Richard FITZ SCROB ( -1067)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note 1

Richard Fitz Scrob of Richard's Castle. The castle which gave its name to this small ancient borough pre-dates the Conquest by about 16 years, though it was thoroughly Norman. Edward the Confessor, more Norman than English, encouraged the settlement of Norman kinsmen and friends in Herefordshire, and gave them lavish gifts of land. This plot, a few miles south-west of Ludlow, was a grant to Richard FitzScrob, who built himself a strong castle on it about 1050, further elevating the hilltop and bedrock with earth on which to site his keep. The castle continued in his line for several generations before it passed by marriage to the family of Talbot, under the overlordship of the Mortimers.

By Leland's survey of 1540 the castle is reported as still mainly standing, but ruinous, and later it housed a farm and its buildings, with a dovecote in one of the towers. The property passed through several hands before coming finally into the possession of the Salwey family, which continued to hold in for 370 years.

http://www.castlewales.com/richards.html²

Individual Note 2

Origin of name

The name (pronounced "Scroop") may be derived from the old Anglo-Norman word for "crab" and that it began as a nickname for a club-footed illegitimate son of an English princess by a Norman knight. A crab moves sideways and so the name could fit a child with club feet. Whether far fetched or not, it is fact that at one stage the family crest was a crab (subsequently five feathers) and that the family motto is still "Devant si je puis" -("forward if I can"), which could have a double meaning as of course a crab can only go sideways.

One Richard Fitz Scrob (or Fitz Scrope), apparently a Norman knight, was granted lands by Edward the Confessor before the Norman Conquest, in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire as recorded in the Domesday Book. He built Richard's Castle, near Ludlow in Shropshire, and is recorded in chronicles of the Conqueror's early years in England as asking for assistance against the Welsh.

His son was Osbern FitzRichard. According to one genealogy, his wife was Nest. This Nest is identified as the daughter of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn by his wife Edith of Mercia, herself granddaughter of Leofric, Earl of Mercia possibly by his wife Godiva (or Godgifu). The evidence for Nest's name comes from charters of her son Hugh granting lands to an abbey, where he declares his parentage; that son, however, is silent about his mother's antecedents.[1] The heiress of this family eventually married into the Mortimer family, famous as Marcher Barons[2] and important players in 14th century English politics. The Mortimer line was eventually merged into the Crown in the person of Edward IV of England. His paternal grandmother was Lady Anne Mortimer, heiress of the Mortimers and heiress of line of her brothers, themselves successively heirs of line of Richard II of England.[3]

The same genealogy states that Osbern's great-grandson was Hugh Le Scrope who, having been born at Richard's Castle, was the first of the family to be granted lands formerly belonging to the Priory of Bridlington, in Yorkshire. However, recent research has shown no clear connection between this Hugh Le Scrope (or his alleged Yorkshire descendants) and Richard FitzScrob, or between Hugh le Scrope and subsequent Yorkshire Scropes.[4]

The first well-documented ancestor of the Yorkshire Scropes appears to be Robert le Scrope (1134-aft.1198), who is described as the son of the aunt[5] of Alice de Gant, Countess of Northampton by her husband Richard le Scrope.[6] The Scrope family appear to be related and allied to the Gant family in the 12th century, and possibly trace their origins to Lincolnshire or Northamptonshire.[7]

NOTES:

1 Plausible reasons for the silence exist. For one, Anglo-Norman marcher barons in the 11th and 12th century may not have wanted Welsh princely ancestry, especially descent from a usurper prince, publicly known. A second reason might have been worries about how claims to Welsh princely blood would be interpreted by the Crown. That Nest's origins are not documented does not mean that she could not be Gruffyd's daughter.

2 The Mortimers themselves publicly acknowledged their Welsh princely blood, notably their descent from a possibly illegitimate daughter of Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales.

3 What this means is that Richard II's heir presumptive (acknowledged 1385) was his cousin Philippa's son Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (d. 1398 Ireland, aged 24). March's death leaving three (or four) young children allowed Henry of Bolingbroke to usurp the throne, claiming patrilineal descent and improper governance. At the time the throne was usurped, March's elder son was heir presumptive to Richard II. Since both sons died without issue, their sister Lady Anne Mortimer, wife of Richard, Earl of Cambridge, became heiress of line of Edward III. This claim was taken up by her son Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV.

4 The original claim made elsewhere is repeated here on a webpage belonging to a descendant of the Scropes of Danby. Part of the problem is the number of generations between Richard FitzScrob, his son Osbern, and Osbern's alleged great-grandson Hugh Le Scrope. Richard FitzScrob was living in 1066-1069; his son Osbern married one Nest. Leaving aside the question of when Osbern and Nest married, it is hard to imagine four generations comfortably between the 1060s and 1103. Hugh le Scrope's alleged son Robert le Scrope is listed in charters found and published in 1915, but his father is listed in those charters as one Richard le Scrope. See Douglas Richardson ""Meaning of Matertera: Fitz William, Gant, and Scrope families - Revised" Usenet group soc.genealogy.medieval 22 October 2005 for details.

5 "Matertera" is an ambiguous term because it could refer to a person's father's sister or mother's sister.

6 See Douglas Richardson ""Meaning of Matertera: Fitz William, Gant, and Scrope families - Revised" Usenet group soc.genealogy.medieval 22 October 2005 for details.

7 Alice de Gant married Simon de St. Liz, 7th Earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, whose paternal grandmother Maud, Countess of Huntingdon, great-niece of the Conqueror, married 2ndly King David I of Scotland. Alice de Gant's mother was Rohese de Clare, the daughter of Richard FitzGilbert, Lord of Clare and Adeliza de Meschines. Her father's sister (or half-sister) is not known, but the Earls of Lincoln and Chester were half-brothers, sons of a wealthy Anglo-Norman-Saxon heiress Lucy, Countess of Chester, widow of Ivo de Taillebois. (Lucy is claimed to be a descendant of Godiva, but there is no evidence of this; it is known that she made three excellent marriages). The aunt Agnes may have been an illegitimate half-sister of either Gilbert de Gant or Rohese de Clare; this would explain her marriage to a relatively obscure man. Precedents among the daughters of the later earls of Chester exist for similar differences in marriages between legitimate daughters (married to barons) and illegitimate daughters (married to mere knights).

SOURCES:

Nicholas Harris Nicolas, The Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy (2 vols-, London, 1832), containing much detailed information about the various branches of the Scrope family

J. H. Wylie, History of England under Henry IV. (4 vols., London, 1884-1898)

Edward Foss, The Judges of England (9 vols., London, 1848-1864)

George Julius Poulett Scrope, History of the Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe, Wiltshire (London. 1852)

George Edward Cokayne, Complete Peerage, vol. vii. (London, 1896), the most complete but not infallible reference for families that have ever held a peerage.

Bernard Burke. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland "Scrope of Danby" p. 1346-1347 (1863).

Marquis de Ruvigny. The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: Clarence Volume. pp.457–458 (1905), reprinted 1994. (Limited availability online via Google Books)

Scrope of Danby family papers archive.

Burke's Landed Gentry (1965 edition), s.v. "Scrope of Danby". This is the most recent entry for the family, which has not been updated in the online editions.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.³

Sources