Belchamp Walter in the 13th Century
Geoffrey de Mandeville d. 1144 - North Essex and South Suffolk - Index of Villages - 12th Century - Botetourt
The history of the country and the region in the 13th Century is a little complex to follow. I think that this is due to the formulation of the new feudal system that was developing in England in the aftermath of Conquest. After William invaded and became king of England his sucessors, William II, Henry I, Stephen, Henry II, Richard I and John - saw the allocation of land to a large mumber of "noble" families.
England was pretty much a vassal of Normandy after the Conquest. In the same way Normandy was a vassal of Scandinavia before that. The Normans were seperate from the Franks and France and the French were often in conflict with the Normans. As the country of England developed its own feudal system nobal families are seen "holding" many different parts of the country.
The 12th Century in Belchamp Walter is even more unknown. I suspect that the land was transferred from a "companion of William the Conqueror" to the de Vere dynasty.
This page is currently being reviewed with repect to how the history of country
relates to the region. More is known about some of the families active in the era of the 13th Century that there
was from the 12th
I started this page with a list of names that I extracted fron Thomas Wright. While this may have been a good place to start it does not make a page that is easy to follow.
This page has the link to The Publications Of The Bedfordshire Historical Record Society Volume I - This could be used to expand on the 12th Century and the connections between the Otto and Beauchamps
The connection between Essex and Bedford
Belchamp Walter in the 13th Century
The Thirteenth Century is not well documented as far as Belchamp Walter is concerned. However, as will
all periods of world history a lot was going on in England, the rest of
Europe and of course the "Holy Land". and, of course,
there was the Magna Carta (1215).
You don't have to travel far from Belchamp Walter to see where the wealth came from, the Medieval English wool trade was at its height 1250 - 1350. The towns of Sudbury and Hadleigh and the villages of Long Melford, Clare
and Lavenham are testament to this. The buildings in these locations are largely from the 16th Century by which time the
Wool Trade had evolved into the cloth industry.
I have many family names that are mentioned by Thomas Wright in 1831/36.
In the style of historians of that period, and also today, dates are not really well documented and there has to be a lot of supposition. Places and names
of families
are metioned in Domesday and accounts of who was "honoured" with land by William the Conqueror, but again
there is a
lot of interepretation still required to put things in perspective.
Top
Some of the names that I have found that are mentioned with respect to Belchamp Walter from this century
include:
- Mowbray, 1281
- de Monchensy, 1230??? - a.k.a.
William Moncansio Montecanyso of Edwardestone
- Gernon, 1220 - Sir Ralph Gernon
- de Steyngrave, 1245-1295 (aka Stonegrave, Stonegreve, Stynegrave or Stynegreve)
- Balwin Wake, 1237-1282
- de Tey, 1250-1270 - The connection of the Walter de Tey name
- de Patesull, 1296 - connection to de Botetourt
- the manor of Wottone
- de Botetourt, 1265-1324
- and Geofrey de Mandeville (d. 1144)
- The de Mandeville here is a descendant of the 12th
Century Geofrey but probably was still associated with Pleshey castle.
While all these names are local to the region of Belchamp Walter they are
not necassarily families that lived there. They may have "owned" or "held" the lands, but these were Medievil times
and the concept of ownership was not the same as it is now.
Sir John Botetourt was born in 1265 and married Maud Fitz Otho in
1302.
This was the early 14th Century it is not known where Botetourt was
living at this time but the marriage "brought" him Belchamp Walter. It is for this reason that it is
likely that
he had something to do with expansion of the village church, the building of the Nave and a Chantry to
be used on his death.
His grandson, another Sir John married and lived in Mendlesham, Suffolk
where he built a
side chapel at the time of the Black Death (1346).
Sir Ralph Gernon was probably the father or Grandfather of John Gernon.
Thomas Wright recounts that John Gernon's daughter married ???? to
Botetourt.
in ????.
Sir Ralph Gernon
By extension, this Gernon was connected by marriage to the Earls of Oxford, the de Veres.
John and Joan Gernon are mentioned by Thomas Wright.
"
When Sir Ralph Gernon was born in 1220, in Essex, England, United Kingdom, his father, Sir Roger Gernon II,
of West Lavington,
was 35 and his mother, Maud, was 30. He married Eleanor de Vere about 1249. They were the parents of at
least 2 sons and
2 daughters. He died in 1274, in Bakewell, Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom, at the age of 54.
"
Medieval English wool trade - 1250-1350
The Wikipedia says:
The medieval English wool trade was one of the most important factors in the medieval English economy.
The medievalist John Munro
notes that "[n]o form of manufacturing had a greater impact upon the economy and society of
medieval Britain than did those industries producing cloths from various kinds of wool."[1] The trade's
liveliest period, 1250–1350,
was 'an era when trade in wool had been the backbone and driving force in the English medieval economy'.[2]
The wool trade was a major driver of enclosure (the privatisation of common land) in English agriculture,
which in turn had major social consequences, as part of the British Agricultural Revolution.
Among the lasting monuments to the success of the trade are the 'wool churches' of East Anglia and the
Cotswolds; the London
Worshipful Company of Clothworkers; and the fact that since the fourteenth century, the presiding officer
of the House of Lords has sat on the Woolsack, a chair stuffed with wool.