Person:Ranulf le Meschin (1)

Ranulf or Randle de Meschines, surnamed de Bricasard, Viscount Bayeux, in Normandy, (son of Ralph de Meschines, by Maud, his wife, co-heir of her brother, Hugh Lupus, the celebrated Earl of Chester), was given by King Henry I the Earldom of Chester, at the decease of his 1st cousin, Richard de Abrincis, 2nd Earl of Chester, of that family, without issue. By some historians, this nobleman is styled Earl of Carlisle, from residing in that city; and they further state that he came over in the train of the Conqueror, assisted in the subjugation of England, and shared, of course, in the spoil of conquest. He was lord of Cumberland and Carlisle, by descent from his father, but having enfeoffed his two brothers, William, of Coupland, and Geffrey, of Gillesland, in a large portion thereof, he exchanged the Earldom of Cumberland for that of Chester, on condition that those whom he had settled there should hold their lands of the king, in capite. His lordship m. Lucia, widow of Roger de Romara, Earl of Lincoln, and dau. of Algar, the Saxon, Earl of Mercia, and had issue, Ranulph, his successor; William, styled Earl of Cambridge, but of his issue nothing in known; Adeliza, m. to Richard Fitz-Gilbert, ancestor of the old Earls of Clare; and Agnes, m. to Robert de Grentemaisnil. The earl d. in 1128 and was s. by his elder son, Ranulph de Meschines. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages,. Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 365, Meschines, Earls of Chester]

After the Norman conquest of the North of England, he received large grants, including the honor of Appleby, and the city of Carlisle. Some have maintained that he was earl of Carlisle or of Cumberland, but this is probably an error.

Ranulph also became the largest landholder in Lindsey due to his marriage (ca. 1093) to a woman referred to as "Countess Lucy", (ca. 1079-1138), daughter of (poss) Turold, Sheriff of Lincoln, and (prob) daughter of William Malet, Seigneur de Graville. Her parentage, and who else she married, have been much disputed.

One of his first acts was to order all nearby Wirral farms and settlements to be destroyed, the boundaries of the Wirral Hundred to be removed, and the greater part of the Hundred to be planted out as a Royal forest. Chester's population around 2,500.

1.   Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

   the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

   Ranulf le Meschin, 3rd Earl of Chester (1070−1129) was a Norman magnate based in northern and central England. Originating in Bessin in Normandy, Ranulf made his career in England thanks to his kinship with Hugh d'Avranches - the Earl of Chester, the patronage of kings William II Rufus and Henry I Beauclerc, and his marriage to Lucy, heiress of the Bolingbroke-Spalding estates in Lincolnshire.

   Ranulf fought in Normandy on behalf of Henry I, and served the English king as a kind of semi-independent governor in the far north-west, in Cumberland and Westmorland, founding Wetheral Priory. After the death of his cousin Richard d'Avranches in the White Ship Disaster of November 1120, Ranulf became earl of the county of Chester on the Anglo-Welsh marches. He held this position for the remainder of his life, and passed the title on to his son, Ranulf de Gernon.

2. ↑ The Plantagenet Ancestry, by William Henry Turton, 1968 (4).
3. ↑ ^3.0 3.1 Weis, Frederick Lewis; Walter Lee Sheppard; and David Faris. Ancestral roots of certain American colonists, who came to America before 1700: the lineage of Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and some of their descendants. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Pub. Co., 7th Edition c1992)
   125-27, 132a-26.
4. ↑ Cokayne, George Edward, and Vicary Gibbs; et al. The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant [2nd ed.]. (London: St. Catherine Press, 1910-59)
   Volume 3 page 166.
5.   Complete Peerage vol 2 p. 492, vol 1 p. 353, vol 4 Ch 4, vol 7 p. 673-77, vol 3 p. 166, vol 5 Ch p. 736, vol 9 p. 271, vol 8 Ch p. 48 (GS #942 D24c).
6.   Ormerod, George; Peter Leycester; William Smith; William Webb; and Thomas Helsby. The history of the county palatine and city of Chester: compiled from original evidences in public offices, the Harleian and Cottonian mss., parochial registers, private muniments, unpublished ms. collections of successive Cheshire antiquaries, and a personal survey of every township in the county, incorporated with a republication of King's Vale Royal and Leycester's Cheshire antiquities. (London: G. Routledge, 1882)
   Vol.1, pp.18-20.
7.   Wurts' Magna Charta vol 1-2 p. 58, vol 2 p. 422, 429, vol 6 p. 1757-58 (GS #942 D22w).
8.   Baker's Nrthmp vol 1 p. 121, 241 (GS #Q942.55 H2ba).
9.   Nichols' Leics vol 1 pt 1 p. 18, 67 (GS #Q942.54 H2nic).
10.   The Battle Abbey Roll vol 2 p. 263 (GS #942 D2bb).
11.   Plantagenet Ancestry p. 85, 94-95, 98, 140 (GS #Q940 D2t).
12.   Ormerod's Parentalia p. 8-9 (GS #942.7 D2orma).
13.   Rylands, J. Paul. The Visitation of Cheshire in the Year 1580 ... (London, 1882)
    p.4.
14. ↑ ^14.0 14.1 Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages (London: Burke's Peerage, 1883; Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1985)
    pg. 365.
15.   Ranulph le Meschin, 1st Earl of Chester, in Lundy, Darryl. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe.
16.   RANULF du Bessin "le Meschin", son of RANULF Vicomte du Bessin [Bayeux & his wife Marguerite [Matilda] d'Avranches (-17 or 27 Jan 1129, bur Chester, Abbey of St Werburgh).], in Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.