Robert Fitz Aer

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ^183,1076
This Robert's name first occurs in a deed of the Salop Chartulary, which meantions him under the name of Robert Fitz Robert, and he had an issue with the Abbey about the burial of his men of Eston. This dispute took place between the years of 1167 and 1175 when Adam was Abbot of Salop, and was settled by Roger, Bishop of Worcester.

Robert Fitz Aer, Junior, had been fined between January and September, 1176. He was again fined in the fiscal year ending Michaelmas 1180. He appears as a promient witness in certain charters of the second William Fitz Alan. He attested to two deeds which secured the Canons of Haughmond the site of their house and the endowments of their founder. Robert stood as first witness to a charter whereby William Fitz Alan recognizes the right of Shrewbury Abbey to some land in Oswestry. The proximate date of these deeds in 1190.

In about 1191, Robert Fiz Aer, along with serveral others, were challenged in the Courts of Westminster for the murder of Richard de Brigida, a dependant of Matthew de Gamages of Stottesden. The challenge was ultimately withdrawn, but not until Robert Fitz Aer had suffered a voluntary imprisonment of some duration, and his whole estate had been seized into the hands of the king.

John le Strange obtain possession of "Withyford, by writ of the Chancellor (Longchamp, Bishop of Ely), directed to the Sheriff of Shropshire. Robert Fitz Aer offered a fine of ten merks, sometime before Michaelmas 1193, "to have such seizin of his lands as he had when he was put int the King's Gaol." In the years 1194/5, there was a suit between Robert Fitz Aer and John le Strange over Withyford. Robert Fitz Aer never lived to the conclusion of this suit, but his widow. Robert's widow, Emma de Say, during the fiscal year which ended Michaelmas 1198, accounted 20 merks into the Treasury, being her fine for having custody of the land and heir of Robert. At this point, the suit with John le Strange was now in the hands of Emma de Say.

~ Robert William Eyton's, Antiquities of Shropshire, Vol. I, pp. 200-201, Vol. IX, pp. 310-311

Robert married Emma de Say ¹⁸³.^,1076 (Emma de Say died after 1203 in Shropshire, England ¹⁸³.)