Hugh Giffard of Yester

Not the son of Sir Osbert Giffard, Knight

Disputed Origins

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Giffard-550

Given the standing of Hugh with the Huntington retinue, it is very likely that he is a descendant of the well known Norman family of Giffard who held the honor of Longueville-la-Gifart in France. These Giffards were companions of William I, and received large land holdings in England after the conquest. Hugh Giffard appears to have no land holdings in England other than a portion of Potton which was granted by the Huntingtons circa 1160. This makes it most difficult to trace his Anglo-Norman origin in England. It has been suggested he was a son of Osbert Giffard of Brimesfield, but proper dating shows this to be impossible. The father of Hugh Giffard would have had to be born circa 1100, and no viable candidate of that generation of English Giffards emerges to date. I have found a few minor clues which may point toward the line of Osbern Giffard, who was the ancestor of the Brimesfield Giffards. As Hugh Giffard seemed to have no appreciable land holdings in England, it is likely that his father would be a second or unknown younger son of a major line. Speculating that Hugh may have been connected to the Brimesfield (Gloucestershire) line, his father possibly could have been a younger son of Elias Giffard I considering the known date parameters.

The relationship of Hugh, William, and Walter Giffard as brothers may be found in documents of the period 1160-1174.

SIR HUGH de GIFFARD of YESTER, MASTER of YESTER CASTLE, WIZARD of YESTER

The first Hugo or Hugh de Giffard (pronounced jiff-ARD, not "GIFF-ord as it will later be pronounced) was an influential feudal baron in Scotland, a noted sorcerer, and was one of the hostages for the release of King William the Lion in 1174.[1]

It is said that this family came to Britain with William the Conqueror in the person of Walter Count de Longueville the nephew of Gunnor Duchess of Normandy (d.c1000), William the Conqueror's great-grandmother.
However Barrow states his belief that the family may have been dependents of the de Varenne (or de Warenne) family and simply came from Longueville-la-Gifart in Seine Maritime of Normandy. The East Lothian village of Gifford and a nearby stream Gifford Water both take their names from this family.

Two members of this family appeared in Scotland in the train of Ada de Warenne the daughter of William de Warenne 2nd Earl of Surrey (she married in 1139 Prince Henry (d.1152) the son of David I of Scotls (d.1153):

-Hugh de Giffard, and
-William de Giffard, a cleric who became an ecclesiastical advisor to King David I.

Hugh (whom Martine calls "an Englishman") obtained lands in East Lothian Scotland, where he settled.

William perambulated [that is, to go before in procession] with King David in Perthshire and was a signed witness on many important charters, notably the foundational charter of Jedburgh Abbey and others for Countess Ada.

William and Hugh were signed witnesses to a charter of King David granting lands at Crail.

From Malcolm IV King of Scots Hugh obtained lands at Yester (Jhestrith/Yestred) in the parish of St. Bothans, East Lothian Scotland. Hugh appears in further royal charters till after 1189, and was a signed witnesses on many of the charters of William the Lion King of Scots (ruled 1165–1214), under whom Hugh rose to distinction.

Hugh's son and heir was Sir William de Giffard of Yester, who was sent on a mission to England in 1200 and who was also a signed witness to several charters of William the Lion. In 1244 he was one of the guarantees of a treaty with England,when he must have been a good age.

This is a later Hugh Giffard

Multiple legends has it that Hugh was able, via a pact with the devils or hobgoblins, to raise a magical army to his aid, and use them to carry out his will. It is this army of hobgoblins that was considered the true builders of Yester Castle, or the very least, its stunningly crafted cavern. Sir Hugh de Giffard was famously known as the 'Wizard of Yester', and was considered to be a powerful warlock/sorcerer and necromancer in an era before such practices were met with execution. It is possible that Hugh's wizardry, coupled with his close friendship with Scottish kings, may have helped to inspire later legend of Merlin and his friendship with King Arthur, and may have even been an influence on wizard characters of J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit novels. It is in the undercroft (the ornate brick-lined cavern) under the castle and grounds that he was thought to practice his sorcery. 15th century chronicler and abbey abbot Walter Bower mentions the large cavern at Yester Castle, thought locally to have been formed by magical artifice:

"Hugo Giffard dominus de Zester moritur, cujus castrum, vel saltem caveam et dongionem, arte demoniacula antiquae relationes fuerunt fabricatas. Nam ibidem habetur mirabilis specus subterraneus opere mirifico constructus, magno terrarum spacio protelatus, quie communiter 'Bohall' appellatus est".
"Hugh Giffard Lord of Yester died, whose castle, or at least the cavernous dungeon, which demons built by the art of ancient relations. For there is found a wonderful subterranean cave constructed with wondrous work, spread over a large space of land, which is commonly called 'Goblin Hall'."

(Scotichronicon, Liber X, cap. 21 / Chronicles of Scotland, Book 10, Chapter 21).

When his daughter Margaret was to marry, Sir Hugh gave her and her husband-to-be, Lord Broun of Colstoun, a hand picked pear which he had enchanted, with the proviso that, should anything happen to this fruit, it would spell disaster for the Broun family. The pear was encased in a silver box and kept safe and the Brouns prospered for a few hundred years until, in 1692, on her wedding night, the fiancée of Sir George Broun Baronet of Nova Scotia and inheritor of Colstoun estate decided to remove the pear from its silver casket, unaware of its history, believing it to be a mere ordinary pear. She took a bite, and misfortune quickly followed. Sir George Broun amassed enormous gambling debts and was forced to sell the estate to his brother Robert. Robert and his two sons soon after were killed en route to Edinburgh, swept away by a freak flash flood caused by the River Tyne bursting its banks. In destitution, Sir George died in 1718 without a male heir. After the pear was tasted it turned as hard as rock with its bite mark, and it is still at Colstoun House to this day as evidence.

For his role in the struggles between Haakon King of Norway and Alexander III King of Scots, which ultimately culminating in the Battle of Largs, Sir Walter Scott immortalizes Sir Hugh de Giffard's sorcerous powers in his Marmion:

"A Clerk could tell what years have flown since Alexander fill’d our throne,
(third monarch of that warlike name), And eke the time when here he came
To seek Sir Hugo, then our lord - A braver [man who] never drew a sword;
A wiser [man there] never [was, who], at the hour of midnight, spoke the word of power:
The same [word of power] whom ancient records call The Founder of the Goblin-Hall."

  -''Marmion'', Canto III, Stanza XIX, lines 324–333.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_de_Giffard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yester_Castle#The_Wizard_of_Yester
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• from http://community-2.webtv.net/NUbrubun55/GIFFARDOFYESTER/

The Giffard (Gifford) family of medieval Scotland rose to prominence between the 12th and 14th centuries, and came to an end with the four daughters and heiresses of Hugh Giffard and his wife Joanna Douglas. My personal interest in the Giffard genealogy derives from my own ancestral descent through two of the above named Giffard heiresses. These daughters being Joanna Giffard who married Sir Thomas de Hay of Locherworth, and her sister Alicia who married Sir Thomas Boyd of Kilmarnock.

Yester, which is in East Lothian near the village of Gifford, was granted to Hugh Giffard by King Malcolm IV of Scotland in a charter written before 1165 and confirmed in 1166 by King William the Lion. The Yester estate today is owned by the composer Gian Carlo Menotti. The ruins of Yester Castle, originally built before 1267 and containing the well known Hobgoblin Hall, lie on the edge of the estate.