Hugh de Bolbec

  General Notes:

Weis' Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700, 8th Edition, 267:25¹⁶⁰, Hugh de Bolbec son of Water I, who was the son of Hugh de Bolbec. Hugh II was the father of Isabella de Bolbec.


~Domesday Book Online²¹⁴, Great Linford: Ranulf from Count of Mortain; Hugh from Walter Giffard; Robert from William FitzAnsculf; Hugh de Bolbec. Part of Milton Keynes New Town

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information: ⁷²²
Hugh de Bolebec, was involved in a grant of the church of Bolbec to the abbot and convent of Bernay with other is 1061 and 1080. He is likely the same person enfeoffed by William the Conqueror of a barony seated in Buckinghamshire. In addition, he was a tenant of Walter Giffard, who was in turn was the son of Osborn de Bolbec.

~Boyer's The Medieval English Ancestors of Certain Americans, p. 36

• Background Information: ¹¹²⁵

Soon after the conquest, the manor of medmenham was given to Hugh de Bolebec, one of the Norman barons who came over with William the Conqueror. In the Domesady Survery (translated from the original Latin) his estate is discribed:

"That medmenham was in dustenberg (or Desborough) Hundred. Hugh de Bolebec held this manor, taxed at x hides. There were x carucates; in the demesne, four hides; and there were 2 carucates, and x villeins with 8 bordars, having 8 carucates. there were 4 servants, a fishery for 1000 eels; pasture for all the plough teams; wood for 40 hogs; worth 100 shillings; in the reign of the Confessor £8. Welstan, a than of that monarch, held the same, and could sell it." "Hugh de Bolbec also held Brock in Medmenham at a hyde. there was 1 plough-land; a plough with a villein; and 2 copyholders. It was valued at x shillings. Odo, a tenant of Brictric, held the same, and could sell it."

Hugh de Bolebec had issue two sons, Hugh and Walter. the elder son Hugh, founded the Abbey of Wooburne in Bedfordshire in May 1145, and gave the manor of Medmenham to found a cell to it. But this cell was not built until after Walter, the younger son, on the death of his brother, had succeeded to the Barony.

~Records of Buckinghamshire, p. 59

• Background Information: ⁸⁸⁵
Between 1067 and 1076 Roger Porchet, Hugh de Bolebec and others gave the church of St. Michael at Bolbec to the abbey of Bernay, Hugh's portion being a quarter. This gift was confirmed by Walter Giffard as overlord. In 1086 Hugh de Bolebec was holding lands in Hartwell, and elsewhere in Buckinghamshire, of Walter Giffard. The return of 1166 shows that Hugh de Bolebec (son of Hugh) had held twenty knights' fees of the old feoffment of the English honour of Giffard.

The complications of the Bolebec pedigree in the tweth century have been admirably elucidated by Round in the introduction to the 'Rotuli de Dmoinabus'. At the beginning of the thirteenth century the lands passed by the marriage of the heiress [of the Bolbecs] to the earls of Oxford. Besides the extensive lands held of Giffard, Hugh de Bolbec held in chief a barony of which the servitium debitum was ten knights, which passed on his death to his younger brother Walter (also son of the first Hugh), who in 1166, also held land in chief in Northumberland of which the servitium debitum was five knights.

On the other hand there are few traces of the family in Normandy, but the Norman Exchequer Roll of 1180 shows that the farm of the Norman lands was then £40 16s. 1d. It is perhaps significant that their attestations of the charters of their overlords are all to charters executed in England. The family appears to have been one originally of small account which owed advancement to the Conquest.

~The Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families, p.

• Background Information: ⁷⁸⁰
From The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States of America, 2nd Edition, p. 177, the entry for Bulbic, "from Bolbec near Dieppe, a baronial family. Osborne Giffard, baron of Bolbec, m. c. 960, Ameline, sister of the Duchess Gunnora of Normandy, and had 1. Walter; 2. Geoffry, ancestor of the viscounts of Arques and Rouen.

Walter was the ancestor of Walter Giffard, who came to England 1066, and became the Earl of Buckingham. His brother, Hugh de Bolbec, was a baron in Bucks. &c, 1086 [Domesd.]. This barony is said by Dugdale [Bar. i. 425] to have passed to Isabel, d. of Walter, son of Hugh; but two generations have been omitted, for Isabel was living t. Henry III. Hugh de Bolbec possed a barony in Northumberland by gift of Henry I. From him sedcended Walter de B., who held the barony 1165 [Lib. Niger]. Walter, his son or grandson, d. c. 1205, leaving Hugh his brother heir, whose son John d. 1262, leaving coheiresses. [Dugd.; Hodgson, Northumberland]. The Northumberland branch appears also to have possessed the barony in Bucks. &c.

• Background Information: ⁹⁴⁴
From Master Wace, His Chronicle of the Norman Conquest From the Roman de Rou, Chapter XXIII, "The Roll of the Norman Lords Continued," pp. 225-233, translated by Edgar Taylor, Esq.:

"Next the company of Neel rode Raol de Gael; he was himself a Breton, and led Bretons' he served for the land which he had, but he held it short time enough; for he forfeited it, as they say.

"Avenals des Biarz was there, and Paienals des Mostiers-Hubert; and Robert Bertram, who was Tort (crooked), but was very strong when on horseback, had with him a great force, many men fell before him. The archers of Val de Roil, and those of Bretoil, put out the eyes of many an Englishman with their arrows. The men of Sole and Oireval, and of St. Johan and Brehal, of Brius and of Homez, were to be seen on that day, striking at close quaters, and holding their shields over their heads, so as to receive the blows of the hatchets. All would rather have died than have failed their lawful lord.

"And there were also present the lords of Saint-Ever and Caillie, and the sire de Semillie, and Martels de Basquevile; and near him the lords of Praels, of Goviz and Sainteals, of Viez Molei, and Monceals; and he who was sire de Pacie, and the seneschal de Corcie, and chevalier de Lacie, with the lords de Gascie, d'Oillie, and de Sacie, and the sires de Vaacie, del Torneor, and de Praers, and Williame de Collumbiers, and old Gilberts d'Asnieres, de Chaignes, and Torniers, and old Hue de Bolebec *, an Dam Richart, who hel Orbec, and the sire Bonnesboz, and the sires de Sap, and de Bloz, and he who then held Tregoz; he killed Englishmen; smiting the one through with his lance, and braining the other with his sword; and then galloped his horse back, so that no Englishman touched him."

* footnote 33 "Belbec, arrondissement of Havre. The printed test is 'Luce.' The MS. of Duchesne reads 'le filz Hue de Bolbec;' but the British Mus. MS. reads 'vielz Hue,' which we presume is correct. Hugh was in William's service. He held under Walter Giffard, lord of Bolbec and Longueville, and had joined, in 1061, in the donation of the church of Bolbec to the abbey of Bernay. [see intro. Domesday, i. 383]. He had two sons, another Hugh and Walter.

• Web Reference:
Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands Hugh de Bolbec of Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire