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- Following copied from website at [http://www.moonrakers.com/genealogy/baskerville/baskerville_family_histor y.htm]:
BASKERVILLE FAMILY HISTORY
Supplied by Brian Erwin
Edited by Peter Baskerville Rance
Erdisley or Eardisley was the Herefordshire stronghold of the Baskervilles, called 'Herdelege' in the Domesday Survey. The castle of those days stood in a forest, of which it is said the great oak of Eardisley, was still standing in 1907. This forest was in the valley of the River Wye and on the way to Wales, the castle in consequence, was exposed to attacks from Welsh marauders, and was also in the center of the district where the Wars of the Barons waged with great violence in our early history. It stood on the west side of the present parish church on high ground and was surrounded by a triple moat and had a strong dungeon. [1990 P.B.R. When I visited the site in 1970 and 1990, the moat was still visible as a very wet circle surrounding a mound of about fifteen feet in height. The lime (?) stone, used to build the nearby farmhouse, was obviously taken from the castle ruins although the no vestige of the castle retained beyond a few broken stones]. This castle was burnt down during the Civil War in November 1645, [See Appendix 'A']. There is a Richard de Baskerville listed in the church as a Rector of Eardisley in 1373, and Madeline Hopton writes "The helmets of the Baskerville knights are in the side chapel of the parish church, now used as a vestry.
The Baskervilles also had another castle closer to the Wye at Bredwardine, which stood on the right bank of the river, commanding the ferry by which means alone it could be crossed.
The first Baskerville (died 1109) who is mentioned as living in Eardisley castle, about forty-three years after the Conquest, was one ROBERT, A KNIGHT, whose wife AGNES, was DAUGHTER AND HEIRESS OF NASTA, daughter of Rees ap Griffiths, Prince of South Wales.
Note: I am not sure about the ancestry of Agnes. The famous Rhys ap Gruffudd, was born 1127/1132, which is far too late to be Nesta's father.
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