Hugh Fitz Norman Lord of Kilpeck Castle

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ¹²⁴⁹
It is more certain that in 1134, the present Church of Kilpeck (dedicated to St. David) along with the Chapel of St. Mary in the castle, and all rights and possessions appertaining to them, were given to the Abbey of Gloucester by Hugh son of William Fitz Norman, Lord of Kilpeck Castle. The manor of Kilpeck was given to William Fitz Norman (the father of Hugh), by the Conqueror. In Domesday Book we find the following entry: "These towns or lands under written are situated on the border of Archen- field. William Fitz Norman holds Chipecce; Cadcand held it in the time of King Edward. In the demesne are 3 ploughlands, and two bondmen, and four ploughmen, and fifty-seven men with nineteen ploughlands, and they pay fifteen quails of honey, and ten shillings. They do not give other tribute, nor do service except in the army. Value, four pounds." Henry, the son of Hugh just mentioned, succeeded his father in the possession of the manor, and assumed from it the name of Henry de Kilpeck. His grandson, Hugh de Kilpeck, is mentioned in the 32nd year of the reign of Hen. III. (1248), as holding the manor of Little Taynton in Gloucestershire by the serjeancy of keeping the hay of Hereford.

~Illustrations of Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire, p. 39

• Background Information. ¹²⁴⁸
Chipcete in Irchenfield is the present Kilpeck, where William Fitz Norman sat in the seat of Cadiand, the dispossessed Englishman. The lands paid no geld or military service, which in that border district is remarkable. William was a large Herefordshire landowner. In 1134, 25 Henry I, Hugh, son of William Fitz Norman, gave to St. Peter's, Gloucester, the church of St. David at Kilpeck, and the chapel of our Lady of or within the castle. Of the chapel no more is said, but the church is included in the confirmation charter by Stephen to Gloucester in 1138, and in many later confirmations and charters of Inspeximus.

According to Dugdale, a priory was founded at Kilpeck in 1134, and dedicated to St. David, by Henry de Kilpeck. The founder more probably was Hugh Fitz Norman, who certainly endowed it. It was a cell of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter at Gloucester, and subsisted until its suppression in 1422-48, during the Episcopate of Thomas Spoffbrd of Hereford. The priors were summoned to take part in the elections of the Gloucester abbots.

~"Castle of Kilpeck," Archaeologia Cambrensis, Vol. IV, 4^th series, pp. 54-57