Origins
Roger son of Reinfrid and his
brother magister Walter de Coutances
first appear in the household of king Henry II around 1170. Roger as a royal
servant and later justiciar and Walter as a king’s clerk, later bishop of
Lincoln and archbishop of Rouen. Most sources state that they were from
Cornwall, based on a statement of Gerald of Wales that Walter de Coutances was
born in Cornwall, of a noble British house, a descendant of Corineus, the
fabulous Trojan immigrant. [1]
However, Gallia Christiana contains
an account that Walter stated at the Council of Rouen (1191?) that he was born
at “Pommerayus” in Normandy (probably Saint-Sauveur-la-Pommeraye in Bas
Normandie, about 10 miles south of Coutances) of a Breton family, the son of
Reinfrid and his wife Gonilla. [2]
This seems a more likely origin for the family than that given by Gerald of
Wales.
As well as his brother Walter
de Coutances, Roger also had brothers named Joscelin and Edward. Roger, Joscelin
and Edward witnessed a grant to Lewes priory in Sussex. [3]
Edward witnessed a charter of Reading abbey together with Roger. [4]
He also had a sister who married Baldwin son of Gervase. Their son Robert
between 1174 and 1184, returned to Tavistock abbey land in Passeford which had
been extorted from the abbey through the power and pressure of his uncles Roger
fitz Reinfrid and Walter de Coutances, keeper of the royal seal. [5]
Career
Roger fitz Reinfrid is said to
have been a protégé of Richard de Lucy and may have entered his service in the
1160’s. He was probably in royal service before Michaelmas 1169. [6]
He was employed from 1170 to 1174 with Richard de Lucy in the administration of
Windsor. [7]
In July 1175, Henry II confirmed to Roger fitz Reinfrid a soke in London given
to him by Earl Simon (de St. Liz, III) of Huntingdon. [8]
A case in the Curia Regis in 1204, shows that Roger exchanged land in Toft and
Menthorpe, Lincolnshire with Earl Simon and Alice de Gant his wife in exchange
for three parts of a knight’s fee in Sutton and Beckingham, Lincolnshire and
that Roger also held land in Holme, Lincolnshire granted to him by Robert de
Gant. [9]
Roger was sheriff of Sussex
from Michaelmas 1176 to March 1187 and sheriff of Berkshire in 1188. [10]
In January 1176, he was appointed as a justice itinerant in Kent, Surrey, Hampshire,
Sussex, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. [11] By 1181, he was one of the regular justices
sitting at Westminster. In March 1182, he was one of the witnesses to the will
of Henry II, together with his brother Walter de Coutances, archdeacon of
Oxford. [12]
He continued to be a justice in eyre throughout the reign of Henry II and into
the reign of Richard I. [13]
Roger died before Michaelmas 1196 when Reinfrid son of Roger occurs as his
father’s heir. [14]
Family
Dugdale [15]
says that Roger fitz Reinfrid married Rohese, daughter of William de Roumare
and widow of Gilbert de Gant who died in 1256, [16]
based solely on the fact that Roger fitz Reinfrid confirmed Gilbert de Gant’s
gift of land in Menthorpe, Lincolnshire to Vaudey Abbey. [17]
Dugdale was wrong in every respect, since Rohese was the daughter of Gilbert
fitz Richard de Clare and after the death of Gilbert de Gant she married Robert
fitz Robert fitz Fulk, the ‘sewer’ of William de Percy. [18]
As shown above, Roger fitz Reinfrid was a tenant of Gant land in Menthorpe and
it was probably in this capacity that he confirmed the land to Vaudey.
Between 1175 and 1186, Roger
son of Reinfrid granted to the church of St. Mary Clerkenwell and the nuns serving
there, the land which he held of the fee of Roger de Munchesney in Dunmow, Essex,
in pure alms for his soul and for Alice his wife, his ancestors and descendants,
for the service of one twelfth of a knight's fee. His wife Alice and Margaret
her mother were to be received as nuns, if they wish, and are to be buried in
the nunnery. After his death, service is to be made for them and him as if for
the nuns. [19]
The identity of Robert fitz
Reinfrid’s wife Alice is revealed in a case in the Curia Regis in 1211,
concerning land in Ramsden, Essex, between Richard de Clare and his wife Alina,
widow of Reinfrid fitz Roger fitz Reinfrid and Richard de Bellhus. Richard
called Ralph de Bruer to warrant the dower of Alina as brother and heir of
Reinfrid. Ralph said that the land was the maritagium of Alice his mother given
to her by Ralph Britone, his uncle, and after the death of her husband Roger,
she had given it to Reinfrid her son. [20]
From this statement is can be
reasoned that the mother of Reinfrid fitz Roger fitz Reinfrid and his brother
Ralph was Alice and that she had a brother, or brother-in-law, named Ralph
Britone, the uncle of Reinfrid and Ralph.
This Ralph Britone is normally
known as Ralph Brito, a king’s justiciar who died early in 1186. [21]
Ralph Brito married firstly Maud, daughter of Jordan de Bricett and his wife
Muriel de Mounteny, and great-granddaughter of Richard de Lucy [22]
and, secondly a sister of Gilbert Foliot, bishop of Herford and later of London.
[23]
It appears that Alice wife of Roger fitz Reinfrid was also a sister of the
bishop. However, the bishop’s mother was Agnes de Chesney, and Alice’s mother
was named Margaret. This means that Robert Foliot I, (died about 1155) father
of bishop Gilbert Foliot had second wife named Margaret. Between December 1148
and 1150, Robert Foliot and his wife Margaret granted to St. Peter of
Westminster and the monks, the manor of Sulby, Northamtonshire, to hold for the
service of one knight, as they rendered to the grantors' predecessors, in the
reign of Henry I. [24]
The editors of Westminster Abbey Charters considered that Robert Foliot II and
his wife Margery de Raimbeaucourt made this deed, but according to Dugdale,
they did not marry until about 1168.
Through his marriage to
Gilbert Foliot’s sister, Roger fitz Reinfrid became linked to several
influential families, including that of Ralph Brito, another protégé of Richard
de Lucy. Roger witnessed several charters of a kinsman of the bishop, Henry
Foliot, and Lecia de Bricett his wife to St. Mary Clerkenwell. [25]
According to testimony given in the Curia Regis in 1211, Roger was granted land
in Ramsden, Essex by Gilbert Foliot, bishop of London. [26]
The land which Roger held in Holme, Beckingham and Sutton, Lincolnshire also
appears to have been granted to him by Gilbert Foliot’s brother Elias. [27]
His son Ralph quitclaimed it in 1229 to Christian Ledet, whose mother was Margery
daughter of Richard Foliot, son of the bishop’s brother Robert (II). [28]
Roger fitz Reinfrid and his
wife Alice Foliot had at least four sons: -
(i) Reinfrid, son and heir,
known as Reinfrid de Bruer (or de la Bruer). He married Alina, daughter of
Geoffrey fitz Baldwin. He died s.p. about 1208. His widow married secondly
Richard de Clare and thirdly Hugh de Clayhill who died in 1221. [29]
(ii) Ralph, known as Ralph de
Bruer, heir of his brother Reinfrid. In 1227, he granted his demesne lands in
the manor of Edenham, Lincolnshire to the abbey of Vaudey. [30]
He was living in April 1229 when he quitclaimed to Henry de Braybrook and
Christian Ledet his wife, land in Holme, Beckingham and Sutton, Lincolnshire,
and the advowson of Beckingham. [31]
(iii) Gilbert fitz Roger, also
known as Gilbert fitz Reinfrid, who married between 1185 and 1189, Helewise,
daughter of William de Lancaster and became lord of Kentdale in Westmorland. [32]
He died shortly before 6 May 1220.[33]
(iv) William fitz Roger, canon
of Lincoln and archdeacon of Rouen, also known as William de Coutances. After
1196, William son of Roger, archdeacon of Rouen and Gilbert his brother
witnessed a charter by their brother Reinfrid to St. Mary, Clerkenwell. [34]
[1] J.
S. Brewer, et al, ed., Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, vol. 7: Vita S. Remigii, et
Vita S. Hugonis (1877), 38: "Walterus, de Constanciis dictus, sed revera
de Cornei domo Cornubiage natus, et nobili Britonum gente ac Trojana stirpe
originaliter proagatus."
[2] Gallia
Christiana, vol. 11 (Paris, 1759), 51: "Walterius (de Coutances): Patre
Rainfredo natus Walterius, et matre Gonilla, quam ex regio genti suae genere
prognatum ferunt, ait Pommerayus Concil. Rotomag., natione Britannus erat, ex
eodem Pommerayo ibidem et Sammarthanis, quanquam Constancia, cujus agnomen
habuit, urbs est non Britanniae, sed Normanniae."
[3] G.
F. Ducket, "Additional Materials Towards the History of St Pancras at
Lewes," Sussex Archaeological Collections, 35 (1887), 119.
[4] Patricia
M. Barnes and C. F. Slade, eds., A Medieval Miscellany for Doris Mary Stenton,
Pipe Roll Society, New Series, vol. 36 (1960), 242.
[5] William
Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. 2 (1846), 499, Tavistock Monastery, Num.
XI.
[6] R.
W. Eyton, Court, Household, and Itinerary of King Henry II (1878), 130.
[7] Pipe
Rolls, 18 Henry II, 17; 20 Henry II, 9, 116, 117.
[8] G.
F. Warner and H. J. Ellis, eds., Facsimiles of Royal and Other Charters in the
British Museum, vol. 1 (1903), 54.
[9] Placitorum
in Domo Capitulari Westmonasteriensi Asservatorum Abbreviatio, Record
Commission (1811), 48b.
[10] Thirty-First
Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1870), 263, 347.
[11] R.
W. Eyton, Court, Household, and Itinerary of King Henry II (1878), 199.
[12] William
Stubbs, ed., The Chronicle of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I by
Gervase the Monk of Canterbury, vol. 1 (1879), 298.
[13] J.
Horace Round, ed., Calendar of Documents Preserved in France 918-1206 (1899),
150, no. 444.
[14] D.
M. Stenton, ed., The Chancellors's Roll for the eighth year of the Reign of
King Richard the First, Pipe Roll Society, vol. 45, New Series, 7 (1930), 7.
[15] William
Dugdale, The Baronage of England, vol. 1 (1675), 400.
[16] Thomas
Stapleton, ed., Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normaniae sub Regibus Angliae, vol. 2,
Society of Antiquaries of London (1844), Observations, clvi.
[17] William
Dugdale, Monsasticon Anglicanum, vol. 5 (1846), 490, Num. III.
[18] Complete
Peerage, vol. 7 (1929), 673.
[19] W.
O. Hassall, ed., Cartulary of St. Mary Clerkenwell, Camden Third Series, 71
(1949), 70, no. 105.
[20] Placitorum
in Domo Capitulari Westmonasteriensi Asservatorum Abbreviatio, Record
Commission (1811), 82b.
[21] The
Great Roll of the Pipe for the Thirty-Third Year of King Henry the Second:
1186-1187, Pipe Roll Society, 37 (1915), xxxiv.
[22] R.
Bevan and P. Dale, "A Rose by Any Other Name: Another Daughter of Richard
de Lucy," Foundations, vol. 6 (2014), 28.
[23] Adrian
Morey and C. N. L. Brooke, eds, Gilbert Foliot and his Letters (1965), 33.
[24]
Emma Mason, Jennifer Bray, eds., Westminster Abbey Charters, 1066-c.1214,
London Record Society (1988), no. 479.
http://deeds.library.utoronto.ca/charters/00050479
[25] W.
O. Hassall, ed., Cartulary of St. Mary Clerkenwell, Camden Third Series, 71
(1949), nos. 56, 63, 72, 82.
[26] Placitorum
in Domo Capitulari Westmonasteriensi Asservatorum Abbreviatio, Record
Commission (1811), 82b.
[27]
G. Wrottesley, Pedigrees from the Plea Rolls (1905), 525.
[28] W.
O. Massingberd, ed., Abstracts of Final Concords, vol. 1, Lincoln Records
(1896), 223.
[29] Michael
Gervers, ed., The Cartulary of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in England:
Secunda camera, Essex (1982), 536, 547, 549.
[30] Calendar
of Charter Rolls, vol. 1, Henry III: 1226-1257 (1903), 50.
[31] W.
O. Massingberd, ed., Abstracts of Final Concords, vol. 1, Lincoln Records
(1896), 223.
[32] William
Farrer, ed., The Lancashire Pipe Rolls also Early Lancashire Charters (1902),
395
[33] Calendar
of Fine Rolls 4 Henry III, No. 141.
[34] W.
O. Hassall, ed., Cartulary of St. Mary Clerkenwell, Camden Third Series, 71
(1949), 69, no. 104.