Nigel Fossard

  General Notes:

~Select Civil Pleas: Volume I A.D. 1200 - 1203, p. 18, in civil plea by Robert de Turnham, Nigel is named as the grandfather of Robert Fossard who is the father of William Fossard, who is the father of Robert de Turnham's wife. ⁸⁶⁹

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ⁸⁶⁷
Before the Norman Conquest, Doncaster and much of its sourthern vicinity was part of the Northumberland district was the poperty of Tosti, Earl of Northumberland and held by Nigel Fossard on the Saxon tenure. After the Conquest, William the Conqueror gave the manor of Hexthorpe, of which the soccage of Doncaster is part of, to his step-brother Robert, Earl of Mortaigne. At that time it was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1085/86 that "Nigel has of Earl Robert in demesne, on plough and three villanes, and two borders, with two ploughs. There is a church and a priest there, having five borders and one plough, and two mills of thirty shillings. Meadow four acres. Pasturable wood, one mile and a half long and one broad. The manor two miles and a half long, and one mile and a half broad."

After the death of William the Conqueror, Robert de Montaigne joined a revolt against William II, which ended up with his death. This proved to be very fortunate for the Fossard Family, for they became reseized of the manors of Doncaster, Hexthorpe and other lands. This placed them on nearly the same terms with their land as they had been before the Conquest.

~Yorkshire: Historical and Topographical Introduction to a Knowledge of the Ancient State of the Wapentake of Strafford and Tickhill; With Ample Account of Doncaster and Conisbrough. pp. 1-4