The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. II.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Maleuere : from Maulevrier,[1] near Rouen. In the Bayeux Inquest "feodum Malevrier in Asnieres debet servitium dim. mil." "Helto de Mauleverer held in Kent in 1086, and 1120 Helto, his son, witnessed the charter of Bolton, York (Mon. ii. 101)."—The Norman People. "Robert de Roumeli (who, after the forfeiture of Earl Edwin, was the first grantee of his lands in Craven), gave to this second Helto and his wife Billiholt the manors of Bethmesley, Hawkswick, and East Malham, which their descendants continued to hold as feudatories of the Honour of Skipton. Helto's son, 'Wil'mus Maleporar,' who was in possession at the time of the marriage of Matilda, daughter of Henry I., and his grandson, also William, 21 Hen. II. are both mentioned in the Black Book of the Exchequer. In the same year the son of this second William, Helto, gave Hawkswick to the monks of Fountains; and this grant was confirmed by Aaliza de Roumeli. Allerton and Bethmesley continued in the direct line of this family till William Mauliverer, who had three sons, Ralph, Henry, and William, gave the latter to his third son, from whom descended in succession William, Giles, and William, which last had Sir William Mauliverer, knt, father of Sir Peter Mauliverer, who lived in the reign of Edward III., and left two daughters and co-heiresses, Alice, married to Sir John Middleton of Stockeld, and Thomasine to William de la Moore, of Otterburne, by whom he had Elizabeth, his only daughter and heiress, who, marrying Thomas Clapham, brought the manor of Bethmesley into that family. The eldest son of this match was John Clapham, a "famous esquire" in the wars of York and Lancaster, and a vehement partisan of the house of Lancaster, in whom the spirit of his chieftains, the Cliffords, seemed to survive."—Whitaker's Craven. The Mauleverers bore Argent three greyhounds cursant Sable, collared of the first: amies parlantes, in allusion to their name; and had their burial-place in the church of Bolton Priory, where they had founded a chantry. Beneath this is the vault where, according to tradition, they and their descendants were always interred upright:—
"There, face by face, and hand by hand,
The Claphams and Mauleverers stand:
And in his place among son and sire
Is John de Clapham, that fierce esquire,
A valiant man and a name of dread
In the ruthless wars of White and Red;
Who dragg'd Earl Pembroke from Banbury Church,
And smote off his head on the stones of the porch."
Allerton-Mauleverer, between Boroughbridge and Wetherby, was their residence for more than five hundred years; and several of the family appear on the roll of High Sheriffs of the county. The first of these, who bore the remarkable name of Halvatheus, served 8 Henry V.; John Mauleverer 13 Henry VIII.; and Sir Thomas 6 Edward VI. The latter had been knighted at Flodden, and was succeeded by his cousin and son-in-law Sir Richard, again Sheriff 31 Elizabeth, who was the father of a second Thomas, created a baronet in 1641. Yet this newly-honoured Sir Thomas turned traitor, sat on the King's trial, and signed his death-warrant. The fifth baronet, who died unmarried in 1713, was the last of the line; and Allerton-Mauleverer passed to his stepfather Lord Arundell.
Other branches there had been, seated at Allerton-Gledhow, Potter-Newton, and Woodersome; and one of the last-named house, who married a Cleveland heiress in the time of Edward IV., was still represented at the end of the last century. Arncliffe (i.e. Erne or Eagle Cliff), "the dark hill, steep and high," that, clothed with its hanging woods, looks down upon the ruins of the old Carthusian Priory of Mount-Grace, is one of the peaks of the so-called Alps of England, and was the ancient domain of the Colevilles of the Dale. Joan, sister and co-heir, of Sir John de Colevile, brought it to Sir Richard Mauleverer, whose descendants held it for upwards of three hundred years. "This family," says Longstaffe, "wore the field sable, and collared the greyhounds of the Malus Leporarius with gold. They give the greyhound as a device in a variety of ways, and had another beautiful badge, the maple-leaf; but I suspect that it is a Colville one, and not paternal. William Mauleverer, in time of Elizabeth, was the genealogist of the family; but it would have been extraordinary indeed had he escaped the temptations of his age. His waverings have their interest.
In 1581, at the age of twenty-four, he prefixes some verses to the well-known fiction, which generally passes as the pedigree of Mauleverer. In 1584, he signs the true pedigree in the Visit of Yorkshire. The said fictitious pedigree is in fact brought down to 1587, and in 1591 it is emblazoned on vellum, certified "par me, Lancaster Herald at Arms" and sealed with that unscrupulous herald's coat. In 1601, at the age of forty-five, Mauleverer reverts to the truth, and elaborates with proofs in extenso for every generation, "my pettigree collected and contrived out of myne ancient and newe evidences." It had been well had the Elizabethan heralds' contrivances been triumphantly refuted by every family in the same way. The last male heir, Timothy Mauleverer, died in 1794.