The Suffolk connection
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Framlington Castle, Suffolk |
Plaque in the Abbey at Bury St Edmunds |
The ruins of Thetford Priory |
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My wife, Margaret, and I retired to Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 2006. We had been researching our family tree for several years and had already established that we were distantly related through the daughters of Hugh Kevelioc, Earl of Chester, who is our respective 24 x great-grandfather. However, as we have expanded the tree, we have discovered that we are also related in many other different ways as well - to the extent that Personal Ancestral File now only displays the first 100 relationships ! In the Abbey gardens in Bury there is a plaque commemorating the meeting of the Barons held there on 20th November 1214 to force King John to comply with the terms of the Magna Carta. As far as we were aware, we had no connections to the area, so we were surprised to find that this meeting was attended by no less than 13 members of our family. The list of attendees and our relationships to them is shown below :
What is seen at Framlingham today is what was rebuilt by my 25 x great grandfather, Roger Bigod, in 1190 after Henry III ordered it to be destroyed in 1177. It was one of the first castles not to have a great tower and instead has thirteen towers set around the walls. King John stayed there in 1213 and three years later beseiged and captured it. It later became the chief seat of the Mowbray family and then the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk. The Bigods also had a castle at Bungay and, although not theirs, Orford Castle was built by King Henry to keep an eye on us! The family became barons of the first rank in 1107 and by 1166 were reputed to be the fifth richest family in England. They nearly lost it all when Hugh Bigod rose up against Henry II in 1174, but by the time Roger III inheritted as a minor in 1225, the family were again extremely well placed to play a major role in both national and local politics in East Anglia. When we first came to Bury St Edmunds, we got a little tired of being told "You're not from round here, then!" Well maybe we're not, but it seems that our family used to own most of it.... The information on this site is prepared from public records and from verbatum evidence provided by third parties. I am placing it in the public domain in good faith and to the best of my belief all statements made are truthful. However, no warranty as to accuracy is either given or implied and interested parties should perform their own validations. Copyright © 2008, Charles Crane |