THE NORTHERN STAR. Topography, Picturesque Scenery, Local History, &c. [Under this head the Editors earnestly solicit Drawings and Sketches of Ruins and other interesting places, with accompanying information.-Histories of Manufactures, new Inventions, and mechanical Improvements, as included under the same department, are also very respectfully entreated.] The higher part of the building is at present inhabited by the vicar of the parish, the Rev. Mr. Tinsley; but the main body, though it bears a more modern appearance, is in a very ruinous and dilapidated state. It would appear from Dr. Pegge's account contained in No. XXXII. of the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, that the whole of this pile, though built at a considerable intervals, has been erected on the scite of an ancient feudal castle, of which not a single vestige remains, but, as Lucan says of Troy in Julius Cæsar's time, etiam periêre ruina! VOL. III. Tt Bolsover belonged, when Domesday-book was made, to William Peverell*, but no castle is noticed in that record, as in other cases †; so that he, undoubtedly, who was in great trust with the Conqueror, was his natural son, and had a considerable estate in Derbyshire ‡, was the person who first erected this fortress. Indeed, the Peverel-road, as it is called, which is yet in existence, though unfrequented, and which, commencing at this place, proceeds toward the other mansion§ of the Peverels at South Winfield, in this county ||, is a clear and unequivocal evidence at this day, that he built, Bolsover-castle, though the exact date may be a matter of uncertainty, since he lived till 7 Stephen, A. D. 1142. But be the precise time when it will, the castle stands, as was observed, on the brow of a hill which commands a most extensive prospect, and, in conjunction with Peak-castle, seems to have been sufficient for the purpose of controlling and keeping in order all the northern part of the county of Derby. William Peverel, son of the former, by poisoning Ranulph earl of Chester, A.D. 1153, in the reign of king Stephen, forfeited his estate, and his employments, to the crown. Part of his demesnes continued many years after in the hands of Henry II. as appears by the sheriff's accounts, but another part went to the criminal's daughter ¶T. As to our castle in particular, it certainly was vested in the crown; for Richard I., in the first year of his reign, gave the castles of Pecci and Bolsoveres to his brother John, afterwards king, on his marriage with the daughter and coheir of the earl of Gloucester **. This is the first mention made, we presume, of this castle. In the quarrel which afterwards ensued between Longchamp, bishop of Ely, and this John, then earl of Mortaigne, during the absence of king Richard in the Holy Land, the castle of Pec was committed, by agreement to the Bishop of Coventry, Hugh de Nonant, and that of Bolsofres o Richard del Pec ††, if he was willing to receive it; if not, this also was to * TERRA WIL'LI PEVREL. In BELESOVRE. h'b' Leuricus. III. car' t're ad g'id. 7 111. bord'. h'ntes. 111. car'. 7 VIII. ac' p'ti. Silua past' 11. lev'lg'. 71. lat. T.R.E. ual'. XL. sol'. m' LX' Ro'bt' tenet. Peak-castle, York, Lincoln, &c. He had 14 lordships there, and Bolsover amongst them. Dugdale's Bar. I. p. 436. I find not, however, quite so many in the printed Domesday. § I term it a mansion-house, because I apprehend it not to have been kernelated, or converted into a castle, till afterwards. In an authentic series which I have seen of the proprietors of Winfield manor, William Peverell succeeds Roger Pictaviensis about A. D. 1101, &c. Domesday, p. 273. Leland's Collectan. I. p. 289. Dugdale's Bar. I. p. 437. Thoroton's Antiq. of Nott. p. 489. Roger Hoveden, p. 655. Dugd. Bar. I. p. 80. See also Madox's Hist. of Excheq. p. 207. 2nd Edit. ++ One of the King's Justiciaries, 26 Hen. II. Madox, p. 137. pass into the custody of the same prelate*. Richard, however, accepted†, and received forty pounds for the service at one time, from Geofrey Fitz-Peter, one of the regents §; more might be paid him after. As to the prelate Hugh de Nonant, the order often went to the war in these times |, and therefore it could not be thought out of character, that the custody of castles should be committed to them, or that they should be sheriffs of counties ** These fortresses, it seems, were thought of importance at this time, and we shall find them of equal consequence hereafter. They were both very strong, that in the Peak being almost impregnable, and this at Bolsover having a broad and deep ditch on the N.E. and East sides, where it was most assailable. I cannot but think, and I collect it from the preceding transaction between Longchamp and Earl John, that, before the compromise took place, there had been some disturbance at one or both fortresses between the partizans of those two restless and powerful competitors. Whether John earl of Mortaigne recovered the two castles in the life time of his brother Richard, is not certain; but after his own accession to the throne, viz. in the 6th year of his reign, he granted the government of Peak-castle to Hugh de Nevill, and that of Bolsover to his great favourite William Briwere tt, whom otherwise he enriched with numerous and large possessions, particularly with the manor and borough of Chesterfield, and the hundred of Scarsdale. The great men of these times were all military; but otherwise William was much employed in civil affairs, being a counsellor both in John's and Richard's reign, and one of the barons of their exchequer. He was also one of the regents when Richard went to the Holy Land §§. Briswere, however, kept not the castle long, since in John's 9th year Bryan de L'Isle was constituted governor. The twin or sister castles were posts of consideration in this troublesome reign, and by some means or other, now not known, were gone out of the king's disposal, and kept against him by the Barons till the year 1215, when, according to the annals of Dunstaple, they were retaken on John's behalf, by William Earl Ferrars, who, as Dugdale informs us, was made governor of both.¶¶ * Hoveden, p. 700. + Leland's Collect. I. p. 291. Madox's Hist. of Exchequer, II. p. 220. Madox's Hist. of Exchequer II. p. 200. § Ibid. I. p. 34. 35. See the Life of this man in God win de Præsul. p. 304. ed. Richardson. Madox, II. p. 343. ** Ibid. I. p. 459. II. p. 179, 180. Castles were often under the care of sheriffs. + Thoroton, p. 489. Dugd. I. p. 701. Madox's Hist. of Exchequer, II. p. 314. §§ Hoveden, p. 663. Dugdale, I. p. 737. ¶¶ Annal. Dunstap. p. 82. Dngd. I. p. 261. Mr. Bray, in his Tour, p. 343, says, the earl held them six years; but he seems to confound the present transaction with that of 1 Hen. III. Bryan de L'Isle accounted, 17 John, for the ferms of the honour of Peverel and Bolsover Castle, and moreover received a mandate, 18 John, to fortify the castle, and hold it against the rebellious barons; or, if he could not make it tenable, to demolish it*. It was not then destroyed, and therefore we may reasonably conclude, it was rendered at that time a place or piece, as the term then was, of good defence and security. King John,, in his 18th year, appointed Gerard de Furnivall to reside with his wife and family at Bolsover-Castle, for the better preservation of the peace of those parts of the kingdom. Whence it appears, that the possession of thisfortress was esteemed to contribute materially to the quiet of the neighbouring country, and that it was not a mere place of strength, as seems to have been the case with the other fort in the Peak, but furnished at the same time with all necessary conveniences for habitation, and the reception of no inconTM siderable household. We are come to King Henry III., in whose long and tumultuous reign Bolsover was still a fort of great moment and consequence. In the first year of his reign, William Earl Ferrars obtained new patents for the custody of the castles of Peak and Bolsover, and retained the government of them for full six years. The commandants were changed so rapidly after this, that, to avoid tediousness, I shall abbreviate the matter as much as possible, previously observing, that the references at the end of the respective names go to the first volume of Dugdale's Baronage, and that the Castellans were, as I apprehend, all barons. Hen. III. anno 7. Bryan de L'Isle above-mentioned, p. 737. 8. William Briwere, before named, p. 702-708. 13. Bryan de L'Isle, p. 737. 16. Idem, governor of Knaresborough and Peke, ibid. 17. Idem, p. 737. 17. Hugh Dispenser, p. 389. 17. Gilbert de Segrave, p. 673. 17. William earl Ferrars, p. 261, also Dugd. 19. Monasticon, II. p. 898. Bolsover, it seems, was granted at last, in this reign, by way of inherite ance, to the earls of Chester; and the earl John Scot, dying without issue, 22 Henry III., Ada, his fourth sister and coheir, carried it, having obtained it for her share of her brother's estate amongst other manors, to her husband, Henry Hastings Lord Abergavenny §. On this event, Bolsover reverted, by exchange, to the crown, some time before the 29th of Henry's reign, for Ada had then certain manors assigned to her for her full purparty, of which Bolsover is not one. There is a strange mistake in Mr. Camden relative to this matter: the author there states, in Bishop Gibson's Dugd. Bar. I. p. 737. Dugd. Bar. p. 725; Chauncey's Antiquities of Hertfordshire, p. 344. Dugdale, Bar. p. 261 || Dugd. p. 574. § Thoroton, p. 431. Dugd. p. 45, 46. 574. Camden, col. 591. |