Fay Sampson’s Family History
This site is a work-in-progress. There is a massive amount to cover. I have included both male and female lines, and some go back 30 generations. Keep coming back for more.
I have numbered the generations working backwards from my own as (1)
WILLIAM DENEBAUD (22a)
WILLIAM DENEBAUD and JOAN STOCKLINCH (22)
The 1978 A History of the County of Somerset has the succession of Denebauds as Philip, Hamon, William, Thomas, etc.[1] Lesley Haigh’s 2008 The Denebaud Tree, an apparently well-researched pedigree, has a second William, giving Philip, Hamon, William, William, Thomas.[2] She has the second William as the husband of Joan Stocklinch, and gives him a birth date around 1300. I have as yet seen no firm evidence for two Williams, but the gaps between the generations make this possible.
In the following biography I have assumed there was only one William in this descent.
WILLIAM DENEBAUD was the son and heir of Hamo Denebaud of Hinton St George.
His father died c. 1282, while returning from the Holy Land. He may have been doing military service there, in the Crusader Kingdom of Acre, or have gone as a pilgrim.
William inherited his estates, including a half share of the manor of Hinton St George. The other half was owned by his cousin Philip. Philip became increasingly involved in the affairs of Exeter, serving as bailiff and Member of Parliament.[3] From 1301 to 1304 he appears in the records as Philip of Henton. From 1305 to 1309 he is Philip Denebaud. In 1303 William was granted lands by Philip. [4] It is likely that his cousin found it more convenient to live at Denbow Farm, a property he owned in the East Devon parish of Farringdon, than in Somerset. By 1307 William was evidently the principal occupier in Hinton St George.
Hinton House was massively rebuilt by William’s great-great-great-grandson Amias Poulet, but parts of the medieval building remain. It occupied the area of the south west corner of the present building and was of conventional plan, having a central hall with porch and oriel to the west, service rooms to the north and north-east, and a parlour crossing on the south.
St George’s church, Hinton St George
JOAN STOCKLINCH was the daughter and heir of Roger Stocklinch of Chaffcombe Manor in Somerset.
In 1303, William was paying taxes in Hinton St George. The Feudal Aids for the Hundred of ‘Croukern’ (Crewkerne) show one of the two principal taxpayers as ‘Willelmus Denebaud’.[5]
William may have been a lawyer. In 1280, Philip Denebaud, probably William’s cousin, went to Ireland on official business with John Mautravers. The connections with John Mautravers seem to have been on-going. A John Mautravers, possibly his son, nominated William Denebaud to be his “attorney in Ireland” for a period of two years on April 28th, 1308.[6]
This may be William Denebaud, Joan’s husband, though Lesley Haigh’s tree has another William Denebaud, who was his first cousin.
John Mautravers senior is thought to have married an Irish heiress. He and his wife obtained permission to appoint attorneys in Ireland, as did John Mautravers junior, William Denebaud’s employer.[7] The grandson, also John Mautravers, was one of two knights who took the deposed King Edward II to Berkeley Castle, where he was reputedly murdered.
William and Joan had at least one son, Thomas, who married Joan Brent, and a daughter Elizabeth, who married Joan’s brother, Robert Brent of Cossington in Somerset.[8]
In 1317 William and Joan were involved in dispute with Thomas de Stokelinch, Vicar of Sowy, over various lands in Somerset, Devon and Dorset.
Trans. Devon. Assoc. 291,
FEET OF FINES. 1172. 145. ‘At Westminster, one month from Easter Day, 10 Ed. 11, (1st May 1317) before
William de Bereford, Gilbert de Ronbiry, John de Benstede, Henry de Scrop, John Bacun and John de Mutford, Justices, and other etc.
Between William DENEBAUD and Jean his wife, claimants, by William de Peret in Jean’s place by the King’s writ, and Thomas de Stoke linch, Vicar of the Church of Sowy, deforciant, as to one messuage, one mill, two ploughlands, £10 of rent in Henton St. George, (Hinton St. George) near Ilminster) and Henton Craft, Cruk, (Crewkerne) and Synderasshe, Co. Somerset, and Pentrich (Pentridge near Cranborne) Co. Dorset, and Holebrok Cundham, alias Denbow in Farringdon, Co. Devon (Note 1) Plea of Covenant was summoned. William acknowledges the tenements to be the right of Thomas as of William’s gift. For this Thomas granted the tenements to William and Jean and gave them and his heirs by her of the chief lords of that fee, by the services which to the said tenements belong for ever. Should William die without heirs, then after the deaths of William and Jean the tenements shall remain to the heirs of William to hold as aforesaid.
Note 1: The Denebauds or Denbows held Holbrook Grindham in Farringdon and have given to it their name. It is now known as Denbow.[9]
Sowy is a village on the Somerset Levels. Thomas de Stokelinch must have been a relation of Joan, but not a brother, since she was her father’s heir.
William was still alive in 1317. In that year he confirmed Forde Abbey as the owner of land in the hamlet of Craft, known as Hintonscraft, in the parish of Hinton St George. His father Hamon had made a similar confirmation in the 13th century. This suggests that the land had originally come from the Denebaud estates.[10]
[1] R.W. Dunning (ed), A History of the County of Somerset. Vol. 4. OUP, 1978.
[2] www.leshaigh.co.uk
[3] The Denbow Diaspora. Vol.7. No.1.
[4] Dunning.
[5] Feudal Aids, Somerset.
[6] The Denbow Diaspora, Vol.11. No.2.
[7] www.mauriceboddy.org.uk/Mautrav.htm
[8] Haigh.
[9] The Denbow Diaspora. Vol.7. No.1.
[10] Dunning.
NEXT GENERATION: 21. DENEBAUD-BRENT
PREVIOUS GENERATIONS: 23. DENEBAUD