Forne Sigulfsson (Greystoke) de Greystoke (abt. 1060 - bef. 1130)

Born about 1060 in England

Descendants

Died before 1130 before about age 70 in England

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Forne Greystoke was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Note

Wulfflaed Atholl (Atholl-5) removed as the wife of Forne. No evidence located showing that his wife's name was known. (Athey-67, 8 Aug 2014)

Biography

Domesday

The name Forne was not common in Domesday Book, either referring to 1066 or 1086. In 1066, apart from a cluster around Yorkshire, there is one in Gloucestershire. It thus seems that at least the ones in Yorkshire might all be him? In 1086, there was only one in Nonburnholme.

Keats-Rohan has a Domesday People entry for him called Forne Sigulf:

Englishman, son of Sigulfr, occurs Domesday Yorkshire. Benefactor of St Mary's, York.^[1] During the 1120s he was a minister of Henry I in Northumberland. His daughter Edith became the king's mistress, and had by him a son Robert fitz Roy; she later married Robert II d'Oilly. Forne was dead by 1129, when his heir was his son Ivo. He was ancestor of the Greystoke family, named from the barony in Cumberland that he was given by Henry I. Cf. EYC ii, 505ff; Sanders, 50.

On the other hand David X Carpenter and Hugh Doherty of the Charters of William II and Henry I Project write:^[2]

Farrer stated that Forn’s ‘small fee at Nunburnholme and in the neighbourhood’ had been given to him by Henry I. He noted that in 1086 a king’s thegn named Forn held eleven carucates in Nunburnholme (held in 1065 by Morcar, Thorfroth and Thorketill), but did not suggest that the two men were identical, and there is no reason to suppose that they were (Farrer, Early Yorkshire Charters, ii. 505, 509; DB, i. 330d; Yorks §29. E4). This Forn is mentioned among the king’s thegns in Yorkshire only in connection with Nunburnholme; there are scattered references to men of that not uncommon name elsewhere in Yorkshire, but it would be rash to suppose any connection between them.

In other words, there is some doubt possible as to whether this Forne the son of Sigulf was the same Forne who appears in the 1086 Domesday Book, although they both held land at the same place.

After Domesday

Keats-Rohan notes that in an undated charter in favour of Bridlington Priory and made in York, estimated to be from 1135-6, Forne contributed two bovates in Basingeby.^[3] (But according to her estimate, he would be dead by then?)

Farrer and Clay give the following:

• He and Ivo, his son, gave to the canons of Hexham 2 bovates in Millington. [The Church of Hexham, i, 59; ii, 81.]
• After Ranulf Meschin resigned the land of Carlisle in 1120-21 Henry I granted, or more probably confirmed, Greystoke and its members to Forne, son of Sigulf, for a yearly cornage rent of 4li. [Testa, 379b; V.C.H. Cumb., i, 421b.]
• Forne attested the charter of Ranulf Meschin to Stephen, abbot (d. 1112), and the abbey of St. Mary, York, founding the priory and cell of Wetherhal. [Prescott, Reg. of W., 4.] As his name occurs among those of several important tenants of Ranulf who attested the charter, it is probable that he already held Greystoke.
• About 1120 Forne attested a charter of Alexander, king of Scots, to the priory of Scone. [Lawrie, Early Scottish Charters, 30.]
• He was present at Durham in 1121 at a gathering of north country magnates. [Sym. of Durham, ii, 261. Mr. Arnold, the editor, misled by Mr. Hinde, accepts the latter's erroneous reading of "Ligulfi" for the correct "Sigulfi."]
• Forne died during the financial year which ended at Michaelmas, 1130, for then Ivo, or Ives, his son, accounted for100s, for livery of his father's land.[R. Mag. Pip., 31 Hen. I, 25.]
• In the same roll Robert de Oilli's debt of 4li of the farm of Scalby, near Scarborough, is recorded, and also the remittance of Danegeld amounting to 7li, 16s. in respect of his fee of Hook Norton, co. Oxon.[ib., 6.] This Robert had taken to wife Edith, daughter of Forne, the lady whose liaison with Henry I is indirectly mentioned by John of Hexham in the statement that Robert Fitz-Edith, "Henrici regis nothus," was at the siege of Winchester in 1141. [Sym. of Durham, ii, 310. See Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 94n., 434n.] Leland preserves the story of the "chattering pyes" which led to the foundation of the priory of Augustine canons at Osney, near Oxford, in 1129, by Robert de Oilli and his wife Edith. [Mon. Angl., vi, 251 ; ib. v, 404.] A gift of land in Yorkshire to this priory, mentioned in a charter below, confirms the identity of Edith, the wife of Robert de Oilly, with Edith, the daughter of Forne.

Sources

1. ↑ Keats-Rohan cites Monasticon Anglicanum III, p548-p.550 (Charter V). There is a very big list of benefactors, presumably collected over time, but not Forne?Farrer and Clay say "having received from Henry I a small fee at Nunburnholme, and in the neighbourhood, he gave to St. Mary's, York, 3 carucates and 1 bovate in Millington, the church of Huggate with its glebe and tithe, and 7 bovates in Hawold". They cite Cal. Chart. R., iii, 114.
2. ↑ Carpenter and Doherty (2014 version) "FORN SIGULFSSON AND IVO FITZ FORN, Tenants-in-chief in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland" Charters of William II and Henry I Project pdf
3. ↑ Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, 1066-1154, Vol.III no.119, p.45

• Farrer and Clay, Early Yorkshire Charters, Vol.II
• Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, p.199
• Open Domesday website for Fornes in Yorkshire 1066 and 1086: http://opendomesday.org/name/201200/forne-son-of-sigulf/
• PASE Domesday profile for Forne in 1086: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=48264
• PASE Domesday profile for Forne "of Skirpenbeck" in 1066 in the East Riding: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=51148
• Sanders, English Baronies, p.50

Also see

• http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/GREYSTOKE.htm
• http://thewildpeak.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/forne-sigulfson-the-first-lord-of-greystoke-in-cumbria/
• http://www.celtic-casimir.com/webtree/11/33019.htm
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Forne (his daughter)

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Darrell Parker for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Darrell and others.