The de Beauchamp family name
When I started my history of Belchamp Walter I was taking a lot of information from Thomas Wright's "History and Topography of Essex". As I have observered on other pages the de Beauchamp context is not clear.
The William de Beauchamp of Bedford (died April 11, 1236 (46-55)) first documented is in all likelyhood a decendant the de Beauchamp featured on this page. The second husband of Rhoese de Vere,
The Wikipedia page on Walter de Beauchamp says that he was witness to the royal charters in 1108 and 1111, this would put him as active in King Henry I's reign.
Walter de Beauchamp was one of Henry I's "New Men" according to historian H. F. Doherty, writing for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The Wikipedia page states that he was possibly a forester for the crown but Orderic Vitalis in his Historia ecclesiastica seems to be inconsistnat in the description of the "new men".
From the Wikipedia page:
In addition, the split of allegences to King Stephen and the Empress Matilda possibly explains the possible deepening of the split in the de Beauchamp family between Emsley, Worchestershire and Bedford. Payne de Beauchamp of Bedford's son Simon initially supported Stephen but something lead to the destruction of Bedford castle. (This was on the orders of Henry III - I will have to check my dates)
Background to this page
Having seen some of my history pages being found by those making an Internet search I have decided to add a bit more context on how the pages came about.