Person:Beatrice Valle (1)

The following information was contained in a post-em by Curt Hofemann, [email protected]:

Beatrice de Valle (or Vaux), wife of William Briwerre, was almost certainly the daughter of Hubert de Vaux, baron of Gilsland (see ID 20718?), Cumberland, by his wife, Grace.

The evidence for this is slim but compelling. Beatrice had property in Devonshire as her maritagium. The early history of this property is shrouded.

However, Hubert de Vaux is known to have owned property in Devonshire, and probably lived there during part of his life. Beatrice de Valle had a daughter Grace Briwerre who I presume was named for her mother, Grace de Vaux. Grace was rather rare as a woman's name in that period. I have proven that William Briwerre acquired property from one of Beatrice's Vaux brothers and I have proven that William Briwerre was involved in a suit with the widow of another brother. If nothing else, this proves that the two families knew each other well.

I should also note that Beatrice de Valle was almost certainly the mother of Henry Fitz Count, bastard son of Reginald, Earl of Cornwall. This is indicated by two successive charters which unfortunately I don't have in hand. In these two charters, Henry Fitz Count makes a gift to some religious house and in the next charter, Beatrice's Briwerre son refers back to his "brother" without naming him, as if the parties understood who he meant. This would only make sense if the two charters were recorded at the same time and if Henry Fitz Count was the "brother" named by Beatrice's Briwerre son. The charters are published in Monasticon Exoniensis.

The name Vaux, by the way, was usually written in Latin as Vallibus but I have seen it on rare occasions as Valle. Beatrice's maiden name is given as Valle in one charter I have seen. [Ref: Douglas Richardson 25 Jan 1999 message to soc.genealogy.medieval]

Research note: numerous listings on Rootsweb Worldconnect show the above Reginald (de Dunstanville), Earl of Cornwall (bastard son of Henry I by Sybil Corbet) as Beatrice de Valle/Vaux's father & Beatrice Mortaigne/Mortain or Beatrice fitzRichard as her mother, but sources are lacking... Curt

Regards, Curt

1. ↑ 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)
   p. 213.

   See also 177-7, 143-27

2. ↑ 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)
   164.
3. ↑ Weis, Frederick Lewis; William R. Beall; and Walter Lee Sheppard. The Magna Charta Sureties, 1215: the barons named in the Magna Charta, 1215, and some of their descendants who settled in America during the early colonial years. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Genealogical Pub. Co., c1999)
   153a-5.
4. ↑ 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)
   I:22.
5. ↑ Newsgroup: soc.genealogy.medieval, at groups - google.com (2).
6. ↑ David Porter. The Porter Family Forest.
7.   PATRICK (III) de Chaources, in Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.

   Cawley notes that much of the information about "Beatrice de Valle" is dubious.