Hugh de Chesney

  Information about this person:

• Background Information. ¹²⁵⁸
From Eynsham cartulary, Volume 49, Appendix I, "The Chesney Family," pp. 411-422:

"The names of the family are given in Charter 124 (Eynsham Cartulary), where Aliz de Langetot, widow of Roger de Chesney, mentions eight of her children. Of her sons, Hugh, William, and Robert were alive; Radulfus and Roger were dead; while three daughters were living, Hawise, Beatrice, and lsabel.

"Of Roger de Chesney, the father, very little is known. He attests two deeds in the Abingdon Cartulary, both of which are before 1108, [Bodl. MS., vol. ii pp, 68, 74] and it is possible, though not certain, that the language of Charter no. 7' means that he was dead by 1109. As all his sons seem to have died before 1170, we may assume that he was married to Alice de Langetot about 1085-90, and it would not be impossible that his children, of whom there seem to have been at least ten, should be all born by 1109. lt is possible that he figures in Doomsday as a tenant of Robert d'Oilly; for we find there that 'Rogerius' is the tenant of Heyford Warren, of a manor in Ducklington, and of Wycham (afterwards Wick Dyve, now Wicken), Northants, all of which were held by the Chesney family throughout the twelfth century. As we shall see below, it seems that he was of English blood, and was related to the Chesneys of Sussex.

"Alice de Langetot, his wife, was probably a daughter of Radulfas de Langetot, who appears in Doomsday as a tenant under Walter Giffard. The connation between the two is clear from the fact that in 1186 Matilda de Chesney, granddaughter of Alice de Langetot, held ' Kameltone ', Beds., while in Doomsday it was held by Radulfus de Langetot. She must have lived to a great age, for her name would not have appeared in an early list of obits' at Lincoln, unless she had lived to see her son consecrated bishop (December, 1148).

"ln the Charter 124 (Eynsham Cartulary) we have the names of eight of the children-Hugh, William, Robert, Hasvise, Beatrice, and lsabel being still alive; Roger and Ralf, and apparently also some daughters, being dead; and in Charter 163 the names of the five brothers occur as witnesses, the order being Hugh, Robert, Ralf, William, Roger. On the whole, it seems probable that Hugh was the eldest son.

"That Hugh de Chesney was the oldest of the sons is suggested by the fact that he alone is mentioned in the Pipe Roll of 31 Hen. l. He there appears as holding land not only in Oxfordshire, but also in Northants and Bedfordshire. The manor in Northants was no doubt one knight's fee in Wicken or Wick Dyve; that in Bedfordshire probably half a knight's fee in Campton, of which he was not actually owner, but representative for his mother. Ultimately this property did not come to his branch of the family but, as we shall see, passed to the Fitz Geralds through Matilda de Chesney.

"Matilda de Chesney, of whom it is not easy to say who her father was. ln 1186, the account of her is that she was a widow with sons, aged eighteen and twelve. She must therefore have been married in 1167 or earlier, and her husband must have been alive in 1173 or later. lt is generally asserted" that her husband was Warin Fitz-Gerald, but one of the Reading Cartularies' proves that it was Henry Fitz-Gerald; for, making a grant of land in Sawbridgeworth, Herts, to Reading Abbey, he addresses 'M. de Caisne, uxori mee '. The grant was confirmed by Warin, his son.