Person:Richard Fitz Gilbert (1)

Richard Fitz Gilbert; also known as "de Bienfaite" (from the quantity of his fiefs [so states BP, but CP states Richard was lord of Bienfate & Orbec in Normandy]), "de Clare" or "de Tonbridge" (from actual fiefs); went with his cousin William I the Conqueror to England and was granted 176 Lordships, 95 of them associated with the Honour (feudal unit of administration) of Clare, Suffolk, and others with Tonbridge, Kent. [Burke's Peerage]

Richard FitzGilbert, having accompanied the Conqueror into England, participated in the spoils of conquest and obtained extensive possessions in the new and old dominions of his royal leader and kinsman. In 1073 we find him joined under the designation of Ricardus de Benefacta, with William de Warren, in the great office of Justiciary of England, with whom, in three years afterwards, he was in arms against the rebellious lords Robert de Britolio, Earl of Hereford, and Ralph Waher, or Guarder, Earl of Norfolk and Suffolk, and behaved with great gallantry. But afterwards, at the time of the General Survey, which was towards the close of William's reign, he is called Ricardus de Tonebruge, from his seat at Tonebruge (now Tunbridge) in Kent, which town and castle he obtained from the archbishop of Canterbury in lieu of the castle of Brion, at which time he enjoyed thirty-eight lordships in Surrey, thirty-five in Essex, three in Cambridgeshire, with some others in Wilts and Devon, and ninety-five in Suffolk, amongst those was Clare, whence he was occasionally styled Richard de Clare, and that place in a few years afterwards becoming the chief seat of the family, his descendants are said to have assumed thereupon the title of Earls of Clare. This great feudal lord m. Rohese, dau. of Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, and had issue, Gilbert, his successor, Roger, Walter, Richard, Robert, a dau. m. to Ralph de Telgers, and a dau. mo. to Eudo Dapifer. Richard de Tonebruge, or de Clare, whose is said to have fallen in a skirmish with the Welsh, was s. by his eldest son, Gilbert de Tonebruge. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, London, 1883, p. 118, Clare, Lords of Clare, Earls of Hertford, Earls of Gloucester]Richard Fitz Gilbert; also known as "de Bienfaite" (from the quantity ofhis fiefs), "de Clare" or "de Tonbridge" (from actual fiefs); went with his cousin William I the Conqueror to England and was granted 176 Lordships, 95 of them associated with the Honour (feudal unit of administration) of Clare, Suffolk, and others with Tonbridge, Kent. [Burke's Peerage]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Cokayne, George Edward, and Vicary Gibbs; et al. The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant [2nd ed.]. (London: St. Catherine Press, 1910-59), Volume 3 page 242.
   Observations.—In the times of the Heptarchy the border fortress of Clare (Suffolk), on the confines of the Kingdoms of East Anglia and Essex, was of the greatest importance, and continued to be so for many centuries afterwards, when it was granted by the Conqueror to Richard FitzGilbert. FitzGilbert's successors the earlier Lords of Clare were, “it is implied in the Lords' Reports [vol. iii, p. 124] and elsewhere, styled Earls of Clare before they were Earls of Hertford, but investigation disproves this,” though doubtless, these Lords, after they obtained that Earldom, were, according to the usage of the period, frequently styled “Earls of Clare,” just as the Earls of Derby were styled “Earls Ferrers,” &c. On account of the great importance of these feudal Barons, the earlier Lords of Clare, so frequently considered to have been actual Peers, a short account of them is subjoined, as under.
   

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   Richard FitzGilbert, styled (from his possessions) “de Bienfaite,” “de Clare,” and “de Tonbridge,” was son of Gilbert, Count of Brionne in Normandy, which Gilbert was son and heir of Godfrey, Count of Brionne, illegitimate son of Richard, Duke of Normandy. He was born before 1035, was Lord of Bienfaite and Orbec in Normandy, accompanied his kinsman, William the Conqueror, into England, and was rewarded by him with no less than 176 Lordships, of which 95 were in Suffolk, attached to the Honour of Clare, which honour, with the Castle of Clare, as also the Castle of Tonbridge in Kent, he obtained, becoming thus Lord of Clare and of Tonbridge. During the King's absence he was joint Chief Justiciar, and, as such, suppressed the revolt of 1075.
   
   He married Rohese, daughter of Walter Giffard, the elder, and aunt and heir of Walter [Giffard], 2nd Earl of Buckingham, through which match his descendants became co-heirs to the lands of that family. He was living 1081, but appears to have died about 1090, being buried at St. Neots, co. Huntingdon. His widow was living, as such, 1113.
   
   [Complete Peerage III:242, XIV:183, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Altschul, Michael. A baronial family in medieval England: the Clares, 1217-1314. (Baltimore [Maryland]: John Hopkins Press, 1965), Table I, p.17.
3. ↑ Burke, Bernard (John Bernard). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. (London, London, England|City of London, Greater London, England: Harrison, 1865), 1069.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 Turton, W. H. (William Harry). The Plantagenet ancestry: being tables showing over 7,000 of the ancestors of Elizabeth (daughter of Edward IV, and wife of Henry VII) the heiress of the Plantagenets; with preface, lists, notes and a complete index of about 2,700 entries and a reference for each. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1968), 94.
5. ↑ The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis, additions by Walter Lee Sheppard Jr, 5th Edition, 1999 (11), line 153, 157.
6. ↑ Weis, Frederick Lewis; Walter Lee Sheppard; and David Faris. Ancestral roots of certain American colonists, who came to America before 1700: the lineage of Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and some of their descendants. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Pub. Co., 7th Edition c1992), 184-2.
7. ↑ Round, John Horace. Feudal England : historical studies on the 11th and 12th centuries, p. 471, 474, 523.
8.   Richard Fitz Gilbert, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. (Online: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.).

   the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

   Richard fitz Gilbert (bef. 1035 – c.1090), was a Norman lord who participated in the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and was styled "de Bienfaite", "de Clare", and of Tonbridge " from his holdings.

9.   Richard FitzGilbert, in Lundy, Darryl. The Peerage: A genealogical survey of the peerage of Britain as well as the royal families of Europe.
10.   RICHARD de Brionne, son of GILBERT de Brionne "Crespin" Comte d'Eu & his wife --- (before 1035-[Apr] [1090], bur St Neots, Huntingdonshire)., in Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.