William de Perche

• General Notes
  • WILLIAM PECCHE was in 1086 an undertenant in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk (f). In 1088 he had a grant from the Abbot of Ramsey of Over, Cambs for the lives of himself and his wife Alfwen. He married, 1stly, Alfwen, and, 2ndly, Isilia, probably daughter and heir of Hervey de Bourges, who survived him (h). The date of his death is not known. [Complete Peerage X:331, (transcribed by Dave Utzinger)]
    
    (f) He held under Richard FitzGilbert, lord of Clare, at Dalham and Clopton, Suffolk, and Gestingthorpe, Essex; under Aubrey de Vere at Belcham Walter, Essex; and under Roger Bigod at Stoke Holy Cross, Norfolk [Domesday Book].
    
    (h) Between 1121 and 1148 Hamon Pecche confirmed to St. Edmund's Abbey the gifts of his grandmother Jenita and his mother Isilia, the latter witnessing his charter
    
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    Our family settled first at Cloptunna, which was at that time within the town of Wickhambrook. By 1135 they were well on their way to fortune, if not fame. A surviving deed, preserved in the British Museum,[13] was written by Walter DeCloptunne, of Clopton Hall, the grandson of Guillaume Peche and Alfwen. He gives some land in the village of Stanfield,[14] about three miles east of Wickhambrook, to Laurence de Danardeston[15] to hold, “to him and his heirs forever.”
    
    According to the first Clopton genealogist, Sir Simonds D’Ewes,[16] William De Cloptone, who died in 1294, had “so large an estate in the town of Wickhambrook in the 43 Henry III, as it was called Feodum Wilhelmi de Cloptone.”[17] His son Clement owned land in Cowlinge, about 3 miles west of Wickhambrook, and sold a bit of it in 1323.[18] Documents have not survived to tell us how long Clement and his brothers, Adam, William, Hugo, and Robert continued to reside in the vicinity of Wickhambrook. But documents[19] place their eldest brother, Walter, the son and heir, about three miles south of Clopton Hall, and refer to him as Lord of Chiperley Manor. Walter and his wife, Alice FitzHugh, were buried in the Church of the Blessed Mary, near Chipley Priory.[20]
    
    In the early 1100’s, there was a great push by the Catholic Church to establish places of worship in England. The great Norman lords of England demonstrated their piety and devotion by erecting cathedrals, monasteries and priories. The very earliest surviving documented building connected to the ancient Cloptons is found at the ruins of Chipley Priory,[21] located on land granted to the Cloptons.[22] The exact date of the foundation of this priory is not known, however, the earliest records pertaining to it are of the year 1235. It seems very likely the priory was built much earlier than this as the stones may have come from Caen, Normandy. Only a few beautifully carved stones remain from the original building. Gene Carlton Clopton’s A Brief History of Chipley Priory[23] states: “The style of the moulding is typical of the beautiful work done by the East Anglian school of Anglo-Saxon masons. Their work was strongly influenced by ideas imported from Norman architectural developments in France to which they added their own flair for creativity to ease the stern and austere effects common in much of Norman design.”
    
    The priory was annexed to the College of Stoke-by-Clare in 1468. A large part of the original structure, and probably the adjoining church, seems to have been incorporated into the farmhouse, which now occupies the site of the priory. The owners of the house, which is known as Clopton Hall,[24] once discovered numerous human bones when digging a new garden beside their farmhouse. They re-interred the bones in the garden. They also discovered a chapel bell and stone sarcophagus, which have been placed at Poslingford Church.[25] A lead coffin known to have once been on the site and used as a watering trough for many years has been lost. No remains of Chiperley Manor has been found.
    
    Source: The Clopton Chronicles
    http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~clopton/norman.htm
    

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¹ http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=PED&db=michaelrneuman&id=I022548&style=TABLE
Source/Citation http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=michaelrneuman&id=I022552

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