The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. III.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
-------*--------
Return to Index
Solers : from Soliers, near Caen. In the fifteenth century the De Forbins held Soliers, and two hundred years afterwards took their title from it on receiving a Marquisate. See Anselme. "The family came to England at the Conquest. Thurston de Solariis settled in Hereford, and Humphrey his brother with Bernard de Newmarch, 1088, in Brecon (Jones, Brecon, i. 92), where the family continued in the seventeenth century. Richard de Solariis in 1165 held three fees of ancient enfeoffment (Liber Niger.) Walter de Solars held Hope-Solar, Herefordshire, in the thirteenth century."—The Norman People. We also find; in the same county, Hopton-Solers, Bridge Solers, Solers-Dillwyn, and Neen Solers. "So many of this name are mentioned in connection with property during a lengthened period in the counties of Hereford and Gloucester, that it is difficult to identify them with any genealogical accuracy. It seems probable that the term "de solariis" was a nomen commune, and that the parties of the same designation were not descendants of a common ancestor" (Cook's 3rd vol. of Duncumb's Herefordshire). They held Neen-Solers at the end of the twelfth century, and had held Hope-Solers for several generations as mesne-lords before Simon de Solers became its owner through his wife Isabel Stokes, the youngest of two co-heiresses (the elder, Alice, married Robert le Archer, and brought him Aston). "William de Solers inherited Pauntley in Gloucestershire thro' his mother, only child of John de Pauntley. He left two sons, Richard and Simon. Walter, son of Richard, was mesne-lord of Hope, and a Thomas de Solers occurs as owner of Hope and Pauntley 51 Hen. III.; but whether he was Simon's son is uncertain. Sir John, Thomas's son, married Joan de Sitsylt (Cecil), and left an only daughter and heir Maud, married to William Whyttyngton of Warwickshire."—Ibid. Her grandson was the famous "model merchant of the Middle Ages," Sir Richard Whittington, three times Lord Mayor of London, whose picturesque story has been familiar to us from our nursery days.[1] According to "the local tradition of four centuries, he was born at Hope-Solers; though Lysons, in his Memoirs, suggests Pauntley, contrary to the hitherto accepted tradition. The fact that Sir William his father died under sentence of outlawry, suggests that the isolated dwelling of Hope-Solers would be the safest retreat."—Ibid.
Shipton-Solers in Gloucestershire came through a co-heiress of the Pohers in the time of Henry III., and in the following century passed to the Tyrrels.—v. Atkyn's Gloucestershire. Simon de Solers, of Wyneston in the same county, was pardoned in 1322 as an adherent of the Earl of Lancaster, on condition of his serving the King in his wars. John de Solers, of Potteslop in Gloucestershire and Dorsinton in Herefordshire, in the same year was one of the Commissioners of Array for Gloucester, and in 1324 was summoned from Herefordshire to the great Council at Westminster.—Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs.
The family was, it would appear, to be found in other counties. Richard de Soliers, of Notts and Derby, occurs in 1189-90. (Rot. Pip.)