CURATOR'S NOTES: The question of Thorold's position in a Mercian family and his relation to the Malet family has been much discussed, with varying theories, over the years. Based upon the work of Katherine Keats-Rohan, it is generally believed today that he was married to a daughter of William (Guillaume I) de Malet and was the father of Lucy "of Bolingbroke", later Countess of Chester, who was his heir. It is also postulated that he himself may have been the product of a marriage between a Mercian father and a Malet wife. He was likely the nephew of Godgifu, Lady Godiva of Coventry. He died not long before the Domesday Book (1086).

I put the foremost trust in Keats-Rohan's interpretations. Please see her essay, below.

Charles Cawley, author of the Medieval Lands Database, positions Lucy's parentage slightly differently, believing that Thorold was her uncle rather than her father. His research data reads:

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLISHNOBILITYMEDIEVAL3L-O.htm#God...

Relatives of the Malet family, the exact connections have not yet been established:

1. [--- . According to a charter of Henri Duke of Normandy (later Henry II King of England) issued in favour of her son Ranulf Earl of Chester dated 1153, Ctss Lucy was the niece of Robert [I] Malet of Eye and of Alan of Lincoln: "H. dux Norm. et comes And." granted land to "Ranulfo comiti Cestrie", including "totum honorem de Eia sicut Robertus Malet avunculus matris sue" had held and "foeudum Alani de Lincol…qui fuit avunculus matris sue", by charter dated to [Jan/Apr] 1153[901]. The precise relationships between all these individuals has not yet been ascertained. m [--- de Lincoln, son of ---].]

2. [--- . m ---.] [Three] children:

a) THOROLD de Bukenhale (-after [1076/79]). Sheriff of Lincolnshire. The Annals of Peterborough record that “Thoroldus vicecomes et frater germanus Godivæ comitissæ Leycestriæ” founded Spalding Monastery in 1052[902]. “Thoroldus de Bukenhale…vicecomiti” donated Spalding monastery to Croyland abbey which names “domino meo Leofrico comite Leicestriæ et…comitissa sua domina Godiva sorore mea…et cognati mei comitis Algari primogeniti et hæredis eorum”[903]. Herman’s De miraculis sancti Eadmundi names “…Lincolniensis Turoldus…” among those present when Herfast Bishop of Thetford visited Baldwin Abbot of St Edmund’s to be cured of an injury to his eye, dated to [1076/79] by Round[904].

b) GODGIFU (-after [1054/57]). She is named as wife of Earl Leofric by Florence of Worcester, who specifies that she and her husband founded monasteries at Leominster, Wenlock, Chester and Stowe[905]. The Annals of Peterborough record that “Thoroldus vicecomes et frater germanus Godivæ comitissæ Leycestriæ” founded Spalding Monastery in 1052[906]. Her family origin is also indicated by the undated charter under which “Thoroldus de Bukenhale…vicecomiti” donated Spalding monastery to Croyland abbey which names “domino meo Leofrico comite Leicestriæ et…comitissa sua domina Godiva sorore mea…et cognati mei comitis Algari primogeniti et hæredis eorum”[907]. The De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis names "Aediva trinepta Oslaci ducis" as wife of "Lefricus de Brunne, nepos comitis Radulfi cognominati Scalre", when recording that they were parents of "Herwardus"[908]. "Oslaci ducis" could be "Oslac" recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as "earl [of Northumbria]" in 966[909], but any precise relationship has not been identified. ”Leofricus comes…et conjux mea Godgyve” donated property to Evesham Monastery by undated charter which names “frater meus Normannus”[910]. Godgifu wife of Leofric granted property to St Mary's, Stow by charter dated [1054/57][911]. Orderic Vitalis records that “Elfgarus comes” had founded “Coventrense cœnobium” and that “Godiova...comitissa” donated “omnem thesaurum suum” to the church[912]. She was the Lady Godiva of legend. m LEOFRIC Earl of Mercia, son of LEOFWINE Ealdorman of the Hwicce in Mercia (-Bromley 30 Oct 1057, bur Coventry).

c) [daughter . The source quoted below which names Thorold as "avunculus" of Lucy suggests that he was her maternal uncle, assuming that the word was used in its strict sense (which cannot be beyond doubt). m ---. It is unlikely that the sources quoted below, which name Lucy as daughter of "Algari comitis Leicestriæ", are reliable. It is assumed that they all refer to Ælfgar Earl of Mercia (see ANGLO-SAXON NOBILITY), which would mean that Lucy was the sister of Earls Edwin and Morcar. However, such a relationship appears chronologically impossible, even if Lucy was born very late in the life of Earl Ælfgar (whose death is dated to 1062), considering that she apparently had four children by her third husband who she married in 1098.] One child:

i) LUCY (-1138, bur Spalding). According to a charter of Henri Duke of Normandy (later Henry II King of England) issued in favour of her son Ranulf Earl of Chester dated 1153, Ctss Lucy was the niece of Robert [I] Malet of Eye and of Alan of Lincoln: "H. dux Norm. et comes And." granted land to "Ranulfo comiti Cestrie", including "totum honorem de Eia sicut Robertus Malet avunculus matris sue" had held and "foeudum Alani de Lincol…qui fuit avunculus matris sue", by charter dated to [Jan/Apr] 1153[913]. The precise relationships between all these individuals has not yet been ascertained. Domesday Descendants suggests that Thorold was her father[914]. Keats-Rohan expands her arguments in another article, based primarily on the presence of both Thorold and his wife as "antecessores" of Lucy and her first husband in the charter under which the couple donated Spalding monastery to the church of Saint-Nicholas, Anjou (see below)[915]. The Complete Peerage also discusses whether Thorold could have been Lucy’s father and that her mother could have been the daughter of Guillaume [I] Malet[916]. An alternative origin is suggested by Ingulph's potentially spurious Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland, which records that William I King of England arranged the marriage of "Ivo Taillebois" and "Lucia sister of Edwin and Morcar", her dowry consisting of their land at Hoyland[917]. The Genealogia Fundatoris of Coventry Monastery also names “Luciam postea comitissam” as daughter of “Algarus tertius”, adding that she married firstly “Yvoni Taylboys” by whom she was childless, secondly “Rogero filio Geroldi Romara”, thirdly “Ranulfo comiti Cestriæ”, and was buried “apud Spalding”[918]. The Chronicon Angliæ Petriburgense records "Luciæ comitissæ…filiæ Algari comitis Leicestriæ" as husband of "Ivo Tailbois comes Andegavensis, dominus Spaldingiæ et totius Hollandiæ" and "Toraldus avunculus eiusdem Luciæ"[919]. Lastly, the Annals of Peterborough name “Yvo Taylboys, comes Andegavensis, dominus Spaldynge et totius Holandiæ…maritus Luciæ, filiæ Algari comitis Leicestriæ” and "Toraldus avunculus…Luciæ" when recording his donation to Spalding Monastery in 1074[920]. This relationship with Earls Edwin and Morcar is impossible from a chronological point of view, in particular because Lucy gave birth to children by her third husband at a time when she would have been over fifty if she has been their sister. It is also extremely unlikely that their sister would have been given a name derived from the Romance languages. “Ivo Taleboys” donated Spalding Monastery to the church of Saint-Nicholas Anjou, for “conjugis suæ Luciæ et antecessorum Toraldi, scilicet uxoris eius, requie” by undated charter[921]. Peter of Blois's Continuation of the Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland records the death of Ivo and his burial at the priory of Spalding, and the remarriage of his widow "hardly had one month elapsed after his death" with "Roger de Romar the son Gerald de Romar"[922]. A manuscript recording the foundation of Spalding monastery records that “Yvo Talboys” married "Thoroldo…hærede Lucia" who, after the death of Ivo, married (in turn) "Rogerum filium Geroldi" and "comitem Cestriæ Ranulphum"[923]. Ingulph's Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland records that "his wife the lady Lucia" married "Roger de Romar the son of Gerald de Romar" when "hardly had one month elapsed after the death" of her first husband "Ivo Taillebois"[924]. She is named as wife of Ranulf by Orderic Vitalis, who also names her first husband, but does not state her origin[925]. “Ranulfus Meschinus Richerio Vicecomiti Karlioli” donated property for the foundation of Wetherhal priory, Cumberland, for the souls of “…mea et uxoris meæ Luciæ…”, by undated charter[926]. The 1130 Pipe Roll records "Lucia comitissa Cestr…tra patis sui" in Lincolnshire[927]. “Lucia cometissa” donated “manerium de Spallingis...cum quibus melius tenui et liberalius tempore Ivonis de Thallebos et Rogeri filii Geroldi et cometis Rannulfi” by charter dated to [1135][928]. m firstly as his second wife, IVO Taillebois Lord of Kendal, son of --- (-after 1094, bur Spalding). “Ivo Talliebois” donated property to St Mary, York, for the soul of “uxoris meæ Luciæ”, by undated charter witnessed by “Lucia uxore mea, Ribaldo genero meo, Radulpho Taillebois…”[929]. m secondly (after 1094) ROGER FitzGerold, son of GEROLD "Miles Christi" Châtelain de Neufmarché & his wife Aubreye (-[1096/98]). m thirdly (1098) RANULF "Meschin" Vicomte du Bessin, son of RANULF Vicomte du Bessin [Bayeux] & his wife Marguerite [Maud] d'Avranches (-17 or 27 Jan 1129, bur Chester, Abbey of St Werburgh). He was appointed Vicomte d'Avranches in 1120 and Earl of Chester.

-=

Prosopon Newsletter, 2 (May 1995)

"A lot of ink has flowed on the subject, but there can be no doubt that the ‘mysterious’ Countess Lucy of Chester was William Malet’s thrice-married granddaughter, the daughter of Robert Malet’s sister and Turold the Sheriff of Lincoln (dead by 1079).1 The suggestion was first made by R. Kirk in 1888.2 As N. Sumner has more recently observed: ‘This account has the merit of explaining why the lordship of Spalding and other places in Lincolnshire were held after Ivo’s death not by Beatrice, his direct heir and the daughter of his marriage to Lucy,3 but by the later husbands of Lucy, Roger fitz Gerold and Ranulph Meschines.’4 It is clear from her charters that Lucy was an heiress; as was to be expected, her estates passed to the sons of her second and third marriages. Kirk’s work was based upon conjecture, and contained a number of errors. The question of Lucy’s parentage has therefore remained open. Nevertheless, there is proof that Kirk was right.....

A spurious charter of Crowland Abbey made Turold of Bucknall (the Sheriff) the founder of the priory of Spalding as a cell of Crowland. It also called Turold brother of Godiva countess of Mercia, but subsequently described Godiva’s son Earl Algar as Turold’s cognatus (cousin).5 A genealogia fundatoris of Coventry Abbey made Lucy a daughter of Earl Algar and sister and heiress of earls Edwin and Morcar.6 The Peterborough Chronicle and the Pseudo-Ingulf’s Chronicle of Crowland both made Lucy the daughter of Algar and niece or great-niece of Turold.7 We know that William Malet was half-English, so these traditions probably boil down to a relationship between Countess Godiva and William’s English mother.

In 1153 a charter [RRAN iii, 180] of the future Henry II for Lucy’s son Ranulf II of Chester referred to her uncles Robert Malet and Alan of Lincoln. Alan of Lincoln was the successor, and almost certainly the son, of Domesday’s Alfred of Lincoln. Chronologically, it is most unlikely that Alan was Lucy’s uncle. It was probably another of Alfred’s sons whom Domesday described as Alfred nepos [nephew or grandson] of Turold, then holding a fee which was certainly thereafter held with the rest of the senior Alfred’s fee by his heir Alan. Domesday provides a further indication that Alfred senior married another of William Malet’s daughters when it names a William as Alfred’s predecessor in two of his manors.8 Other parts of each of these manors (Linwood and Rothwell) were held in 1086 by Durand Malet, who was probably William’s son. It seems that Henry’s charter can be explained by seeing a scribe, perhaps in search of rhetorical balance, commit the error of ascribing two uncles to Lucy, instead of a niece (Lucy) and a nephew (Alan of Lincoln) to Robert Malet, who was uncle to both.

Turold is evidenced in Domesday Book as a benefactor of Crowland Abbey, to which he gave a parcel of land at Bucknall.9 The abbey also held land at Spalding that had probably been granted to it by Earl Algar and there is evidence to suggest that Turold the Sheriff gave further land there to the abbey of St Nicholas, Angers, before 1079.10 Lucy and her first husband Ivo Taillebois subsequently founded, or perhaps re-founded, a priory at Spalding subject to St. Nicholas, Angers. A revealing phrase from the Register of Spalding Priory reads: ‘mortuo quia dicto Thoraldo relicta sibi herede Lucia predicta’ [at his death Turold left an heir, the aforesaid Lucy].11 The word heres, ‘heir’, was often used of the child who was to inherit his/her father’s property. Lucy later confirmed the gifts of all three of her husbands: ‘pro redempcione anime patris mei et matris mee et dominorum meorum et parentum meorum’ [for the souls of my father and mother, my husbands and my (other) relatives].12 The association of the priory with such a small group of people and the description of Lucy as heres of Turold strongly hint at Lucy’s parentage. But we can go further still.

In their initial benefaction Ivo and Lucy referred to ‘antecessorum suorum13 Turoldi scilicet uxorisque eius regine’ [our ‘ancestors’ Turold and his wife].14 The reference to Turold’s wife indicates that some part of his landholding had come to him through his wife, something also indicated by the occurrence of William Malet amongst those who had held the Domesday lands of Lucy’s first husband Ivo Taillebois before him.15 The apparently vague Latin words antecessor and predecessor can both be used to mean something like ‘predecessor’. Each of them conveys a range of very precise meanings in different circumstances. The description of Turold and his wife as antecessores of Ivo and Lucy may be compared to the usage in a charter in the cartulary of Mont-Saint-Michel by which the Angevins Hugh Chalibot and his wife confirmed the grants of her father, who was described as antecessor noster.16 Other examples of this phrase show clearly that it was used by a married man to describe the parent from whom his wife had inherited the property she brought to the marriage. Acting on her own account (normally after her husband’s death), the heiress will often describe herself as the daughter of the parent her husband described as antecessor noster. A rare use of the phrase was to indicate the couple’s immediate predecessor, not her father but her brother.17 In Lucy and Ivo’s case the plurality of their antecessores, Turold and his wife, puts the matter beyond doubt. Lucy’s parents were indeed Turold the Sheriff and a daughter of William Malet.

NOTES

1 See Round, Feudal England, pp. 255-6; Complete Peerage, ed. G.E.C., 13 vols., (1910-59) vol. vii, App. J, 743-6.

2 R.E.G. Kirk, ‘The Countess Lucy: Singular or Plural?’, Genealogist, n.s. 5, 60-75, 131-44, 153-73.

3 Beatrice (who bore the name of Robert Malet’s sister) married Ribald, half-brother of Count Alan; Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. W.Dugdale, new edition, 6 vols. (1817-30), iii, 553, no. xx. For their descendants see Rev.H.C. Fitz Herbert, ‘An original pedigree of Tailbois and Neville’, The Genealogist, n.s. iii, 31. Clay thought Beatrice was probably illegitimate (see Early Yorkshire Charters, v. p.291).

4 N. Sumner, ‘The Countess Lucy’s Priory? The Early History of Spalding Priory and its Estates’, Reading Medieval Studies 13 (1988), 81-103, here, 84.

5 Monasticon Anglicanum ii, 118-19.

6 Ibid., ii, 192.

7 See Complete Peerage, vii, App. J, 743-6, here 745 and note.

8 Domesday Book, fol. 357d.

9 Domesday Book, fol. 346d.

10 Domesday Book, fol. 346d; see N. Sumner, ‘The Countess Lucy’s priory?’, 83-4 and n.12.

11 B.M. Add. 35296, fol. 2r.

12 B.M. Add. 35296, fol. 9r.

13 suorum, ‘their’ in the Register would have been nostrorum, ‘our’, in the original charter.

14 B.N. Coll. Anjou-Touraine 3, no. 876 (Saint-Nicholas d’Angers), and B.M. Add. 35296 (Spalding), though both later copies, agree upon this wording.

15 Monasticon Anglicanum, ii, p.220, nos. v and viii.

16 Bibliothèque de la Ville d’Avranches, ms 210, fol. 104r-v. I am preparing an edition of this cartulary.

17 Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. H. Hall, 3 vols (Rolls Series, 1896), i, 368.

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Turold of Bucknell, Sheriff of Lincoln1
d. before 1079

    Turold of Bucknell, Sheriff of Lincoln was related to Lucy "the Countess" of Lincoln; per the Peterborough Chronicle and the Pseudo-Ingulf's Chronicle of Crowland, the daughter of Algar and niece or great-niece of Turold.1 Turold of Bucknell, Sheriff of Lincoln was evidenced in Domesday Book as a benefactor of Crowland Abbey, to which he gave a parcel of land at Bucknell.1 He was cognatus, or cousin, of Earl Algar of Mercia, son of Lady Godiva.2 He married N. N. Malet, daughter of Willelm Malet, seigneur de Graville and Elise Crespin.1 Turold of Bucknell, Sheriff of Lincoln gave further land in Bucknell to the abbey of St Nicholas before 1079 at Angers.1 He died before 1079.1 Family 	N. N. Malet Child	

* Lucy "the Countess" of Lincoln+ b. c 10661,3
Citations

  1. [S936] K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, "Parentage of Countess Lucy".

  2. [S936] K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, "Parentage of Countess Lucy", A spurious charter of Crowland Abbey made Turold of Bucknall (the Sheriff) the founder of the priory of Spalding as a cell of Crowland. It also called Turold brother of Godiva countess of Mercia, but subsequently described Godiva's son Earl Algar as Turold's cognatus (cousin)..

  3. [S1032] K.S.B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, Iuo Tillebois, pg. 283.

Turold Sheriff of Lincolnshire 1, 2, 3, 4 was born 1020 in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England. He died Dec 1085 in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England. Turold married N.N. MALET on 1068 in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England.

N.N. MALET [Parents] 1, 2, 3 was born 1046 in Graville-Sainte-Honorine, Seine-Maritime, France. She married Turold Sheriff of Lincolnshire on 1068 in Spalding, Lincolnshire, England.

They had the following children:

     		F 	i 	Lucy Countess of Chester was born 1069 and died 1138.

Sources:

   1Keats-Rohan, K. S. B., "Antecessor Noster: The Parentage of Countess Lucy Made Plain," Prosopon, No. 2 (May 1995), p. 1, Linacre College.

2Weis, Frederick Lewis, Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 (7th ed., Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1992.), 176A-2, Los Angeles Public Library, Gen 974 W426 1992.
3Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., Domesday People: A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents, 1066-1166 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1999.), p. 283, Los Angeles Public Library, Gen 942.02 K25.
4Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., Domesday People, pp. 1137-8.
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Notes and Queries, Oxford Journals.[NEED MORE SPECIFIC SOURCE] from http://adupree.com/wp/g/getperson.php?personID=I6351&tree=adupree

There is other presumptive evidence of the connexion of William Malet with England previous to the eventful expedition. He had Blood cosponsor with Harold himself, and therefore, as being likely to recognize the body of the king after the fataal battle, was entrusted by the conqueror with the painful duty of finding and giving it burial. He who undertook this office is described in Bishop Guy's poem as "quidam partim Normannus et Anglus." William Malet was therefore nn Anglo-Norman of mixed blood. It was doubtless his mother who was English; and I would suggest that it may have been she who was the sister (rather daughter) of Earl Leofric, through whom the Norman Earls of Chester subsequently claimed descent from the Anglo-o-Saxon Earls, though the connexion was clearly misstated. It was alleged in pleadings in the reign of Richard II. that her name was Eormenhild, which is not an unlikely one, being that of the mother of St. Werburgh, whose abbey at Chester was iin the patronage of Earl Leofric, and after of the Norman counts palatine (Mon. Angl. i. 305). Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, 1622 (p. 168), made Earl Algar marry William Malet's sister. This was adopted by Ormerod {Hist. Cheshire, i. 47), though daughter would have been better. Ivo Tailbois gave Spalding to the monks of Angers for the souls of himself, of his wife Lucy, " and of the ancestors of Thorold the sheriff, that is to say (those) of hit wife" (Mon. Angl.,'\. 307). Lucy was, therefore,, descended collaterally from Thorold. Godgifu, the wife of Earl Leofric, was Thorold's sister, and in all probability Lucy's own ancestress ? greatgrandmother according to these suggestions, which I find dates will allow. It, however, does not follow, and Lucy might have had for her father Alured nepos Thoroldi, son, perhaps, of Wigot of Lincoln by another sister of Thorold, and for her mother a daughter of William Malet. A son of the Countess Godgifu might have been called "nephew (which nepos generally means in Domesday Book) of Thorold," as his adopted heir; but this is a suggestion merely, not supported by anything in the Survey or elsewhere. In Domesday Book (ii. fo. 304, 6) is the remarkable statatement concerning a manor in Hemingstone, in Suffolk, in the barony of Robert Malet, that "Leuric [t.%C2%AB., Leofric], antecessor [t.%C2%AB., predecessor] of the mother of Robert, held it" in the time of King Edward. We have not evidence to enable us to say whether there is not some misstatement here, or whether it is anything more than a coincidence, and Earl Leofric may not have been intended, but it is curious.

This excerpt suggests that Thorold is an ancestor not father of Lucy.

Place: Spalding
Hundred: Elloe
Area: Holland
County: Lincolnshire
Total population: 91 households (very large).
Total tax assessed: 12.4 geld units (very large).

Spalding appears in 3 entries in Domesday Book.

❧ ENTRY 1 ❧
Head of manor: Spalding.
Taxable units: Taxable value 9 geld units. Payments of 2.5 miscellaneous.
Value: Value to lord in 1066 £23.1. Value to lord in 1086 £30.
Households: 40 villagers. 33 smallholders.
Ploughland: 9 ploughlands (land for). 4 lord's plough teams. 13 men's plough teams.
Other resources: 6 fisheries. 2 salthouses.
Lord in 1066: Earl Algar.
Lord in 1086: Ivo Tallboys.
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Ivo Tallboys.
Phillimore reference: 14,97

❧ ENTRY 2 ❧

Head of manor: Crowland.
Taxable units: Taxable value 2 geld units.
Value: Value to lord in 1066 £1. Value to lord in 1086 £1.
Households: 7 villagers. 4 smallholders.
Ploughland: 1.5 ploughland (land for). 3 men's plough teams.
Lord in 1066: Crowland (St Guthlac), abbey of.
Lord in 1086: Crowland (St Guthlac), abbey of.
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Crowland (St Guthlac), abbey of.
Phillimore reference: 11,2

❧ ENTRY 3 ❧

Taxable units: Taxable value 1.4 geld units. Payments of 0.01 salt-houses.
Value: Value to lord in 1066 £2. Value to lord in 1086 £2.
Households: 5 villagers. 2 smallholders.
Ploughland: 1 lord's plough teams. 1 men's plough teams.
Other resources: 2 salthouses.
Lord in 1066: Aethelstan (son of Godram).
Lord in 1086: Guy of Craon.
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Guy of Craon.
Phillimore reference: 57,54