- Excerpt from "Notices of an English Branch of the Malet Family", by Arthur Malet, published 1885, pp 73-74, appendix GG, HH1, HH2:
WILLIAM MALET.
Robert Malet of whom we have record up to 1150 was succeeded by his son William Malet, and who, sometime in the reign of Stephen ( I cannot fix the precise date), between the years 1135 and 1154, was one of the witnesses to that King's Charter to the Church of St. Benedict of Ramsey.* In the second year of Henry II, A.D. 1156** he paid the sum of L. 25 for Danegeld in the county of Somerset, and in the 12th year of Henry II, A. D. 1166, he certified for the assessment of the aid for marrying the King's daughter to upwards of twenty-two knights' fees of the old feoffment, and upwards of two knights' fees on the new.*** For all these in 14 Henry II, A.D. 1168, he paid the sum of L.15 12s. 10d. Reckoning in addition to these the fees he held of the Abbey of Glastonbury+ in number twelve, he held thirty-four knights' fees in Somerset, the Honour in Kent, and four knights' fees in Sussex.
The Rev. R.W. Eyton in his Somerset Domesday Studies calls William Malet the steward and favourite of Henry II. He was one of the recognitors of the Constitutions of Clarendon, one of thirty-eight nobles whose names are attached to that remarkable document, the provisions of which (though ten of the sixteen clauses were disallowed by the Pope) are, in the words of Mr. Stubbs, "no mere engine of tyranny or secular spire against a churchman; they are really a part of a great scheme of administrative reforms, by which the debateable ground between the spiritual and temporal powers can be brought within the reach of common justice, and the lawlessness arising from professional jealousies abolished. That they were really this, and not an occasional weapon of controversy, may be further inferred from the rapidity with which they were drawn up, the completeness of their form, and the fact that notwithstanding the storm that followed they formed the groundwork of the later customary practices in all such matters."
I find in Sir A. M.'s MSS. an entry that William Malet married Maud, a daughter of Robert Mortimer, but there is no reference to any source from which to trace any further particulars. He left a son Gilbert, who succeeded to the barony.
* Dug. Bar., Vol.I, p.3.
In charta Stephani Regis Angliae Ecclesiae Sancti Benedicti de Ramseia, etc. Test: Maud Regina. R: Epo: Sarum. A: Epo: Lincoln. R: Epo: Exon. H. Epo: Ely. R: Comite Warwick. Will'm Martin Milone de Glouc: Wm Malet. Apud Oxenford. Ex excerptis MSS. Ric: St George.
** Collinson, vol. i, p. 31.
*** To William Malet, the son of Robert Malet, of Curry and Shepton. Charta Willielmi Malet, 12 R. Hen. II [A.D. 1166.] de Militibus suis in Com. Som: Ex Libro Nigro Schaccarii.
Isti sunt milites de veteri feoffamento Willielmi Malet de feodo quod tenet in capite de Rege.
Willielmus filius Reginaldi 7 milites et 3m partem militis. Baldwinus Malet 2 milites et 3m partem. Tho's de Halsway 1 mil: Osbert de Eston 3 mil: Roger Arundel 1 mil: Robert de Woda 1 mil: Serlo de Braicot I mil: Jordan de Cnolla 1 mil: Walter de St'o Quintino 1 mil: Jordan de Stafford 1 mil: Radulphus Hosatus dimid mil: Isti sunt de verteri feoffamento, et tot debet Regi. Robert Malherbe 1 mil: et 4 partes mil: Helias de Meigs 4m partem mil. Joh'es Belet et Henry de Lopene 1 mil: PHilip Buzar 5m parem mil. Willielmus Hostiarius 20 part mil.
De novo feoffamento isti subscripti. Robertus filius Bernardi 1 mil: Osbert de Bamville 10m partem mil: Malgerious 5m partem. Will'us de Northfolc 10m partem mil: Ipse Willielmus debet Regi in Kent de Honore quem ei dedit dimi: mil:
These knights' fees in Somerset of the old and new feoffment which this Baron William Malet held of King Henry II in capite in the twelfth year of his reign, were in number twenty-two entire fees, besides the parts of fees.
+ Sir A.M.'s MSS., Vol. II, pp. 1 and 2.
Return made by Abbot of Glastonbury, 12th Henry II, A.D. 1166.
Milites qui tenuerunt tempote Regis Henrici (primi) et modo tenet de Abbatia de Glaston. Robertus Malet tenuit feod: x milit: et Hubertus de Sancta Susanna tenuit de eodem ii milit: et modo Will'us Malet tenet totum tenementum pro xii militibus.
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