Richard de Meath of Walton

• Preferred Name: Richard de Meath of Walton^{[1] [2] [3]}
  
• Alternate Name: Richard De Walton
  
• Gender: M
  
• FSID: G4L5-M5T
  
• alt.birth: um 1139
  
• Death: 1235 in Hale, Lancashire, England at LATI: N3.336 LONG: E2.8034 with note: Had Hale restored unto him from Henry Walton III
  
• Birth: ABT 1145 in England, United Kingdom at LATI: N2.4379 LONG: E1.6496 with note: calculated
  
• Occupation: Cleric of SwinefordBET 1203 AND 1207
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  Richard (Walton) Meath (Mida), Cleric of Swineford 1203-1207
  eldest s/o Gibert Walton &
  b- Walton, Lancashire, England
  mistress - Cecily Columbers
  d-1235 - Hale, Lancashire, England
  
  held - Hale, Walton & Formby, Lancashire, England
  
  1200 - King John Gave to RICHARD Meath, the whole town of Walton, Lancashire (which his father had held)
  
  soon after 1200 - RICHARD Meath gave 4 oxtangs in Walton to Richard s/o Robert Walton, this gift was confirmed 1204 by the King
  1215- RICHARD Meath profers 4 palfreys for seizin of his land of Walton, Formby & Hale & the offer being excepted, the sheriff was directed to take security for the payment, this was confimed by Henry III in 1227
  
  He Gave Walton to his brother Henry Walton, whom he made his (legal) heir
  
  Richard de Meath was a member of a family with holdings in Walton, Wavertree, and Newsham, and in 1200-1203 he received grants in Hale, Walton and Formby. A substantial note about Richard de Meath appears in Lancashire Pipe Rolls:
  
  “NOVA OBLATA - Richard de Meath (Mida), was the eldest son of Gilbert de Walton, and brother of Henry de Walton. He is sometimes described as clericius, and appears at times to have attended at the court probably in an official capacity. In the Patent Polls he is described as "dilectus clericus noster." In the month of December, 1200, he had letters of protection from the King directed to the Justices then in Ireland. He attested royal charters which passed respectively at Pont de l'Arche on the 5th June, 1203; at Rouen, on the 11th June, 1203; and at Bristol, on the 10th September, 1205. Probably he acquired his name from some accidental occurrence, or some office which he may have held in the province of Meath. Although the Pipe Poll specifically refers to an entry in the Fine Roll respecting the grant of Walton, there is no such entry to be found in the Roll of the third year of John. From the Charter Roll however, it appears that the King grant- ed to "Richard de Mida, son of Gilbert de Waleton" the whole town of Waleton-on-the Hill, which formerly rendered 40s. ancient dues and customary yearly ferm, while it was parcel of the King's demesne and in his hands, to hold in fee farm for 60s. yearly for all services. Given at St. Sever in Gascony, 27th July, 1200. On the 14th May, 1203, by letters patent directed to Geoffrey, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, King John presented Richard de Meath to the church of Wolstanton, co. Staff.”
  
  The grant in Walton is shown above. The other grants in Formby and Hale were:
  
  “[A moiety in Formby] in 1203 was granted to Richard de Meath, one of the king's clerks, son of Gilbert de Walton. Three years later it was taken into the king's hands,...but in 1221 Richard de Meath succeeded in obtaining Henry III's mandate to the sheriff to put him in seisin of this and other manors granted to him by King John. Richard granted it to his brother Henry de Walton for life, with a provision, which took effect, that should Henry survive him, the estate should descend to Henry's heirs; this arrangement was confirmed by the king in 1227.”
  
  “Townships: Hale” says about the grant at Hale:
  
  “[By By] charter, dated at Rouen, 9 November, 1203, King John granted to Richard de Meath [footnote says “One of the clerks of the Exchequer, and son of Gilbert de Walton] the vill of Hale in its entirety, rendering every Michaelmas for all service the increased rent of £7 above mentioned. The vill was to be held by Richard and his heirs by hereditary right...[i i]n 1215,..Richard de Meath proffered four palfreys for seisin of his land of Walton, Formby, and Hale, and the offer being accepted the sheriff of Lancaster was directed to take security for the payment” and Richard was put in seisin of his estates in Walton, Formby and Hale.”
  
  Richard de Meath was a clerk in the King’s court form at least 1200 through at least 1205 as shown by statements in the grants to him and by the royal charters he attested. The grants to him of Hale, Walton and Formby indicate he had performed some service of note.
  
  Richard was a son of Gilbert de Walton, but he was called “Richard de Meath” Why? Meath is a county in Ireland; no reference has been found to a Meath in England. The note from Lancashire Pipe Rolls quoted above speculated the name “de Meath” was acquired from some accidental occurrence, or some office which he may have held in the province of Meath. Richard safe conduct addressed to the king’s Justices in Ireland was dated December 1200, but he was already of Meath (of Mida) when the grant was made for Walton in July of that year. “The Origins of the Irelands of Hale” contains the following paragraph at page 140:
  
  “In 1185, Henry II attempted to make a complete conquest of Ireland, and sent his son John over to conduct the campaign. Among his followers seems to have gone a young Richard of Walton, probably in a clerical capacity. Of his exploits in Ireland we know nothing, but for some reason he earned the distinctive name of Meath, so Richard of Walton becomes henceforth Richard of Meath.”
  
  === Richard de Meath ===
  King John granted to Richard de Meath (18) the vill of Hale in its entirety, rendering every Michaelmas for all service the increased rent of £7 above mentioned. The vill was to be held by Richard and his heirs by hereditary right (19).
  
  The words as to descent by hereditary right led to trouble. Richard de Meath was a clerk and beneficed, having been presented to Swineford church in 1203 and again in 1207, so that he may have been in holy orders. Yet he allied himself with one Cecily de Columbers (21), and had four sons and two daughters by her. In 1226-7 he granted to Cecily de Columbers and her children begotten by him and their heirs the vill of Hale and its appurtenances, to be held of Richard himself during his life, and after his death of his brother Henry de Walton and his heirs, 'who,' he declared, 'are my heirs.' The remainders were to Cecily's children in turn—Richard, Geoffrey, Adam, Henry, Emma, and Cecily; 'and so to all other children that the said Cecily may have by me.' The holder was to pay annually to Henry de Walton and his heirs the £7 due to the king and 12d., or a pound of pepper, in addition. About the same time (viz. on 19 July, 1227) Henry III confirmed his father's grants to Richard, as well as the latter's charter granting Hale to Henry de Walton and his heirs.
  
  Richard de Meath lived for several years after this charter, dying, it is supposed, about 1235. He was succeeded by Cecily de Columbers,and then in turn by Richard, Geoffrey, Adam, and Henry her sons.
  
  Henry was still living in October, 1260, when William son of Henry de Walton endeavoured to recover the manor of Hale, which, as he asserted, Cecily de Columbers had held of him, and which should have reverted to him as an escheat on her death, as she died without heirs, her children being ignored as illegitimate. Henry's defence was technical but successful; he did not hold the entire manor, as Herbert, rector of Childwall, had a messuage there with 3½ acres of land and the site of a chapel. Henry retained the manor till his death, which occurred soon after, and was succeeded by his sister Cecily, wife of John de Wolfall.
  
  So far, the settlement made by Richard de Meath held good; the Walton family were overlords, and Cecily de Columbers and her children successively held under them. The threat of the Waltons to dispossess them for illegitimacy seems to have led to a compromise, for Cecily de Wolfall granted a third of the manor of Hale to her overlord William de Walton, who was satisfied with that concession.
  
  (18) One of the clerks of the Exchequer, and son of Gilbert de Walton.
  
  (19) He paid 2 marks as recorded in the Pipe Roll, and in 1215 the king sent word to the sheriff to take security from Richard de Meath for the payment of four palfreys, and thereupon to put him in seisin of his estates in Walton, Formby, and Hale. This instruction was repeated by Hen. III in 1222.
  
  (21) She is supposed to have been Cecily de Vernai, wife of Philip de Columbers, who died in 1216.
  
  ['Townships: Hale', A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 3 (1907), pp. 140-149. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk]

• m. mistress

1. Title: ANCESTRY OF ADAM DE IRELAND [footnotes are omitted] by James H. Maloney
   Publication: Name: https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/genealogie-richard-remme/I534330.php;
   Note: Adam de Ireland, Lord of Hale, was born before 1258 in Ireland and died 1321-26. He was the first of that name to hold Hale, and there is no evidence of a de Ireland possessing Hale before Adam appeared in the last quarter of the 13th century. In contemporary records he was referred to as Adam de Ireland, Adam de Hibernia, Adam Austyn, Adam Austin, and Adam Austin de Ireland, He was the son of Edusa, a daughter of Richard de Meath (or de Mida) by Cecily de Columbers. Nothing is known of his father beyond the name Austyn. Richard de Meath's father was Gilbert de Walton, the son of Waltheve (Waldeve) of Walton. Adam married Avina Holand by mid-1285. She was the daughter of Robert de Holand and Elizabeth Salmesbury. The ancestry of Adam de Ireland was made clear around the beginning of the 20th century by a number of publications which examined charters, Pipe Rolls, and the documents at Hale. Mid-nineteenth century publications set out an erroneous ancestry for Adam of Ireland with antecedents named Ireland at Hutt, and to resolve a perceived problem with possession of Hale. His grandmother Cecily de Columbers is mistakenly identified as the mother or grandmother of his wife. These mistakes are often repeated today. Adam de Ireland was neither the son of John Ireland and Matilda Hesketh nor the grandson of Robert Ireland and Beatrix Daresbury, although later generations of the family appear to have thought so. The original home of the lord of the manor of Hale was at Hutte, a mansion in Halewood, but between..1617 and 1626 the foundations of Hale Hall were first laid..... It was Gilbert Ireland, Knt, who began the construction of Hale Hall when he first moved from his former home at Hute which was starting to decay. Accordingly, prior to the reign of Charles I, the lord of Hale might be referred to as 'of Hutt,' but before and after hew was 'of Hale.' The original grant was for the 'vil of Hale.' Adam de Ireland's obtained possession of Hale as son of Edusa (wife of Austyn), a daughter of Richard de Meath. Adam initially held Hale subject to certain overlord rights of the Waltons and the Hollands, but with his marriage to Avina de Holand about 1285 he began gaining additions rights and was the sole possessor of Hale by 1321.
   
2. Title: British History online
   
3. Title: Hale hall: with notes on the family of Ireland Blackburne [by C. Blackburne]. By Charlotte Blackburne
   Author: pages 5-6
   Publication: Name: https://books.google.com/books?id=G-MHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PP28&lpg=PP28&dq=alan+de+columbers&source=bl&ots=KJGJJUABXt&sig=p--xlqKoUiKMT8xz_lnoLGt1a14&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjtyZnultXMAhVhw4MKHRANAVc4FBDoAQggMAE#v=onepage&q=alan%20de%20columbers&f=false;
   Note: Gives details of Cecilie and her father and her marriage to Alan Columbers down to the Holland line etc...