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to view a picture of the person1. Hugo BOURDET was born about 1045 in Rabodanges,
Deauville, Normandy, France. He died about 1091. Robert
Bourdet and his son Robert II witnessed a charter of the Count of Anjou in 1050.
Robert II and his younger brother Hugo were barons of Cuilly, Deauville, Normandy
and they were named on the Battle Abbey Rolls as being among the four hundred
and fifty companions of Guillaume le Conquerant (William the Conqueror) at Hastings.
These Rolls name only the commanders. They were the elite who had provided ships,
horses, men and supplies for the venture.
In return for his services to the conquest, Hugo (who took the anglicised version
of his surname, Burdet) was given lands around Lowesby in Leicestershire. In
1068, he was Lord of Lowesby and was granted a coat of arms issued by King William
for loyalty.
Robert II was dead before 1086, when his widow held land from Hugo de Grantmesnil,
in Leicestershire. The greater part of Galby in Leicestershire was held by the
family. The estate was assessed as thirteen carucates and included most of Frisby
township. In the area known as Leicester Forest - which was a series of large
woods containing early small settlements or hamlets joined by rough trackways
- there was a settlement called Braunstone which was mentioned in the Domesday
Book (1086). "Braunstone - six ploughlands all but for oxgangs in Braunstone
which in the reign of The Confessor had been valued at twenty shillings, were
worth sixty shillings at the general survey and were then held by the son of
Robert Burdet. The land equal to four ploughs, one was Demesne and four Bondmen;
and two socmen and five villeins with one bordar had two ploughs. There was a
wood five furlongs long and three broad and there were five acres of meadow.
Two socmen abiding in Braunstone had five oxgangs of land in Lubbesthorpe and
jointly with ten villeins and six bordars in that lordship had two ploughs and
five ploughing oxen." The above lands were held by Robert Burdet under Hugo
de Grantmesnil who was one of William I's most powerful barons. - NB a ploughland
or carucate = 80 to 120 acres. Socmen = the few Anglo-Saxon freemen allowed to
retain their land and their freedom but their land was now held from the Lord
of the Manor in return for various services.
Robert's son was entered in the Domesday Book as Hugh Galby. In Galby he had
lands for ten ploughs, a mill and thirty acres of meadow. The whole estate was
valued at £3. Hugh had sons Robert de Cuily, and Walter de Cuily, from whom
descended the Cuilly, Quilly, De Cuilly, deCuleys, Culey, Cully, Colley, Culai,
Cuilys, Caileys, Cayles, and Cuiley families. Robert II's son was also known
as Hugh de Cuilli and he witnessed a charter of Richard de Beauvais in 1128.
He had two sons, Robert and Walter. The elder son, Robert, married Sibylla (daughter
of William de Chievre, a baron of Devon) and, on undertaking to rebuild the city
of Tarragona in Spain and to defend it against the Saracens, he became Prince
of Tarragona. Walter, his brother, witnessed the foundation charter of Canwell,
Stafford in 1142.
Due to the ancient nature of the descent there are many gaps and the family line
is, at best, approximate. Other lines of the family lived around Sheepy Magna
in Leicestershire from 1272 and the church arms listed by Burton in 1630 as being
displayed in the medieval stained glass of All Saints, Sheepy Magna, confirms
this. Disputes and litigation between the Burdets and the Sheepy family still
exist. In 1279 the inquisition records "Sheepy Magna is in the fee of Ferrers
and is held by Richard Harcourt for a third part of one knight's fee of Geoffrey
de Camvile and Geoffrey of the earl Ferrers and the earl of the King." William
Burdet holds one carucate of land in Demesne and has free fishing in Sheepy and
a mediety of the same church. In villeinage seven virgates of land which seven
villeins hold. In free tenure three and a half virgates of land which four free
tenants hold." Thus William Burdet held around three hundred and thirty
acres in total and his descendants can be tracked by the Poll Tax returns of
1327, 1332 and 1377 as being by far the major land owners in the area.
Only surviving records can fill in some of the story of the Burdet family and
there is much that does not survive or which has not yet been translated. It
is with this caveat that we begin our story.
Hugo BOURDET and Unknown UNKNOWN
were married. Hugo BOURDET and Unknown UNKNOWN
had the following children:
+2 | i. | William BURDET. |
