Helmsley appears, as has been stated, in Domesday as “Elmeslae, in the wapentake of Langeberg.” It is now in that of Ryedale; but that this is the place meant seems certain, from its entry in company with Sprostune, now Sproxton, one of its townships, and Harun, now Harome, a chapelry in the parish. The entries are of a very ordinary description. The tenants are—“In Sprostune Turloge Normand et Sortcolf; in Elmeslae, tres Taini; in Harum Sortcol.” When these holders were swept away and who succeeded to them, is not known; but, according to Dugdale, Helmsley was held in the reign of Henry I. by Walter L’Espec, a very famous baron. He appears as connected with Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, and Carlisle, in the Pipe-roll of 31 Henry I., 1130–1; and having lost his only son by a fall from his horse, he founded the abbeys of Kirkham and Rievaulx in Yorkshire, and Wardon in Bedfordshire. L’Espec was a Norman, and held estates in Normandy, but when or how he came over is not recorded. A certain William Spech is recorded in Domesday as a great tenant in Bedfordshire, and he may be the father of Walter, who had lands there. He died in 1153, and in 1157–8 Walter de Bussei is found moving against Robert de Ros for the partition of this estate. Who this Robert de Ros was is uncertain. Adelina, Walter’s daughter and co-heir, married Peter de Ros, who in her right was of Helmsley, or, as it was always called, Hamlake. Peter de Ros, whose name was derived from his lordship of Ros, in Holderness, was, by Adelina, father of Everard de Ros, who appears in the Liber Niger as the tenant _in capite_ of several Yorkshire fees, which no doubt included Helmsley, as many of the tenants’ names are local, as Hairun, Spouston, and Stainesgrave. Everard, being under age, was then in the wardship of Ranulph de Glanvill. He died before 1186, and was succeeded by his son Robert, third Lord of Hamlake, surnamed Fursan, one of the Magna Charta barons, and the reputed builder of Helmsley Castle. He died as a Templar, and his effigy is still pointed out in their church in London. Robert de Ros, his grandson, who probably executed the earliest additions to the work of his grandfather, married Isabel d’Albini, heiress of Belvoir. From them came William de Ros, seventh lord of Hamlake, who died 1342–3, and probably completed the keep and the outer gatehouse and barbican at Helmsley. With his descendant, Edmund, fifteenth lord, the male line failed, and Helmsley passed with his sister and co-heiress Eleanor, to Sir Robert Manners, or rather to their son, George Manners.