vi. John Fitz-Robert succeeded to the family possessions, being then forty-four years old. He had been summoned to parliament from the year 1299. In consideration of the services he had rendered the king, he obtained a pardon in the 25th Edw. I. "for all his debts due to the exchequer, and also for the scutage then due to himself." He was in Gascony in the 22d, and in the wars of Scotland in the 26th, 28th, 31st and 34th of Edw. I.,* and in the 4th and 6th of Edw. II. He was at the siege of Carlaverock was taken prisoner at the battle of Stirling, released, and after this employed again in the 9th and 12th of Edw. II. against the Scots. In the 14th of Edw. II. he was ordered to furnish his castle of Werkt with menat-arms, victuals, and all other necessaries for its defence against the Scots; which castle, as it appears from a petition of Henry Percy in 1331, he held for his life.

He assumed the name of Claverings from his manor in Essex; by which name being summoned to parliament from 28 Edw. I. to 5 Edw. III., and dying without male issue, he conveyed the inheritance of the manors of Warkworth, Rothbury, Newburn, and Corbridge to Stephen de Trafford, to hold for his life, with remainder to King Edward I. Dugdale has given the full particulars of this act of feoffment, but it is needless to repeat them. John de Clavering's castle and manors in Northumberland devolved on the crown in the 2d of Edw. II. (1313),** in which year he died at his manor of Aynhoe in Northamptonshire, and was buried in the choir of Langley Abbey, Norfolk, which had been founded 14 Henry II. (1168) by Robert FitzRoger, his great-great-grandfather.

in dominico quæ valent per annum 31. ; xl acræ prati in dominico valent per annum 41. Est furnus communis qui valet per annum cum tolneto burgi cum occiderit 1. Piscaria tam de aquæ de Cokett quam de mari valet per annum 6l. 13s. 4d. Duæ salina valent per annum 10s. Est euria ad voluntatem domini tenenda cujus perquisita valent per annum 1. Molendinum aquaticum quod vocatur molendinum de Werkeworth valet per annum 91. 68. 8d. Aliud molendinum de Brothirwyk valet per annum 11. 10s. Est ibidem boscus qui vocatur Sunderland et herbagium ejusdem valet per annum 88. Summa totalis extente castri et ville de Werkeworth, Ixixl. xiijs. ixd.

In 2 Edw. III. an indenture was made betwixt the king and his beloved kinsman Henry de Percy, that on consideration of the latter supporting him with men and arms all his life, and by payment to the crown of an annual fee of fifty marks, he was to hold the castle of Warkworth, and all the appendant manors and lands in Northumberland, which had belonged to John de Clavering; and after the decease of the said John they should belong to Henry Percy and his heirs. This was confirmed to him in the 5th and 9th years of the same reign.t Warkworth, with its manors, remained in the hands of the Percies until 21 Richard II. (1397); when, under the fourth Lord Percy of Alnwick, who was slain at Bramham Moor, they were forfeited. In the 2d of Edward IV. (1462) it was granted to George Duke of Clarence.

CHAPTER IX.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION OF WARKWORTH.

THERE is every reasonable ground for stating that the oldest portions of Warkworth Castle were erected by its first lord, Roger Fitz-Richard. He was placed in possession of the manor by the crown in the year 1158, and held it in capite. As there are no notices concerning its building on the sheriff's' accounts, and since its foundation is not alluded to by any contemporary chronicler, it must have been erected by this royal vassal. Indeed, we know that a castle actually existed here before the invasion of William the Lion in 1173; so that the structure must have risen in the interval of the grant to Roger Fitz-Richard and this period. This will be allowing fifteen years to elapse between its origin and partial demolition.

The site was not advantageously chosen for natural strength, as it has only the defence of an easy slope on one side, with the Coquet at its base-this beautiful river being its chief protection. A singularly picturesque situation would scarcely influence the choice of men who had mainly to consider their personal security; yet in this Fitz-Richard was eminently successful.

The castle originally consisted of a keep, placed on the mound where the present one stands. It looked on the south and west into a baily, which is defined by the present curtain-walls. Within the baily, on the river side, were the hall, chapel, and domestic buildings, such as the kitchen, sculleries, bakehouse, &c. Due south was the great gatehouse of entrance, and on the east three mural towers; two of these, with the connecting enceinte, still exist in their original state; as do the chief tower of approach, the foundations of the hall, the cingulum on the western side, and