Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 15 July 2026 by Allen Gurney

Walter de Gournay (born c. 1090–1104, died by 1166)

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Junction point: youngest son of Gerard de Gournay; ancestor of all English and American Gurneys.

Born
Between about 1090 and 1104, Normandy or England. Youngest son of Gerard de Gournay (G32) and Edith (Ediva) de Warenne — Gerard's heir Hugh was born about 1090 and Gerard died in 1104, so the younger sons fall in that window. The genealogist Daniel Gurney suggested he may have been named after his father's kinsman Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, or after Walter de la Ferté. 1, 12
Died
Between 1150 and 1166. He witnessed a charter in 1150; by the great survey of 1166 his son William held his Suffolk land in his place. 2
Occupation / Status
Held a quarter of a knight's fee in Suffolk as a mesne tenant under Manasser de Dampmartin. The family's Norfolk manors — Runhall and Swathings — were held under the senior Lords of Gournay and are first securely documented with his son William. 3
Buried
Unknown. No record. 2
Marriage(s)
Unknown. No wife named in Daniel Gurney's Record or any other source consulted. 4

Highlights

  • The junction point — every English and American Gurney descends from this man. Walter's elder brother Hugh IV inherited the great Norman barony. Walter received a younger son's share of the English estates. From this seemingly minor partition descend the Harpley Gournays, the West Barsham Gurneys, the Quaker banking Gurneys, and — through Francis Gurney's son John Gurney-1 — the American Gurneys. 5
  • His family's Norman foothold survives in the French crown's own records. Walter's son William held Montigny-sur-Andelle — in the Gournays' home country of Bray — directly of the crown, with a charter confirmed by King Henry II. A 1259 petition preserved in the Les Olim, the registers of the French royal court, recites that tenure — the case was heard at the Pentecost session of 1259 and settled through Normandy's own exchequer; and the holding has the shape of parage, the Norman custom by which a younger son held his share of the family estate on equal terms with his elder brother — a form of holding reserved for sons of the house. 7
  • Named in the Black Book of the Exchequer, 1166. When Henry II surveyed every baron's knights, Walter's lord Manasser de Dampmartin reported in his own words: "in the time of the war I gave Walter de Gournay a quarter of a knight's fee — and now William his son holds that part." One sentence, but it fixes Walter's lordship, his civil-war enfeoffment, his son, and his death by 1166. 9
  • Survived "The Anarchy" — Stephen's civil war. Walter's adult years coincided with the breakdown of royal authority during Stephen's reign (1135–1154), when shifting loyalties and local violence engulfed much of England. There is no record of Walter in any political or military event — probably the wisest course for a minor Norfolk landlord. 6
  • A Norman hamlet may bear his name — and it is still on the map. The historian De la Mairie conjectured that "Bois Gautier" (Gautier = Walter in Norman French) was named for Walter, suggesting he held a small Norman parcel near the family's ancestral seat before the junior line became primarily English. The hamlet is real: once a parish in its own right, it stands in the Pays de Bray about three miles from Montigny — the very district identified as Walter's severed share of the family lands — though its earliest surviving record is a map of 1629, so the naming remains a conjecture. 13

Children

Name Dates Mother Notes
William de Gournay I c. 1120 – after 1167 Unknown G30 in direct line. Knight ("Dominus Willelmus"). Lord of Runhall; held Montigny-sur-Andelle in Normandy in parage. Took over his father's Suffolk quarter-fee, and witnessed a later charter of the same Dampmartin family. Living 1167. 8

Narrative

Walter de Gournay occupies a peculiar position in this family history. Genealogically he is one of the most important ancestors in the entire line — the single person through whom every English and American Gurney descends — yet no chronicle tells his story. What survives instead is, for a man born more than nine hundred years ago, a remarkably wide body of evidence: more than a dozen independent records and traditions — exchequer surveys, abbey charters, a French royal court register, Norman place-names, and the family histories built on them — fix Walter and his family in place, and two of those documents record him in person. In 1150 he witnessed a charter for his lord Manasser de Dampmartin, signing “Waltero de Gurnay” in a witness list headed by Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishops of Chichester and Norwich. 2 Then in 1166, when Henry II surveyed his barons’ knights, Manasser reported that “in the time of the war” — the civil war of Stephen’s reign — “I gave Walter de Gournay a quarter of a knight’s fee out of that fee; and now William his son holds that part, aiding me in performing that service.” That return, preserved in the Liber Niger Scaccarii (the Black Book of the Exchequer), names father and son together and anchors the whole Norfolk branch that followed. 9

He was the youngest son of Gerard de Gournay (G32) and Edith de Warenne. The family’s arithmetic places him: Gerard’s heir Hugh was of full age in 1112 (so born about 1090), Gerard died in 1104, and Walter’s grandson Matthew was already witnessing deeds around 1160 — leaving room for Walter only in the generation of Gerard’s sons. 1 A younger son’s share of the family estate followed him: a portion of the great Norman fief of Bray appears to have been severed at Gerard’s death in Walter’s favour, and his son William held Montigny-sur-Andelle — deep in the family’s home country — directly of the crown, in the manner of “parage,” the Norman custom by which a younger son held his severed share on equal terms with his elder brother. Parage was a partition among sons, not a grant to outsiders; Daniel Gurney called the Montigny tenure “incontestable proof of his descent in blood from the Barons of Gournay.” The Norfolk manors his descendants held — Runhall and Swathings in Hardingham — they held under the senior Gournay lords, within the estates that had come to the family through Gerard’s Warenne marriage. 7

The world Walter moved in was the world of his mother’s and his half-sister’s families. The Dampmartins who provided his Suffolk land were men of the Warenne circle — Manasser’s father had endowed Lewes Priory, the Warenne family’s own monastery, by 1121, and a Dampmartin was the largest Warenne tenant in Surrey in 1166 — so a younger son of Edith de Warenne settling on a Dampmartin fee was being provided for inside his mother’s family’s network. 10 The same pattern shows in Kent, where Walter’s half-sister Amicie had married Richard Talbot: in the Talbot honour of Swanscombe, a William de Gournay received a half knight’s fee, free of all service, during the same civil war. A generation later the head of the Warenne family himself — Earl Hamelin, half-brother of King Henry II — personally gave Walter’s grandson Matthew an heiress in marriage, and with her the manor of Harpley that anchored the family for two centuries. 11

Walter lived his adult years during “The Anarchy,” Stephen’s reign (1135–1154), when the breakdown of royal authority left many English lords navigating a dangerous landscape of shifting loyalties and local violence. His one grant of land came “in the time of the war” itself. He navigated it quietly — there is no record of Walter in any political or military event, which was probably the wisest course for a minor East Anglian landholder. 6, 9

Citations

  1. Daniel Gurney, The Record of the House of Gournay, Part I (1848), p. 286 (Norfolk pedigree): "WALTER DE GOURNAY, held lands in Suffolk, under Manasser de Dampmartin, in the reign of Stephen (Liber Niger Scaccarii, vol. i. p. 298), probably son of Gerard de Gournay and Editha Warren." Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858), Note 104, pp. 776–777: generational proof that Walter = son of Gerard, which also fixes the birth window (Gerard's heir Hugh born about 1090; Gerard dead by 1104). Source IDs: dg-rec-pt1, dg-rec-supp. ↩
  2. Living 1150: witness — "Waltero de Gurnay" — to Manasser de Dammartin's grant of the hide at Missenden to Missenden Abbey: J. G. Jenkins, ed., The Cartulary of Missenden Abbey, vol. 1 (Buckinghamshire Record Society 2, 1938), pp. 70–75, full text as transcribed in the University of Toronto DEEDS database, document 00130071 (assigned date 1150). The witness list is headed by Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury (1139–61), Hilary, bishop of Chichester (1147–69), and William Turbe, bishop of Norwich (1146/7–74), whose dates independently bracket the charter to 1147–61; Walter stands among the lay witnesses just before "Manasser my nephew." The charter was first flagged for this family by Douglas Richardson (soc.genealogy.medieval, 11 September 2002). Dead or retired by Michaelmas 1166: his son William held the quarter-fee in Manasser de Dampmartin's return of that year (Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. Hubert Hall (1896), vol. 1, pp. 409–410; Liber Niger Scaccarii, ed. Hearne (1774), vol. 1, p. 298). Source IDs: jenkins-missenden-cartulary-v1, richardson-sgm-soc-genealogy-medieval-2002, redbook-exchequer-hall-v1, liber-niger. ↩
  3. The Suffolk quarter-fee: carta of Manasser de Danmartin, 1166 — Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. Hubert Hall (1896), vol. 1, pp. 409–410; Liber Niger Scaccarii, ed. Hearne (1774), vol. 1, p. 298. The Norfolk manors: Daniel Gurney, Record, Part I (1848), p. 278, states Walter "was lord of the manor of Runhall and Swathings in Norfolk," but the same work's fuller treatment is more cautious — "It does not appear whether Walter de Gournay held the manors of Swathings and Hingham Gurney's, possessed by his descendants" (Part II, p. 288) — and the manors are first securely documented with his son William. Source IDs: redbook-exchequer-hall-v1, liber-niger, dg-rec-pt1, dg-rec-pt2. ↩
  4. No wife named in Daniel Gurney's Record or any other source consulted. ↩
  5. Daniel Gurney, Record, Part I (1848), p. 277: "WALTER DE GOURNAY, youngest son of Gerard and Editha, ancestor of this line." Same volume, p. 286 (pedigree). Independently: James Hannay, Three Hundred Years of a Norman House (1867), calls Walter "the proved ancestor of the Gournays, afterwards Gurneys, of Swathing and West Barsham in Norfolk." Source IDs: dg-rec-pt1, three-hundred-years-norman-house. ↩
  6. The civil-war dating is the carta's own: "Et in tempore Gwerrae … dedi Waltero de Gornaco j quartum militis" — "and in the time of the war I gave Walter de Gournay a quarter of a knight's fee" (Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. Hall, vol. 1, pp. 409–410; Liber Niger Scaccarii, vol. 1, p. 298). Daniel Gurney, Record, Part I (1848), Norfolk pedigree p. 286: "he lived during the civil wars in the reign of Stephen." Source IDs: redbook-exchequer-hall-v1, liber-niger, dg-rec-pt1. ↩
  7. Les Olim (registers of the French royal court), ed. Beugnot, vol. 1 (1839), p. 85: the 1259 petition of Eustace de Montigny — entry XXII of the inquests of the Pentecost parlement of 1259, closing "Hæc fuit terminata in scacario" ("this one was concluded in the Exchequer" — the Exchequer of Normandy). Verified directly in the printed edition (Internet Archive scan of Tome I, identifier bub_gb_DI5crXZamY4C); also printed in full in Daniel Gurney, Record, Part II (1848), p. 293. The recital states that Eustace's ancestors held Montigny "of the gift of the lord William de Gournay, who gave it to them as freely as he himself had held it of our lord the king, for which gift he made them a charter, which King Henry [II] confirmed." The court denied the petition itself; the tenure recital is the evidence. Parage and the "incontestable proof" phrasing: Daniel Gurney, Record, Part II, pp. 278, 292, and Appendix XLVI (p. 298); the severance of the Bray portion at Gerard's death and Stapleton's Argueil opinion, same volume, pp. 292–293. Descendants' tenure of Swathings under the senior lords: Daniel Gurney, Record, Part II, p. 295; William Farrer, Honors and Knights' Fees, vol. 3 (1925), p. 422. Source IDs: les-olim, dg-rec-pt2, farrer-honors-knights-fees-v3-gurnay-extracts. ↩
  8. The 1166 succession to the quarter-fee: carta of Manasser de Danmartin (Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. Hall, vol. 1, pp. 409–410 — "now William his son holds that part"), read the same way by the modern prosopography, K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants (2002), p. 492 ("Son of Walter de Gournay"). William's attestation of a later Dammartin family charter — "Willelmo de Gornaio," witnessing Manasser and Galiena's confirmation for Missenden Abbey (1150–1178): Jenkins, Cartulary of Missenden Abbey, vol. 1 (1938), pp. 70–75, as transcribed in the DEEDS database, document 00130070. Daniel Gurney, Record, Part I (1848), pp. 277–278 and pedigree p. 286; Part II (1848), p. 288; Supplement (1858), Note 104, pp. 776–777 (the generational proof). A genealogy-forum post (Douglas Richardson, soc.genealogy.medieval, 11 September 2002) proposed instead that Walter belonged to a Kent family of the same name at Addington; the records it cited were examined in July 2026 and do not bear the alternative out. The record-by-record treatment is in the research companion, research/people/g31-walter-de-gournay-fact-sheet.research.md. Source IDs: redbook-exchequer-hall-v1, keats-rohan-domesday-descendants-2002, jenkins-missenden-cartulary-v1, dg-rec-pt1, dg-rec-supp, richardson-sgm-soc-genealogy-medieval-2002. ↩
  9. Carta of Manasser de Danmartin (Suffolk, 1166): "Et in tempore Gwerrae de illo feodo dedi Waltero de Gornaco j quartum militis. Et nunc illam partem tenet Willelmus, filius suus, in auxilium mihi illud servitium faciendo." The Red Book of the Exchequer, ed. Hubert Hall, Rolls Series 99, vol. 1 (1896), pp. 409–410; Liber Niger Scaccarii, ed. Thomas Hearne (1774), vol. 1, p. 298, printed in Daniel Gurney, Record, Part II (1848), p. 288. Source IDs: redbook-exchequer-hall-v1, liber-niger, dg-rec-pt2. ↩
  10. Odo de Dammartin's gift at Gatton, Surrey, in the 1121 confirmation of Lewes Priory's possessions: William Farrer, Honors and Knights' Fees, vol. 3 (1925), p. 313. William de Dammartin holding eleven and a half knights' fees of Earl Warenne in Surrey, 1166: Red Book of the Exchequer, vol. 1 (earl Warenne's carta). The Dammartin descent (Odo, enfeoffed of Mendlesham by Henry I; Manasser d. 1178/9): Lewis C. Loyd and Doris M. Stenton, eds., Sir Christopher Hatton's Book of Seals (1950), notes to Nos. 332 and 409. Source IDs: farrer-honors-knights-fees-v3-gurnay-extracts, redbook-exchequer-hall-v1, hatton-book-of-seals-1958. ↩
  11. The Talbot marriage: Daniel Gurney, Record, Part I (1848), pp. 69–70 (Daniel Gurney knew the daughter only as unnamed; her name, Amicie, and her sons Hugh and William are preserved in Henry II's confirmations for the abbey of Valmont, 1181–83, and the priory of Sainte-Foy de Longueville, 1189 — Delisle and Berger, eds., Recueil des actes de Henri II, vol. 2 (1920), acts DCXXXVI and DCCLXVIII; she was most likely Gerard's daughter by an earlier, unnamed wife, hence Walter's half-sister — see the Gerard de Gournay fact sheet). The Kent honour and the Stephen-era half-fee: carta of Walter de Meduana (Kent, 1166) — "De novo feffamento in tempore Regis Stephani: Willelmus de Gornaco tenet de dominio meo dimidium militem unde nullum servitium habeo" — Red Book of the Exchequer, vol. 1, pp. 195–196, quoted with the Talbot identification in Daniel Gurney, Record, Part II, p. 296 note ("William de Gournay had probably been enfeoffed of this by the Talbots, his relations"). Earl Hamelin's grant of Rose of Harpley to Matthew de Gournay, with the fine of 17 October 1184: C. T. Clay, ed., Early Yorkshire Charters, vol. 8 (1949), pp. 38–39 and 95; Daniel Gurney, Record, Part I, p. 278; Francis Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vol. 8 (Harpley), pp. 452–459. Source IDs: redbook-exchequer-hall-v1, recueil-actes-henri-ii-delisle-berger-vol-2, dg-rec-pt2, eyc8-warenne-clay-1949, blomefield-norfolk. ↩
  12. The naming hypothesis: Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858), Note 104, pp. 776–777: "He might probably have been named by his father Gerard, after his near relation Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham," or "after Walter de la Ferté." Source ID: dg-rec-supp. ↩
  13. The conjecture: De la Mairie, cited in Daniel Gurney, Supplement (1858), Note 104, pp. 776–777. The hamlet itself: Charles de Robillard de Beaurepaire and Dom Jean Laporte, Dictionnaire topographique du département de la Seine-Maritime (2 vols, Paris, 1982–84), via the CTHS DicoTopo database (place P27558354): "Bois-Gauthier — hameau, commune de La Chapelle-Saint-Ouen, anc. paroisse et commune" (a hamlet, formerly a parish and commune of its own), in the canton of Argueil, about 5 km from Montagny (Nolléval) — the hamlet the same dictionary identifies as the medieval Montigny, citing Daniel Gurney's Record for its twelfth-century forms. Earliest recorded form: "Bois-Gautier," 1629 (Hondius). No medieval form (such as Boscus Walteri) is recorded for this place, so the attribution to Walter personally remains a conjecture. Source IDs: dg-rec-supp, beaurepaire-dict-topo-seine-maritime-1982. ↩