DE ROOS, BARONESS DE ROOS.

THE ancient BARONY OF DE Roos had long lain in abeyance' when it was conferred by his Majesty, in 1806, on the present Peeress, CHARLOTTE BOYLE WALSINGHAM, wife of LORD HENRY FITZGERALD, after her claim and descent had been investigated and admitted by a committee of privileges of the house of lords: her Ladyship being daughter and heir of the Hon. Captain Boyle Walsingham, by the daughter and coheir of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, K. B. by Lady Frances, daughter and coheir of Thomas Earl Coningsby, by Lady Frances Jones, daughter and coheir of Richard Earl of Ranelagh, by Elizabeth, youngest daughter and coheir of Francis Lord Willoughby, of Parham, son of William Lord Willoughby, of Parham, by Lady Frances Manners, sister of Francis sixth Earl of Rutland, descended from Thomas Manners, LORD Roos, who was created Earl of Rutland, June 18th, 1525.

An ample account of the noble family of Roos, Rosse, or DE Roos, may be found in Dugdale's Baronage, and Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. i. p. 22, &c.

"That PETER, the ancestor of this great and noble family," says Dugdale, "did originally assume his surname in the time of King Henry I. from that lordship in Holderness, called Ros, where he then had his residence, needeth not to be doubted."

This Peter gave to the abbey of St. Mary's at York, the church of Gilling in Ridale; and wedded Adeline, one of the sisters and coheirs to the famous Walter Espec, founder (inter alia) of the abbey of Rievaulx in Yorkshire; in which monastery he had sepulture, and left issue, a younger son Everard de Ros, and

ROBERT DE ROOs, son and heir, who, in 3 Hen. II. gave to the King a thousand marks for livery of the lands late of Walter Espec, of his mother's inheritance. He bestowed on the Knights Templars his manor of Ribstane, where a preceptory was founded for such members of that fraternity as were stationed in the north. A mutilated statue of a Knight Templar, with the arms of Roos on his shield, and attributed to him, is remaining on a pedestal near the city of York. He married Sibilla de Valoines, (who surviving him, re-married Ralph de Albini) and had issue Joan, wife of Robert Dacre, of Dacre castle, and

EVERARD de Ros, who paid to the King, in 1176, a fine of 5267. for his lands; and 1007. in 1180 to have possession of those, which the Earl of Albemarle then held. He married Roysia, daughter of William Trusbut, of Wartre in Holderness, and (after the death of her brothers Richard, Geoffrey, and Robert de Trusbut) coheir, with her sisters Hilaria, and Agatha, to her father's estate; and also to that of her mother Albreda de Harcurt, daughter of Roysia, one of the daughters of Pain Peverell, standard-bearer to Robert Curthose, the Conqueror's eldest son, in the Holy Land. Hilaria and Agatha having no issue, her posterity, the Lords Roos, became also Barons of Trusbut. Everard gave the church of Artingwic to the canons of Bridlington in Yorkshire; the grange of Stratton to the monks of Newminster in Northumberland; and to the priory of Rievaulx a piece of new improved land at Helmsley, with his wood on the west side of the town. He died before 1186, leaving by his widow, then thirty-four years old, two sons; the eldest of whom,

ROBERT de Ros, called Furfan, was then only thirteen years old. In 1197, he fell so much into the displeasure of King Richard I. when in Normandy, that he was committed to close confinement; nor did he regain his liberty but by the payment of 1200 marks. Under King John, 1199, he regained the whole barony of his great grandfather Walter Espec; and was soon after employed as one of the commissioners to conduct William King of Scotland to England. He was the founder of Hamlake castle in Yorkshire; and of Werke castle in Northumberland. In 1213, he took upon himself the habit of religion; when his castle of

a It is engraved by Nichols, ut supra,

b William, the younger son, married Maud, sister to Gerard de Camville.