Barons of Morpeth in Northumberland, where the ruins of their castle still overlook the town. The domain was very large, including many adjacent villages, and “by the rolls of Henry V. is called the barony of Merlay, which shows that Merlay and Morpeth were places originally distinct from each other, the one denoting the hill and the other the valley: at length the distinctions subsided in the general appellation of Morpeth. King Henry I. gave Julian the daughter of Gospatrick Earl of Dunbar in marriage, with a rich dowry, to Roger de Merley, Baron of Morpeth. This Roger founded Newminster, and was interred therein, with his wife and Osbert their son.” - Hutchinson's Northumberland. The name was taken from the fief of Merlai, in Normandy. The records of these barons mainly consist of benefactions to their town. One Roger de Merlay obtained of King John in 1199 a market for his borough, and an annual fair on Magdalen-day: another ornamented Morpeth, and in addition to other works of charity, founded Catchburn Hospital; and a third - the last of his race - granted to his burgesses, with other liberties and immunities, a freedom from all taxes, subsidies, or contributions, except those to the King for public safety, the marriage honours of the Lord’s heir or eldest daughter, or the Lord’s redemption from captivity. He left two co-heiresses, Mary and Johanna. Mary married William Lord Greystock, to whose posterity the whole barony of Morpeth descended, for her sister Johanna, the wife of Robert de Somerville, had five sons who all died s. p. The Merlais bore Barry of six Argent and Gules, a border Azure charged with martlets Or.