1622 on. Samuel Peacham, The Compleat Gentleman
This book was mainly about heraldry, not history. The passage quoted comes where Peacham is talking about a different family entirely, that of Constable of Flamborough, who might be descended from one of the Constables of Chester. It was a passing remark, not something to have ever been taken as a source.
These words introduce the digression -
Here I cannot pafse, (having occafion) but give a little touch of the Antiquity of this family of Conftable
and then a passage containing this -
The said Nigell was sonne of Iuon, Viscount Constantine in Normandy, by Emma, sister to Adam, Earle of Britaine…..
(The words are near-identical in:- 1622 edition (Michigan University); 1627 Edition (Herzog August Bibliothek); 1634 edition, also 1906 Oxford edition; 1661 edition as cited below - different page numbers in different editions. I haven't seen facsimiles of most of the editions).
1673. Sir Peter Leycester, Historical Antiquities (1673) p. 263
This Nigell, if we may believe Pecham in his Compleat Gentleman, pag. 189. was the Son of Ivo (Vice-Comes or Governor of Constantia in Normandy) by Emme Sister to Adam Earl of Bretagne: Sed quaere
I think "If we may believe..." means "this is not credible." It is rather like "with great respect to my learned friend......" "Sed quaere" (But query it) reinforces that.
And that, 350-odd years ago, should have been good enough, really. However:-
1741. Thomas Wotton, English Baronetage
The said Nigell was son of Ivon, Viscount Constantine, in Normandy, by Emma, sister to Adam Earl of Britain ........
1807. John T Smith, Antiquities of Westminster p.248, citing Peacham 1661 edn p.227
Nigell was, he says, "son of Ivon, Viscount Constantine, in Normandy, by Emma, sister to Adam Earl of Britain ........ "
1819 on. Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester
1819 edition, vol. 1 p.507 (George Ormerod himself)
This Nigell, if we may believe Pecham in his Compleat Gentleman, pag. 189, was the son of Ivo (vicecomes or governor of Constantia in Normandy) by Emme, sister to Adam earl of Bretagne. Sed quaere.
Directly taken from Leycester.
Second edition, 1882 (ed. Helsby), vol. 1 p.690
This Nigell, if we may believe Pecham in his Compleat Gentleman, pag. 189, was the son of Ivo (vicecomes or governor of Constantia in Normandy) by Emme, sister to [Alan, not] Adam earl of Bretagne. Sed quaere.
There are lengthy speculative footnotes by Helsby on pp.689-690 about some of the various Cotentin Nigels and the various stories about them. Nothing, of course, abut Yvo.
...............................
1836. Burke, History of the Commoners, an edition of 1836 Vol. 1 p.548
Nigell, son of Ivon, Viscount Constantine, in Normandy, by Emma, sister to Adam, Earl of Bretagne...
1847. Lipscombe, History & Antiquities of the County of Buckingham vol. 4 p.529n
Ivo was Governor of Constantia, in Normanby [sic]: he married Eme [sic], sister of Adam Earl of Bretagne......
Quaere, Query
Sir Peter Leycester didn't believe it! George Ormerod let it stand with the the query. Helsby got so far as saying that there was an Alan count of Brittany (there was no such Adam). Everybody else just swallowed it.
And that should surely be enough!
To quote an excellent historian of Cheshire:-
It was not until the sixteenth century that unscrupulous heralds linked him [Nigel] up with the vicomtes of the Cotentin whose seat was at Saint-Sauveur near Valognes. This affiliation seems first to appear in print in Henry Peacham’s The Complete Gentleman......(James Tait, The Foundation Charter of Runcorn (Later Norton) Priory, page 5, in Chetham Society vol. 100 (New Series), 1939).
But now, the internet......
As Peacham would say, Here I cannot pafse, (having occafion), but mention this as a current and perhaps the reddest version of the red herring:-
Yvo Bellomontensis and Emme Bretagne de St. Sauveur ..... the parents of the first Constable of Chester …
Does this reveal honest confusion with one of the Counts Ivo de Beaumont, of Beaumont-sur-Oise? Or is this is just a case of cutting and pasting by the new genealogists? The problem is, as with "the Oaks" that I have written about before, that red herrings get a life of their own. I say don't just comment on what was published recently, tying yourself in knots in your attempts to put it right, but if necessary ignore it and get back to basics.
...........................
Lastly I wonder if James Tait fell a little into the trap of concluding that Nigel was not from the Cotentin. I think so, as he had another theory (op. cit pp. 6-7), which should be considered carefully. However the mere fact that Peacham's theory linking Nigel to the Cotentin was corrupt does not prove anything as to what Nigel's background was, or was not.
My personal approach would be to focus (a) on the man Nigel presumably came to England to serve under, namely Hugh of Avranches, known as Hugh the Wolf ("Lupus,") earl of Chester from about 1070-1101, (b) on other known followers of earl Hugh (cutting through more corrupt genealogy would be needed there, I fear), and (c) on naming patterns - which would involve looking for anyone else who, or whose father, was called Nigel, or people whose "toponymic" (place-related) surnames connect to places of interest in the search.
There are plenty of Cotentin Nigels to look at, other than the lords of Saint-Sauveur. I would be interested in these and some others -
- Nigel son of Humphrey de Haga, mentioned in a charter of vicomte Nigel (Delisle, Preuves, no.31),
- Nigel the father of the Rogo who obtained lands in Devon (Domesday People p.413),
- Nigel, son of Constantine who had lands at Sainteny near Carentan, and who (Nigel that is) went to Apulia (Caen SCRIPTA no. 1666),
- or even the slightly later Nigel of Stafford (Domesday People p.302).
EMB 20 March 2021
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