Roger Corbet

Sir Roger Corbet (died 1395), of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire was a landowner and politician who was a knight of the shire for Shropshire in three Parliaments of England. He was involved in a series of complex and sharply contested property disputes with members of his own family. Background Roger Corbet was the third son of: Sir Robert Corbet (died 1375) of Moreton Corbet. The Corbets of Moreton Corbet were descended from the Corbet family of Caus Castle, who had been important landowners in the Welsh Marches from the time of William the Conqueror. The senior line of the Corbets at Caus had petered out in 1347 and the properties passed to Ralph de Stafford, 1st Earl of Stafford The cadet branch made their home at Moreton Corbet Castle, then a significant stronghold in north Shropshire. Elizabeth, daughter of Fulk, 1st Baron Strange of Blackmere. The Le Strange family were another important dynasty of Marcher Lords. Fulk le Strange was called to parliament by Edward II and served him as Seneschal of Gascony, a key post in the administration of the remaining Plantagenet possessions in France. The title could be passed through both male and female, and in 1383 it passed via female descent and marriage to the Talbot family, later to become Earls of Shrewsbury. Roger Corbet had two older brothers, Thomas and Fulk, as well as a younger brother, John, and a sister, Joan. He inherited most of the family estates only because of a complex series of arrangements made by his parents. As the eldest son, Thomas, predeceased his parents, they were concerned to keep the estates in the Corbet family by preventing their going to Elizabeth, Thomas's daughter, who had married Sir John Ipstones, later twice MP for Staffordshire. Hence they initiated a series of transactions, some involving their daughters, intended to put most of the estates in tail, and favouring in particular Fulk and Roger. However, some of the provisions were mutually-contradictory, generating the disputes Roger pursued in the 1380s and 1390s. In fact, litigation began even before the death of Sir Robert. In 1374 Elizabeth and Ipstones went to the Court of Common Pleas to try to get possession of the manor of Braunstone in Leicestershire, which had been given to Thomas Erdington, the son of Roger's sister, Margaret.