♂Bernard de Neufmarche

Bernard de Neufmarche^W was a lord of Brecknock on the Welsh March, remembered chiefly as the father of Sibyl de Neufmarche, who brought his lands to her husband Miles of Gloucester. He was the twenty-sixth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Sibyl de Neufmarche.

Lord of Brecknock

No birth or death date is known for Bernard, and nothing is known of his own parents. He held the lordship of Brecknock^W, and his gifts to the church were remembered after him: Roger, Earl of Hereford, his grandson through Sibyl, confirmed them.

Bernard’s wife is said to have been Nesta or Agnes, a daughter of Griffyn, son of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, but her identity is doubtful. She is said to have sworn that her son Mahel was not Bernard’s child, and on that oath the inheritance passed to their daughter Sibyl, for whose paternity she vouched.

His daughter Sibyl

In the spring of 1121 King Henry I gave Sibyl to Miles of Gloucester, together with all the lands of her father and mother, and the honor of Brecknock came to Miles through her. The couple’s daughter Margaret of Gloucester carried the line on toward the Bohuns. Through the Bohuns the line probably reaches John Washburn (died 1547).

Notes

Sources

Bernard’s lordship of Brecknock and Sibyl’s marriage to Miles about April or May 1121 are given in the Complete Peerage (2nd ed., vol. 6, 1926, Hereford, pp. 451–452 and notes), which cites Dugdale’s Monasticon (vol. 2, pp. 262, 264–265) for the king’s gift of Sibyl with the honor of Brecknock and for Earl Roger’s confirmation of Bernard’s gifts. Volume 1 (1910), p. 20, calls Sibyl the daughter and heir of Bernard de Neufmarché, lord of Brecon. All of it is compiled from later writers.

His wife and the oath

The Complete Peerage notes that Sibyl’s mother “is said to have been Nesta or Agnes”, a daughter of Griffyn, son of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, but that the identity of this prince is doubtful. The oath about Mahel is reported there from the Monasticon.

The descent through John Washburn

The line from Sibyl runs through Margaret of Gloucester and the Bohuns, and eventually to John Washburn, who died in 1547. That the John whom the pedigrees give as a son of Joan Mitton was John Washburn of Bengeworth is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, not a record’s, so the descent through him is probable.