The Tregoz Line - a very muddled picture indeed.

2009-01-24T03:12:00.000-08:00

The family of Tregoz (Tresgoz, Treygose) took its name from Trégots, now Troisgots, near St. Lo in the Department of Manche in Normandy. [Anglo-Norman Families, Harl. Soc.CIII, 106.] From the 13th Cent onwards there was a Cornish family who spelt their name in the same ways. If, as the so-called Battle Abbey Roll claimed, the head of the family came over with the Conqueror, there is no evidence in Domesday Book or elsewhere that he acquired any estate in this country.

The first member of the family noted in England was William de Tresgoz who in 1130 held land in Essex and Norfolk [Pipe R. 31 Hen. I ., 60. 95] and was then farming the estates of William Peverel of London (at that time in the king’s hands) [Ibid. 135]. He claimed allowances for making two vineyards at Maldon.

Apparently contemporary with William was Robert de Tresgoz who gave land at St. Croix (Calvados) to the Abbey of St. Stephen at Caen when, shortly before his death, he became a monk there; this gift was among those confirmed to the Abbey by Henry II in 1156 [Cal. Doc. France, 160].

From the recurrence of Robert as a forename in the English branches of the family it is likely that he was closely connected with William. However that may be, William was succeeded by Geoffrey (I), Robert (II), John (III), and Philip (IV) Tregoz; the last three were certainly brothers, and all four were probably sons of William.

A charter, however, of William de Braose, made about 1140, giving to the Abbey of St. Florent (the mother house of Sele Priory) the land which Sarazenus held and a house on the north of the church of St Mary (of New Shoreham) is attested, among others, by ‘Johannes Gosfridi Tresgot’ [Salter, Oxford Charters, 6. Cf. Chartulary of Sele Priory (ed. Salzman), 8]. Dr. Salter, naturally, translated this as ‘John’ [son of] Geoffrey’; but it is possible that the word omitted by the scribe was ‘brother’ – Geoffrey heing then head of the clan.

That Geoffrey was the heir of William is shown by the fact that William’s lands of the Honor of Peverel in Essex – Blunts Hall, Billingford, Tolleshunt (Tregoz), and Leigh – passed to him and his descendants. He is found witnessing the charter of the foundation of Snape Priory by William Martel in 1155 [Dugdale, Mon. Angl. iv. 558]; and about that time he was acting as dapifer, or steward, to Henry II’s brother William (died 1164) [Cal. Anct. Deeds (P.R.O.), A. 13413]. For some reason his estates were seized into the king’s hands in 1171 [Pipe R. 17 Hen. II. 124] and so remained until Geoffrey’s death in 1175 [Ibid. 21 Hen II, 77].

He left a widow, Amabel, daughter of Robert Gresley, and a son William, an infant, who was put in ward to Robert de Luci; and also four daughters. William was 17 years old in 1185`, by which time he had been married to the daughter of Robert de Luci [Rot. De Dominabus (Pipe R. Soc.), 57. 78]. She was presumably the Aline widow of William Tresgoz to whom the manor of Blunts Hall was assigned in 1214 after his death [Rot. Litt. Claus. I. 207.]; she seems to have married Ralph de Arderne in of before 1220 [Bracton’s Note Bk., no. 1372]. William’s son Geoffrey was under age and was in ward first to Robert de Nereford and then to Stephen Haringod [Ibid., nos. 1440, 1738].

On the death of this Geoffrey in 1254 his son Robert, then aged 24, inherited his Essex estates [Exc. E Rot. Fin. II. 229]. Robert had a Charter of Free Warren [Cal. Chart. R. II. 55] for his estates of Blunts Hall and Tolleshunt in Essex, Billingford (Norfolk), and Billsthorpe (Notts.) in 1265, in which year he was killed in the battle of Evesham, dying without issue (see below) . His brother Nicholas, who was married to Eve de Valoignes (died 1283), anso died childless and the estates passed to the sons of their four sisters [Rolls of Parl. I. 92].

Geoffrey (I) has a sister Aubrée (Albreda) who married Robert de Besevile and had a daughter Maud de Colevile [Curia Regis R. v. 137].

Robert (II) Tregoz was the most prominent memberof the family. He was a supporter of the Young King’ Henry, son of Henry II, in his rebellion against his father in 1173 [Gesta Henrici, I. 46. Cf Cal. Doc. France, 8. 378]. He was in constant attendance on Richard I, witnessing a large number of his charters in England and Normandy, but did not go to the Holy Land with him. King Richard bestowed uponhim the hand of Sibyl, daughter and heir of Robert d’Ewyas, by which marriage he acquired 19 knights’ fees in Herefordshire and elsewhere in the western counties [Red Bk. Of Exch. 259]. The marriage was challenged, unsuccessfully, by William de Novo Mercato, who claimed that he himself had married her with her father’s consent [Curia Regis R. I. 258]. Richard I made Sir Robert keeper of the Castle of (Old) Sarum, or Salisbury, the palace of Clarendon, and the town of Bristol [Pipe R. 2, 3, 8, 10 Ric. I]; and among other grants of land gave him in 1194 land of the annual value of 100s. in Martinsgrave (Groves in Oving) in Sussex [Ibid. 6 Ric. I, 9].

A few years later Robert de Tresgoz gave to the Priory of Boxgrove [Cott. MS. Claud. A. Vi, f.60 v] for the souls of William the worthy (venerabilis) Earl of Arundel, himself and Sibyl his wife, and of their children and ancestors, two crofts in his manor of la Grave, ‘which was given to me for my service’; one being the croft of Elbrugge (Elbridge on the borders of Oving and Bersted) with the meadow lying on the east outside the dyke (fossatum) of the croft; and the other Leacrofte, lying beside the road to Oving. This charter was attested by sixteen persons, of whom the first was Henry de Tresgoz; others include William de Montacute, William de St. John, and Geoffrey Peverel. Reference to this part of the property is made in a charter of about 1250 by which Ansketil, Prior of Boxgrove, assigned to John de Clymping, Chancellor of Chichester, ‘the croft called Lyecroft at Martinsgrave which we had of the gift of Sir Robert Tresgoz’ [Chartulary of Chichester (S.R.S. xlvi), no. 612].

Sir Robert continued to enjoy the royal favour under King John, many of whose charters he attested, and by his adherance to him lost his possessions in Normandy. If he was the Robert de Tregoz to whom the king made a temporary grant of land worth £12 in Tolleshunt (associated with the Essex branch of the family) on 30th August 1213 ‘for his support’ [Rot. Lit. Claus. I. 149. The estates were in the king’s hands through the minority of Geoffrey’s heir (see above)], he must have died very soon afterwards, as in 1214 Roger de Clifford paid, or promised, £1000 for leave to marry Robert’s widow Sibyl [Rot. De Fin. 518. Cf. Eyton, Shrops. V. 107]. Sir Robert’s son Robert was a member of the household of Sir William de Cantelupe, and married his daughter Gillian (sister of the sainted Bishop Thomas of Hereford). He had been constantly identified with the Robert Tregoz who was killed in the baronial army at Evesham in 1265; but this is certainly an error. For one thing, he would have been about 70 at that time; his father had married c.1190 and there is nothing to suggest that Robert was under age at his father’s death in 1213. More to the point is the fact that the inquiry as to the estates of the rebel baron in 1265 shows that he held Blunts Hall and Tolleshunt [Cal. Inq. Misc. I. 670, 674] but says nothing of the great estates of the Honor of Ewyas. It seems clear that the Robert killed at Evesham was the elder son of Geoffrey (see above). The Herefordshire Sir Robert died in 1268, when his son john did homage for his estates [Rot. De Fin. 478.]; and in 1272 John was ordered to draw up an extent of his father’s lands for assignment of dower to Robert’s widow Gillian [Cal. Pat. 1266-72, 708].

Most of the pedigrees of the family assert that John married Mabel, daughter of Fulke FitzWarin. This may be so, though I have found no evidence, but at his death in September 1300 he left a widow Joan [Cal. Inq. p.m. III. 603], who married Laurence de Hameldon before February 1302 [Cal. Fine. R. I. 449]. John had a son John who married Mabel, widow of William de Crevequer [V.C.H. Beds. III. 452]. He died without issue in 1288, when his widow was given leave to marry who she pleased [Cal. Fine. R. I. 253.], a privilege of which she did not avail herself, dying as widow of John Tregoz in 1297 [Cal Fine. R. I. 386].

The elder John’s heirs were his daughter Sibyl wife of William de Grandison, and his grandson John la Warre, son of his elder daughter Clarice [Pedigrees from Plea Rolls, 547]. The family of la Warre were later connected with Boxgrove and the Honor of Halnaker in Sussex. The Grandisons had a brief connection with this county, as in 1285 John Tregoz and Mabel granted to William de Grandison and Sibyl in tail £87 of land in Iham and Iden, of Mabel’s inheritance, and land in Chipping Lambourne (Berks.) [Sussex Fines (S.R.S. vii), 978]. This land was acquired by Edward I as part of the site for his new town of Winchelsea.

With John (III) and Philip (IV) we come to the Sussex branch of the family of Tregoz. They occur together on 2 February 1158-0 as witnesses of a charter by which William, Earl of Arundel, gave the church of Ansleville in Normandy to the Abbey of Montebourg [Cal. Doc. France, 315]. Ten years later, in 1168, thewy are jointly said to owe 3½ marks scutage for 3½ knights’ fees in Sussex, ‘which they say are of the overcharge (superdemand’) of the Earl of Arundel’ [Pipe Roll 14 Hen. II (P.R.S.), 195]. There was a long dispute between the exchequer and the Earl of Arundel over his, and his tenants’, liabilities and this entry continues to be made until 1181, when it is added that the payment is respited by the king ‘until enquiry about their services is made in the county by justices’[Ibid. 27 Hen II, 143]. Later, in 1196, we find John de Tregoz charged £6 for 6 knights’ fees, and Philip 30s. for 1½ fees [Ibid. 8 Ric I, 86]. – but unfortunately the situation of the fees is in no instance stated. The dispute dragged on until both were dead, and in 1201 Henry de Tregoz was pardoned the debt of £6 ‘from the first scutage of the Honor of Arundel’ because ‘it was acknowledged that they are of overcharge’ [Ibid 3 John, 85].

It will be simpler to deal first with Philip de Tregoz. Beyond the fact that he was acting as Sheriff of Sussex in 1190-1, [Ibid. 3 Ric. I, 56] our knowledge of Philip is practically confined to his relations with the Priory of Boxgrove. To that house he gave land in Oving, probably about 1185, by the following charter [Cott. MS. Claud. A. vi, fol. 65]:

I, Philip de Tresgoz have given . . . for my welfare and that of Emma my wife and my children (infantum) . . . 8 acres of land in my field (cultura) of Northestret. And in the same field I have given to them 4 acres adjoining the aforesaid for a debt which I owed to Robert Legate, which on my word of honour (cautione fidei) I was bound to pay to them as to Robert Legate, after his death. Also in the same field I have given them 9 acres in exchange for 9 acres which they had in Horsehaiai . . . [This name goes back to a charter of 680: SAC LXXXVI. 57] And also near these I have given them 4 acres in exchange for 4 acres which I had previously given them near Horsehaiai for the tithes of the rents (gabuli) and herbage of Hamtonete [East Hampnett] . . . And note that all these acres, being 25 measured by the statutory perch (cum legali et usuali pertica mensurate), lying together in the same field, have been handed over to them . . . Also be it known that I have granted to them through the midst of my fields the old path (antiquam semitam) which goes from Boxgrove to Werda [Worth in Aldingbourne]. And all this William my son and heir has granted and with me by his own hand has placed the grant of the premises upon the altar of Blessed Mary in the church of Boxgrove. And that the said lands may remain with the monks they have given me 60s. Witnesses: Richard the priest, Roger Hay and Thomas his son, Roger Chesney (de keisnetto), Ralph son of Peter, Richard atte Chambre (de camera), Robert my son, Robert my brother [Robert of Ewyas, who held Grove (see above)], Robert Fossard, Richard de Godiuewode, Peter Brito and Geoffrey his brother , Geoffrey Westel.

Two other charters are witnessed by Philip de Tresgoz and William his son; one being of Richard att Chambre (de Thalamo) [Cott. MS Claud. A. vi, fol. 74 v.] and the other c. 1187, of william and Robert St. John [Ibid., fol. 25]. But William evidently died before his father and was succeeded as heir by his brother Richard. Philip, in 1197 or 1198, made a further gift to Boxgrove [Ibid., fol. 66]:

I, Philip de Tresgoz have given . . . with the consent of my heirs . . . a virgate of land in Nordestrete adjoining on the east that land which I formerly gave to them. This virgate contains 16 agres measured by the statutory perch . . . And the monks, moved by charity, have given me 18 marks for this my grant. Witnesses: Master Nicholas, Dean of Chichester. Master Mauger, canon of Chichester, Hugh Estormi, Michael then sheriff of Sussex, Richard Chesney (de Keisnei), Richard de Tresgoz [son of] Philip [I think that the words ‘son of’ must clearly be supplied here], Hugh son of Renar then steward of Halmac [Halnaker], Adam and William, chaplains.

Philip was alive in 1202 [Curia Regis R. ii. 112] but must have died shortly after that date. His charter is followed in the Boxgrove chartulary by one from his son:

I, Richard de Tresgoz son of Philip Tresgoz, have given and confirmed, on condition that mass be celebrated thrice weekly in the church of Boxgrove for my soul and that of my wife and for the souls of my father and mother, all the gifts that they have of the gift of my father Philip both in land and in tithes great and small in my manor of Hamptunete. And in addition I have given . . . all the small tithes in the said manor of Hamptunete, namely of lambs, calves, foals, geese, wool, cheese, apples, fruits, and all other things whatsoever tithable to Holy Church . . . Wurtnesses: Robert rector of Storhetune [Storrington], Stephen the chaplain, Philip de Bernehus, William Picoth, William Pinyari (?), Philip de Perham.

As Richard did not demand prayers for his children it is to be presumed that he had none; and as he is not heard of later it is probable that he died soon after his father. Of the third son, Robert, nothing is known, though he is probably the Robert de Tresgoz who witnessed a charter of Geoffrey de Colville giving land in Sidlesham to Boxgrove [Cott. MS. Claud A. vi. Fol, 70 v].

We now come to John (III). He was already established in West Sussex by 1164, when a dispute arose between him and the Norman Abbet of Fecamp, who held extensive estates attached to their manor of Steyning. The abbey claimed a quarter of a wood called Dureshurst, half the wood of Perregate and part of the wood of Brunnesburi [Brinsbury in Pulborough], and an estate held by Norman, a villein of the abbot’s. John recognised their claim to the quarter of Dureshurst, where they were to have half Perregate and the whole of Norman’s tenement, but John was to have the part of Brunnesburi in dispute. John pledged his faith to observe this agreement, as did Hemeric de Cnelle on behalf of the monks, and the abbot gave John 15 marks and received him into the brotherhood of the abbey. Later, in 1194, when abbot Henry and John de Tregoz had both died, the latter’s son John, at the wish of his brothers Henry and Thomas, agreed with Abbot Ralf de Argenciis that Dureshurst should be divided into four quarters, so that the quarter next to Tuddestrode should belong to the monks, and the other three to John. The pasture of Toddestrode belonged to the manor of Dedisham in 1321 [Harl. MS. 173, fol. 42]. It was probably near Tedfold (formerly Tuddefold) in Billingshurst. To this, John and his uncle Philip pledged their faith, as did Peter de Gatewik and William de Sceldune on behalf of the abbey, who gave John 100s. Among the witnesses were Alard Fleming, Simon le Conte Comes, Walter de Tresgoz, Peter de Gatewik, and Thomas his son [Cal. Doc. France, 47-49.]

The family of Tregoz showed an unfortunate lack of imagination in their choice of baptismal names, with the result that there were usually two or three contemporaries with identical names. It seems, however, pretty certain that it was the elder John who married Amice or Amy, widow of Philip de Leybourne and co-heiress of Ralph FitzGerald. In 1180 John de Tregoz owed £100 to have his share of Ralph’s lands in Kent [Pipe R. 26 Hen. II (P.R.S.), 147].

During 1192 and 1193 these Kentish estates were in dispute between Peter le Sutton, representing the other co-heiress of Ralph, and Amy de Leiburn and John de Tregoz her son [Ibid. 4 Ric I, 174, 317; 5 Ric I, 171]. John and Amy seem to have got into the hands of Jewish money-lenders, as in 1198 Deulebenie the Jew of Chichester was trying to recover a debt of £40 from John de Tregoz [Ibid. 9 Ric I, 224], and next year after Amy’s death, Chernun son of Benedict was suing Robert de Leiburn for £22 which Amice de Tregoz, his mother, owed [Ibid. 10 Ric. I, 209]. In 1197 John de Tregoz and Henry and Thomas his brothers made over a ploughland in Mere (in Rainham, Kent) to Robert de Leiburn in exchange for land in Bokelee (Bowley in Boughton Malherbie) [Pedes Finium (P.R.S., no. 137.]. Shortly after this John, who had assoined himself as confined to his bed by sickness in a case by Ralph de St. Ouen about land in Goring [Rot. Cur. Reg. I. 97, 106], died and was succeeded by his brother Henry [Pipe R. 10 Ric I, 227]. It was typical of the medieval law’s delays that in 1212 the brothers Henry and Thomas were being distrained at Bowley for the debt incurred more than twelve years earlier by Amice in pledging her land in Mere to the Jew. They claimed that as Mere was now held by Amice’s grandson Roger de Leiburn, he should be responsible for the debt; but he replied that as they held Bowley in exchange for Mere, the responsibility was theirs [Bracton’s Note-Book, no. 164; Curia Regis R. Vi. 191, 316].

In 1203 Henry Tregoz was concerned with disputes over the services due to him for lands in Billingshurst and Goring held by William Mordant [Abbrev. Plac. 37; Curia Regis R. II. 141, 143, 253]. For the half-hide in Billingshurst Henry claimed that William should not only do service as for a tenth part of a knights’ fee, which William admitted, but should also provide him with one day’s entertainment (unum convivium) yearly and provide a horse to carry his young heir (infantem) from one manor to another. These last services Henry remitted, and for this concession William gave him a meadow called Cusig and 8 acres of arable in Tadesham [Dedisham in Slinfold] called Herbetinges, not part of the half-hide. William and his heirs should in future hold by render of a pair of gilt spurs or 6d. At Easter and do service for a tenth of a knights’ fee [Suss. Rec. Soc. II, no. 79]. For 1½ virgates in Goring Henry had demanded similarly a yearly entertainment and that at his summons William should serve with a horse in the king’s army, at Henry’s cost. In return for a payment of 5 marks Henry remitted these services and agreed that william should hold by payment of a pound of pepper at Easter [Ibid., no. 89]. This Goring holding is presumably the messuage and 30 acres of land ‘formerly of Robert Mordant’ held by John Mongomeri in 1321 [Harl. MS. 173, fol. 9 v.] Henry was also at this time in a dispute with Ralph de St. Ouen (de Sancto Audoeno) over 100 acres in Clapham, which Ralph said belonged to the fee of William de Braose but Henry claimed were of the fee of the Earl of Arundel in Goring [Curia Regis R. II. 114; Rot de Obl. Et Fin. 175].

It may here be noted that, according to the return of knights’ fees made in 1166 by the Earl of Arundel, in about 1135 Goring, later the cheif seat of the Tregoz family, was responsible for eleven fees [S.A.C. xxvii, 29], though unfortunately the then tenant is not named. I am inclined to suspect a clerical error whereby ‘xj’ was written for ‘vj’[This may help to explain the ‘overcharge’ referred to above]; certainly in 1243 when, on the death of Hugh d’Aubigny, Earl of Arundel, the knights’ fees were divided between the representatives of his four sisters: it was six fees in Goring, ‘Heydon’, ‘Beaucy’ [certainly not Bewbush, as identified by Farrer (op. Cit. 40); perhaps in Parham], and Dedisham that were assigned to Roger de Mohaut. At the same time Robert Tatteshale received five fees in Bargeham, Ham, Preston, Bepton, Graffham, Elmere, and Tortington, and one in Walderton; Roger Somery others in Drayton, Storrington, Kirdford, and Billingshurst; and John FitzAlan two fees ‘in the hands of Tregoz’ in Ham (in Angmering), Bargham, Graffham, and Walderton [Tierney, Hist. Of Arundel, 17-18]. The overlordship of the Tregoz fees was therefore complex.

As Henry de Tregoz was one of the ‘four knights’ appointed to select a jury for a dispute about the will of Rackham in 1196 [Curia Regis R. I. 30. – in 1225 he headed the list of 12 knights who were to survey the forests of Sussex; Rob. Litt. Claus. II.80.], he can hardly have been born later than 1170. It is therefore an open question whether the Henry who in 1243 was tenant of 6 knights’ fees of the Honor of Arundel assigned in dower to Isabel, widow of Henry, Earl of Arundel [Cl. Close. 1242-7, p. 112], was this Henry or his son and namesake. It was clearly the younger Henry Tregoz who in July 1256 obtained three years’ respite from taking up knighthood [Cal. Pat. 1253-8, p. 487]. In the following year he had a grant of a fair at Goring on the eve, feast, and morrow of St Laurence (9-11 August) [Cal. Chart. R. I. 4]. He evidently took the baronial side in the civil war, as on 16 September 1264 he was one of six knights ordered to assemble at Pevensey with horses and arms and all their posse to repel an expected invasion [Cal. Pat. 1263-6, p. 347]. After the victory of the Royallists an inquiry was held, in 1267, as to ‘offences during the rebellion’, in the course of which Nicholas de la Thyche complained that Henry Tregoz received 150 sheep of which Roger, son and heir of William le Covert and Robert son of William de Wysteneston, who were of the household (familia) of Henry, had deprived him [Assize R. 1267].

In 1271 Henry Tregoz bought the manor of East Preston, also called Preston Milliers from the family who formerly held it, from Henry de Leye and Emma his wife for 250 marks [Cal. Chart. R. II. 166; Curia Regis R. 176, m. 7; ibid. 202, m. 41; Suss. Rec. Soc. VII, no. 759]. Emma was the widow of Alard le Fleming, of Pulborough, and sister of John Maunsel, clerk – a notorious pluralist and royal favourite – who had obtained the manor from Felice de Milliers [Cal. Chart. R. II. 114]. Henry in 1279 claimed by prescription to have the assize of bread and ale, and also wreck of the sea on his manors of Goring and East Preston [Rot. De Quo Warranto, 757], but his claim to wreck was subsequently disallowed [Farrer, Honors and Knights’ Fees, III. 32; Coram Rege R. 62, m. 20].

In 1276 Henry gave the advowson of the church of Billingshurst to the Prior of Arundel who received him into the prayers and other benefits of his convent [Suss. Rec. Soc. VII, no. 859]. In the same year Hugh Lovel mortgaged the manor of Storrington to Sir Henry Tregoz for seven years for repayment of £86 which Sir Henry had lent to him [Cal. Close, 1272-9, p. 336]. The debt seems not to have been paid off, as in 1321 Henry’s grandson Thomas Tregoz recivered the manor against Hugh’s son Richard Lovel [De Banco, 242, m. 116]; but it must have reverted to the Lovels as in 1340 James Lovel sold it to the Earl of Arundel [Suss. Rec. Soc. XXIII, no. 1912].

That this Henry obtained respite from knighthood in 1256 suggests that he had only recently come of age, and that therefore he was born about 1235. His death occurred before 1293, when his executors – Henry Tregoz (his son), Roger de Covert, Luke de Vienne, Mr William de la Felde, and Mr Peter de Gatewyk – were involved in a law suit [De Banco, 102, m. 88].

His son Henry had a grant of protection in November 1295 when he was going on the king’s service to Scotland with John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey [Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, p.167.] In 1297, during Edward I’s quarrel with his barons, Hewnry was one of three persons appointed to see the Magna Carta and the Forest Charter were observed in Sussex, and from 1308 to 1314 he was a conservator of the peace for this county [Cal. Pat. s.a.]. He had a grant of a market on Friday and a fair on the eve, day, and morrow of SS Peter and Paul (22 June) at Goring in 1301 [Cal. Chart. III. 1.]; and of free warren in Wiggonholt in 1305 [Ibid. 61]. In 1303 William de Montfort conveyed to Henry Tregoz, the manor of Bargham, or Barpham (in Angmering) [De Banco, Mich. 10 Edward. II, m. 226d.], which he had inherited from his mother as geiress of the Dunstanvilles [Farror, op. cit. 37-40, where Barpham is hopelessly confused with Burpham.].

In 1301 Henry Tregoz, ‘Lord of Goring’, sealed the famous letter of the Barons to the Pope rejecting his claim to adjucate on the claim of Edward I to the Scottish throne. His seal [The Ancestor, vii, 257, no, iv.] bears the arms – two gimel bars and in chief a leopard. The Ewyas branch of the family bore the same device, the field or and the charges gules; in the Suffolk branch these tinctures were reversed; and in the Sussex branch the field was azure and the charges or; a lion passant was sometimes used instead of a leopard. It may be doubted if the Sussex branch used arms before this date, as an undated deed of about 1290 by ‘Henry de Tregoz, lord of Goring and of Daddesham, son and heir of Sir Henry de Tregoz’ was sealed with a device of a star of eight points [Add. Ch. 9001.] By this deed he gave, or rather sold, to Wakter Burgess of Horsham his tenement in Southwark which his father had of the gift of Richard Martin, lying between a tenement of the Prior of Merton on the south, one of Stephen Abed (formerly of Isaac the Jew of Southwark) on the north, and extending from the high road on the west to the common ditch (antrum) which runs round the vill of Southwark, in the parish of St Margaret; to hold by the rent of 1d. yearly. The witnesses includeed Robert de Veel, William Paynel, Luke de Vyenne, Roger de Cuvert, knights – of whom the two last were co-executors of his father’s will.

It is with this Henry that the fifteenth century pedigree [Inserted in Harl. MS. 173] of the family begins. It states that he was married to one Margaret (otherwise unidentified) and had two sons, Thomas and Henry, and a daughter Isabel, of whom Henry died without issue.

The name of Henry Tregoz is found as knight of the shire for Sussex in the parliaments of 1301, 1309, and 1313 [S.A.C. xxxiii] and as summoned to parliament as a Baron at intervals between 1305 and 1322 [G.E.C., Complete Peerage (Ist Edn.), vii, 424 – an account full of inaccuracies] But the Henry with whom we have been dealing must have been dead by 1316 when his son Thomas was lord of the manors of Goring, Preston, Bargham, and Greatham [Feudal Aids, v. 142]; so the Baron of the summonses after that date must be the younger brother of Thomas, who himself is also alleged to have been similarly summoned from 1318 until his death in 1335 [G.E.C. loc. Cit.].

That it is difficult to produce a pedigree of the family with mathematical accuracy is not surprising considering how muddled they seem to have been on the subject themselves. [The pedigree in Dallaway and Cartwright’s Rape of Arundel (p. 37) is as full of inaccuracies as one has learnt to expect of that work.] This is brought out by controversies over the manor of Drayton in Oving. In 1290 Henry de Tregoz brought an action against Geoffrey de Picheford and Alice his wife for a messuage and land in Drayton and Stedham, in the course of which he said that it had been held by his kinsman John in the time of Henry III [John is brought forward to the reign of Henry III to avoid certain statutory limitations of claims]. John had assigned it to Robert de Tregoz ‘for a term now past’. From John it passed to Henry his son, from Henry to Thomas his son, and from him to his son Henry father of this Henry. The defendants retorted that Henry was not descended lineally from Thomas but only collaterally; Henry could not deny this (Thomas as we have seen, was brother of the first Henry) and abandoned his suit [De Banco R. 83, m. 30]. His son Thomas in 1321 sued Alice, then widow of Geoffrey de Picheford, for this land in Drayton, giving the correct descent – John to Henry to Henry father of Thomas [Wrottesley, Peds. From Plea R. 552-3.]. A few years later Thomas appealed to the Chancellor, setting out this case [Anct. Petition 856]: John Tregoz his great-grandfather (besael) leased the manor of Drayton to his brother Robert for life, with reversion to himself; after the death of Robert it came into the hands of Geoffrey de Picheford and Alice his wife, and after Geoffrey’s death Thomas sues Alice, but she, expecting to lose the case, sent her son John to Sir Bartholomew de Badlesmere and granted him the reversion of the manor. Since the death of Alice the Escheator has entered on the manor. A commission of inquiry was ordered; but shortly after the accession of Edward III Thomas appealed again, setting out a very detailed and odd story [Anct. Petition 3775; printed in Parly. R. II. 417.]. According to this, John the great-great grandfather (trezael) of Sir Thomas leased Drayton to Robert (not here called his brother) for life. When John died his son Henry was under age, and on the death of Robert his widow Alice wrongfully kept the manor and married as her second husband one John Dewias by whom she had a son who was called John Tregoz, and he held the manor after the death of Alice and conveyed it to Eleanor, late Queen of England, grandmother of the present king; she exchanged it to Geoffrey de Picheford and Alice his wife for lands in Derbyshire. When Sir Thomas sued Alice her son John conveyed the reversion to Sir Bartholomew de Badlesmere ‘pour sa graunte seignourie’. Badlesmere’s lands were forfeited (in 1322) and on the death of Alice, Drayton was taken into the king’s hands.

It will be noticed that the ancestral John is here thrown back one generation. Now the facts are that in 1280 a John Tregoz conveyed Drayton for life to Roger de Clifford the elder (son of Sibyl d’Ewyas by her second husband), and that John and Roger conveyed their respective rights in the manor to Queen Eleanor, who in 1282 exchanged it to Geoffrey de Picheford and Alice [V.C.H. Sussex, iv. 167.]. to whom John Tregoz sold (his right in) Drayton in the same year [Suss. Rec. Soc. vii, no. 943]. This John was presumably the grandson of Sir Robert and Sibyl (see above). But who were Robert, Alice, and John Dewias of Sir Thomas’s petition? The probable answer seems to be – they wern’t!

In 1321 Sir Thomas Tregoz caused an Extent and Customal of his manors to be drawn up, and the fair copy of this was entered in a beautifully written little volume now in the British Museum [Harl. MS. 173.]. It begins with the manor of Goring, held of Sir Robert de Mohaut, with Preston, Dedisham, and Waldrington [Walderton in Stoughton], as 5½ knights’ fees. It is noted that a knight’s fee consisted of 4 hides, each containing 4 virgates, usually of 20 acres each. There is no space here to go into the details of this interesting MS., but we may note that the demesne, or home farm, of Goring amounted to 400 acres, mostly arable, with pasture for more than 200 sheep, and that the garden, here and also at dedisham, in a normal year produced one cask of cider, worth 10s. There was a windmill here and also in the manor of ‘Hayton’, which was parcel of Goring and probably corresponds to Highdown, as there was a great deal of pasture. At Dedisham there was a watermill, and two parks – Hertpark and Suthpark. Here Sir Thomas’s brother Henry had a messuage and some 50 acres of arable and meadow called ‘la Violette’, which he held by serving the lord in his parks at Goring and Dedisham and by render of two bows, each worth 3s., and 10 barbed arrows and 2 bolts (tribal’); he also had other land, including a messuage with a croft ‘on le Stanstrete’ – the Roman road of Stane Street, which runs through Slinfold parish near Dedisham. (In 1331 Thomas Tregoz complained against 40 persons for deer-stealing in his park at Goring; and Henry accused Walter, prior of Tortington, Thomas de Bensted and Michael de Gate, canons of that priory, and others for breaking his park at Wiggonholt: Cal. Pat. 1330-4, p.128.)

The manor of ‘Hamme’ – evidently Ham in Angmering, as land there belonged to the chantry of West Angmering – was held as a quarter of a fee of the heirs of Robert de Tateshale, of whom the manor of Bargham was held as 4 fees, one of which was held of Sir Thomas by William Chene, as was a half-fee in Greatham by Alan de Meltone. Other portions of Bargham manor lay at ‘Haddewoldeshurne’ [Adversane in Billingshurst] and in Slinfold. The patronage of the church [Excavations in 1955 show that this church, abandoned c.1500, was important and apparently very early.] belonged to Sir Thomas.

In the same year 1321 Thomas Tregoz was granted protection, i.e. exemption from legal proceedings during his absence on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella; he named as attorneys during his absence Henry Tregoz and John de Hayton [Cal. Pat. 1317-21. pp. 556, 565.] Between 1320 and 1326 there were complicated transactions [Add. Charter 56358] between Sir Thomas and his brother henry, whose main seat seems to have been at ‘Beausy’, concerning fractions of Bargham manor, which their father Henry had apparently granted to this Henry in tail male, with contingent remainder to Thomas.

In January 1322 Thomas was going to Wales with William la Zouche [Cal. Pat. 1321-4, p.65.]; and in October he was commissioned to array and command all men in Sussex between the ages of 16 and 60 [Ibid., pp. 213, 267] – so that he was evidently a loyal supporter of Edward II during the rebellion of Thomas of Lancaster. He was head of the commission for the survey of forests in Sussex in 1327 [Ibid. 1327-30, p. 59], and on 30 September 1329 he had licence to crenellate, or fortify, his house at Dedisham [Ibid., p. 495]. Two years later he was granted rights of free-warren on his demesnes of Goring, Preston, Ham, Bargham, Storrington, Parham, Greatham, Walderton, and Dedisham, and at Bowley (in Boughton, Kent) [Cal. Chart. R. iv. 258]. Thomas died shortly before May 1335 [Cal. Fine R. iv. 441], leaving a son Henry and a daughter Margery, or Margaret, who married Sir John Doyley. At his death Thomas left a widow Joan who was daughter of Lord de Poynings [Pedigree (Harl. MS. 173)]; but he seems to have been married to one Nichole in 1303, when his father Henry settled the manor of Preston Milliers on them in tail [Suss. Rec. Soc. vii, no 1143]. As Nichole is ignored in the pedigree, she probably died soon after the marriage.

Henry Tregoz ‘the elder’ (brother of Sir Thomas) occurs in 1336 as a trustee for a settlement of Midhurst and other manors on John de Bohun and Isabel his wife [Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii, no. 1836]. She is said to have been sister of Henry and to have married Sir John ‘before 1324’ [W. St. J. Hope, Cowdray, 9]; but any evidence of her identity appears to be lacking. In 1343 land in Selsey belonged to Ralph, son of Isabel daughter of Henry Tregoz [Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii, no. 1951]. This seems to tie up with the Elizabeth de Tregoz (Elizabeth and Isabel were equivalent) upon whom and her son Roger land in the neighbourhood of Worthing were settled in 1305 by Roger de Hen [Suss. Rec. Soc. vii, no. 1175]. In 1315 Roger de Heen and Elizabeth his wife and their sons Henry and Roger (under age) acquired land in Heen [Ibid. xxiii, no. 1417]. On the face of it, it looks as if Roger had had a son by Elizabeth and had subsequently married her. The presumed illegitimate son may be the Roger Tregoz who held a little land at Apsley in West Grinstead in 1332 [Ibid. x. 275]. Whether as a widow she married Sir John de Bohun remains an open question.

Shortly before his death Sir Thomas was owing £15. 13s 4d. to Queen Isabelle. The sheriff declared that he had been able to raise only 20s., but the king’s attorney said that Thomas had plenty of goods and had bribed the sheriff [Exch. Plea R. 63, m. 3]. An inquiry was ordered, and when it was held [Memo. R. L.T.R. 109, m. 20], in 1337, it was alleged that Thomas was indebted to the Crown on his own account and also for debts incurred by his father Henry as far back as 1305, when he had control of the manor of Westbourne and other lands of the earldom of Arundel, entrusted to him during the minority of the heir. Sir Thomas’s goods were valued at £108. 9s. 2d.: namely, at Goring a horse (40s), 4 farm horses (affros) (26s. 8d), 34 oxen (£17), 50 swine (72s. 6d.), 100 Ewes (100s), 100 hoggets (66s 8d), 100 acres sown with wheat (£20), 60 acres of beans and peas and vetches (£6), 60 acres of oats (£6), 100 qr. of wheat in stack in the barn (£25), 40 qr. of barley in stack (£9). At Preston 2 farm horses (13s. 4d.), 5 oxen (50s.), 20 acres of wheat (£4), 15 acres of beans and peas (30s.), 10 acres of oats (20s.). At Dedisham 2 mares (20s.),. All of which had come into the hands of his executors – Henry Tregoz (his brother), William de Wolvercote, and William Pomeray, rector of Bargham.

Sir Thomas’s son Henry was under age at the time of his father’s death and was in ward to Robert, Lord Morley [Ibid.] (who had inherited the Mohaut fees), who married him to his daughter Joan [Harl. MS. 173, pedigree]. By her he had a large family: Henry, Thomas, Robert, Michael, John, Richard, Joan, and Margaret. Of these, Henry and Richard were drowned (noez) at Stopham, Thomas died childless, and Michael became a monk st Lewes Priory; Joan married Sir John Lillebon but left no issue, and Margaret became a nun. To Robert & John we shall return later.

Henry must have come of age before 1343, when, as Sir Henry, he granted to the Lady Joan, his mother, the manors of Bargham and Ham – reserving the next presentation to the church of Bargham, and the service of Sir William de Wolvercote, knight – in exchange for the manor of Haydon, which she was holding in dower [Add. Charter 56358]. In 1350 Lady Joan was party to a settlement of the reversion of the manor of Bargham on Henry and Joan and their heirs [Ibid; Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii, no. 2093.]. Sir Henry was living in December 1353, when he did fealty to the Bishop of Chichester for land called Plattere within his park of Dedisham [Printed ‘Gatesham’], being 60 acres of land in Slinfold [Suss. Rec. Soc. xxxi.67]. He must have died at some time between that date and 1364, when his widow Joan was wife of Sir Edward St. John [Ibid. xxiii, no.2286].

Sir Robert, son of Henry, married Joan, widow of Sir Robert Halsham (who was living in 1366) [Ibid., no. 2331] and apparently daughter of Richard de Combes [Elwes and Robinson, Manors of West Sussex, 109], and had three sons, Edward, William, and Robert, of whom the last two died without issue [Harl. MS 173, pedigree.]. He was living in 1380, when he sold to Richard, Earl of Arundel, the reversion of the advowson of the church of Goring, held for life by his mother and her second husband, Edward St. John [Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii, no. 2500]. When Lady Joan St. John, then a widow, died in November 1386 Robert was dead and her heir was his son Edward, aged 8½ . She had been holding for life very extensive property, settled on her by her two husbands. The group of St. John manors in West Sussex passed, under the settlement of 1364 [Ibid. no. 2286], to Sir John Arundel, son of the Earl of Arundel. Of the Tregoz estates Goring and its members, then held of the Honor of Wallingford, passed to her grandson; but Bargham, 200 acres in Slinfold and Rudgewick called Mareschales (held partly of the Earl of Arundel and partly of the bailiff of Worminghurst as Agent of Fécamp Abbey), and a messuage in Southwark (held of the Archbishop of Canterbury) went under another settlement to her younger son John Tregoz [Inq. p.m. 10 Ric II, file 46, no. 20]. In her will [Archbp. Reg. Courteneye, fol. 219] written on Sunday 11th November 1385 and proved at Lambeth on 6th December 1386, she desired to be buried beside her husband, Edward St, John, in the chapel of the Blessed Mary in Lewes Priory. To the prior she left 5 marks and to the convent 10 marks to pray for her soul; and 6s. 8d. to the breviator going round with letters (to other convents, asking for prayers for the deceased). To the shrine of St Richard and the fabric of Chichester she gave 20s. To (her son) John Tregors a cup called ‘Dogge’, a gold signet, a gold ring with a fine (meliori) diamond, a nouche (or brooch), a rosary (par de bedes) of pearls, and two colts running in the park of Dedisham. To Margery her daughter, 60s. To Lady Joan Tregors (presumably Robert’s widow) a horse called ‘Kirre’, and a gimel ring with two diamonds set in it. To the Earl of Arundel a great gilt covered cup with her father’s arms; and to his eldest son Richard a matins book (librum matudinarum). Then follow a large number of legacies to her women and friends; 20s to the fabric of the belfrey of Goring church; to Sir Thomas Sutton, chaplain, 20s. in addition to the fee due to him; 13s. 4d. to Sir Richard Burgeys, rector of Stopham (one of the St, John manors); and 20s to Sir William, vicar of Warnham. The residue to her son John, whom she appoints executor, with Sir John Brewode and Sir Simon Russell. There is no reference to her grandson Edward.

Edward proved his age in 1399 [S.A.C. xii. 40-42]. Among those who testified to his having been born on St. George’s Day (23 April) 1378 were John Hemery, who carried the child to West Grinstead church for his baptism (which was usually held on the day after birth); Peter Flower, who held a candle at the font; Nicholas Wylcombe, who was hearing mass there before going to Calais; and Stephen, William, and Simon Epsle who were sitting in the church of the adjoining parish of Shipley when John Edyng came in and told them of the baptism. He married, first, a daughter of Sir Ralph St. Leger, by whom he had two children who died in infancy; and second, Alice daughter of Lord St. John, by whom he had a daughter who died soon after birth and a son Edward who died young [Harl. MS. 173, pedigree]. Edward, the father, died 4 August 1400 [Inq. p.m. Hen. IV, file 15, no. 4].

The estates then reverted to John Tregoz, uncle of the elder Edward and brother of Sir Robert. He at once conveyed the whole to Nicholas Carrew and other trustees [Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii, no. 2708], who held them in trust for his wife Alice at the time of his death in 1404 [Inq. p.m. Hen. IV, file 43, no. 3]. His will [Archbp. Reg. Arundel, pt. I, fol. 214], made at Dedisham on 30 June and proved at Slindon on 16 September 1404, is sufficiently interesting to be given in full:

First I leave my soul to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, and my body to be buried in the chapel outside the church of Goring in the cemetery. Also I leave to the use of the same chapel, for making glass windows, 100s. Also I leave to the use of the church of Goring 3s. 4d. Also to the vicar of the church of Goring to celebrate for my soul, 6s. 8d. Also to the use of the mother church of Chichester, 6d. . . . to the use of the church of Slinfold, 12d. . . . to the chaplain of Slinfold 12d. . . . to the poor in the hospital of St. James in Chichester, 3s. 4d. ... to the support of the poor in the hospital of St. Mary Magdalen on the way to Chichester, 3s. 4d. . . . to the use of the church of Stopham, 13s. 4d. . . . to Sir John (?) Senex, rector of the church of Stopham, 6s. 8d. . . . to the use of the new belfrey of Pulborough, 20s. . . . to the friars of Guildford to celebrate for my soul, 6s. 8d. . . . to the friars of Shoreham, 6s. 8d. . . . to the friars minor of Chichester, 2s 6d. . . . to the friars preachers of Chichester, 2s. 6d. . . . for the mending of a road towards the land of John Bockmott, 3s. 4d. . . . to the use of the church of Warnham, 6s. 8d. . . . to the use of the church of Rudgewick, 6s. 8d. . . . to Thomas Asshehurst my servant, 26s. 8d. . . . to the same Thomas, a cow . . . to John Massy, 20s. (and) a cow . . . to Thomas Wodehouse, 20s (and) a cow . . . to Robert Pryket, 13s. 4d. . . . to Edith atte Staple, 13s. 4d. . . . to Robert Bokkemotte, 3s. 4d. (and) a cow . . . to Richard le Hyne, a cow . . . to William Rumbem, 20s. . . . to a suitable chaplain to celebrate continually at Goring for two years for me and my ancestors, £10. 13s. 4d. . . . to Richard Burgeys, vicar of the church of Warnham, to celebrate for my soul, 40s. . . . to John Cook, chaplain, to celebrate for my soul, 20s. . . . to the use of the hospital of St Thomas in Southwark, 40s, . . . , to the canons of St Mary Overey in Southwark, 40s. . . . for the expenses of my anniversary service, 20s. . . . to each poor man coming to my anniversary, 2d. . . . to each of my godchildren (filiolorum) a (?) calf (vitulum maricem) . . . to the chaplain celebrating on the day of my anniversary, 8d. . . . to John Bradbrugge of Slinfold 9 silver spoons . . . to the aforesaid chapel of Goring, a chalice. And if anything is left over from my goods not bequeathed, I give and leave the same to William and Thomas my sons, Joan, Margaret and Agnes my daughters, to be divided equally between them. And of this will I make and ordain mt beloved in Christ Richard Burgeys, vicar of Warnham, Thomas Southon, chaplain, and Thomas Asshehurst my executors, and also Thomas Harlyng supervisor of my executors for the distributing and assigning for the good of my soul as may seem most fitting to them.

Nicholas carrew and his co-trustees continued for the time to hold John Tregoz’s lands and Nicholas appears in 1412 as holding Goring, worth £50, Dedisham, £20, and Greatham, £10 [S.A.C. x. 137]. An attempt to eject them from these and other manors in 1408 had resulted in their recovering 300 marks damages against Henry Palmere; on the other hand they were amerced for wrongly accusing Thomas Leukenore and others of being concerned in the disseisin [Assize R. 1521, m. 30]. By 1428 the trust had lapsed, presumably through the death of Alice widow of Edward Tregoz, and Sir Thomas Leukenore was lord of Goring, Bargham, and the other Tregoz estates [Feudal Aids, v. 154]. Sir Thomas was grandson of Sir Thomas who had married (c. 1370) [Suss. Rec. Soc. xxiii, no 2391.] Joan Doyley, daughter of Sir John Doyley by Margaret, aunt of John and sister of Sir Henry tregoz. Considering that John Tregoz in his will named two sons and three daughters, it may seem strange that his heir should be this distant cousin. The explanation is to be found in a petition made to the Lord Chancellor in about 1406 by thomas son of John Tregoz [Early Chan. Proc. 75, no. 92] showing that:

The said John made estate to Nicholas Carrew, esquire, John Asshurst and John Blachemerden, chaplain, in his lands and manors of Goring, Dedisham, Walderton, Greatham, Marchalesland, and Wyntres [in Cootham in Storrington], and in the manor of Bowley in Kent; with the reversion, after the death of Alice widow of Edward Tregoz, of the manors of Preston, Bargham, Ham, Wiggonholt, and Parham, and of the inn (lostell) called ‘le Herteshed’ in Southwark. And John had two bastard sons, this Thomas and William (who has died); and he devised to each of them in his last will land to the value of £20 yearly to them and the heirs of their bodies. Moreover he ordained that they should proclaim throughout the country where seemed good to them that if there was any collateral heir male who wished to claim the said manors after his death, that such heir should pay to the said feoffees 500 marks, of which they should apply 300 marks to found a chantry in the chapel near the parish church of Goring, of two chaplains to perform divine service there for the souls of him and of his ancestors; and if the 300 marks were not sufficient for the endowment (lamorteizement) of the chantry, they should use some of the rest of the 500 marks; if all of this was not spent, the residue should be divided equally between the two sons. John appointed as his executors Thomas Asshurst and Richard vicar of Warnham and they have received 500 marks from Thomas Leukenore as next heir collateral; but they have done nothing about the chantry or the other payments.

What the result of this complaint was is not known; but a chantry does seem to have been established, though apparently only of one priest. In July 1441 the feoffees of Sir Thomas Leukenore presented John Trewman to the chantry of Goring [Suss. Rec. Soc. iv. 122]; and at the suppression of chantries in 1548 the chantry, then held by Oliver Browne, was worth £7. 8s. yearly, paid as the rent of a tenement called the Christopher in the parish of St. Peter in London [Ibid. xxxvi. 59]. And so the priest was pensioned off; the Tregozes figured no more in his prayers, and their memory survived as little more than a quartering in the storied arms of Lewknor [S.A.C. LXX. 5; LXXV. 172.].

L. F. Salzman
(Sussex Archaeological Collections Vol 93 [1955] pp34-58).

THE TREGOZ DYNASTY

Medieval Heraldic Harness Pendant Found!

The Tregoz Line - a very muddled picture indeed.