1374-12-02, Westminster

Commission to the chancellor of Ireland, Robert Holiwod, chief of the Exchequer of Ireland, William de Karlill, baron of the Exchequer, the escheator of Ireland, Walter Lanfant, chivaler, Michael Laweles, reciting that whereas it was lately found by inquisition made by Nicholas de Bekenesfeld, then escheator in Ireland, that John Mautravers, the younger, held of the king in chief by knight service on the day of his death the manor of Rathgell, co. Limerick, for life, of the demise of John Mautravers, the elder, and at the suit of the said John the elder in the Chancery on the octave of the Purification in the king's thirty-seventh year, who suggested that the manor was held of the countess of Dessemund as of her manor of Inskysti and not of the king in chief, the king sent the record and process of the business before the justices appointed to hold the pleas following the justiciary of Ireland for discussion and meanwhile committed the keeping of the manor to him, and now Robert Rous, knight, and John Daroundell, and Joan and Eleanor, their wives, kinswomen and heirs of the said John the elder, who died while the matter remained undiscussed, and Agnes late the wife of the said John the elder and executrix of his will, appearing before the king in the Chancery have asserted that the manor was held of the countess at the time of the said alienation and is now held of the earl of Dessemund as of his manor of Inskysti, and not of the king, as they are prepared to prove, and pray that the king's hand be removed therefrom, and Michael Skillyng, the king's attorney, has offered to prove that the manor is held of the king by knight service and was alienated by John the elder without licence, and prays an inquisition by the country, and the others likewise, whereupon a day is given to the said parties before the king in the Chancery on the quinzaine of Midsummer next, and appointing them, after calling to them the king's serjeants and others of the king's council of those parts, as well as the said parties, and having had diligent information on the matter, to take a verification of the premises by the oath of knights and other good men of Ireland who have no kinship or affinity with the parties or the earl, son and heir of the said countess, and send the said verification to the Chancery of England under the seal of Ireland by the said feast at latest.