General Notes

Richard Tal(e)bot; granted manors of Eccleswall and Linton, Herefs, from the Crown by 1155/6; died by Michaelmas 1175.  [Burke's Peerage]

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RICHARD TALBOT was granted by Henry II the manor of Linton. At Michaelmas 1156 he is recorded as holding out of lands granted from Ancient Demesne, farmed by the sheriff of Herefordshire, 33 l. bl. in Linton and Wilton with Hugh de Longchamp. The name of his wife is unknown (3). He was living in 1174 and died before Michaelmas 1175.  [Complete Peerage XII/1:607, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger]

(e) She is said by Collins to have been a daughter of Stephen Bulmer, of Appletreewick, co. York.

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TALBOT

Observations.-The earliest Talbot recorded appears as Hugo, cognomento Taleboth, in a charter to Holy Trinity, Rouen, of about 1060; and in 1138 Robert de Torigni refers to Geoffrey Talbot as quidam Talebot nomine. The name is therefore a nickname. There were numerous Talbots in Normandy, holding under Gournay, Giffard and the Counts of Eu; and some of them were in England in 1086; a Geoffrey Talbot then held Liston, Essex, from Hugh de Gournay; and it was under Giffard that a Richard Talbot held Batlesden, Beds. This line may have continued at least until 1242-43. The late L. C. Loyd examined all the evidence with his usual care, and came to the conclusion that there was nothing which would throw any light on the origin of Richard Talbot of Eccleswall and Linton, co. Hereford.

There is, however, a line of Talbots, closely associated with the Lacys, which might repay closer investigation than can be given to it here, if the materials exist. In 1130 Geoffrey Talbot was accounting for 200 marks of silver to have the lands of his father Geoffrey, while the latter's widow Agnes owed 2 marks of gold to have dower and her marriage. Agnes was very probably a Lacy, and the evidence is set out in detail ante, vol. x, pp. 424-25. The lands were the extensive honour of Swanscombe or Talbot, formerly part of the possessions of Eudes (Odo), Bishop of Bayeux, mainly in Kent, and were burdened with castle-guard of Dover. Geoffrey Talbot, however, who was notoriously a bitter opponent of Stephen, was active chiefly in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire. He is described in the Gesta Stephani as cognatus of Gilbert de Laci. It was while besieging Hereford that he received the wounds of which he died, 22 August 1140. His daughters then, or later, succeeded to the lands.

Richard of Eccleswall had, however, been serving Henry II, for when the original charter granting Linton to him was inspected and confirmed in 1328, Richard's service is given as the reason. The charter is dated in the Cal. of Charter Rolls, presumably by the witnesses, as 1158-62; of course it is common form for the charter to be later than the grant. In this case the grant appears first on the Pipe Roll for 1155-56, where it is recorded under the allowances against the farm of the sheriff of Herefordshire "In terris datis Hugoni de Longo Campo et Ricardo Talebot in Linton' et Wilton' xxxiii li. bl." This phraseology suggests joint tenancy or coparcenary; but it disappears in the next year and thereafter. Stapleton calls attention to the fact that the family of Lacy intermarried also with the family of Longchamp, as appears from the 1166 Carta of Hugh de Lacy. It is difficult to avoid the conjecture that the key of the problem, if it is to be found at all, will be found in the Lacy alliances.  [Complete Peerage XII/1:606-7, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger]