Aubrey de Vere (abt. 1030 - 1112)

Born about 1030 in France

Descendants

Died 1 Sep 1112 at about age 82 in Earls Colne Priory, Colne, Essex, England

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Biography

Aubrey I de Vere is a member of the House of De Vere.

Aubrey I de Vere was a member of the aristocracy in England.

Aubrey (Latin Albericus) de Ver,^[1] was a Domesday (1086) sub-tenant of the Breton Count Alan Rufus (Alan the Red), who was also a tenant in chief in his own right.

According to Keats-Rohan he was of little note in England before 1100, and possibly did not spend most time in England.^[2]

Later in life, after 1100, Keats-Rohan says he was "Active in Berkshire in the early years of Henry I's reign, he was either or possibly both a justiciar or sheriff".^[2]

Complete Peerage's Appendix on "The Early Veres" raises a question about whether there was only one Aubrey:^[3]

Although in the article on Oxford it is assumed that the Aubrey de Vere who was tenant-in-chief in 1086 was identical with the Aubrey de Vere who had been given Wulfwine’s lands in or soon after 1066, and that it was the same Aubrey who reappears in 1102 or 1103, proof of identity is wanting. It is possible that there were 2, or even 3, successive Aubreys. Indeed, at first sight, it seems unlikely that a baron of the Conquest, after more than 30 years of obscurity, should burst into activity as a sheriff and justice when he must have been well over 60

It also mentions that: "Under the Conqueror Aubrey’s only activity known seems to have been the planting of vineyards".

A date of birth of 16 Dec 1030 has been removed from his profile for lack of evidence.

Origins research

There are new proposals which conflict with older standard ideas.

• Loyd, a standard 20th-century authority for the origins of Anglo-Normans, proposed that he was from Ver near Coutances in the Contentin penisula (Manche, arr. Coutances, cant. Gavray; modern postcode 50450).^[4] This is because he "was an under-tenant of Geoffrey bishop of Coutances in Kensington, Middlesex, and two places in Northamptonshire". Unlike in most other entries in that book, Loyd could however find no evidence of links between the Vers from near Coutance, and the family of Alberic.

The second edition of Complete Peerage (p.193) accepted this, but noted a large amount of evidence that he "probably had connexions with the adjoining duchy of Brittany". In the "Early Veres" appendix it states:^[3]

it is certain that he was not the seigneur of Ver, for neither he nor his issue appear as holding land there, or indeed anywhere in Normandy. He may have been a younger son, but there is no trace of any connexion with relations in the duchy.

• Keats-Rohan, believes he probably came from Vair in Ancenis near Nantes (modern postcode 44150). She wrote in Aubrey's Domesday People entry that...^[2]

There is a real possibility that other de Ver families in England could have originated in the Cotentin ... but the mass of evidence indicating Aubrey's Breton origins is overwhelming. ...

One of the most striking features of the evidence is that Aubrey II founded the priory of Hatfield Broadoak as a cell of Saint-Melaine de Rennes, one of the most important Breton abbeys.

Keats-Rohan proposes that Aubrey's connection to the Cotentin probably comes through his wife, and refers for further discussion of evidence to Powell (1964) "The Essex Fees of the Honour of Richmond" in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, Third Series, Volume 1 (pdf), Part 3. Powell himself did not go so far as to disagree with Loyd.

Lands in England

Aubrey appears in the Domesday survey of 1086 in several counties. The feudal barony which his family continued to hold is referred to as the barony of Hedingham (Essex). Complete Peerage cites Round (VCH Essex Vol.1) to say: "That Aubrey had a residence at Hedingham is implied by the existence there of a vineyard and of the 'small holdings on a large manor in the hands of foreigners' ".

• Domesday holdings on PASE website with England map: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=41074
• Open Domesday entries for Aubrey https://opendomesday.org/name/aubrey-de-vere/

Chamberlain?

Keats-Rohan approves of the judgement of Complete Peerage's "Early Vere" appendix.^[1]

There is no evidence of any connexion between Aubrey de Vere and Aubrey the Chamberlain, who was one of the King’s serjeants holding land in Hampshire and Wiltshire, or Aubrey the Queen’s Chamberlain, one of the thegns holding land in Berkshire (Domesday Book, vol. i, ff. 4.9 b, 63 b, 74. b).

Marriage

As mentioned above, Keats-Rohan believes Aubrey's wife was from the Cotentin. She also notes that she appears under her own name as a land holder in Domesday Book. She held land under the bishops of Coutances and Bayeux.^[5]

• PASE profile for Aubrey's wife: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=47108
• Opendomesday pages for his wife in Essex: https://opendomesday.org/name/aubrey-de-veres-wife/

We do not know her name Beatrix from Domesday but from the foundation charter for Colne priory. (Note the possibility of multiple wives over the long span of years.)

It has also been said that he married Beatrice, half sister of King William. However, there is little evidence to support this and much of the earlier life of Albericus and Beatrice is unknown.

Colne Priory

Colne Priory at Earls Colne, Essex was a Benedictine priory, initially a dependent cell of Abingdon Abbey, Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire). It was founded by Aubrey de Vere I and his wife Beatrice in or before 1111. Their eldest son Geoffrey had died at Abingdon about seven or eight years earlier and was buried there.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Colne+Priory%2C+define

Death and burial

He died peacefully at Earl's Colne Priory.

Records indicate that he and many descendants were originally buried in Colne Priory, Earls Colne, Braintree District, Essex, England. But an e-mail received by Alton Rogers on February 29, 2008 from Robin King, Rector of Bures Parish Church stated "de Vere family memorials (tombs) are in St. Stephens Chapel, a mile from the centre of Bures village." The de Vere tombs were moved years ago from Colne Priory to St. Stephens in Bures which is in Suffolk on the Essex border a few miles northeast of Earls Colne.

St. Stephens Chapel, also known as Chapel Barn, was dedicated to St. Stephen on St. Stephen's Day 1218 by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It contains Earl of Oxford effigies, the only survivors of 21 tombs once found at Earls Colne Priory. They became ruined after the Reformation when the Priory was destroyed, only a shell remains today. Close inspection suggests effigy tombs and pieces from about 7 separate monuments originally found in a rock garden at Earls Colne Priory in the 1920's. The stone walled chapel with a steep thatched roof fell into disuse after the Reformation, and was converted into a hospital in 1739, before added extensions transformed it into cottages and then used again as a barn. In the 1930's it was restored to its present condition and re-consecrated as a chapel.

Tomb Inscription (15th century):

Here lyeth Aulbert de Vere, the first erle of Guines, the son of Alphonsus de Vere, the whych Aulbery was the fownder of this place and Bettrys his wyf sister of king Wylliam the conqueror. [Find A Grave memorial]

Crusade story to be checked

source needed Aubrey I, believed to have been on the first Crusade along with his son Aubrey II, was in battle on a dark night. Then ~

"God willing the safety of the Christians showed a white star ....... on the Christian host, which to every man's sight did light and arrest upon the standard of Aubrey de Vere, there shining excessively."

It was subsequently claimed that an angel leaned down and threw the star onto de Vere's standard.

Note on Pedigree Chart

The 500-Year DeVere Pedigree (used with permission) comes from the website of the DeVere Society, which is dedicated to the proposition that the works of Shakespeare were actually written by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. The image takes a couple of minutes to upload, but it's worth the wait.

Research Notes

Aubrey has been disconnected from Alphonsus de Vere and Katherine Flandre due to lack of evidence/sources for such. See Origins research above.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Complete Peerage Vol.10 p.193 says "Aubrey’s name is always spelt Ver".
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Keats-Rohan, "Alberic de Ver" in Domesday People, p.131
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Complete Peerage, 2nd ed., Vol.10 Appendix J "The Early Veres".
4. ↑ Loyd, "Vere" in Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families, p.110
5. ↑ Keats-Rohan, "Uxor Alberici De Ver" in Domesday People, p.440

See also:

• Wikipedia: Aubrey de Vere I
• Hedingham Castle official website
• http://www.bures-online.co.uk/chapel/chapel_barn.htm St Stephen's Chapel aka Chapel Barn] in Bures, Suffolk, Photos of tombs and effigies
• Aubrey de Vere I on Find A Grave: Memorial #55999710 Retrieved 31 Mar 2017.
• De VERE FAMILY OXFORD LINE - Aubrey De VERE (Chamberlain) as noted in The Complete Peerage
• https://www.geni.com/people/Alberic-de-Vere-Sheriff-of-Berkshire/5259832366410021053