Somerset 

Warwick

From: Bruce Callaway
Sent: Feb 15, 2007
Subject: Descendants of Phillip 1

I see the problems Lesley and you are quite right. I note Warwick's answer and when Sylvia chimes in with:-  I also have a record of Roger holding Frellardslond in BWK at 1276 and a Robert holding it in 1278.   They looked to me remarkably like the Stalbridge lot, and when I checked the dates there were only 2 years difference - So now I am beginning to wonder if these Devon records are the Stalbridge c/k's!
It becomes even more important that I get this tree right. We are spending a considerable amount of effort to make links from Phillip 1 to where we have reliable records. I am noting all, but refuse to place it into anything definitive until I can get reasonable agreement. The Stalbridge crew have always confounded not only me but my program(me), so perhaps we might ease up on the illusive 1100s and early 1200s with their paucity of records and thus much speculation, and dot  a few "is" (I am becoming quite tired of this cliche, but have not found a substitute) on Stalbridge.  

I note that I have neglected to congratulate Sylvia on her Edmund Kayleway.doc and her marathon effort, William's Properties take 2. They are ensconced on my hard disc and capable (hopefully for ever more) of access from my GOOGLE Desktop Search. They have not as yet been sent to Donna for inclusion in the CFA cache which is accessible from GOOGLE Worldwide, as I had hoped to include them in some logical order. Maybe you should include Donna in your momentous sendings, and let the cards lie where they fall? 

Late at night here and Dawn and I have just returned from a delightful Vietnamese smorgasbord with our Rotary Club (Wow! Vietnam and Smorgasbord. Now that is a tautology!) To borrow from my Dear friend Cary Moore, prior avid researcher for the CFA, now somewhat retired, 

Moore later,
Bruce

From: Lesley Haigh
Sent: Feb 19, 2007
Subject: Descendants of Edmund

2. THOMAS² CAYLLEWAYE (EDMUND¹) was born 1375 in Sutton Bingham, and died 1420. He married JOAN BINGHAM 1412.

3. JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE (THOMAS², EDMUND¹) was born 1412. He married JOAN.

4. SIR WILLIAM⁴ KT (JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) was born 1448, and died 1507. He married UNKNOWN.

5. SIR JOHN⁵ C/K (WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) was born 1470 in Rockbourne, and died 1547 in Rockbourne. He married (1) ANNE STRANGEWAYS. He married (2) UNKNOWN.

6. ROBERT OF NEW⁵ SARUM (WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) He married ALICE GOVER BYFLEET.

7. SIR WILLIAM⁶ C/K (JOHN⁵, WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) was born 1495, and died 1569. He married ANN HALWAYS.

8. ROBERT OF⁶ W&L (ROBERT OF NEW⁵ SARUM, WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) was born 1497, and died 1581 in Middx. He married CECILY UNTON 1549.

9. ALICE⁶ (ROBERT OF NEW⁵ SARUM, WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) She married WILLIAM GAWEN.

10. SIR HUGH⁶ PAULET (ROBERT OF NEW⁵ SARUM, WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) was born 1500, and died 1572. He married PHILLIPA POLLARD 1528.

11. FRANCIS⁷ C/K (WILLIAM⁶, JOHN⁵, WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) was born 1525, and died 1601. He married FRANCES ROGERS.

12. ELIZABETH⁷ C/K (WILLIAM⁶, JOHN⁵, WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) She married (1) WILLIAM SKILLING. She married (2) JOHN CROOKE.

13. THOMAS⁸ C/K (FRANCIS⁷, WILLIAM⁶, JOHN⁵, WILLIAM⁴ KT, JOHN³ CAYLLEWAYE, THOMAS², EDMUND¹) was born 1550, and died 1606. He married ANN MOORE in Rockbourne.

From: Brian Willoughby
Sent: Feb 23, 2007
Subject: Recently Published Glos Sources (BGAS)

BGAS  Gloucestershire Record Series:

                                                                                                                                               Item     Page 

Vol 13 (2000) Bishop Benson’s Survey of the Diocese of Gloucester 1735-1750

                        No C/K items in Index 

Vol 14 (2001)  Cal’r of the Register of Glos City Apprentices  1595 - 1700

                        Numbered, English. Index of Persons                                                                            283-c

                        Arthur Calleowe, s of Wm, gent of Mitcheldean, Glos   1637                            1/485   87-c

                        to Robert & Elizabeth Sturmy 7yrs glover 

Vol 15 (2002)  Calendar of the Registers of  the Priory of Llanthony by

                                    Gloucester 1457-1466,  1501-1525

                        Index one C, no Ks                                                                                                      203-c              
                       Humph. Calowe - Bailiff,  Westbury-on-Severn                                                            xxix 

Vol 16 (2003)  Abstractsof Feet of Fines relating to Glo’shire 1199-1299        

                        Itemised, English Transcripts.  Index      pp 215-c and                                                   231-c

                        Adam de Cailly/wife Mabel/Osb/Ellis Giffard. Ox & Glos          1226                171      34-c

                        Mabel de Kaylly/John Giffard. Brimpsfield etc                           1255                528      105-c

                        Simon de Cailly (Caylly) - acquit of service                               1279                827      167-c                       

Vol 17 (2004)  Catalogue of the Medieval Muniments at Berkeley Castle (Pt 1)

Vol 18 (2005)  Catalogue of the Medieval Muniments at Berkeley Castle (Pt 2)

                        Itemised, English Summaries. Index                                                                          1006/7-c

                        de Cailly Marriage Settlement 1318 - Glos land Wotton etc

                                    John de Caylly/Caylli, Maud daughter of John C            1318                            361-c

                        William Caillewey, witness grant of Wilts manor                        1343                            541-c

                        Adam de Cailly, knight, John his brother - new fealty                 1309                            551-c

                        John de Cailly grant of land to Margaret & John Giffard 1309                                       551-c

                        Sir Osbert de Cally                                                                   1262c                          597-c

                        Sir Osbert de Kayly & Simon de Kayly, witnesses                    1277                            598-c

                        Sir Osbert de Kaylli & Simon de Kaylli, witnesses                     1277-1287                   599-c

                        Richard Gallewey, witness grant of water-mill                            1317                            599-c

                        Richard Galewey, witness grant of water-mill                             1317                            599-c

                        Sir Osbert de Cayli & Simon de Cayli, witnesses land grant       1280                            598-c 

Vol 19 (2005) Notes on the Diocese of Gloucester by Chancellor Richard

                                    Parsons c1700

                        No C/K items in Index 

Vol 20 (2006)  Abstractsof Feet of Fines relating to Glo’shire 1300-1359

                        Itemised, English.  Index Cs (No Ks)                                                                            189

                        John de Cailly (Caillewe) - manors etc, inheritance etc                1330                           97/8-c

                        William Cailly (Kaylewey) & wife Alice                                     1345                            147-c 

                                                                                                                                                                                 
BHK Willoughby                                                                                                                                                                                Cheltenham                                                                                                                                                                               
23 February 2007

From: Sylvia Warham
Sent: Feb 27, 2007
Subject: Recently Published Glos Sources (BGAS)

From: Bruce Callaway
Sent: Feb 28, 2007
Subject: Recently Published Glos Sources (BGAS)

Great stuff Sylvia, and as previously mentioned I am attaching the mysterious records from the National Archives. It is remarkable how you have ferreted out the other more deserving inheritors of the Gifford squillions, but King Edward 111 and/or his advisors had figured that the simplest way to deal with this was to nominate our lad and the Gloucestershire Feet of Fines 1330 found by Brian is the end result. 

I was originally off and running with the last of the Gloucs/Wilts Giffords the quite remarkable John allegedly born 1288 who was drawn, hung and quartered May 1322, despite the anomalously dated assertion in the accompanying that he had four daughters. Catherine born 1272! who married Sir Nicholas Audley, Alinore born 1275! who married Sir Fulk Lestraunge, Maud born 1277 married William de Joinville or Geneville and Margaret Countess of Lincoln. 

I do not believe that we are finished with the Giffords as I believe some of their extensive holdings aquired by our lot were concealed in typical C/K entrepreneurial manner subsequently filtering down to Devon, but for my part they can temporarily move to the backburner. The exploits of John Gifford/Giffard in the accompanying, properly scripted could be the subject of a mini-series on TV. In its current format you may find it heavy going. 

Bruce

Public Record Office
(now known as
National Archives of England)
Kew, Surrey
May 2003

A New History of Gloucestershire, Cirencester: Printed by Samuel Rudder, 1799.

p. 143f. Donations to the Monastery of St.Peter at Gloucester - “down to the year 1263.”

p. 144. Bockholt - In the year 1121, Helyas Giffard, and Ala his wife, their son Elias, granted to the monks of Gloucester, by deed which they laid upon the altar, their land in Bockholt, the woods and the plains estimated at half an hide and half a yard land, free from all services to the King, and discharged of all other customs, except danegelt to the King. This was executed whilst William was abbot.
In the year 1096, Helyas Giffard gave to the Church of St. Peter of Gloucester, a parcel of woodground with three cottages; which grant was confirmed by King William the Second in the time of abbat Serlo. [Serlo was abbat during reign of William the Conqueror; 4th Dean of Salisbury; made first abbat in 1117; died 1147.]

p. 144. Boytone [Bitton] - Helias Boy Giffard, for the soul’s health of Berta his wife, and his ancestors, gave to the monks of St. Peter of Gloucester, the church of St. Mary Boyton, and the church of St. George de Orcheston, with the chapel of St. Andrew of Winterborn, with the lands, tithes, meadows, pastures, ways, paths and whatsoever appertaineth to the said churches, saving the tenure of the church of Finetenay. This was given in the time of abbat Hameline.
Walter Giffard, son of Helias, granted and confirmed to the church Boyton to the monks of Gloucester, with all its appurtenances, with half an hide of land in the same vill, with a building for eight oxen, one beast, and 122 sheep; and all the tithes of the whole vill, both of the demeane lands and of the tenant lands, and of all things of which good Christians ought to pay tithes. This was in the time when Hameline was abbat.
Helias Giffard laid claim to the Church of Boytone. Abbat Thomas Carbonell, for peace sake, granted him the church of Ortheston, with the chapel of Winterborne reserving the church of Barton. The lord Goseline, bishop of Salisbury, granted and confirmed to the convent of St. Peter of Gloucester, the gift made by Helias Giffard and Walter his son. John bishop of Salisbury confirmed and ordered, by virtue of his episcopal authority, that the church of Barton should pay 40s. a year to the monks of Gloucester to keep hospitality.

p. 145. Cranham - Helias Giffard, son of Helias the elder, and Ala his wife, when he became a monk, gave Cranham to St. Peter, and to the monks of Gloucester, serving God, in the time when Hameline was abbat.

p. 150. Seldene - Henry de Pomeroy gave Seldene to the church of St. Peter of Gloucester, reserving to himself two shillings as an acknowledgement. His heirs confirmed this grant, and released two shillings.

p. 151. In the year 1167, when Hameline was abbat, Helias Giffard, the younger, and Berta, his mother, gave to God and St. Peter, eight libratas of land in Willingwyke, and the abbat restored to them Cranham, which his father gave to them when he was made a monk. Helias their son, confirmed the same. Berta, the wife of Helias Giffard, gave to the church of St. Peter of Gloucester, certain lands in Willingwyke, on which he had built at his own charges. This was done when Hameline was abbat.

Note: There were additional references of interest on pp. 146, 147, 148, 285, 309, 310, 396, 662, 663, but the book was so “over-sized” it did not lend itself to the copier or scanner

Historical, Monumental and Genealogical Collections Relative to the County Gloucester: Printed from the Original Papers of the late Ralph Bigland, Esq., Garter Principal King of Arms - London, MDCCLXXXVI.

p. 539. Eastington - Inscriptions in the Church:
In the Chancel: On a blue marble slab, the Effigy of a woman in a Mantle bearing the following Arms: Quarterly, 1. Argent, a Bend Sable, with a Bordure engrailed Azure, Knevet; 2. Argent a Bend Azure, and Chief Gules, Cromwell; 3. Chequy Or and Gules, a Chief Ermine, Tatshall; 4. Chequy Or and Gules, a Bend Ermine, De Cailli, or Clifton; 5. Paly of six within a Bordure bezante; 6. Bendy of six a Canton. Four corner Escocheons: 1. as before, 2. on a Lozenge, Quarterly, 1. Knevet; 2. Cromwell; 3. Tatshal; 4. Cailli; 5. De Woodstock; 6. Paly of six within a Bordure, bezante; 7. Bendy of six a Canton; 8. Or, a Chevron Gules, Stafford; 9. Azure a bend cottifed [cottised], between six Lioncels rampant, Or., De Bohan. The others effaced - Inscription round the Verge: “Here lyeth Elizabeth Knevet/ Daughter of Sir Will. Knevet, Knight, whiche Elizabeth deceased on first Day of December in the year of Lord God M.D. and CVIII on Whose Soule Jesu have Mercy. Amen.”
She was the daughter of Sir William Knevet, Knt. of Buckenham Castle, in the County of Norfolk, by Joan his second wife, Sister of Edward Duke of Buckingham, commonly styled Lady Beaumont. [Blomefield’s Norfolk, Vol. 1, p. 257.]

Calendar of the Records of the Corporation of Gloucester, compiled by W. H. Stevenson, Gloucester, 1893.

#742. [1296-7] - Release from Laetitia of Cors, daughter and heires of Loretta the Callow (la Calue), to John Prior of the Hospital of St. Bartholomew, and the Brethren of the same of an annual rent of 6d. that her father and mother were wont to receive from the land of the Hyde near Gloucester. Witnesses: Henry the Draper, and Hugh the Clerk; Bailiffs: Philip the Spicer, Walter Seuarne; John the Draper.

#849. 1324-5, March 7. Surrender by Henry of Heyhampstude [Hampstead], lorimer, to the Prior and Brethren of the Hospital of St. Bartholomew of a piece of land pertaining to a tenement in Gloucester that they had demised to him for the term of his life, lying in the great sout street against the pillory. Witnesses: John of Cheddeworth, and Thomas of Foxcote, Baillifs: Andrew of Penedok; John of Northwych; Philip of Calewe; Nicholas of Longeneye, draper; Elias of Longeneye.

#919. 1344, March 28 - Release from Margery, daugher and heir of William of Aleynesmor’, late burgess of Gloucester, to William Ragonn, burgess of Gloucester, of her right in a messuage in Gloucester in Ayllesatestrete, anciently called ‘Juweryestret’, lying between the tenement of the late Adam Gamage and the tenement of the late John Jonkyn and Agnes his wife. Witnesses: Henry Draper & Hugh of Chiew, Bailiffs; John the Walsshe; William Crisp, ‘merchaunt’; Robert atte Caluwe; Walter Stout.

#932. 1347, April 12 - Grant from Agnes, widow of John, son of Philip of the Bothhalle, to Richard Shot, burgess of Gloucester, of 5s. of annual rent from her messuage in the suburb of Gloucester without the northgate between the lane called ‘Fetelone’ and the land of Dom. Richard Hornare, chaplain, extending from the King’s highway to the land called Monkeleyston. Witnesses: William of Kyngeshawe and Robert the Walour, Baillifs; John Cluet; William Ragon; Robert Attecalewe; William Bruyn; Edmund of Cheddeworth.

#972. 1360, October 2 - Demise from John the Callow (le Calwe), burgess of Gloucester, to William Brownying, Prior of the Sepulchre of St. Mary near Gloucester, and the Brethren of the same, of a shop in Gloucester in the street called “Southgatestrete,” in which Nicholas the Parker dwells, and which the said John holds of the said Prior and Brethren by the yearly service of 12s. The conditions of the demise are that the Prior and Brethren shall, within the space of a year, repair the said shop, and shall retain it until they have defrayed the costs of the rent of the said shop, which is then to revert to the said John at the same rent as he paid before. Witnesses: Thomas of Ledeb[ur]i & Thomas of Stoke, Bailiffs of Gloucester; Thomas of Monynton; Robert of Aston; Richard Wantynge.

The Taxpayers of Medieval Gloucestershire (An Analysis of the 1327 Lay Subsidy Roll with a New Edition of its Text); Peter Franklin.

Gloucester (Villa Gloucestr.)
South Ward (Warda Australis)
Philip la Calewe 3s.

Cleeve Hundred (Hundredum De Clyve)
Gotherington (Goderynton)
Matthew le Calewe 21 3/4d.

“Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucester Archealogical Society,” Vol. XI:

A Domestic Outrage in Gloucestershire
About the Year 1220
By Sir Henry Barkly, K.C.B., G. C.M..B.

On the Close Roll of 6th Henry the third is an entry, which, apparently, escaped the notice of Dugdale, although it throws light on the genealogy of the Baronial family of
Giffard, and supplies indeed the name of a lord of Brimpsfield, whom he omitted from the pedigree.
It is the transcript [Vide Appendix A.] of a mandate addressed on the 27th Decr., 1221, to the Sheriff of Gloucestershire, directing him to deliver his prisoner, Matilda, relict of Richard of Acton, to Elyas Giffard and Osbert Giffard of Brimpsfield, who together with William Earl Marischal, William Earl of Salisbury, Osbert Giffard of Norfolk, Gilbert Giffard, and Elyas de Cailloue, have bound themselves that she will, before Easter next, assume the habit of a black nun, or that of the Convent of Semperingham.
No hint is given of the offence she had committed, nor of her relationship to her manucaptors, but on turning to the Assize Roll for this county of nearly even date*, a clue will be found to the solution of both questions [*Vide “Pleas of the Crown for the county of Gloucester in 5 Hen. III., edited by F. W. Maitland - London, 1884.”] The learned Editor, who appends a Note expressing curiosity as “to what happened in the end to the heroine of this queer tale,” (p. 143) will, I am sure, be glad to have his attention invited to this entry on the Close Roll. There are, as usual, slight discrepancies in the names, but the identity of the two stories is unquestionable.
Under the head of “Hundred of Agmead,” [appendix B.] it is set forth in the Presentment of the (Grand) Jury, that “Richard Butler, of Acton, was wounded* in his own house, it is unknown by whom, although his wife Matilda accused William Rous, formerly his servant. On being examined, she states that she had gone to walk in the garden at night with her maid, whilst her husband was having his feet washed by her daughter Amice; that she heard a noise, and on going to the house door saw William and another man with swords drawn near her husband; that they ran after her; but she escaped, and hid herself until they went away; her maid, however, being caught and bound. [*He must have lingered long, for it is shown in the proceedings that his wife was summoned in vain to two county courts prior to his death.]
The jurors evidently disbelieved her story, denying that Richard ever had such a servant, and alleging that she and her husband were perpetually at strife, and that he sometimes beat her because he accused her of light behaviour; that she often went off to the house of her father Elyas de Colewey,* or to the house of of Robert Wayfer, who had married her aunt; and furthermore that the said Robert and William Wayfer** and John of Fuestone, often came to the house of the said Richard, bringing her back with them, and threatened the said Richard. [*According to Dugdale (Baronage, p. 499), Elyas de Caillewe was a brother of Elyas Giffard, who had assumed his mother’s surname. The later is variously spelt, but was, I take it, the original of the modern Cayley.] [**Would someone remind me where this Wayfer/Wayfir name shows up in another document?....SUW.]
Wherefore the jurors of Agmead firmly believe that the aforesaid William and John slew him by the counsel and wish of Matilda herself and bribed by her thereto. The jurors of Grumboldsash Hundred* concur in this opinion. [*Agmead Hundred was fined only one mark for this murder “qua parvum,” p. 121. It probably could not furnish a full Jury of Freeholders, and hence those Grumboldsash were called in. Eventually it merged in that Hundred.]
Judgment is thereupon deferred till one month after Michaelmas (that is till the King’s court sits at Westminister.).* Bail being meanwhile exacted for Amice, the daughter of the said Matilda. The reason of this last order is not very obvious. The girl can hardly have been suspected of complicity in her father’s murder, but she may possibly have given false evidence at her mother’s dictation. [*Mr. Maitland shews in a note that the Judges of Assize were directed to adjourn all difficult cases to Westminster, and observes that this was “loquela ardua” because Matilda would not submit to trial (p. 144).]
What became of the perpetrators of the outrage does not appear. Probably they were suffered to “abjure the realm,” and sought perchance to expiate their crime by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Matilda herself doubtless remained in the custody of the sheriff, though perhaps not committed to Gloucester goal till judgment was pronounced. In any case she is not likely to have been hardly dealt with, for the sheriff, Ralph Musard, was connected by marriage with her uncle.* Seclusion in a nunnery for the rest of her life was the severest punishment inflicted on her. Perhaps the severest such a woman could receive. [*According to the pedigree in Dugdale, Elyas Giffard had married Isabella Musard.]
The bearing of this case on the early administration of criminal justice I leave to be discussed by those more competent. It is well worthy of record, if only for the light it throws on the domestic life of the period. Looking at the high standing of the Giffard family, attested on this occasion by the fact that their co-sureties were: - the Earl Marischal, whose father, just deceased, had been Guardian of the Kingdom; and the Earl of Salisbury, the famous Longsword, son of King Henry II. by Rosamond Clifford; two of the chief nobles of England; it is impossible to come to any other conclusion than that the manners and customs of the English aristocracy at the time were coarse and brutal; such in fact as would now be deemed disgraceful in the lowest class of the community.

Appendix A. is (in Latin) Rotulus Litterarum Clausarum - anni sexti Henr’i tercii-prima pars, memb. 16. [which I will not type here - but we have a xerox copy.....SUW].
There is a reference to “Sempringham,” “a Gilbertine Priory in Lincolnshire, founded by Gilbert de Gaunt in 1139 ‘as a new model of religious life’ and doubtless stricter in rule than most nunneries.”

Appendix B. (in Latin) is Hundredum de Aggemede, No. 111 (which I will also not type here, but refer to the xerox copy....SUW].

“Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucester Archaelogical Society,” Vol. 14 (for the year 1899-90).
pp. 32-34. [an article about the Le Brun family property]
12. From Adam Kaily and Thoms de Gardinis, for one knight’s fee in Side and Gardino, of the fief of John le Brun, 40s.
The Manor of Side, in Rapsgate Hundred, which had belonged at Domesday to Ansfrid de Cormeilles, continued in the possession of his descendant, Walter de Cormeilles, during the reign of John (fn2). Upon the partition of the Barony among Walter’s three daughters in 1218, it must have gone to Richard le Brun (fn3) who [p. 33] had married the second, and from him descended to his son the above-named John. The Kaily family--its sub-tenants--were feoffees of the Giffards in Wiltshire, (fn1) and had inter-married with them on several occasions. Adam, though apparently only a cadet, had obtained the land of one of the daughters of Richard Giffard, and succeeded in her right, on the death of Osbert her brother, to this sub-enfeoffment in Side, as well as to an interest in lands in other counties (fn2).
The association of his name with that of Thomas Gardinis in this Return, can mean no more than that the combined holdings of the two made up the knight’s service for which their overlord was answerable. There was certainly no connection between the manors named, as shown by their appearing in Kirby’s Quest under distinct headings, the half fee in Side being then held by (p. 34) Simon de Caly (fn1), under Simon de Crome, and that in Duntisborne and in “Gardino,” by Thomas de Gardinis, jointly with Henry de Lega--in both cases of John le Brun, son of the preceding John........etc.

Footnotes:
p. 32. fn2. Vide Trans. Bristol and Glouc. Arch. Society, Vol. XII, p. 253. This effectually disposes of Sir Robert Atkyns’ assertion that “Side came soon after the Conquest” to the Giffards of Brimpsfield; although it will be seen from what follows that a scion of that House was sub-enfeoffed therein before the close of the 12th century, presumably through marriage with a daughter of the House of Cormeilles.
fn3. Not as Fosbroke suggests, to Hugh Giffard, the husband of the eldest, neither of whose sons inherited an acre in Side.

p. 33. fn1. Elyas de Kailleway appears in the Wilts Returns (Testa de Nevill, pp. 142 and 157) as joint holder of four fees under Elyas Giffard (IV), whose sister Berta he had married; two of them are said to be in Kaillewent, which looks as if the name were of territorial origin, though the “de” is often omitted. Perhaps it was derived from “Caillou,” a flint, as it is occasionally spelt so. The spelling in fact was so various,--even sometimes in the same document, that no conclusion can be come to.
fn2. This information is derived principally from Bracton’s recently published Note Book. In No. 1717, A. D. 1226, Oxon., Osbert Giffard calls Elyas Giffard (IV) to warrant a fee which the latter’s grandfather Elyas (III) had given to his nephew Richard Giffard (presumably the Justice Itinerant of the reign of Hen. II.) which fee seems to have been made over by Richard’s son Osbert, to Adam de Kaylli and his wife Mabilia. In No. 671, A. D. 1231, Kent, Warin de Montcheney claims and obtains the homage of Adam de Kaylli and Mabilia, as well as that of Matilda Giffard, and of Isabella de Freville, in respect to a fee in that county; the two former ladies pleading that it had been granted to their father, Richard Giffard, and had come to them on the decease of their brother Osbert. The third, Isabella de Freville, is shown by a reference in Dugdale’s Baronage (Vol. I, p. 501), to have been the widow of this Osbert (and not, consequently, I may add, of the Osbert supposed by him, who did not die until 1247 (Cal. Geneal., p. 28). We are thus enabled to comprehend the entry on the Close Roll of 15th Hen. III, quoted by Fosbroke, as to a suit brought by Ralph de Wylington and Olimpias his wife, against the same defendants, with the addition of the Prior of Lanthony, with regard to their tenancy of three hides of land in Side. This was the extent of the whole manor at Domesday, and it may be inferred that Adam de Kaylii and his wife (called in the Close Roll Matilda, probably a mistake for Mabilia) became seized of it after the death of her sister, and of her father’s widow, since we find that in 1255 Matilda Kaylli passed a fine of half a knight’s fee in Syde, and of the fourth of a fee in Stoke Giffard and Brimpsfield, in favour of one Adam de Crumbe, on condition of his paying her 100s. and undertaking the services required of her by John Giffard and John le Brun (Pedes Finium, Glouc., 39th Henry III, No. 420). There seems no means of deciding whether this Matilda was the widow, or daughter, of Adam de Kaylli. The tenancy of Side by Simon de Caley in 1285, would be more easily accounted for on the former supposition, but it seems odd if she had a son that she should have sold the superiority of the lands.

p. 34. fn1. The way in which Side shortly after this date became the property of the Giffards of Brimpsfield is not altogether clear. In the General Inquisitions as to their Heirs, taken in 1st Edw. III. (Cal. Inq. p.m., No. 84), it is stated positively that the manor was purchased from Adam Cayley by John Giffard, senior, and settled on his third wife, Margaret Nevill. This marriage cannot have taken place later than 1286, as her son, the second John Giffard, was born on Midsummer day in that year (Calend. Geneal., p. 28) but the settlement may hve been post nuptial, and made at any time before her husband’s death in 1299. The difficulty is that, as has been shown, Adam had then been dead between thirty and forty years, and it can only, I think, be solved by assuming that the jurors of 1326, after the lapse of nearly as long a period, had forgotten that the christian name of the vendor was in reality Simon. That juries were by no means infallible is evident, for in one of the two Inquisitions as to Side, in this very escheat, it is affirmed that the manor was held of John de Crome, whilst in the other John Giffard is said to have held it “in demesne as of fee” on the day he died. In neither case is any allusion made to the overlordship of John le Brun, which had evidently ceased to be more than nominal. Perhaps the motive of the latter declaration was, that Side, having been made over by Margaret Nevill (who still survived) to her unfortunate son, had been confiscated after his execution in 1322, and granted by the crown successively to Hugh le Despenser, John Maltravers, and Thomas de Berkeley. The last named continued in 1346 to hold it as half a fee, but, strange to say, his predecessor (c. 32nd Edw. I.) is called Robert de Kailly, showing how loose and perfunctory was the record of christian names in such documents.

p. 141. ”PYCHENECUMBE”
Abstracts of Original Documents in the Registers of the Abbey of St. Peter, Gloucester.
Communicated by The Rev. John Melland Hall, M. A.

[NOTE: Pitchcombe is in the parish of Standish, and apparently the property of several families including the le Brets (name spelled variously Bret, Bryt, Birt). The only reference of interest is the name of John de Caillewe in a list of witnesses to the series of documents in regards to Pitchcombe, etc, covering the years 1294 to 1329. Strangely, though, is a chart at the end of this article implying that John de Caillewe was the son of an unnamed sister of Walter le Bret.

TABLE OF DESCENT.

Richard le Bret = Eva.................
“de Pynchecumbe” |
|
|
______________________________________________
| |
Walter le Bret = Nicholla, da. of Sir William |
| Maunsel, of Lypiatt Manor .............................
| |
| John de Caillewe,
| “nephew of Walter
_________________________________ le Bret,” living 1329
| |
Thomas “de Holecombe” = Alice Juliana.
or “le Bret”
(dead in 1311, v. No. 368)


p. 328. SEVENHAMPTON
By The Rev. John Melland Hall, M. A.
Rector of Harescombe with Pitchcombe

[It is mentioned] in the Domesday Survey of 1086 that Sevenhampton is a portion of lands appertaining to the Church of Hereford, and in connection with Prestbury, with which, as it was in a different Hundred, it would appear to have become in some manner incorporated.
It is recorded ----
“In Cheltenham Hundred, the bishop of Hereford holds Presteberie”.......etc.
“To his manor is adjoined a Ville Sevenhamtone outside this hundred (of Cheltenham).

[This article goes on to give a detailed account of the manor of Sevenhampton.. Some records, c1289+, are of interest]:
The Household Roll of the same prelate (Richard Swinfield), published by the Camden Society, contains many interesting particulars. We have a picture of 13th century life presented to us -- Christmas was to be kept at Prestbury. Robert Calewe, a servant, had been sent from Bosbury, another of the bishop’s manors, to superintend the burning of charcoal, and a great brewing of ale. Calewe was assisted by hired female brewers, and the malt, we learn, was a mixture of wheat, barley and oats.........................etc.


“Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucester Archaelogical Society.” Vol. 65 ( for the year 1944), pp. 105- 28.

THE GIFFARDS OF BRIMSFIELD
by J. N. Langston

One of the knights who accompanied William the Conqueror to England was Walter Giffard, lord of Longueville in Normandy, who provided 30 vessels and 100 men towards the invading force. Although progenitor of a race from which sprang some of the noblest families in England, very little is known authoritatively about Walter’s own family. He is the first known person bearing the name of ‘Giffard’ (from the Old French gifard, meaning ‘bloated.’), though it is unlikely that he was the original recipient of the soubriquet as others similarly called were his contemporaries, and it therefore appears that the Norman nickname of some ancestor had already come to be a family name. Walter had been asked to act at the battle of Hastings as William’s standard bearer whose duty it was to ride beside the duke, bearing aloft his gonfanon or pennon, but he pleaded to be excused the honour as he was too old and feeble, although he nevertheless felt bound to lead his own men-at-arms into action. Among these were probably other members of the Giffard family, including Osbern the founder of the Brimpsfield branch of the Giffards, for in an Assize Roll for 1221 Elias Giffard claimed that his ancestor Osbert Giffard came to England at the Conquest. As Osbern is not mentioned by any of the chroniclers and his name occurs only in Domesday Book, there is no direct evidence as to his paternity, but he was doubtless a younger son of Walter, and would have been named after his grandfather, Osbern de Bolbec, whose wife Avelina was a sister of Gunnora, wife of Richard, Duke of Normandy, and in this way he would have been a cousin of William Fitz-Osbern and of the Conqueror himself.
As a reward for his services, OSBERN GIFFARD obtained a grant of the lands in Gloucestershire which had belonged to a Saxon thane called Dunne or Duns, comprising three manors in Brimpsfield, Rockhampton near Thornbury, and Stoke (Stoche in Domesday Book, Stoke Elye Giffardi in 1221, Stokes Giffard in 1243, now Stoke Gifford). At the time of the Survey of 1086, he was also holding a hide of land in Oldbury on the Hill, though he had to relinquish this as the county jury found that it had not belonged to Duns whose land Osbern had. He had also acquired two manors in Sherrington, Wilts., and eight other manors, while he held, under the Bishop of Winchester, four hides of Itchington, as well as two hides in Condicot, Glos. In 1086, the abbey of St. Stephen at Fontenay in Normandy was holding of Osbern two hides and a virgate in Middleton, probably by his gift, and this was augmented soon after by a donation of land at Brimpsfield upon which the monks established a cell or priory. The manor of Brimpsfield, which was the most extensive of the three manors in the county and included Cranham at the date of the Survey, had been held by Osbern’s predecessor under Earl Harold in the time of Edward the Confessor. It was taxed at nine hides --about 2000 acres -- and was farmed with 15 ploughs, 3 of which were used for the lord’s land. It yielded £12 to the king.
By 1096, ELIAS GIFFARD had succeeded his father Osbern, as in that year he gave part of his wood at Buckholt with 3 bordars to St. Peter’s abbey at Gloucester, and William II confirmed the gift. In 1121, Elias, together with his wife Ala and his son Elias, granted to the monks, by deed which they laid upon the altar, their land in Buckholt, the woods and the plains estimated at half a hide and half a yardland, free from all services to the king, and discharged of all other customs except danegeld to the king.
This son, ELIAS GIFFARD II, in 1130 rendered account of 100 marks of silver for the relief of his father’s lands. The ‘caput’ of the Honour was in Wilts., of 9 fees, including Brimpsfield and Rockhampton. The Pipe Roll has a mysterious entry: ‘the same Elias accounts for £10 for the money of the Bishop of Durham [Ralph Flamberd], which the daughter of Geoffrey the Bishop’s brother paid him’. About three years earlier he had married Berta, sister of Walter de Clifford and daughter of Richard FitzPonce, and acquired with her considerable possessions. In the time of abbot Hameline (therefore between 1148 and 1162) he gave to St. Peter’s abbey, for the soul’s health of Berta his wife and his ancestors, the church of St. Mary, Boyton, and the church of St. George, Orcheston, with the chapel of St. Andrew, Winterburne, in Wilts., with the lands, tithes, meadows, pastures, ways, paths, and whatsoever appertained to the said churches, saving the tenure of the church of Finctenay. Winterburne is now Elston. The former name was still retained in 1242 when Elias Giffard IV held the manor, but in 1299 it was called Wynterborne Elistone (after Elias), and in 1316 it became simply Eliston. Elias was present in the abbey chapter house on 15 December, 1157, when the Archbishop of York and the abbot settled a long-standing dispute between them concerning Standish and other manors. He was also a benefactor of the priory of Llanthony by Gloucester, dedicated in 1137. While his wife was still living, and with her consent, he gve Cranham to St. Peter’s, and entered the abbey as a monk.
His son, ELIAS GIFFARD III, appears to have succeeded his father in 1162, and in 1166 he owed £100, the fine for his land. In 1167 he and his mother Berta persuaded the abbot of Gloucester to restore Cranham to them which his father had given them when he was made a monk, and in exchange they gave to the abbey 8 libratae of land in Ullingswick, Hfds. Berta also gave certain lands there on which her husband had built at his own charge. About 1180 Elias made a grant to the lepers of St. Sepulchre, near Gloucester, for the souls of his father and mother and for the health of his own soul, of one horse-load of wood daily in winter, i.e from the feast of All Hallows (1 November) to the feast of the Holy Cross (3 May), and three cart-loads weekly in summer from his wood of Brimpsfield. Among the witnesses to this gift were his two brothers, Walter and Gilbert, both of whom gave land in 1186 to St. Peter’s. Walter granted and confirmed to the monks of Gloucester the church of Boyton with all its appurtenances, with half a hide of land in the same vill, and the tithes of the whole vill, with a building for 8 oxen, 1 beast, and 122 sheep; and all the tithes of the vill, both of the demesne lands and of the tenant lands, and of all things of which good christians ought to pay tithe. But later on, Elias laid claim to the church of Boyton,and Abbot Carbonell, for the sake of peace, granted him the church of Orcheston with the chapel of Winterburne, reserving the church of Boyton. Walter also entered into an agreement with Abbot Carbonell providing that two-thirds of all the land in Ullingswick should remain to the abbey, but that the other third, with the advowson of the church and the mansion house, should belong to Walter.
Elias died before Michaelmas, 1190, when William de Mareschall owed 140 marks for the custody of his lands. By his wife Maud, daughter of Morice fitzRobert, fitzHardinge of Berkeley, he had three sons, Elias, Osbert, and Gilbert, and a daughter Berta, while another son may have been the Thomas who accounted in 1195 for the king’s ransom and who must have died soon afterwards.
ELIAS GIFFARD IV was still a minor in the guardianship of William Marshall in 1201-2, for while the Pipe Roll of 3 John shows him in arrear for the 3rd scutage of Richard I and owing 20s. for the scutage of Wales and 18 marks for that of Scotland, a note added after the last entry states that ‘William Marshall, who has the lands of the said Elias in custody, has an acquittance by writ from Geoffrey fitzPeter’. In the Testa de Nevill (of an earlier date than 1213) the Gloucestershire return gives Elias Giffard as owing for Brimpsfield and Rockhampton and all his other tenements, 9 knight’s fees, but this is merely a formal mention as the larger portion was situated in Wilts., and the Pipe Roll for that county for 1211-12 records the payment by Elias in respect of the 9 fees.
It has been supposed that this Elias was son of Thomas above-mentioned, and therefore grandson of Elias III, but an Assize Roll records that in 1221 Elias IV claimed an Elias as his father. In 1210, Elias was in Ireland with king John’s army, but a few years later he and his brother Osbert took up arms with the barons against the king. Elias being taken prisoner, the king seized Brimpsfield castle, and in 1216 sent writs to the sheriffs of the counties of Wilts., Gloucester, Somerset and Dorset, Oxford and Northampton, ordering them to seize all lands belonging to Elias as they had been bestowed upon Bartholomew Peche. In the same year, the two brothers were among the barons excommunicated by the pope for taking part in the rebellion. After John’s death in October of that year, both brothers gave allegiance to the young king Henry III, just crowned at Gloucester, and on 11 March, 1217, the sheriff of Gloucester was ordered to deliver to Elias seisin of his lands as he had returned to his fidelity to the king. In 1221 the abbot of Gloucester complained that Elias had erected a gallows and was hanging his own men at Brimpsfield to the detriment of the abbot. About 1230 Elias gave his land of Grofuge in Brimpsfield to his kinsman Nicholas of Caleway, who thereupon bestowed the land upon St. Bartholomew’s Hospital at Gloucester.
On 27 December 1221 a mandate was sent to the sheriff of Gloucester concerning Matilda widow of Richard of Acton, a prisoner in his custody. William Earl Marshall, William Earl of Salisbury, Osbert Giffard of Norfolk, Elyas Giffard, Gilbert Giffard, Osbert Giffard of Brimpsfield, and Elyas de Cailloe, having bound themselves that Matilda would, before the following Easter, assume the habit of a black nun or that of the convent of Sempringham, the sheriff was ordered to deliver his prisoner to the said Elyas Giffard and Osbert Giffard of Brimpsfield. The sordid story of Matilda’s married life -- the continual strife between her and her husband who sometimes beat her because of her light behavaiour, and her committal for trial on the charge of counselling and bribing an unknown assailant who mortally wounded her husband -- is told by Sir Henry Barkly in Trans. B.G.A.S., vol. xi, 331-5. The evidence shows that Matilda was the wife of Richard Butler of Acton and daughter of Elyas de Colewey who (says a footnote) was stated in Dugdale’ Baronage to be a brother of Elyas Giffard who had taken his mother’s surname. Actually, Elias de Caylewe or Kayllweye was the husband of Berta, the sister of Elias and Osbert Giffard. Further, Sir Henry wrongly assumed that the mention of ‘Osbert Giffard of Brimpsfield’ in the mandate implied that he was lord of Brimpsfield, whereas Elias was undoubtedly then the lord , so that his brother Osbert can only have been described as ‘of Brimpsfield’ simply to distinguish him from the other Osbert ‘of Norfolk.’
Osbert married Isabel, daughter and heiress of Sir Alan de Bocland, and a son, Osbert or Osbern of Winterborne Houghton, was born to them 10 June 1234. It should be pointed out that it was another Osbert Giffard who married Isabel de Frivelle. In 1221 William Pictavensis granted to Osbert, brother of Elias Giffard, all his land of Syde, Glos., in fee for 60 marks and a horse worth 6 marks. Six years later, Osbert Giffard of Norfolk owed Osbert Giffard of Brimpsfield 60 marks for a quitclaim of the manor of Syde. In 1223 Osbert had a grant to sustain himself in the king’s service of the land that Ralph of Vernay had of the grant of king John in the demesne of King’s Barton without Gloucester. In 1227 Osbert sued Thomas de Berkeley to carry out an agreement by which he promised to grant to Osbert his nephew the reversion of the land of Forscote, expectant on the death of Lucy, late the wife of Robert de Berkeley, who held the same in dower. About the same year, Osbert granted to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital all his land in the manor of Brimpsfield, which consisted of two virgates in Hulletmead, in order to sustain one of the brothers as a chaplain to celebrate divine service for the souls of William de Bruere (d. 1226) and of Elias and Maud his parents, as well as for his own soul and that of Isabel his wife. His brother Elias, as lord of Brimpsfield, confirmed this gift for the health of his own soul and the souls of Isabel and Alice and Isoude his wives. In 1229 Eliaas gave to Osbert his brother the manor and advowson of Winterborne to hold at farm, the king confirming the grant on 11 May. He also gave Osbert on 4 October three virgates of land in Gillingham in fee. In 1229 and 1231 Osbert Giffard of Brimpsfield accounted for the farm of Pitchcombe, 60s. a year, as from 1228; and on 3 February 1230 the king gave Osbert 22s. (sic) of rent and a carucate of land in Pitchcombe rendering therefor 5s. a year by the hand of the sheriff of Gloucester. Osbert died shortly before 17 October 1237, and in 1239 Thomas de Berkeley claimed from Isabel Giffard the custody of the lands and the heir of Osbert because the latter had held of him by military service.
Elias Giffard died shortly before 2 May 1248 leaving a son and heir, John, by his second wife Alice, sister of Sir John Mautravers of Lychet-Matravers in Dorset, who had given the manor of Ashton (Ashtone Giffard in 1354, now Ashton Giffard) and the advowson of the church of St. Peter at Codford in Wilts., to Elias in free marriage with Alice his sister, to hold to them and the heirs of their bodies by the service of a knight’s fee. It was found by inquisition held after his death that Elias also held the manor of Winterburne of the king in chief, ‘as the head of his barony,’ and the manor of Sherrington ‘pertaining to that barony.’
JOHN GIFFARD was aged 16, or 16 and more, when he succeeded his father in 1248. The proof of age is defective though it states that he was born on St. Wulstan’s day (19 January). During his minority, the queen had the guardianship of his lands. He was the famous soldier of the Baron’s war, and is constantly described as a valiant and skilful soldier as well as a prudent and discreet man. He apparently commenced his military career at the early age of 14, for it is said that he took part in Henry III’s expeditions into Wales in 1246 and the two following years. He was summoned for military service during the 42 years from 18 July 1257, to 7 March 1299, the year of his death. It is thought that he may have been attached to the household of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. At all events, when, at the end of April 1263, the earl led the barons in revolt against the king with the object of driving out the foreigners who filled most of the offices in the country, Giffard joined the movement and became a prominent leader. He helped to ravage the lands of Roger Mortimer, and later (11 June) was one of a band of knights who attacked the bishop of Hereford (the Savoyard Peter d’Aigueblanch), a royal partisan. Giffard, with his kinsman Roger Clifford, Humphrey de Bohun the ‘Good Earl’ of Hereford, the young Gilbert de Clare earl of Gloucester, and others, seized the bishop at the altar, dragged him out of his cathedral church, and imprisoned him with his Savoyard canons in the Clifford castle of Eardisley. For this act, the archbishop of Canterbury was ordered by papal mandate dated 20 February 1264, to excommunicate the offenders until they made amends.
Giffard is next found actively engaged in Gloucester, where the barons had refused to recognize the king’s appointment of a French knight, Maci de Besile, to be sheriff of Gloucestershire and Constable of Gloucester castle, and had chosen instead a county knight, William de Tracy, in opposition to him. When Tracy attempted to exercise the duties of his office, Besile left the castle at the head of a large body of the king’s forces, went to the court where his rival was sitting, forced his way up to the dais, and seizing Tracy by his hair, dragged him through the muddy streets to the castle and threw him into prison. Thereuppon, Roger Clifford and John Giffard laid siege to the castle. They quickly burnt the outer gate and destroyed the wooden bridge leading to the castle, but were unable to make further progress until another entrance was opened to them by some prisoners in the castle who had been imprudently released. This compelled Besile and his men to retire tot he high and strongest tower, where they continued to put up a stout defence. Eventually the besiegers forced the three iron gates and locks, and so took the castle after a siege lasting four days. Even then Besile fought on and refused to surrender, but he was finally secured and sent as a prisoner to Eardisley castle. Giffard, after taking revenge upon a carpenter, who had shot one of his squires, by forcing him to leap from the top of the castle to a miserable death, proceeded to raid Besile’s manor of Sherston in Wilts., and drove all the live stock found there to his own castle of Brimpsfield.
The barons speedily gained supremacy in the west, and on 21 July 1263, the king and Edward his son yielded to the forces arrayed against them and accepted the barons’ terms. Most of the barons, including the earl of Hereford, John Giffard and Roger Clifford, then returned to the king’s allegiance. The last-named delivered up the town and castle of Gloucester to the king, and was appointed by the advice of the magnates of the council, keeper of the castle of St. Briavels and Warden of the Forest of Dean during the king’s pleasure; and in the same month he was among those who made a treaty with the king’s son, the agreement being dated at Lambeth on the Saturday after the Assumption of the Virgin (18 August). Exactly a month later, he received a pardon for all trespasses committed by reason of non-observance of the Provisions of Oxford, while on Christmas Eve he was made joint keeper of the counties of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford. An original document relating to the expenditure of Kingswood abbey during the mid-summer term of 1263 records a payment of £10 to John Giffard and also one of 5s. in expenses of the abbot at Gloucester when he spoke with J. Giffard.
At the beginning of 1264 Montfort resumed hostilities against the crown with the support of the earls of Gloucester and Hereford, John Giffard, and others. Giffard, who had retired to Brimpsfield, was speedily on the warpath and made frequent sorties into Gloucester at the head of his vassals, and had many skirmishes with the royal forces. When the Constable ordered him to attend a Hundred court at Quedgeley, he answered the summons by audaciously appearing with an armed band, and after killing some, dispersed the remainder of the Constable’s men. His next exploit was to take the town of Gloucester by means of a very artful ruse. He and another county knight, John de Balun, wearing long Welsh cloaks and riding upon two wool-packs, approached the west gate, and the porters, taking them for ordinary wool merchants, opened the gates and admitted them into the town. Once inside, they leaped from the horses, threw aside their cloaks, and appeared in complete armour before the astonished and frightened porters, who incontinently yielded up the keys and fled. The two knights opened the gates and the barons’ army, headed by Simon de Montfort and his son Henry, entered the town. They then began a siege of the castle which was still held by the king’s forces. Meanwhile, on Ash Wednesday (5 March) prince Edward reached the outskirts of the town but found his progress checked by the destruction of the bridge over the river Severn. This he quickly repaired, and began an attack upon the town at the West gate. Troops were dispatched from the castle to his assistance but he was unable to make any advance. At length, the Prince turned aside into the meadows and, seizing a ship belonging to the abbot of Tewkesbury which was lying in the river, he was able to cross over and enter the castle unbeknown to the besiegers, who only discovered the fact from seeing the prince’s banner displayed on one of the castle towers. Giffard, however, continued his attack on the castle on the town side in spite of the garrison’s strong defence, and eventually he broke in by the adjoining wall of the abbot’s orchard which had been left undefended, and set fire to the castle. The position of the inmates was now precarious. Their communication with the county having been cut, and being aware of the near approach of Robert Ferrars, earl of Derby, with a large force to augment the besiegers, the beleaguered garrison would soon have been compelled to surrender, but prince Edward daringly left the castle and, visiting his enemies unarmed, had a private conference with them. Later a truce was arrived at through the mediation of the bishop of Worcester and the abbot of Gloucester, and upon the prince granting upon oath their demands, the barons withdrew and left the town in his possession. One of the conditions imposed upon the prince was that he should do no injury to the burgesses, but no sooner had the barons withdrawn than the prince broke his oath and unscrupulously wreaked his vengeance on the unfortunate townsmen whom he compelled to pay a fine of £1,000 while he hanged the luckless porters who had allowed Giffard and de Balun to gain admittance. Robert of Gloucester, a monk of St. Peter’s abbey, who chronicled these events and wrote as a contemporary if not an actual eye-witness, relates that one of these porters was named ‘Hobekin of Lodelawe.’
Giffard’s defection caused the king, prince Edward and Hugh the Bigod to issue a mandate on 28 March 1624, ordering him on his fealty and homage to deliver up St. Briavels castle and the Forest of Dean to William Wike, a canon of Llanthony priory by Gloucester, to keep for the king’s use. The order was handed to the canon to take to Giffard but the latter simply ignored it.
In April, while Governor of Kenilworth, Giffard surprised and destroyed Warwick castle and took the earl and countess prisoners. In the following month, he was at the battle of Lewes where he was taken prisoner early in the day and imprisoned in the castle, though he had already shown his prowess by capturing William la Zuche. He was released at the end of the day, for the barons proved victorious and the king and his son were taken prisoners leaving earl Simon the real ruler of England for more than a year. When it came to sharing the spoils, earl Gilbert and Giffard quarrelled with Montfort concerning the ransom of Richard, king of the Romans, and other captives taken in the battle. Trouble also arose over a tournament arranged to be held at Dunstaple on 16 February 1265, by Montfort’s sons, when earl Gilbert intended to hold the lists against them. Montfort intervened and forbade the encounter and ordered Gilbert and Giffard to attend a council on the morrow of Ash Wednesday (19 February). Taking offence at this assumption of authority, the two deserted Montfort and joined the king’s party.
After Easter, Montfort (with his royal prisoners) advanced upon Gloucester and entered the town without resistance. Earl Gilbert was then encamped in a forest to the south of the town, and Giffard kindled a fire on a hill called Erdland as a signal to the prince that friends were near. Towards the middle of May, Montfort left Glocester to subdue those barons of the Welsh marches, including Roger Mortimer, still in arms against him. He took with him the king and prince, but at Hereford on 28 May the prince eluded his captors by means of a simple stratagem and a swift horse and escaped to Mortimer at Wigmore castle where he was joined a few days later by the earl of Gloucester. Montfort remained at Hereford until 13 June when he decided to adhere to his original plan after despatching a detachment of 300 men-at-arms under Robert de Ros to hold Gloucester, the main passage over the Severn and his means of communication with London. The delay however had enabled his enemies to band together, and after taking Bridgnorth and Worcester, they proceeded on 13 and 14 June to Gloucester and laid siege to it. The town quickly fell, and the castle, lacking sufficient provisions, was able to hold out only for 15 days. Meanwhile the prince had already sent a strong detachment, led by John Giffard, to hold the line of the Wye as a covering force for the besiegers of Gloucester, and Giffard occupied a strongly fortified position commanding Monmouth bridge. Montfort had captured the castle of Monmouth, one of de Clare’s chief strongholds, but reconnaissance having convinced him that he could not evict Giffard with his small force, he turned westward. The prince and de Clare, now holding all the bridges on the lower Severn, advanced with their main body to join up with Giffard’s detachment, but Montfort effected a crossing higher up the river on 2 August, and two days later the opposing armies clashed at the battle of Evesham when Montfort was killed with hundreds of his supporters. Giffard, in consideration of his services at the battle, was pardoned on 9 October 1265, for his adherence to earl Simon at the earlier battle of Lewes and for all later trespasses committed by him up to that date. Subsequently he received a similar pardon for offences up to 10 March 1268.
On 9 February 1266, Giffard was again ordered to deliver up the castle of St. Briavels and the Forest of Dean, but this time to prince Edward. During his custody of the Forest, Giffard had failed, apparently, to present any accounts, and it is recorded that the damage done to the king’s woods there under Giffard and Thomas de Clare was assessed at the enormous sum of £2,368 lls. In the Forest Eyre of 1270 Giffard was held responsible for the damage done in Abenhall bailiwick by Ralph of Abenhall with his permission, and he was required to find the sum of £1218, but he was subsequently forgiven the debt.
Up to this date, Giffard had apparently been too engrossed in military matters to trouble about marriage, although he had been affianced at the age of 4 years to Aubrey de Caunville (who was about the same age), a daughter of Thomas de Caunville of Arrow, co. Warwick, and a descendant of Aubrey Marmion, Lady of Arrow, wife of William de Caunville. The marriage, which had been contracted at Arrow, never took place, and Aubrey, probably through choice rather than disappointment, found solace in the religious life at Polesworth where she was afterwards elected abbess about December 1276. Giffard’s first matrimonial venture was made in 1271 at the age of 39 in circumstances characteristic of the man. No thought of conventional wooing entered the mind of the seasoned warrior, nor would he be troubled with the ordinary negotiations preceding marriage. He simply seized the woman of his choice, carried her off willy-nilly, and immured her in his stronghold. The victim was Maud Lungespee who had been a widow for 15 years, her husband, Sir William Lungespee, a son of the earl of Salisbury, having died at the end of 1256. Maud was the daughter and heiress of Sir William de Clifford of Clifford, co. Hereford, by Margaret, daughter of Llywelyn ab Icwerth, prince of North Wales, and widow of John de Brewes. Maud complained to the king that John Giffard had abducted her from her manor of Canford in Dorset, and taken her against her will to his castle at Brimpsfield and there detained her. In response to a summons Giffard appeared before the king, when he professed himself ready to prove that he did not forcibly abduct Maud as she was willing though coy, and he offered to pay a fine of 300 marks for the marriage already contracted, as he said, between them (though without the royal consent) provided she made no further complaint against him. The king influenced by the persuasive bribe, was not unwilling to condone the outrage, though to save his face he ordered on 10 March that if Maud was not content, the fine should be void and John must stand his trial at a month from Easter. Apparently on second thoughts, Maud considered it wise to accept her compromising position. She explained that she was too unwell to appear before the king, and when he sent commissioners to inquire into the truth of the matter and certify him of the result, she evidently withdrew her complaint, for nothing more is heard of the business, and the couple lived amicably together until Maud’s death nearly 11 years later. There were four daughters of this union, Catherine born 1272 who became the wife of Sir Nicholas Daudeley or Dauditheley; Alinore born 1275 who married Sir Fulk Lestraunge (Lord Lestraunge); Maud born 1277 who in June, 1299, married William de Joinville or Geneville; and Elizabeth who died unmarried. The first three are named in 1299 as their mother’s heirs, together with another daughter Margaret, countess of Lincoln, by William Lungespee.
John Giffard was one of the commissioners empowered 24 April 1274, to make a truce at the ford of Montgomery in a month from Easter between Llywelyn ab Gruffyd, prince of Wales, and Humphrey de Bohun of Brecknock. Before the battle of Lewes, prince Edward had captured the Bohun castles of Huntington and Hay, and thence penetrated into Brecknock which was taken from Humphrey. Later, the latter took up arms to regain his possessions and commenced hostilities against Llywelyn. In 1272 the king had announced his readiness to see that redress was given for any act of violence on the part of Humphrey, and two years later sent envoys to Llywelyn to arrange the truce above-mentioned.
On 6 November 1281, Giffard had licence to hunt wolves, with his own hounds, throughout the king’s forests in England. In the following year he took a prominent part in the expedition against Llywelyn, and was appointed keeper of the castle of Llandovery, 9 April 1282, and of the castle of Builth, 14 October following. In November Llywelyn appeared in the highlands of Builth with the object of capturing the castle defended by Giffard and a body of Shropshire levies. During a conflict on 11 December at Orewin bridge on the Irfon near Builth, which resulted in a victory for the English forces led by John Giffard and Edmund de Mortimer under the immediate command of Roger Lestraunge, the last prince of Wales of the native line was slain by a lance.
In 1283 John Giffard, for the health of his soul and that of his late wife Maud Lungespee who had died early in the previous year, founded a cell at Oxford for young Benedictine monks from Gloucester abbey, for which purpose he purchased from the prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England certain lands and tenements in Stockwell street amid the water meadows in the northwest suburb of the town which had at one time been a residence of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester. This was the earliest monastic house established in Oxford, and abbot Reginald Hamme was introduced into it by the founder on the feast of St. John the Evangelist (27 December), while 13 students from the abbey took up residence there under a prior chosen from amongst the Gloucester brethren. Giffard endowed the house with the revenues of the church of Chipping Norton, each monk to have 15 marks a year. When, in 1298, the first student attained the degree of Doctor of Divinity, abbot Reginald was present at the inception with his monks, priors, officers, clerks, esquires, and other men of rank to the number of 100 horses. In a few years, the cell developed into a Benedictine college, and after chapters of the Order held in 1290 and 1291 had sanctioned an enlargement of the scheme to which the founder had agreed, the house was thrown open to all Benedictine students in the southern province, and soon all the famous abbeys of the Order were represented there, including Malmesbury, St. Albans, Westminster, Winchcombe, Canterbury, and Glastonbury. Later, Malmesbury claimed special rights over the college by virtue of a grant of the property obtained by the abbot from John Giffard in his declining years. Until 1540 this house was called Gloucester College or Gloucester Hall, and its site is now occupied by Worcester College, though the original name is still preserved in a nearby open space known as Gloucester Green.
John married for the second time in 1286, and again chose a widow who brought with her considerable possessions--Margaret Neville, whose first husband Sir John de Neville had died in May 1282, holding several manors in Essex. On 9 May 1285, the bishop of Hereford had sent a letter to the pope praying for a dispensation for this marriage as Giffard and the lady Margaret de Neville were related in the 3rd-4th degrees of consanguinity. The papal mandate to the bishop to make inquiry and to grant a dispensation if expedient was dated 14 March 1285, and the bishop found by inquisition held at Bishops Frome on 10 July that there was no impediment to the marriage. Giffard settled on his new bride the manor of Side, which he had purchased from his kinsman Simon Cayley or Caleway, who was returned in Kirby’s Quest, c. 1284, as holding half a fee in the vill of Side of Simon de Crome. There were two sons of this marriage, John the heir, and Edmund.
On 6 February 1292, Giffard obtained letters patent empowering him to alienate the advowson of Stoke Gifford church in mortmain to the prior and convent of Little Malvern. John Giffard, knight, was returned in Kirby’s Quest as holding one knight’s fee in Stoke Gifford of the bishop of Worcester who held in chief. He was also holding a half-fee in Rockhampton of the king in chief and another half-fee in Horfield of Thomas de Berkeley.
On 8 February 1290, the king granted Giffard for life the castle of Dynevor, co. Carmarthen, as a refuge for himself and his men; but 7 years later (29 July 1297) he was ordered to deliver this castle to Walter de Pedeston. He was present at the assemblies held at Berwick-on-Tweed during October and November 1292, to discuss the various claims to the Scottish crown. As Captain of Podensac in Saxony, he surrendered the town to the French in the early months of 1295. He was summoned, 26 January 1297 to attend the king at Salisbury and to a Military Council on 20 August following. In the same year, during the king’s absence in Flanders, he was one of the council of regency. He was summoned to Parliament from 24 June 1295, to 10 April 1299, by writs directed to Johanni Giffard or Gyffard, occasionally with the addition of ‘de Brimmesfeld,’ whereby (says The Complete Peerage) he is held to have become Lord Giffard, but he had evidently been recognized as a Baron many years before 1295. In Kirby’s Quest, c1284, he was given as holding Brimpsfield, which pertained to his barony of the king in chief. Also in the Assize Roll for Gloucestershire which concerns the Pleas of the Crown at Bristol in 1287, he was charged with having withheld service in the hundred for 6 years, but no fine was assessed and a marginal note of ‘Baro’ entered against his name in the Fine Roll explained the reason--he was a Peer of the Realm.
Giffard died at his manor of Boyton, Wilts, 29 May 1299, in his 68th year, and was buried 11 June in the abbey church of Malmesbury. He held the manors of Brimpsfield, Rockhampton, Sherrington and Elston, and a capital messuage in Orcheston St. George, of the king in chief, by barony, by the service of 3 knight’s fees; the commote of Iscennan, co. Carm., of the king in chief, by homage and fealty; Badgeworth, 2 fees, of the earl of Gloucester; the town of Burford, 1 fee, of the same earl for life; and the manors of Stonehouse, 1 fee, Stoke Gifford, 1 fee, Ashton, half fee, and Broughton Gifford, of others than the king. He also held the castle of Cortham, with Culmington, Salop, 1 fee, the castle of Clifford, co. Hereford, by military service, and the commotes of Perfedd and Hirfryn with the castle of Llandovery, co. Carm., by homage and fealty of the king in chief, the castle of Bronllys, co. Brecknock, and lands there, 5 1/2 fees, of the earl of Hereford, and the manor of Glasbury, partly in co. Brecknock and partly in the land of Elfael (co. Radnor), which was not held of anyone. His widow’s dower was ordered to be assigned, 1 August 1299, and on 5 August she was assigned the manors of Stonehouse, Stoke Gifford, Elston, and Broughton Gifford.
JOHN, 2ND LORD GIFARD, was born (probably) 24 June 1287. At inquisitions held between 5 and 14 July 1299, in different counties, his age was variously given as 12, 13, 12 at St. Michael next (29 September), or 12 at St. John Baptist last (24 June). There is a reference to him in 1306 when he and his brother Edmund visited the dying abbot of
Gloucester, John Gamages. On 8 May 1308, though still under age, king Edward II took his homage, and he had livery of his father’s lands. He was summoned for military service 21 June following and during the next 11 years (until 22 May 1319). On 3 March and 5 July 1309, he was made keeper of the castle of Dryslwyn, Co. Carm., and also of the town of the same name on the ensuing 22 October. Both appointments were during pleasure, and he was ordered, 22 February 1312, to deliver the castle to Thomas le Blund. From 8 October 1311, to 15 May 1321, he was summoned to Parliament by writs directed ‘Johanni Giffard de Brymmesfeld.’
He married Aveline, daughter of Sir Hugh de Courtenay of Okehampton, Devon, by Alianore, daughter of Sir Hugh le Despenser, sometime Justiciar of England. The marriage took place before 6 November 1311, on which date, according to an inquistion at Gloucester in 1323, John and Aveline were jointly enfeoffed of the manor and advowson of King’s Stanley, Glos., by Amaury le Despenser. Both were pardoned, 18 April 1315, for acquiring the property without licence.
On 17 January 1313, Giffard was specially ordered, under pain of forfeiture, to abstain from attending the tournament at New Market; and on 16 August he was one of those enjoined to abstain from tourneying, bourding, jousting, seeking adventures, or performing any other feat of arms without the king’s licence. This mandate, amongst others, was particularly directed against the Brackley tournament to be held on 19 September. As the previous year had witnessed a rising of barons under the earl of Lancaster, the king doubtless feared that these tournaments might be a pretext to cover musterings of armed men seeking to curb his power.
At the battle of Bannockburn, 24 June 1314, when Robert Bruce inflicted a crushing defeat on the English under Edward, John Giffard was taken prisoner. In February 1316, he was sent to Wales to check the depredations of Llwelyn ab Rhys in Morgannwg; and on 20 April he was appointed, during pleasure, keeper of the castles, manors, towns and lands in Glamorgan and Morgannwg lately belonging to Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford, who had been killed at Bannockburn. He was ordered, 22 May 1317, to deliver them to the keepers then appointed.
In 1316 he granted the privilege of free-pasturage in Buckholt to the abbey at Gloucester. In the same year, he became a banneret, presumably for distinguished conduct in the field of battle, and was attached to the king’s household. On 30 December he was granted 200 marks a year, having agreed to remain with the king for life and serve him in peace and war with 30 men-at-arms. This grant was revoked, 9 June 1318, by reason of the Ordinances which the barons had drawn up and forced Edward to accept.
In the spring of 1321, Giffard joined the disaffected barons in the West who were preparing for hostilities in South Wales. The king reached Gloucester on 26 March, and two days later, he summoned a number of the barons, including Giffard, to a Council of Magnates to be held in the city on 5 April, but they ignored the command. Giffard was one of the barons who ravaged the lands of the Despensers in May and June, for which he received a pardon, 20 August, in accordance with the agreement made in Parliament (this pardon was subsequently annulled in the Parliament of York in May 1322).
In December the king decided to advance with his army into Wales to quell another rising, and having issued an order on 7 December for Giffard’s arrest, he made for Gloucester, where he intended to effect a crossing of the Severn. He spent Christmas in Cirencester and on 26 December ordered Giffard’s castle of Brimpsfield to be demolished, which was accordingly done. On the next day and again on 4 January 1322, he issued writs for Giffard’s lands to be taken into the king’s hand. As Edward proceeded towards Gloucester, Giffard waylaid and rifled some of the royal carriages as they passed along the Ermin Street. He had seized the town of Gloucester after pillaging the surrounding country, and successfully held it against the king, who was thus prevented from crossing the river. Edward thereupon marched up the Severn valley to Worcester, but failing again to cross the Severn, he went on to Bridgnorth. Gifford was there to oppose the royal forces and, burning the town and destroying the bridge, he again forestalled the passage of the Severn. This resulted in further orders being issued for his arrest on 15 and 23 January. Eventually the king crossed the Severn and returned to Gloucester where he compelled Lord Berkeley to surrender the castle. He remained in the town from 7 to 18 February, and there issued writs for the recall of the Despensers. Giffard joined the earl of Lancaster (as did most of the Gloucestershire nobility and gentry) in the struggle against these favourites of Edward, and another order was issued for his arrest, 23 February.
Giffard assisted Lancaster at the futile three weeks’ siege of Tickhill, a royal castle in southern Yorkshire, and he was present at the successful conflict at Burton-on-Trent on 11 March, on which day the king issued yet another order for his arrest. Five days later the confederate barons were routed by the king at the battle of Boroughbridge in Yorkshire, when Lancaster was taken prisoner, while Giffard was also captured the following day. Lancaster was beheaded in his own castle at Pontefract, and on 23 March three commissioners were appointed to meet at the Tower of London and pronounce judgment on Henry Tyes and John Giffard of Brimpsfield, traitor, at Gloucester. At the end of April or the beginning of May, Giffard was drawn on a hurdle outside the town gates, hanged on a gallows, and his body cut in quarters, as a traitor. He was aged 34.
His widow Aveline had livery, 28 May 1323, of the manor and advowson of King’s Stanley, of which she and her husband had been jointly enfeoffed. She held it for life of the king in chief by service of half a knight’s fee.
On 25 January 1327, Edward III came to the throne, and Parliament having restored on 3 February the lands of the contrariants, nine days later those lands of John Giffard which had been granted away were resumed into the king’s hand. During the following month, a series of inquisitions were held in various counties, though nothing seems to have resulted therefrom, beyond the grant to Aveline on 17 March of livery of the castle and manor of Brimpsfield, the manor of Rockhampton, one-third that of Badgeworth, and half that of Stapleford, which the king had assigned to her in dower. She died 27 April following.
The Justices were ordered by writ, 20 August, to view the various inquisitions and to report on them. There is no record of these proceedings, though the outcome seems to have been the ordering of fresh inquisitions. These were held in Wilts. and Glos., 15 and 20 January 1328, and John de Caylewe was found to be heir as the only representative of John Giffard from Elias Giffard III. He was great-grandson of Berta, daughter of this Elias. Still more inquisitions were held in the two counties, 20 March, and the matter was again referred, 4 April, to the Justices. However the king and his council decided, after due consideration of the inquisitions, etc., that the lands and tenements late of John Giffard of Brimpsfield ought to remain to the king and his heirs as his escheat according to the law and customs of the realm, per defectum heredis ipsius Johannis. Wherefore by charter dated 22 March 1329, the king gave to John Mautravers, in fee, in consideration of the good services he had rendered to the king’s mother as steward of her household, and to the king, and the dangers and expenses which he had incurred, all the castles, manors, and so forth, late of the said John Giffard, if the premises ought to belong to the king as an escheat for the said, or any other reason, the said John Mautravers being answerable for any claims made to the premises. It will be remembered that Mautravers’ good services included the murder of Edward II.
Apparently John de Caylewe’s claim had been allowed merely in order that he should give a title to Mautravers, and a series of wholly factitious transactions disposed of his claim. On 14 May 1330, the king ordered the justices dealing with de Caylewe’s petition for livery of his inheritance to proceed to render judgment without delay, that the king might do what he thought fit. A week later de Caylewe did homage and had livery of the lands late of John Giffard of Brimpsfield as his kinsman and heir. The same day and day after, de Caylewe, by two charters, granted and released all the castles, manors, lands, hundreds, knight’s fees, and advowsons formerly of John Giffard, knight, and the reversion of those which Margaret late the wife of John Giffard (the elder) held in dower or otherwise for life of his inheritance, to John Mautravers, knight. John de Caylewe died 10 September 1336, being then verderer of the forests of Chippenham and Pewsham, and Margaret died shortly before 13 December 1338.
On 8 January 1355, it was found by inquisition held in Wilts. that the next heirs of John Giffard II were Joan, aged 30 and more, and John, aged 23 and more, both descended from Gilbert Giffard, brother of Elias IV the grandfather of John Giffard II. If this finding is correct, it disposes of de Caylewe’s earlier claim to be next heir to John Giffard. Moreover, the descendants of Osbert Giffard, another brother of the last Elias, were not extinct in 1331 though they may have been in 1355
As regards the barony, John Giffard’s co-heirs were the representatives of two of his four half-sisters, viz. Catherine and Alianore, the other two having died childless. These were James Daudeleye, born 7 January 1314, grand son of Catherine, and John Lestraunge, born 25 January 1306, son of Alianore. The barony however remained in abeyance; but these co-heirs inherited the manor of Ashton, Wilts., as the right heirs of Elias Giffard and Alice Mautravers, his second wife. John had livery of a moiety on 6 October 1327, and James had livery of the other moiety on 6 June 1335.

Chief Authorities

Complete Peerage of England; Dictionary of National Biography; Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester; Trans. B. G.A.S, various vols.; Rudder, Historty of Gloucester; Historia et cartularium monasterii sancti Petri Gloucestriae, edited by W. H. Hart, 1863-7; Oxford Dict. of English Place-Names; Planche, The Conqueror and his Companions.

From: Sylvia Warham
Sent: Feb 28, 2007
Subject: Recently Published Glos Sources (BGAS)