Hugh de Giffard

Last updated September 02, 2024

The first Hugh de Giffard (or Jiffard) was an influential feudal baron in Scotland, and one of the hostages for the release of King William the Lion in 1174.^[1]

It is said that this family came to Britain with William the Conqueror in the person of Walter, Count de Longueville. However, Barrow states the family were dependents of de Varenne (or de Warenne) and simply came from Longueville-la-Gifart in Seine Maritime. The East Lothian village of Gifford and a nearby stream, Gifford Water, both take their names from this family.

Two of this family appeared in Scotland in the train of Ada de Warenne, daughter of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey (she married in 1139^[2] Prince Henry (d.1152) son of David I of Scotland (d.1153): Hugh (1) and William, a cleric, who became "ecclesiastical advisor" to King David I. Hugh (whom Martine calls "an Englishman") obtained lands in East Lothian, where he settled. William perambulated with King David in Perthshire and was a witness on many important charters, notably the foundation charter of Jedburgh Abbey and others for Countess Ada. He and Hugh witnessed a charter of King David granting lands at Crail. From Malcolm IV of Scotland he obtained lands at Yester (Jhestrith) in the parish of St. Bothans, East Lothian.,^[3] Hugh appears in further royal charters until after 1189, and appears to have witnessed many of the charters of King William the Lion (ruled 1165–1214), under whom he rose to distinction.

His son and heir was William de Giffard of Yester, who was sent on a mission to England in 1200 and who also witnessed several charters of William, 'The Lion'. In 1244 he was one of the guarantees of a treaty with England,^[4] when he must have been a good age.

His son, Hugh de Giffard of Yester (2), was one of the Guardians of Alexander III of Scotland and his Queen; and one of the Regents of the Kingdom appointed by the Treaty of Roxburgh dated 20 September 1255. According to the practice of those feudal times, he had his own sheriff. This Hugh de Gifford built a castle, or tower house, at Yester (half a mile south-east of the present-day Yester House) on a promontory between the Hopes Water and a little tributary, the Gamuelston Burn. To the north is one side of a high curtain wall with an offset base. Beneath it a stair descends to the cavern called Bohall or Hobgoblin Hall, (Goblin Ha'), featured in Sir Walter Scott's Marmion , which Gifford was said to have constructed by magic.

Walter Bower thus speaks of him in noting his death in 1267: "Hugo Giffard dominus de Zester moritur, cujus castrum, vel saltem caveam et dongionem, arte demoniacula antiquae relationes fuerunt fabricatas," (Scotichronicon, Liber X, cap. 21). Anderson states he left three sons:

William de Giffard of Yester
Hugh (3), ancestor of the Giffards of Sheriffhall.
James, who, with Hugh (4), swore fealty to King Edward I of England in 1296.

Burke also gives four daughters, (although it is possible they belong to a later generation) of whom:

Euphemia, who married Sir Archibald Macdowall, Knt., of Makerstoun, Roxburghshire.
Johanna, married Sir Robert Maitland of Thirlestane, to whom she conveyed Lethington. Ancestors of the Earls of Lauderdale
Jonat, who married Adam de Seton, Master-Clerk.

Notes

↑ Anderson, Alan O., Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers AD500 – 1286, London, 1908: 262.
↑ Anderson, Alan O., Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers AD500 – 1286, London, 1908: 215.
↑ Harvey, Charles C.H., & MacLeod, John, editors,Calendar of Writs preserved at Yester House 1166–1625, Scottish Record Society, Edinburgh, 1930, p.1, no.1, see charter dated between 1166–1171 by William The Lion who states that Hugh held these lands "by grant from my brother King Malcolm and Ada the Countess, my mother".
↑ Anderson, Alan O., Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers AD500 – 1286, London, 1908: 355.

Related Research Articles

William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey was the son of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey and his first wife Gundred. He was more often referred to as Earl Warenne or Earl of Warenne than as Earl of Surrey.

Patrick IV, 8th Earl of Dunbar and Earl of March, sometimes called Patrick de Dunbar "8th" Earl of March, was the most important magnate in the border regions of Scotland. He was one of the Competitors for the Crown of Scotland.

Walter Stewart was the 6th Hereditary High Steward of Scotland and was the father of King Robert II of Scotland, the first Stewart monarch.

Sir Robert Lauder of the Bass was a Scottish knight, armiger, and Governor of the Castle at Berwick-upon-Tweed. He was also a member of the old Scottish Parliament. The Lauders held the feudal barony of The Bass, East Lothian, Edrington Castle and lands in the parish of Mordington, Berwickshire, Tyninghame in Haddingtonshire, and numerous other estates and properties elsewhere in Scotland.

Bara, anciently spelt Baro, is an agricultural parish in East Lothian, Scotland, which adjoins the parish of Garvald to the east, and Lauder across the Lammermuir Hills. It is south-west of Haddington.

Elizabeth of Vermandois, was a French noblewoman, who by her two marriages was the mother of the 1st Earl of Worcester, the 2nd Earl of Leicester, the 3rd Earl of Surrey, and of Gundred de Warenne, mother of the 4th Earl of Warwick.

Gifford is a village in the parish of Yester in East Lothian, Scotland. It lies approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Haddington and 25 miles (40 km) east of Edinburgh.

The Justiciar of Lothian was an important legal office in the High Medieval Kingdom of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yester Castle</span> Castle ruins in East Lothian, Scotland

Yester Castle is a ruined castle, located 1+1⁄2 miles southeast of the village of Gifford in East Lothian, Scotland. The only remaining complete structure is the subterranean Goblin Ha' or Hobgoblin Ha' . It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, recorded as such by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.

Holders of the office of Lord Chamberlain of Scotland are known from about 1124. It was ranked by King Malcolm as the third great Officer of State, called Camerarius Domini Regis, and had a salary of £200 per annum allotted to him. He anciently collected the revenues of the Crown, at least before Scotland had a Treasurer, of which office there is no vestige until the restoration of King James I when he disbursed the money necessary for the maintenance of the King's Household.

Gospatric II was Earl of Lothian or Earl of Dunbar in the early 12th century.

Gospatric III or Cospatric III was a twelfth-century Anglo-Celtic noble, who was Earl of Lothian and later the Earl of Dunbar, and feudal Lord of Beanley.

Hugh de Morville of Appleby in Westmorland, England, hereditary Constable of Scotland, was a Norman knight who made his fortune in the service of David FitzMalcolm (d.1153), Prince of the Cumbrians, later King of Scotland.

Patrick I, Earl of Dunbar and lord of Beanley, was a 13th-century Anglo-Scottish noble.

The Broun Baronets are a branch of the ancient Broun of Colstoun family whose estate near Haddington, East Lothian, remains to this day in the possession of a cadet family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Lauder of Quarrelwood</span>

Sir Robert de Lawedre (Lauder), Knt., of Quarrelwood, Edrington, and the Bass was Justiciar of Scotia, a Scottish soldier of great prominence and Captain of Urquhart Castle. He is recorded by Fordun, in his Scotichronicon, and in Extracta ex variis Cronicis Scocie as "Robertus de Lavedir 'the good'"

Ada de Warenne was the Anglo-Norman wife of Henry of Scotland, Earl of Northumbria and Earl of Huntingdon. She was the daughter of William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey by Elizabeth of Vermandois, and a great-granddaughter of Henry I of France. She was the mother of Malcolm IV and William I of Scotland.

Giffordland is in North Ayrshire, Parish of Dalry (Cunninghame) in the former Region of Strathclyde, Scotland.

Yester Chapel is situated on the estate of Yester House, at the south-east edge of the village of Gifford in East Lothian, Scotland. The chapel is situated at grid reference NT544671. It is a Category A listed building.

Reginald de Warenne was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and royal official. The third son of an earl, Reginald began his career as an administrator of his brother's estates and continued to manage them for his brother's successor, William, the second son of King Stephen. Reginald was involved in the process that led to the peaceful ascension of Henry fitzEmpress to the throne of England in 1154 and served the new king as a royal justice afterwards. He played a minor role in the Becket controversy in 1170, as a member of the party that met Becket on his return to England from exile in 1170.

References

History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland etc., by John Burke, London, 1836, vol. 3, pps: 434–5.
The Scottish Nation by William Anderson, Edinburgh, 1867, vol.V, pps: 297–8.
Fourteen Parishes of the County of Haddington, by John Martine, Edinburgh, 1890, pps: 292–5.
The Normans in Scotland, by R.L.Graeme Ritchie, Edinburgh University Press, 1954, p. 276.
The Buildings of Scotland – Lothian (except Edinburgh), by Colin McWilliam, Penguin Books Ltd., London, 1978, pps:208-215. ISBN 0-14-071066-3
The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History, by Professor G.W.S.Barrow, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980, p. 43. ISBN 0-19-822473-7
The Origin of the Gifford Family in Scotland by G.Charles-Edwards, in The Scottish Genealogist, vol.XXVII No.4, Edinburgh, December 1980, pps: 152–161. ISSN 0300-337X

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Anderson, Alan O., Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers AD500 – 1286, London, 1908: 262.

[2] Anderson, Alan O., Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers AD500 – 1286, London, 1908: 215.

[3] Harvey, Charles C.H., & MacLeod, John, editors,Calendar of Writs preserved at Yester House 1166–1625, Scottish Record Society, Edinburgh, 1930, p.1, no.1, see charter dated between 1166–1171 by William The Lion who states that Hugh held these lands "by grant from my brother King Malcolm and Ada the Countess, my mother".

[4] Anderson, Alan O., Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers AD500 – 1286, London, 1908: 355.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]