Maule

From the town and lordship of Maule, in the Vexin Francais, eight leagues from Paris, which belonged to this family for four hundred years. The Sires de Maule are "frequently mentioned by Ordericus Vitalis, and their history has been preserved by Duchesne, from the time of Guarin, who lived c. 960, father of Ansold, father of Peter Lord of Maule."—The Norman People. "Roger, the last Lord of Maule, was killed at the battle of Nicopolis in Hungary, fighting against the Turks, 1398: and his coat of arms, which is the same with that borne by the Earls of Panmure, was set up in the church of Notre Dame in Paris. His only daughter and heiress was married to Simon de Morainvilliers, Lord of Flaccourt."—Wood's Douglas. Guarin de Maule, a younger son of Ansold, Sire de Maule, came over in the Conqueror's army, and received as his guerdon the manor of Hatton, and some other lands in Cleveland. One of his two sons, Robert, attached himself to David Earl of Huntingdon, and followed his fortunes when he became King of Scotland. He had grants in the Lothians, and his son, who fought at the battle of the Standard in 1138, further received from the King, in free gift, the lands of Foulis in Perthshire. Sir Peter de Maule, third in descent from him, about the year 1224 married Christian de Valognes or de Valoines, an heiress thrice-told, for she brought him one splendid inheritance after the other. From her father, William de Valognes, she had, first, the two baronies of Panmure and Benvie, and other lands both in England and Scotland: then, on the death of Christian Countess of Essex (the grand-daughter of Gunnora de Valognes), ten years later, the whole of the great possessions of the De Valognes in the counties of Cambridge, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, came to be divided between her, "Lora, her aunt, and Isabel, her cousin:" and lastly, she succeeded to the estates of Sibilla de Valognes, widow of Robert de Stuteville. In the fifteenth century, Sir William Maule claimed the great barony of Brechin in right of his grandmother Jean Barclay; but as the better part of it was annexed to the crown of Scotland in 1437, the share he secured was by no means a large one. His descendant, Patrick Maule of Panmure, who went to England with James VI. as one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber, and faithfully followed Charles I. in all his battles and his subsequent captivity, was created Earl of Panmure and Lord Maule of Brechin in 1646. The fourth Earl, true to his family traditions, joined the Jacobite rising in 1715, and was taken prisoner at the battle of Sheriffmuir, but rescued by his brother Harry, and soon after escaped abroad, forfeiting alike lands and honours. His was said to be "the largest of the confiscated properties;" and at two different times, the government offered to restore it to him, provided he would return home and take the oath of allegiance to the House of Hanover. But this he stedfastly refused to do; and he died, as he had lived, an exile, in 1723. He left no children. His brother Harry, who was next in succession, had by his two marriages no fewer than eight sons: but they all without an exception died unmarried. The third of these, William Maule, who by the death of his two elder brothers became the head of the house, was created Earl of Panmure and Viscount Maule (in the peerage of Ireland) in 1743; and was enabled, in 1764, to re-purchase his ancestral estate of Panmure, which he settled on the son of his sister Jean, George Earl of Dalhousie, "in life rent, and then to the Earls second and other sons in their order." At his death in 1782, this settlement was impugned by the heir-male, Thomas Maule (grandson of Henry Maule, Bishop of Meath) but the Court of Session decided in favour of Lord Dalhousie. When the Earl died five years afterwards, the Maule estates accordingly devolved on his second son, William Ramsay, who took the name and arms of Maule, and was created Lord Panmure in 1831. His son, Fox Maule, succeeded his brilliant cousin, the late Marquess of Dalhousie, as eleventh Earl in 1852, and died, a childless widower, in 1874. Thus the English barony of Panmure soon followed the fate of the previous Scottish and Irish honours.

-- Cleveland