III. Randle Meschines, Viscount Bayeux of Normandy. IV. Randle Gernons. V. Hugh Cyveilioc. VI. Randle Blundeville. VII. John the Scot, Earl of Huntingdon, who died without issue at Darnhall Abbey, Cheshire, on the 7th June 1237. These Norman Earls had their Chamberlains or Chancellors; also Justices (before whom causes which of their nature should otherwise belong respectively to the King’s Bench and Common Pleas were triable), a Baron of Exchequer, a Sheriff and other officers similar to those of the Crown at Westminster. They also had palatinate Barons who held court in council with them. The form of act or grant of Hugh Lupus began thus: “Ego Comes Hugo et mei Barones.” These barons were-- I. Nigel, Baron of Halton, High Constable of Cheshire. II. Robert, Baron of Monte Alto or Montalt (Hawarden and Mold), High Steward of Cheshire. III. William, Baron of Wich Maldeberg (Nantwich). IV. Robert FitzHugh, Baron of Malpas. V. Richard Vernon, Baron of Shipbrook. VI. Hamo de Massie, Baron of Dunham-Massie. VII. Gilbert Venables, Baron of Kinderton, whose heirs male in the direct line continued until 1679--the last survivors of the Barons of Cheshire. VIII. Nicholas, Baron of Stockport. IX. Robert, Baron of Rhuddlan. [Illustration: Hugh Lupus Earle of Chester sitting in his Parliament with the Barons and Abbots of that Countie Palatine. ] Each of these barons had his own court of all pleas, suits, and plaints (except such as belonged to the Earl), and power of life and death. The last instance of the execution of this latter power was in the person of Hugh Stringer, who was tried for murder in the court of Sir Thomas Venables, Baron of Kinderton, and was executed in 1597. The business of these barons was to attend the Earl in Council, follow him, and grace his court, and as an old record sets forth, “they were bound in time of war with the Welsh to find for each knights-fee one horse harnessed or two unharnessed within the divisions of Cheshire. And their knights and free tenants were to be furnished with breastplates and haubergeons, and to defend their respective fees in person.” The Abbots of Chester and Combermere also had their own courts as well as the barons, and doubtless they and the heads of the other monasteries and priories were called to the Earl’s Council in the same way that other ecclesiastics were summoned to the Parliaments of the early Kings of England. We here give a copy of the plate by Hollar in King’s _Vale Royal_ of “Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, sitting in his Parliament with the Barons and Abbots of that County Palatine.”