1. Torf. According to Robert of Torigny (GND, viii. c. 37), Torf was the father of Turold and Turchetil (see also OV ii. 12). It is wrongly assumed that this Turchetil was a forefather of the Harcourts; he died childless, passing his estate to his great-nephew, Asketil (cart. Preaux, fol. 97v; CP xi. Instr., col. 201 a. d., Du Monstier, Neustria Pia, p. 522, 1663). Turold mar. Duvelina de Crepon, sister of Gunnor, the wife of ‘Duke’ Richard; they were ancestors of the Beaumont family of Pont-Audemer, and, according to Auguste le Prevost, of the Harcourts, with Turold and Duvelina being the parents of both Onfroi de Vieilles (GND vii. 1. 3.), and Turchetil. (See Ordericus, ed. Prevost, vol. i., p. 180; ii. pp. 14, 369, 370; iii. pp. 42, 229).
1.1. Turchetil.
1.2. ‘Turoldis teneri ducis pedagogus perimitur’ (Will. Gemet, VII.).
1.2.1. Hunfrid (Onfroi de Vieilles, alias Vetulis or Vaux, lord of Vieilles; a small commune in the canton of Beaumont, arrondissement of Bernay.
1.2.1.1. Roger de Beaumont; Asketil, his dapifer, being a junior kinsman.
1.2.1.1.1. Robert de Beaumont, Ist Earl Leicester.
1.2.1.1.1.1. Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl Leicester, founder of Garendon in 1133, to which donated his kinsmen, Hugh de Berges, and his son, Asketil.
1.2.2. Turchetil.
1.2.2.1. Asketil de Rieu, gave the abbey of Tréport, c. 1060, the tithes of ‘decimam suam de Riu’. (Carlularium sanctae Trinilatis, p. 425). He is noted as ‘senis’, distinguishing him from his son. He donated after Robert d’ Eu, and, as convention, would have been a non-consanguineous relation of an immediate degree, such as an uncle.
1.2.2.1.1. Hugo; confirmed his father’s gifts to Treport. At Domesday, he held Rotingedene (as follows) from William de Warenne*. ‘Hamine held it from Earl Godwine. Then, and now, it vouched for two hides, and lay in Ferle, which the Earl of Mortain held in his rape. There is land for two ploughs. There, they are held by ten bordars’. *His son, William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey (d. 1138), m. Isabelle de Vermandois, widow of Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester, whose son founded Garendon.
1.2.2.1.1.1. Asketil de Rieu, born c. 1060, confirms his father’s gifts to Treport, and is probably synonomous with Anschetil, dapifer of Roger de Beaumont, who d. 29 November 1094. (ctl. Preaux, fol. 125; cart. Beaumont; Lot, p. 96, 1913, dated to the 1080’s). (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’). He is likely to have been Robert’s cousin. He is also likely to be the Ansketil de Jorz who is recorded in England in 1110, and 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). D.B.: The Land of the Count of Eu, Bexill Hundred: ‘Ansketil of Rieux 1/2 hide‘.
1.2.2.1.1.1.1. Gaufrid (Geoffrey).
1.2.2.1.1.1.2. Robert fitz Anschetil, ob. 1118 (ctl. Preaux, fol. 102v). Held Norman fiefs.
1.2.2.1.1.1.2.1. William fitz Robert, fl. 1149 (P.R. 31 H. 1). Granted Stanton-under-Bardon, Leic., to Garendon Abbey, founded by Robert de Beaumont (cart. Garendon, fols. 5v., 15v.).
1.2.2.1.1.1.2.1.1. Robert fitz William, mar. Eve Crispin. In 1192, he made grants to the abbey of La Noe with the consent of Richard, John, and Amaury, his sons, and to the abbey of Bec for prayers for Albereda, his sister. He was also a benefactor to the abbey of Mortemer-en-Lions by reason apparently of his having contracted marriage with the daughter of a baron of the Vexin Normande, Joscelin Crispin.
1.2.2.1.1.1.2.2. Ivo de Harcourt. Ratified the confirmation of his brother, William, of their father’s gifts to Garendon (ctl. Garendon, fol. 15v.; Nichols’ Leic. vii.). ‘In 1148/9, William de Harcourt, with the consent of his brother and heir, Ivo, and mother, Agnes, alienated to Garendon the manor of Stanton-under- Bardon, which was specifically their patrimonium’ (Benjamin Thompson, Monasteries and Society in Medieval Britain, p. 107, 1999). It was Ivo who was the progenitor of the English line of Harcourts. ‘The later forfeiture of the English lands of the ‘Norman’ Harcourts makes them difficult to trace, but we do at least know some of them in Leicestershire … the remaining part of the Harcourt inheritance in the manor of Leicester was being held by Ivo de Harcourt before the end of Stephen’s reign’ (Crouch, Beaumont Twins, pp.125-6).
1.2.2.1.1.1.2.2.1. Robert de Harcourt, ob. c. 1206, mar. Milicent de Camville. Attested charters of Earl Waleran de Beaumont; accompanied him to Normandy in 1153.
1.2.2.1.1.1.2.2.1.1. William Fitz Robert de Harcourt; confirmed his father’s gifts.
The Harcourts were of Haricourt, Ar. Bernay, c. Brionne (Eure).
1.2.2.1.1.2. Asketil de Berges. Sometime during the period 1133- 48, as “Asketillus de Berges,” he gave four carucates of the land of Burton to the Abbot and Convent of St. Mary at Garendon, the charter being witnessed by Robert, Earl of Leicester, and Ives de Harcourt, who d. 1148. (B.M. MS Lansdowne 415, folios 8, 31V). Asketil’s son was Geoffrey le Despenser (‘Gaufrido dispensatore’), ‘dispensarius’ to the Earl of Chester.  His son, Thomas le Despenser, donated to Garendon as ‘Tomas Dispensator, filius Gaufridi Dispensatoris’. (John Nichols, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, vol. III, part 2, 1804).

Notes on the Churches, Mr. Hussey: ‘BURGEMERE.- The Domesday description of this place is as follows. “Goze tenet de Willielmo’ i.e. De Warene. “Villani tenuerunt, qui jacuerunt in Falemere T.R.E. … Tunc et modo se defendebat pro iv hidis. Terra est ii carucarum. In dominio est una cum uno villano et ii bordariis et ii servis. Ibi aecclesiola et silva de iv porcis. T. R. E. valebat xx solidos, et post et modo valet xxx solidos. – Goze holds it of William (De Warene). The villans, who resided at Falmer, held it in the time of K. Edward … Then and now it claimed to contain four hides. It is an estate of two ploughs. In the domain is one with one villan, and two borderers and two serfs. There is a small church, and a wood of four hogs. In the time of K. Edward it was worth twenty shillings, and afterwards and now it is worth thirty shillings.” (D.B.) The property therefore is expressly stated to have been occupied by persons residing at Falmer; the church was small; and there was a little wood, feeding only four hogs.This case however is a remarkable instance of the irregularity, prevailing in early times, with regard to boundaries, and which even now subsists in the detached portions of counties and parishes, lying at a distance from the districts, to which they belong. For Burgemere is stated in D.B. to be in the hundred of “Welesmere,” which comprised no other manors save those of Bristelmestune, Rotingedene, and Howingedene, Falmer being then in a hundred of its own name. Whereas Bor’mer is entirely separated by the southern part of the parish from the remainder of its original hundred, the nearest portion of which must be about half a mile, or more, from Falmer church. In (A. D. 1291) we find it joined with Falmer; “Ecclia de Faleme’ cum Burg’— note, Bercheme’;” and the same in the (Nomae Roll), “Falemere cum capella de Burgheme;” but the name does not occur in (Val. Eccl.) In (A. D. 1291) “Faleme’ cum Burg” are declared to belong to the prior of Lewes. At the time of the Domesday Survey the former was held by the priory, “St. Pancras,” of the Earl of Surrey, doubtless by gift of the latter, but Burgemere was still in lay hands, as shown by the quotation above. The Burgemere of D.B. may satisfactorily be identified in Boro’mer or Bor’mer, pronounced Bawmer, a very small hamlet in the parish of Falmer, about a mile northward from the church’.  Burgemere was contracted to Burg and Berges.

1.2.2.1.1.2.1. Asketil.
1.2.2.1.1.2.1.1. Gaufrid (Geoffrey).
1.2.2.1.1.2.1.1.1. Thomas Dispensator.
1.2.2.2. Lesceline, m. William I, Count of Eu, illegitimate son of ‘Duke’ Richard I. of Normandy. Lesceline, Countess of Eu, held the fief of Jort.
1.2.2.2.1. Robert d’Eu, the founder of Treport, to which Asketil de Rieu probably donated as his uncle – such donations were invariably confined to those in some way related to the founder. Asketil was the likely father of Errand de Harcourt, whose widow, Emma d’Estouteville, m. Hugh de Grantmesnil, whose sister, 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.

Th primacy of relationships to founders of religious institutions repeated over generations is one key. Generally, the repetition of patterns  of association is paramount to understanding these people, as they organised themselves to survive through familial bonds.

copyright m stanhope 2017