Citation
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  • Category: Research
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  • Author: Francis Blomefield
  • Publisher: London, 1808
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Page: 510
  • Text: Launditch Hundred: Gressenhale

    GRESSENHALE
    Was in King Edward's time the lordship of Toke, a freeman, (a Saxon thane,) who had many lordships in this county: after him Fedric possessed it, but at the survey it was one of the lordships of William Earl Warren, who had 2 carucates and an half of land, 18 borderers, 10 villains, 4 servi, and 4 acres of meadow, 2 carucates in demean, and 2 amongst the tenants, paunage for 100 swine, a mill, and 18 socmen with all their customary dues, with one carucate and 3 borderers, with 4 acres of meadow: also 3 carucates, two mills, a beast for burden, and 10 cows, &c. 30 sheep, and as many goats, and Scarning was a beruite, or lordship, depending on this. (fn. 1)

    The town seems to take its name as lying on watery meadows, by a river, probably called in ancient days the Ger, or Yar; Ing signifying meadows, and Hale, not a hall, but a moist place, as Hales-Worth, and Alesham; I find it wrote Garsighnehael in a deed, sans date.

    It was valued at the survey, together with its beruite Scerning, at 4l. and with that was 7 furlongs long, four broad, and paid 7d. ob. gelt, and Wimer held the whole.

    William Earl Warren aforesaid, granted to Wimer, his dapifer, with the manors of Kempston, Dunham Magna, East Lexham, &c. insomuch that it was accounted and called the honour of Gressenhale, and he, by the name of Wimerus Dapifer, and Gilla his wife, gave to the monks of Castleacre, the churches of the aforesaid towns, with the tithes of his demeans therein; and Roger his son gave them lands in Snetesham and Congham: to this grant, Roland Lestrange, Walter his brother, Richard de St. Clere, Osmund, the Earl's steward, Humphrey de Dunham, &c. were witnesses; also a croft in Kempston, to which Fulcher de Gressenhale, Gilbert de St. Clere, and William de Salle were witnesses. (fn. 2)

    William, son of Roger, assumed the name of Gressenhale, and left several sons by Æliva his wife; Roger, his eldest, succeeded him, and left William de Gressenhale, his son and heir.

    This William had an only daughter, Isabel, who married first Beringer de Cressi, and afterwards William de Huntingfield; (fn. 3) and Osmond de Stutevill, her 3d husband, was lord of this town in her right. (fn. 4)

    In the 17th of King John, he had a grant of the lands of William de Maundevil in this county, during pleasure, and was a younger son of Robert de Stutevill, by Erneburga, his wife, and grandson of Robert de Stutevile, who came into England with the Conqueror, and were both of them barons of this realm, had many lordships in Yorkshire, &c. and bore for their arms, barry of ten, argent and gules, over all a lion rampant, sable. (fn. 5)

    Osmund died at Joppa in the Holy-land, and left by his wife 2 sons, Roger, and William the eldest, to whom this lordship was assigned; he confirmed the donations of his father, Osmund, and Isabel his mother, and of Wimer, Roger his son, and all his ancestors, to the aforesaid monks, in their advowsons, tithes, fisheries, mills, excepting to himself the advowson of the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul, of Wesenham-Thorp, before the justices at Westminster, in the Quindeens of St. Hillary, 41st of Henry III. Sir Henry de Bath, Mr. Simon de Wanton, Sir Robert de Shotindon, and Sir John de Cockfield, justices of the King's Bench, &c.

    In the 13th of Henry III. he paid 40 marks for 23 knights fees, and in the 15th in consideration of two palfreys, and 20s. in silver obtained pardon for marrying Margaret, daughter and heir of Hugh de Say of Ricard's Castle in Herefordshire, relict of Robert Mortimer, without license; in the 17th of the said King was one of the barons of the marches, and delivered up Osmond his son as an hostage for his fidelity, in the 26th year, gave a fine of 15 marks to be exempted from going into Gascoigne, and in the 43d of the said King died seized of many lordships in right of Margaret his wife.

    He was succeeded by Robert de Stutevill, his son and heir, who standing firm to King Henry III. in his war with the barons, was taken by Henry de Montfort and imprisoned, and obliged to sell his manor of Witheresfield in Suffolk, to Giles Argenton, one of their party, to redeem himself, which was restored to him (after the defeat of the barons) in the 59th year of King Henry.

    It appears that William his father, had also married a 2nd wife, Ermetrude, widow of Stephen de Cressi, (who held lands in capite,) without the King's license, or that of Bertram de Bevill, the King's valet, to whom the marriage had been granted, &c.

    Robert married Joan, daughter and heir of William Talbot of Gainesburgh, in Lincolnshire, and died seized of this town, held of the Earl Warren by 2 knights fees, in the first year of King Edward I. viz. a capital messuage, a water-mill, a wind-mill, 200 acres of pasture, a kar, &c. all valued at 19l. 3s. 4d. and was a great benefactor to the abbey of Wendling, leaving Margery his sister and heir, (fn. 6) married to Richard Foliot, son of Jordon Foliot, (son of Jordan, by Beatrix his wife, daughter and coheir of Hugh Bardolph.)

    This Sir Richard dying in the 6th of Edward I. left a son and heir, Jordan.

    In the 8th of Edward I. he was lord of this town, with its members, and Thomas de Rotheland being one of his villains, he was found to have a right of taxing him, high or low, at his will, and the custom of marchet; and in the 14th of that King, he claimed free warren, the assise of bread and beer of his tenants, frank pledge, by view of the king's bailiff, a weekly market on Monday, and a fair on the vigil, the day and day after St. Michael.

    In the 17th of the said reign, Richard Foliot conveyed by fine, to Jordan and Margery his wife, the manors of Fenwick and Norton in Yorkshire, and they conveyed to Richard those of Grimston and Welham in Nottinghamshire, for life, with an annuity of 60l. 4s. 1d. ob. payable at St. Michael's and at Easter.

    In the 27th of Edward I. Jordan covenants with Edmund Foliot to find the said Edmund provision and cloathing, viz. one robe at Christmas with 2 supertunicks, well lined, and a saddle, (sellam,) agreeable to that of Jordan, and to maintain one esquire, and 3 grooms of the said Edmund, in provision, amongst those of Jordan, together with the palfrey, and sumpter-horse of Edmund, as the palfrey and sumpter-horse of Jordan, together with the Esquire of Edmund, like as the Esquire of Jordan, for the life of Edmund.

    In the said year, Jordan, then a knight, died seized of the manors of Fenwick and Norton, &c. in Yorkshire, and of this, doing suit and service to Castleacre court, every three weeks.

    There was then a park in this lordship, and a wood called Old HallKer; William de Lynford held of it one messuage, and 40 acres of land, by the fourth part of a fee.

    In the year after his death, Margery his widow was impleaded by the Earl Warren, to deliver to him Richard, her son and heir, by Jordan, who held this and other lordships of him, by homage, fealty, and the service of 9 knights fees and an half.

    She pleads that she only kept him to nurse, being young; and in the 29th of the said King, Ralph de Monthermer Earl of Gloucester, and Joan his wife, impleaded her on the same account, which shows the hardships that attended families on these occasions, when she replied that she had delivered him into court, and the court committed him to Sir Roger Bilney, Knt. who redelivered him to his mother, during the pleasure of the court.

    She held, for life, Grimston in Nottinghamshire, with Fenwick, Mosly, &c. in Yorkshire, and died in the 3d year of Edward III. and was buried before the great altar in the presbytery of Wendling abbey, on the north side, being styled advocate or patroness thereof.

    Sir Richard Foliot, son of Sir Jordan, married Cecilia, she was sister and coheir with Alice, relict of Gilbert de Luda of Yorkshire, but her sirname does not appear; and dying without issue in the 4th of Edward III. his two sisters, Margery, married to Sir Hugh de Hastings, and Margaret to Sir John Camois, were his heirs. The Foliots bore, gules, a bend, argent.

    In the 4th of Edward III. Sir John de Camois and Margaret his wife released to Sir Hugh Hastings and his wife, this lordship, with all their right, and that of Elsing with the chapel of Roughholm, and the advowson of Wendling abbey. Sir Hugh was son of Sir John de Hastings, Lord Abergavenny, by Isabel his 2d lady, daughter of Hugh le Despencer Earl of Winchester.

    He built the church of Elsing, and was there buried in 1347, as was his lady in 1349; he bore or, a maunch, gules.

    Sir Hugh Hastings, his son, was (as I take it) that Sir Hugh, who was summoned to parliament, as a baron, in the 16th of Edward III. and in his 20th year styled the king's cousin, constituted his lieutenant in Flanders, served in the wars both in France and Spain.

    He married Anne, daughter of Sir Adam Everingham, and died on Kalkwell-Hill, in 1369, being buried in the Friars Church at Doncaster, in Yorkshire. In the Institution Books of Norwich, the Lady Margery, wife of Sir Hugh Hastings, presented to the church of Elsing in 1361.

    Sir Hugh Hastings was his son and heir, who married Anne, daughter of Edward Lord Spencer, and died in Spain on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1370, and his Lady afterwards married Lord Morley.

    1. Tre. Willi. de Warrenna — In Gressenhale, tenuit Toke lib. ho. T.R.E. p' Fedricus ii car. tre. et dim. semp. x vill. et xviii bord. tc. iiii serv. mo. et iiii ac. pti. semp. ii car. in dominio et ii hom. silv. c. porc. tc. i mo lin. mo. ii et xviii soc. semp. cu'o'i consuetud. i car. terre semp. iii bord. et iiii ac. pti. tc. et p' iii car. mo. ii semp. ii molin. et i runc. tc. x an. mo. xi semp. xxx porc. mo. xxx ov. et xxx cap. hic. jacet semp. i beruita Scerninga. Domesday lib.
    2. Regist. Castleac.
    3. William de Huntingfeld and Isabel his wife, were living in the 6th year of Richard I. as appears by a fine.
    4. Claus. 17 Johs.
    5. Dugd. Baron. vol. i. p. 456.
Personal Names
PersonClaimDetailEvidence
GillaNameGilla [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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Isabel de GressenhaleNameIsabel de Gressenhale [S3214:510]
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Osmond de StutevilleNameOsmond de Stutevill Lord of Gressenhale [S3214:510]
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Roger FitzWimerNameRoger [S3214:510]
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Roger de GressenhaleNameRoger de Gressenhale [S3214:510]
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William de GressenhaleNameWilliam de Gressenhale [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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William de GressenhaleNameWilliam de Gressenhale [S3214:510]
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WimerNameWimer [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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ÆlivaNameÆliva [S3214:510]
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Relationships
PersonClaimDetailEvidence
William de GressenhaleFatherRoger de Gressenhale (e1106-) [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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Roger de GressenhaleFatherWilliam de Gressenhale (e1080-) [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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Roger de GressenhaleMotherÆliva (e1080-) [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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William de GressenhaleFatherRoger FitzWimer (e1065-) [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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Roger FitzWimerFatherWimer (e1050-) [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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Roger FitzWimerMotherGilla (e1040-) [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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Events & Attributes
PersonClaimDateDetailAgeEvidence
WimerFlourished1086 [S3214:510]
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William de GressenhaleFlourished1129/30 [S3214:510]
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Roger FitzWimerFlourished 1130 - 1135 [S3214:510] [S3216:189]
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WimerFlourished1130 [S3214:510]
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