Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/328

 3IO DEVON to have been s. and h. of William de Vernon.(') In Domesday he appears as the possessor of a single manor, Mosterton in Dorset. It has been erroneously considered that he was created Earl of Devon by Henry I.C") The authorities for this are the statements made in two monastic chronicles. (') There is, however, abundant charter evidence that he never styled himself an Earl, that his wife in her widowhood never styled herself a Countess, and that none of their children, nor their grandchildren, ever so styled them. He was the founder (in the technical sense of the (^) It appears from a charter of Henry I to the canons of Breamore [Inspeximus on Charter Roll^ 6 Edw. Ill, tn. 24) that Richard's son, Baldwin, had an uncle [avun- culus) Hugh, who [if by avunculus is meant patruus' may be the Hugh dc Redever'ts mentioned in a memorandum of La Trinit^ at Caen, and also the Hugh mentioned as son of William de Vernon in a document (of date about 1067) in the cartulary of La Trinit^at Rouen, signed by William Vernonensis and Emma his wife (Round, Calendar, nos. 424, 82). In the register of Carisbrooke [Monastlcon, vol. vii, p. 1041) it is said that Richard de Reviers was nepos of William fitz Osborn, after whose death (his sons John and Richard having d. v.p.) the Isle of Wight was inherited by the said Richard, tunc Comes Exonie. So that this Richard may have been son of William de Vernon, by Emma, sister of William fitz Osborn. The continuator of William of Jumieges states that a niece of Gunnor the wife of Duke Richard was married to Osmund de Centumvillis, Vicomte de Vernon, and was mother of xht first Fulk de Aneto and of the mother of the/n/ Baldwin de Reviers. C") By Planche, who considered that he had refuted the contrary opinion held by Stapleton. Though, on a question of this sort, it would hardly be necessary to examine the evidence in order to decide which of these two was in the right, Planche has been followed by many subsequent writers : but not, of course, by J. H. Round. ('^) " Rex Henricus . . . Ricardo de Redveriis primo Tiverton ac postea honorem de Plimton . . . contulit in comitemque Devon' tercium denarium annui exitus ejusdem comitatus illi concedendo eum consequenter creavit . . . Post hec insulam Vecte a dicto Rege obtinuit unde Comes Devon' et dominus Insule nuncupatus erat." [Chron. of Ford). " Henricus Rex. . . fecit quemdam Ricardum de Redveriis Comitem Devonie et ei hereditario jure hujus ville totum contulit feodum cum hac christi ecclesia Postea dictus Ricardus dedit eandem christi ecclcsiam cuidam clerico suo Petro de Oglandes." {Cartulary of Twynham, Cotton MSS., Tiber., D6, f. 194V — now vol. ii, f. 3IV). But the text of the charter by which Richard made this donation, " after " he was thus " created Earl of Devon," still exists : — " Omnibus . . . Ricardus de Redveriis salutem Sciatis quod postquam placuit domino meo nobili Regi Anglorum Henrico dare michi ecclesiam de Cristeschercheia dedi eam et ista carta mea confirmavi cuidam clerico meo Petro de Oglandis." {Cartulary, f. 13). The compiler of the cartulary has actually headed this charter "Carta Ricardi de Redveriis senioris Comitis Devon'." The evidence Planch6 most relied on was the following {Cartulary, f. 93) : — " Adeliz de Redveriis . . . Sciat . . . me . . . dedisse ecclesiam meam de Thorleia ecclesie sancte Trinitatis de Twynham . . . Feci autem banc donacionem meam concedente Ricardo Comite herede et nepote meo pro salute nostra et pro salute animarum domini mei Ricardi Comitis de Redveriis et filii mei Comitis Baldewini." As to which it is sufficient to observe that the first Comitis must have been interpolated by the transcriber, for Adelise would not have described her husband as Comes without calling herself Comitissa.