According to Brock Holden's "Lords of the Central Marches" . . .
Walter was a minor when his father died in 1213, so must have been born after 1192. Peter Baskerville Rance gives a birth year as 1204. He also states that this Walter had a son Walter who died in 1260 after having himself had a son Walter in 1247, who married at 12 years old in 1259.
". . .in this case his wardship was purchased by Andrew de Chanceaux, a curialis, kinsman of Gerard d'Athee and Engelard de Cigognee, and 'Poitevin' associate of the bishop of Winchester and (in 1214) justiciar Peter des Roches. Andrew promptly married Walter to his sister Susanna. By Michaelmas 1218 Walter was accounting at the exchequer for his father's Jewish debt, helped by his father-in-law's influence, which gained him a pardon of 100 marks (Pipe roll. 2 Henry III 91)
Walter became a man of some standing in Herefordshire. In 1225 he was a collector of the fifteenth granted the king in that year. His importance is also evidenced by his receipt of an individual writ ordering him to join the king's army at Montgomery in 1228. Only nine other men in the area received these writs, including the barons Gilbert de Lacy, Walter de Beauchamp and William de Cantilupe.
Walter served as Sheriff of Herefordshire prior to 1232. The sheriff of Herefordshire was ordered to pay Walter his arrears from the time when he had been sheriff. By In 1233-4 Walter supported the king against Richard Marshal. By 1236 he had risen to the lwvel of prominence where he could be appointed as one of the dictatores of the truce with Llywelyn in South Wales. He served as a collector of the thirtieth of 1237 in Herefordshire, and was summoned with men of the stature of Walter de Clifford and John de Monmouth for service to the army in 1238, and was appointed to inspect the county's castles in 1241. By the middle of the thirteenth century the Baskerville family had weathered debt and had risen to become one of the most important knightly families in the region. This was largely owing to the family's connection by marriage to the curialis Andrew de Chanceaux, demonstrating the advantages to a knoghtly family of making connections to the court and securing royal patronage.
Death date sometimes shown as 1243 rather than 1244 |
