C.P. Addition: Marriage of Isabel de Dover, Countess of Atholl (died 1292), and Alexander de Balliol, Lord Balliol

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Dear Newsgroup ~

Complete Peerage 1 (1910): 305–306 (sub Atholl) and 386–387 (sub Balliol) covers the marital history of Isabel de Dover, daughter of Richard de Dover (or de Chilham), Knt., of Chilham, Kent, by Maud of Angus, Countess of Angus, daughter of Malcolm, Earl of Angus. Isabel de Dover was near related to the English royal family, her paternal grandfather having been an illegitimate son of King John.

It is well documented in many published sources including Complete Peerage and Scots Peerage that Isabel de Dover married (1st) David de Strathbogie (or Strabolgy), 8th Earl of Atholl (in Scotland) (died 1270), and (2nd) Alexander de Balliol, Knt., Lord Balliol, of Cavers, Roxburghshire and Bennington, Hertfordshire, Teversham, Cambridgeshire, etc., Chamberlain of Scotland. It is Isabel's 2nd marriage that is the subject of this post.

Complete Peerage provides the following information regarding the marriage of Isabel de Dover and Sir Alexander de Balliol:

1. Complete Peerage 1 (1910): 305–306 (sub Atholl):

"His widow [Isabel] married, without license, shortly after 7 Nov. 1270, (when her marriage was granted to Philip d'Aubigny) Alexander de Balliol of Cavers [Lord Balliol], who survived her, and was living 1307. She died Feb. 1292, and is said to have been buried in Canterbury Cathedral." END OF QUOTE.

2. Complete Peerage 1 (1910): 386–387 (sub Balliol):

Alexander de Balliol "having married, about 1270, after 7 Nov. 1270, Isabel, widow of David (of Strathbogier), Earl of Atholl, .... His wife [Isabel] died 1292 (before 1 May) and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral. He was living 19 April 1310, but died before June 1311." END OF QUOTE.

Here is the documentation that Complete Peerage provides for the marriage and date of marriage for Isabel and Alexander: Nothing.

Calender of Patent Rolls, 1266–1272 (1913): 489 is the source for the grant of Countess Isabel's marriage in 1270 to Philip d'Aubigny. It reads as follows:

"7 Nov. 1270. Grant to Philip de Albiniaco of that which pertains to the king of the marriage of her that was the wife of David, sometime earl of Asceles, who held in chief, or any she may make with the king or him for the marriage or forfeiture pertaining to the king if she marry without licence." END OF QUOTE.

Complete Peerage implies that Isabel and her 2nd husband, Alexander de Balliol, were married shortly after 7 November 1270. However, this appears not to be the case. I have located two records regarding Countess Isabel during her widowhood:

1. Isabel alone presented to the church of Lutton, Northamptonshire 7 October 1270, as “Isabel de Dovor, lady of Chilham, Countess of Atholl.”

2. In Trinity term 1272 William Marmion sued Isabel de Dover, Countess of Atholl, in the Court of the King’s Bench in a Kent plea regarding an agreement. Reference: Court of the King’s Bench, KB26/207, image 3028f (available at http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT1/H3/KB26no207/aKB26no207fronts/IMG_3028.htm).

The second record above dated Trinity term 1272 suggests that Isabel de Dover was still single as of that date.

So when exactly did Isabel de Dover marry Sir Alexander de Balliol?

The published Hundred Rolls, a little used medieval source, includes an inquest held in 3 Edward I [1274-1275] at which the jurors of the hundred of Felborough in Kent stated that lady Isabel de Chilham [i.e., Isabel de Dover], who held in chief of the king, had married Sir Alexander de Balliol without the king's license. Reference: Rotuli Hundredorum (Rec. Comm.) 1 (1812): 210–211, which may be viewed at the following weblink:

https://books.google.com/books?id=hNEsAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover

Following their marriage, Isabel and Alexander appear in several other contemporary records:

l. In 1279–80 Alexander and his wife, Isabel, arraigned an assize of mort d’ancestor against the prior of St. John of Jerusalem in England touching a garden in Southwark, Surrey.

Reference: Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper 49 (1888): 159.

2. In 1280 the Master of the Knights Templar in England sued Alexander and Isabel his wife in the Court of Common Pleas regarding services due in Chingleford, Essex.

Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/36, image 3308f (available at http://aalt.law.uh.edu/E1/CP40no36/aCP40no36fronts/IMG_3308.htm).

3. In 1281 he and his wife, Isabel, had letters of attorney in favor of Nicholas de Renham and another in England, they going by license to parts of Scotland.

Reference: Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper 50 (1889): 12.

3. In 1287 he and his wife, Isabel, sued Gilbert Pecche and his wife, Joan, in the Court of Common Pleas in a pleas regarding waste in houses, woods, gardens, etc. held in dower by the said Joan of the inheritance of the said Isabel in Lesnes, Kent.

Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/67, image 3815f (available at http://aalt.law.uh.edu/E1/CP40no67/aCP40no67fronts/IMG_3815.htm).

4. In 1292 Eustace de Atholl gave 40s. to have license of concord with Alexander and Isabel his wife.

Reference: Court of Common Pleas, CP40/92, image 5f (available at http://aalt.law.uh.edu/E1/CP40no92/aCP40no92fronts/IMG_0005.htm).

Reviewing the above, it appears that Isabel de Dover married without license sometime between Trinity term 1272 (date of lawsuit) and 1274-1275 (date of Hundred Rolls) to Sir Alexander de Balliol, Lord Balliol.

For interest's sake, the following is a list of the 17th Century New World immigrants that descend from Isabel de Dover and her 1st husband, David de Strathbogie, 8th Earl of Atholl:

William Asfordby, George & Nehemiah Blakiston, Henry Corbin, Diana & Grey Skipwith

Best always, Douglas Richardson, Salt Lake City, Utah