.........Continued
Richard de Bellomonte, 1198
Again there may be two of the name. In a Devon context, Richard began disputes with his brother Thomas' widow Rose in about 1198. Rose remarried, to a certain Simon Buzun. In fact, before Thomas, she had been the wife of a Stephen Flameng. The source for these facts is mainly the Curia Regis Rolls, and Pipe Rolls, volumes which I saw years ago in Southampton University Library (my thanks to them!) many of which don't seem to be available online, making it hard to check references.
When Normandy was lost in 1204, families which had been able to operate both sides of the English Channel, had to choose one side or the other, or divide their family. So this may be the Richard de Bellomonte whose former land in Hague (NW part of Cotentin) was regranted by king Philip-Augustus in 1207 (Cartulaire Normand, ed. L. Delisle, no. 161 p.26 and p.292 - printed in Mem. Soc. Antiquaires Normandie, volume 16 (1852). References in the Pipe Rolls to Richard again in a Devon context make me think that this is a man who would have lost any lands that he had south of the channel.
But since a family called Beaumont continued in the Cotentin long after 1204 I suppose they are different people (though likely to be related to one another).
A Richard de Bellomonte occurs at Fareham (Hampshire) in 1208, mentioned in the Bishop of Winchester's Pipe Roll. I would guess-identify this as Richard Beaumont of Devon and/or of the Cotentin.
There are a number of references to Richard and this Devon family in the early c13 in context of litigation such as dower claims.
Richard would seem to have died by about 1221 leaving a son called Philip and a widow named Alice, who was not Philip's mother.
Philip de Bellomonte, 1220
The son of Richard, and nephew of Thomas.
From Bracton's Note Book 2 pp.160-1 (dated 1222):-
....... manerio de Cuntebiria unde dicit quod de secta ilia fuit Thomas de Bello Monte seisitus avunculus suus [of Philip is meant] ut de feodo et iure tempore Ricardi Regis etc. et de ipso Thoma descendit secta ilia Ricardo fratri suo eo quod Thomas obiit sine herede de se ita quod Roeisia uxor eiusdem Thome tenuit hundredum illud cum secta ilia predicta tota uita sua nomine dotis toto tempore Johannis Regis et descendit ius illius secte eidem Philippo ut filio et heredi suo
.... manor of Countisbury [in the hundred of Shirwell] of which he said his uncle Thomas de Beaumont was seised in the time of king Richard [1189-1199], and that from the said Thomas the suit descended to Richard his brother since Thomas had no heirs of his [body] [and that] Rose the wife of the said Thomas held the hundred with the suit all her life all the time of king John [1199-1216] and thus the suit descended to the said Philip as son and heir
In the Curia Regis Rolls there are numerous reports of Philip and other Beaumonts who may be his relatives. Philip litigated with his stepmother, Alice. Bracton’s Notebook no.977 vol.3 p.27) [my very loose translation]:- Philip recovers Shirwell because his father Richard never held it (because Rose had it), and thus Alice's claim to have it in dower should fail.
The names of the family members in the records of the litigation seem to show that this Philip is not the same as the contemporary namesake at Pirton, Oxfordshire. Nevertheless I see them as likely to be related somehow. It seems that the author[s] of Victoria County History (Oxfordshire) (Volume 8 pp.138-178; see the text of footnote 198 there) assumed there was but one Philip, in Oxfordshire and Devon, and I must respectfully disagree.
Philip (of Devon) had a tenant called William de Bellomonte, whose father's name was Joel. Timing seems too long for that to have been the Joel mentioned in the previous piece.
In 1229 Philip appears to have been sent overseas in the royal service. The name appears twice on a list of such men issued at Portsmouth (Patent Rolls 1225-1232 p.311). This is consistent with there being two of them, Devon and Pirton!
Nothing is known of Philip's marriage etc but the Devon family continued.
Dorsington
A complication exists in that there were people called Beaumont at Dorsington (between Stratford on Avon and Evesham). One representative of that family in King John's reign was also called Philip, so there were in fact three of them!
They were not all exact contemporaries but I'm reminded how Winnie the Pooh counted Woozles - each time he walked around the tree, he was following one more set of footprints than before!
14 May 2021. I am removing most of the rest of this Dorsington section from here as I plan to write a piece especially on the Dorsington people.
In terms of chronology, Philip of Dorsington could, I think, be a younger brother either of (a) Thomas and Richard, of Devon, or (b) Thomas of Pyrton (for whom, see my 27 February 2021 contribution).
Back to Devon.
Philip de Bellomonte, 1238
Possibly the same as the previous (Devon) Philip. When asked - in 1238 - to show by what warrant he held the hundred of Shirwell, Philippus de Beumond said quod nullum alium warantum habet nisi ex antiquum tenura et ex questu regi... (Book of Fees p.1369) ... he says he has no warrant except ancient tenure from the conquest of the kingdom. In other words he had no actual charters or title deeds to prove his ownership.
Meantime some of what he held appears to have transferred from the Okehampton to the Plympton honour.
In 1242 Philip de Bellomonte was one of four local worthies who were mandated to deal, at their own expense, with problems caused by the “king’s enemies” on Lundy island (Cal.Pat.R. Henry 3 vol. 3 p. 292).
There are further references to Philip down to about the 1260s, when it would appear that he must have died.
At this sort of date E.T. Beaumont's account in "The Beaumonts in History" starts to become useful (from page 61), but treat with care!.
Richard de Beaumont, from the 1270s to 1294
There are several primary references to Richard (assumed to be Philip's son, evidence being somewhat uncertain, except for tenure of Sherwell).
In 1284-1285 Ricardus Beaumund held two fees in Shirwell of Hugh de Courtenay [i.e. of Okehampton] and one fee also in Shirwell of Isabella de Fortibus countess of Aumale [that means, of the Plympton honour] (Feudal Aids 1 p.335)..... a further half fee held by Richard of the Okehampton honour in Brittecote and Smythepath was held from Richard by Hugh le Pigh (Feudal Aids 1 p.337).
The IPM taken on 23 January 22 Edward I (1294) shows that Richard was holding "Schirewill" for three fees viz two fees held of the heir of Hugh de Courtenay (i.e the Okehampton honour) and one from the countess Isabella (i.e. the Plympton honour), and "Esford" for a further fee from Okehampton and likewise "Langcars" for a further fee.. Richard had died on Tuesday the eve of Epiphany .. his heir was his son Philip, aged 22 years (Cal. IPM 3 no.187, p.111). The origins and background of the Plympton fee are not understood but the total of four fees held from Okehampton tallies with the information above.
I leave this account here, as the fourteenth century is not my baby.
Further on
"The Beaumonts" are supposed to have owned the estate of Youlston, near Shirwell, Barnstaple, from the reign of Henry II [earlier I would say] until [sometime when] a Beaumont heiress married a Chichester, ancestor of Francis, the round the world aviator and yachtsman (according to Western Morning News, 25 March 1987).
The Youlston estate was offered for sale in 1993 for £700,000 when it was said to comprise a manor house and 165 acres of parkland. I got the selling agents to send me the sale particulars at the time.
But I didn't buy it!
The "Listing Particulars" of this old house on the Historic England website today fall into the trap of saying that the early c12 holder was "Roceline de Beaumont" and that he had his chief dwelling there. That is the old red herring which I covered in my piece about South Tawton on February 1, 2021.
EMB 3 May 2021
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