Some corrections and additions to the Complete Peerage: Volume 10: The Rise of the Marshal (PROPOSED CORRECTIONS)

THE RISE OF THE MARSHAL

Volume 10, Appendix G, page 92:
GILBERT THE MARSHAL [d. in or before 1130] was the first known holder of the office.
Note g:
... Gilbert may have been son or grandson of otherwise unknown Robert, who in 1086 held Cheddar, Somerset, under Roger de Courseulles (Domesday Book, vol. i, f. 94; cf. note "h" infra). Robert the Marshal, who in 1086 held Lavington, Wilts, has been suggested as the possible progenitor of the family (Davis, op. cit., pp. xxvi-xxvii); but this is unlikely, as in 1166 Lavington was held by Piers de la Mare (Red Book, p. 246).
Note h (continued on page 93):
... He left at least 2 sons, John abovenamed and William Giffard, who was presented to the church of Cheddar Hole, Somerset, and was admitted by Godfrey, Bishop of Bath (1123-35) ... Presumably William was called "Giffard" as a nickname - the chubby-cheeked (cf. Planché, Conqueror and his Companions, vol. i, pp. 161-62).

John P. Ravilious, in January 2003, pointed out a suggestion by N. E. Stacy that Gilbert the Marshal was identical with one Gilbert "Gibard", a Domesday subtenant in Winterbourne Monkton (where the younger John the Marshal was apparently his successor in 1173) [citing English Historical Review, February 1999]. This identification is accepted by K. S. B. Keats-Rohan [Domesday Descendants, p. 1029], although it does seem rather unlikely that the father of John the Marshal could have been a Domesday tenant. But in any case the earlier presence of Gilbert "Gibard" does suggest that Giffard was the family name rather than a personal nickname.

[This problem was also discussed by Mark Harry.
Item last updated: 2 March 2003.]