♂William de Warenne

William de Warenne (died 24 June 1089) was a Norman lord who took part in the conquest of England, held the castle of Lewes, and became the first Earl of Surrey. He was the twenty-sixth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) through his son William de Warenne, and her twenty-seventh great-grandfather by a second line through the same son, so by two separate lines of descent.

Conquest and lordship

William’s parentage is uncertain. He is said to have been born before 1036, and in 1054 he received the castle of Mortimer, forfeited by a relative, Roger de Mortimer. He sat on the council at Lillebonne^W that agreed on the invasion of England in 1066 and took part in it. For his service he is said to have received some 300 manors, about half of them in Norfolk, along with the castles of Lewes in Sussex and Conisbrough in Yorkshire. He added castles of his own at Reigate in Surrey and Castle Acre in Norfolk.

Regent and earl

From March to December 1067, while the king was in Normandy, William was one of the council of regency. In 1074 he served as joint justiciar^W and routed the rebels in Norfolk during the rising of the Earls of Hereford and Norfolk. When Bishop Odo rose against the new king, William II, in the rebellion of 1088^W, William stood firm, and about 1088 the king made him Earl of Surrey. He was more often called Earl Warenne.

Marriage and death

He married Gundred before 1078, and perhaps before 1070. In 1078 the two are said to have been joint founders of the priory of Lewes^W. Gundred died in childbed at Castle Acre on 27 May 1085 and was buried at Lewes. William appears to have married a second time, to a daughter of William Goet of Montmirail and sister of Richard Goet. Of his children by Gundred, his heir was William, and a second son was named Reynold.

William died at Lewes Castle on 24 June 1089 of a wound taken at the siege of Pevensey, and was buried at Lewes priory.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son William de Warenne, the second earl. They part with the second earl’s children. One runs through his daughter Ada de Warenne, her daughter Margaret of Scotland and Margaret’s son Henry de Bohun (1176–1220) to Henry’s son Humphrey de Bohun. The other runs through the second earl’s son William de Warenne and his daughter Isabel de Warenne, then Isabel’s daughter Maud de Warenne, and Maud’s granddaughter Maud of Eu (died 1241). Humphrey de Bohun married Maud of Eu, and the two lines meet again in their daughter Alice de Bohun. From her the pedigrees carry the descent down to John Washburn (died 1547), and so probably to Nancy Jane Blanchard.

Notes

Sources

William’s birth before 1036, the grant of Mortimer in 1054, the council at Lillebonne, the 300 manors and the castles, the regency of 1067, the justiciarship of 1074, the creation as Earl of Surrey about 1088, the marriage before 1078, the joint foundation of Lewes priory in 1078, Gundred’s death and burial, the second marriage, his own death and burial, and his sons William and Reynold are given in the first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. 7, 1896, under Surrey, pp. 323-325). The foundation of the priory is stated in a note to p. 324. These are compiled peerage accounts, not records of the time, and the page gives the second marriage only as “appears to have m.” The death at Lewes Castle on 24 June 1089 from a wound at the siege of Pevensey is given on p. 325.

Parentage

Cokayne treats William’s parentage as uncertain. A note to p. 323 says he is sometimes called a son of William, Count of Warenne, “apparently, erroneously”, and says he was probably a son of Ralph, or Rodolf, de Warenne.

Earl or lord

The Complete Peerage (1st ed., vol. 7, p. 323, note) observes that William de Warenne “is not described as an Earl in the Domesday book” and takes the creation to be by William II about 1088, confirmed by the contemporary Book of Hyde Abbey. His name does appear as Comes de Warenne among witnesses to the Battle Abbey charters of 1076 and 1086, but the same note calls the authenticity of those charters very doubtful.

The descent through John Washburn

That the John whom the pedigrees give as a son of Joyce Botetourt’s great-granddaughter Joan Mitton was John Washburn of Bengeworth, who died in 1547, is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, not a record’s, so the descent through him is given here as probable.