De Birmingham family
The de Birmingham family (or de Bermingham) held the
Ansculf
Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Norman soldier Ansculf de Picquigny (or Ausculph de Penchengi, etc)[1] was granted many manors in the county of Warwickshire, and elsewhere, centred upon Dudley Castle.[2][3] The historian Sir William Dugdale identified Ansculf (whom he confused with his son William) as a great man in the time of the Conquest as evidenced by the extent of the lands granted to him, namely twenty-five lordships in Staffordshire, twenty in Buckinghamshire, fourteen in Worcestershire, ten in Berkshire, seven in Surrey, seven in Warwickshire, four in Northamptonshire, one in Middlesex, one in Oxfordshire, one in Huntingdonshire, one in Cambridgeshire.[1]
By the time of the Domesday Book of 1086 Ansculf's lands had passed to his son William FitzAnsculf.[4]
Paganel
William Fitz Ansculph's daughter (and possibly his heiress) Beatrice FitzWilliam FitzAnsculph? is believed to have married Fulk Paganel (or Paganell, Paynell, etc) and thus their Paganell descendants inherited various Ansculph estates including
de Birmingham
The manor of Birmingham later was held by the de Birmingham family.[citation needed] Some sources suggest that the de Birminghams were descended from William Fitz Ausculph[6] whilst others disagree.[1]
According to a poem a later William de Birmingham was descended from the Ausculphs via a marriage to the Paganells.
Various sources suggest that the right to hold a market in Birmingham was granted to a certain Peter FitzWilliam, Steward of Dudley Castle,[12] and not to Peter de Birmingham who was known as Steward of Gervais Paganell. At this time men were frequently known by more than one name so it is probable that Peter de Birmingham and Peter Fitz William were the same person.
Fulk Paganell has been claimed to have had several children, one of whom is said to have been called William. It is feasible that William would have been given a small part of the Paganell lands, e.g., Birmingham, while his elder brother Ralph received the rest. This could have led to William Paganell becoming known as William de Birmingham.
Richard
According to Hutton, the name of the owner of Birmingham at the time of the Norman Conquest was Richard, who is said to have survived and to have been known as lord of the manor of Birmingham by tenure of knight service to William Fitz-Ausculf as overlord.[11]
In the Domesday Book of 1086 there is a record of a Richard (no surname) occupying four hides at Birmingham which belonged to William FitzAnsculf of Dudley Castle,[13] thus Richard may have been the first of the "de Birmingham" family.
William de Birmingham
[6] The first "definite" de Birmingham became
Peter de Birmingham (Peter Fitz William?)
[6] William left Peter land of little value; Birmingham was one of the poorest manors in Warwickshire. There was little woodland and it was covered largely in scrub.
He applied to hold a cattle and food market every Thursday in the grounds of his "castle" and was granted the right by
In 1166 Peter is recorded to have owned a "castle" at Birmingham, to have been the Steward of Gervais Paganell and to have held nine Knight's fees by military service.[6] The "castle" is thought to have been the Birmingham Manor House – a fortified stone manor house surrounded by a circular moat and a range of outbuildings and was probably built in the 12th century. It was rebuilt in the 13th century and remained there until the 18th century. The moat has now been filled in and the house is now the site of the Bull Ring.[13]
Peter bore for his coat of arms:- azure, a bend lozenge, of five points, or.[11]
Sir William de Birmingham
[6] The de Birmingham family were instrumental in helping
In 1189 William had the charter to hold a market in Birmingham confirmed by Richard I.[13] William bore the following coat of arms; azure, a bend Lozenge, or.[6]
Robert's prominent medieval descendants in Ireland included
Peter de Birmingham
[6] Sir William's eldest son.
Listed by one source as being one of the
William de Birmingham
[13] William was granted the right to hold a four-day fair starting on the eve of Ascension Day by Henry III in 1250. In 1251 permission was also given to hold a two-day fair beginning on the eve of the Feast of St John the Baptist.[13] William supported Simon de Montford in the Second Barons' War against Henry III and to have died at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. The manor of Birmingham was confiscated by the King and given to Roger de Clifford. William was married to the daughter of Thomas de Astley.[11] Her name in 1263 was recorded as Maud.[16]
A poem has been written about this William called William de Birmingham. Its historical accuracy cannot be verified but it mentions William's claim to de descended from Ausculph via marriage to the Paganells.
William de Birmingham
[17] William took up his right to reclaim his father's land by way of paying a fine. In 1283 he strengthened his claims to land in
As a military
Sir William de Birmingham
[11]
Knighted in 1305.
Sir William de Birmingham
Knighted in 1325 by Edward II for whom he raised four hundred infantry.[11][17]
In 1327 William was summoned to Parliament.[13] By this time Birmingham had overtaken the County Town of Warwick in terms of tax revenue. Willam's friend, Hugh Spencer, gave him custody of Dudley Castle[11]
William's tomb lies in Birmingham's original church, St Martin in the Bull Ring, which was originally built by the de Birminghams in the 12th century.
The five diagonal lozenges of his shield form part of the
Sir Fulk (de) Birmingham
[17] Married Joan and made a settlement of Kingston Bagpuize, Berks in 1340 with the advowson of the church. Remarried to Elizabeth. Leased the manor of Kingston Bagpuize to Peter Coke for life in 1367.[19]
Acted as a Member of Parliament for Warwick during the 1350s and 1360s.[11]
Abandoned the de Birmingham's traditional coat of arms and replaced it with:- partie per pale, indented, or, and gules.[11]
Fulk's tomb lies in St Martin in the Bull Ring.[13]
Sir John (de) Birmingham
[17] Eldest son of Sir Fulk who served as Sheriff of Warwick in 1397 and as parliamentary representative for Warwickshire, Bedfordshire, and Buckinghamshire.[11]
Married Elizabeth but had no children.
John's tomb (c. 1380) lies in St Martin in the Bull Ring.[13]
Break in direct male line
[11] Upon Sir John's death, the manor of Birmingham was left to his widow, Elizabeth, to use as a dower. She remarried to Lord Clinton and they lived in the de Birmingham's manor house in Birmingham until Elizabeth's death in 1424.
The rest of Sir John's lands were left to his brother, Sir Thomas de Birmingham, who built his own castle at Worstone near Birmingham. Upon Elizabeth's death Thomas was to have inherited the manor of Birmingham. However, he died before her and the de Birmingham lands were left to Thomas' two granddaughters:-
- Lady Ellen Ferrers wife of Edmund Lord Ferrers of Chartley
- Lady Elizabeth Longeville wife of George Longeville and, on George's death, wife of John Sutton Lord Dudley
who were both daughters of Thomas' only daughter, Elizabeth, who had been the wife of Thomas de la Roche.
Lady Ellen Ferrers' inheritance included the manor of Birmingham, which she eventually passed to a second cousin called William de Birmingham.[21]
William (de) Birmingham ?–1479
[11] Lady Ferrers quit her title in favour of a second cousin, William de Birmingham, who appears to have been a descendant of William de Birmingham, brother of Sir Fulk de Birmingham. He held the manor by military service in 1441 and died in 1479.
Sir William (de) Birmingham 1449–?
[11] Married Isabella, heiress of William Hilton, and they had one son, William, who died before them but not before having his own son Edward.
Edward (de) Birmingham 1497–1538
According to Sir William Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire Edward was the last de Birmingham to hold the lordship of Birmingham.[3][14] He was cheated out of it by John Dudley, who would later try to place Lady Jane Grey, his own daughter-in-law, on the throne, an offence for which he was later found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.
Dudley had asked to buy Birmingham from Edward. However, proud of his inheritance, Edward declined. Dudley was not a man to take no for answer though and devised a scheme to obtain Birmingham by dishonest means. A trap was laid for Edward and he was framed for highway robbery by Dudley's thugs. He was thrown in the
Later de Birminghams
The lordship of Birmingham was not returned to the de Birmingham family upon Dudley's death. It reverted to the Crown and then to the Marrow family.
Other land held by the de Birminghams does not appear to have been signed over to Dudley and there are records of the de Birminghams' ownership of it after 1527, e.g., Shutford, Oxon in 1544 which mentions a young William, son of Henry, son of William & Margaret de Birmingham.
However, this too appears to have been transferred away from them by
Land held by just the Ausculphs/Paganells
- Dudley Castle, Worcestershire – held by William Fitz Ausculph in 1070 but given to his daughter who married Fulk Paganel. She and her Paganel heirs subsequently inherited the castle.[2][5]
- Ellesborough, Buckinghamshire – held by Ansculf de Picquiny after the conquest and by William Fitz Ansculf in 1086 before passing to the Paganells. Reverted to the crown on the death of Gervais Paganell.[23]
- Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire – held by Fitz-Ausculph before passing to the Paganels[7]
- Wootton, Oxfordshire – held by William Paynell son of Fulk Paynell of Drax in 1184 but reverted to the king in 1232[24]
Land held by both the Ausculphs/Paganells and de Birminghams
- Birmingham, Warwickshire – a moated and castellated manorhouse which is now the site of the Bull Ring
- quitclaimed to William de Birmingham[17]
- Amblecote, Worcestershire – held by William Fitz Ansculf in 1086 and then by the De Birminghams until 1322[25]
Land held by just the de Birminghams
- Royal Berkshire – held by the de Birminghams from at least the mid-13th century until 1420[17]
- Christleton, Cheshire – held by William de Birmingham in 1283.[11]
- Hoggeston, Buckinghamshire – held by William de Birmingham in 1283.[11]
- Henry VIII in 1544 due to the "minority" of William Birmingham who was the son of Henry Birmingham who was the son of William & Margaret Birmingham[26]
See also
- Birmingham, West Midlands, England
- History of Birmingham
- Barony of Athenry
- People called Birmingham
- Bermingham (surname)
- People called Bermingham
- Alternative spellings of Birmingham Archived 2008-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
References
- ^ a b c London; Being an Accurate History and Description of the British Metropolis ... - David Hughson - Internet Archive. W. Stratford. 1809. p. 500. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
fitz ausculph.
- ^ a b c "Dudley Castle History". Sedgleymanor.com. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b [1] Archived August 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Norman Birmingham - History of Birmingham Places & Placenames A to Y". Billdargue.jimdo.com. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b "William Camden | Worcestershire and Staffordshire". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lodge, John (1789). "The Peerage of Ireland: Or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility ... - John Lodge, Mervyn Archdall - Google Books". Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b "NEWPORT-PAGNELL | As described in John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72)". Visionofbritain.org.uk. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Dudley Castle - Brief History". DudleyMall. Archived from the original on 2012-02-13. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Dudley, Worcestershire in 1837". Oldtowns.co.uk. 2007-08-15. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Full text of "Poems"". Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "The Project Gutenberg eBook of An History of Birmingham, by W. Hutton". Gutenberg.org. 2004-11-02. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs to 1516: Warwickshire". History.ac.uk. 2007-03-16. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Medieval Birmingham - History of Birmingham Places & Placenames A to Y". Billdargue.jimdo.com. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b c "Birkenshaw - Birmingham | A Topographical Dictionary of England (pp. 255-263)". British-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "office". Brookfieldpublishing.com. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Religious History - Churches built before 1800 | A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 7 (pp. 361-379)". British-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g Victoria County History of Berks
- ^ "Parishes - East Garston | A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4 (pp. 247-251)". British-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ a b c "Parishes - Kingston Bagpuize | A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4 (pp. 349-353)". British-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ Hutton, William (1836). "The History of Birmingham - William Hutton, James Guest (of Birmingham, England.) - Google Books". Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Parishes - Kingston Bagpuize | A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4 (pp. 349-353)". British-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Birmingham Remembered". Lerwill-life.org.uk. 2013-11-09. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Parishes - Ellesborough | A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 2 (pp. 331-338)". British-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Parishes - Wootton | A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 11 (pp. 259-285)". British-history.ac.uk. 1951-10-12. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Parishes - Old Swinford | A History of the County of Worcester: volume 3 (pp. 213-223)". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
- ^ "Henry VIII - December 1544, 26-31 | Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 19 Part 2 (pp. 458-478)". British-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2014-03-06.