Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 4: Devon

DEVON

See also "proposed" section

Volume 4, pages 309, 310:
RICHARD DE REVIERS, SEIGNEUR DE REVIERS, VERNON AND NÉHOU, in Normandy [d. 1107]. His parentage is unknown, but he has been conjectured to have been s. and h. of William DE VERNON.(a)
Page 310, note a:
It appears from a charter of Henry I to the canons of Breamore (Inspeximus on Charter Roll, 6 Edw. III, m. 24) that Richard's son, Baldwin, had an uncle (avunculus) Hugh, who [if by avunculus is meant patruus] may be the Hugh de Redeveris mentioned in a memorandum of La Trinité at Caen, and also the Hugh mentioned as son of William de Vernon in a document (of date about 1067) in the cartulary of La Trinité at Rouen, signed by William Vernonensis and Emma his wife (Round, Calendar, nos. 424, 82). In the register of Carisbrooke (Monasticon, vol. vii, p. 1041) it is said that Richard de Reviers was nepos of William fitz Osbern, after whose death (his sons John and Richard having d. v.p.) the Isle of Wight was inherited by the said Richard, tunc Comes Exonie. So that this Richard may have been son of William de Vernon, by Emma, sister of William fitz Osbern. The continuator of William of Jumièges states that a niece of Gunnor the wife of Duke Richard was married to Osbern de Centumvillis, Vicomte de Vernon, and was mother of the first Fulk de Aneio and of the mother of the first Baldwin de Reviers.

The solution proposed above is flawed, because the charter for La Trinité at Rouen actually mentions a William son of Hugh, not a Hugh son of William [R. Bearman, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, new series vol. 37, p. 2 (1994), citing Chartularium de Monte Rothomagi, p. 430, no 16].

Instead, K. S. B. Keats-Rohan [Nottingham Medieval Studies, vol. 37, pp. 24-27 (1993)] has revived a suggestion by Stapleton in the 19th century, that Richard's father was named Baldwin, connecting this with the reference to the first Baldwin de Reviers in the continuation of William of Jumièges. She made a further connection with a charter of one Richard (d. c. 1060), which mentions his brothers William and Baldwin, suggesting that Baldwin was probably the first Baldwin (the probable father of Richard), and that William was identical with William the son of Hugh of Vernon (though leaving open the possibility that William may have been only a half-brother of Richard and Baldwin).

As for the statement in the register of Carisbrooke, that Richard was the nepos of William fitz Osbern, the details are clearly inconsistent with contemporary records. The continuator of William of Jumièges, quoted above, says that the mother of the first Baldwin de Redvers was a daughter of Osbern de Centumvillis, and a great niece of Duchess Gunnor. William fitz Osbern was himself a great nephew of Gunnor. Todd Farmerie [Robert de Torigny and the family of Gunnor, Duchess of Normandy, a revised version of a newsgroup post from December 1996] has noted that a marriage between Baldwin and a sister of William fitz Osbern would therefore involve a high degree of consanguinity. He suggested instead that the Carisbrooke claim might reflect a confused memory of the common descent of Richard de Redvers and William fitz Osbern from the family of Gunnor. On this view, nepos would be used in the loose sense of "younger male relation", rather than specifically as nephew or grandson.

[The question of Richard's parentage was raised in October 2004 by Thomas Grindley.
Item last updated: 8 November 2004.]

Volume 4, page 323 (as modified by volume 14):
HUGH DE COURTENAY, cousin and h., being s. and h. of Sir Hugh de C., of Okehampton, Devon, by Eleanor (living Mar. 1314/5), da. of Hugh LE DESPENSER, which Sir Hugh de C. was s. and h. of John de C. (d. 3 May 1274), of Okehampton, by Isabel (living Feb. 1298/9), da. of Hugh (DE VEER), EARL OF OXFORD, ...

Isabel was dead by 7 January 1290/1 [see Dinham, volume 4, page 371].

[Item last updated: 3 May 2004.]

Volume 4, page 326 (as modified by volume 14):
She [Alienor, wife of Sir Edward de Courtenay (he d. c. 1418)] was living Jan. 1413/4, but was presumably dead by 1425 when Richard Duke of York, the s. of her sister Anne became the Mortimer heir.

Alienor seems to have died between 18 January 1419/20, when she was holding for life the manor of Lymington, Hampshire, [Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, 1418-1422, no 344 (p. 101)], and 16 June 1422, when her brother-in-law Hugh de Courtenay, Earl of Devon, died holding the same manor [Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, 1418-1422, no 936 (p. 334)].

[This evidence was provided by Brad Verity in September 2004.
Item last updated: 8 November 2004.]

Volume 4, page 326:
THOMAS (DE COURTENAY), EARL OF DEVON, and LORD COURTENAY, s. and h. [of Hugh (de Courtenay), Earl of Devon (d. 1422)], b. 1414.

Thomas was found to be aged 8 years on 3 May 1422, implying that he was born 3 May 1414 [Calendar of Inquisitions post mortem, 1418-1422, no 936 (p. 334)].

[This evidence was provided by Brad Verity in September 2004.
Item last updated: 8 November 2004.]