Aubrey de Vere, I, Sheriff of Berkshire

Another name for Alberic was Aubrey

* Sheriff, Old English; scire-gerefa, a shire-reeve

• Alt Birth Date: 1030, 1040 in Ver, Manch, Normandy, France
• Alt Death Date: 9 (Sept)/1/1088, 12(Dec)/26/1112
• Alt Death Location: Castle Hedingham, Essex, England

The known origin of the family is quite clearly at Ver in the Cotentin, in Normandy and close to Brittany.

27 The known origin of the family is quite clearly at Ver in the Cotentin, in Normandy and close to Brittany. (Many Flemish families were settled here, and the early adoption of their quartered coat, gules and or, hints at a de Vere connection with Boulogne.) Aubrey (or Alberic), the first of the family to settle in England, enjoyed high favour at the court of King William and by 1086, when the Domesday Book was completed, he held vast lands in the south. His son, Aubrey II, supported Maud in her war with Stephen and was rewarded by the grant of the Earldom of Cambridge "provided that that dignity was not vested in the King of Scots" (which it was) and her son, Henry II, confirmed him in the earldom of Oxford in its stead. Their subsequent history is worth a separate article and will be given one later in this series.

Descent through the de Vere Earls of Genney and Oxford

Not the son of Alphonsus of Guînes and Katherine of Flanders.

Link to Updated Medlands, Chapter 9. OXFORD, A. EARLS OF OXFORD 1142-1526 (VERE)

Be sure to click on the "Media" tab and view a brief video which was taken at Hedingham Castle.

Watch a fascinating archaeological dig which is about the de Vere family

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Project MedLands ENGLISH NOBILITY MEDIEVAL

AUBREY de Vere, son of --- ([before 1040]-Colne Priory, Essex [1112], bur Colne Priory). As "Alberico de Ver" he attested a charter of Conan II Duke of Brittany[1143], who ruled in his own name from 1057 to 1066. William I King of England granted him estates, particularly in north Essex, south Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. He attested a royal charter as Chamberlain [camerarius] in 1084. He acted as Sheriff of Berkshire in [1106][1144]. The Chronicle of Abingdon records a donation by "dapiferi Albrici…et uxore eius Beatrice", with the consent of "eorum filiis…Albricus, Rogerus, Rotbertus, Wuillelmus"[1145].

m (before 1086) BEATRICE, daughter of ---. “Godefridus de Ver, Albrici senioris filius, Albrici junioris frater” donated property to Colne priory by undated charter, which names “matre sua Beatrice”[1146].

Aubrey de Vere & his wife had [six] children

1. Geoffrey
2. Aubrey
3. Roger
4. Robert
5. William
6. ? mother of Richard de Camville

According to the Complete Peerage, Aubrey de Vere probably derived his name from Ver in the Côtentin, Normandy and had connections with the neighbouring duchy of Brittany[1295]. His grandson Aubrey de Vere was created Earl of Oxford by Empress Matilda in [1142], but this was a second choice of county as the empress's original charter records that she intended to create him Earl of Cambridgeshire "unless that county were held by the King of the Scots"[1296]. Oxford was a surprising choice of earldom for the de Vere family, whose English landholdings were mainly in Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and which is not recorded in the Complete Peerage as having any prior connection with the county[1297]. The de Vere family continued to hold the earldom of Oxford until 1703.

Sources:

• [1295] CP X 193.
• [1296] CP X 201.
• [1297] CP X 193-201.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Vere_I

Aubrey de Vere I

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

September 2010

Aubrey (Albericus) de Vere (died circa 1112) was a tenant-in-chief of William the Conqueror in 1086 and also vassal to Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances and to Count Alan, lord of Richmond. A much later source named his father as Alphonsus.[1] The common use of the name Albericus by the Veres in medieval England makes it impossible to say for certain if the Aubrey de Vere named in Domesday Book in 1086 holding estates in six counties is the same Aubrey de Vere who around 1111 founded Colne Priory, Essex, but it is probable.

Biography

His origins are obscure and various regions have been proposed for his birthplace. Their lineage are Norman, possibly from the eponymous town of Ver sur Mer near Bernieres in Normandy where the French branch of the Aubry family originates. The Veres were (erroneously) said to descend from Charlemagne through the Counts of Flanders or Guînes by later antiquarians. In fact, their connection with Guînes, in Flanders, was short-lived; his grandson Aubrey de Vere III was briefly married to Beatrice, heiress to Guînes in the early 12th century.

The only certainty is his landholding recorded in Domesday Book, where he and his unnamed wife also stand accused of some unauthorized land seizures.[2] As his spouse's name is recorded as Beatrice in 1104, she may have been his wife in 1086 and the mother of his five known sons.[3] Aubrey's estates held of the king were valued at approximately £300, putting him in roughly the middle ranks of the post-conquest barons in terms of landed wealth.[4]

More difficult to sort out are contemporary references to "Aubrey the chamberlain" and "Aubrey of Berkshire." An Aubrey was chamberlain to Queen Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, but it is unlikely that this was Aubrey de Vere. An "Aubrey of Berkshire" was a sheriff in the early reign of Henry I; it cannot be ruled out that this was Aubrey de Vere. Aubrey de Vere I may also have served that king as a royal chamberlain, as his son and namesake Aubrey de Vere II did.

Before 1104, Aubrey's eldest son Geoffrey fell ill and was tended at Abingdon Abbey by the royal physician, Abbot Faritius. The youth recovered but suffered a relapse and was buried at the abbey. His parents founded a cell of Abingdon on land they donated: Colne Priory, Essex. Within a few years, Aubrey and his son William joined that community. Aubrey died soon after taking the Benedictine habit, William passing away not long after his father. Both were buried at the priory, establishing it as the Vere family mausoleum.[5] His heir was Aubrey de Vere II.

Besides Geoffrey, Aubrey II, and William mentioned above, his sons included Roger and Robert.[6]

Estates

The principal estates held by Aubrey de Vere in 1086: Beauchamp [Walter], Great Bentley, Great Canfield, Castle Hedingham, Earls Colne, [White] Colne, Dovercourt, and Stevington, Essex; Aldham, Belstead, Lavenham, and Waldingfield, Suffolk; Castle Camps, Hildersham, Silverley, and Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire. He possessed houses and acreage in Colchester. As tenant of the bishop of Coutances, he held Kensington, Middlesex; Scaldwell and Wadenhoe, Northamptonshire. Of the barony of Count Alan his manors were Beauchamp Roding, Canfield, and West Wickham, Essex. His wife held at Aldham, Essex, in her own right of Odo bishop of Bayeux. She was accused by Domesday jurors of expansion into Little Maplestead, Essex. Aubrey's seizures or questionable right of possession to estates included Manuden, Essex; Great Hemingford, Huntingdonshire; and Swaffham, Cambridgeshire. (Counties given are those of Domesday Book.)

References

  1. ^ BM Cott. Vesp. B 15, f. 61, from an inscription on his tomb

  2. ^ Domesday Book

  3. ^ Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum II, p. 100, no. 981

  4. ^ Corbett, Cambridge History of the Middle Ages

  5. ^ History of the Church of Abingdon, pp. 90-91

  6. ^ Cokayne, Complete Peerage vol. 10, p. 194.

Originally from Ver, in the Cotentin peninsula, Normandy

Military Service: Fought in Battle of Hastings

Residence: Castle Hedingham

Event: Descendant Of sister of Charlemagne

VERE - Earls of Oxford, Marquess of Dublin, Duke of Ireland

Earldom, Creation of the Empress Maud and confirmed by Henry II, anno 1135.

Marquessate, Creation of Richard II, 1385

Dukedom, Creation of Richard II, 1385

LINEAGE: "The noblest subject in England, and indeed, as Englishmen loved to say, the noblest subject in Europe, was Aubrey de Vere, twentieth and last of the old Earls of Oxford. He derived his title through an uninterrupted male descent from a time when the families of Howard and Seymour were still obscure, when the Nevills and Percys enjoyed only a provincial celebrity, and when even the great name of Plantagenet had not yet been heard in England. One chief of the house of De Vere held high command at Hastings; another had marched with Godfrey and Tancred over heaps of slaughtered Moslems to the sepulchre of Christ. The first Earl of Oxford had been minister to Henry Beauclerc. The third earl had been conspicuous among the lords who extorted the great charter from John. The seventh earl had fought bravely at Cressy and Poictiers. The thirteenth earl had, through many vicissitudes of fortune, been the chief of the party of the Red Rose and had led the van on the decisive day at Bosworth. The seventeenth earl had shone at the court of Elizabeth and had won for himself an honourable place among the early masters of English poetry. The nineteenth earl had fallen in arms for the Protestant religion and for the liberties of Europe under the walls of Maestricht. His son, Aubrey, in whom closed the longest and most illustrious line of nobles that England has seen, a man of loose morals but of inoffensive temper and of courtly manners, was lord-lieutenant of Essex and colonel of the Blues." To these remarks, the author of this work, in his Vicissitudes of Families, ventured thus to refer:---

"Such is Macaulay's glowing and eloquent eulogium on the De Veres -- so eloquent, indeed, that one regrets that the panegyric is somewhat exaggerated and scarcely consistent with recorded fact. The line of the Earls of Oxford was certainly the longest but, just as certainly, not the most illustrious that England has ever seen. In personal achievement and historical importance, the De Veres can bear no comparison with the Talbots, the Howards, the Nevills, the Percys, or the Scropes; in antiquity of descent, the Courtenays, the De Bohuns, and the Beauchamps were in all respects their equals, and in splendour of alliances, many a less distinguished family far surpassed them. There was scarcely one of our grand old house of the times of the Henrys and the Edwards that had not more of royal blood. Nevertheless, I must freely admit, although I cannot subscribe to the pre-eminence Macaulay assigns, that this famous house, if inferior to any, was only so to the very first, to the most historic and to the most illustrious of our ancient nobility."

The first mention of the De Veres is in the General Survey of England made by William the Conqueror wherein Alberic de Ver possessed numerous lordships in different shires, of which Chenisiton (now Kensington], co. Middlesex, was one, and Hedingham, co. Essex, where his castle was situated, and where he chiefly resided, another. This Alberic m. Beatrix, Countess of Ghisnes in her own right, by whom he had five sons, Alberic, Geoffrey, Roger, Robert and William. Alberic de Vere, in the latter end of his days assumed the cowl, and d. a monk in 1088; he was buried in the church of Colne Priory, which he founded, and was s. by his son, Alberic de Vere. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 549, Vere, Earls of Oxford, &.]

Vere FAMILY, noted English family that held the hereditary office of lord great chamberlain from 1133 to 1779 and the earldom of Oxford from 1142 to 1703.

The family derived its name from the village of Ver, near Bayeux, in France. Its founder, Aubrey de Vere (c. 1040-1112), was a Norman who came to England with William the Conqueror and was granted lands by the latter in Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Middlesex. His son Aubrey de Vere II (c. 1090-1141) was made lord great chamberlain of England in 1133. His son Aubrey de Vere III (c. 1110-1194) was created Earl of Oxford in 1142. [Encyclopaedia Britannica CD '97, DE VERE FAMILY]

Brother-in-law of William the Conquerer, fought in the Norman invasion (see below)

Aubrey comes from the Teutonic name Alberic, or elf-ruler.

The Vere family was founded in England by Aubrey 'Albericus' de Vere. The earliest information in England concerning Vere history can be found in the cartulary of Abingdon, which relates the grant of Kensington church to the abbey by Alberic de Vere senior. Alberic de Vere came to England in 1066 with the Norman invasion, fighting alongside his brother-in-law, William the Conqueror. As reward for his bravery and loyalty, Alberic was given vast estates by William the Conqueror. These estates were once the property of Ulwine, a great Saxon thane, and consisted of manors in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Middlesex. The de Veres were also Lords of Cheniston (now Kensington, London) and nearby Earl's Court is where they had their court-house. To this day there is a rather upscale neighborhood of Kensington called de Vere Gardens. For his part in the conquest De Vere was also given lordship over Lavenham, which was the center of the wool trade in England. Albericus de Ver married Beatrice, half sister of King William, and they had five sons. He founded Earl's Colne Priory in 1105, and after the death of Beatrice he became religious and took vows as a monk. Brother Alberic died in 1088; he was buried in the church of Earls Colne Priory, which he founded. He is also said to be responsible for laying out four new vineyards in England, one being at Hedingham, where wild red grapes have been found several times during the last century. Alberic was known as Count Aubrey, and the "Sanglier." His wife, Beatrix of Ghisnes, Countess of Ghisnes in her own right, was daughter of Henry, Count of Ghisnes, and his wife Sibylla Alberic. He and his wife had five sons as follows: 1. Alberic de Vere, 2. Geoffrey de Vere, 3. Roger de Vere, 4. Robert de Vere, and 5. William de Vere. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Alberic.

Aubrey de Vere I occurs amongst a group of men from the Nantais in a charter given by Conan II circa 1050. (No later evidence establishes any connection between Aubrey's family and Ver in the Contentin.).

He married Beatrice de Ghisnes before 1062.

Aubrey de Vere I was a Domesday tenant of the powerful Breton tenant-in-chief Count Alan Rufus, and was among a handful of Alan's Bretons who were also tenant-in-chief of their own fees before 1086.

He was of little note in England before 1100.

He was active in Berkshire, either or possibly both a sheriff or justiciar.

See "My Lines"

( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/p358.htm#i7067 )

from Compiler: R. B. Stewart, Evans, GA

( http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cousin/html/index.htm )

His lineage is uncertain, guessed to be from the Norman town of Ver, said to have descended from Charlemagne, his father is listed as Alphonsus, his wife is named as Beatrice in 1104.

An Aubrey de Vere is named in the Domesday Book as holding estates in six counties, and an Aubrey de Vere founded Colne Priory, Essex. He and his unnamed wife also stand accused of some unauthorized land seizures. Aubrey's estates were valued at £300, placing him in the middle ranks of wealth. An Aubrey was chamberlain to Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, an "Aubrey of Berkshire" was a sheriff in the early reign of Henry I and an Aubrey de Vere I may have served that king as a royal chamberlain, as his son Aubrey de Vere II did.

Before 1104, Aubrey's eldest son Geoffrey became ill, was tended at Abingdon Abbey by the royal physician, Abbot Faritius, but relapsed and was buried at the abbey. His parents founded a cell of Abingdon on land they donated: Colne Priory, Essex. Within a few years, Aubrey and his son William moved to that area. Aubrey died soon after taking the Benedictine habit, William passing away not long after his father. Both were buried at the priory, establishing it as the Vere family mausoleum.

His sons included Geoffrey, Aubrey II, William, Roger and Robert.

The principal estates held by Aubrey de Vere in 1086: Beauchamp [Walter], Great Bentley, Great Canfield, Castle Hedingham, Earls Colne, [White] Colne, Dovercourt, and Stevington, Essex; Aldham, Belstead, Lavenham, and Waldingfield, Suffolk; Castle Camps, Hildersham, Silverley, and Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire. He possessed houses and acreage in Colchester. As tenant of the bishop of Coutances, he held Kensington, Middlesex; Scaldwell and Wadenhoe, Northamptonshire. Of the barony of Count Alan his manors were Beauchamp Roding, Canfield, and West Wickham, Essex. His wife held at Aldham, Essex, in her own right of Odo bishop of Bayeux. She was accused by Domesday jurors of expansion into Little Maplestead, Essex. Aubrey's seizures or questionable right of possession to estates included Manuden, Essex; Great Hemingford, Huntingdonshire; and Swaffham, Cambridgeshire.

Family links:

Spouse:

 Beatrix Gand Vere (1030 - ____)*

Children:
William De Vere (____ - 1112)*

 Geoffrey de Vere (____ - 1103)*

 Aubrey de Vere (1080 - 1141)*

*Calculated relationship

Burial: Colne Priory Earls Colne Braintree District Essex, England

http://opendomesday.org/name/95000/aubrey-de-vere/

http://www.robertsewell.ca/pdf/011DeVere.pdf