Descent By Sea

Sir Robert Ogle (abt. 1370-1436), later to become knight, Baron of Ogle and Hepple was born about 1370 in Northumberland, England.  His parents were Sir Robert Ogle and Joan Heton.

Robert Ogle married Matilda/Maud Grey in May 1399.

She is considered a daughter of Sir Thomas Grey of Heton by Joan Mowbray, daughter and heir of John, Lord Mowbray (d.1382).  Some authorities state that her father was the son of Sir Thomas Grey and Joan Mowbray and that he married Alice Neville, daughter of the earl of Westmoreland. 

The question of the identity of Maud’s parents remains debated.  While there is no consensus across various pedigrees, Maud Grey’s parents link directly back to the Mowbray family (through Elizabeth Seagrave and John Mowbray), thus supporting a descendancy from King Edward I.    What is consistent is that Maud’s  father was a Grey (either Thomas, Robert or John) and her mother or grandmother was a Mowbray (either Joan or Catherine). 

Perhaps one of the most trust worthy references is The History of the Parliament considered “one of the most ambitious, authoritative and well-researched projects in British history.”  The History of Parliament documents Maud‘s parents as Sir Thomas Grey of Heaton in Wark (1359-1400) and Joan Mowbray.   This parentage is also noted in the “The Plantagenet Ancestry: A study in colonial and medieval families” (see references).

A Wikipedia citation on Ogle family notes:

“The Ogle line has royal descendants from King Edward I of England and King Philippe III of France through Maud Grey, daughter of Jane De Mowbray and Sir Thomas Gray of Warke; who married ca. 21 May 1399, Sir Robert Ogle, Knight, Warden of Roxborough Castle, son of Sir Robert Ogle, Knight, of Ogle and Bothal Castles. (Cp. X, 28-29) (Ref: Living Descendants of Blood Royal, volume 5, 266).”

Ruins of Roxburgh Castle where Robert Ogle was Warden

He was known as Sheriff of Northumberland & Northamshire, Constable of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northam, Roxburgh, & Wark Castles.

Robert Ogle married Maud Grey.  There is no consensus across various pedigrees of the identity of Maud Grey‘s parents except that they all link directly link back to the Mowbray family (through Elizabeth Seagrave and John Mowbray) thus substantiating a descendancy from King Edward I.    What is consistent is that her father was a Grey (either Thomas, Robert or John) and her mother or grandmother was a Mowbray (either Joan or Catherine).

Perhaps the most trust worthy reference is The History of the Parliament considered “one of the most ambitious, authoritative and well-researched projects in British history.”  The History of Parliament documents Maud‘s parents as Sir Thomas Grey of Heaton in Wark (1359-1400) and Joan Mowbray.   In addition, this parentage is also noted in the “The Plantagenet Ancestry.”

A Wikipedia citation on Ogle family notes:

“The Ogle line has royal descendants from King Edward I of England and King Philippe III of France through Maud Grey, daughter of Jane De Mowbray and Sir Thomas Gray of Warke; who married ca. 21 May 1399, Sir Robert Ogle, Knight, Warden of Roxborough Castle, son of Sir Robert Ogle, Knight, of Ogle and Bothal Castles. (Cp. X, 28-29) (Ref: Living Descendants of Blood Royal, volume 5, 266).”

OUT The Bordley Pedigree identifies the parents of Maud Grey as Sir Thomas Grey of Heton who was beheaded in 1415 and Alice Neville, daughter of Sir Ralph Neville.  Sir Thomas Grey of Heton/Heaton was the son of Catherine Mowbray linking Robert Ogle and Maud Grey’s offspring to King Edward I.

CHECK THIS “The History of Northumberland” pedigree below connects Maud Grey to the Mowbrays by noting that her father was Robert Grey while her mother was Alice Neville, the daughter of Ralph Neville and Catherine Mowbray.

Royal Pedigree from Genealogy of the descendants of the Prichards, formerly lords of Llanover … By Thomas Gregory Smart

The problem with this pedigree by Smart is found in its chronology.  If Maud’s grandfather was Thomas Grey born 1359 and her father was Thomas Grey born 1381, her father would have only been 18 years old at time of his daughter Maud’s marriage to Robert Ogle.  More likely is that her father was Thomas Grey born 1359 and age 40 at the time of his daughter’s marriage.

While the identity of Maud‘s parents is not consistent, there does seems to be a consistency that her father was a Grey and her mother or grandmother a Mowbray.

The History of Parliament cites the following in Robert Ogle’s biography:

Sir Robert Ogle the elder (c. 1353-1409) played a leading part in affairs on the Scottish border, and in 1393 he became constable of Roxburgh castle. Not surprisingly, then, he was able to arrange an extremely advantageous marriage for his eldest son, Robert Ogle (1370-1436)… who, in May 1399, became the husband of Sir Thomas Gray’s daughter, Maud. Through her mother, Joan, a daughter of John, Lord Mowbray (d. bef. 1368), and sister of Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk (d.1399), Maud was related to several members of the English baronage, while her brother, William Gray, was destined to become bishop of London in 1426, and later, in 1431, of Lincoln. At the time of their marriage, the young couple received from Sir Thomas an estate in Lowick.

Robert Ogle‘s life included documented battles, triumphs, service, and strong will.  The most striking illustration is the adversarial relationship between Robert and his brother John, who adopted his mother’s name Bertram.  The History of Parliament lists each of them as one of its members and the biographies of Robert Ogle and John Bertram detail their lifelong sibling conflict regarding inheritance.

Robert Ogle‘s (c.1370-1436) father Sir Robert Ogle (c. 1353-1409) was growing old and wished to set his affairs in order. From his aged mother Ellen Bertram (d.1403), Sir Robert had recently inherited a life interest in the manor and castle of Bothal.

Bothal Castle

First the reversion and then the life interest itself were settled upon his second son, John Bertram, to whom he paid an annual rent of £200 for use of the property, until, in 1409, the young man himself took up residence there. John, who had already adopted the name of Bertram, was clearly his father’s favorite, for he, rather than Robert, was chosen to execute the elderly knight’s will.

Another brother, named Alexander, had already been promised land and tenements in Ingram, Angrave and Tynemouth, but he died young without issue. Although Robert now stood to inherit Alexander’s share, along with all the rest of the family estates, comprising the manors and castles of Ogle, Hepple, Newstead, Sewingshields, Flotterton and North Middleton, the manors of Ellingham, Saltwick, Nedderton, Larbottle and Shilvington, and other holdings in over 30 Northumbrian villages, he still bitterly resented the loss of Bothal, which he determined to seize for himself at the first opportunity.

When Robert’s father died on 31 Oct. 1409, he had wished to be buried in a splendid and costly tomb at Whalton, but an outbreak of plague made necessary his immediate interment at Hexham.   Robert Ogle had, no doubt, already begun mustering a private army (which was said to number over 200 strong and to include a contingent of Scots), for within a matter of hours, before the funeral had taken place, he was on the march to Bothal.

Despite protests from Sampson Hardyng and Sir John Widdrington, Robert proceeded to invest the castle, to evict his brother John Bertram, to make off with goods worth an estimated £200 and to destroy other property and crops valued at the same amount.

Brother John Bertram’s strongly worded protest to the Parliament of 1410 elicited a prompt response, which led to the restoration of the castle and Robert Ogle’s appearance, under heavy sureties, before the royal council.  Even so, Robert was far too powerful a figure to suffer disgrace for long. Not only did he gain custody of his inheritance as soon as an assignment of dower had been made to his widowed mother, but he also obtained probate of his father’s will, having assumed without legal title his brother’s role as executor.

His relations with Sir John Widdrington appear to have improved, too, since in February 1410 the two men briefly shared between them a valuable cargo of merchandise and Scottish prisoners which had been wrecked off the Northumbrian coast, but which was eventually confiscated by the Crown. Given, moreover, that he was knighted at about this time and sent off on an embassy to Scotland, Sir Robert Ogle can hardly be said to have lost any of his influence at Court.

Bothal Castle

In 5th Henry V, Robert Ogle was constituted sheriff of Northumberland. In the 2nd Henry V, he was joined with Henry, Earl of Northumberland and other great men in those parts, to conduct James, King of Scotland, from Durham into his own realm.   That prince, being then, upon hostages given, enlarged after an imprisonment of some years.

Robert

On

In 1401, Robert Ogle was summoned with his father to attend the King’s Council at Westminster.

The Scots were defeated at Nesbit moor in 1402 and three months later they invaded under the earl of Douglas and the duke of Albany with 10,000 men.  On returning laden with plunder they were intercepted by the earl of Northumberland and his son, Hotspur, and routed at Humbledon Hill.

Robert Ogle must have been a man of great zeal and energy, for as early as of February 2, 1403, he, as Robert de Ogle, son of Sir Robert Ogle, knight, was appointed constable at Norham Castle,

Norham Castle

and justice, seneschal, sheriff and escheator in Norhamshire and Islandshire for seven years.  He was on September 6, 1403 appointed to these offices for life and is mentioned as constable and escheator a few years later and appointed justice of assize on July 28, 1407, and constable again in 1410.

In 1409/10, Robert Ogle and others had in their hands the prisoners and goods of a Flemish ship wrecked at Warkworth.  His brother, John Bertram, by virtue of the remainder in the entail and by a grant made by his father, having taken and being in peaceable possession of the castle and manor of Bothal, this Robert Ogle, on the day after his father’s death, at a late hour some time near midnight, on All Hallows day, went with 200 armed men at arms and archers, partly soldiers and partly Scotchmen, all enemies of the king and in a warlike manner invested the castle of Bothal with escales, pavises, hurdises and other ordnance of war and after besieging it for four days and more, got possession of it by forcible entry, though John de Widdrington and Sampson Harding, two justices of the peace, had charged the besiegers to desist from the assault.

Whereupon John Bertram, on the 13th of February following, petitioned the House of Commons to make an especial request to the king for his being restored to the property of which he had been ousted and a writ was accordingly issued to the sheriff to take the property entailed into the king’s hands and make a proclamation at the gates of Bothal castle that Sir Robert Ogle and his men should instantly depart from it on pain of forfeiture of life and limb with land and goods, and that Robert Ogle himself should appear before the king and council to answer to the charges brought against him by the petitioner.  If he failed so to do, he should stand convicted of all the allegations brought against him.

Bertram should be restored to his possessions and have damages assessed at the discretion of the king and council and Sir Robert Ogle and his retainers should be imprisoned till they had made a fine and ransom to the king and agreed with the petitioner for damages and found sufficient sureties to keep the peace.  He appears to have satisfied the council, for on the 12th of May, he received livery of his lands and in the same month was deputed, with Thomas Grey of Horton and John Fox, esq., to treat on matters between England and Scotland with commissioners of the duke of Albany.

The negotiations do not appear to have been satisfactory, for on July 5, 1410, Robert Ogle was appointed a commissioner to raise armed men and archers to repel a threatened invasion, but in 1411 he was again a commissioner to treat for a truce, and was at Fowberry on the 20th of June a witness with John Middleton and Thomas Grey of Horton, knights.  In 12 Henry IV [1411] he was with John, the king’s son, then constable of England, in the garrison of Berwick there to resist the attempts of the Scotch.

On July 19, 1413, with Sir Robert Umfreville, Robert Ogle was deputed to treat with Robert, duke of Albany, son of the king of Scotland, to conclude such differences between the kingdoms and the next year he was commissioned with Richard, Lord Grey and others to treat for a general and particular truce by sea and land.  This appears to be the same year in which 4,000 Scots were defeated at the battle of Geteringe by a small party of Englishmen.

In a survey of 1415, Robert Ogle is noted as possessing six castles and towers.  On August 5, 1415, King Henry V, in consideration of the loyalty, industry and care of Richard, Lord Grey and Sir Robert Ogle, knight, commissioned them to treat with the duke of Albany for a general truce.  He became the same year a representative in Parliament and he received soon after a partition of the Ellingham estates which had belonged formerly to the Heton family.

This was probably at his mother’s death in 1416.  He was high sheriff in 1416 and also on March 18, 1417, when he was at Ellingham and witnessed a grant of William Orde to Robert Harbottle, constable of Dunstanburgh Castle.

In 1419, the castle of Wark, being then in his charge, was taken by William Halliburton, and the garrison put to the sword, but it was retaken by Sir Robert Ogle who led a party into the castle by means of a drain, and the Scots were put to death for their cruelty to the English.  The Scotch account says this was an act of treachery, for while they were treating for peace ladders were placed at the back of the castle by which they entered and killed twenty-three noble Scotchmen with many others.

Robert Ogle was then still a member of Parliament and had commissions to make redress of all trespasses against the tenor of the truce.  In 1422, he had seisin [Legal possession of land as a freehold estate – property thus possessed.] from Sir William Eure of half the town of Windlestone in the county of Durham in which year the Scots tried to take Berwick.

On April 12, 1423, Robert Ogle gave to Robert de Eure all the rights he had in the manor of Saltwick, and he occurs in May as the duke of Bedford’s lieutenant as captain of Berwick.

On March 28, 1424, Robert Ogle was associated with the earl of Northumberland and Sir William Heron to conduct James, king of Scotland, into his own realm with all due honour, he having been, upon pledges given, discharged from his imprisonment in Pomfret castle.  He was, on January 11, 1424, again appointed constable of Norham, sheriff and escheator in ?Norhamshire and Islandshire, and gave a bond in £1,405 to the bishop, and he occurs as controller when the west gate was rebuilt.  On the 17th of July he was made warden of Roxburgh castle for three years with a salary of £1,000 a year in time of peace and £2,000 a year in time of war, which service was subsequently extended.

Heavily damaged keep of Norham Castle

In 1400, on some unknown occasion, Robert Ogle had been made prisoner by the Scots. In February 1402/3 he was appointed by the Bishop of Durham constable of Norham Castle, and justice, seneschal, sheriff and escheator in Norhamshire and Islandshire for 7 years; and in September for life.

Norham Castle

He had the King’s writ for livery of his inheritance, 3, and livery 12 May 1410, being then a knight (d1). In May 1410 he was one of the commissioners to treat of a truce with Scotland, and in July commissioner of array in Northumberland. Sheriff of Northumberland, 1417-18, and Knight of the Shire, 1419-21, 1425 and 1435- In 1419 he recaptured Wark from William de Haliburton. In 1422 and succeeding years he was a commissioner of the peace. He was lieutenant of the Duke of Bedford as captain of Berwick Castle in 1423; and in the following year one of the escort appointed to conduct the King of Scots from Durham to Scotland. From 1425 to 1435 he was warden of Roxburgh Castle; in 1426 was one of the commissioners in Northumberland to arrange a short-term loan to the King; and in 1435 sheriff of Hexhamshire. He married, on or before 21 May 1399, Maud, daughter of Thomas GREY, lord of Wark. He died 12 or 13 August 1436 (d2). His widow was living 22 August 1451 (e). [Complete Peerage X28-9, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)] It is written that as constable of Norham, he received a stipend of 2000 pounds, out of which, however, he had to pay for the upkeep of the soldiers who were based at Norham.

A marriage having been arranged between Robert Harbottle and his daughter, Margery Harbottle, he, as Robert Ogle, knight, lord of Ellingham, on August 20, 1424, settled land in Ellingharn on Robert Harbottle and his wife, Margery, and their heirs for the annual service of presenting a rose, but if no heirs by Margery then forty pence at the feasts of Pentecost and St. Martin, the trustees executing a deed on the 24th of August.  These deeds being signed by Sir Thomas Grey of Horton and others. The same year the English made an inroad into Scotland.  He was knight of the shire in the year 1425 and paid 116 shillings and 8d. for his relief for the manor of Hepple and the manor of Lowick.  On April 4, 1426, he put the safeguard of the castle of Berwick into the hands of Sir William Swinburne to keep safely the Percy tower until the feast of All Hallows next, for which Sir Robert was to pay £25.309.

In 1427, Thomas Denum granted him the manor of Unthank, Rahegh Wood, near Middleton, and with lands in Chilcroft within the fields of Belford and Yesington.  In 1429 he had a grant of free warren in Hepple, and in that year and in 1434, with his son, was a commissioner for the correction of violations of the truce.  He was still at Roxburgh as Sir Robert Ogle, senior, in 1434. On May 1, 1435, he gave his son John the manor of Unthank and tenements in Howtell and Mindrum.  On August 23, 1435, cardinal Langley appointed Robert Ogle constable of Norham for 20 years.

The charter appointing him is interesting.  The lessee undertook the duties in times of peace, truce or war, he was to be constable, seneschal, sheriff, escheator, etc., to render the yearly rents of three demesnes belonging to the castle, with other sums, etc., he was to provide bed and board for the bishop’s receiver, his valet and two chevaliers and for their trenchman and other servants, for which he was to get 300 marks a year. Sir John Bertram was one of those who entered into a bond of £1,000 for the due performance of covenants.  His name occurs on the 7th of December of the same year as sheriff of the counties of Norham and Hexham.

Robert Ogle died on August 12, 1436. His inquisitions were taken at Durham on the 20th of September and in Newcastle on October 8, 1436.

He held Netherton, and also Camboise and Choppington held of the earl of Westmoreland, the manor of Hepple, most of his land being wasted by the Scots, manors and lands in Tossan, Fallowlees, Netherwhite [Low Trewhit?], Flotterton, Warton, Trewhit, Ogle, Twisell, Shilvington, Aldworth, Saltwick, Seaton, South Disington, Blackheddon, Callerton, Thirnam, Fowberry, Ingram, Eland, Tyrwhite, Horsley, Denum, Bamburgh, Newhall, St. Mary Hill, Stanley, Clifton, East and West Hartington, Fairnley, Heugh, Dalton, Unthank, Mindrum, Whalton, Newham, Morpeth.  His son was aged thirty years.

New Account To Robert Bertram, heir of the manor of Bothal, and to Gerard de Woderyngton, the king, at Newcastle, on the 25th of November, 1335, gave authority to raise and array the whole disposable force of the Morpeth ward of Northumberland, and to imprison all who disobeyed their orders. In 1343, this Robert obtained the king’s license to fortify his manor-house of Bothal with crenelles; or in other words, to fortify and convert it into a castle. He filled many public offices of eminence during the reign of Edward III., and fought with bravery in the battle of Nevil’s Cross, in which he captured William Douglas, and Malcolm Earl of Wigton, the latter of whom he was commanded by the king to convey to the Tower of London; but the Earl having escaped, the king empowered Sir Henry de Percy and Sir Ralph de Nevil to arrest the Baron of Bothal himself, and attach all his lands and goods. These were restored to him in the following year, and an annuity of two hundred marks out of the customs of Newcastle was granted to him, for his good services in the capture of Douglas. He died in 1363, leaving only a daughter, Helen, upon whom his barony and possessions descended. The lady of Bothal married first, Robert de Ogle, and surviving him, lived to marry three other husbands. John, the grandson of Sir Robert and the Lady Helen, (probably the donor of the antient font of the church of S. John in Newcastle, which font was destroyed by the Scots,) took the surname and estates of his grandmother; and was lord of Bothal Castle in the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. With the great-grandson of this John Bertram, viz., Robert Ogle or Bertram, who died young, ended his issue male; whereupon the Bothal estates, by entail, became the property of the descendants of Sir Robert Ogle, knight, and Maud, daughter of Sir Robert Grey, of Horton. In the contests between the royal houses of York and Lancaster, Sir Robert Ogle, being a zealous partizan of the White Rose, was created Lord Ogle.

Sir Robert Ogle departed this life in the 15th Henry VI, leaving issue,* by his wife, Maud, daughter of Sir Thomas Grey, of Heton, by Alice Neville, his wife, who was daughter of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmoreland and Werke, by Catherine Mowbray, according to Collins, eight daughters, married to persons of the first rank in the county, and three sons, Robert (Sir), his successor; John (Sir); William (Sir), from whom one account derives the Ogles of Kirkley Co., Northumberland, and the Ogles of Worthy, in Hampshire, baronets.

* Dugdale enumerates his issue thus:—

Robert, his successor.
Margaret, m. to Sir Robert de Narbottle, Knt                                                                          Anne, m. to Sir William Heron, Knt.                                                                                 Constance to Sir John Milfurd, Knt.                                                                                   Joane, to — Manors.

According to Plantagenet ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families Robert’s children with Maud were as follows.  A second wife Alice is not cited.  Maud is cited as being alive in 1453/4 suggesting that there was no second wife.  However, other sources suggest she had one daughter.

Robert Ogle & Joan Heton Pedigree — Robert Ogle & Maud Grey

Robert Ogle died on August 12, 1436.  Maud/Matilda Grey is mentioned on the 22nd of August, 29 Henry VI [1428] as holding Longwitton for life.  In 1453/4 a Matilda Ogle, widow, held the tithes of Newbiggin.

Resources

A history of Northumberland, in three parts, Part 2, Volume 1
by John Hodgson, John Hodgson-Hinde

Descriptive and historical notices of some remarkable Northumbrian castles …
by William Sidney Gibson

A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct …
By Sir Bernard Burke

Plantagenet ancestry: a study in colonial and medieval families
By Douglas Richardson, Kimball G. Everingham page 396

The English Ogle Genealogy

Genealogy of the descendants of the Prichards, formerly lords of Llanover …
By Thomas Gregory Smart

Robert, first Lord Ogle of Ogle and Redesdale, (1406-1469) knight, was born in 1406.

Robert Ogle‘s parents were Sir Knight Robert Ogle (1389-1435) and Maud Grey (1382-1451).

Robert Ogle married Isabel Kirkby (abt.1410-1477), daughter and heir of Sir Alexander Kirkby, the eldest son of Sir Richard Kirkby of Kirkby, Lancashire.  The Kirkby family roots are ancient and Knightly.

Much is known about the actions of this fifteen century lord Robert Ogle:

Robert Ogle occurs in the annals of history in 1434, when he and his father were appointed commissioners to prevent violations of the truce with Scotland and appears to have been, with William Bertram, a knight of the shire in 13 Henry VI.

Also in 1434,  he was, as Sir Robert Ogle the younger, captain of Berwick, and, after laying waste the country, was attacked by the Scotch under the earl of Angus at Piperdon and completely defeated, he being taken prisoner and Sir John Ogle and others killed.

His name occurs as member of Parliament from this year to the year 1441.

In 1436. after his father’s death, he had livery of his lands in Ogle, Hepple, etc., and on the 24th August of the same year was appointed constable of Norham castle, seneschal, sheriff and escheator in Norhamshire and Islandshire for 20 years.

Robert Ogle was high sheriff of the county in 1437 and in that year was commissioned to give safe conducts on the East Marches of which he was, in conjunction with Sir Ralph Grey, appointed a warden in April 1438, and again on February 5, 1439.  He was appointed to carry out the array of Northumberland for the defence of the Border in the same manner as the late Sir Henry Percy had done.

Robert Ogle, with Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, John, duke of Norfolk, Henry, earl of Northumberland, Sir John Bertram and others, was a conservator of the truce concluded with the Scotch the last day of March 1438, to hold from sun rising the 1st of May next to sun setting the 1st of May, 1447.

One matter in dispute in 1438, was the question of a compensation due to Robert Ogle on account of his having been seized and held to ransom (for 750 marks) by the Scots in time of truce between 1426 and 1435.  It was agreed that he should be indemnified with a Scottish ship which had been seized at Newcastle, but this was found to have been sold by the admiral or his lieutenant and Sir Robert was involved in a dispute with the latter which was not ended until 1442.  The wardens must then have dwelt at Roxburgh castle, for as such they are mentioned as being there on November 26, 1438.   He was also one of those, whom with Sir John Bertram, his uncle, were appointed to settle the bounds between the two kingdoms between Berwick and Roxburgh castle.

In 1439, Thomas Lyle, esq., gave Sir Robert Ogle and John Swinburne, probably in trust, the manor and ville of Felton, the witnesses of which were his uncle, John Bertram, and his brother, John Ogle, esq.  This probably concerned the settlements of his sister, who married Thomas Lisle on the 1st of February.

On the 2nd of November of 1439 as cousin of our lord bishop (Robert Nevill), he was appointed constable of Norham castle, seneschal, sheriff and escheator for life, which was confirmed the next year.

In 1444, Ralph, Lord Greystock, made two indented grants in trust to Sir Robert Ogle and others.   His name occurs at Bamburgh 25 Henry VI.   He occurs as writing to the prior to inform him that John Gisseburn, the vicar appointed in 1447, should either reside on his benefice or provide a curate, that otherwise the parishioners would pay no more tithes, the vicar being some time afterwards admonished.  

In 1448, the English made an unsuccessful inroad into Scotland.

In 1449, his two sons, Sir Robert and Thomas Ogle, were outlawed for raiding.  The same year, on a truce made with the Scots to hold during pleasure by Robert, bishop of Durham, Sir John Beauchamp, constable of England, and others, he was one of the conservators as well as when the truce was extended to August 15, 1454.

Being at Fowberry on September 16, 1449, as Robert,  Lord Ogle,  senior,  knight,  he granted to Robert Fowberry all his lands in Fowberry for life.

In 1450, he and William Bertram, esq.,  attested a charter whereby the earl of Northumberland bestowed the advowson of Leconfield on Ainwick abbey, and in August Robert Ogle gave his brother William the reversion of Longwitton held by Matilda his mother for life.

In 1452, the earl of Douglas committed excesses on the border with a design of involving the king in war, which was averted by the forbearance of the English government who sent letters to Lord Poynings, Sir Robert Ogle, the bailiff and lieutenant of Tynedale, John Heron of Ford, and Ralph Grey, that they were under no circumstances to make reprisals.

Tynedale has also been called a lordship. He was also a commissioner to collect loans and contributions, and also, on the 9th of January and 5th of February, 1453, with others, was appointed by Robert Nevill to enquire into divers concealments and nuisances, etc., in Norhamshire and Islandshire, and mentioned as receiving (?) the tithes of Horncliffe, and, in 1454, as a tenant of lands in Ancroft under the monastery.

The year 1454 saw the opening of the Wars of the Roses and the first battle of St. Alban’s.   Six hundred men were brought from the Marches, probably under the earl of Warwick, warden of the West Marches, who is stated to have caused the movement by which the Yorkists broke into the town.   The credit of which by another account is given to Sir Robert Ogle. He was also one of the commissioners appointed by the victorious party to raise money for the defence of Calais.   On the 12th of September he gave to John, his brother, the manor of North Middleton, near Angerton for his life, William Bertram, his cousin, being a witness.   In 35 Henry VI. [1457] Robert Ogle was, as he had also been for four years previously, constituted ambassador to treat with Scotland for a truce, and soon after he, William Bertram, and others, were appointed commissioners to raise archers in the county.

During the war of the Roses, at the battle of St. Albans on May 22, 1455, an extract from the book “The War of the Roses” by John Gillingham:

“For an hour the royalist defense held firm and the attack faltered. At this critical moment the earl of Warwick showed why it was he was to become known as the king maker. Seeing that the barricades could not be take by storm, he decided to go around them…

The ploy worked, Sir Robert Ogle, in command of 600 men from the Scottish marches, took the house between two inns, the sign of the cross keys, and the chequers, and broke into the market place. The blare of trumpets and the ringing war cry of A Warwick! A Warwick! announced the success of this flanking manoeuvre. The royalist in the center sounded the alarm and flew to arms, but again they were too late. The decisive breach had been made.”

“At first the king’s household put up a brave resistance, but they were in no condition to withstand the hail of arrows now descending upon them.”…   “After half an hour or so they broke and scattered.”…

“The King of England, wounded in the neck, sheltered in a tanner’s cottage, while his standard lay abandoned in the street.” …

“As soon as it was clear that the field of battle was his, York ordered the kings removal to more dignified quarters in the abbey.”…

“Less than a hundred men had been killed, mostly Lancastrians… but the deaths of Somerset, Northumberland, and Clifford suggest that York and the Nevilles had intended … to kill their enemies.”… “The problem for the Yorkists was, they still claimed to be loyal to the king… but could not free themselves from their enemies without killing them.”

On February 27, 1459, Sir Ralph Grey and Sir Robert Ogle are spoken of as late wardens of Roxburgh, so their office must have terminated after twenty years service, but Sir Robert Ogle was still escheator of Norham that yea.   In October, he and his son, Sir Robert Ogle, knight, Sir John Middleton of Belsay, knight, the prior of Hexham, and others, were appointed ambassadors to treat with ambassadors of Scotland for a truce.   He was also a conservator of the truce with the dukes of Buckingham Norfolk, and others.

In 38 Henry VI. [1460] Robert Ogle gave his son, Sir Robert Ogle, knight, and Joan, his wife, an annual rent issuing from a messuage in Newcastle-on-Tyne.   In this year James, king of Scotland was killed in his attempt to take Roxburgh, which, however, was subsequently taken.

On the 10th of July, 1460, at the battle of Northampton, Henry VI fell into the hands of the Yorkists.   On the 30th of December, Richard, duke of York, was killed at the battle of Wakefield; Edward his son, then duke of York, cut his way through the Lancastrians at Mortimer’s Cross and was proclaimed king on March 4, 1461.  The victory at Towton on the 29th following, where the earl of Northumberland and Sir John Nevill were killed, secured his throne.

Sir Robert Ogle probably took part in these battles, and Hodgson says that he was on the 16th of March of this year constituted warden general of the East Marches with large powers.  After Towton, however, Robert Ogle, with Sir John Conyers, were reported to be besieging Henry VI in a place in Yorkshire called Coroumbr.   He had a commission to take into his hands the castle of Harbottle and the lordship of Redesdale and the castle of Ford, and further had a grant for life in these estates.  He had a commission, with John Nevill of Montague and William Ogle, to array the king’s forces for Northumberland and he had another for the forces in Westmoreland.

He was summoned the 26th of July, by Edward IV as baron Ogle of Ogle to his first parliament to meet on the 4th of November following.

On the 8th of August Robert Ogle had a grant for life in the offices of seneschal and constable of the lordships and castles of Ainwick, Warkworth, Prudhoe, Rothbury, Newburn, Newburn Haven, formerly belonging to the earl of Northumberland and on the 5th of November, was appointed ambassador’s plenipotentiary of England to treat with deputies of the crown of Scotland for a cession of hostilities between the two realms.

As Lord Ogle he was appointed, the 2nd of March, 1461 (?) a justice of the peace, etc. On the 28th of January, 1462, the king granted to him and his heirs male in special tail the lordship of Redesdale and the castle and borough of Harbottle, with all royal franchises forfeited by Sir William Tailboys, including the ville of Ellington which had belonged to Lord Welles who was killed at Towton; a rent of £8 a year out of Beneley, and the towns of Shilbottle, Rennington, Gysens, Middleton and the lands called Talbottes lands in Tyne dale, all late belonging to the earl of Northumberland.

After Towton, Henry VI and his queen fled to Berwick, which they surrendered to the Scotch and April 1462, Queen Margaret went to France.   In that year Alnwick, it appears, was still in the hands of the Lancastrians, and it was taken by Lord Hastings and Sir Ralph Grey, but Robert, Lord Ogle and others are reported to have taken possession of it on the 30th of July.   After it was evacuated Queen Margaret with her General do Brezé landed near Bamburgh on the 25th of October, and the three castles of Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh either then fell into her hands or were already in possession of the Lancastrians. Hearing of the earl of Warwick’s advance, Margaret with de Breze escaped on the arrival of the French fleet which was afterwards wrecked on Holy Island on its attempt to get to Berwick, where Lord Ogle captured many Frenchmen with their leaders.   On the 10th of December, Alnwick, Dunstanburgh, and Bamburgh were invested under the earl of Warwick whose headquarters were at Warkworth. Lords Montague and Ogle were before Bamburgh which capitulated on the 24th of December and Dunstanburgh three days afterwards. It is probable that Lord Ogle and a part of his force assisted before Dunstanburgh after Bamburgh had fallen.

On January 6, 1463, Brezé with the assistance of the Scotch under the earl of Angus was enabled to bring off the greater part of the garrison of Ainwick which finally capitulated on the 30th of January. However, by treachery and by others, these three castles again fell into the hands of the Lancastrians, and in the early summer, Henry VI., Margaret and Brezé were in Bamburgh castle with 2,000 men, and Henry, with the king of Scots, afterwards laid siege to Norham, from which they were driven by the earl of Warwick and Lord Montague.

On the 30th of July, Margaret, her son, and Breze sailed for Flanders. In the meantime Henry VI reigned over Bamburghshire and Ainwick.

In March, 1464, Lord Robert Ogle was a commissioner for treating with Scotland for terms of peace and he was subsequently on other commissions.   On the 25th of April, Lord Montague (or Montacute) defeated the Lancastrians at Hedgely moor and on the 8th of May, they were again defeated by Lord Montague at Hexham. The 13th of June following, the earl of Warwick forced the surrender of Alnwick, and on the 2nd of that month, he with his brother Montague, then earl of Northumberland, took Bamburgh. Lord Robert Ogle was made constable of that castle and receivers of the revenues of its lordships by a patent of Edward IV in his 4th year.

In 1465, Lord Ogle had another grant of Redesdale and Harbottle which no doubt altered the grant in tail male of 1462.   On the 20th of June, the king at Westminster commissioned John Nevill, earl of Northumberland, Lord Ogle and others to treat with James, king of Scotland about his marrying with some person of the king of England’s allegiance.   Robert Ogle and Ewyn Ogle, his son and heir, granted to John do Murray, chaplain, a messuage in Great Tossan; this deed is dated at our castle of Bothal on the 20th day of October, 5 Edward IV[1466] so it appears they were wardens of this castle after the death of Sir William Bertram the same year, the heir being a minor.

The 20th of November following, Lord Ogle was commissioned with George, archbishop of York, Richard Nevill, earl of Warwick, and John Nevill, earl of Northumberland, the two latter being his cousins, to treat with Colin, earl of Argyle, at Newcastle, the 4th of December next, for the redressing of injuries which had been done contrary to the truce.  On the 12th, a truce was concluded which was to hold until the last day of October  1479.

On October 10, 1466, Robert Ogle with his two cousins above and others were commissioned to settle all affairs regarding the truce.  The same year he was mentioned as Sir Robert Ogle, knight, lord of Ogle and Redesdale and superintendent of the borough of Holy Island, and on April 20, 1467, as Robert, lord of Ogle and Redesdale, a Ewyn, his son and heir, by an indenture at Bothal, and sealed with a bulls head crest, granted a tenement in Morpeth to Thomas Spore.  On the 20th of May, granted Ewyn Ogle, his son and heir, and Eleanor Hilton, Ewyn’s wife, the manor of North Middleton.

In 1468, Robert Ogle’s name occurs as seneschal of the bishop’s borough of Holy Island.

Robert Ogle died on November 1, 1469.  His inquisitions were taken at Carlisle on the 5th and at Newbiggin on February 8 , 1470. He held Thursby in Cumberland, and in Northumberland, manors and tenements in Hepple, Ogle, Twisell, Shilvington, half of Thirnam, Fowberry, one third of Ingram and Horsley, Bamburgh, Newhall, Clifton, East Hartington, Morpeth, the lordship of Redesdale, and the castle and borough of Harbottle. Dugdale says he was summoned to parliament the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 9th years of Edward IV’s reign [1470].

Robert and Isabel’s children were:

Robert Ogle & Maud Grey Pedigree including Robert Ogle & Isabel Kirkby

Robert Ogle died November 1, 1469.  Isabel Kirkby Ogle’s will dated at Chipchase on January 2, 1477 states that she desired to be buried in the monastery of St. Andrew, Hexham.  Isabel had property in Lancashire which came to her on the death of grandfather Sir Richard Kirkby who had survived his son.  Isabel Ogle’s will was proved at Gateshead on February 5, 1477.

From the Dictionary of National Biography,

Robert Ogle and Ellen (Helen) Bertram, only child and heiress of Sir Robert Bertram of Bothal, three miles east of Morpeth, in 1343 obtained a license to build the castle there. A splendid gatehouse, adorned with contemporary shields of arms, still remains (Archceologia A£liana, xiv. 283 seq.)

CHECK ALL THIS Their son Robert Ogle (1351-1409) who married XXX Heton , and who succeeded his grandfather, was under age, and John Philipot [q. v.] became his guardian (dugdale, ii. 262; but cf. Cal. Inquis,post mortem,ii.288,319).  Bothal Castle came to him on the death of his mother’s third husband, David Holgrave, in 1405 or 1400, and he immediately settled it upon his younger son, John, who had taken his grandmother’s surname of Bertram. But the day after Ogle’s death on 31 Oct. 1409, his elder son, Sir Robert, laid siege to it, and drove out his brother (Sot. Pari. iii. 629; Hodgson, History of Northumberland, II. ii. 170). Bertram brought the matter before parliament, and the castle remained in his family until it became extinct in the direct male line. This was before 1517, when the fourth Lord Ogle styled himself ‘lord of Ogle and Bottell.’ Robert, first lord Ogle [q.v.J, however, seems to have been at least temporarily in possession in October 1465.

[Rotuli Parliamentorum; Calendiirium Inquisitionum post mortem, ed. Record Commission; Rymer’s Fcedera, original edition; Walsingham’s Historia Anglicana in the Rolls Ser.; Wyntoun’s Chronicle in the Historians of Scotland; Dugdale’s Baronage; Nicolas’s Historic Peerage, ed. Courthope; Hogdson’s Northumberland; Arctueologia /Eliana; Hexham Priory (Surtees Soc.); Culendariutn Rotulorum Patentium, p. 229, and Calendarium Rotulorum Originalium, p. 801.] J. T-t.

representatives, may have been the son (Fmdera, x. 695). One matter still in dispute in 1438 was the question of the compensation due to Ogle on account of his having been seized and held to ransom by the Scots in time of truce between 1426 and 1435 (Hot. Pari. v. 44; Ordinances of the Privy Council, v. 93,162,167). It was agreed that Ogle should be indemnified with a Scottish ship which had been seized at Newcastle; but this was found to have been sold by the admiral or his lieutenant, and Ogle was involved in a dispute with the latter, which was not ended until 1442.

In 1438 Ogle was sheriff of Northumberland, and in charge of the east march of Scotland until a warden was appointed (ib. v. 100; Dugdale, ii. 262). Little is then heard of him until 1452, when he was bailiff and lieutenant of Tyndale (Ord. Privy Council, v. 126). Three years later Ogle sided with the Yorkists when they took up arms, and brought six hundred men from the marches to the first battle of St. Albans. He probably came in the train of the Earl of Warwick, who was warden of the west march; and one account of the battle gives to Ogle the credit of the movement by which the Yorkists broke into the town, but this feat is ascribed in other versions to Warwick (Paxton Letters, i. 332). Ogle was one of the commissioners appointed by the victorious party to raise money for the defence of Calais (Ord. Privy Council, v. 244). Shortly after Towton he and Sir John Conyers were reported to be besieging Henry VI in a place in Yorkshire’ called Coroumbr; such aname it hath, or much like ‘ (Paston Letters, ii. 7). His services to the Yorkist cause did not go unrewarded. Edward IV on 26 July 1461 summoned him to his first parliament as Baron Ogle, and invested him (8 Aug.) with the wardenship of the east marches, lately held by his great Lancastrian neighbour, the Earl of Northumberland, who was killed at Towton. With the wardenship went the offices of steward and constable of the forfeited Percy castles and many of the earl’s lordships (dugdale).

In November he was entrusted with the negotiations for a truce with Scotland, and in the January following received a further grant of the lordship of Redesdale and castle of Harbottle in mid-Northumberland, forfeited by Sir William Tailboys of Kyme in Lincolnshire, afterwards called Earl of Kyme, who was executed after the battle of Hexham in 1464 (dugdale, i. 263; Wabkworth, p. 7; Rot. Pari. v. 477). To these were added other forfeited lands in Northumberland. In October 1462 Ogle distinguished himself in the dash upon Holy Island, which resulted in the capture of all the French leaders who had come over with Margaret of Anjou, except De Breze’ (Historians of Hexham, Surtees Soc. I. cix.) During the operations against the Northumbrian strongholds in the winter Ogle assisted John Neville, lord Montagu [q. v.], in the siege of Bamborough, which surrendered on Christmas-eve (Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles,^. 157-59; WorCester, ii. 780; Paston Letters, ii. 121). It was betrayed to the Lancastrians again in the following year, but finally reduced in June 1464, and entrusted to Ogle as constable for life. Just a year later he was commissioned with Montagu, now earl of Northumberland, and others, to negotiate for peace with Scotland, and for a marriage between James III and an English subject (Fwdera, xi. 546).

Ogle died on 1 Nov. 1469. He married Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir Alexander Kirkby of Kirk by Ireleth in Furness, by whom he had a son Owen, who is separately noticed, and a daughter Isabella, married first to Sir John Heron of Chipchase, and afterwards to Sir John Wedrington (dugdale, Baronage; Arehaologia JKhana, xiv. 287; Hexham Priory, Surtees Soc. p. lxix).

[Rotuli Parliamentorum; Calendar him Inquisitionum post mortem; Rymer’s Fcedera, original ed.; Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, ed. Nicolas; William of Worcester in Stevenson’s Wars in France, vol. ii., Bolls Ser.; Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles and Warkworth’s Chronicle, published by the Camden Society; Dugdale’s Baronage; Archaeologia Jiliana; other authorities in the text.]

Resources

Dictionary of national biography, Volume 42 edited by Sir Leslie Stephen

The English Ogles

A genealogical history of the dormant, abeyant, forfeited, and extinct …
By Sir Bernard Burke