Oxfordshire, England

Mapledurham and the Bardolf/Gournay inheritance

The Camden Old Series addenda identifies Robert Bardolf as the last descendant of a Bardolf branch seated at Mapledurham, Oxfordshire. It says Mapledurham derived from the marriage of Hugh de Gournay with Edith, daughter of William Earl Warenne, and was granted to Sir John Bardolf, second son of William Bardolf of Wormegay and Juliana de Gournay, heiress of the senior Norman Gournay line.^[1]

Farrer on Mapledurham Gornay

Farrer makes Mapledurham a more detailed senior-line inheritance place. He explains that the Gournay-sur-Epte family of the Pays de Bray held English property through the Warenne marriage network, and then follows Mapledurham through senior Gournay and Bardolf descent. Hugh and Milicent gave the church of Mapledurham and two marks of silver yearly from Caister to the Gaille-Fontaine/Clair-Ruissel nunnery with the assent of their sons Gerard and Hugh. Farrer’s 1212 Great Inquest discussion also says Henry II confirmed to Milicent de Gurnay dower including Gaille-Fontaine, Wendover, Houghton Regis, and land that Edith/Ediva mother of Hugh had in England, “possibly a reference to Mapledurham.”^[2]

The Bardolf succession is exact enough to retain. Matilda, late wife of Hugh de Gurnay, held Mapledurham in dower in 1239. Juliana, daughter and heir of Hugh de Gornay, married William Bardolf the younger. In 1272 William Bardolf and Juliana sued John de Chausy over common of pasture in Mapledurham Chauzey, of which Hugh de Gurnay, Juliana’s father, had been seised as belonging to his free tenement in Mapledurham Gornay. William Bardolf died in 1290 holding the manor of Mapledurham as part of Juliana de Gurnay’s inheritance, held of the Earl Warenne for one fee. John Bardolf had free warren at Mapledurham in 1304 and was returned as lord of Mapledurham Gornay in 1316.^[2:1]

This belongs in the Oxfordshire place file as collateral senior-line inheritance geography. It should not be used to alter the direct junior Norfolk branch unless a primary record is later added.