General Notes

Adam de Port of Basing by Mabel, heiress of Oval and through her mother of the St. John honour of Halnaker.  [Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADAM DE PORT, son and heir (a1), a minor at his father's death, was of age by Michaelmas 1172 (j). At Michaelmas 1180 he made a render of 1000 marks for the fine of his land and for his wife's inheritance in Normandy and that the King should remit his anger and take his homage (a2). In 1194 he was with the King in the army in Normandy, but for some reason his Norman land had at this time been taken into the King's hand and let to farm (c1). He accompanied King John to Normandy after his Coronation and was in freauent attendance on him from 1199 to November 1212. In 1202 he and his son William brought the prisoners captured at Mirebeau to England. Adam married, 1stly, Mabel, heiress of Orval and thereafter through her mother of the St John honor of Halnaker; and 2ndly, Sibyl "The Countess," widow of William [DE FERRERS), EARL OF DERBY (died 1190), and daughter of William (DE DE BRIOUZE, LORD OF BRAMBER, by Bertha, sister and coheir of Mahel OF HEREFORD, LORD OF ABERGAVENNY AND BRECKNOCK, and daughter of Miles (OF GLOUCESTER), EARL OF HEREFORD. He was living on 25 June (c2) and dead on 28 July 1213 (d). His widow was living and unmarried in 1219 and probably in September 1228. [Complete Peerage XI:320, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]

(a1) There was formerly much confusion between this Adam and Adam de Port of the Mapledurwell family, the Herefordshire baron who suffered forfeiture in 1172; this was cleared up by Round.

(j) When he made payment for the scutage of Ireland, he may have come of age after Michaelmas 1169, there being nothing on the intervening rolls to show the position.

(a2) His offence was probably marriage without licence to the Orval heiress, for whom and her lands see note (f) below.  On the Norman Exchequer Roll of 1180 is an account for the issues of the land of William d'Orval from Michaelmas 1179 to 1 Jan 1179/80; he must therefore both have married and obtained possession of the land by the latter date.

(c1) These were the Orval lands, ie. Orval and Lithaire, which were again in the King's hand in and before 1203.  This honor of Lithaire, as it is generally called, was held of the duchy by a service of 2 1/2 knights and an account of it in the feodary of 1212-1220 shows 6 knights' fees then held of it.

(f) Adam's son and heir, styling himself "Willelmus de Sancto Johanne secundus," executed a charter for Boxgrove Priory "pro animabus Willelmi et Roberti de Sancto Johanne et Ade de Port patris mei et Mabilie matris mee".  According to the "Fundationis", Mabel was daughter of Rainald d'Orval by Muriel, daughter of Roger and sister of William and Robert de St. John.  Round accepted this provisionally on the ground that the "Historia" was obviously more trustworthy than such narratives usually are.  That Mabel was the heiress of Orval is certain, since a gift of William d'Orval to the abbey of Blanchelande was subsequently confirmed by Adam de Port and Mabel his wife as the gift of their predecessor.  It is equally certain that Halnaker came to Port through Mabel and her mother, and this being so the mother must have been a daughter of Roger and a sister of William and Robert de St. John, not only on chronological grounds but also because, if she had been of an earlier generation, Roger's brother John de St. John and his male issue would have inherited to her exclusion.  Since the wife of Robert de la Haie was named Muriel and they were the parents of Cecily, Roger de St. John's wife, it is quite likely that Roger's daughter should have been named after her, and on this point one seems justified in accepting the statement of the "Historia."  The real difficulty lies in the name of Mabel's father.  The only Rainald d'Orval who so far as can be seen was seigneur of Orval witnessed a charter of Robert Curthose between 1101 and 1105 made gifts to Lessay recorded in a later notification.  The full text of the latter shows Rainald to have had a son Hugh who succeeded him and who was in turn succeeded by his son William, which last was in possession before 1151, since a gift of his to Lessay was confirmed by Geoffrey, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou.  This William had a son Richard, who, with his father, witnessed a charter of William and Robert de St. John for La Luzerne in 1162.  William d'Orval seems to have died at some date before Michaelmas 1179, since his lands were in the King's hand from then to the end of the year.  As the lands then passed to Adam de Port and his wife, Richard must have predeceased his father.  A Rainald d'Orval renders account at the Norman Exchequer at Michaelmas 1180, but in the "prepositurs" of Nonancourt; and since Orval had by that time passed to Mabel and her husband he could not have been her father.  To sum up; it is difficult to see how Mabel's father could have been a Rainald d'Orval and his name must remain uncertain; but the suggestion may be hazarded that she may have been the daughter of Richard, son of William d'Orval and that the "Reginaldus" of the "Historia" may be a scribal error for "Ricardus".

(c2) Madate to William Briwerre to deliver the custody of Southampton castle to Adam de Port.

(d) William de St. John fined to have all the land of Adam de Port formerly his father.