Notes
Note N1468
Index
Richard's Castle
The castle which gave its name to this small ancient borough pre-dates the Conquest by about 16 years, though it was thoroughly Norman. Edward the Confessor, more Norman than English, encouraged the settlement of Norman kinsmen and friends in Herefordshire, and gave them lavish gifts of land. This plot, a few miles south-west of Ludlow, was a grant to Richard FitzScrob, who built himself a strong castle on it about 1050, further elevating the hilltop and bedrock with earth on which to site his keep. The castle continued in his line for several generations before it passed by marriage to the family of Talbot, under the overlordship of the Mortimers.
By Leland's survey of 1540 the castle is reported as still mainly standing, but ruinous, and later it housed a farm and its buildings, with a dovecote in one of the towers. The property passed through several hands before coming finally into the possession of the Salwey family, which continued to hold in for 370 years.
Strongholds and Sanctuaries, Peters & Morgan, Alan Sutton Publishing, UK/US, 1993
[from http://www.castlewales.com/richards.html - 2014-05-02]
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MORTIMER of Richard's Castle
The descent of the lordship of Burford, Salop, with Richard's Castle, co. Hereford, as its caput, is traced by Eyton from RICHARD FITZSCRUB, a Norman favourite of Edward the Confessor, who was allowed-by the Godwin party to remain in England in 1053, and who built and gave his name to the castle. [Complete Peerage IX:256, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]
Notes
Note N1469
Index
Scrope
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scrope is the name of an old English family of Norman origin.
Origin of name[edit]
The name (pronounced "Scroop") may be derived from the old Anglo-Norman word for "crab" and that it began as a nickname for a club-footed illegitimate son of an English princess by a Norman knight. A crab moves sideways and so the name could fit a child with club feet. Whether far-fetched or not, it is fact that at one stage the family crest was a crab (subsequently five feathers) and that the family motto is still "Devant si je puis" -("forward if I can"), which could have a double meaning as of course a crab can only go sideways.
Early Scropes[edit]
One Richard FitzScrob (or FitzScrope), apparently a Norman knight, was granted lands by Edward the Confessor before the Norman Conquest, in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire as recorded in the Domesday Book. He built Richard's Castle, near Ludlow in Shropshire, and is recorded in chronicles of the Conqueror's early years in England as asking for assistance against the Welsh. Legend has it that an earlier Scrope (perhaps Richard's father) was the Anglo Saxon who gave his name to the settlement "Scrobbesbyrig" (Scrobbs Fort), which name was later corrupted into Shrewsbury. Certainly, prior to the Conquest, Scrobbesbyrig was an established Anglo Saxon settlement.
His son was Osbern FitzRichard. According to one genealogy, his[who?] wife was Nest; she is identified as the daughter of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn by his wife Edith of Mercia, a granddaughter of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. The evidence for Nest's name comes from charters of her son Hugh granting lands to an abbey, where he declares his parentage; that son, however, is silent about his mother's antecedents.[1] The heiress of this family eventually married into the Mortimer family, famous as Marcher Barons[2] and important players in 14th century English politics. The Mortimer line was eventually merged into the Crown in the person of Edward IV of England. His paternal grandmother was Lady Anne Mortimer, heiress of the Mortimers and heiress of line of her brothers, themselves successively heirs of line of Richard II of England.[3]
The same genealogy states that Osbern's great-grandson was Hugh Le Scrope who, having been born at Richard's Castle, was the first of the family to be granted lands formerly belonging to the Priory of Bridlington, in Yorkshire. However, recent research has shown no clear connection between this Hugh Le Scrope (or his alleged Yorkshire descendants) and Richard FitzScrob, or between Hugh le Scrope and subsequent Yorkshire Scropes.[4]
The first well-documented ancestor of the Yorkshire Scropes appears to be Robert le Scrope (1134-aft.1198), who is described as the son of the aunt[5] of Alice de Gant, Countess of Northampton by her husband Richard le Scrope.[6] The Scrope family appear to be related and allied to the Gant family in the 12th century, and possibly trace their origins to Lincolnshire or Northamptonshire.[7]
14th century Scropes[edit]
The shield above depicts the arms of Scrope; its blazon is Azure, a bend Or.
The great-great-great-grandson of Hugh was Sir William le Scrope (c.1259-c.1311) of Bolton, in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, who had two sons, Henry le Scrope (d. 1336) and Geoffrey le Scrope (d. 1340), both of whom were in succession chief justice of the king's bench and prominent supporters of the court in the reign of King Edward II of England.
Richard le Scrope (c. 1327-1403)[edit]
Main article: Richard Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton
Henry was father of Richard Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton (c. 1327-1403), chancellor of England, an active adherent of John of Gaunt.
William le Scrope (c. 1350-1399)[edit]
Main article: William le Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire
His eldest son William le Scrope (c. 1350-1399) was created Earl of Wiltes in 1397 by Richard II, of whose government he was an active supporter. Wiltes bought the sovereignty of the Isle of Man from the Earl of Salisbury. In 1398 he became Treasurer of England. His execution at Bristol was one of the first acts of Henry IV, and the irregular sentence of an improvised court was confirmed by Henry's first parliament. Wiltes' father, Lord Scrope, and his other sons were not included in the attainder, but received full pardon from Henry. Scrope, who was the builder of Bolton Castle, his principal residence, died in 1403. He was succeeded in the barony by his second son, Roger, whose descendants held it till 1630.
Geoffrey le Scrope (d. 1340)[edit]
Sir Geoffrey le Scrope (d. 1340), chief justice of the kings bench as mentioned above, uncle of the first Baron Scrope of Bolton, had a son Henry, who in 1350 was summoned to parliament by writ as Baron Scrope, the designation of Masham being added in the time of his grandson to distinguish the title from that held by the elder branch of the family. Henry's fourth son was Richard le Scrope (c. 1350 - 1405), Archbishop of York, who took part with the Percies in opposition to Henry IV, and was beheaded for treason in June 1405. Despite this, Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham (c. 1376 - 1415), became a favorite of Henry V, by whom he was made treasurer in 1410 and employed on diplomatic missions abroad. However, in 1415 he was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Henry (along with the King's cousin Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge) and was ignominiously executed at Southampton. His title was forfeited. It was, however, restored to his brother John in 1455; and it fell into abeyance on the death, in 1517, of Geoffrey, 11th Baron Scrope of Masham, without male heirs.
16th and 17th century Scropes[edit]
John Scrope, 8th Baron Scrope of Bolton was a somewhat reluctant supporter of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a northern uprising in protest at the reforms of Henry VIII but incurred the king's displeasure when he allowed sanctuary to Adam Sedbar, Abbot of Jervaulx who was on the run from the King's Commissioners. Scrope was himself obliged to seek refuge in Skipton castle and the King's men fired his Bolton castle residence. Abbot Sedbar was caught and executed.
His son Henry Scrope, 9th Baron Scrope of Bolton (1534-1592), was governor of Carlisle in the time of Elizabeth I, and as such took charge of Mary, Queen of Scots, when she crossed the border in 1568; and he took her to Bolton Castle, where she remained till January 1569.
His son, Sir Thomas Scrope, 10th Baron Scrope of Bolton, was Warden of the West March in the Anglo-Scottish border country and governor of Carlisle in 1596 when Walter Scott, the "Bold Buccleuch", staged his raid on Carlisle to rescue the reiver Kinmont Willie Armstrong.
He was the father of Emanuel Scrope, 11th baron (1584-1630), who was created Earl of Sunderland in 1627; on his death without legitimate issue in 1630 the earldom became extinct, and the immense estates of the Scropes of Bolton were divided among his illegitimate children, the chief portion (including Bolton Castle) passing by marriage to the Marquess of Winchester, who was created Duke of Bolton in 1689; to the Earls Rivers; and to John Grubham Howe, ancestor of the Earls Howe. The barony of Scrope of Bolton seems then to have become dormant; and although the title might, it would appear, have been claimed through the female line by the representative of Charles Jones (d. 1840) of Caton, Lancashire, no such claim was ever made. From Stephen, third son of the 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton, were descended the Scropes of Castle Combe, Wiltshire, the last of whom was William Scrope (1772-1852), an artist, author and fly-fishing enthusiast, who was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott. His daughter Emma Phipps Scrope, married George Poulett Thompson (1797-1876), an eminent geologist and prolific political writer, who took the name of Scrope, and who after his wife's death sold Castle Combe, of which he wrote a history. Probably from the same branch of the family was descended Col. Adrian Scrope, or Scroope (1601-1660) the Regicide, who was prominent on the parliamentarian side in the Civil War, and one of the signatories of Charles I's death warrant. Colonel Scrope was grandson of Adrian Scrope of Wormsley, who was (approximately) third son of John Scrope (d. 1547) of Spennithorne, Yorkshire, and Hambleden, Bucks, who was the younger son of the 6th Lord Scrope (c1468-1506) by Lady Eliz. Percy daughter of Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland. John Scrope was Adrian Scrope's grandson and the last Scrope of Wormsley and Bristol. The Chiltern estate at Wormsley was inherited by one of John Scrope's nephews; one of the brothers of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland.
Descendants[edit]
The male line of the Scrope family still exists but it has for centuries now been known simply as "Scrope of Danby", with no hereditary titles left to its name. Although Bolton Castle is still owned by descendants of the Scrope family, they do not have the name of Scrope, being descendants through the female line of the Duchess of Bolton.
The present senior male of the family, or Head of the House, is Simon Richard Henry ('Harry') Scrope (b. 1974), only son of Simon Egerton Scrope of Danby (1934-2010), by his wife (Jennifer) Jane Parkinson, a granddaughter maternally of the 1st and last Baron Bingley. The next heir male is his father's cousin Henry John Scrope (b. 1941), eldest son of the late Ralph Henry Scrope by his wife Lady Beatrice Savile, 2nd daughter of the 6th Earl of Mexborough. Other Scropes have also married in the 20th century into aristocratic families such as the Cochrane family, the Ward family, the Davies family, and many landed gentry families.
See also[edit]
Scrope v. Grosvenor
Baron Scrope of Masham
Baron Scrope of Bolton
Recusancy
Notes[edit]
1. Plausible reasons for the silence exist. For one, Anglo-Norman marcher barons in the 11th and 12th century may not have wanted Welsh princely ancestry, especially descent from a usurper prince, publicly known. A second reason might have been worries about how claims to Welsh princely blood would be interpreted by the Crown. That Nest's origins are not documented does not mean that she could not be Gruffyd's daughter.
2. The Mortimers themselves publicly acknowledged their Welsh princely blood, notably their descent from a possibly illegitimate daughter of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales.
3. What this means is that Richard II's heir presumptive (acknowledged 1385) was his cousin Philippa's son Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (d. 1398 Ireland, aged 24). March's death leaving three (or four) young children allowed Henry of Bolingbroke to usurp the throne, claiming patrilineal descent and improper governance. At the time the throne was usurped, March's elder son was heir presumptive to Richard II. Since both sons died without issue, their sister Lady Anne Mortimer, wife of Richard, Earl of Cambridge, became heiress of line of Edward III. This claim was taken up by her son Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV.
4. The original claim made elsewhere is repeated here on a webpage belonging to a descendant of the Scropes of Danby. Part of the problem is the number of generations between Richard FitzScrob, his son Osbern, and Osbern's purported great-grandson, Hugh Le Scrope. Richard FitzScrob was alive between 1066-1069; his son Osbern married one Nest. Leaving aside the question of when Osbern and Nest married, it is hard to imagine four generations comfortably between the 1060s and 1103. Hugh le Scrope's alleged son Robert le Scrope is listed in charters found and published in 1915, but his father is listed in those charters as one Richard le Scrope. See Douglas Richardson ""Meaning of Matertera: Fitz William, Gant, and Scrope families - Revised" Usenet group soc.genealogy.medieval, 22 October 2005 for details.
5. "Matertera" is an ambiguous term because it could refer to a person's father's sister or mother's sister.
6. See Douglas Richardson ""Meaning of Matertera: Fitz William, Gant, and Scrope families - Revised" Usenet group soc.genealogy.medieval 22 October 2005 for details.
7. Alice de Gant married Simon de St. Liz, 7th Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, whose paternal grandmother Maud, Countess of Huntingdon, great-niece of the Conqueror, married 2ndly King David I of Scotland. Alice de Gant's mother was Rohese de Clare, the daughter of Richard FitzGilbert, Lord of Clare and Adeliza de Meschines. Her father's sister (or half-sister) is not known, but the Earls of Lincoln and Chester were half-brothers, sons of a wealthy Anglo-Norman-Saxon heiress Lucy, Countess of Chester, widow of Ivo de Taillebois. (Lucy is claimed to be a descendant of Godiva, but there is no evidence of this; it is known that she made three excellent marriages). The aunt Agnes may have been an illegitimate half-sister of either Gilbert de Gant or Rohese de Clare; this would explain her marriage to a relatively obscure man. Precedents among the daughters of the later earls of Chester exist for similar differences in marriages between legitimate daughters (married to barons) and illegitimate daughters (married to mere knights).
References[edit]
Nicholas Harris Nicolas, The Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy (2 vols-, London, 1832), containing much detailed information about the various branches of the Scrope family
J. H. Wylie, History of England under Henry IV. (4 vols., London, 1884-1898)
Edward Foss, The Judges of England (9 vols., London, 1848-1864)
George Julius Poulett Scrope, History of the Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe, Wiltshire (London. 1852)
George Edward Cokayne, Complete Peerage, vol. vii. (London, 1896), the most complete but not infallible reference for families that have ever held a peerage.
Bernard Burke. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland "Scrope of Danby" p. 1346-1347 (1863).
Marquis de Ruvigny. The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: Clarence Volume. pp.457-458 (1905), reprinted 1994. (Limited availability online via Google Books)
Scrope of Danby family papers archive.
Burke's Landed Gentry (1965 edition), s.v. "Scrope of Danby". This is the most recent entry for the family, which has not been updated in the online editions.
Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
==========
The following information was from a post-em by Curt Hofemann, curt_hofemann AT yahoo.com:
Richard Scrupe, or Fitz-Scrupe, held various manors in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire in the time of Edward the Confessor, as appears on the authority of Domesday book, at the compilation of which, they were possessed by his son, Osborn Fitz-Richard, or Fitz-Scrop. [Ref: John Burke, The Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, R. Bentley, London, 1834-1838, Vol. III, p. 693, Scrope, of Castle Combe]
The following additional information was provided by Curt Hofemann in a post-em:
Here's the rest of my research. A lot of it is redundant...
Richard Fitz-Scrob [Ref: Turton p. 78]
Richard Fitz Scrob, d. 1067, of Richard's Castle [Ref: Weis AR7 177:2 sub NESTA OF NORTH WALES] Among the Normans who settled in England during the reign of Edward the Confessor was Richard fitz Scrob [Ref: I.J. Sanders, _English Baronies_, p. 75 sub Richard's Castle] Richard Fitz-Scrob, father of Osbern Fitz-Richard and founder of Richard's Castle, was lord of the hundred of Overs at the time of the Conquest. [Ref: Ency. Brit. (1911), sub "Shropshire", p. 1022]
MORTIMER of Richard's Castle
The descent of the lordship of Burford, Salop, with Richard's Castle, co. Hereford, as its _caput_, is traced by Eyton(f) from Richard FitzScrub, a Norman favourite of Edward the Confessor, who was allowed-by the Godwin party to remain in England in 1053,(g) and who built and gave his name to the castle.(h)
(f) _Shropshire_, vol. iv, pp. 302-312.
(g) This Richard was son-in-law of another Norman, Robert, the Deacon. See Florence of Worcester, vol. i, p. 210.
(h) Eyton reasons that Richard's Castle was built by Richard FitzScrub because, though not mentioned by that name in Domesday Book, that record does, under the land of Osbern FitzRichard, mention a castle called Auretone in Cutestornes Hundred, and a manor in the _castellaria_ of Auretone as having been held by one Richard _Domesday Book_, fos. 186, 185). [Ref: CP IX:256]
*****
RICHARD FITZSCROB (ft. 1060), Norman baron, came from Normandy to settle in England in the time of Edward the Confessor. He was one of the few Normans who, thanks to their kindiness towards the English, were not expelled by Earl Godwin in 1052 (Flor.. Wig. i. 210). One of the others was Richard's father-in-law, Robert the Deacon, whom Mr. Eyton identifies with Robert FitzWimarch. From 'Domesday' we find that in the time of King Edward Richard FitzScrob held the manors of Burford in Shropshire, together with four manors in Worcestershire and lands in Herefordshire. He is said to have erected the building known as Richard's Castle in Herefordshire, which was the first regular castle erected on English land. The Herefordshire 'Domesday' mentions no such castle, but connects a castle, called Auretone, with Osbern, son of Richard, and one Richard (no doubt Richard FitzScrob) with an adjacent manor. After the conquest Richard adopted the Norman side, and, together with hi
s 'castellani Herefordenses,' took the lead in opposing Edric the Wild (_ib._ ii. 1). He dispossessed the church of Worcester of the manor of Cothetridge (_Monast. Angl._ i. 594). Richard was dead before the time of Domesday, and his lands were held by his son Osbern.
OSBERN FITZRICHARD (ft. 1088) had held lands in Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire in the time of King Edward. In 'Domesday' he appears as one of the few tenants-in-chief in the first-named county; he then also held lands in Bedfordshire and Warwickshire. He took part with Earl Roger of Shrewsbury's men in the rebellion of 1088, and was one of the leaders of the force which threatened Worcester, and was repulsed by the curse of Bishop Wulstan (Ord. Vit. iii. 270). He gave Boraston in Burford, Shropshire, to the church of Worcester. Freeman seems to be mistaken in identifying Osbern FitzRichard with Osbern Pentecost. Osbern's wife was perhaps Nest, daughter of Gruffydd ap Llewelyn. Her daughter married Bernard (fl. 1093) of Neufmarché, and a son, Hugh FitzOsbern, who married Eustachia de Say, died before 1140. Hugh had two sons: Osbern, who died about 1185; and Hugh de Say, who was ancestor of the Talbots of Richard's Castle and of the Cornwalls of Burford.
It has been conjectured that the great northern family of Scrope was descended from Richard FitzScrob. Richard is called 'Ricardus Scrupe' in the Herefordshire 'Domesday' (p. 186), and his son Osbern is once called 'Osbern filius Escrob' (Hemming, _Cartulary_, i. 78). In an early charter of Hugh FitzOsbern there is mention of a Richard de Escrop. In 1163 (_Pipe Roll_, 5 Henry II) a Robert de Scrupa held two knights' fees in Gloucestershire. The Gloucestershire name is also spelt Escropes and Escrupes, and eventually appears as Croupes; the various forms are sufficiently close to suggest a connection between Scrob and Scrope. The Yorkshire family appears to be derived from a Robert Scrope of Lincolnshire in the eleventh century.
[Flor. Wig. (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Domesday, pp. 185-6, 260; Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, iv. 302-9, v. 208, 224-6 et alibi; Nash's Hist. of Worsestershire, i. 239-41, 257; Robinson's Castles of Herefordshire and their Lords; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 654*; Bristol and Gloucester Archæological Transactions, iii. 351, iv. 157-8, xiv. 307-9; Powlett Scrope's list, of Castle Combe; Freeman's Norman Conquest; Round's Feudal England, pp. 320-6; Academy, 26 Oct. 1895, pp. 339-40.] C. L. K.** [Ref: DNB, Editor, Sidney Lee, MacMillan Co, London & Smith, Elder & Co., NY, 1909, vol. xvi, pp. 1071-2]
* Dugdale's Baronage p. 654 makes no mention of this Richard. His article begins "Robert le Scrupe" in 12 H. 2 [1165/6].
** Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, author of this article.
*****
In common with that of many of the most illustrious families in this country, the early history of the House of Scrope is very obscure. Doubts have been entertained whether it was of Norman or Saxon origin; but the little evidence which is extant on this subject justifies the opinion that the first person who is recorded to have borne the name of Scrupe, or Scrope, was a native of Normandy.
A RICHARD SCRUPE was an extensive landed proprietor in the reign of Edward the Confessor. He is stated in Domesday Book to have held various manors in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Shropshire, and is supposed to have built Richard's Castle, near Ludlow, which became his principal residence.(1-89) His property was inherited by his son, Osborne Fitz Richard, and, together with other lands, was in his possession at the time of the General Survey. He was the ancestor of the family of Say of Richard's Castle, which became extinct in the male line in the early part of the thirteenth century. (2-89)
Strong as the presumption is that an individual who held lands in England under the Confessor must have been a Saxon, it is by no means proof of the fact. The influx of Normans at Edward's court, and the partiality which he manifested for them, are well known; and the historians of the period expressly assert that Richard Scrupe was one of the King's foreign favourites. In the year 1052 Edward concluded a peace with his turbulent subject, Earl Godwin; immediately after which the Normans, who were accused of having "instituted bad laws, and judged unrighteous judgments,"(3-89) were banished the realm. Most of them, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of London and Lincoln, quitted the kingdom; but a few especial favourites of the King, whose conduct had not given offence, were permitted to remain, and among these was Richard Fitz Scroby.(4-89) In 1067, whilst William the Conqueror and the greater part of his nobles were in Normandy, Fitz Scrob assisted the Castellan of Hereford in subduing Edric, surnamed Silvaticus, who had rebelled against the King.(1-90) It is extremely probable that this Richard Fitz Scrob was a son of the Richard Scrupe mentioned in Doomsday Book; but the connection between him and the next individual who is known to have borne the name of Scrope cannot be traced. The Prior of Bardney, however, as well as another monk of that abbey, stated in 1386 that Richard Fitz Scrob was the reputed ancestor of Sir Richard Scrope; and the proximity of Gloucestershire, in which Robert le Scrope possessed three knight's fees in the reign of Henry the Second, to the counties of Worcester, Salop, and Hereford, in which Richard Scrupe held property under the Confessor, as well as the identity of name, afford support to that opinion.
(1-89) Nash's History of Worcestershire, i. 239, 240.
(2-89) [The name of the county of Shropshire itself, and of its chief town (Scropes-Scire and Scropes-Byri), would seem to have been derived from this Richard Scrope, or one of his ancestors. Camden derives the name of the town from the "scrobes'' or shrubs which covered the hill on which it was built. But this will scarcely account for the whole county obtaining this appellation. It is possible that the name De Scrop was originally De Scrobe (of the shrub), though Scrob or Scrop bears considerable resemblance to some of the family names common among the Norse or Northmen of Scandinavia.
In ths Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici, vol. iii. 413, is a charter-grant by King Æthelstan in the year 939, to a nun named Wulfswyck. of a farm in Wiltshire, of which one of the boundary-marks was "
Scrope's pyt." From this it appears we have written evidence that the Scropes resided in _Wiltshire_ at least 127 years before the Norman Conquest. It seems probable that the "terra de Scrop," in the manor of Purton, of which mention is made in the following extract from the Hundred Rolls of Edward the First, related to the same locality as " Scrope's pyt." "Nich Walerand fecit perprestur' super regalem viam in villa de Furiton in _terra de Scrop_ et Hoggeslane in longitudinem xx. perticas, et in latitudinem vi. pedes, tempore Regis Henrici et ipsius Regis qui nunc est, ad nocumentum viæ regiæ."]
(3-89) Saxon Chronicle, by Ingram, p. 239.
(4-89) "Except so many as they concluded it was agreable to the King to have with him, who were true to him and his people." - Saxon Chronicle, p. 239 ; an ancient Chronicle in Bardney priory in 1:386; Depositions, pp. 229, 230; and Stowe's Annals, p. 96, on the authority of Marianus Scotus, who was probably the writer referred to by the prior of Bardney.
(1-90) _Ibid._ [Ref: George Poulett Scrope, compiler, _History of the Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe, in the County of Wilts: Chiefly Compiled from Original Mss. and Chartularies at Castle Combe. With Memoirs of the Families of Dunstanvile, Badlesmere, Tiptoft, Scrope, Fastolf, Etc._, Sir Harris Nicolas, "History of the Family Scrope", J.B. Nichols & son, printers (1852), pp. 88-90]
*****
The Richard " fitz Scrob," or " le Scrupe " referred to was one of the Norman favourites of Edward the Confessor, who escaped the rancour of Earl Godwin and his sons in 1052, and remained ln England. He had been granted an estate on the Welsh border, and had thrown up the earthworks at Aureton called "Richard's Castle" to this day. Richard survived the conquest, and in 1067 was actively resisting Eadric the forester. This is the last we hear of him. He had married a daughter of Robert the deacon, son of Wymarch, .and left a son, Osbern fitz Richard, who, at the time of Domesday Book, 1086, was in possession of the Castle at Aureton. He had two sons, Hugh and Turstin, but although he had one manor as far north as Notts, none of his lands descended to those who after bore the name of Scrope, in fact his male heirs adopted that of Say.
It has been suggested that Scrope himself, the father of Richard, might have given his name to Scrobbesbyrig (Shrewsbury), formerly called by the Welsh Pengwern. In the South the surname is often spelt " de Scrupes," in the North generally " le Scrope," as if originally an epithet for a fellow mean in appearance or spirit. [Ref: _Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society_, vol. xi, (1904), "Notes on Some East Riding Familes and their Arms: VI Scrope of Flotmanby" by A.S. Ellis., pp. 20-21]
*****
In Herefordshire, beyond the great chain of mountains, which had formerly protected the independence of the Britons, and which might still serve as a rampart for that of the English, there dwelt, before the invasion, upon lands which he had received from the munificence of king Edward, a Norman, named Richard Fitz-Scrob. He was one of those whom the Saxons exempted from the sentence of exile pronounced in the year 1052 against all the Normans living in England. In return for this favour, Fitz-Scrob, on William's landing, became chief intriguer for the conquest, established a correspondence with the invaders, and placed himself at the head of some bodies of soldiers, emigrants from Gaul, who, since the time of Edward, had garrisoned several castles near Hereford. He visited them in these castles, and, making frequent sallies, endeavoured to force the neighbouring towns and villages to submit to the conqueror. But the population of the west made an energetic resistance, and, commanded by the young Edrik, son of Alfrik, repulsed the attacks of Fitz- Scrob and his soldiers.(2-201)
The young Saxon chief had the art to interest in his cause several chiefs of the Welsh tribes, hitherto mortal enemies of the English.(3-201) Thus the terror of the Normans reconciled for the first time the Cambrians and the Teutons of Britain, and did that which, in former times, the invasions of the northern pagans could not accomplish. Supported by the inhabitants of Wales, Edrik successfully assumed the offensive against Richard Fitz-Scrob and his soldiers, who are called in the chronicles of the time, castellans of Hereford.(1-202) Three months after the departure of king William for Normandy, he drove them from the territory they occupied, pillaged their encampments, and delivered all the country about the river Lugg.(2-202)
(2-201) Dugdale, ii. 221 (Note: not sure what is being referred to here - Dugdale's _Baronage_, vol. ii. (or "Tome the Third") p. 221 is about the Dudley's in the 1500's & the index to the vol. shows no listing for fitzScrob/Scrope nor Scrob/Scrope. Vol. i. has articles "Scroope of Bolton", Scroope of Masham" & "Scroope Earl of Wiltshire", none of which mentions this Richard fitzScrob/Scrope...CH
(3-201) Florent. Wigorn., p. 635. Chron. Saxon. Frag., _sub ann._
(1-202) Florent. Wigorn., p. 635. Chron. Saxon. Frag., _sub ann._
(2-202) Id. _ib._ -[Ref: Augustin Thierry (as translated by William Hazlitt), _History of the Conquest of England by the Normans: Its Causes, and Its Consequences, in England, Scotland, Ireland, & on the Continent_, D. Bogue (1847), vol. i, pp. 201-2]
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The site, from its great eminence and commanding position, is evidently adapted for a fortress of unusual strength, and here, Richard Fitz Scrob and his son Osbern, in the time of Edward the Confessor, raised, according to Freeman the historian, " the first castle on English ground " (Norman Conquest, vol. i). According to him, this was the castle the surrender of which was demanded by the rebellious Earl Godwin in the year 1051. Since the death of Mr. Freeman, his version of the transaction has been attacked by an able, but severe critic,* who contends that the castle was not Richard's Castle but the Castle of Euyas Harold in the same county, and that Freeman confused Osbern, son of Richard Fitz Scrob, with another Osbern, whose surname was Pentecost (Round's Feudal England, p. 320). [Ref: Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archæological & Natural History Society for the Year 1898_, vol. xliv, "An Early Chapter of the History of Yeovil" by John Batten, pp. 204-5]
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Domesday Hundred of Ovre
OVERS and Condover are the only two Shropshire Hundreds which retain their Domesday appellations, the boundaries of the former remaining to this day much the same as they were in the time of the Conqueror. This was owing to the circumstance that the lords of Richard's Castle had the chief manorial interest here, as well as the soke or huudredal jurisdiction.
In 1066, Rit-hard Fitz Scrobi, one of those Normans whom the weakly Confessor King had suffered to batten on the vitals of England, and who repaid the generosity of the English by secretly intriguing for their destruction, was lord of Ovre Hundred ; his eventual successors in the seigneury being the Mortimers, barons of Burford and Richard's Castle.
Burford, deriving from the Saxon Buph a town, and Fopb a ford, is thus described in Domesday : - " Osbern Fitz Richard holds
Bureford of the king. Richard, his father, held it [in Saxon times]. Here vi hides and a half geldable. The [arable] land is [capable of employing] xxix ox-teams. Here Osbern has ii mills, rendering xii quarters of corn; and here are vi serfs, xii villains, iii radmans, xxiv boors, vii coliberti, and a church with two priests. Among them all, they have xxiii ox-teams. Here is a wood that will fatten 100 swine, and therein is a haye. In time of King Edward the [annual] value [of the manor] was 106s.; now [it is] £4." Burford was the caput of Osbern Fitz-Richard's Shropshire.
Barony of Burford and Richard's Castle-The father of Osbern Fitz Richard who, according to _Domesday_, held Burford of the king, was the Richard Scrob, alias Richard Fitz Scrobi, just alluded to. Upon the rupture between the Normandised Court of Edward the Confessor and Earl Godwin in 1052, when the potent Saxon, triumphing over his enemies, a decree of banishment was pronounced against the foreigners, Fitz Scrobi was one of the few Norman favourites of the king suffered to remain in England. Another foreigner permitted to remain was Robert the Deacon, whose daughter Fitz Scrobi had married. The meek Anglo-Saxon monarch had been extremely kind to these aliens, Fitz Scrobi, according to _Domesday_, having held in Saxon times four manors in Worcestershire and Burford in Shropshire; besides an interest he had in Herefordshire, in which county, at the time of the survey, Osbern Fitz Richard, Scrobi's son, was seized of no less than sixteen manors, the gift to him probably of his father. Upon the invasion of England by the Normans in 1066, Scrobi, or Scrupe as he is called in one part of _Domesday_, ungenerously lent his influence to crush the liberties of that people upon whose bounty he had for so long a time existed; he, with the Norman garrison of Hereford, making frequent inroads upon the lands of Edric the forester, who still bravely held out in the west. Fitz Scrobi's efforts were not successful; and we learn that, summoning to his aid Blethyn and Rhywallon, the princes of North Wales and Powis, in retaliation Edric then laid waste the county of Hereford, as far as the bridge of Lugg, and carried off much booty. It is affirmed by some, that Richard Scrupe built Richard's Castle, Herefordshire, and that from him the stronghold derived its name.
He died before the survey, at which period - OSBERN FITZ RICHARD, his son, held largely in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, and Bedfordshire, under the king or the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury. [Ref: John Corbet Anderson, _Shropshire: Its Early History and Antiquities: Comprising a Description of the Important British and Roman Remains in that County: Its Saxon and Danish Reminiscences: the Domesday Survey of Shropshire: and the History of Its Forests, Towns, Manor, Abbeys, Churches, Castles, and Great Baronial Houses_,Willis and Sotheran (1864), pp. 294-5]
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A.D. 1067
..At that time lived a very powerful thane, Edric, surnamed the Forester, the son of Aelfric brother of Edric Streona, whose land, because he refused to surrender himself up to the king, the garrison of Hereford and Richard Fitz-Scrob frequently devastated; but as often as they sallied out against him they lost many of their knights and esquires.
Wherefore Edric, having summoned to his assistance the kings of the Welsh, Blethgent and Rithwalan, about the Assumption of St. Mary [15th Aug.], laid waste the province of Hereford, up to the bridge over the river Lucge, and brought back great spoil. [Ref: Rev. Joseph Stevenson, -_Church Historians of England_, vol. ii, pt. 1, "The chronicle of Florence of Worcester", (1853), p. 297]