Nicholas de Meynell, 1st Baron Meynell

NICHOLAS DE MEINILL, of Whorlton, co. York, illegitimate son of Nicholas, 2nd LORD MEINILL, by Lucy, daughter and heir of Robert DE THWENG, of Kilton, elder brother of Marmaduke, 1st Lord Thweng, and wife of William, LORD LATIMER. On 23 August 1372, he then being under age, the vicar of Ormesby was made his coadjutor. As a result of the arrangements made by his father he succeeded to Whorlton and the lands which constituted the Meinill fee held of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and after the death of Mary de Graham, on 18 October 1322, to the moiety of the barony of Muschamp, co. Northumberland, the reversion of which his father had bought. In May 1324 he, as Nicholas son of Nicholas de Meinill, was summoned as a man-at-arms in co. York to attend the Great Council at Westminster. In 1326/7 the moiety of the forest of Cheviot, which his father had also bought, was restored to him. On 21 March 1331/2 he was appointed a keeper of the North Riding of Yorkshire, pursuant to the statute made in Parliament, and on 1 February 1332/3 to array the men of the Riding between the ages of sixteen and sixty, with fifty archers and a hundred hobelers, chosen from the better and stouter of them, to resist an expected attack of the Scots. In 1334 and in subsequent years to 1340 he was ordered to bring men-at-arms, light horsemen, and archers for service in the Marches. He was summoned to Parliament from 22 Jan. 1335/6 and to successive Parliaments to 3 March 1340/1, by writs directed Nicholao de Meinill, whereby he is held to have become LORD MEINILL; and to a Council at Westminster on 25 February 1341/2. On 27 February 1336/7 he and his heirs were granted free warren in their demesne lands of Whorlton, Greenhow, Seamer, Eston, Hutton (Rudby), Aldwark, and Middleton, and a weekly market and a yearly fair in their manor of Whorlton. In 1341, as lord of Whorlton, he confirmed to Fountains Abbey the grant made by Stephen de Meinill of land in Whorlton.

He married Alice, daughter of William de Ros, of Helmsley [LORD Ros]. He died s.p.m. before 20 November 1341. His widow's dower was ordered to be assigned 30 April 1342, and at the request of John Darcy the younger she had licence to marry whom she would. She appears to have died before 4 July 1344. [Complete Peerage VIII:632-4, XIV:472, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]