Family:Whitney, Eustace de (b1256-a1301)
Sir Eustace de Whitney (Robert, ...), son of Robert de Whitney,[1] was born sometime about 1256 or earlier, perhaps at Whitney, Herefordshire,[2] and died after 1301 and probably before 1306.[3]
Nothing is known of his wife.
In 1277 Eustacius de Whytene presented John de Chaundos to the church of Pencombe.[4]
On 8 Dec 12 Edward I (1283) at Leominster, the following was issued "Grant to Eustace de Whyteneye, and his heirs, of free warren in all his demesne lands in Penecumbe, Whyteneye and Caldewell, со. Hereford."[5]
In 1289, he was involved in a lawsuit in the Court of Common Pleas. (CP40/73, image 959d).
He was of Whitney, etc., Knight. About 1280 gave deed to monastery of St. Peter in Gloucester, referring to and confirming deed of his ancestors above mentioned. Lord of Pencombe, Little Cowarn, and Whitney in 1281. Granted Free Warren by Edward I. in 1284. Summoned to military service beyond the seas in 1297. Tenant of a part of the Manor of Huntington in 1299. Summoned to the Scotch War in 1301. Possibly grandson instead of son of Sir Robert.[6]
The following is a transcription and translation of the deed to the monastery of St. Peter in Gloucester, referring to and confirming deed of his ancestors.[7]
- Sciant praesentes et futuri, quod ego Eustachius de Wytteneye, miles, dedi, concessi, et hac praesenti carta mea confirmavi, pro salute animae meae, uxoris meae, et antecessorum meorum, viris religiosis, domino R(eginaldo), abbati Sancti Petri Gloucestriae, et ejusdem loci conventui, et eorum successoribus, unam hidam terrae quae vocatur Suthenhale, in parochia de Pencumba, quam antecessores mei praedictis viris religiosis prius dederant, et carta sua confirmaverant; habendam et tenendam totam praedictam terram cum pertiueutiis suis, de me et haeredibus meis, sibi et successoribus suis, in liberam, puram, et perpetuam elemosinam in perpetuam, solutam et quietam ab omnibus servitiis, consuetudinibus, sectis curiae, et saecularibus quibuscunque demandis. Et ego Eustachius et haeredes mei dictam terram, cuin omnibus pertinentiis suis et omnibus praefatis libertatibus, dictis viris religiosis et corum successoribus contra omnes mortales warantizabimus, et de omnibus servitiis saecularibus et sectis contra quoscunque defendemus.
- In eujus rei testimonium praesenti scripto, etc.
- Know all men present and to come, that I, Eustace de Wytteneye, Knight, have given, granted and by this present deed of mine have confirmed, for the safety of my soul and the souls of my wife and ancestors, to the monks and lord Reginald, Abbot of Saint Peter's at Gloucester, and to the convent of that place, and to their successors, a hide of land which is called Suthenhale,[8] in the parish of Pencombe, which my ancestors heretofore gave to said holy men and by their deed confirmed; to have and to hold the aforesaid land with the appurtenances thereto belonging from me and my heirs to them and their successors, in free, clear and perpetual gift, relieved and quit of all burdens, customs, suits at law and secular demands whatever. And I, Eustace, and my heirs, the said land with all its appurtenances and all its aforesaid liberties, to the said holy men and their successors, against all mortal men will warrant, and from all secular encumbrances and suits against any one whatever will defend.
- In Witness Whereof, etc.
Melville says of him the following:[9]
Robert, above mentioned, appears to have been succeeded by the Sir Eustace who, about 1280, gave the deed of confirmation to the monastery of St. Peter, and in 1277 nominated John de Chaundos, and in 1280 Roger de Wytteneye as rectors of Pencombe. There are no less than five other records relating to him, all of great interest.
The first is in a return of the names of lords of manors and townships for the purpose of making up the military levies ordered by the Parliament at Lincoln, in the ninth year of King Edward I. (1281). He is there described as "Eustachius de Wyteney, Lord of Pencumbe, Little Cowarne and Wyteney." [Harleian Manuscript No. 6281, in British Museum.]
The second is a grant of "Free Warren" made in the twelfth year of Edward I. (1284), and consists of an abstract of the Royal Patent contained in the Great Charter Roll preserved in the Record Office. A photograph of the original is given, which may be translated as follows:
- Charter Roll 12 Edward I. (1284), No.58.
- THE KING to Archbishops, etc., greeting. Know ye that we have granted and by this our Charter do confirm to our dearly beloved & faithful EUSTACE DE WHYTENEYE that he and his heirs have forever Free Warren in all their demesne lands of Pencumbe [Pencombe and Caldewell were in the County of Hereford. Whyteneye, and that neighborhood, in the opinion of the Lords Marchers, was not, and they succeeded in maintaining their views till the statute of Henry VIII.], Whyteneye and Caldewell in the County of Hereford, so that these lands shall not be within the metes of our forest. Nevertheless none shall enter these lands to hunt in them or take any beast pertaining to free warren without license and will of the said Eustace or his heirs upon pain of forfeiting to us ten pounds.
- Wherefore we will and firmly command that the aforesaid Eustace and his heirs forever have free warren in all their demesne lands aforesaid, so that these lands shall not be within the metes of our forest, and no one shall enter these lands to hunt, etc., without license, etc., of the said Eustace or his heirs on pain of forfeiture to us of ten pounds as aforesaid. These being witnesses.
- G. Wygorn, R. Bathen & Wellen, Bishops; Galfrido de Geynvill, Ottone de Grandisone, Robto Tibetot, Rico de Brus, Petro de Chaumpuent, Rico de Bosco, Walto de Everest, and others.
- Given under our hand at Leominster the 8th day of December in the year of our reign the 12th.
The third is a summons to him as a knight to perform military service in tho King's behalf "in parts beyond the seas." Muster at London on Sunday next after the Octave of St. John the Baptist (8th July, 1297). [Parliamentary, etc., writs, 12 Edward I., in Record Office.] The destination was probably Flanders, where war was then going on.
The fourth is an inquisition, taken in 1299, giving, among other things, the names of the free tenants of the Manor of Huntington, which included the parishes of Huntington, Kington, and Brilley, in the Marches of Wales, near Whitney. Eustachius de Wytteneye is named as holding a, messuage and two hundred acres of land by the service of "one foot-soldier with a bow and arrow, at the Castle of Huntington, in time of war, for forty days at his own expense." This is an excellent illustration of a military tenure. [See Notes on the Early History of the Manor of Huntington, published in the "Archaeologia Cambrensis," 3d series, vol. xv, p. 229. The inquisition was taken on the death of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford.]
The fifth and last, for it possibly led to his death, is a summons to the Scottish war.
Edward I., who reigned from 1272 to 1307, was among the greatest of the English Kings. It was he who first reduced Wales to anything like subjection by defeating Llewellyn, in 1282, at the fords of the Wye, above Whitney, in a great battle in which Sir Eustace undoubtedly took part, though we can find no record of who composed the forces engaged. In commemoration of this victory the King presented his infant son to the army as the "Prince of Wales," a title ever since borne by the heir apparent. Later he conquered Scotland, in the days of William Wallace, whose exploits form the subject of Jane Porter's famous novel, "The Scottish Chiefs."
The following is a translation of the King's Writ, as served upon De Whitney.
- Close Roll 29, Edward I. (1301), No.123, m13d and 12d
- THE KING to his beloved & trusty EUSTACE DE WYTENEY, greeting. Because we intend to proceed manfully and mightily, by God's help, against our rebels and traitors the Scots, notoriously persevering in preconceived malice and knavery of ill will, in order to repress their rebellion and insolence, after the feast of Pentecost next to come, in which feast the truce lately granted to the said Scots at the request of the King of France will be ended, we ask you that you do be with us at Berwick on Tweed at the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist next following, decently prepared with horses and arms to depart from thence with us, at our expense, against the Scots our rebels aforesaid, that, by the help of you and of other our trusty subjects, to whom we have commanded the same thing, the unbridled pride and obstinate rebellion of the aforesaid traitors may be suppressed, by such your labors and assistance, that profit and the advantages which we hope for may come to us and to our kingdom and crown of England with the establishment of peace and lasting honor.
- Witness the King at Northampton the 12th day of March.
A reason for supposing that the old knight did not return home is that we find that a young Sir Eustace was knighted, at the same time with his neighbors, De Lacy, Corbet, and Marmyon, in 1306.
Children of Eustace and ----- (-----) de Whitney:
i. Maud de Whitney,[10] b. ca. 1280 or earlier.[11] She m. Giles de Braose, son of William and Agnes (de Molis) de Braose. Giles d. 33 Edward I (ca. 1305).[12] Children: a. John de Braose, b. ca. 1302, living 20 Edward II (ca. 1327), d.s.p. b. Maud de Braose, m. William Frome, son John Frome.
ii. Eustace de Whitney,[13] b. prob. bef. 1283.[14] iii. (probably) Baldwin de Whitney,[15] b. say 1290, d. 1369.
References
1.^ Supposition. Robert appears to have been succeeded by Eustace. Although theorized that they were father and son, it is possible that they were related in other ways, such as grandfather and grandson, uncle and nephew, etc. It is also possible that instead of being Robert's son, that this Eustace could have been the same as Robert's younger brother Eustace.
2.^ Because he presented John de Chaundos to the church of Pencombe in 1277, he must have been patron with the right of advowson in Pencombe, indicating that he was at least 21 years of age.
3.^ He died after he was summoned to the Scotch War in 1301, Melville, Henry, A.M., LL.B., The Ancestry of John Whitney: Who, with His Wife Elinor, and Sons John, Richard, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Jonathan, Emigrated from London, England, in the Year 1635, and Settled in Watertown, Massachusetts; the First of the Name in America, and the One from Whom a Great Majority of the Whitneys Now Living in the United States Are Descended (New York, NY: The De Vinne Press, 1896), chart between pp. 216-217, and probably before his son was knighted in 1306, Melville, op. cit., pp. 47-50.
4.^ Henry Austin Whitney, The First Known Use of Whitney as a Surname: Its Probable Signification, and Other Data (Boston, MA: Henry Austin Whitney, 1875), p. viii.
5.^ Calendar of the Charter Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office By Great Britain Public Record Office, H. C. Maxwell Lyte.
6.^ Melville, Henry, A.M., LL.B., The Ancestry of John Whitney: Who, with His Wife Elinor, and Sons John, Richard, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Jonathan, Emigrated from London, England, in the Year 1635, and Settled in Watertown, Massachusetts; the First of the Name in America, and the One from Whom a Great Majority of the Whitneys Now Living in the United States Are Descended (New York, NY: The De Vinne Press, 1896), chart between pp. 216-217.
7.^ Melville, Henry, A.M., LL.B., The Ancestry of John Whitney: Who, with His Wife Elinor, and Sons John, Richard, Nathaniel, Thomas, and Jonathan, Emigrated from London, England, in the Year 1635, and Settled in Watertown, Massachusetts; the First of the Name in America, and the One from Whom a Great Majority of the Whitneys Now Living in the United States Are Descended (New York, NY: The De Vinne Press, 1896), p. 13-15.
8.^ "The farm Suthenhale still exists (now Sidnal) although a "modern" farm was built there by the Arkwrights in the 1860s. Probably so named because it faces south and is in a very protected area below the rim of the hills which surround Pencombe. Today it is well known because the slopes are planted with cherry trees and these cherries provide wonderful black cherries to Marks and Spencers, one of Britain's better known chain stores. When my parents first moved to the village in 1970 the fields used to grow strawberries and in the summer time the whole village seemed to meet there on a Sunday afternoon to pick strawberries for Sunday tea. We often used to say they ought to weigh the children before they began to 'help' with the picking.", E-mail from Barbara Haner to Tim Doyle, 16 Feb 2008.
9.^ Melville, op. cit., pp. 47-50.
10.^ "Maud, daughter of Eustace de Whitney". Since Maud's son was aged 3 years when her husband died in 33 Edward I (1305), he would have been born about 1302, and thus Maud would have been born about 1280 or earlier. This is the only known Eustace de Whitney in this time period. Charles George Young, "Additions to Dugdale's Baronage," Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. VI (1840), pp. 68-89.
11.^ ibid.
12.^ Charles George Young, "Additions to Dugdale's Baronage," Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. VI (1840), pp. 68-89.
13.^ Source for relationship between Eustace and Eustace.
14.^ He would have been at least 18 at the age of his first marriage.
15.^ Although no record has been found to conclusively link this Baldwin de Whitney to this family, he almost certainly belongs here. One of the co-heirs to St Edith College in Tamworth was Alexander de Freville. This Alexander was the father of the wife of Eustace's son and heir Eustace de Whitney (c1287-c1352), proving a familial connection to this location.
Copyright © 2006-2010, Robert L. Ward, Tim Doyle and the Whitney Research Group.
