Verdon, de

Verdon, de. The first member of this family to enter Ireland was Bertram (d. 1192), from Alton in Staffordshire, who took part in Prince John's expedition of 1185 and was left as John's seneschal on his departure. About 1189 Bertram was granted by John substantial lands in Co. Louth, to hold in return for providing the service of 20 knights. These lands came to include the baronies of Lower Dundalk (the Cooley peninsula), Upper Dundalk (in which the town of Dundalk is situated and which was the caput of the de Verdon lordship until the great castle at Roche was built in the mid‐13th century), and Ferrard; they also claimed lands in part of the modern Co. Armagh. After 1244 the de Verdons secured by marriage a half‐share in the great lordship of Meath, thereby gaining lands in counties Meath, Westmeath, Longford, and Offaly. Several members of the family were responsible for an outbreak of disturbances in Co. Louth in 1312, but they played a prominent role in opposing the invasion of Edward Bruce three years later. When the head of the family, Theobald, the great‐great‐great‐grandson of Bertram de Verdon, died in 1316 without a male heir, the Irish estate, as well as lands in England and the Welsh marches, was partitioned among heiresses, and although cadet branches of the family survived in Ireland for centuries, their days as one of the leading Anglo‐Irish aristocratic families were ended.

Seán Duffy