by Gary Brannan[1]

Abstract

Genealogical studies in the medieval period have tended to concentrate on a discrete number of established source materials, often national in nature. Archbishops’ Registers - surviving from 1215 and at their peak during the period - have hitherto been a little-used resource for the medieval genealogist, chiefly due to the combination of a relatively small number of published editions and their scattered and, at times, patchy survival. This article seeks to redress this, partly via highlighting the results of an innovative digitisation and indexing project, and by considering the benefits - and potential pitfalls - of using them in medieval genealogical research.

Based on a talk given by the author at the FMG Annual Meeting, Oxford, August 2018, entitled “Archbishops' Registers for family history: 'indigesta moles' or an undiscovered country”.

Foundations (2019) 11: 2–11                                  © Copyright FMG and the author

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by David Williams[1]

Abstract

Corrections and additions to the article previously published in Foundations 10 (2018); including new information on Gerard de Grandison and the prebend of Apesthorpe, and on the marriage of Agnes (de Grandison) and Thomas Bardolf, 2nd Lord Bardolf.

Foundations (2019) 11: 12–18                                © Copyright FMG and the author

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by Léa Chaillou [1]

Abstract

The family of the viscounts and lords of Léon (11th–14th centuries) is well–known for its many conflicts with the dukes of Brittany and the Plantagenet family. If the power of the viscounts slowly decreased from 1179 onwards, that of the family junior branch, the lords of Léon, kept increasing until their estates passed into the House of Rohan, following the succession of the last lord’s sister, who had married Jean I, viscount of Rohan. The name Léon was nevertheless still borne in the first half of the 15th century by the lords of Hacqueville, a junior branch of the lords of Léon.

However, the genealogy of the family, and more specifically that of the first viscounts, is somewhat unclear, due to sometimes contradictory sources. The following article aims at shedding light on the genealogy of this family. This online version has been updated (2020) with corrections supplied by the author and published in Vol.12 of the journal.

Foundations (2019) 11: 19–48                                © Copyright FMG and the author

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by James B Sutherland [1]

Abstract

In recent years a debate has taken place, often based on scant evidence, regarding Freskin’s background and the role he played in Moray. Some historians have viewed him as a dark, shadowy figure who performed a modest role in reclaiming land in the Moray Firth. This paper draws on new evidence to show that he was more likely a man of some stature who both helped to subdue the area and possibly contributed to its economic wellbeing.

In Scotland between 1124 and 1286 certain fundamentals existed: the knight, or mail-clad soldier was trained to fight on horseback; mutual acceptance of lordship and homage between two free persons existed called knight–service, including garrison duty; the fief or estate, usually land granted by the lord to be held by him and his heirs by the vassal and his heirs as long as the due service was performed; and the castle, a fortified residence, in practice invariably constructed as a ‘motte’ or earthen mound surmounted by a timber tower or keep, with or without a ‘bailey’ or court defended by earthwork banks and ditches.

King David I of Scotland gave land to Freskin at Strathbroc (Uphall) in West Lothian and, later, Duffus and lands near Elgin after he helped to quell disturbances in Moray in 1130. This happened at the same time that Angus Earl of Moray was killed leading a dynastic revolt. So how did this adventurous Fleming arrive in Scotland and what can we find about his background?

Foundations (2019) 11: 49-62                                 © Copyright FMG and the author

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by David Williams[1]

Abstract

The lands which came to form the nucleus of the Gronant estate of the Bulkeley family from the first half of the 16th century almost certainly had belonged to two important Welsh kindreds from at least the 12th century. Although there is no known documentary evidence about the history of the Gronant lands before the Bulkeleys, through the medium of the genealogies, and information from some 16th and early 17th century records, we can trace their probable ownership and transmission down to Sioned, wife of Robert Bulkeley I of Gronant.

Foundations (2019) 11: 63-84                                 © Copyright FMG and the author

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by Michael P Bodman [1]

Abstract

Simon Digby (d.1520) from Leicester, Esq, Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower of London (Hen VII and VIII) and a veteran of Bosworth (1485) and Stoke Field (1487) with a prominent descendancy in the English Midlands, has long been the subject of genealogical interest but his parentage is equivocal in the Midlands county sources. This article reports research carried out in 2017-18 resulting in the discovery of new biographical details on Digby’s near relatives, utilising contemporaneous records at The National Archives and in Calendar of the Patent Rolls. Simon Digby’s true parentage is revealed as well as new biographical details on Digby’s wife Alice, daughter and heir of John Wallis, Esq, of East Raddon, co. Devon.

Foundations (2019) 11: 85–101                               © Copyright FMG and the author

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by Keith Moore[1]

Abstract

The Life of St Margaret, queen of Scotland (d.1093) has been profitably used by generations of historians and biographers since the twelfth century. It has not, however, in its earliest and most widely published version had much to offer the genealogist, since it says little about Margaret’s paternal family and nothing about Agatha, her mother.  That has now changed with the publication of a lengthier but so far little–known version of the Life, which, it will be argued, not only provides both early and valuable evidence for Agatha’s German connections but was a source of much material for Aelred of Rievaulx’s Genealogy of the Kings of the English.

Foundations (2019) 11: 102-118                             © Copyright FMG and the author

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by David Williams [1]

Abstract

Amédée de Grandson is something of a mystery. Since the early 19th century he has found his way into many genealogies, which claim that he was the eldest son and successor of Pierre I de Grandson (d.1258?), sire de Grandson. Although he can be identified with a certain Amys de Grandson, who was alive in 1278, there is no evidence that he was Pierre’s son, or was lord of Grandson; and he very probably belonged to a collateral branch of the Grandson dynasty. He was not the father of Agnès de Grandson, wife of Aymon III de Montagny.

Foundations (2019) 11: 119–124                             © Copyright FMG and the author

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By Andrew Lancaster[1]

Abstract

In 1110 the Anglo–Norman baron William Baynard was exiled, and his family lost its rights to succeed to his lands and offices. However, it has long been recognized that at least one junior branch of his family survived as tenants of their new fitzWalter overlords in Norfolk. Only one realistic attempt has been made to explain a line of connection between the barons and the later gentry Baynards, by Lionel Landon in 1929, but the explanation was incomplete, and it is not well–known, apparently even to subsequent Baynard researchers. This article gives a new account of the family, looking at both the primary records and modern commentaries.

Foundations (2019) 11: 125–144                             © Copyright FMG and the author

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