Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the AnarchyRound, John Horace
History
Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy
Round, John Horace
Great Britain -- History -- Stephen, 1135-1154; Mandeville, Geoffrey de, earl of Essex, -1144
We further find Gervase fitz Roger excused (in the Pipe-Roll of 1130)
the payment of two shillings "de veteri Danegeldo" (? 1127-28) in
Middlesex, and seven shillings "de preterito Danegeldo" (1128-29)
because his land is "waste."[888] The inference to be drawn from all
these passages is that Gervase had then (1130) recently succeeded his
father, a man of unusual wealth and considerable property in land. We
should therefore expect to find him, in his turn, a man of some
importance, as was our own Gervase the Justiciar (_alias_ Gervase de
Cornhill), the only Gervase who meets us as a man of any consequence.
Fortunately, however, we are not dependent on mere inference. The manor
of Chalk was granted by the Crown to Roger "nepos Huberti;"[889] it was
subsequently regranted to Gervase de Cornhill,[890] whom I identify with
Gervase his son. Moreover, the adoption by Gervase of the surname "de
Cornhill" can, as it happens, be accounted for. Among the records of the
duchy of Lancaster is a grant by William, Archbishop of Canterbury
(1123-1136), of land at "Eadintune" to Gervase and Agnes his wife, Agnes
being described as daughter of "Godeleve."[891] By the aid of another
document relating to the same property,[892] we identify this "Godeleve"
as the wife of Edward de Cornhill. To the eye of a trained genealogist
all is thus made clear.
But we now find ourselves in the midst of a most interesting family
connection. For these same records carry us back to the father of this
"Godeleve," namely, Edward of Southwark.[893] It is true that here he
figures merely as a "æ. desudwerc," but we have only to turn to another
quarter, and there we find "Edwardo de Suthwerke et Willelmo filio ejus"
among the leading witnesses to the invaluable document recording the
surrender by the English Cnihtengild of their soke to the priory of
Christchurch (1125).[894] I need scarcely lay stress on the interest and
importance of everything bearing on that remarkable and as yet
mysterious institution. We find ourselves now brought into actual
contact with the gild. For in one of its members, as named in that
document, "Edwardus Hupcornhill," we recognize no other than that
"Edward of Cornhill" who was son-in-law to "Edward of Southwark."[895]
Following up our man in yet another quarter, we find him witnessing a
London deed (_temp._ William the Dean),[896] and another one of about
the middle of the reign of Henry I.,[897] though wrongly assigned in the
(Hist. MSS.) Report to "about 1127."[898] Lastly, turning to still
another quarter, we find his name among those of the witnesses to an
agreement between Ramsey Abbey and the priory of Christchurch soon after
1125.[899]
We are now in a position to construct this remarkable pedigree:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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