Vol 1: The Bluets - Lackham Countryside Centre

The Bluets 41
Before Easter it was recorded 151 that
The Lord king and his justiciar have pledged that Hoel de
Caerleon will pay to Nest Bloet £10, between the middle of
May and the middle of the Feast of St John 152
Eventually Hoel settled the manor of Salisbury [in Netherwent] on Nest in
satisfaction 153 . Nest paid gilt spurs to the Exchequer for the land 154
and willed it to her younger son William before her death. Reed has
suggested that this is evidence that Ralph IV was not Nest‘s son 155 ,
maintaining that otherwise Ralph would have inherited under primogenitor.
This follows from the idea of maritagium:
Maritagium was a grant of land made by a woman‘s
relative, usually her father, nominally to her husband with
her upon or because of her marriage. ……. As a grant
made because of the woman, maritagium, in a society of
male primogeniture, served as the woman‘s inheritance,
inheritable only by her 156 children. 157
Reed‘s argument would seem to be that, as the land went to William and
not Ralph IV, this shows that Ralph IV wasn‘t her offspring but was from
another marriage; if Ralph had been her child he would have been awarded
151
Curia Regis Rolls vol 1 Richard 1 - 2 John 1189 – 1201 p397 Hilary Term 2
John dated 1201
152
Which one is unclear, but it was likely the Feast of the Nativity of John the
Baptist, which was June 24 th
153
Reed PC (2008) Descent of St Maur family of Co. Monmouth and Seymour family
of Hatch, Co Somerset
Foundation (2008) 2 (6) p396
154
Reed PC (2008) ibid fn34 Nesta Bluet reddidit ad Saccariam Calcaria deuarata
pro terra de Salesburi in Nederwent taken from E 368/7 m1. This is online at
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/aalt1/H3/E368no7/aE368no7fronts/IMG_2653.htm, 6th
line up from the bottom of the image, note that “Nesta”‘ looks more like ‗”Hefta‘
155
See also the discussion on William and Roland below
156
Our emphasis
157
Biancalana , J (2006) The Fee Tail and the Common Recovery in Medieval
England, 1176-1502 Cambridge University Press, p7