Roger fitz Alan, Lord of Harescombe

Sheriff of Gloucester

From Transactions - Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (Volume 10) → online text (page 9 of 38)

FAMILY HISTORY.

FITZ ALAN OR LE ROUS.

This family would seem to have been seated at Harescombe at an early date. It appeal's from the convention made between Roger the Prior of Lanthony and Roger Fitz Alan that Alan Fitz Mayn, his father, founded the chapel there circa 1150 (see post).

Roger Fitz Alan, to whom the church of Harescombe is, as shewn in that document, specially indebted, was of course the son of Alan Fitz Mayn, concerning whom, unfortunately, we have no information beyond the fact that he witnessed (vide ante p. 87) a grant by Walter de Hereford of lands, situated at Cerney, to St. Peter's Abbey, that he was founder of, or a benefactor to, the church of Harescombe, and that he also held a fee of the Bishop of Hereford called Mora, in connection with which manor his name has been preserved to our own days, " Mora Alani " — or Alansinore, situated a few miles to the south of the city of Hereford. The name of his son, Roger Fitz Alan, occurs in the Liber Niger Scaccarii (Hearne's edition), among the knights of Ysabel, wife of Henry de Hereford, son of Earl Milo. This Henry de Hereford granted the church of Haresfield to the priory of Lanthony in 1161, his charter being afterwards insjjected and confirmed by R[obert] Bishop of Worcester. He was treacherously murdered by the Welsh previously to the year 1175, in which year William de Braose, junior, is recorded to have slaughtered many in revenge for his uncle's death, at Abergavenny Castle.

" Habet Ysabel uxor Henrici de Hereford v mil. in dotem. Hos habet eciam feofatos de Dominiis suis post mortem Henrici Regis quos pater suus et fratres feodaverunt :

Willelmus de Cernai. dim. milit.

Willelmus Torel In Cernai quart, part, milit.

Helyas de Kokerel dim. milit.

Rogerus filivs Alani I Mil. et dim.

Ricardus Murdac I mil.

110 Transactions at Glotoestfr

The name of Roger Fitz Alan frequently occurs in the Register of Lanthony, as benefactor, or as witness to charters. He gives the prior and canons 2 acres of meadow in the South mead : and lh acres "in the field of Queddesle." Another entry is fuller and recites, " I have given to the Canons of Lanthony with my body two acres of meadow in the South Mead, "juxta molle pratum eofdem Canon orum , and one acre and a half called Wale- well in the field of Queddesle."

He (together with Ylbert' de Grannavill Rad' fil' Wil') wit- nesses a grant by Henry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, giving lands, &c, at Haresfield to Richard de Veyne and others : which same Richard de Veyne ' miles' gives to the church of Lanthony for the sustentation of tioo Canons perpetually interceding for his own soul that of Beatis his wife, and of Henry de Hereford his lord (domini mei) all the lands that he held in the manor of Harsefeld.

Henry son of Roger Fitz Alan now comes before us in con- nection with whose name we see a departure from a former custom. He is not known as Henry Fitz Roger, as we might have expected, but as Henry le Rous, which name is afterwards continued in the family. 1

From < Sampson Tree >

ROGER FITZ ALAN (27)

ROGER FITZ ALAN. His name means ‘Roger son of Alan’. This is the way the earliest members of the Rous family were named. Roger’s father was Alan Fitz Mayn. But it became apparent that you needed a surname that could be passed down from father to son. Roger’s own son was Henry le Rous, and this remained the surname for future generations.

His father was Lord of Harescombe, a village south of Gloucester. Roger is thought to have been born there around 1147, in the reign of King Stephen. We do know his mother’s name.

He probably had siblings, but their names have not been passed down to us.

Around 1150, his father founded a chapel in Harescombe and gave money to it. Roger was also a notable benefactor of the church.

There was some dissension, between Roger, Prior of Lanthony, and Roger Fitz Alan, concerning the chapel of Harsecombe, which belonged to the mother church in the nearby village of Harsefield. It was settled in the following manner: [2]—

“The Church of Harsefeld is to receive in full everything which appertains to parochial rights in the Vill of Harsecumbe, i.e. all tithes as well of the Curia as of the Villeins, Oblations, Baptisms, Confessions, and Devises of the dying, and Burials, and in fact all things pertaining to parochial rights; so that of all these let the chaplain of the said chapel usurp nothing. The said Chaplain shall be sustained by those things which Alan Fitz Mayn granted him at the “constitution ” of the said chapel; that it is to say, the second tithing of the wheat of his Demesne of Harsecumbe; the first, together with all the lesser tithes pertaining to the mother church of Harsefeld. The said Alan also granted for the sustentation of the Chaplain Ten acres of land (saving the tithe of the same to the mother church). He also gave to the mother church of Harsefeld one acre of land for a cemetery, which things Roger his son confirmed and ratified. But the Prior and Canons, at the petition of Roger Fitz Alan, have granted to the said Chaplain the Tithes of Five Virgates of land, which the Villeins of Brockthrop hold (the tithe of which pertains to the church of St. Owen), and the small tithes of the said Villeins, with their burial, to be held of them (i.e. the Prior and Canons) by the yearly payment of Five Shillings at the Feast of St. Michael. All the Tithes of the Demesne of Brockthrop, as from the time of Walter the Constable, so also now, pertain to the Church of St. Owen.

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References

1. https://archive.org/stream/transactionsbris10bris#page/110/mode/2up
2. https://www.davidleas.com/leas%20family%20genealogy/2/76043.htm