The Yorkshire Beaumonts in some Medieval Surveys

1. The Book of Fees (c.1242)

(Book of Fees p.1103, Testa de Nevill p.365).

The list of feudal tenants of the earl of Lincoln (holder of Pontefract) includes "W. de BelloMonte tenet octavum partam unius militus" (holds the 8th part of a knight['s fee]". This was at Huddersfield, I am fairly confident.

2. The Hundred Rolls (c.1274)

(Agbrigg wapentake - pp.132-133 in Rotuli Hundredorum (1812), Volume 1).

(Huddersfield, Whitley, Kirkheaton, Almondbury, Crosland, Lepton were in Agbrigg wapentake).

Here Almondbury and Crosland Foss are mentioned somewhat generally. Hugh de Foss or Fossato is mentioned in context of Crosland, in a story involving a robber being caught and held at Hugh's house.

Nobody called Beaumont, however spelled, is mentioned.

It has long been understood that one of the thirteenth century Beaumonts must have married the Foss / Fossato heiress. One way or another William Beaumont who is found between about 1280 and 1320 seems to have inherited Crosland. 

3. Kirkby's Inquest (1284-1285)

(Kirkby's Inquest - the part for Yorkshire, which omits Agbrigg entirely - is printed in the Surtees Society volume 49, for 1866 from pages 1-186. Also in Feudal Aids, volume 6 (HMSO, 1920), from pages 1-105). The Surtees copy has extensive footnotes, this may explain why it takes up extra pages.

On a quick look I saw no references in the Yorkshire part of this survey to people called Beaumont (however spelled).

4. The Lay Subsidy Roll (1297)

(YAS Record Series volume 16, for 1894 where Agbrigg is given from page 89).

This was a tax on personal property so does not tell us about land tenure.

At Lepton amongst a number of people - John de Beumont and Agnes de Lasceles, with the value of their goods (livestock). It is a joint entry somewhat suggesting that they were joint holders, rather than husband & wife.

There is a list of names for Almondbury, not including any Beaumonts. Crosland is not mentioned. There is a list of names at Whitley. Likewise Huddersfield, Quarmby, Meltham and elsewhere. 

5. Survey of Knights Fees in Yorkshire (thought to be c.1302)

(Surtees Society volume, as above, pages 189-275 - Agbrigg at pages 228-229) (also in Feudal Aids vol.6 pp.129-130)

Several places in Agbrigg wapentake are mentioned at pages 228-229 but not including Crosland or Almondbury, and not including anyone called Beaumont - however spelled. 

Whitley is listed simply as held by the earl of Lincoln per tenentes j. car. terrae, unde xviii car. faciunt feod. [held as one carucate of land where 18 carucates make a knights fee].

6. Nomina Villarum, 1316

(The Surtees Society volume mentioned above prints the Yorkshire part of this at pp.302-367. Agbrigg is mentioned at pp. 351-2. The same (not checked line by line) is in Feudal Aids volume 6, where Agbrigg is at page 193).

Here the holder of "Crosseland" is "Willelmus Dobernount" - which looks like a corrupt version of "de Beaumont."  This is what RHB appears to have thought, and I agree, except that from what he wrote in the 1796 Pedigree it would appear that RHB thought this was from Kirkby's Inquest. 

The holder at Whitley in the Nomina Villarum is William son of William - a common enough sort of name but in this sort of context and date, a name found also at Emley.

Several other places are mentioned just with the name of the chief lord eg [Thomas] earl of Lancaster. He was the lord of Pontefract Castle between the death of Henry de Lacy earl of Lincoln in 1311, and himself being executed in 1322.

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In the next piece I am planning to show the Beaumont genealogy of this period, as R H Beaumont worked it out in the late eighteenth century, and to try to identify some of the sources he must have used. 

Please check all references. I think all of the books can be found freely online. Please cite from there, not from here.

(I understand the Nomina Villarum was printed in 1834 in one of the volumes of the Parliamentary Writs, by the Record Commission, and edited by Sir Francis Palgrave. The original source may be BL Harl. MS. 6281). 

EMB 16 November 2020