Some notes on my ancestors

Of the origin of the De Bohuns very little has yet been discovered. We are vaguely informed that the first of this name known to us, the aforesaid Humphrey with the beard, was a near kinsman of the Conqueror, but in what particular degree, or by which of the many branches, legitimate and illegitimate, of the ducal house of Normandy, no information is afforded us. After the Conquest he became possessed of the lordship of Talesford, in the county of Norfolk, so that whatever his relationship to or support of William may have been, no very great benefit appears to have resulted from it.
Bohun, or rathcr Bohon, the place whence the family derived its name, is situated in the arrondissement of St. Lo, in the Cotentin, where are still the communes of St. Andre and St. George de Bohon. The mound of the castle was visible some thirty years ago, and may be still. The honour of Bohon was in possession of this Humphrey at the time of the Norman invasion, and his later gift of the Church of St. George de Bohon as a cell to the Abbey of Marmoutier, is confirmed by William, King of the English, "his Queen Mathildis, his sons Robert and William, his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, Michael, Bishop of Avranches, Roger de Montgomeri, and Richard, son of Turstain," husband of Emma de Conteville, which certainly supports the belief that he was closely connected with the Conqueror, probably by one of his wives, respecting whose parentage we are left so provokingly in the dark.
He died before 1113, having had issue three sons and two daughters, but by which wife or wives we are unhappily in ignorance. How important, genealogically, to the descent it is scarcely necessary to observe.
One of the daughters appears to me to have been named Adela; at least I find an Adela, aunt of Humphrey de Bohun, in the Fine Roll for Wiltshire, 31st of Henry I, and it could not have been on the mother's side, or she would have been a daughter of Edward of Salisbury, that mysterious personage, one of whose daughters, named Maud or Mabel, was wife of Humphrey II, the youngest of the three sons of "old Humphrey," and the founder of the fortunes of the family.
The eldest son, Robert, died, in his father's lifetime apparently, unmarried; and from Richard, the second son, descended in the female line the Bohuns of Midhurst, in Sussex; but the grandeur of the Bohuns was due to the extraordinary succession of great matches made by the descendants of the youngest sons, who became Earls of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton, the co-heiresses of the eleventh and last Humphrey de Bohun being the wives, one of Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Gloucester, and son of King Edward III, and the other of Henry, surnamed Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and subsequently ascending the throne of England as King Henry IV.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're not the only family descended from H de Bohun, you know.
Sincerely
Mark Bone, Dorchester

Tony said...

Possibly, Mr Bone, but I would imagine we are the only one that can prove it beyond doubt.

Sal said...

Good lord. You're the first person I've seen in years unlabouredly use good grammar.

Tony said...

Thank you kind sir/madam. Noblesse oblige; one has to give of one's best, does one not?
You are the first person I have ever heard use the word "unlabouredly". I'm not absolutely sure that I shall want to use it often.

Tony said...

Oh, and by the way, Sal, there is no need to address me as Good Lord. Plain Mr. will do. The ennobled side of my family died out in 1643 and since then our branch has always been proud of our status as commoners.