32. GRAYE

Sampson  Tree

HUGH FITZTURGIS DE GRAYE (32)

 

HUGH FITZ TURGIS DE GRAYE. Some genealogists record the parentage of Anchetil de Greye, the young knight who fought for William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, as unknown. Others believe he was the son of Hugh FitzTurgis.

Turgis means “hostage of Thor”, evidence of the Normans’ Viking ancestry. Most of the Viking settlers in Normandy were Danish or Anglo-Danish.

Fitz means “son of”. It is often used for a bastard son, but its use here seems to include legitimate offspring. It simply meant that Hugh was the son of Turgis.

There is a purported pedigree for Anchitel de Gray which has him descended from a maternal uncle of William the Conqueror. More reliable research shows that he belonged to a family of considerable note in the Bessin area, on the Channel coast north of Bayeux. They were Sires of Luc, a village near Caen, and of Graye, north of Bayeux. They either gave their name of Gray to the parish where they lived, or derived their name from that place. [1]

Hugh was the elder son of Turgis, Sire de Luc. His younger brother was Turstin, which means “rock of Thor”.

 

We do not know who Hugh married. He had two sons, Turstin, who shared a name with his uncle, and Anchitel (“cauldron of the gods”).

 

Hugh was born near the beginning of the 11^th century. Normandy was in a state of near anarchy at the time, with private wars between barons. Robert the Magnficent fought an unsuccessful war with his elder brother Richard in a bid to become Duke of Normandy. He was defeated, but succeeded to the title on Richard’s death.

He left no legitimate offspring. His natural son, by his concubine Herleva, was known in his early life as William the Bastard. On Robert’s death, he became Duke of Normandy. He is now popularly known as William the Conqueror.

William believed himself to be the rightful heir to the crown of England. Hugh’s son Anchitel joined his invasion force in 1066. After William killed the English king Harold and was crowned England’s first Norman king, Anchitel settled there on land grantEd to him by William.

His father Hugh FitzTurgis was a subtenant of his overlord, Roger II de Montgomery in Normandy and part of Earl Robert’s entourage. [2] He was one of a group of such tenants who became landholders on both sides of the Channel. We find him on the continent with Roger after 1066. In 1086-7 he signed Earl Robert’s charter for Saint Evroult at Alenꞔon.

Hugh was tenant-in-chief of land held from Earl Roger worth £2.15. Of this, £1.45 was due to land from Norman charters after 1066.

At the same time, he was an important subtenant of Earl Roger in Sussex, and had smaller holdings in Shropshire. One of these was Chelmick. Another was the motte and bailey castle of Wilderley, between the Long Mynd and the Severn Valley. At the time of the Domesday Book, 1086, he held the manor of Hope Bowdler.

Wilderley Motte and Bailey Castle [3]

 

Given the rarity of the name, the Turgis holding land from Earl Roger in Sussex is probably Hugh’s father.

 

In England, Anchitel became the founder of the influential Gray/Grey family, which included Lady Jane Grey .

Hugh’s son Turstin remained in Normandy. He inherited his father’s role of Sire de Luc. His descendants appear as benefactors of religious houses. In 1082, Gisla de Gray, daughter of Turstin de Gray, Sire de Luc, entered the convent of Holy Trinity in Caen, of which she was a benefactress.

 

 

[1] The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol II. The Duchess of Cleveland, ed. Michael Linton. http://1066.co.nz/Mosaic%20DVD/library/Battle%20Roll/Gray.html
[2]  The Norman Aristocracy in the Long Eleventh Century: Three case studies, by James Moore https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e003/b29d605fb1a05576067d6e63ad3eb7c14518.pdf
[3] Castlesfortsbattles.co.uk