Margaret
de Cormeilles and a miscarriage of justice
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
In May 1236 Alice and
Isabella Cormeilles had recently buried their mother, Margaret de Cormeilles.
Now a jury of twelve men in Gloucestershire denied ever knowing Margaret de
Cormeilles and that she held any land in Gloucestershire directly from the king.
Yet a separate jury in Herefordshire knew that Margaret de Cormeilles held two
knight’s fees and that one of these was in Gloucestershire and they even knew
the man who held it. Were the two daughters of Margaret the victims of twelve
angry men or was something else afoot?
Can we, eight hundred
years later, correct a miscarriage of justice or will some other twist turn the
story? So, who was Margaret de Cormeilles and can we put a biography to the
name? Her surname of Cormeilles comes from the town of Cormeilles (also written
as Cormaill) in the Eure Department of France.
Her father was Walter
de Cormeilles of Taddington, Herefordshire. Walter de Cormeilles died before 13th
August 1204 and after which Peter de Stokes obtained custody of his lands.
These lands were at Taddington, Bullingham, Clehonger, and Aston in
Herefordshire and at Weston-sub-Edge in Gloucstershire.[1]
His daughter Margaret de Cormeilles married twice. Her first husband was Walter
de Stokes by whom she had two daughters, Alice and Isabella. After Walter de
Stokes died, Margaret remarried and her second husband was Hugh le Poer.
Inquisitions
Post Mortem for Margaret
Margaret de Cormeilles
died sometime before mid-May 1236 and as was the practice at that time the
government order an inquisition to be made as to what lands Margaret held and
more importantly was there any taxes or potential income due to the crown. On
16th May 1236 a writ for an inquisition post mortem was sent to the
sheriff of Herefordshire to enquire into the estate of the late Margaret de
Cormeilles. A jury of twelve men led by Sir Robert de Stapleton met at an
undisclosed location and at an unknown date where they found that Margaret had
a half knights fee in Tatinton and in Bolingehop in Olehungre, wherein she had
three carucates of land in demesne, paying an annual rent of 100 shillings and
worth £13 per year with the said rent. All these lands were held in chief of
the King.
The jury also said that
Margaret had a further two knights fees. One of these was in the vill of Eston
in Herefordshire and was held by Roger de Eston. The other fee was attached to
the vills of Begesoure and Hennemere in Gloucestershire. This fee was held by
James de Solers.
The jury then found
that Margaret had two married daughters, Alice and Isabella who were her heirs.
Alice, the elder daughter, had married Robert le Archer while Isabella had
married Simon de Solers.[2]
Having concluded their
work the jury began to make their way home while the heirs were happy with a
good result in their favour. But questions of land title remained unresolved.
On the following day, 17th May 1236, another writ was sent to the
sheriff of Gloucestershire to enquire if Margaret de Cormeilles held any land
in Gloucestershire in chief of the King.
It would seem that the
Cormeilles family gave the impression of holding land in Gloucestershire or the
possession of a knight’s fee there suggested possible land ownership. The jury of
twelve met on an unknown date where they found that “They have not known or
heard of any Margaret de Cormeilles holding any land of the King in chief” in
Gloucestershire. Instead they said that Albreda de Marmium held certain lands
in the county of the King as her dower lands. By 1236 these lands had passed to
Henry de Penebregg who held them from Hugh Giffard who held of the King.[3] A
later inquisition in 1279 identifies these Gloucestershire lands as situated at
Weston. In that year Henry, son of Henry de Penebregg held the lands from
Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York.[4]
The daughters and heirs
of Margaret de Cormeilles lost little time in entering their inheritance. By 30th
May 1236 Robert le Archer and Simon de Solers had given homage to King Henry
III for Margaret’s lands in Herefordshire. They were to pay £25 for entry and
the sheriff of Herefordshire was directed on the 30th to take
security for the entry fine. By the king’s letter we are told that lands of
Margaret de Cormeilles comprised a fourth part of the Barony of Cormeilles.
Included in the letter
to the Sheriff of Herefordshire was an order directing him to inform the
sheriff of Gloucestershire when he had taken security for the fine. But the
inquisition held in Gloucestershire arrived at court before the letter to
Herefordshire was sent. When the clerk noticed that Margaret de Cormeilles had
no land in Gloucestershire the included order to the sheriff of Herefordshire
was crossed out.[5]
Margaret’s
lands in Gloucestershire explained?
By all accounts the
daughters of Margaret de Cormeilles and their husbands settled into their
Herefordshire lands without too much difficulty. About three years later some explanation
for the supposed Gloucestershire lands of Margaret de Cormeilles began to
appear. On 9th September 1239 Henry III informed the sheriff of
Herefordshire that he had taken the homage of Hugh Giffard and his wife Sibyl
for the lands and tenements lately held by Alice of Crowcombe (lately deceased)
along with the homage of the other heirs of Alice. This Hugh Giffard was
possibly the same man who held Weston-sub-Edge in Gloucestershire in 1236 while
his wife, Sibyl, was a sister and co-heiress of Alice of Crowcombe.
The other heirs of
Alice of Crowcombe who gave homage to the king for her lands in Herefordshire
included her nephew, John le Brun; her third heir and niece, Alice de
Cormeilles (through her husband Robert le Archer), and her fourth heir and
niece, Isabella de Cormeilles (through her husband Simon de Solers).[6]
The document of 1239
thus showed that Hugh Giffard had married a sister of Margaret de Cormeilles.
Therefore the idea of Margaret de Cormeilles having land in Gloucestershire,
where Hugh Giffard had land, may have had some basis in fact. Whatever the
situation surrounding these Gloucestershire lands was, they must have changed long
before 1236 to make jury totally ignorant of any attachment to Margaret de
Cormeilles.
No inquisition post
mortem seems to have survived for Alice of Crowcombe to enlighten us as to her
estate. To add further mystery no mention is made of any lands in Somersetshire
in which county is the place called Crowcombe. We equally have little knowledge
of Alice’s family. She had no living children but she had a husband at some
time as she is called Alice of Crowcombe and not Alice de Cormeilles, which is
what she would have been called if she was unmarried.
Do we know the husband
of Alice de Cormeilles? One candidate for that role is Geoffrey of Crowcombe.
Geoffrey of Crowcombe was an active person in the early years of the reign of
Henry III. In the winter and spring of 1224-1225 Geoffrey of Crowcombe was
proctor at Rome for Henry III along with Stephen Lucy. The Pope, Honorius III,
met the proctors and told them that Henry III must be more impartial and
forbearing towards his subjects.[7] In
May 1225 Geoffrey of Crowcombe was sent to France as an ambassador for Henry
III. In 1229-30 he was assessor and collector of the tallage in Norfolk and
Suffolk. About April 1230 Geoffrey was made sheriff of Oxfordshire. From
October 1232 to March 1234 Geoffrey of Crowcombe was issuing royal writs on
behalf of the king. In June 1234 Geoffrey was given custody of the royal manor
of Woodstock (now Blenheim Palace) while continuing to hold the royal castle at
Oxford.[8]
But was Geoffrey of
Crowcumbe the husband of Alice of Crowcombe? One of the earliest documents
concerning Geoffrey of Crowcombe gives him connections to Gloucestershire. In
June 1220 the sheriff of Gloucestershire was order to give respite to Geoffrey
of Crowcombe for a demand of money because Geoffrey was in Poitou on the king’s
service.[9] An
entry in the fine rolls for September 1226 tells us of an order to the sheriff
of Gloucestershire to place in respite the demand of 20 marks from Geoffrey of
Crowcombe for the land of John, son and heir of Richard Brown, who was in the
custody of Geoffrey.[10]
Earlier we saw that a person called John le Brun (Brown) was a nephew of Alice
of Crowcombe.
To confirm the
connection we have a letter to the sheriff of Herefordshire in August 1221. The
sheriff was order to give respite to Geoffrey of Crowcombe for the scutages of
Ireland, Poitou, Scotland and Wales which were payable on the half knight’s fee
formerly held by Walter de Cormeilles in the time of King John. A similar
letter was sent to the sheriff of Gloucestershire.[11]
[See a related article about Geoffrey of Crowcombe and his associations with Ireland = article link]
Another
Gloucestershire explanation
Having come to no
certain conclusion about any Gloucestershire lands of Margaret de Cormeilles
through Alice of Crowcombe we must search elsewhere. Working further of the
biography of Margaret we find that Aubrey Marmion was the mother of Margaret de
Cormeilles.[12]
The jury of the Gloucestershire inquisition reported that Albreda (Aubrey) de Marmion
had held lands in dower from the king in that county.[13]
The Gloucestershire connection is now more fully understood. When Aubrey
Marmion died her lands in Gloucestershire were inherited by her daughter Sibyl
who married Hugh Giffard. As was the practice when an estate had only female
heirs the property was divided among the heiress in equal portions. Thus Sibyl
got Weston-sub-Edge and other Gloucestershire property as her portion.
St. Lawrence (ex St. John the Baptist) Church, Weston-sub-Edge
from 123rf.com by Andrew Roland
Margaret de Cormeilles
mother, Aubrey Marmion was the daughter and heiress of Geoffrey Marmion of
Arrow, Warwickshire. After the death of Walter de Cormeilles in 1204, Aubrey
married William de Camville (died after 1205) by whom she had Geoffrey de
Camville (died c.1219).[14]
Ancient
inheritance
The Cormeilles lands in
Herefordshire and Gloucestershire mentioned in the above transactions and
inquisitions were part of the ancient inheritance of the family. Ansfrid de
Cormeilles was the first to leave northern France and come over to England at
the Norman Conquest. By 1086 he had seven lordships in Herefordshire and
sixteen in Gloucestershire.[15]
In 1086 Ansfrid de
Cormeilles is listed as owner of the manors of Weston-sub-Edge, Norton,
Batsford, Winstone, Shipton (part of), Tantesborne, Pauntley, Kilcot, Ketford,
Hayes by Newent, and Duntisbourne (part of) in Gloucestershire. He was a tenant
of the king at Beckford and Ashton under Hill.[16]
In all Ansfrid de Cormeilles held about 10,700 acres or just over 46 hides of
lands, making him one of the top ten lay-landowners in Gloucestershire.[17]
Ansfrid de Cormeilles
acquired his Gloucestershire lands from a number of sources. Through his wife,
a niece of Walter de Lacy (sometimes written as Roger de Lacy), he acquired
Winstone, Duntesbourne, Pauntley, Ketford and other places near Newent by grant
of Walter de Lacy. From his chief lord, Earl William Fitz Osbern, Ansfrid de
Cormeilles received the manors of Beckford and Ashton-under-Hill. It would
appear that Ansfrid de Cormeilles and Earl William Fitz Osbern knew each other
from their days in Normandy. Earl William founded the Abbey of Cormeilles and
endowed it with extensive lands and churches in Gloucestershire. Some of these
churches were on land held by Ansfrid de Cormeilles.[18]
Charles Taylor records
that Margaret de Cormeilles, daughter of Walter de Cormeilles, held the manor
of Postlip, while her sister, Aubrey de Cormeilles (mother of John le Brun),
held Cotes.[19]
Ansfrid de Cormeilles (died
c.1100) was succeeded by his son, Alexander de Cormeilles, Lord of Tarrington.
Alexander married a de Monmouth woman and had at least three sons, Richard,
Robert and Alexander. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Richard de
Cormeilles. Richrad de Cormeilles (died c.1177) was succeeded by his son Walter
de Cormeilles.[20]
Thus the Margaret de
Cormeilles of this article was a great, great granddaughter of Ansfrid de
Cormeilles of the Domesday Survey. She held a part of Colesborne,
Gloucestershire, in which there was a wood called Power’s Wood, named for her
second husband, Hugh le Poer.[21]
Some
post 1236 information
The two daughters of
Margaret de Cormeilles settled down to life in Herefordshire after their
uncle-in-law took the Gloucestershire lands of the Cormeilles family. Sometime
around 1259-60 Simon de Solers, husband of Isabella de Cormeilles, died. At
that time he held two carucates of land at Tadington (Tarrington) and
Bulinghope (Bullingham) in Herefordshire. Simon de Solers was succeeded by his
son Thomas de Solers who was over twenty-one years in 1260.[22]
Later in 1261 Alice de
Cormeilles died and was succeeded by her son, Colin le Archer, who was aged
about twenty-three years. Alice de Cormeilles held two carucates of land at
Tarrington, Bullingham and Clehungre. She also jointly held with her younger
sister, Isabella, the two knights fees attached to Hope Solers and Astun. These
fees and tenements were jointly held by the sisters as a third part of the
service pertaining to the Barony of Cormeilles.[23]
Colin le Archer was later succeeded by Nicholas le Archer who in turn was
succeeded in 1280 by his son, Nicholas le Archer.[24]
By 1289 the manor of Tarrington and the one third of a knight’s fee in the
Barony of Cormeilles was held of the king by Baldwin de Frevill but his
connection with the Archer family is unstated.[25]
If Margaret’s daughters
failed to get into Gloucestershire in 1236 there appears to have been little
obstacle in the Giffard family moving into Herefordshire. On the death of
Walter Giffard, Archbishop of York, in 1279 we find that he held among other
places, including Weston-sub-Edge in Gloucestershire, one carucate of land in
Tarrington, a third of a carucate in Bullingham along with assize rent at
Clehungre and Bullingham, and that these lands were held of the king in chief.[26]
Justice
done with cautious reading of medieval documents
At the start of this
article we read an inquisition post mortem which seemed to deny the daughters
of Margaret de Cormeilles from getting their rightful lands in Gloucestershire.
We were beginning to cry foul and report a miscarriage of justice. But like in a
present-day court room the jurors answered the question on the writ, i.e. “how
much land Margaret de Cormeilles held of the king in chief in Gloucestershire”.
But they just answered the question and not the whole truth. They mentioned
Aubrey Marmion holding the land in dower and in 1236 it was held by Hugh Giffard
but gave no hint in any shape or form that Aubrey was the mother of Margaret de
Cormeilles and that Hugh was her brother-in-law.
As Philomena Connolly
once wrote “The information given in the record sources [usually government
documents] can be incomplete in several ways. First, we are obviously only
given one side of the story that of the government and the information is
usually the minimum needed for administration purposes”.[27]
The Gloucestershire jurors did just that – gave the “minimum needed for [the]
administration purpose”.
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End of post
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[1] http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I5046&tree=PagetHeraldicBaronag
accessed on 3 February 2014
[2]
Sidney J. Madge (ed.), Abstracts of Inquisitions
Post Mortem for Gloucestershire in the Plantagenet Period, part IV, 1236-1300 (British
Record Society, London, 1903), pp. 1, 2; J.E.E.S Sharp (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem
preserved in the Public Record Office (Kraus reprint, 1973), Vol. 1, Henry
III, No. 5
[3]
Sidney J. Madge (ed.), Abstracts of
Inquisitions Post Mortem for Gloucestershire, part IV, 1236-1300, p. 2;
J.E.E.S Sharp (ed.), Calendar of
Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 1, Henry III, No. 5
[4]
Sidney J. Madge (ed.), Abstracts of
Inquisitions Post Mortem for Gloucestershire, part IV, 1236-1300, p. 108
[5]
Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III (3 vols. Boydell Press &
National Archives, 2009), Vol. III (1234-1242), Nos. 20/308-309
[6]
Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the Fine Rolls of Henry III, Vol. III (1234-1242), No. 23/334
[7]
Rev. Walter W. Shirley (ed.), Royal and
other historical letters illustrative of the Reign of Henry III (2 vols. Longman
Green, London, 1862), nos. ccix, ccxv, p. 540
[8]
Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III (3 vols. Boydell Press &
National Archives, 2008), Vol. II (1224-1234), Nos. 9/207, 14/88-89, 260,
16/307, 18/167
[9]
Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the Fine Rolls of the Reign of Henry III (3 vols. Boydell Press &
National Archives, 2007), Vol. 1 (1216-1224), No. 5/123
[10]
Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the Fine Rolls of Henry III, Vol. II (1224-1234), Nos. 10/282
[11]
Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the Fine Rolls of Henry III, Vol. 1 (1216-1224), Nos. 5/267-268
[12] http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I5046&tree=PagetHeraldicBaronag
accessed on 3 February 2014
[13]
Sidney J. Madge (ed.), Abstracts of Inquisitions
Post Mortem for Gloucestershire, part IV, 1236-1300, p. 2
[14] http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I5044&tree=PagetHeraldicBaronag
accessed on 11 February 2014
[15] http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I5033&tree=PagetHeraldicBaronag
accessed on 11 February 2014
[16]
Charles S. Taylor, An analysis of the
Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire (Bristol, 1889), pp. 232-3, 236, 241, 264,
268, 272, 280, 284, 316
[17]
Charles S. Taylor, An analysis of the
Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire (Bristol, 1889), pp. 99, 222
[18]
Charles S. Taylor, An analysis of the
Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire, pp. 13, 21, 174, 201, 241
[19]
Charles S. Taylor, An analysis of the
Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire, p. 141
[20] http://histfam.familysearch.org/getperson.php?personID=I5039&tree=PagetHeraldicBaronag
accessed on 11 February 2014
[21]
Charles S. Taylor, An analysis of the
Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire, p. 157
[22]
J.E.E.S Sharp (ed.), Calendar of
Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 1, Henry III, No. 433
[23]
J.E.E.S Sharp (ed.), Calendar of
Inquisitions Post Mortem, Vol. 1, Henry III, No. 484
[24]
J.E.E.S Sharp (ed.), Calendar of
Inquisitions Post Mortem preserved in the Public Record Office (Kraus
reprint, 1973), Vol. 2, Edward 1, No. 346
[25]
J.E.E.S Sharp (ed.), Calendar of
Inquisitions Post Mortem preserved in the Public Record Office (Kraus reprint,
1973), Vol. 2, Edward 1, No. 709
[26]
J.E.E.S Sharp (ed.), Calendar of
Inquisitions Post Mortem preserved in the Public Record Office (Kraus
reprint, 1973), Vol. 2, Edward 1, No. 314
[27]
Philomena Connolly, Medieval Record
Sources (Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2002), p. 69
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