Orme (Davenport) de Davenport (abt. 1104 - aft. 1154)

Born about 1104 in England

Descendants

Died after 1154 after about age 50 in Cheshire, England

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Biography

Orme [Latin: Ormus] de Davenport, the earliest recorded member of his family, was living circa 1154 when he was one of the witnesses to two twelfth-century charters.^[1]

The Domesday Book recorded Gilbert the hunter was lord of Davenport settlement in 1086.^[2]

Orme was the father of Richard of Davenport who married Amabilia, daughter of the second Gilbert Venables.^[3]

During the lifetime of Gilbert de Venables, the manor of Davenport was given to Orme, who settled there and assumed the name of this place. ^[4]

Ormus de Davenort witnessed a charter by Gilbert de Venables, who had married the granddaughter of Wolfric de Hatton. ^[5]

The above Gilbert Venables is sometimes conflated with his grandfather Gilbert de Venables, who held Davenport in the Domesday Book of 1086. These pedigrees then filled the missing generations with others named Ormus (Orme), however there is no evidence that there was more than one person named Orme de Davenport.

• However almost none of this information can be confirmed by any other medieval source and according to J.H. Round, this pedigree is based on documents from the Hulton Abbey manuscripts, which are of unknown provenance and almost certainly forgeries. ^[6]

Research Notes

Fact from fiction: There is no evidence of when Orme de Davenport was born, that he was the original grantee of Davenport, or that he was of Norman blood.^[1] There is also no evidence that there was more than one person named Orme of Davenport.^[1]

Domesday Book interpretations: Open Domesday says in 1086 "Gilbert the hunter" was the immediate lord over the peasants in Davenport as well as its tenant-in-chief holding the land directly from the Crown,^[2] whereas PASE Domesday says "Gilbert de Venables" was the subtenant in 1086 of tenant-in-chief Earl Hugh.^[7]

The Early History of the Davenports of Davenport: Amzi Benedict Davenport's history of the Davenport family (1851) with supplement (1876)^[8] is "a very unreliable book for the pre-1500 period," according to Highet.^[9]

"Shortly afterwards, this will was given, either by the Norman grantee, or by his grandson (who appears to have succeeded him), to Orme, the ancestor of the DAVENPORTs, who [acquired by the custom of the times rather than] assumed, the local name, as is proved by his attestation to the curious charter subjoined.1 The date assigned to Orme de DAVENPORT by four pedigrees in the British Museum, and by the BRAMALL pedigree, is 20 Will. I; and it will appear from a consideration of subsequent deeds, that the fact of his being then living is not irreconcilable with calculations founded upon them."

1. the curious charter subjoined: "This charter is referred to in the account of Kinderton, and relates to the raising a villain of the manor of Eccleston to the rank of a free tenant of the barony of Kinderton: 'Sciant, &c. quod ego Gilbertus de Venables, concilio et consensu heredum meorum, relaxavi, concessi, (atq. liberum et quietum clamavi) Osmundum filium Gameli, de Eccleston, et omnes heredes suos, de sac et tol et gersinno,* et ab omni actione servili, et ab omni vili et consuetudine: atq. me dedisse, &c. sibi et heredibus suis, II bovatas terrae, scilicet unam in Eccleston, et alteram in Strettonia, pro III solidis annuatim reddendo, illas scilicet quas pater ejus ante eum habuit, libere, &c. excepto foraneo servicio, quod ad regem vel ad comitem pertinet. Pro hac, &c., Willielmus et Richardus de Etona dederunt unam marcam, et praedictus Osmundus dimidiam argenti marcam. Hiis test. Rogero de Utkinton, Radulfo de Brereton, Will'o et Ric'o de Eton, Gilberto de Wetenhale, Orm. de Davenport, Matheo clerico, et multis aliis.' Kinderton chartulary 2. Seal a falcon regardant, close, sinister.'"

* gersinno: "Gersinna mendose pro Gersuma his legitur. Ducange, vol. iii, 8vo. edit. Halae, 1784. Ibid. "Gersuma - apud forenses Anglicos pro fine, seu pecunia data in pactionem et rei emptae vel conductae compensationem - Gersuma praeterea pro delicti compensatione interdum legitur."

The charter given above, in which the name of Orme de DAVENPORT appears as witness, enfranchised Gilbert de VENABLES. It was written either during the reign of William II (William Rufus: reigned 26 September 1087 - 2 August 1100) or under that of Henry I (Henry Beauclerc: reigned .5 August 1100 - 1 December 1135).

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} T P Highet, MA, The Early History of the Davenports of Davenport, (Manchester: The Chetham Society, 1960), 2-3. Digital Images RootsWeb (http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~nvjack/davnport/dod_davenports_of_davenport_page.htm : accessed 7 October, 2022).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Professor J J N Palmer and team, and Anna Powell-Smith, "Davenport: Land of Gilbert the hunter," Open Domesday (https://opendomesday.org/place/SJ8066/davenport/ : accessed 7 October, 2022).
3. ↑ George Ormerod, "Containing the Hundreds of Northwich, Nantwich, and Macclesfield", The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester; Compiled from Original Evidences in Public Offices, the Harleian and Cottonian MSS, Parochial Registers, Private Muniments, Unpublished Ms Collections of Successive Cheshire Antiquaries, and a Personal Survey of Every Township in the County; Incorporated with a Republication of King's Vale Royal, and Leycester's Cheshire Antiquities, 2nd Edition, ed. Thomas Helsby, 3 volumes, (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1882), III:61, e-book, HathiTrust (https://hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924088434059?urlappend=%3Bseq=81%3Bownerid=13510798902306661-83 : accessed 7 October, 2022).
4. ↑ Croston, James. County Families of Lancashire and Cheshire (John Heywood, Manchester, 1887)"The Davenports," pp. 407-8.
5. ↑ Helsby, Thomas. The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester'..', Second edition, Vol. III (George Routledge and Sons, London, 1882) p. 187.
6. ↑ Round, J. Horace. Peerage and pedigree: Studies in peerage law and family history. Vol. II (James Nisbet, London, 1910) pp. 17-27].
7. ↑ "PASE Domesday: Vill: Davenport; Shire: Cheshire," Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England, https://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=6&vill=Davenport&shire=cheshire, accessed 7 October, 2022.
8. ↑ Amzi Benedict Davenport, A Supplement to the History and Genealogy of the Davenport Family in England and America, from AD 1086 to 1850. (Stamford, Connecticut: Self-published, 1876), 19-20. e-Book Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/supplementtohsi00davegoog/page/n33/mode/1up : 7 October, 2022).
9. ↑ Highet, The Early History of the Davenports of Davenport, (1960), 1.

See also:

• Davenport of Davenport and Marton.