487, directed that his body should be interred within the Priory at Dudley. It is supposed he died about the year 1490, leaving issue, by Cicely his wife, (daughter of Sir William Willoughby) Edward; concerning whom little else is known, except his having been a knight of the Garter, and a lord of Parliament, from the 7th of Henry VII. to 21st of Henry VIII. 1529.

To Edward succeeded his son and heir John, a man, who, without guile himself, not suspecting deceit in others, became so involved by artful people in pecuniary difficulties, as to surrender this Castle, with its title and rights, to Viscount Lisle, earl of Warwick, afterwards duke of Northumberland. Thus he, who might have lived in splendour himself, and dispensed comfort others, became so necessitous as to owe a precarious subsistence to the charity of his friends: while so little pity did an unfeeling world manifest towards

one devoid of common prudence, that, as if in mockery of his former state, he was sarcastically called "the lord Quondam."

To him succeeded Edward, his son and heir; who, in the first of Edward VI. 1546, was made Governor of Hume Castle; and in the following reign of Mary, obtained such favour as to recover, by letters patent, all the property of which his father had been defrauded; such property having devolved to the Crown by the attainder and consequent execution of John, duke of Northumberland. The queen restored to him, and to his heirs male, the manors of Harborne and Smethwick, with the advowson of the church of Harborne,— the Priory of Dudley, with divers messuages and lands in Dudley,-the Castle of Dudley,-the park, called the Conegre,-the Old Park,-the lordships of Sedgley, Himley, and Swinford,the parks of Ettingshall, Sedgley, and Himley,— the hays, forests, and chases of Ashwood and Chaspell, all the land, called Willingsworth,— divers lands, &c. in Womborne, Swindon, Trysull, Cradeley, and Rowley. These extensive Grants are here enumerated, because the names of the different places still continue, without the least variation; and because (as its heraldic Motto implies*) the Terra firma of most of them remains in the same Noble Family.

The restoration of them to Edward de Sutton, by a queen whose enmity was death, proved him to have been held in no small estimation. Had

"Comme je fus."