Baron Lisle

Baron Lisle was a title which was created five times in the Peerage of England during the Middle Ages and Tudor period. The earliest creation was in 1299 for John de L'Isle of Wootton on the Isle of Wight, then in the County of Southampton,[2] now in Hampshire. The family's name in French was de l'Isle and was Latinised to de Insula (both meaning "from the island"). They were also known by the Latinised cognomen de Bosco[3] (literally "from the woodland", from the Germanic word bosk, in French bois[4]) referring to their "well-wooded" seat at Woodeton/Wodingtone (today Wootton).[5] The family is assumed to have arrived in the Isle of Wight as a feudal follower of the Norman magnate Richard de Redvers (d.1107),[6] Lord of the Isle of Wight and feudal baron of Plympton in Devon,[7] and father of Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon. Below the de Redvers family that of de Lisle was the most important on the Island.[8] John de Lisle, 2nd Baron Lisle (c.1281-1331) married Roesia de Cormeilles, daughter and heiress of Sir John de Cormeilles of Thruxton in Hampshire, which thenceforth became the de Lisle's principal seat.[9] Bartholomew de Lisle, 3rd Baron Lisle (1308-1345) married Elizabeth de Courtenay, a daughter of Hugh de Courtenay, 1st/9th Earl of Devon (1276–1340),[10][11] successor to de Redvers, although no longer Lord of the Isle of Wight, which was sold in 1293 to King Edward I by Isabel de Forz, daughter and heiress of the last de Redvers Earl. The arms of Lisle of Wootton were: Or, on a chief azure three lions rampant of the first,[12] as is visible on the monumental brass in Thruxton Church of John de Lisle, 5th Baron Lisle (1366-1408),[13] which also shows the arms of de Lisle impaling Courtenay, possibly for an unknown second wife of the 5th Baron, or possibly as a commemoration of the marriage of the 3rd Baron.[14] The 5th Baron (de jure[15]) served twice as a Member of Parliament for Hampshire in 1401 and 1404.[16] The last in the male line was John Lisle, 9th Baron Lisle (d. circa 1523),[17] whose chest tomb and recumbent effigy survives in Thruxton Church in Hampshire.[18]

Arms of Lisle of Wootton, Isle of Wight: Or, on a chief azure three lions rampant of the first

monumental brass of John de Lisle, 5th Baron Lisle (1366-1408) (cr. 1299), Thruxton Church, Hampshire

Arms of Lisle of Rougemont: Or, a fess between two chevrons sable

Arms of Lisle of Kingston Lisle: Gules, a lion statant guardant argent crowned or

Arms of Berkeley, Baroness Lisle: Gules, a chevron between ten crosses pattée six in chief and four in base argent

Arms of Talbot, Barons and Viscount Lisle: Gules, a lion rampant within a bordure engrailled or.[1]

Arms of Grey, Barons and Viscount Lisle: Barry of six argent and azure in chief three torteaux

The barony of 1311 was created for De Lisle "of Rougemont", another unrelated family, thought to have originated on the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, East Anglia, where they were feudal tenants of the Bishop of Ely,[19] They were seated at Rougemont Castle in the parish of Weeton, North Yorkshire and bore arms: Or, a fess between two chevrons sable.

The barony of 1357 was for Lisle "of Kingston Lisle" in the parish of Sparsholt in Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire), a junior branch of Lisle of Rougemont. Robert de Lisle of Rougemont married Alice FitzGerold (granddaughter of Henry FitzGerold I (d.1173/4)), the heiress of Kingston, Sparsholt. In 1269 Alice granted the manor of Kingston to her younger son Gerard I de Lisle, whose family adopted the arms of FitzGerold: Gules, a lion statant guardant argent crowned or. Gerard I's grandson was Gerard II de Lisle (1305–1360), created Baron Lisle in 1357.[20]

The most recent creation came in the Peerage of Ireland in 1758, when John Lysaght was made Baron Lisle, of Mountnorth in the County of Cork. He had previously represented Charleville in the Irish House of Commons. As of 2013 the title is held by his descendant, the ninth Baron, who succeeded his father in 2003. The barony is pronounced "Lyle", the family surname of Lysaght "Lycett".