Thomas d'Ippegrave was an English official who had "a career fairly characteristic of the more capable clerks" in the household of the Lord Edward, future

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 ...

.J. Robin Studd, ''A Catalogue of the Acts of the Lord Edward, 1254–1272'', PhD thesis (University of Leeds, 1971), 392 and note. He was a member of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

in 1264,H. G. Richardson and G. O. Sayles, ''The Irish Parliament in the Middle Ages'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952), 26. served as

Constable of the Tower The Constable of the Tower is the most senior appointment at the Tower of London. In the Middle Ages a constable was the person in charge of a castle when the owner—the king or a nobleman—was not in residence. The Constable of the Tower had a ...

and

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the Mayors in England, mayor of the City of London, England, and the Leader of the council, leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded Order of precedence, precedence over a ...

in 1268 and then served as

Seneschal of Gascony The Seneschal of Gascony was an officer carrying out and managing the domestic affairs of the lord of the Duchy of Gascony. During the course of the twelfth century, the seneschalship also became an office of military command. After 1360, the offic ...

from 1268 until 1269."Principal Office Holders in the Duchy"
an
"Seneschals of Gascony, of Aquitaine after 1360 (1273–1453)"
''The Gascon Rolls Project (1317–1468)''. Although he had professional training as a lawyer,J. Robin Studd, "The Marriage of Henry of Almain and Constance of Béarn", ''Thirteenth Century England'' 3 (1991): 173–74 and note. Thomas began his governmental career as a minor

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

in the Lord Edward's household. He can be seen acting in connection with the

Duchy of Gascony The Duchy of Gascony or Duchy of Vasconia was a duchy located in present-day southwestern France and northeastern Spain, an area encompassing the modern region of Gascony. The Duchy of Gascony, then known as ''Wasconia'', was originally a Franki ...

, which belonged to Edward, as early as 1255. He rose to the position of

keeper of the wardrobe The King's Wardrobe, together with the Chamber, made up the personal part of medieval English government known as the King's household. Originally the room where the king's clothes, armour, and treasure were stored, the term was expanded to des ...

for Edward by 1259, perhaps originally working as the deputy of the previous keeper, Ralph de Donjon. As keeper of the wardrobe, he received and disbursed money on Edward's behalf. In 1259 he was in Gascony in his capacity as a former lawyer to assist the king's lieutenant for Gascony,

Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, 1st Earl of Chester ( – 4 August 1265), also known as Simon V de Montfort, was an English nobleman of French origin and a member of the Peerage of England, English peerage, who led the baronial opposi ...

. He had by that time become a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

and was appointed by King Henry III along with another knight and a clerk to defend the Crown against the lawsuit brought by Renaud II de Pons and his wife, Marguerite de Turenne. This was the first case from Gascony that was appealed to the ''parlement'' of Paris. Thomas had returned to the Lord Edward's service by January 1260, and he visited France in Edward's entourage in November 1260. Thomas was sent on a "special mission" to Ireland in 1264, during which he sat with the other members of the king's ''Secretum Consilium'' (privy council). The purpose of his mission was to take part in the inquest into allegations that the

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin () is an Episcopal polity, archiepiscopal title which takes its name from Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Since the Reformation in Ireland, Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: ...

was interfering with pleas to the Crown. His stay in Ireland was short. By early 1265 he had returned to England. There he supervised the collection of a

tallage Tallage or talliage (from the French , i.e. a part cut out of the whole) may have signified at first any tax, but became in England and France a land use or land tenure tax. Later in England it was further limited to assessments by the crown up ...

(tax) on the

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. Thomas was appointed seneschal before 21 November 1268, when as seneschal he witnessed the signing of the marriage contract between

Henry of Almain Henry of Almain ( Anglo-Norman: ''Henri d'Almayne''; 2 November 1235 – 13 March 1271), also called Henry of Cornwall, was the eldest son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, afterwards King of the Romans, by his first wife Isabel Marshal. His surnam ...

, the king's nephew, and Constance of Béarn, a leading Gascon heiress. He then issued a writ confirming the contract, formally releasing Constance from the ''

patria potestas The ''pater familias'', also written as ''paterfamilias'' (: ''patres familias''), was the head of a Family in ancient Rome, Roman family. The ''pater familias'' was the oldest living male in a household, and could legally exercise autocratic aut ...

'' of her father, Viscount Gaston VII of Béarn, and recognising her

seisin Seisin (or seizin) is a legal concept that denotes the right to legal possession of a thing, usually a fiefdom, fee, or an estate in land. It is similar, but legally separate from the idea of ownership. The term is traditionally used in the context ...

of the viscounties of Brulhois and Gabardan, which were to be her

dowry A dowry is a payment such as land, property, money, livestock, or a commercial asset that is paid by the bride's (woman's) family to the groom (man) or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price ...

at the time of her marriage. Part of the significance of this writ is that it shows that at the time the suzerainty of the Duke of Gascony over the Viscount of Béarn was not disputed and covered the whole of the viscountcy. Thomas appears to have been one of only two of fourteen seneschals of Gascony that Edward himself appointed during the lifetime of his father, who appointed all the others. He was replaced as seneschal sometime between March and November 1269.J. Robin Studd, "The Lord Edward and King Henry III", ''Historical Research'' 50, 121 (1977): 9. Thomas was granted the position of serjeant of Eastgate in the city of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

as well as the tolls in 1275. Thomas's widow Joan was granted the custody and tolls of the gate in 1278, which she then surrendered to the crown, in return for a pension.Barrow, J S, J D Herson, A H Lawes, P J Riden, and M V J Seaborne
''Major buildings: City walls and gates.''
A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 Part 2, the City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions. Eds. A T Thacker, and C P Lewis. London: Victoria County History, 2005. pp. 213-225. British History Online. Accessed 3 January 2019.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ippegrave, Thomas d' 1270s deaths Year of death uncertain Year of birth unknown Seneschals of Gascony Constables of the Tower of London Members of the Privy Council of Ireland 13th-century English lawyers Medieval English knights Tax collectors 13th-century mayors of London 13th-century English politicians