We are examining the Pembrokeshire Meyrick family and have, for a moment, to examine Lamphey Bishop’s Palace, an important, large manor and court, that belonged for centuries to the bishopric of St Davids. Here MARK MULLER tells us more about the history of the family.
This favourite venue of the bishops came into the ownership of the important Elizabethan Devereux family as a consequence of a major argument between Sir Richard Devereux (1513-1547) MP for Carmarthenshire, and William Barlow (1498-1568), Bishop of St Davids.
Barlow, (prior to becoming bishop had been the extremely unpopular Prior of the Augustinian Priory of St Mary and St Thomas in Haverfordwest) was responsible for dissolving and selling the monasteries and church land in much of Wales, on behalf of Henry VIII in the 1540s. He was however seen to have been parcelling up much of it, and passing it on to his brothers, most notably the vast Knights Hospitaller Commandery which became Slebech Park Estate.
To assuage Richard Devereux, Barlow arranged for the Lamphey estate to be granted to him.
Lamphey became the family seat of the Devereux family but Richard died very young. His son Walter married Lettice Knollys, granddaughter of Mary Boleyn, (sister of Anne, Queen Elizabeth’s mother) in 1562, and became Earl of Essex in 1572. Their eldest son, Robert Devereux became the second Earl of Essex at the age of 11, on his father’s death in 1576.
Made a ward of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Elizabeth’s great spymaster, Robert spent part of his time with the Cecil's, but more and more at Lamphey, where, as soon as he was old enough, Gelly Meyrick was placed, initially in the service of Sir George Devereux, Robert’s uncle, but in due course, as steward to Robert. So began a close friendship that was described by contemporary chroniclers, as an inseparable bond.
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Robert’s mother, Lettice, to the inconsolable anger of Queen Elizabeth, married Elizabeth’s longstanding favourite and possible lover, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, (a contender for both Elizabeth’s hand in marriage and that of Mary Queen of Scots) which meant that although his mother was banished from court, Robert Devereux now had as a stepfather an even more powerful figure than his father had been. (Huge rumours circulated that not only had Robert Dudley poisoned Walter Devereux but that his own wife’s death, after falling down a flight of stairs, had also been ‘arranged’.)
Robert Devereux’s rise in position and power spiralled ever upwards and by the time of his stepfather’s death in 1588, he had himself become a favourite of Elizabeth, which brought with it, wealth and power. A further irony in this tale is that in 1590 Robert Devereux married Frances Walsingham, daughter of another of Elizabeth’s great spymasters Francis Walsingham (1532-1590).
In his meteoric rise Devereux took Gelly Meyrick with him. Through Robert Devereux, Meyrick was knighted in 1596, and by then had been awarded Wigmore Castle, plus land in Herefordshire, Manobier Castle plus surrounding land in Pembrokeshire, and was MP for Carmarthenshire. By now also, Meyrick was Devereux’s right-hand man, administered his estates in Wales and accompanied him on numerous military campaigns in Ireland, The Low Countries, Portugal and Cadiz.
Back in Pembrokeshire the closeness of Meyrick, a Pembrokeshire man and Devereux’s association with the county through Lamphey, meant that many, if not most of the landed gentry supported whatever the Earl and Meyrick were engaged in. Sir John Perrot (1528-1592), one of the county’s leading figures, had by now died whilst awaiting execution in the Tower of London for, amongst other things, having been heard describing Elizabeth as, ‘a base, bastard, pissing kitchen wench’, but his illegitimate son James strongly supported the Devereux faction, to the extant that Meyrick was elected MP for Pembrokeshire in 1597 even though absent with Devereux in the Azores. But things were about to change dramatically.
More next week.
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