Rudchester (Northumberland).
96. (C. p. 68; D. art. 81).—Symon f. Aylef the chamberlain,
by desire of Agnes his wife, grants to Holm abbey his meadow of
Winteringmedue in Ruthchester by these bounds:—from the
spring called Fouburne welle straight across towards the south to
[a?] Rigge, and then bearing west round the meadow on either
side where arable and meadow meet, to the said spring. Also
that land of his demesne lying between the land of Robert f.
Walter and the land of Roger his brother, his tenants, which land
extends from the said meadow towards the south as far as the
king's highway, with common easements, etc. [c. 1212.] (fn. 1)
97. (C. p. 68; D. art. 81).—Robert f. Aylef the chamberlain
confirms to Holm abbey the grant of Symon his brother, namely
Winteringmedue and the land of his demesne between the lands of
Robert f. Walter and Roger his brother, at Rothcaster, as in
Symon's charter [c. 1212].
97a. (H. 2).—Assize was held to enquire whether Simon de
Rouchester had unjustly disseised the abbot of Holm from his free
tenement in Rouchester, namely one acre of land and 3 acres of
meadow. Simon in person pleaded that the abbot owned it and
put it in his view when the writ was taken out on October 14th,
29th year of the king now reigning. The abbot said that he was
not then seised of it, for Simon had disseised him. The jury
found for the abbot, who recovered possession and 22s. damages.
[If the king were Henry II the above date would be 1183; but it
is more likely that the Simon in this case was a later namesake of
the grantor of no. 96, making the king Edward I and the date
Oct. 14, 1301.]
Halden, living 1100-40.
Footnotes
| 1 |
Mr. A. M. Oliver, O.B.E., one of the Council of the Society of Antiquaries
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, kindly supplies the following. Eilaf is named in the
pedigree of Rudchester of Rudchester (Northumberland County History, xii,
p. 201) with date of about 1170; he witnessed as Eilof de Rucestre a deed of
1178–81 (Hodgson, Northumberland II, ii, p. 127). His son Robert is mentioned
in the pedigree, but not Simon. The family of Halden, of which Eilaf was a
member, were owners of Halton, which was land of ancient demesne (Rotuli
Hundredorum ii, p. 21); that is to say, at the time of the Conquest it was land
of the Earldom which had come to the Earls of Northumberland as successors
to the kings of Northumbria. It was land of thegnage tenure, the ancient
equivalent of the more modern serjeanty tenure. It seems probable that
Halton, and possibly also Rudchester (if Umfraville's so-called grant was
merely a confirmation) was the thegnage (serjeanty) land of the chamberlains
of the Earls of Northumberland. The family seems to have been connected with
and to have been officers of the family of Gospatric, earl of Northumberland,
long after the earldom became extinct:—"Halden, dapifer of earl Waldeve
[great-grandson of Gospatric] renders account of 40 marks for unjust disseisin.
In pardon by the king's writ to the same earl Waldeve 40 marks. And he is
quit" (28 Pipe Rolls Society, p. 28) 1179.
The grant of Odinel de Umfraville, referred to above, is given in Proceedings
S.A.N., 3rd series, iii, 96. It confers all Rucestre on Eilaf f. Roger and his
heirs.
Miss M. Hope Dodds, author of the pedigree mentioned above, says that its
early part is taken from a lawsuit in 1212 printed in Northumberland Pleas,
p. 45, no. 157 (Newcastle Record Series) in which Simon 1 said that his father
was Illin (a form, as Professor Hamilton Thompson suggests, of Illiu or Eilaf),
one of the sons of Halden. This would be more consistent with other facts, if
we might suppose Simon to be f. Eilaf f. Roger f. Halden, to whom Odinel de
Umfraville granted Rudchester; and Miss Dodds would amend the pedigree
by omitting 'Illin' and transferring Simon and his conjectured descendants
to the right-hand side of the pedigree thus:— |