Some West & South Yorkshire Early Landed Gentry

Pre Norman conquest:
The following families held property in Calderdale [bold= major land holders] For the most part, the personal names are Scandinavian/Danish [Viking], whereas the place-names are predominantly Anglian.

* Ailric[h] FitzRichard in Cawthorne, Penistone, Flockton, Upper Hopton, Dalton, Upper Cumberworth and many parts of Yorkshire.
* Arnbjorn, in Crofton, Lepton, Darton, Thornhill, Lower Whitley
* Asulfr [Essulf &c.] in High Hoyland.
* Cola in Honley, Meltham
* Dolgfinnrin in Bradley.
* Dunstan in Morley
* Earl Harold [Godwinsone] in Conisbrough.
* Earnwine in Snydale.
* Gamall [Gamel] in, Thornhill, Flockton, Quarmby etc (see location map below):
 

Lands of Gamall, West Yorkshire

See a more comprehensive list of those who held lands before and at the time of Domesday for Staincross and Agbrigg Wapentakes

There are at least five persons by the name of Gamall in the Yorkshire D.B.
  i. Gamall [Gamal, Gamel] succeeded by his son Lesingr who had two sons Hugh de Eland and Henry de Eland. The Eland family of Elland descended from Hugh. Gamall's land ownership is represented in the map above. Besides the Elands, this Gamall led to the lines of Thormhill, Everingham, Birkin and Midgley. 
 ii. Gamall son of Osbert who held the manor of Cottingham.
 iii. Gamall who held the manor of Arkendale and land in Lincolnshire.                                                                                                                                                                                    iv. Gamall who held Danby, Barden and West Hauxwell before 1066. William Farrer says this Gamall was the son of Osbert. 
 v. Gamall son of Ormr [Orm], Gamall's son, also Ormr, may be the one who built St. Gregory's, Kirkdale, North Yorkshire. Gamall was a Yorkshire magnate holding lands across the shire e.g. at Kirkdale in North Yorkshire where an 11th century sundial over the church doorway states:

"Orm, Gamal's son brought St. Gregory's church down it fell to broken and he had it built anew from ground in honour of Christ St. Gregory. King Edward in the days of earl Tostig" [1055-65]

This Gamall is probably the one who with Ulf son of Dolfin was murdered at York by Tosti[g], earl of Northumberland in 1064.[Farrer, Scaife] Tostig was the third son of  the earl of Wessex and Kent, Godwin [d. 1053] and Godwin's wife Gytha and was thus like King Harold Godwinson, a brother-in-law to Edward The Confessor, through their sister Edith.

* Godric & Knutr in Normanton.
* Godric, then Swein in Kexborough.
* Godwine in Farnley Tyas, Huddersfield, Bradley, Lindley, Quarmby.
* Halfdan in Upper Denby, Thornhill.
* Kettil in Almondbury.
* King Edward ["The Confessor"], Wakefield Manor.
* Leofing in Golcar.
* Leofwine in Upper Cumberworth.
* Ligulfr in Whitwood.
* Sveinn [Swein Fitz-Ailric] in Almondbury, Farnley Tyas, Kexborough, Honley, Meltham, South Tanshelf in Darton and Cold Hiendley. Swein had five children: Adam FitzSwein, Rainer Fitzswaine, Hugh FitzSwein Waltheof FitzSwein and Henry FitzSwein.



Post Norman conquest:
Some pre-conquest names still remained in 1086.These remnants of the old Anglian-Danish order now held lands from Ilbert de Laci but were being replaced by French-Norman names [italics], through inter-marriage or land grants by the Conqueror.

* Adam FitzSwein, son of Swein [Fitz-Ailric], held from Ilbert de Laci 1086
* Ailric[h] held in tenancy from Ilbert de Laci Flockton, Upper Hopton, Lower
   Whitley.1086.
* Armytage1500's of Clifton cum Hartshead and Kirklees
* Beaumont [Bello Monte] of  Crosland 1442+, Hockton/Heckton 1500's, Flockton 1600's,
                  Chapel Thorpe & Darton in late 1600's, Whitley 1700's, Wm. Beaumont of
                  Cawthorne Manor 1700's and Richard Beaumont, The Oaks 1792.
* Bosville [Boswell] of New Hall Darfield, New Hall Ardsley & Gunthwaite Hall.
* De Fixby of Fixby Hall, later Thornhills.
* De Montebegon [of Brierley] d. without issue Henry III then De Longvilliers  [of Hutton
       Longvilliers, Yorks.] then Neville m. 1268.
* Gamall, Lower Whitley 1086
* De Stainton [Staynton] Woolley Hall early-mid 1300's, then Dronsfield then Wentworth.
* Dronsfield [Dronsfeld] 1300's of West Bretton then Wentworth
* Eland of Eland Park and Cromwell Bottom.
* FitzSwein, Adam, of West Bretton and Bretton Hall, founded Monk Bretton Priory [abt. 1156].
   Adam married Matilda. Had three children, Matilda, Alexander FitzAdam, Richard FitzAdam
   and Amabel [Amabil]
* FitzWilliam of Emley, Lord Emley.
* Lacy of Pontefract
* Lacy of Midgley Manor, Brearley
* Miggeley of Midgley
* Midgley of Stanley, then Chaloner, Savile etc.
* Sevile[Savile] of Dodworth, Thornhill 1470+, later Stanley.
* Scargill, originally Barnard Castle then Altofts and Darringtom, then Frobisher of Altofts, a Welsh
   family.
* Suithill [Soothill] of Brearley
* Spencer of Horsforth then Spencer-Stanhope, Cannon Hall, Cawthorne
* Swein FitzAilric son of Ailric in Dodworth, held from Ilbert de Laci 1086.
* Sylvester/Silvester, Sir John Silvester 1st baronet of Newland [Neuland] near Normanton . Married the daughter of John Dodworth esq. of Watlass, Yorkshire in the 1700's, died 1789. His son, Sir Edward Smith 2nd Baronet Newland then assumed name Dodworth [Sir Edward Smith Dodworth] in 1821 from his mother's side.
* Tankersley of Tankersley
* Thornhill of  Thornhill 1124+ In 1200's intermarried with the de Fixbys, In the early 1300's
                  intermarried with the Babthorpes and in mid-late 1300's intermarried with the Saviles
                  of Dodworth. & Thornhills of  Fixby from 1418 [1672]
* Ulfketill in Lindley, held in tenancy from Ilbert de Laci 1086.
* Warrene Earl of  Surrey, Sandal, Wakefield Manor, Conisbrough.
* Wentworth, North Elmshall, West Bretton, Bullcliff 1616, Woolley Hall3 1559+
* Winn in Nostell, a family from Wales, 1650+
* Woodrove [Woodruff] of Woolley Hall then Beaumont then Wentworth. Richard Woodruffe's daughter Isabel married firstly a brother to Richard Beaumont in 1479.
 



Ailric,Swein and Adam Fitz-Swein
THE SAXON AILRIC AND HIS DESCENDANTS,
TENANTS OF CAWTHORNE2

"THE Ailric [Fitz-Richard] of Domesday Book, spoken of in the first chapter, was succeeded by his son Swein [Fitz-Ailric], whose name is probably still perpetuated by the neighbouring village of Hoyland Swein.
Whether Swein himself as seems probable, was the founder of Silkstone Church or not, it was he who gave that church to the Priory of St. John at Pontefract, which, as we have seen, his own chief lord Robert de Laci had founded in 1090.
The original grant is for the first time given in Hunter's Deanery (Vol.11., p.221) from the Chartulary of Pontefract in Mr.Wentworth's possession at Woolley: "Swanus filius Ailrichi: Volo vos omnes "scire qui nunc estis praesentes et futuri, quod ego, in remissione "omnium peccatorum meorum, et pro salute animae meiae, et omnium "parentum meorum qui de hoc seculo transierunt, et pro animabus "omnium heredum meorum dedi et concessi Deo, &c., ecclesiam de "Silkstun et VI bovatas cum omnibus pert. et capellam de Caltorna "cum II bovatis et cum II partibus omnium decimarum dominii "mei, videlicet de garbis.  Testem voco Deum, &c. &c."

He thus gives "the Chapel of Cawthorne, with two oxgangs of  land here " and with two parts of all the tithes of grain in his "lordship," as well as "the Church of Silkstone."  The Charter of Robert de Laci confirming this grant has already been referred to, and also that of Hugh de La Val, in which what is here called the "Chapel" (capellan') is mentioned as the " Church" (ecelesiam) of Cawthorne.

The successor of Swein was his son Adam, whom Hunter describes as "one of the most considerable persons of his age." He was the founder of the only religious house which has ever existed in the Wapentake of Staincross, the Priory of St. Mary Magdalene de Lunda, commonly called Burton or Bretton Priory-" Monk-Bretton" a Monastery of the Cluniac Order of St. Benedict [abt. 1156]

The Foundation Charter of this Priory is given in the Monasticon. "Carta Adae filii Suani de prima fundatione Monasterii Beatae Mariae "Magdalenae de Lunda, vulgo Munkebreton."

The religious House of Monk-Bretton was made over to the Prior and Monks of Pont-efract shortly before the founder's death in 1158, and up to the time of the Priory's surrender, Nov 21, 1539, it paid a 5 yearly sum to Pontefract in acknowledgment of this dependence. In a full list of the property belonging to Bretton Priory at its dissolution are certain rents at Cawthorne and Barnby.

When Adam succeeded his father Swein, the Monks at Pontefract obtained from him an explanatory charter, confirming his father's grant of the church at Silkstone and its six adjoining oxgangs, with its chapels, lands, and tithes, "and" (he adds) "likewise the Chapel "of my father at Cawthorne, which my said father had before given "with two oxgangs of land and all belonging thereto in the same "village, and with two parts of all the tithes of my father's lordships, "which are as follows: Cawthorne, Kexborough, Gunthwaite, Penistone, Worsborough, Carlton, Newhall, Brierley, Walton, Mensthorpe, "Wrangbrook, Middleton; viz., tithes of corn."

The pedigree and descendants of Ailric, Swein Adam FitzSwein evidenced by St. John's Pontefract priory charters as given by Holmes in his Pontefract Chartulary. However, the De Burgo line appears erroneous.

The following is the Latin text in the Monasticon . "Carta Adae fili "Swani."
"Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Adam filius Swani fili Ailrichi "pro amore Dei et salute. animae meae et matris meae et omnium "antecessorum meorum et heredum dedi et concessi et hac presenti "carta mea confirmavi ecclesiae sancti Johannis evangelistae de "Pontefracto *  *  ecclesiam de Silkston cum sex bovatis terrae et "earum pertineniis in eadem villa eidem ecclesiae adjacentibus, quam "pater meus eis antea dederat in puram et perpetuam elemosinam "cum capellis et terris et decimis et cum omnibus ad eam pertinentibus : similiter et capellam patris mei de Calthorne quam idem "pater meus eis antea dederat cum duabus bovatis terrae et earum "pertineniis in eadem villa et cum duabus partibus decimarum "omnium dominiorum patris mei quae hic certis exprimuntur voca"bulis, Calthorne, Kexburgh, Gunuthwait, Penyngestone, Wyrkesburgh, Carleton, Newhale, Brareley, Walton, Manesthorp, Wrangbruk, Midelton; scilicet garbarum et cum omnibus ad eas pertinentibus.  * * * Item concessi dedi et presenti carta mea confirmavi "priedictae ecclesiae sancti Johannis de Pontefracto et monachis "ibidem Deo servientibus sexaginta acras terrae meae in Calthorne in "puram et perpetuam elemosinam ad mandatum pauperum faciendum "in caena Domini."
To make this grant fully sure to them, the monks obtained a confirmatory charter from this Adam's grandson Robert de Montbegon, in the time of Roger de Laci, constable of Chester; who is one of the witnesses to it.  In this grant he renounces all clam to the Church of Silkstone.  They further obtain another deed from this Robert's sister Clementia de Lungvillers [Longvilliers], dated at York, "in pleno comitatu "et primo post festum Sancti Michaelis," the 22nd year of Henry III. (1238), in which she is made to renounce for herself and heirs, in very strong language, all right of patronage and all rights of every kind in the Church of Silkstone, and in the chapels belonging to it:
"nec ego nec haeredes mei aliquod jus vel clamium habere possimus "vel vendicare in dicta ticclesia vel ejus pertinentus.  Et Si ita con"tingat quod aliquis hieredurn meorum contra hanc meam confirma"tionem et quietam clamationem ausu temerano venire priesumpserit, "jus monachorum vel presentationem eorum impediendo in aliquo "tempore cum dicta ecclesia vacaverit, maledictionem Dei omnipo"tentis et indignationem genetricis suic beatic Manic et maledictionem "meam et omnium mulierum se noverit incursurum."

The grant was confirmed by the chief lords, by Robert de Laci, and by the Hugh de la Val mentioned above of Robert's exile, and by a Bull of Pope Celestine.
It was in the time of Swein, or his son Adam Fitz-Swein, that many of the churches in this neighbourhood were founded, and among them those of Penistone, High Hoyland, Roystone, Felkirk.
The Arms of Adam Fitz-Swein With Adam [Fitz-Swein], the son of Swein, the male line of this great Saxon family became extinct.  He left two daughters, co-heiresses : the family of one of them, Matilda, married to Adam de Montbegon, Lord of Hornby, became settled at Brierley, in possession of what we may call, speaking generally, the eastward portion of her father's estate.  Their son Roger de Montebegon died without issue 12 Henry III. By Matilda's second husband, John Malhert, she had two daughters, co-heiresses Clementia, married to Eudo de Longvillers, and Matilda, married to Geoffrey de Neville ("de Novavilla").

Hunter remarks that "the perplexed genealogy of these two great "heiresses has exercised the skill of Dodsworth and innumerable "other genealogists."  In the Chartulary of Pontefract [see above] there is what he calls "a rare specimen of a pedigree prepared at the beginning of "the fourteenth century," showing the descent of this family from Adam Fitz-Swein to a Thomas de Burgh then living.  It is given in the Monasticon:
"Progenies Suani fili Alurici
"Swayn filius Alrick feovavit domum de Pontefracto et monachos "ibidem Deo servientes de ecelesia de Silkeston, cum sex bovatis "terrae in eadem villa."Et de dieto Suano venit Adam filius ejus, et confirmavit feofa "mentum patris sui, scilicet de ecelesia de Silkeston cum sex bovatis "terrae. "Et de dicto Ada venit Matilda et Anabilla, et de Matilda venit "Roger de Munbegun, Mabilia et Clementia de Lungvilers, de "Clementia venit Johannes de Lungrilers, et de illo Johanne de "Lungvilers venit alms Johannes de Lungvilers, et de illo Johaime "venit Mahilia at Margareta uxor Galfridi de Neovila et de Mabilia "venit Willielmus de Lamare, et de Willielmo de Lamare venit alia "Mabilia, et de illa Mabilia venit Hugo de NeovAa et de Anabella "filia Adae venit Saira et de Sarra venit Thomas de Burgo et de "Thoma de Burgo alius Thomas de Burgo et Johannes, et dictus "Thomas expiravit sine hicrede, et de Johanne venit Thomas de Burgo "qui nune est."

The Son of Adam Fitz-Swein's granddaughter Clementia was John de Longvilliers (esch. 39 Henry III., 1254) whose son Sir John, of Hornby Castle (Lancs.), had an only daughter Margaret, who married a Geoffrey Neville (1268) and took into that family now the Neviles of Skelbrooke Park her father's large estates of Hornby Castle, Hutton Longvilliers in Yorkshire, and Appleby in Lincolnshire.
Adam Fitz-Swein's daughter Amabil, who inherited her father's more westward estates, including Cawthorne and its residence, married a William de Nevile. Dodsworth has copied a charter relating  Skyrewith" in Cumberland, in which William de Neville and Amabil his wife give to Thomas de Burgh fifteen "libratas terrae "cum filia nostra Sarra in maritagio"
There is a second marriage of Amabil given to one Alexander de Crevequer, from which sprung also a family of Neviles, through the marriage of their daughter Cecilia.  There are given altogether no less than four marriages of Adam Fitz-Swein's posterity into the Nevile family.
The Cawthorne and other estates descended by the above marriage into the de Burgh family, of which there are "several detached notices, Hunter says, in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I.  in the Chartulary of Monk Bretton are several charters of the Nevilles and de Burghs having reference to Grants of Adam Fitz-Swein".

                                                                    

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THE HERALDRY OF SOME YORKSHIRE FAMILIES



References:
1. Faull M.L., Stinson M., Domesday Book of Yorkshire Part 1,Phillimore, Chichester, 1986.
2. C.T. Pratt, History of Cawthorne,1881.
3. Wentworths' of Woolley, Leeds University Library, papers for the 1300's



Copyright © Tim Midgley, 2002 revised 20th July 2014.