Land Was Money

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Haimo de St. Clair was never mentioned in the Suffolk Domesday, but
there is much about land ownership of which Domesday does not tell us.

“Haimo de St. Clair is never mentioned in the Suffolk Domesday, but the
IE (Inquisitio Eliensis) (7oa2, 273, 207a2) shows him to have been a
well-endowed tenant of Bishop Odo of Bayeux.” – R. Welldon Fin, M.A.

“An Introduction to Domesday Book” p.27, 1963

It tells the story of the Norman conquest, likely commissioned by
Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William the Conqueror’s half-brother.

And then we learn that a land-grabbing opportunist – Bishop Odo –
might have been keeping Haimo de St. Clair and others in Odo’s circle hidden.

He defrauded both the Crown and the Church.

From Wikipedia – In 1076 at the Trial of Penenden Heath,
Odo was tried in front of a large and senior assembly over
the course of three days at Penenden Heath in Kent for
defrauding the Crown and the Diocese of Canterbury.

    Oddly, Haimo de St. Clair was not mentioned in the
“Trial of Penenden Heath.”

In 1082, Odo was suddenly disgraced and imprisoned
for having planned a military expedition to Italy.
His motives were not certain. Chroniclers
writing a generation later said Odo desired
to make himself pope during the Investiture Controversy
while Pope Gregory VII was in severe difficulty in his conflict
with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and the position
of pope was in contention; but the contemporary evidence is
ambiguous. Whatever the reason, Odo spent the next five years in
prison and his English estates were taken back by the king, as was
his office as Earl of Kent. Odo was not deposed as Bishop of Bayeux.

Over the years, I’ve seen lots of connections between
Bishop Odo of Bayeux, Roger Bigod, and the St.Clairs.
Odo seemed to be at the center of the actives.

The Church was just another arm of politics.
It had nothing to do with piety.
Noble families shunted the second son into the Church
to exert power at another level.
Bishop William St. Clair (in Scotland) was a classic example.

Inquisitio Eliensis (IE) described as a more on-the-ground
listing of a local area than Domesday. There’s a lot more on it in the book below.

Google – https://www.google.com/books/edition/Liber_Eliensis/fh5OozghywIC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Take a look at the top of this this page again.

Now look at William’s Sword at the ready.
Robert was also at the ready.
No one can be sure of why King William and Robert
were pulling out their swords.
My take is that they were not yet ready
to trust Bishop Odo of Bayeux.

     Sources –

     Liber Eliensis: A History of the Isle of Ely from the Seventh Century to the Twelfth. 2005
ISBN:9781843830153, 1843830159

     Page count:576, Published:2005. Format:Paperback. Publisher:Boydell. Language:English.
Editor:Janet Fairweather. Translator:Janet Fairweather. Contributor:Janet Fairweather.

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Did someone named Bretel own land in England before the Conquest?

Open Domesday shows someone named Bretel (no last name) holding land called Trevillyn in 1066, which
was a settlement in Domesday Book, in the hundred of Tybesta and the county of Cornwall.

That’s big news. But is it the same Bretel?

The image below is from Domesday. No last name of this Bretel is mentioned. See the entire page here –
https://opendomesday.org/place/SX0461/trevillyn/

Bretel looks to have been a name originating in
pre-Conquest England.

Possible origins of his given name.

The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain
and Ireland, 2016.

English usage before the Conquest, becoming Middle English Bretel , Britel, and Brutel.
Compare Godwine Brytæl, 1035 in Tengvik (Dorset). (ii) relationship name,
alternatively in some instances from the Middle English personal name * Bretel or * Bertel ,
an unrecorded survival of Old English Beorhtel.

Early bearers: given names: Bretel , 1086 in Domesday Book (Cornwall, Devon, Dorset,
and Somerset); Bretellus de Amber’, 1130 in Pipe Rolls (Hants). surnames: Reginald Bretel ,
1169 in Pipe Rolls (Hunts).

Any study of Bretel St Clair must include
his major tenant-in-chief,
Robert Count of Mortain.

At the time of the Domesday Inquest, Robert, count of Mortain was
associated with 994 places. They stretch from Marske

by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire, England south to Eastbourne,
East Sussex, then west to St. Just, Cornwall.

  See – https://www.chct.info/histories/st-just-in-penwith-st-just/

As William the Conqueror’s half brother – they shared Herleva of Falaise as their mother –
he was rewarded handsomely for his assistance to the Conqueror.

 

Citation –

‘Text of the Somerset Domesday: Part 2’, in A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 1, ed.
William Page (London, 1906), pp. 479-526. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol1/pp479-526 [accessed 24 December 2019].

 

 

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Discoveries in Colchester

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Exeter Lineage Update

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Rand Greubel wrote me to give me a quick update. “It seems that what Mike found was a transcription of letters and other items comprising a set of notes from research conducted by the American genealogist/historian Everett Stackpole in the early 20th Century. The question is, where exactly did Stackpole get his information?”

Click Here to see the PDF of the original Stackpole notes

There are some online records by the Scottish Archive Network that show a list of Dunbar prisoners. On that list is no John Sinclair, only a William Sinclair. So we’ll wait for more clarity on this.

Everett Schermerhorn Stackpole is no lightweight. He was fascinated with the history of New England and wrote:

  • History of Durham, New Hampshire
  • Old Kittery and Her Families
  • Genealogy of the Stackpole Family
  • History of Winthrop, Maine: with genealogical notes
  • History of New Hampshire

Hopefully, we can verify this work and find his original sources. MIke and Rand are already looking for these.

My original posting is here –

A researcher named Mike Hamilton called to say he had found something wonderful regarding the Sinclairs of Exeter, New Hampshire. In the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections Department in Boston, Mike found one of those rare gems that make this process of genealogy so wonderful. In this case, it’s a list of important captains from the Battle of Dunbar.

In his wonderful write-up on our Exeter Lineage, Rand Greubel pointed out the oft-overlooked research regarding the battles of Worcester and Dunbar. Roger Coone, a descendant of John Sinkler raised questions about this with Rand. And sure enough, they were right. Mike found this list of ‘Scotch Prisoners’ captured 3 September, 1650 at the Battle of Dunbar.

Generally all men captured with the rank of captain and below were earmarked for transportation. Those above the rank of captain were generally imprisoned. Note the bottom of the first page shown here – “As all below the rank of captain were liable to be sent to the plantations, there are 171 names on this list of that rank.”

On that list, number 97, is John Sinclair.

See Rand’s article here to fully understand why it’s now very likely this was the same John Sinclair of Exeter.

The fact that John Sinclair is on the list of captains has even more significance. It means he was not an unimportant person in Scotland. They didn’t award ranks to just anyone. The fact that he was a captain means he was likely related to someone important, or even noble.

There are other names on that list of great interest:

  • Alexr Bogle
  • James Hay
  • William Cahoon (Colquhoun)
  • Alexander Douglas

Those surnames were associated in business, marriage, and land records with the Sinclairs of Rosslyn.

 

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