Baron Mortimer

Arms of Mortimer of Wigmore, Earls of March: Barry or and azure, on a chief of the first two pallets between two base esquires of the second over all an inescutcheon argent

Several members of the Mortimer family were summoned to Parliament during the reign of Edward I, thereby making them hereditary barons in the Peerage of England. The most important family with this surname were the lords of Wigmore, a marcher lordship on the borders of Herefordshire and Shropshire with Wales, living at Wigmore Castle. The second Baron Mortimer of Wigmore was created Earl of March.

The others probably all belonged to juvenile branches of that family.

  • The Mortimers of Chirk had another marcher lordship, which was given to a younger brother of the first Baron Mortimer of Wigmore.
  • The Mortimers of Richard's Castle were descended from the Mortimers of Attleborough, who had separated from the Wigmore family long before.[1]
  • Simon de Mortimer was summoned to parliament on 26 August 1296, but nothing more is known of that title.
  1. ^ Hopkinson and Speight, 135-40.