Thomas de Multon, Lord

Sir Thomas (V) de Moulton of Langley and later Lord de Lucy (died in 1240) was a British landowner (Baron) and Judge. The Lord of Moulton (misprinted as Multon by the scribes of the time period) was born in Lincolnshire, England and fought as a Knight in Normandy and then settled in the French Providence of Orbec in 1203, and then later in York in 1211. Later still, he was residing in Poitou in 1214.

Life

Sir Thomas was an unlucky speculator under John, King of England owing over £800 when the Exchequer reopened after the end of the First Barons' War. In 1205 he purchased the office of High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, which he held until 1208. Unable to pay his debts, he was imprisoned in Rochester Castle until he had discharged them. He regained royal favour, and in 1213 was appointed to investigate extortions by the High Sheriffs of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. As a northern lord and debtor Moulton sided with the Barons during the First Baron's War (see Magna Carta). A civil war that was fought over land that he had earned; during his service to the crown in the Crusades and was the very reason for his knighthood. He was also one of the rebels who mustered at Stamford in 1215. As a consequence he was ex-communicated in 1216 having previously been captured by the King in 1215. He was then entrusted to Peter de Mauley and his lands were confiscated, being restored in 1217.^[1]

Under Henry III Moulton became an important royal agent in the north; between 1217 and 1218 he was an itinerant justice for Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Northumberland. In 1224 he sat as a justice at Westminster, a position he held until 1236. In 1229 he was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, a position he held until 1233 and again between 1234 and 1236. Between 1233 and 1236 he was High Sheriff of Cumberland and constable of Carlisle Castle. His last activity was in 1238, when he worked as a surveyor of the royal demesne in Cumberland, dying in 1240.^[1]

In the History of Cumberland County, we read the following:

The patrimonial estate of the Moultons was the castle and manor of Multon and the town and manor of Spaulding, in the

county of Lincoln; but Thos. de Multon by marrying the heiress of Hugh de Moreville had added the barony of Burgh on the Sands, the charge and property of hereditary forester of the forest of Inglewood, the manor of Lazonby and the manor and castle of Kirke—Oswald, which Hugh de Moreville had built and obtained a market for, with the castle and manor of Knaresborough, in Yorkshire. Then from Maud de Vallibus, the barony of Gilsland, with its dependent manors, with the Hamlets of Brakenhill, Eckelsby, Melverton and Northwood, the manor of Aikton, Rowcliffe and Glassonby in Cumberland; of Barton Adelathes and the moiety of the town of Overton or Orton in Westmoreland, the manor of Hatton in Norfolk and other possessions in Suffolk, Somersetshire and Dorsetshire and the manor of Nether Trayline in Scotland.

Family

He first married Sara of Fleet before 1200. In 1214, he gave 1,000 marks to the crown for the wardship of the daughters of Richard de Luci and married these ladies to his sons Lambert and Alan. After Luci's death in 1218, he married his widow, receiving the title of Forester of Cumberland. For marrying a widow without the king's license, he had his lands seized and had to pay a fine of £100 to the king, and 1 palfry for the office of forester of Cumberland.

Issue

• Married Sara de Fleet' with whom they had:
  1. Lambert de Multon, who married Annabel de Lucy.
  2. Alan de Multon, who married Alice de Lucy.

• Married Ada de Moreville with whom they had:
  1. Julian de Multon, who married Robert de Vavasour.
  2. Thomas de Multon (d.1270), who married Maud de Vaux.

Notes

References

•  Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge (1894). "Multon, Thomas de". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 
• "Thomas of Moulton". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 2008-09-02. (subscription required)
• A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Ireland, and Scotland, Extinct, Dormant and in Abeyance, (1831). John Burke, Esq. page 379