Wigmore
Herefordshire

Wigmore on June 13th 1840

There is no recently published general history of Wigmore.  A 19^th century work by Thomas Morgan Bound is fairly fanciful about the settlement’s origin while a 1950s publication, reprinted from ‘the Leominster News’, is not particularly helpful.

In the Domesday Book, Wigmore, in Hazeltree Hundred, has three entries.  One entry is under the lands held by Ralph Mortimer.  This records that Ralph Mortimer holds Wigmore Castle.  Earl William built the castle on waste land which is called Merestun, which Gunfrith held in the time of Edward the Confessor.  There were two hides which paid tax, two ploughs in lordship, and four slaves.  The borough which is there pays seven pounds – ‘bergu qd ibi est redd vii lib’

In the section recording the lands of the king, Merestone is recorded as a member of the manor of Kingsland which Ralph Mortimer holds of the king. 

Section 1.19 refers specifically to Wigmore again.  Ralph Mortimer holds Wigmore, which Alfward held.  There is ½ hide - Wigmore Castle is situated in it.

There are two versions of the name in Domesday - Wigmore and Wigemore - The second element of the name is OE mōr – marsh.  Bruce Coplestone-Crow (1989) says that the first element is wicga – ‘beetle, something which wriggles’ which refers to the nature of the marsh overlooked by the castle.  This meaning is retained in earwig – The OED gives erowicga c1000 AD – an insect which wriggles in the ear (supposedly to get to the brain).

The earlier name of the settlement here then appears to have been Merestone/Merestun – Old English Mersc-tūn – TŪN by the ‘mere’ or marsh - the name of the marsh itself later being applied to the new settlement.  The modern derivation of Merestone is usually Marston, but sometimes Merston (in Kent, Sussex and Wiltshire – Ekwall, 1960).  The form Merestone was used in Domesday for Merston in Sussex, Long Marston in Gloucestershire and Marston Moretaine in Bedfordshire (ibid.).

Wigmore is one of very few Herefordshire boroughs recorded in Domesday.  In 1066 Hereford was the only borough in the county.  By 1086 boroughs were certainly attached to the castles of Clifford and Wigmore.  Both these castles were foundations of William fitz Osbern, the Earl of Hereford under William I and Clifford is stated in Domesday to have 16 burgesses.

Embryonic boroughs may have also have existed at Ewyas Harold and Richard’s Castle.  At Ewyas Harold, fitz Osbern had re-fortified the pre-conquest Pentecost Castle where there were two dwellings at the time of Domesday.  The 23 men at Auretone, the site of the pre-conquest Richard’s Castle, may also be burgesses (Noble, 1964, p64).

If, as seems likely, the customs of fitz Osbern’s Breteuil with its 12d rental apply to Wigmore, The £7 paid by the borough may represent 140 burgages (Noble, 1964, p64-65).

The boroughs at Bromyard, Ledbury and Ross-on-Wye are not documented before the Red Book of the Bishop of Hereford written towards the end of the 13^th century (Beresford and Finberg 1973) by which time, however, they were well established boroughs.  In Bromyard, the Red Book lists 230 named tenants who held whole, parts or multiples of burgages.  These burgage plots can be approximately related to the present street plan of Bromyard.

Wigmore, although by no means a failed borough, seems not to have flourished to the same degree as Bromyard.  There are two 14^th century extents preserved in the Public Record Office which include the settlement.  The number of burgesses in the borough are assessed at 144, which seems suspiciously rounded (the old 'gross' of 12 times 12), but this may reflect a reasonable estimation of their actual number (Bayliss, 1958).

Wigmore Castle has been the subject of several archaeological studies, the most recent in 2001 by English Heritage. It is open to the public.

The Mortimers were major players in the history of the Welsh Marches, and often the whole kingdom. Hugh Mortimer who died in 1181, founded Wigmore Abbey. His son Roger (died 1215, the year of Magna Carta) married Isabella de Ferrers. Two of their sons became Lords of Wigmore: Hugh, who died in 1227 and Roger, who married Gladys the Dark, daughter of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Joan, the illegitimate daughter of King John. Through Gladys the Mortimers henceforth had the royal blood of Wales and with it came the 'Prophecies Of Merlin', which among other things said that a prince of Welsh blood would one day sit on the throne of England. This Roger Mortimer died in 1246 and was succeeded by his son, another Roger Mortimer. This Roger Mortimer was conspicuous in his loyalty to Henry III in his war with Simon de Montfort. He attacked Hereford (a town sympathetic to de Montfort) and burned its suburbs and it was to Wigmore that Prince Edward (later Edward I) rode on his escape from that city. It was from Wigmore that the Prince and Mortimer marched to defeat de Montfort at Evesham. Hugh Despenser, one of de Monfort's colleagues, was killed by Mortimer in an act that was to make the families enemies for two generations and have momentous repercussions. De Montfort's head was sent to Lady Mortimer at Wigmore Castle.

Roger's eldest son Ralph died in 1274, eight years before his father. The next son, Edmund, was a scholarly boy, but on the death of his father in 1282 became of necessity a soldier. Before the year was over his men had killed Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last independent Prince of Wales and his own kinsman, in a chaotic skirmish near Builth.

It was the son of Edmund Mortimer and his wife, Margaret de Fiennes, who was to be the most powerful of all the Mortimers. This Roger Mortimer was born in 1287 and became one of a group of young noblemen around Edward II. He was in Ireland four times between 1308 and 1318, the final time as the 'King's Lieutenant'..

It was towards the end of this period that Hugh Despenser the younger, grandson of the Hugh Despenser killed by Roger Mortimer's grandfather at the Battle of Evesham, became the second most powerful man in the country, favourite of the king.

Roger Mortimer returned to Ireland in June 1319 as Justiciar for a final period of governing the country. He left for the last time in September 1320 and returned to an England where Hugh Despenser the younger was more poerful than ever.

Despenser managed to alienate most of the Marcher Lords and many of the northern ones. Reluctantly at first, Mortimer was drawn into their company. On 1st February 1321 Edward replaced him as Justiciar of Ireland with Ralph de Gorges, an adherant of Despenser.

After ultimately abortive armed resistance, Roger surrendered to the king in January 1322. He was sent to the Tower of London, and his possessions, including Wigmore Castle, were confiscated by the king. This punishment persuaded other dissaffected lords, led by the Earls of Hereford and Lancaster, that they would have to fight. They did, and at the Battle of Borroughbridge in Yorkshire on 16th/17th March, were comprehensively defeated.

The Earl of Hereford was killed in battle, and Lancaster and other nobles were captured. In a vicious revenge Edward had Lancaster and a dozen other lords executed together with dozens of knights.

To Roger Mortimer, helpless in the Tower during this time, it must have seemed like only a matter of time before he too was killed. He and his uncle were sentenced to death in late July, but this was cummuted to imprisonment for life.

Roger escaped from the Tower in August and fled to France. In March 1325, Queen Isabella, King Edward's wife, went to France in order to negotiate with her brother Charles IV. She too was a victim of Hugh Despenser having lost both lands and power at his instigation. By December she was not only in open dispute with Edward but had become Roger's lover.

On 24th September 1326 Roger and Isabella landed in Suffolk. Within a short time the country turned against Edward, who with Despenser fled into South Wales. They were both captured near Neath in November and Edward taken to Kenilworth. On the 24th Hugh Despenser was taken to Hereford and hanged, drawn and quartered; the scaffold was fifty feet high.

Images courtesy of Hereford City Library

Archaeological sites in Wigmore can be viewed at Historic Herefordshire On Line

Visit the Wigmore Castle website www.castlewales.com/wigmore.html