Robert D'Oyly (3rd Baron Hocknorton)

Oxford Castle

Robert was born in 1070 in Hook Norton.

• Birth Notes

  b. Abt 1070

Robert's father was Nigel  D'Oyly (2nd Baron Hocknorton) and his mother was Agnes.  His paternal grandfather was Walter D'Oyly (Seigneur de Oyly). He had two brothers named Foulk and Nigell.  He was the oldest of the three children.  He died at the age of 80 in 1150 in Hook Norton.  He was buried in Eynsham Abbey.

• Death Notes

  He died 1142 in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire, England
  d 1142, Abington Abbey, Berkshire, , England   
  
  

• General Notes

  1. Robert d'Oyly, 3rd Baron of Hooknorton,   b. Abt 1070, of,Hooknorton,Oxfordshire,England ,   d. 1142, Abington Abbey,Berkshire,England
  
  buried at Eynesham in 1126
  
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  The Lord Robert D'Oyly, third Baron of Hocknorton, and Constable of Oxford Castle, succeeded his father in 1112, and, like his predecessors, made Oxford Castle his principal abode. This Baron stood in high favour with King Henry I., who appointed him his Chamberlain,[71] and about 1100, on his ascending the throne and marrying the Saxon heiress to it, gave Robert D'Oyly in marriage his cast-off concubine, Edith de Greystock, sister of Ivo, ancestor of the baronial house of Greystock (whose arms were "Barry of six, argent and azure, three chaplets gules"), and dau. of Fornus de Greystock, also Lord of Greystock, son of Lyulph, alias Sigelwolfe, a great Saxon thane in the north,[72] On her marriage with Robert D'Oyly, King Henry gave her in frank marriage the manor of Steeple Cleydon,[73] co. Bucks, while her husband endowed her, ad ostium ecclesiœ ex assensu patris, with the manor of Weston on the Green, co. Oxon. Robert D'Oyly held Cleydon in her right in 1120— Robert D'Oyly, the third Baron, was a great benefactor to the Church. Early in the reign of Henry I. he confirmed the grants of Thomas le Dene and Brumannus de Walton to St. George's Church at Oxford, and to this deed D'Oyly's seal is appendant. It contains his effigy mounted on horseback, brandishing his sword in his right hand, and defending himself with a lozenge-shaped shield on his left arm; the whole encircled with the legend, "Sigillum Roberti de Olleio;"[74] and Sir Henry Ellis, on the presumption that it was the seal of his uncle, considers it the most ancient baronial seal extant.[75] But Robert D'Oyly's principal benefaction to the Church was in 1129, when, at the persuasion of Edith his wife, he founded, on an island in the river Isis, the magnificent abbey of Oseney[76] in Oxfordshire, a little below Oxford Castle; constituting it a priory for Black Canons of the order of St. Augustin. The singular (though ridiculous) legend of its foundation is given by Dugdale in the Monasticon,[77] but Leland's version of it is much more concise.—"Edithe" (wife of D'Oyly), says he, "uside to walke out of Oxford Castelle with her gentlewomen to solace, and that oftentymes wher yn a certen place, in a tre, as often as she cam, certen pyes usid to gather to it, and ther to chattre, and as it were to speke unto her. Edithe much merveylyng at this mattier, was sumtyme sore ferid as by a wonder, whereupon she sent for one Radulphe, a chanon of St. Frideswide's (at Oxford), a man of vertuous life and her confessor, askyng hym counsell; to whom he answerid, after that he had seen the faschion of the pyes chatteryng only at her cummyng, that she shoulde bilde sum chirche or monasterié in that place. Then she entreated her husband to build a priorie, and so he did, making Radulphe the first prior of it"[78]. Her confessor told her, in fact, that the magpies were wretched souls in purgatory, crying out to her to bring them to rest.—Thus in 1129 Robert D'Oyly founded Oseney Abbey,[79] dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, and, with the consent of his wife Edith, and his sons Henry and Gilbert, richly endowed it; conferring upon it all his possessions in the Isle of Oseney, the churches of Kidlington, Hocknorton, Cleydon, Weston, Seneston, Cestreton, and all the town of Ethon; the grant of which is attested by Foulk D'Oyly, various members of the Tew family, and a long list of churchmen. The foundation of this Abbey by Robert D'Oyly proves that he bore "Azure, two bends or" for arms; for not only was this coat thenceforth borne by the D'Oylys of Oxfordshire (and with tinctures reversed by those now existing), but it was the arms and seal ever after claimed and used by Oseney Abbey. Leach, Abbot of Oseney from 1235 to 1249, erected, during his abbatcy the great gates of the convent, and ornamented them with an effigy of the Virgin Mary (its patron saint) and two shields of coat-armour, viz. the cross of St. George on one (vide post), and the said coat of two bends[80] on the other, the whole carved on stone; and a seal in wax containing the same coat of two bends is appended to an indenture, dated 10 Aug. 1300 (28 Edw. I.) between the Abbey of Oseney and Burcester Convent.[81] At first however the revenues of Oseney Priory were very limited, and so continued till, soon after its erection, its monks induced Robert D'Oyly, about 1149 (twenty years after its foundation), to annex the lands and revenues of St. George's Collegiate Church at Oxford to their abbey; and accordingly Robert D'Oyly executed a deed to that effect, Edith his wife and his sons Henry and Gilbert consenting thereto.[82] Thereupon the secular canons, whom the first Robert D'Oyly had placed in Saint George's at Oxford, were dispersed, or translated to Oseney, and made canons regular of the order of St. Augustin,[83] while Oseney Priory, obtaining all their possessions, began to flourish, and soon expanded into one of the richest and most celebrated abbeys in the kingdom. Old St. George's at Oxford was thenceforth used for students; and the Oseney monks ever after maintained there five secular presbyters to pray for Robert D'Oyly's soul thrice a day,[84] which was constantly performed down to the period of the Reformation,—On King Stephen's accession Robert D'Oyly attests the charter which he passed in the hope of securing thereby his usurped throne; and Stephen, anxious to obtain his influence and support, dispossessed Milo de Gloucester of the office of Constable of England, and conferred it upon Robert D'Oyly; but D'Oyly remained true to the Empress Matilda, and received her thrice into Oxford Castle between 1139 and 1141. On the second occasion she sought safety there;[85] her last visit was after her Coronation at Winchester, when, says Dugdale, she proceeded to Oxford "with much triumph."—Robert D'Oyly's latter days were passed in making benefactions to the Church. He gave lands to the nuns of Godstow, the sisters of St. John of Jerusalem at Gosford,[86] co. Oxon., the monks of Gloucester, and the Knights Templar; as well as to Eynsham Abbey, near Oxford;[87] and a confirmation deed to Eynsham Abbey, of himself and his wile Edith, of the grant of Roger D'Oyly, his kinsman, of lands in Eston,[88] is attested by Anchetil and William de Grai, ancestors of the noble house of de Grey.—Edith, wife of Robert D'Oyly, became so religious, and munificent to the Church, that monkish writers call her "Memorabilis Matrona Deo devota;"[89] and state that the remainder of her life was passed in acts of devotion. Many grants to the Church her husband permitted her to make in his lifetime; which was probably owing to her personal charms (which are said to have been very great) and her husband being many years her senior. She gave lands to St. Mary's Abbey at Otley,[90] then recently founded on a corner of Otmoor, for the soul's health of her husband, self, sons, and King Henry I., prior to 1138; and gave the monks of Eynsham one of the villeins on her estate at Cleydon, with his wife, children, and all his cattle, in free alms for ever.[91]—Robert D'Oyly died about 1150, and was interred in Eynsham Abbey, co. Oxon., according to a promise made to it in his early life, prior to the erection of Oseney Priory. Edith his wife survived him two years, and dying in 1152, was interred in Oseney Abbey at the north side of the high altar, with an image of her on her tomb in stone, attired in the habit of a vowess, holding in her hand a heart.[92] Above the arch, over her tomb, there was painted on the wall a picture representing the foundation legend of the abbey, viz. the magpies chattering on her advent to Oseney, the tree, and Radulph her confessor in attendance: which painting, according to Holinshed, was in perfect preservation at the suppression of religious houses, temp. Hen. VIII.[93]—This, the third Baron of Hocknorton, was perhaps one of the most eminent men the house of D'Oyly has ever produced; by Edith his wife he had two sons and one daughter,—
  
  

Details of Robert's family with Edith of Greystoke (Concubine of Henry I)