The Register: Rudchester (Northumberland)

Register and Records of Holm Cultram. Originally published by T Wilson & Son, Kendal, 1929.

This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.

'The Register: Rudchester (Northumberland)', in Register and Records of Holm Cultram, (Kendal, 1929) pp. 37-38. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/n-westmorland-records/vol7/pp37-38 [accessed 18 March 2024]

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:—