Ralph de Scudamore

in the Domesday Book as a tenant of Alfred of Marlborough and William de Scohies (William de Écouis). Ralph was enumerated among the nine French knights at Ewyas Castle in 1086: He was later a tenant of Harold de Ewyas.

Warren Skidmore, SOME NOTES ON THE SKIDMORE (SCUDEMER) FAMILY FROM IN THE 11TH TO THE 14TH CENTURIES IN SOUTHWEST ENGLAND. Occasional Papers, no.44. Akron, Ohio, 2010. Available at http://skidmorefamilyhistory.webplus.net/OP44%20Notes%2011th%20to%2....

Ralph “de Scudemer” certainly had a family and an alternative surname in France, but his home there (possibly in the départment of Mantes) remains to be found. A great deal of new work has been done on the Domesday Book and the 200 (or so) tenants-in-chief and their approximately 4000 undertenants found recorded there in 1086....

There are a few proven facts about Ralph [de Scudemer]. He was in Herefordshire before the Norman Conquest probably coming from France in the retinue of William fitz Osbern. He was undoubtedly a Breton or Norman as his Christian name and the names of his three sons testifies. He married the widow of Erkembald fitz Erkembald (by whom she had an older son Rainald) who then became the mother of Ralph’s three sons Reginald, Walter and Hugh. He was an early undertenant of Alfred of Marlborough and then later of Harold of Ewyas. Ralph [de Scudemer] is mentioned four times in the Domesday Book of 1086, and was probably still living in 1100 but dead by 1120. ...

In 1086 Alfred de Marlborough had two tenants of interest to us, Ralph “de Scudemer,” and Ralph’s stepson Rainald “fitz Erkembald.” Ralph and his descendants after him owed castle-guard service at the castle, as did Rainald and his posterity. Rainald’s principal fees (inherited from his father Erkembald) were at Send in Surrey and at Shipton Bellinger in Hampshire. ...

The name of Ralph’s wife is unknown, but she had an older son Rainald by her first husband Erkembald fitz Erkembald. Erkembald was the son of Erkembald “the sheriff” who had been with William fitz Osbern at Rouen about 1067. He undoubtedly came with fitz Osbern to England soon after and probably died early in the next decade. His son Rainald was (with his stepfather Ralph) a tenant of Alfred de Marlborough in 1086. ...

Our first record of Reginald de Scudemer and his brothers, and indeed the first mention of the surname, comes from a confirmation made about 1120 by Harold [de Ewyas] of his gift shortly before his death.18 Again the gift was laid on the altar at Gloucester. ... the witness list represents the powerful establishment in the environs of the castle and priory at Ewyas Harold. Harold’s sons are followed by 14 clerics: three archdeacons, two deans, a chaplain, three priests, the bishop’s clerk, and two canons of Hereford. The lay persons number 32 men, four of them named de Scudemer. In the matter of status Reginald de Scudemer (and his brothers Walter and Hugh) rank fifth, following Robert de Bampton, Hugh de Kilpec, Hugh de Caples, and Walklin de Somerford.21 The first two of these were, like Harold himself, great tenantsin-chief of the king. The Scudemers are followed by men of smaller influence and fewer possessions: Eustace de Pencombe (who was Alfred’s grandson),22 Helbodo (and his brother Baldwin), Erkembald [fitz Rainald], Robert de Bacton23 and Godfrey de Scudemer. The positions of the cousins Erkembald and Godfrey is a curious one since they had probably just come of age and they testify, not with their uncles, but well down on the list with lesser men. ...

This Ralph (born about 1040) is mentioned five times in 1086 in the Domesday Book as a tenant of both Alfred de Marlborough, and also of William de Scohies (another important tenant-in-chief of the Conqueror). Ralph is undoubtedly the man who held an unnamed plough of land (almost certainly Corras in Kentchurch) in the demesne of the castle at Ewyas at the same time in 1086. All of Alfred de Marlborough’s fees went in or soon after 1086 to Harold de Ewyas, and Upton and Fifield in Wiltshire and the unnamed plough of land were held very early in the next century held by Reginald “de Scudemer” from the honour of Ewyas Harold. From William de Écouis we find that Ralph [de Scudemer] had held in Herefordshire by 1086 both Poston (in Vowchurch) and Little Hatfield near Leominister.

J. Horace Round writes about the identification of undertenants (and their lands) that “the best of all proofs of identity is that which is afforded by feudal tenure and genealogical descent, and that is why I consider the returns for Herefordshire hundreds in 1243 found printed in the Testa de Nevill (62-7) to be the most valuable material that we have for Domesday [place-name] identification.”45 The reverse is equally true, and the Domesday tenant can sometimes be identified by the descent and tenure of his land as Round himself has repeatedly demonstrated.46 When we check the manors held by the Scudamores in 1243 in both Herefordshire and Wiltshire we find that in every case they were formerly held by Ralph in the Domesday Book from either Marlborough or Scohies.47

When we look back to the lands held by Alfred de Marlborough in the Domesday Book we find Ralph enumerated among the nine French knights at Ewyas Castle in 1086: His [Alfred de Marlborough's] five knights [men-at-arms] Richard, Gilbert, William and William and Arnold have 5 ploughs in demesne [of the castle] and 12 bordars and 3 fisheries and 22 acres of meadow.

Two others, William and Ralph, hold land for 2 ploughs [in demesne of the castle.] Thurstan holds land which renders 19 pence and Warner land worth five shillings.

They have 5 bordars.

The castle of Ewyas is worth £10.48

...The caput of the Scudamore fief was Upton Scudamore in Wiltshire (held by Ralph in 1086) and it was known as “Upton Escudamore” before 1150. This suffix proves the earlier tenancy by the family.

Ralph holds OPTONE [Upton Scudamore] of Alfred [de Marlborough]. In the time of King Edward it paid geld (tax)for 9 hides. There is land for 6 ploughs. Of this there are in demesne 5 hides and there are 2 ploughs and 5 serfs; and there are 9 villeins and 22 bordars with 4 ploughs. There is a mill paying 20 shillings and there are 5 acres of meadow and 30 acres of pasture. The wood[land] is 3 furlongs long and 1 furlong broad. It was worth £8; it is now worth £9.51

The subsequent history of Upton Scudamore is well known since in 1166 Godfrey Scudamore held it as two of his five fees from Robert de Ewyas according to the Red Book of the Exchequer. Two years later in 1168 at the aid assessed for the marriage of Henry II's daughter we find that Godfrey held his five fees directly from the crown as a tenant-in-chief.52 The Scudamores continued as barones (tenants-in-chief) for much of the next 62 years, but their fealty reverted back to the honour of Ewyas Harold in 1230.53

Fifield Bavant in Wiltshire was another of the five fees of Godfrey Scudamore in 1166, although it is not identified there by name. It was known as Fifield Scudamore until the death of Sir Peter Scudamore in 1293 when it passed with all the rest of his lands (except Upton Scudamore) to his only daughter and heiress Alice, already the widow of Sir Adam de Bavant. It continued with the Bavants (with their name as a new suffix) until 1 July 1344 when Roger (II) Bavant, Alice's grandson, gave it and all the other lands he had inherited from her and the Scudamore family to Edward III. Ralph had held Fifield in 1086:

Alfred de [Marlborough] himself holds FIFHIDE [Fifield Bavant] and Ralph holds it of him. In the time of King Edward it paid geld for 5 hides. There is land for 4 ploughs. Of this there are in desmesne 3 hides and there is 1 plough and 3 serfs. There are 9 villeins and 6 bordars with 2 ploughs. There are 2 acres of meadow. The pasture is 1/2 league long and 2 furlongs broad. The wood[land] is 1/2 league long and 1/2 furlong broad. It was worth £4; it is now worth 100 shillings. One smith's forge pays 12 pence a year. In Wilton 2 burgesses pay 18 pence.54

Norton Bavant in Wiltshire was not one of Godfrey Scudamore's fees in 1166, and it had not been held by his predecessors from either Alfred de Marlborough or Harold de Ewyas. No undertenant is mentioned in the Domesday Book as holding “NORTONE” of Alfred, and he had kept the profits of the manor for himself as demesne.55 Harold seems to have followed the same practice for the tithes of Norton (alone of the Scudamore fees) are mentioned by Harold in his grant to the abbey of St. Peter's, Gloucester about the year 1120.

Norton was added to the Scudamore fief by Robert (I) de Ewyas sometime early in the reign of king Henry I. There was undoubtedly pressure on Robert from several of his knights demanding more land and greater security of tenure. At the same time there was pressure on Robert de Ewyas from the crown. The royal pressure came in the demand for scutage, the sum of money sufficient to hire a replacement knight or knights when the full servicium debitum of a barony was paid on demand into the Exchequer. As the memory of the Conquest receded farther into the past, the military preparedness of the knights and their sons became more open to question, and the crown over time came to prefer the professional soldier who could be bought with money raised through scutage. The amount asked for on the fee was always demanded from the knight himself. When a baron’s knights chose to dispute payment of scutage either because their tenure was insecure, or the income from their land was insufficient to bear the cost of maintaining them as knights, the result was chaotic. Sometime early in his reign Henry I ordered his barons to undertake a general “reinfeudation” of their knights to take account of the changing circumstances. The result (in the case of the two knights of most interest to us) was that Godfrey de Scudamore got Norton Bavant in Wiltshire and Ruald de Calna had Monnington Straddle in Herefordshire as “new fees ” from Robert to be added to their holdings sometime before the death of Henry I in 1135. The change was noticed in the great survey taken in 1166, the first set down since the Domesday Book of 1086.

In Herefordshire we find that life there in 1086 was very different from that of Wiltshire where men ploughed and sowed in peace. All of Herefordshire south and west of the Wye River had been repeatedly laid waste by invasions of the Welsh, and the organization of the county is quasi-military in nature. Life revolved about the network of castles which the Normans had constructed along the border. The exposed condition of Alfred de Marlborough's castle at the very edge of the Conqueror's realm made necessary the constant presence within the castle of some part of the knights who owed it fealty. We know that the lord of the castle established a rotation of this duty and that each knight did a certain term in the year with his tenants.56 This was the essential service which the Scudamores owed for their lands in the middle of the 12th century to the honour of Ewyas, and Reginald Escudamore demanded castle-guard at Ewyas (or a money payment in lieu of this) when he enfeoffed his brother Walter Escudamore with a part of his lands.57 The same service was required of Godfrey Scudamore when he had a subsequent confirmation of his lands from Robert de Ewyas in the reign of king Stephen.58

The two ploughs that William and Ralph held of Alfred de Marlborough in the demesne of the castle were probably at Kentchurch, where descendants of the Scudamore family has survived (although not continuously) down to the present day. The Domesday book says of it:

Alfred of Marlborough holds ELWISTONE [Kentchurch]. Earl Harold held [it]. On the demesne are 1/2 ploughs, and [there are] a priest and 3 villeins and 4 bordars and 4 serfs with 5 ploughs and give three sheep. It is worth 30 shillings.59

Rev. A. T. Bannister in his valuable book on Ewyas Harold had proved in 1902 that this place is identical with the Heliston mentioned in the cartulary of the priory of Ewyas Harold, the Elston Bridge at the south end of the Dore Valley on Saxton's map of 1577, and the modern Pontrilas in

NOTES

21Robert de Bampton was Robert “de Douai,” lord of Bampton in Devon, and son of Walter de Douai a Domesday tenant-in-chief. He held Burnham and Brean in Somerset as an undertenant from Harold. Hugh de Kilpeck was a son of William fitz Norman, a Domesday tenant-in-chief in Herefordshire. He was soon after a benefactor of St. Peter's himself and in 1134 he gave the church at Kilpeck and the chapel of Our Lady in his castle at the same place to the abbey. Walklin de Somerford was perhaps a son of Siward, an Englishman, who held Great Somerford in Wiltshire from Alfred in 1086.

22 Eustace de Pencombe and his mother were also later benefactors of St. Peter's.

36 Bruce Copleston-Crow, The Fief of Alfred of Marlborough in Herefordshire in 1086 and its Descent in the Norman Period (Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, XLV (1986) II, 391-2.

45 VCH, Herefs., I, 303. It is regrettable that Round never turned his full attention to the Scudamore family. He does discuss the origin of the surname and their five fees in Wiltshire in The Ancestor, VI, 137. The text of the old Testa de Nevill published in 1807 by the Record Commission has now been replaced by the later Book of Fees (HMSO, 3 volumes, 1920-31).

46 Notably in his translations of the Domesday Book (and his notes to them) found in the Victoria County Histories.

47 VCH, Wilts., VIII, 80. K. H. Rogers, the author of the article on Upton Scudamore in the Victoria County History, came to the same conclusion about Ralph using only the evidence of the Wiltshire fees. The case for Ralph being the ancestor to the Scudamores is proven when you add the evidence of the Herefordshire entries not used by Rogers.

51 VCH, Wilts., II, 142.

52 I. J. Sanders, English Baronies (1960) 43. In 1166 Robert de Ewyas had 22 fees, in 1168 only 19. The difference here probably represents the subtraction of the Scudamore fees although the mathematics is not perfect.

53 Dodsworth, Collections, XV, 113; Close Rolls, 1227-1231, 330.

54 VCH, Wilts., II, 142.

55 Ibid.

56 See Sir Frank Stenton's essay on castles and castle-guard in his First Century of English Feudalism, 1066-1166 (Oxford, 1961) 192, where he quotes an incomplete text of the Scudamore charter taken from Mathew Gibson’s Views, 56. It is a pity he had not seen the full text as it proves some of the theories he had infered about the rotation of this duty.

57 Hist. Mss. Comm., Hastings, 78, pt. 1, 232-3. See Appendix I, no. 1.

58 Mathew Gibson, View of Door, Home-Lacy, and Hempstead (1727), 56-7.

59 Ibid., I, 318.