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T our congress, held at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, during the autumn of 1855, I had the honour of reading a paper on the lords of that island, who were also for several generations earls of Devonshire. That paper has been printed in the eleventh volume of our Journal, pp. 213-26, and I must therefore, necessarily, upon the present occasion, refer to some of the principal facts contained in my former essay. Six years have, however, elapsed, since that period, and not without research, which will enable me to correct one or two more errors in the pedigrees handed down to us, and make up for certain shortcomings of my own.

Without further preface, then, Richard de Redvers, one of the five barons, who adhered to king Henry I. in his contest with his brother Robert, was, according to Camden, created by that monarch earl of Devonshire.1 He is said, by Dugdale and others, to have been the son of Baldwin de Brionne, also called Baldwin de Sap, from the lordship of Le Sap, and De Meules or De Molis, from another fief in Normandy, and sometimes" De Excestre," or "the viscount," from having the government of the castle of Exeter in fec, with the barony of Oakhampton, through his marriage (according to some authorities) with Albreda, a kinswoman of the Conqueror, and being vice-comes, or sheriff of the county. This plurality of titles, or rather the arbitrary and irregular mode of designating their possessor, sometimes by one and sometimes by another, is a serious stumbling-block in the path of the genealogist. It is necessary to know, and to remember that most of these old Norman barons were, as Mrs. Malaprop describes Cerberus, "Three gentlemen at once." Some, indeed, like our Baldwin, five or more. The ungallant practice of leaving unspecified the wives of these great men-their Christian names being only occasionally recorded-those of their families rarely ever, except in the case of some great heiress, and that by no means as a rule, increases the difficulties we have to encounter in researches of this description, and our present inquiry is plentifully sown with them. At our first start we find the marriage of Baldwin with Albreda disputed, and her exact relationship to the Conqueror undetermined, some calling her his niece, some his cousin. Ordericus Vitalis makes Robert de Brionne, the second son of Baldwin, say she Magn. Brit. apud Regist. Abb. de Ford.

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was the daughter of William's aunt. "Baldwino patri meo Molas et Sappu' reddidit et filiam amitæ suæ uxorem dedit," book viii, which would make her that monarch's cousin.

In the book of Ford Abbey we read, "Dominus Baldwinus de Brioniis miles inclitus de Normania Albredam neptem domini Willielmi Bastardi, nobilissimis ducis Normaniæ duxit in uxorem," while, to increase the confusion, we find William himself, in his charters to the church of the Holy Trinity at Caen, in 1066, he being then duke of Normandy, calling the lady, Emma, and making no allusion whatever to the relationship between them. "Baldwinus filius Gisleberti comitis uxor ejus Emma pro animarum redemptione, etc." And afterwards, when king of England, in 1082, in a confirmation charter to the same church, he reports the gifts of Baldwin Fitz Gilbert, and Emma, his wife, Baldwin himself being one of the witnesses. Père Anselme, in his Histoire Généalogique, meets the latter difficulty by giving Baldwin two wives, Albreda and Emma; but supports his opinion by no authority. The above charters are, however, definitive as to his having a wife named Emma, and that is the extent of the positive evidence we have on this point of our inquiry.2

That Baldwin Fitz Gilbert was, however, sheriff of Devon, holding Oakhampton of the king in capite, there is abundant proof; but not so that he was the progenitor of the two families which bore the name of De Redvers. He was himself of the blood of the old dukes of Normandy, being the son of Gilbert, son of Godfrey, count d'Eu, an illegitimate son of duke Richard I. Hic Gislebertus," says the monk of Jumieges, "habuit duos filios prædictum Ricardum" (from whom descended the Strongbowes and the Clares) et Baldwinum. Baldwinum etiam genuit tres filios Richardum, Robertum et Willielmum et totidem filias," G. Gemeticensis, cap. xxxvii. Unfortunately he does not say by whom, and his second son, Robert, as we have seen, although he speaks of his father having married the cousin of the conqueror, does not call her his mother, nor by naming her enable us to identify her either as Albreda or Emma. It is to his eldest son, Richard, that not only Dugdale, Segar, Sir Richard Worsley, and other distinguished English antiquaries, but even Mons. de Gerville and Mons. A. de Prevost, two of the most celebrated French genealogists, have considered that Henry I. gave the earldom of Devon as well as the lordship of the Isle of Wight, which latter honour was forfeited in 1078 by Roger de Breteuil, earl of Hereford. Dugdale evidently misconstruing the book of Ford Abbey (in itself not an unimpeachable authority); has confounded Richard de Redvers with another Richard, called de Brionne or Fitz Baldwin, who is therein stated to have died without issue in 1137, and been buried, first at Brightley, and afterwards 1 Monast. Angl., vol. i, p. 785.

2 In Domesday, “the wife of Baldwin the sheriff" is returned as the holder of Wimple, co. Devon, but unfortunately no Christian name is recorded.

3 The Book of Ford Abbey, formerly in the Cotton Library, and marked Julius, B. x, in Dugdale's

removed to Ford Abbey, by his only sister, Adela or Adeliza, to whom he left all his inheritance, including the shrievalty of Devonshire and honour of Oakhampton, in which he had succeeded his father.1 As we shall have to return to this point, which affects the descent of the Courtenays, I shall now only observe that it is quite clear that Richard de Redvers, whatever his parentage, died in 1107, and was buried at Monteburgh, an abbey in Normandy, of which he appears to have been one of the earliest benefactors, if not the founder, by permission of William the Conqueror, in 1080. The top of his stone coffin was preserved from destruction by Mons. de Gerville, and the epithet, "Fundator," is said to be still visible upon it. In the foundation charter to Monteburgh, "Signum Richardi de Redvers" occurs before those of earl Simon and earl Eustace; and following theirs we find "Signum Bald' filii Ricardi de Redvers. Signum Willermi fratre ejusdem Bald'." Amongst the subsequent witnesses are William Estur, Humphrey de Bohun and Alfred de Lincoln (Gallia Christiana, vol. xi, p. 238).

Who then were the parents of this Richard de Redvers if we are not to consider him a son of Baldwin de Brionne, as he has till recently been recorded? The late Mr. Stapleton in his Addenda to the 2nd Vol. of his Illustrations of the Norman Rolls of the Exchequer, appears to assert (for I confess I cannot clearly understand the passage) that he was the son of a William de Redvers; but unfortunately does not print the charter on which he seems to found this opinion. In the grant of Lodres in Dorsetshire to the Abbey of Monteburgh, Richard de Redvers certainly gives also "the land which William de Redvers had in Monteburgh" ("Et terram quam Willielmus de Redvers habuit in Monteburgo," Gallia Christiana, vol. xi); but he does not call him his father or allude in any way to his relationship. In another charter of the same Richard, printed by Mr. Stapleton, he speaks of his father and mother, but without naming them. In the Chartulary of Carisbrooke, he is called the nephew of William Fitz-Osborne, and the grant of the Isle of Wight to him after the death of Roger de Breteuil, earl of Hereford, certainly gives some support to the assertion. William Fitz-Osborne was grandson of Herfast the Dane, brother of Gunnora wife of Richard I, duke of Normandy. The continuator of Guillaume de Jumièges tells us that one of Gunnora's nieces married. Osmund de Centuville (i. e. Cotenville) viscomte de Vernon, and had by him Fulk de Aneio (i. e. Anet), and several daughters, one of whom was the mother of the first Baldwin de Redvers, “qua una mater fuit primi Baldwini de Revers." Guil. Gemet. cap. xxxvii. A question has arisen on the word primi in the above paragraph. By some it is supposed to apply to Baldwin de Brionne, but it does not appear that he was

time, now printed as "wanting" in the Catalogue of that Collection, is, I learn, amongst the Dodsworth MSS. at Oxford. A copy is also said to be in the possession of sir Thomas Phillipps.

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Dugdale, Baronage, vol. i, p. 785. Lysons's Devon sub Thorncombe.

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ever called de Redvers; by others to the first Baldwin de Redvers, earl of Devon, son of our Richard; but that I shall presently show cannot be the case.

The earliest mention of a Richard de Redvers that I am aware of occurs in the charter of king William I. to Monteburgh in 1080. Wace, it is true, tells us in his account of the Norman invasion, that William was accompanied by "Him who was then Sire de Reviers," but he gives no christian name by which he can be identified. In Domesday a Richard de Redvers is recorded as holding Mosterton, in the hundred of Beaminster, co. Dorset. It is not, however, until the reign of Henry I. that we hear of his importance. We then find him one of the principal counsellors and champions of that monarch against his brother Robert ;2 and it is shortly after Henry's accession to the throne of England, that he is said to have rewarded his friend's services by the gifts of Tiverton and Plympton and the third penny of the pleas of the county. Here we come to the next vexed question. Mr. Stapleton, in the addenda above quoted, denies that Richard de Redvers was ever earl of Devon. Of course we cannot expect him to prove a negative, and unfortunately we know not upon what authority the monk of Ford has stated that Richard had the third penny of the county granted to him; but Camden was not a likely person to make so particular an assertion without testing his authority, and the grant of tertium denarium would carry with it the earldom, though the ceremony of girding with the sword (generally supposed to have not been practised before the time of John) might not have been performed. The argument that we do not find the first Richard de Redvers styled earl in contemporary documents is of no great value, as such omission is by no means uncommon in ancient documents; but that he was so considered as early as the fourteenth century is shewn by the chartulary of Christchurch Twinham,3 in which his charter is headed "Carta Rica de Redveriis Senioris Comitis Devonia." In the chartulary of the priory of Carisbrooke he is also spoken of as "tunc Comiti Exoniæ ;" and that his wife Adeliza thought him an earl, either of Devon, of Exeter, or of the Isle of Wight, is clear from her charter to Twinham, in which she gives to the church of the Holy Trinity her church of Thorlei, "pro salute animas Domini mei Ricardi Comitis de Redveriis et filio mei Comitis Baldwini." This grant being "concedente Ricardi comiti herede et nepote meo." You will observe that she styles her husband, her son, and

1 Roman de Rou.. That our Richard was not the only de Redvers existing at this period or the first of that name is very possible. He had probably brothers (we know he had a sister named Adeliza). There was a Hugh de Revers, also called Hugh de Vernon, and uncle of a Baldwin de Revers, whose grants to the canons of Brumore in 1089 were confirmed by king Henry I. in 1129. Monast. Angl., vol. ii, p. 201, where it is erroneously stated to be by Henry II. That several of the early members of the family were styled indifferently de Redvers and de Vernon increases the difficulty of identification.

2 Wace, Rom. de Rou, l. 1452-4. Ordericus Vital. Wm. Malmsbury.

her grandson all earls, but not of Devon, though the two latter were indubitably so; the omission, therefore, cannot be used as an argument solely against the first. This lady it appears from her charter to the Abbey of Monteburgh1 was a daughter of William Peverel, of Nottingham, and Adelina, of Lancaster, his wife. That she long survived him, and that she was the mother of his children, is proved by the same and other charters.2 In the one just mentioned she grants to Monteburgh, by consent of her sons earl Baldwin and William de Vernon, and Robert de Saint mere Eglise, and of her brother William Peverel (junior), of Nottingham, and of her grandsons Richard de Reviers, Henry, and William, and for the redemption of her own soul and those of her father William Peverel and her mother Adeliza, of whose gift she had possession of it, the manor called Ouveley (i. e. Walley, co. Somerset), and the grant is confirmed by Henry II as that of Adelicia wife of the aforesaid Richard de Redvers (de maritagio suo), with the consent of her sons earl Baldwin and Robert de Sancta Maria Ecclesia, etc. That she was the mother also of the only daughter we have heard of, Hawisia, married to William de Roumare, earl of Lincoln, we have the most satisfactory evidence in a charter of the countess herself to Christchurch, Twinham, in which, as Hawisia countess de Rumara, for her soul's sake and the soul of her lord William " Comes de Rumara," and of her son William de Rumara, she gives to that church all the land which her dear brother, earl Baldwin, gave with her in franc marriage to that noble man her lord William de Rumara, and for the health of William de Rumara her grandson and heir, and of his brother Robert, and for the souls of her father Richard de Redvers and Adeliz her mother, and her noble nephew earl Richard, and for the health of her brothers William de Vernon and Robert de Sancta Maria Ecclesia, and her nephew William de Vernon, and all her ancestors, etc. Nothing can be clearer than this statement. It is one of the most valuable documents of its sort, in a genealogical view, that I have ever met with, and it is remarkable as an evidence of the use of the word "nepos" to signify, indifferently, both nephew and grandson. The charter is witnessed by two of her grandsons "nepos meus, Robertus de Rumara et Rogr. fratris ejus."

1 Norman Rolls of the Exchequer, vol. 2, Addenda.

2 The one just recited shows she lived to see her grandson Richard succeed his father Baldwin as earl of Devon in 1155. She was dead before 1165. And as she had borne four children at least to her husband previously to 1107, two of whom were old enough to witness their father's charter to Monteburgh in 1080, she must, if these dates can be depended upon, have nearly, if not quite, reached the 100th year of her age. This is possible, though some such computation induced Dr. Oliver to believe a generation had been omitted in the pedigree. That, however, is not possible, as Adeliza distinctly names her husband as earl Richard, her son earl Baldwin, and her grandson Richard then earl of Devonshire. That Baldwin and his brother William must have been very young at the time they witnessed the charter to Monteburgh there can be no doubt. I find among the witnesses to a charter of Walter and Ralph D'Astino giving the church of St. Vezin to St. Peter de Cultura, "Rainaldo infante filio Rannulphus Avenel." As Baldwin did not die till 1155 he must himself have been at least 80.