Beaumonts of Norfolk and Suffolk Second Family c.1190-1320

Second Family – Drayton to Witnesham

Drayton was held from the lords of Hockering (Ryes in the c12, Marshall and Cressi in the c13). Other lands of this family were held from, eg St.Edmunds Abbey, the Bishop of Norwich. None of the principal Warenne honour lands of the first family are known to have passed to the second.

Godfrey de Bellomonte fl.c.1185-1211

Godfrey (probably brother of William of c.1185-1204) m. Alice of Drayton

Robert (below)

William (below)

Godfrey (very speculative)

Notes on Godfrey

- a landless younger son, entered service of Bigod family

- attests numerous Bigod circle charters from c.1190

- marriage to Alice is not proved, but fits all known facts, and other explanations are definitely wrong

- Alice's sister Agnes m. William Lenveise. Their father William of Drayton d.1225*.

- The mother of Alice and Agnes was Gunnora, daughter of Robert de Cokefeld.

- went back to Warenne service if he is the GB who was constable of Sandal castle, 1211

- Did he take any interest in the family lands? For his possible connection with Atlingworth, see note EYC 8 p.251. But there seems no later evidence for this

- assumed to be dead before c.1215-16 - not at Framlingham in 1216

- Another Godfrey occurs in the Warenne lands near Wakefield c.1234 - ?his 3^rd son?

*14 July 1225. At Portchester. Avelina widow of William de Drayton versus Gervase de Bradfield & Alice his wife and William le Enveise & Agnes his wife. Avelina to have reasonable dower in Drayton, Derham, Grimston, Taverham, "Bindham", Salle, and Holm (Pat. R. 1216-25, p. 593).

……………

Robert de Bellomonte fl.1210-1216

- eldest son of Godfrey, is likely but far from provable

- named for great-grandfather Robert de Cokefeld, if I am right

- he was taken prisoner at Carrickfergus, it is said (this was in July 1210)

- why he was there, not known. Perhaps in service of William de Braose.
- King John's siege of Carrickfergus was in late July 1210.

- thus Robert probably prisoner from then, but we don't know where he was held

- obtained his freedom/pardon in February 1215 on intervention of John Marshall (Rot.Lit.Pat.)

- John Marshall - his maternal grandfather's overlord, if I am right

- 1216 in siege of Framlingham castle, stated to be kinsman and intended hostage for William Lenveise, but died soon after and was replaced (Rot.Lit.Claus. i. 254b, 259)]

………..

William de Bellomonte fl.c.1229-1255

William (younger son of Godfrey, is likely) m. unknown

Godfrey (below)

John (below)

Notes on William:

- obtained half Drayton via his mother and half later via aunt

- Drayton was held by four knights fees from Hockering barony (lords: Ryes, Marshall, Cressy)

- his mother Alice of Drayton had remarried to Gervase de Bradfield

- Gervase lived until 1244+ (Fine R.) - not her first husband as historians thought

- the Bigod knight William Lenveise was his uncle (husband of Agnes of Drayton)

- obtained share of inheritance from Cokefeld family, at least, after Gervase died (not before 1240s) - much of this held from St.Edmunds Abbey

- seems to have gone to Rome with earl Roger Bigod in 1245 (Cal.Pat.R.)

- query if obtained further Suffolk interests by marriage

- no evidence that he held any of the Warenne honour lands of the first family

- re the cross at Drayton? - wife might have been called Joan (see separate post)

- NB also incised coffin slab at Drayton church

- Blomefield, Copinger and other historians' pedigrees muddled.

Godfrey de Bellomonte fl.1260-1293

Godfrey m. Cecilia de Ferrers
[not proved to be grandson of Godfrey, but see name pattern]

[Godfrey stated in 1286 that he was son of William son of Alice son of Gunnora]

[A good deal of information in the printed public records about Godfrey]
[His heir was his brother John]

John de Bellomonte dc.1298

John (heir of brother Godfrey) m1 [.....?de Weyland?].... m2. Alice [Hardel]

(by 1) Richard [?clerk][at Drayton]

(by 1) Joan (m. Giles de Breuse)(?m2 Edmund Bacon)

[John was aged over 40 in 1293 when he was his brother's heir (IPM)]

[Alice had m1. William son of Warin, and would m3. John Spryng]

[there are many unanswered questions surrounding John, the identity of his first wife, various people to whom he must have been related, and the places with which he was connected, including Witnesham and [Little] Whittingham [Green] (a Clere-Breuse property?), the names of which may be mixed up even in the original primary sources, and tend to be confused also with unrelated places such as Waxham (Waxtonesham)]

[William son of Warin died shortly before 13 June 1290, for on that date Alice was given leave to remarry]

[The arrangement by which Joan married Giles de Breuse was made, I suspect by Alice, shortly after John's death ,which was in about September 1298, Giles having had a first wife who was murdered that year (Cal.Pat.R., May 1298)]
[My view is that Richard and Joan were John's children by a first wife]
[Joan often said to be Richard's daughter.....but]

[Joan is inherently more likely to be John's daughter rather than granddaughter. Pointers to this include both the chronology and the fact that Alice seems to have controlled everything]

[Alice's heirs when she d.1325 were her two daughters. Their father was William son of Warin. The arrangement whereby the elder of them was to be married was made in summer 1292 (Cal.Pat.R.).

Alice's daughters by William son of Warin were:-

Alice who m. Sir John Dagworth

Isolda who m. Sir John de Belhous]

The Return from Eynesford Hundred of 1302 (Feudal Aids 3, 414), which details the holdings of the heirs of the first Beaumont family held from Geoffrey de Say, also shows a holding at Salle from the same lord by Giles de Breuse [he was the successor of the Cleres], and a small holding by this John de Beaumont's heirs there, from William Marshall [of Hockering].

Richard de Bellomonte (son of John)

Blomefield wrote that in 1305 Alice and Richard conveyed Drayton to bishop Walter Langton (vol. X pp.409-10)(Rye, Calendar Norfolk Fines pp.165-6). But he was not her son, merely her stepson.

Richard is often tagged “of Witnesham.” This place may be what his father had inherited from a certain Nicholas son of Reiner. That gentleman, described as the lord of the manor of Witnesham and parson of the church there, who was not up to date with his tax, is said to have been riding ostenatiously around the parish on a splendid horse with a hawk on his arm and an entourage of valets, and to have put his horse at the bailiffs, an incident which led to some violence and also to a trial! (A Suffolk Hundred in 1283, ed. E.Powell, Cambridge, 1910; pp.xvi-xviii; mentioned by Mark Bailey, Medieval Suffolk: An Economic and Social History 1200-1500, p.15).

In 1306 Giles and Joan appear to have obtained from Richard the reversion to Witnesham, behind a life interest still held by Alice (Rye, Calendar Suffolk Fines p.111); Copinger calling it the manor of Redhall alias Brompton, which was to descend in the Breuses until 1489 (Copinger 3 p.122).

Richard had the church of Witnesham, and was to retain another benefice, according to a faculty granted to bishop Walter by the Pope in 1306 (see Jill Blackwell Hughes, “The Episcopate of Walter Langton… with a Calendar of his Register,” Nottingham University Thesis 1992, Volume 2 of 3, no.788 on pp.586-588). The other church is presumably Drayton, of which Richard was Rector according to Blomefield.

I suspect Richard may be responsible for the coffin lid and cross at Drayton.

Richard may have married. Eleanor de Bellomonte, who appears mentioned in context of Scarning, Norfolk in 1316, might be his widow. But I have found no evidence of any offspring.

Joan de Bellomonte

Joan was the final heiress of what was left. I think she was Richard's sister. She had married Giles de Breuse apparently before 1300 as suggested above. She had several sons by Giles, the oldest being born in about 1302. Giles died in 1311-12. The IPM states of the manor of “Witlesham” that after the death of Alice de Bello Monte, [it] ought to revert to Joan late the wife of the said Giles and [to] Richard his son [then aged nine] (CIPM 5 no.270 at p.146).

Joan seems to have then married Edmund Bacon, as is suggested by an inquiry in 1362 – long afterwards - into what he had owned. Here it was stated that he had married one Joan de Brewes, by whom he had had a daughter Margery, who had married William de Kerdeston. All the historians have picked up on this, not least because of the Beaumonts' earlier connexions with Kerdiston, which in this instance is a red herring.

The eldest son of Giles and Joan was called Richard. He did not reach majority. The next son was Robert, who likewise died at a young age. 10 July 1325. Order to the escheator .... to take in the lands which Alice de Bello Monte, deceased held for life of the inheritance of the heir of Robert de Brewosa son & heir of Giles de Brewosa, tenant in chief, a minor in the king's ward (Cal.Fine Rolls 1319-1327, p.354).

A further Inquiry in 19 Edward II on Alice de Bellomonte immediately precedes the IPM of Robert de Brewosa the son and heir of Giles ….. this states that Alice was holding, for life, the manor of Witnesham, of Robert's inheritance, of the bishop of Norwich as of the manor of Baketon by service of two and half fees (CIPM 6 no.705).... in the IPM of Robert, it is said that he held several holdings in Witnesham........ and his heir is his brother John, aged 18 (CIPM 6 no.706).

I am not hopeful of there being no mistakes in these notes and there remain various problems to solve.  One new piece of information can change everything!