William de Roscelyn

From The Battle Abbey Roll: With Some Account of the Norman Lineages, Volume 3. edited by Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Powlett Duchess of Cleveland. Page 76-77

Roselin, for Rosceline, a baronial name, said to be a branch of the Carlovingian Viscounts of Maine and Beaumont. Roscelin the thin man (Homo Magri) is mentioned in the Norman Exchequer Rolls of 1198. The probable ancestor of the family in England was, according to Banks, Rocel. filius Osbcrt, who held five knights' fees of the barony of Hubert de Rie in 1165. (Liber Niger.) William de Roscelyn, with whom the recorded pedigree commences, married the heiress of a Norman family that had held a considerable property in Norfolk from the time of the Conquest, and had taken the name of Edgefield or Edisfield from one of their manors. Sir Thomas, the next heir, in 1265 had free warren in all his demesne lands at Edisfield, Walcote, Norton, Heckingham, Drayton, Tasburgh, and Redlington, in Norfolk; and his son Sir Peter was summoned to parliament among the barons of the realm in 1293. This summons was, however, never repeated, either to him or his posterity. His son and successor, another Sir Thomas, joined the confederacy of the barons against the Despencers, and thereby lost his estates, which were seized by the Crown; but they were restored by Edward III. He died without issue, prior to 13 Ed. III., and his inheritance came to his six sisters and coheirs : Margery, married to John de Champaine; Alice, to Sir William Daye; Joan, to John Lord Willoughby of Eresby: Maud, to Sir Robert Tiffin: Mary, to Sir John Camois, and another, whose name is lost, to Ralph de Bokenham.

"A younger branch of this family was William, brother (as it would seem) to Peter, for he was contemporary with him, and 14 Ed. I., claimed assize of his tenants, view of frank-pledge, a gallows, and free-warren, having purchased of the prior of Norwich a lordship at Aldebye, in the county of Norfolk. This Sir William, and Joan his wife, 4 Ed. II., settled by fine the said manor on themselves for life, with remainder to William Marshal, Baron of Rye, and his heirs; to which family it afterwards passed accordingly."—Banks.

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From The Dormant and Extinct Baronage of England, Volume 4 (Google eBook) Thomas Christopher Banks.  T. Bensley, Bolt Court, 1837 - Nobility.  Page 237.  "Roscelyn."

ROSCELYN. (22 Edw. I.)

William de Roscelyn, the first of whom mention is made, (4h) married Letitia, daughter and heir of Peter de Edisfield, whose ancestors, (4c ) from the time of the Conquest, had holden considerable lands in the county of Norfolk; by her he had issue,

Thomas de Roscelyn, (4d) who, 50 Hen. III.,* obtained a license for free- * Rot. cha. warren in his demesne lands at Edisfield, (otherwise Eggefield,) Walecote, 50 Hen. III. Norton, Heckingham, Drayton, Tasburgh, and Redlington, in Norfolk.

Footnotes

• (4c) From Domesday it is shown, that Ralph, the brother of Ilgar, held the lordship of Vo-I-P-289. Edgefield, and that Humphrey the nephew, or near relation of Ralph, at the same time held of him Walcote, or rather East-hall manor, in Walcote. This Humphrey assumed the name of Edgefield, or Edisfield, and was father of Peter, father of William; which William, with Maud de Walcote his mother, by deed sans date, granted f to the monks of Bromholme, two ^ Hist of parts of the tithes of his demesnes at East-hall, and confirmed the gifts of Peter his father, Norfolk, and Humphrey his grandfather, to the said priory. Peter, son of this William, left by l'fi Hawise his wife an only daughter, who married Roscelyn, as above mentioned. Happ"in°
• (4d) A Thomas Roscelin married Catharine, daughter and heir of Nicholas Boteler, sen., who married the sister of Reyner le Sirene, to whom Ranulph Glanville gave the manor of Upton, which had been granted to him by Henry II.—Vide Hund. Rot. Norf. Bund. 12, in. I. p. 504.