Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/204

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164


NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. v. MAK. 2,


End of ' Cautelac Missae.'

Versus. Fragmina psalmorum tintiuillus colligit horum In die mille vicibus se sarcinat ille Periculosum est ergo tantum festinare in officio diuino In tantum quod, nee cogitant quid dicunt nee curant nisi quod adeo citius quo poterint se expediant.

Contra quos est auctoritas Augustini O. v. xv.

Et eciam est irracionabile primo quia racione illius seruicij exuuntur ab omni labore et opere nianuali vt illi deuocius vacent secundo quia racione illius offlcij omnes suos habent honores et comoda. Tercio quia sicut secundum Tullium li j de offlciis c j proprium est oratoris distincte aperte et ornate dicere.

The following extract from ' The Myroure of our Ladye ' (E. English Text Soc., p, illustrates the last " Caution " :

" We rede of an holy Abbot of the order of >Cystreus that whyle he stode in the quyer at mattyns, he sawe a fende that had a longe and a greate poke hangynge about hys necke, and wente .aboute the quyer from one to an other, and wayted bysely after all letters and syllables and wordes and faylynges that eny made ; and them he gathered dylygently and putte them in hys poke. And when he came before the Abbot, waytying yf oughte had escaped hym, that he myghte have gotten and put in hys bagge ; the Abbot was astoned and aferde of the foulenes and mysshape of hym and sayde unto hym. What art thow ; and he answered and sayde. I am a poure dyvel, and my name ys Tytyvyllus, & I do myne offyce that is commytted unto me. And what is thync offyce, sayd the Abbot, he answeryd I muste eche .day he sayde brynge my master a thousande ipokes full of faylynges & of neglygences in syl- lables and wordes, that ar done in youre order in Tedynge and in syngynge, & else I must be sore beten."

J. T. F.

JDurham.


THE FITZWILLIAM FAMILY.

(See 11 S. iii. 165, 215.)

THE connexion of tha Fitzvvilliam and Grimaldi families depends not on the similarity of the coat of arms, but on much more interesting and important evidence.

The Fitzwilliam family tradition is that their Norman ancestor was cousin of Ed- ward the Confessor and Marshal to William I., .and that this Godric or Fitzwilliam received a S2arf from the Conqueror which they still possess. (See Nichols, 1722 ; Crossly, 1725 ; Lodga, 1754; EdmondsDn, 1764, &o.)

This account has baen rejected by anti- quaries, mainly because there is no such person in Domesday Book, while the Marshal of William's conquering army must certainly have received larga grants ; and als3 b33a - j.?3 it is unsupported by any record. W Dom3sday Book rmntions grants to ths Marshal, ^in Hampshire,


much too inadequate for such an office, and many grants to " Goisfrid de Bee " in Hertfordshire. Now if these two Goisfrids are the same person, William's Marshal was largely rewarded.

As the Bee family was Norman, we naturally go to a foreign source for infor- mation. Venasque gives it in his ' Genea- logica et Historica Grimaldse Gentis Arbor,' Parisiis, 1647.

From Venasque it appears that Goisfrid the Marshal was the same person as Goisfrid de Bee (p. 87).

Gilbert, Baron de Bee, in 1041, was " Marshal of the Army " of William, Duke of Normandy. His nephew was Goisfrid de Bee, who, says Venasque, received many fiefs from William I.

Thus we find the post of Marshal was in the Bee family prior to 1066. This is a very important point, as the office seems to have been in some measure hereditary, Gilbert Mareschal (so named from, his office) temp. Henry I. having been also traced up to Goisfrid de Bee (Gent. Mag., 1832, pp. 29, 30). See Dugdale's ' History of the Marschal Family.'

Again, from the pedigree it appears that Goisfrid de Bee and Turstin FitzRou were brothers, sons of Hollo. And from Domes- day Book it is seen that Turstin, as well as Goisfrid, received fiefs in Hampshire. Turstin is also mentioned as standard-bearer at Hastings.

Venasque, in 1647, could not consult Domesday Book, yet the two agree exactly in stating that Goisfrid de Bee received large grants from William I. For what service ? Though neither authority calls him Marshal, Venasque mentions that his uncle was Marshal in 1041 ; the logical inference being that by 1066 the uncle had either died or was incapacitated by age, and the nephew Goisfrid went in his place.

The variation in the name has many examples in early records. The inquisi- tions were taken by different persons, in dif- ferent counties, and there would be nothing unusual in a man's being called Marshal in Hampshire, and Bee in Hertfordshire.

The conclusion seems plain, that " Goisfrid de Bes " was Marshal to William I. and the same person as " Goisfrid the Marshal."

But the Fitzwilliam tradition says their ancestor the Marshal was cousin to Edward the Confessor. It is so given in Venasque and Anderson, who both make him descend from Rollo, Duke of Normandy. In the Latin Fitzwilliam pedigree the name is " Gothefridus," in French Goisfrid,