Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/541

 i2s. vii. DEC. 4, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

445

NOTES ON THE EARLY DE REDVERS.

LORDS OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT, 1100-55.

AFTER the battle of Hastings, A.D. 1066 the Isle of Wight, together with the lord ship, passed, by gift of the Conqueror, t< his relation and chief supporter, Willian Fitz Osbern. He was killed abroad, nea CasseJl, in 1071, and his son Roger, Earl o Hereford, succeeded to the English estate with the lordship. His tenure was a brie one, as on being tried and found guilty of treason, he forfeited both to the Crown in 1075.

The Lordship remained in abeyance, o; as Worsley has it " continued in the Crowr for a quarter of a century." The exact period at which the revival was determinec on by Henry I. is not known. Hillier ( * Hist, and Antiq. of the I. of W.,' pt. ii. 66) writes ;

"The world has, ages since, forgotten the exact period at which the revival of the Lordship of the Isle of Wight occurred ; but it was pro- bably during the early part of his reign, possibly on the King's accession, A.D. 1100, that Eichard de Eedvers, earl of Exeter, received the Feudal Sovereignty, with divers other marks of the royal bounty. He was greatly in the King's favour having been one of the few nobles who alone supported the royal cause during Henry's contest for the Crown with his brother Eobert. William of Malmsbury (p. 256) gives the names of the chief nobles that remained faithful to Henry and keeping the oath they had taken to him, namely Eoger Fitzhamon, Eichard de Eedvers, Eoger Bigot, Eobert, earl of Mellent with his brother Henry. Ordericus Vitalis further says that after the King's accession Eichard de Eedvers was among the strenuous and sagacious men the King called to his councils."

With a single exception the early island historians, and even later writers, state that Richard de Redvers was created Earl of Devonshire at the same time, but cite no documentary or other evidence in support. On the other hand Dr. J. Horace Round ('Geoffrey de Mandeville,' p. 272) alluding to this earldom says; "it is always, but erroneously, stated to have been conferred on Richard, temp. Henry I." He was Earl of Exeter but never Earl of Devon.

Very little is known of the history of the early de Redvers' lords, and the records descriptive of Baldwin the first Earl of Devonshire are meagre in the extreme. As to whether these nobles, writes Hillier (op. cit., p. 72) were "men of virtue, of passion, or crime we know ot," The

Rev. Boucher James, however, writing at the time when he was Vicar of Carisbrooke,. in 1896, says that; "nothing mean, un- knightly, or profligate is recorded of any of this [the de Redvers] family."

Richard de Redvers, the first of the family to hold the lordship, was the son of" Baldwin de Brionne, who, at the time of the Domesday Survey, was Sheriff of Devon- shire, and possessed of 159 lordships within, that county. From his having the govern- ment of the Castle of Exeter, he was some- times termed " de Excestre." In 1090, he- founded the Abbey of Montesbourg in- Normandy, and was, after his demise, interred there. The date when this took place remains a matter of conjecture for documentary proof of it there is none- The year 1107 is given by Roger of Hoveden, and Florence of Worcester as that which witnessed the death of this earl, and Dugcfale,, on the authority of the Book of Ford Abbey,, mentions 1137 as the year in which the events occurred. If, however, as Hillier- points out (op. cit., p. 68), his successor was banished from England, and had the Isle of Wight taken from him in 1136, the date quoted by Dugdale must be incorrect : and it is believed that 1135 was the year iiv which Richard de Redvers actually died,, as he probably did not really receive the- Lordship prior to 1107. Worsley ('Hist, of the I. of W.,' p. 52) says that 'his death happened in the first year of the reign of Stephen (1135-6). Sir Harris Nicholas. 'Historic Peerage,' ed. Courthope) ; says; " Richard de Redvers, who obtained the Barony of Okehampton, co. Devon, died 1137."

A recent writer, Mr. CHARLES SWYN-

CRTON at 12 S..iv. 149, states ;

" There is in the cathedral library of Gloucester-

an original charter of Henry I., c. Easter,.

U23, notifying that the King has terminated, he dispute between Gilbert de Minors and the

monks of Gloucester regarding the manor of

"}oln Eogers."

'This charter," Mr. Swynnerton goes "on" to-

ay;

' concerns an event which occurred at 7^ the bortive siege of Falaise in 1105. 'Eoger rde

rloucester,' was mortally wounded and:

hen and there gave " Chulna " [i.e., Coin logers, near Cirencester j to God and the monks f Gloucester, the King himself conceding?' be same."

A Hampshire magnate, Adam de Port,, eing actually present when the grant was nade. Some time after the manor of. Cote-