1. Robert de Courcy, fl. 1058, m. Hebria de Bernieres, receiving as her dower land adjacent the river Dives at Jort, Bernieres, d’Ailly, Couliboeuf and Morteaux. Jort is a commune in the arrondissement of Falaise. Galeron, Brébisson, Desnoyers, Statistique de l’arrondissement de Falaise: “Jort est borné au nord par Vendœuvre et Pont; à l’est, par Morières et Courcy; au sud, par Louvagny, Vicques et Bernières; à l’ouest, par Perrières. Le territoire s’étend sur les rives de la Dive , et se compose de champs et de prairies”. “It had belonged to Lesceline, Countess of Eu, but no possessor of it in 1066 is known to French antiquaries. It was probably held by some under the de Courcis of that day, as they are named together “Cil de Courci e Cil de Jort” (J. R. Planche, The Conqueror and his Companions).

It is reasonable to assume that the lordship of Jort passed to Lesceline’s son, Robert d’Eu.

There were various tentants of Jort, under their suzerain, Lesceline, comtesse d’Eu.

1. Robert de Grantmesnil, d. 1040, m. Hawise, da. of Giroie and Gisla de Bastembourg (“Gislam Turstini de Basteburgo filiam”); she m. (2) Guillaume d’Evreux, “son of Archbishop Robert” (O.V. (Chibnall), ii., pp. 30,31); son of Richard I and Gunnora.
1.1. Hugh de Grantmesnil, m. Adelise de Beaumont, da. of Ives, Comte de Beaumont. Shortly after the conquest he was created castellan of Leicester: “Hugoni vero Grentemaisnilo municipatum Legrecestrae commendavit”, “to Hugh of Grandmesnil he (the Conqueror) entrusted the wardenship of Leicester” ( ibid. p. 264).
1.1.1. Hugh de Grantmesnil, b. bef. 1060 – 1136, m. (1) Emma d’Estouteville, widow of Errand d’Harcourt.
1.1.2. William de Grantmesnil, “avunculus” of Arnoul de Montpinçon (O.V. iii., v., p. 167).
1.1.3. Rohese de Grantmesnil, m. Robert de Courcy, son of Richard de Courcy, who donated land at Jort to St.-Pierre-sur-Dives, with the consent of Lesceline, comtesse d’Eu, that is, Lesceline de Harcourt, da. of Turchetil de Harcourt, sister of Anschetill de Harcourt, wife of William d’Eu; their son, Robert de Eu, was the founder of Treport, a foundation doner being Anschetill de Rieux, who may have been synonomous with Anschetill de Harcourt, father of Errand de Harcourt.
1.1.4. Mathide de Grantmesnil, m. Hugh de Montpinçon, son of Raoul de Montpinçon, sénéchal of Duke William, who donated land at Jort to Saint-Evroul.

The Ansketil de Jorz who is recorded in England in 1110 may have been synonomous with the Ansketil named here: “In Waterfala sunt ij bovate terre quas dedit nobis Aschetillus dispensator quietas & solutas ab omni seruicio & posuit super altare per unum cultellum, & hoc idem concesit in capitulo Galfridus filius eius & recepti sunt ipsi & uxor eiusdem Aschetilli defuncta in communione fraterne societatis & oracionum & beneficiorum Ecclesiæ ” (C.G.O. Bridgeman, The Burton Abbey Twelfth Century Surveys, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, p. 225, 1918). Thus, Aschetil was the father of Geoffrey Despenser. (A despenser was a court official who may have been a master despenser (of bread, wine, the general larder, etc., with others serving under them; they received about half the pay of a royal steward and other officers of the royal household of first rank).

He may have been Ansketil de Graye:

“The Ansketils who held Rotherfield Greys and South Newington in Oxfordshire from the escheated fief of William son of Osbern may be Ansketil of Graye, who held five other manors on the same fief. It is also likely that he is the Ansketil who held Chastleton from the bishop of Bayeux, since many of the manors on the escheated fief were held by tenants of the bishop, notably Roger of Ivry and Robert d’Oilly (q.v.), who may be the Robert who held South Newington as a subtenancy from Ansketil. Chastleton, which belonged to Salford, is two miles from the Graye manor of Cornwell, Salford less than two miles. Ansketil of Graye may also be the tenant of the bishop of Bayeux at Thurrock in Essex, and perhaps of the bishop of London in Thurrock and the neighbouring vill of Orsett. Part of Thurrock is later named Grays Thurrock; and although the name cannot be directly associated with the bishop’s tenant, whose descendants have not been traced, it would be a remarkable coincidence if they were unconnected: VCH Essex, viii. 40, 59. Ansketil’s manors are recorded in Coel (no. 2718) and referenced in Domesday people, p. 151”. (Hull University dataset).

He probably was not synonomous with Ansketil of Rots, who was very likely a senior cleric:

Ansketil of Rots, who held the entire fief of the archbishop of Canterbury in Hertfordshire apart from two acres, is very probably Ansketil of Rots, named as holding part of Watton in the same Hundred ‘under the archbishop’, as well as parts of the archiepiscopal manors of Maidstone and Gillingham in Kent according to the Domesday Monachorum (pp. 85-86). Ansketil was one of the major tenants of Bishop Odo of Bayeux in Kent, with ten manors, on all of which he is accorded his byname in Domesday Book or in the Domesday Monachorum (pp. 101, 105), and at Tatsfield in Surrey. He also held Ashenfield in Kent from Christ Church, Canterbury. He is probably the archdeacon who held the valuable manor of Deal from St Martin’s of Dover, to which Bishop Odo added 100 acres filched from other prebends, archdeacon perhaps of Canterbury and/or Rochester, possibly also a canon of St Paul’s: Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, i. 47; ii. 12, 81. Rots is in Lower Normandy (Calvados: arrondissement Caen), a few miles from Bayeux and Caen, centres of Bishop Odo’s power-base in Normandy. Ansketil’s manors are recorded in Coel (no. 108) and referenced in Domesday people, p. 154. (ibid.)

He was most probably Ansketil of Rieux. “Dr Keats-Rohan suggests that the Ansketils who held land at Bexhill, Footland and Wellhead in Sussex from the Count of Eu are ‘perhaps’ Ansketil of Rieux, who accounted in Sussex in the Pipe Roll of 1130 and whose family appears in the early charters of Tréport abbey, founded by the Count of Eu. The three manors are of similar status, lying a few miles on either side of Battle, so were probably held by one man, whoever his descendants. The Count of Eu had no other tenants of this name. The one other Ansketil in the county had a ploughteam from Earl Roger of Shrewsbury at Birdham, on the other side of the county, almost seventy miles away. Rieux (Seine-Maritime: arrondissement Dieppe), in Upper Normandy, is a dozen miles from Eu. Ansketil’s manors are recorded in Coel (no. 683) and referenced in Domesday People, p. 152″. (ibid.).

Rieux was near the forest of Eu. Anscher (Anschetill) de Rieux (Riu, Rei) gave the abbey of Tréport, c. 1060, the tithes of decimam suam de Riu. (Carlularium sanctae Trinilatis, p. 425). Gilbert, son of Erchembald the Vicomte gave to the abbey of Mont-de-Rouen, the valley of Riquier, and the meadows of Rieux, Ansfrid, son of Osbern the Vicomte of Eu, also gave also his share. Ansfrid was the brother of Geoffrey. Anchetill de Rieux was the father of Hugh, the father of Anscher (Anschetill), who accounted in Sussex in 1129/30. (See K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, p. 152, cit. Cart. Treport, no. 2).

(Sussex. Phil. ref. 9,11. Ansketil holds of Robert, count of Eu.
Footland. Phil. ref. 9,128. Ansketil ‘the man of Robert, count of Eu’.
Wellhead. Phil. ref. 9,130. Ansketil ‘the man of Robert, count of Eu’).

The said Geoffrey may have been the father of this Osbern: The Land of the Count of Eu, Bexill Hundred: Osbern son of Geoffrey holds Bexill from the Count. Before 1066 Bishop Alric held it because it is the Bishopric’s; he held it later until King William gave the castlery of Hastings to the Count. Before 1066 and now it answered for 20 hides. Land for 26 ploughs. The Count holds 3 hides of the land of this manor himself in lordship. He has 1 plough; 7 villagers with 4 ploughs. Osbern son of Geoffrey has 10 hides of this land; Wenenc 1 hide; William of Sept-Meules 2 1/2 hides less 1/2 virgate; Robert St Léger 1 hide and 1/2 virgate; Reinbert the sheriff 1/2 hide; Ansketil of Rieux 1/2 hide; Robert of Criel 1/2 hide; the clerics Geoffrey and Roger 1 hide in prebend; 2 churches. In lordship 4 ploughs; 46 villagers and 27 cottagers with 29 ploughs. In the whole manor, meadow, 6 acres. Value of the whole manor before 1066 £20; later it was waste; now £18 10s; the Count’s part takes 40s thereof. Osbern son of Geoffrey holds 2 virgates of land from the Count in this Hundred. It always answered for 2 virgates. He has 5 oxen in a plough. The value was 8s; now 16s.

It may be recalled that Lesceline, countess of Eu, held the fief of Jort. She was the da. of Turchetil de Harcourt, and wife of William I, count of Eu, illegitimate son of Duke Richard I of Normandy; their son, Count Robert of Eu, died in 1089 and is buried in Tréport Abbey, which he founded between 1057 and 1066. Anschetill de Rieux was a donator to the foundation, and such donations were invariably confined to those in some way related to the founder. In that Lesceline was the sister of Anschetill de Harcourt, it may be the case, to repeat, that he was synonomous with Anschetill de Rieux; in this case, the donation came from an uncle.

Whoever Aschetillus dispensator was, it seems clear enough that he was not a Courcy by blood, but may have been related through marriage.

1.1. Richard de Courcy, d. 1098, m. Guadelmodis, was described as of the family of the ‘seneschals de Corcie’, Wace, III, vv, 8481-82, 8526. Richard de Courcy, was tenant-in-chief in England temp. William. (Reg., I; DB, 159a; Loyd, Origins, p. 36; Green, Government, pp. 242-4).
1.1.1. Robert de Courcy, son-in-law of Hugh de Grentmesnil, and Steward of the Household to King Henry I, m. (1092) Rohese de Grantmesnil, daughter of Hugh I, lord of Grandmesnil and Courcy. He probably participated in the First Crusade (1096-1099), and witnessed Henry I’s Confirmation Charter to the Convent of St. Bartholomew in 1133. It was probably he who held land at Wymeswold of his father-in-law, Hugh de Grandmesnil, in 1086.
1.1.1.1. Robert de Courcy, Royal Dapifer, m. (1117) Agnes de Tankerville.

Without evidence of some continuation of association the genealogical trail we propose is likely to be false.

1. Robert de Courcy, fl. 1058, m. Hebria de Bernieres, receiving as her dower land adjacent the river Dives at Jort, Bernieres, d’Ailly, Couliboeuf and Morteaux. Jort had belonged to Lesceline, Countess of Eu, and was associated with the Courcis: “Cil de Courci e Cil de Jort” (J. R. Planche, The Conqueror and his Companions). Robert de Courcy, son of Richard de Courcy, donated land at Jort to St.-Pierre-sur-Dives, with the consent of Lesceline, comitesse d’Eu, that is, Lesceline de Harcourt, da. of Turchetil de Harcourt, sister of Anschetill de Harcourt, wife of William d’Eu; their son, Robert de Eu, was the founder of Treport, a foundation doner being Anschetill de Rieux, who may have been synonomous with Anschetill de Harcourt, father of Errand de Harcourt.
1.1. Richard de Courcy, d. 1098, m. Guadelmodis, was described as of the family of the ‘seneschals de Corcie’, Wace, III, vv, 8481-82, 8526. Richard de Courcy, was tenant-in-chief in England temp. William. (Reg., I; DB, 159a; Loyd, Origins, p. 36; Green, Government, pp. 242-4). Richardus de Curseio tenuit de eadam comitissa in Macel, Jort, Pont (Pont-de-Jort), etc., etc. (Gal. Christ, 7, 159). The Nigel associated with Jort was Nigel de Hermonvilla (ibid.).
1.1.1. William de Courcy, dapifer, m. Emma de Falaise. Jort is a commune in the arrondissement of Falaise. (Galeron, Brébisson, Desnoyers, Statistique de l’arrondissement de Falaise).
1.1.1.1. William de Courcy, m. Avice, the da. and coheir of William Meschin, and Cecily de Rumilly. From the following charter we further learn that the lady Avicia de Rumilly had a chapel in her mansion of Harewood: “William de Courcy, steward of the king of England, to nil the sons of Holy Mother Church, health. Know ye that I have granted and by this present charter confirmed that donation, which my mother, Avicia de Rumilly, gave to the nuns of Arthington, namely, the half part of the land of Helthwait free and quit in pure and perpetual frankalmoign, and in time of harvest to have the fattening of forty swine of their own free of charge in her wood of Swindon, and common pasture to their own animals in the aforesaid wood; upon the condition nevertheless that one nun, whom the lady Avicia shall place there, shall be always resident in the convent of Arthington. After the decease of my mother, I, her son and heir, and my heirs shall have for ever the same privilege in respect of the convent of Arthington. Of this donation these are witnesses, William, parson of Harewood, and William, chaplain of the mansion of the lady Avicia, and Gocelinus” (E.Y.C.).

William, eldest son of Anschetil Dispensator, held land at Harewood.

Gift in free, and perpetual alms by Cecily de Rumilly to the canons of Embsay of her mills at Harewood with all its multure, with provision that no other mill will be had in the land which pertains to the church of Harewood, excepting Brandon and Wigton, without the assent of the canons, with all suit and free customs, with toft and croft in Harewood, one assart outside called Parvum Angrum, with meadow, another assart called Benecroft and free common of the Harewood, with forfeiture for those who go to another mill. Witness: “Ivone filio Aschetilli”.

copyright m stanhope 2016