Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/22

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8
OBSERVATIONS IN DISPROOF OF

who had been appointed to the cathedral of Contances, afterwards the usual place of residence of his successors in the capital of the duchy, being inclusive of the church of Blosseville-Bonsecours, in the vicinity of the Mont de Rouen, a commune, which was shared between his sons. According to the continuator of William, the monk of Jumiéges, whose own history closed with the accession of Robert Courte-heuze to the ducal throne, and who from internal evidence was doubtless a monk of the abbey of Bec Herluin, the families of Warren and Mortemer derived their descent from a common ancestor, and such tradition was undoubtedly correct. In the text of Duchesne we read this paragraph of this writer, under the heading Quomodo eadem Comitissa sorores suas et neptes nobilioribus Normannorum in conjugium tradidit et de posteritate earumdem, having reference to the countess Gunnor, wife of Richard I. Comte of Normandy, deceased in 996.

Et quoniam de sororibus Gunnoris Comitissæ fecimus mentionem, libet etiam de illis, qui secundo gradu consanguinitatis affines eidem fuere, prout ab antiquis accepimus, aliqua dicere. Habuit ergo ex fratre suo Herfasto eadem Comitissa nepotem Osbernum de Crepon, patrem videlicet Willelmi, Comitis Herefordiæ, viri per omnia laudabilis. Neptes vero plures prædicta Gunnor habuit: sed solummodo de quinque, quibus maritis nupserint, audivi. Una itaque earum matrimonio copulata est patri primi Willelmi de Warenna, ex qua natus est idem Willelmus, postea Comes Surreiæ, et Rogerius de Mortuomari, frater ipsius. Altera Nicholao de Bascheritvilla, ex cujus posteritate natus est Willelmus Martellus et Walterus de Sancto Martino.

The memory of the aged people from whom this writer received this information, cannot be implicitly relied upon, and the lapse of time requires that we ascend a generation higher, so as to fix the marriage of this nameless niece with one contemporary with Richard I. in the person of Hugh, afterwards bishop of Contances, and father of Ralph de Warren and Roger de Mortemer, as this contemporary charter witnesses.

Non inconsulte antiquorum ritu approbatum constat, ut quod in constabiliendis rebus concors fidelium sententia approbat, hoc fideli litteræ tradatur, quæ longiore ævo perdurat. Cujus vivaci testimonio cunctis tam presentibus quam et nostris minoribus notum facimus, nos fratres in Retomagensi monte Sanctæ Trinitati, Deo nostro, in unum servientes, quod habita cum Rodulfo Warethnæ emptionis conventione in perpetuum hujus nostri loci alodium, e vicino ejus centum acres silvæ triginta emimus libris, et quattuordecim acres terræ arabilis in Blovilla decem aliis libris, et item bene-