Hugh de Beauchamp of Eaton

  General Notes:

Hugh de Beauchamp of Eaton Scoton, Bedfordshire. His parentage is uncertain and the subject of several different statements in the Cart of Old Wardon. Probably a natural son of Simon I de Beauchamp of Bedford, who acquired the barony of Eaton Scoton c 1155. Married Philippa de Trailly, daughter of Geoffrey II. Died on the Third Crusade in 1187, when his heir was his son Oliver.

~ Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants, p. 311 ¹⁰²⁷

  Noted events in his life were:

• Web Reference: Charles Cawley's Medieval Lands, Oliver Beauchamp.
The 1157 Pipe Roll records "Hug. de Bellocampo" in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire under "Nova Placita & Noue Conuentiones" [Pipe Roll 4 Hen II (1157), Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, p. 140]. The Red Book of the Exchequer refers to "in perdonis Hugoni de Bello Campo" in Huntingdonshire in (abt. 1158/59) [Red Book Exchequer, Part I, Knights fees, p. 21]. The Red Book of the Exchequer refers to "Simon de Bello Campo xxxvi l et in perdonis Hugoni de Bello Campo xxxi s" in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire in (abt. 1161/62) [Red Book Exchequer, Part I, Knights fees, p. 35]. Military fee certifications in the Red Book of the Exchequer, in 1166, record that "Hugo de Bello Campo" held knights' fees "de honore de Etone" in Buckinghamshire from "Gilbertus de Bolebec" [Red Book Exchequer, Part I, Certificationes factæ de feodis militum, p. 318].

Hugh Beauchamp likely had a first wife who was mother to some of his oldest children. His second wife was Phillippa de Trailly. Philippa donated the land of her maritagium in Southill and Broom, Bedfordshire to Wardon abbey, for the souls of her father Geoffrey de Trailly and Hugh de Beauchamp her deceased husband, by undated charter witnessed by "Miles and Richard de Beauchamp her sons" [Farrer, W. (1925) Honors and Knights' Fees (London), Vol. III, p. 250, citing "Chartul. (John Rylands Lib.), f. 95"].

• Background Information. ¹²⁰⁰
Eudo Dapifer died in 1120, when his Bedfordshire lands, escheating to the Crown, were granted to a member of the house of Beauchamp. The barony of Eaton is not mentioned in the returns of 1166 [Cf. Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), 318], but Hugh son of Oliver de Beauchamp [Cott. MS. Faust. A iv, being the Cartulary of St. Neots], the earliest baron of Eaton of whom mention has been found, paid £23 1s. 3d. for his lands in Bedfordshire on the occasion of an aid in 1156 [Hunter, Great Roll of the Pipe, 2, 3 and 4 Hen. II, 23].

According to Dugdale, about the year 1176 he accompanied the daughter of Henry II to Palermo, where her marriage with the King of Sicily was celebrated, and in 1186 he went to Palestine on pilgrimage [Dugdale, Baronage, i, 224]. This latter statement is confirmed by an entry in the St. Neots cartulary recording a grant of lands by Philippa wife of Hugh de Beauchamp on the occasion of her husband going to Jerusalem [Cott. MS. Faust. A iv, fol. 83].

Dugdale states that he died on pilgrimage, but it would appear that he survived into the early part of the following century at an advanced age. Between the years 1200 and 1203 he was engaged in litigation with William de Lanvaley, who claimed the vills of Eaton and Sandy as the right of his mother Gunnora, granddaughter of Hamo de St. Clare [Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 26, 30, 38], who held the lands of Eudo Dapifer in 1130 [From information supplied by Mr. J. H. Round]. Between 1210 and 1214 Hugh de Beauchamp rendered knight's service for two fees in Eaton, the service by which this barony is henceforward found held [Red Bk. of Exch. 537; Pipe R. 16 John, m. 2]. He died soon after, for in 1217 Roger de Beauchamp, his brother, having done homage, entered upon his inheritance in Bedfordshire [Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i, 308].

A History of Bedford, Volume III, pp. 189-202

Hugh married Phillipa de Trailly, daughter of Geoffrey de Trailly and Unknown ¹⁰²⁷.^,1200 (Phillipa de Trailly was born about 1135 in Yelden, Bedford, Bedfordsire, England.)