The de Busli Descendants Under the Vipond Line
Back to Roger de Busli of Tickhill, Yorkshire this page is still under construction Note: the de Busli and de Builli spellings appeared interchangeably throughout the generations and appear to have no significance. They were also recorded as de Bully and in many other minor spelling variations. See The de Busli/de Builli Surname Roger de Busli was one of the great Norman Lords who arrived with William, Prince of Normandy, in his conquest of England in 1066 and received a large barony in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire for his support. He built a castle at Tickhill from which he ruled his barony (the Honour of Tickhill) until his death in 1099 upon which the king took back the land which Roger had held directly from him although it was later returned to a descendant of Roger's daughter Beatrix in 1222. See The Legal Battle Over Roger de Busli's Land Roger had also acquired some significant land holdings in his own right from other Norman nobles which he passed down to his young son and heir, Roger II. Roger II then died at about age 6 in 1101 with his heir his cousin, Jordan de Busli, the eldest son of Roger de Busli's brother Ernold de Builli who had pre-deceased Roger. Jordan also held tenancy of several manors near Tickhill including the manors of Kimberworth and Maltby after Roger's death. The Domesday Book recorded these manors as held in demesne by Roger in 1086 so he either received them in Roger's Will or he was awarded them by the king when he took Roger's land back. Jordan's holdings were passed to his heir Richard de Busli whose heir was John de Busli in about 1179. John's only child and heir was a daughter, Idonia de Builli who married Robert Vipond sometime in the 1190's.Robert Vipond
(the following reports of the scutages for Tickhill are all from Extracts from The Pipe Rolls for the counties of Nottingham and Derby: from the earliest period until the reign of King Edward I) Robert was a prominent noble in royal service principally in Normandy and northern England. By 1195 he was made custodian of the Honours of Peverel, Higham Ferrers and Tickhill. When King Richard assessed a scutage (tax) on his nobles in 1198 to pay his army in Normandy it was Robert de Veteri-Ponte who was assessed the scutage for the Honour of Tickhill.
One
of the knights of the Honour of Tickhill whom Robert paid scutage for in
1198 was his father-in-law John de Builli.
ref.
Then in 1199 when King John assessed a scutage
to pay for his own coronation, Robert was again responsible for paying
it for the Honour of Tickhill. This was the first tax which King
John levied on his nobles which was considered 'illegal' and which would
lead to the First Barons War in 1215.
ref.
In the Scutage of The Honour of Tickhill in
1203/04 John de Builli was assessed 12 marks for his 6 knight's fees
(the same 6 knights fees for the manors which the family had held since
Ernold) and Robert de Vipont was assessed 18s. ref.
From
1205 to 1210 Robert de Vipont and
Richard de Bellocampo were listed as the custodians of Tickhill.
John
de Builli is listed in the scutages of Tickhill until 1213, the year he
died.Every de Busli history I could find ends at this point with John's death, no male heir and the family's 6 knight's fees (Kimberworth, Maltby, Sandbeck and a few other small holdings) passing to the Vipond family. Some state specifically that the de Busli/de Builli name then became extinct. However, I have found several references to show that this line did carry on, see The Line of Descent From Ernold de Builli of Kimberworth, Yorkshire There were also the de Boeles who start to appear as Norman nobles with significant land in Bedfordshire just as the de Builli family passed the last of their land in Yorkshire on to the Viponds. That timing plus the fact that John, the last of the de Builli senior line, had acquired extensive holdings in Bedfordshire by marriage including several where we then find de Boeles and added to that the several connections which I've found between the de Boeles and the Viponds makes it tempting to consider whether the de Boeles were only connected to the Viponds or were actually a cadet line of the de Buillis. See The de Busli/de Builli, Vipond and de Boeles Connections Whether they were related of not, the de Boeles/de Boelles were Norman nobles from whom I can show that the Bowles surname developed over the next 500 years, certainly in Bedfordshire and probably in a few other counties as well. Many English Bowles family histories, wishing to have a noble Norman origin, have claimed a descent from the Bolles of Swineshead, although without sufficient proof of such a connection and with the Bolles claim to have been the Lords of Swineshead proven to be false in any case, may now wish to explore their possible origin in Bedfordshire for a truly noble Norman origin of the highest order.
The de Builli and de Buelles Ongoing Connections to the Viponds
After John de Builli's death in 1213 Robert Vipond continued to be a custodian of Tickhill until the Honour and castle was lost in the legal battle with the Countess of Eu in 1222. There are no further references to de Buillis in the scutage lists after John, which just means that there were no further de Buillis holding land in Tickhill for which knight's fees were assessed, but the fines list for Nottinghamshire in 1220 includes 'Elias de Buell, constable of Tickenhal, Will. de Buell'. There is a further reference in the Fine Rolls of 3 Henry III (1218-1219) stating specifically that a William de Buell, the steward of Tickhill, owed money to the king. ref. It is interesting that the de Buelles/de Boeles appear in Tickhill just after the de Busli/de Buillis end there and then soon after in Bedfordshire and are connected to the Viponds in both places but at this point it is just interesting. There is nothing yet to indicate that the de Boeles were related to either the de Buslis or the Viponds. In fact the existence of the two neighbouring demesne towns of Busli and Boeles indicate Roger de Busli and Hugh de Boeles were from those neighbouring towns and so would likely be more like allied families than relatives. It could still go either way yet but further information is needed.
The
fines for Nottinghamshire in 1228 include 'Countess Augi 121 m for 60
fees, 3 parts 1 fee of the fee of Tickhill; Robert de Wulrington 2 parts
of 1 fee; Hugo de Buell 1 fee.' The Countess Augi was the Countess
of Eu who had won the legal case against Robert Vipond in 1222. I
believe that the Hugo de Buell of Tickhill in this 1228 reference and
William de Buell of Tickhill in the 1219 and 1220 references are the
brothers Hugh and William de Boeles who served the king from the 1220's
to the 1250's/1260's whom we also know had a connection to the Viponds.
Robert and Idonea's son and heir, John Vipond
continued to hold the de Builly family's 6 knight's fees in Kimberworth,
Maltby and Sandbeck until his death in 1241. His heir, Robert
Vipond, who was about 2 years old when his father died, was made the
ward of a John Fitz Geoffrey but apparently Robert's land was put in the
custody of others during the boy's minority. Specifically we know
that when one of the king's knights, William de Boeles, died in Gascony
in 1254 while serving the king, he bequested 'custody of the manor of
Manteby of the Honor of Tykehill until the legal age of the son and heir
of John de Veteri Ponte' to his brother Hugh de Boeles.
ref. (note: while 'Manteby' appears in the transcription, the
script in the original document would have been very hard to decipher
and the Viponds only held the three properties listed above in Tickhill
so that must be Maltby)
See
The de Boeles in Royal Service below for
more on the brothers, William and Hugh de Boeles, who served as the
king's knights in England and in his wars in Wales and on the Continent.
Possibly also interesting is that when Robert
Vipond was a custodian of Tickhill the other custodian was Richard
Belcap (the 1204/05, 1207/08 scutage list), Richard de Bellocampo (the
1205/06 list), Richard de Bellocap (the 1206/07 list) and Richard de
Belcap (the 1209/10 list). These are all variations on the early
form of the Beauchamp family name. This was a very extensive and
powerful Norman family in the north of England. Although they
don't seem to
have been fully sorted out yet I found one reference that this
Richard was a younger son of Hugh de Bello-Campo, son and heir of
Reginald de Bello-Campo of Eaton-Socon, Bedfordshire. That
possibility is supported by the list of fines for Nottingham in 1220
which includes Hugo fil Reginald de Etton (Hugh son of Reginald of
Etton) in the same list as Elias de Buell and William de Buell.
The de Buelles of Bedfordshire had strong connections to the Beauchamps
of Eaton-Socon
by the 1180's.
Robert de Vipond died in 1228 leaving his widow, John de Builli’s
daughter Idonea, and their son John who died in 1241 leaving a young son
Robert II. Idonea retired to her manor of Sandbec which just before her
death, just days after her son John's, she granted to the Monks of
Roche
Abbey along with her body. Robert II died in battle in 1263
leaving two daughters, Isabel and Idonea, as his heirs which resulted in
the last of the de Builli property which had been passed to the Viponds
being taken to the Clifford and Leybourn families by their marriages.