Hamon (Massey) de Maci (abt. 1060 - 1100)

Born about 1060 in Normandy, France

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1100 at about age 40 in Cheshire, England

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The death year is only given as a very rough indication.

Biography

Hamo (or Haimo, Hamon etc) was a major French tenant of the Norman earls of Cheshire in 1086, when the so-called Domesday book, listing all major landholders in England was made for William the conqueror. At that time, he was the lord of manors including Alretunstall, Ashley, Bowdon, Dunham in Bowdon, Hale, Bramhall, Sinderland Green and Puddington in Cheshire, and Baguley in Lancashire, and also Aston in Hawarden, and Llys Eadwine, in Cheshire. Online summaries of his lands exist which show maps and excerpts from Domesday book:

• PASE project: https://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=47228
• Opendomesday: https://opendomesday.org/name/haimo-of-mascy/

The main line of the family are often referred to as the holders of the feudal "barony" based at Dunham-Massey. Was the first Hamo de Massey a "baron"? In this period, the term can be used flexibly, but it did NOT signify any title of nobility. Relevant to the ways modern historians discuss this period, the greatest landlords in Cheshire did not hold their lands directly from the king, so they were not "tenants in chief", but rather tenants of the earl of Chester who was given extensive "princely" powers. The honour of Chester is therefore seen as having 8 of its own "honorial baronies" and Hamo was founder of the barony of Dunham-Massey. Note that there was never any medieval peerage connected to this barony. The Delamer family of Dunham Massey received their peerage in modern times.^[1]

It seems that many of the leading landholders under the Earl were closely associated with him not only in England but also in France during these first generations after the conquest. The family name used by Haimo and many of his descendants (spelled Maci, Masci etc) is believed to come from Macey (modern French postcode 50170) in the area of Pontorson, near Avranches, in Normandy.^[2] This is because in 1086 (Domesday Book) several people named after this place held lands under the Earl of Chester who was also hereditary Vicomte of the Avranchin.^[3]

Hamo and his descendants appear in charters of the Anglo-Norman Earls of Chester. It is probably the Domesday Hamo (this profile) who was one of the barons and knights confirming various gifts to the old abbey of St Werburgh with Earl Hugh, supposedly in 1093, possible about 1096-1101.^[4] Less certain, he might have been "Hamundus de Masci" who signed off on another St Werburgh charter, with the consent of his heirs, this time by Earl Richard in 1119.^[5] (This could also for example have been a son, nephew or grandson.)

Haimo apparently has many descendants, but the generations immediately after him are difficult to track. Keats-Rohan only says that Hamon was succeeded in the 12th century by someone named Robert de Maci. This Robert appears in Cheshire charters around 1120-29. In 1166 there was a second Hamo de Maci who held a small enfeoffment of old enfeoffment from the Bishop of Chester. A few years later William de Avranches, Hamo de Macé, and Ruallonus de Macé held land in the Avranchin of the abbot of Mont-Saint-Michel. Keats-Rohan think this Hamo may be the same one who held under the Bishop of Chester.^[6]

The 19th century historian of Cheshire, George Ormerod, whose work was improved in a second edition by Helsby, repeated the assertion of the 17th century antiquarian Sir Peter Leycester that Hamon had two sons, but that his heir was also named Hamon.^[7][8]

1. Hamon Massy, heir according to the Leycester, Ormerod and Helsby tradition. However they give no evidence for the existence of this person. The records themselves are difficult to use because this name was clearly used many times.
2. Robert Massey, corresponding to the Robert who Keats-Rohan implied might be the heir of Hamon I (this profile). He was a witness to a charter by the first Randle, earl of Chester, confirming the abbey of St. Werburge in Chester, about 1124. (Barraclough says 1121-1129.)^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ Complete Peerage, 2nd ed., volume 4, p.135, p.539.
2. ↑ Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, p. 242 (under Haimo De Maci).
3. ↑ Loyd, Origins of some Anglo-Norman families, pp. 61-62.
4. ↑ So-called foundation charter of St Werburgh's by Earl Hugh and his barons and knights:
   • Barraclough ed. The Charters of the Anglo-Norman Earls of Chester, C. 1071-1237. charter 3, starting p.2.
   • Tait ed., The chartulary or register of the abbey of St. Werburgh, charter 3, starting at p.13.
5. ↑ Earl Richard and his men's charter to St Werburgh:
   • Barraclough ed. The Charters of the Anglo-Norman Earls of Chester, C. 1071-1237. charter 8, starting p.14.
   • Tait ed., The chartulary or register of the abbey of St. Werburgh, charter 5, starting at p.39.
6. ↑ Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants, p. 561
7. ↑ Ormerod and Helsby, History of Cheshire, revised ed., volume 1, p.520.
8. ↑ Ormerod, George. History of Cheshire, revised edition, volume 2. p. 307.
9. ↑ The first Earl Randle's charter to St Werburgh:
   • Barraclough ed. The Charters of the Anglo-Norman Earls of Chester, C. 1071-1237. charter 13, starting p.22.
   • Tait ed., The chartulary or register of the abbey of St. Werburgh, charter 6, starting at p.46.
   • Leycester's version from his original p.119: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/a70453.0001.001/126:44..23?page=root;size=125;vid=55739;view=text