Early Mediaeval Bissets
in England and Scotland
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Early Mediaeval Bissets
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by and © Peter Grant, 2010
I have endeavoured to acknowledge my source material where possible but as this paper was never intended to become the project which it has, it just grew, some of my early source data has slipped through the net by default.
Historical research never finishes but there comes a time when it is necessary to present the story so far, partly to clarify one’s own thoughts before moving on but also to share and record the results of one’s research with other interested parties. Nietzsche said that there are no facts just different interpretations, right or wrong: there are certainly many ways of interpreting the same information - new “facts” require new thinking and new thinking inevitably leads to new interpretation. I am well aware that there is undoubtedly more to know and more to understand regarding the Bisset name and I am more than happy for future students to continue this task.
As always I owe a debt of gratitude to all the many Librarians and Archivists who have not only answered my numerous requests but have in many cases introduced me to additional sources. My particular thanks to the National Library of Scotland for their unfailing help - it is always a pleasure to research there, surrounded by volumes just feet away which one has hungered after for years.
My thanks for support and encouragement go to Adrian Grant co-ordinator of the Clan Grant Research group; to Phillip Moody who first suggested the Aumale connection with the Bissets and whose intractability led me to a complete re-write and further years of research.
My thanks also go to Beryl Platts whose provocative but logical ideas on the “Flemish Dimension” in Scottish history covered in her books “The Scottish Hazard” and in private correspondence made more sense of the Aumale link to the Scottish Bissets. Her ideas made me revise my previously held views on the impact of the so called “Norman Invasion” in early medieval Scottish history.
Peter Grant.
East Lavant.
2010.
This paper is a major revision containing additional material to a previously privately circulated paper of August 2001. It in no way claims to be the final story of the Bissets arrival in England and Scotland but is an attempt to marshal the known facts or the facts so far found by the author and tell the story in a more coherent and comprehensive form than previously.
The full story of the Bissets may never be complete. What we know about the early Bissets for certain comes from the data which has survived since the early 12th century contained in Pipe Rolls, Charters, legal documents such as Post Mortem Examinations and recorded histories of the period by authors who have noted their sources, and more importantly have recognised and noted certain facts as being relative to the name of Bisset.
It is almost certain that further information lies unrecognised in documents, some of which are possibly still in private hands whose relevance to the Bissets has yet to be realised. There is a strong case for further new research to be carried out in Normandy with specific reference to Bisset.
The facts recorded here speak for themselves; the interpretations of these into the wider picture of the Bissets are my own and are to a degree speculation as any such interpretation must be, and will remain so until such time as further data comes to light which may or may not change my view. If the facts change so will my opinion.
My interest in the Bissets stems from ongoing research into the origins of Clan Grant, there being two theories concerning the origin which members of the Clan Grant Society have been investigating for some time.
The traditional version and the one historically believed within the clan are of an indigenous descent from a Scandinavian source. Indigenous in the sense that although originally from an outside source they had become over time totally assimilated into the local culture, language and custom. This version which originally must have been verbally transmitted over generations was finally found in written form in Macfarlane's “Genealogical Collections”, published in 1750.
This contains a chapter on the Grants credited to the Rev James Chapman and dated 1729. [We have every reason to believe that the 1729 version was not the first written text.] Although great store has been put on this particular text it is by no means the only one; we can be certain of a similar hand written copy in the Inverness Library Collection, one in the National Archives of Scotland, in Edinburgh, and a version which appears in the Birkenburn MS (MS 3568, National Library of Scotland.) There was also a version held by the Cummings of Altyre which was published in 1872 as “An Account of the root and Offspring of clan Grant”. This was credited by Sir William Fraser as being the original text found among Rev Chapman’s papers on his death; Chapman being the Minister at Cromdale the Laird of Grant’s Kirk. There was also a version now lost belonging to the Grants of Bonhard, a now extinct Grant line.
Chapman never compiled this MS and may well have transcribed it from an earlier text and verbal sources. He was merely a custodian of the copy held by the chiefly family, one of several custodians. Had this been known he would have saved himself the opprobrium from his critics which has been his sad lot ever since.
A study and understanding of these MS clearly indicate that this story was the received wisdom within the clan for many generations as to its origin. The early part of this text has been dismissed by historians, Sir William Fraser in particular, as “Mr Chapman’s compilation is a somewhat strange production, and is a record quite unworthy of the race of Grant.” I have read his pencil margin notes on the version held by the National Archives of Scotland so I do know that he read and was familiar with it. Although Fraser was wrong to dismiss this so readily, in mitigation he did state that he only intended to write about those Grants “who appear in historic times and authentic records.” Current research is taking place endeavouring to unravel this early text and place the events into the relevant Scottish history and use other contemporary events and sources to substantiate this text - a task which is slowly bearing fruit.
In 1877 Edmund Batten published “A History of the priory of Beauly.” He was the first to draw a connection between a Walter Bisset of Aboyne, the English Bissets of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire and a William le Grant married to an English Bisset heiress. His view was that Grants as relatives of this William first went to Scotland with Walter Bisset at the end of his exile in 1248 and under the Bisset patronage prospered in Scotland. This was the start of the Anglo-Norman theory of the Grant origin.
In 1883 Sir William Fraser published as a private commission from the then Chief of Grant, “The Chiefs of Grant.” This was a monumental work of three weighty volumes containing a history of the Grants largely based on the family charters and papers. He picked up on Batten’s theory and enlarged it; this was further reinforced by the Earl of Cassillis in his book, “The Rulers of Strathspey”, 1911. This was a very cut down and more readable version of Fraser’s work, and here the theory stuck for another 91 years until proven unsustainable in 2002.
The Bisset interest comes because regardless of which version of the Grant origin one believed or was brought up to believe to be true, the Bissets occur in both and in order to understand this part of the Grant history it is essential to understand the contemporary Bisset history. It has only been through this understanding that we have been able to at last discount the Anglo-Norman story.
The object of this paper had been two fold, firstly to endeavour to understand parts of the early history of the Grants and in particular the supposed relationship between Walter Bisset, the exile and William le Grant of Lincolnshire who is reputed to have returned to Scotland with Walter Bisset and thereby being supposedly the first Grant in Scotland.
The two main theories as to the origin of the Grants are:-
Theory A, that the Grants originated in Scandinavia and arrived in Scotland possibly from Ireland around the middle of the 11th Century.
Theory B that the Grants are of Norman origin and arrived in Scotland around 1248 almost two hundred years later.
In the case of A, the Grants came eventually under the feudal orbit of the Bissets who were powerful lords in Moray, this relationship leading to a marriage between the families.
And in the case of B, with the supposed arrival in Scotland as companions of a Walter Bisset on his return to Scotland from exile in 1248.
So regardless of which theory holds prominence the Bissets are fundamental to both.
The second objective which came naturally as a result of the first has been to try and un-ravel the origin and early history of the Bissets, a family who appears in England, Scotland, Ireland as well as the continent but who has never previously been studied as a whole.
England has been well served over the last millennium with surviving MS giving documentary evidence of the things that mattered to our ancestors, MS extending from Manorial court records to the Exchequer Rolls.
The acquiring and holding onto land has been one of mankind’s great driving forces and the unequivocal title to such land has been of supreme importance to the holders of that land and their descendants. It was the one area of common ambition for both crown and commoner, the crown to produce income to maintain the court and probably even more importantly, the gift of Patronage. To be able to reward the loyal subject, plus the knowledge that what the Crown giveth the Crown could taketh, acted as a strong deterrent to waverers among the Crown’s supporters. To the rest it was a means of producing income, food, security, and status and an important asset in marriage negotiations and settlements.
The ownership of proper title to land needed to be recorded and preserved, something in which English records have been well served. This valuable heritage allows us to piece together families such as Bisset, not necessarily completely but with enough information to understand the lines of descent and to monitor the rise and fall of such families by the surviving MS related to property, who held what, where and when.
The situation is rather different in Scotland for while the need for proof of title was equally as important as in England far less has survived intact. There are good historical reasons for this.
One of the great problems which faces anyone trying to carry out original research into early Scottish history is the paucity of the written word, charters, state and church documents or text of any kind. Past recorded history is so often the history of kings, battles, fights for succession and those named are too often the most senior members of the court or church, lesser mortals hardly ever get a mention. So much of what we do know about this early period of Scottish history comes from documents written outwith Scotland, of which English, Irish and Scandinavian records prevail.
This lack of surviving records stems from neglect, war and internal strife. The Wolf of Badenoch, Alexander Stewart raided Elgin in 1390 and burnt down the cathedral with the loss of records which may have helped to throw more light on the Moray area at the time we are interested in.
General Westmoreland’s notorious quote from the Vietnam war to the effect that, “If you have them by the balls, hearts and minds soon follow,” would have been easily understood by Edward I., King of England. Edward took a keen interest in the law and clearly understood the importance of legal claim to title and is reputed to have plundered Scotland of records and taken them south to England, knowing that those Scottish knights and barons who could not show legal title for their lands were vulnerable to pressure from him while any such records were in his possession.
Cromwell was also guilty of taking much state and associated records south, including the records of the Lyon Court. These were later sent back to Scotland but lost at sea on their return and it is clear that a historian such as George Buchanan who wrote his “History of Scotland” in 1582, had access to documents which have subsequently been lost for ever, probably in the Cromwell shipwreck. The collection known as the Advocates Library Collection, which is now also part of the special collection at the National Library of Scotland, holds documents dating back certainly to the early 17th century if not earlier, has never been fully catalogued despite having been in the National collection for some years and the full extent of its contents are still not known.
Genealogy can damage your health! Trying to resolve the genealogy of the English and Scottish Bissets has come on occasions very close to a visit from the men in white coats.
The problem is that we are trying to give as comprehensive genealogy as possible of a family split into two main branches between England and Scotland both again divided into separate family lines. All spread over a period of something like 250+ years. Assuming that birth, marriage and death are the three most significant dates in a life, we find that there are in the order of 270+ potential significant dates to find and attribute to the 91 Bisset or Bisset related people so far identified and where many of these can not be taken as anyway “accurate”.
I am well aware that there are Bissets not shown here principally because there is not enough evidence to corroborate correctly and place them into any genealogy. The only people shown are those who can be positively identified and placed, usually as a result of an IPM, Charter or land title references. It must be assumed that many Bissets in these two lines never made it into adult life and previous records felt no need to mention them.
It must also be assumed that in general marriage and childbirth took place in mid to late teens, but not always, life expectancy for an adult was much shorter, but not always. Assuming that someone survived into adulthood and avoided complaints which we would now consider as of a minor order but to them could have been fatal, then there is no reason to suppose that in some cases a good age was not achieved. All these factors combine and compound over the seven generations of Bissets to build in accumulative errors which are not always easy to explain or unravel.
“The historian wishing to reconstruct central medieval lineages faces several problems. One is the substantial shift in aristocratic naming practices, characterised by the increasing use of quasi-hereditary cognomina (both toponyms and epithets) and by a diminishing stock of Christian names. The later is exemplified by the well known story of a banquet at the court of Henry the Young King which was attended by over a hundred knights called William”. [NF. p.478] this problem arises with the Scottish Bissets in particular as there are clearly several Walters in succession and without additional dates and facts it is very difficult to unravel who was who.
Where it works in the genealogist’s favour is when one can establish names which run consistently through one branch of a family and not another and vice versa. But a surfeit of a single name which cannot be anchored in branch or time is a problem, are we talking about more than one person or not, in which generation is this person to be placed? Often not possible to say with any great certainty.
It may well be that in some cases a generation is missing in so far as no references to them have been identified or confirmed. Dr Thoroton made an early attempt at a Bisset genealogy in his book of 1677, Thoroton’s Nottinghamshire, and then already nearly 600 years after the origin in England of the family. He takes much of his information from the Thurgarton Cartulary in particular from a charter between William the Carpenter (Bisset) and the prior of Thurgarton which mentions his parents and brothers and from which we can accurately date which of them were alive or dead in 1177.
He credits William the Carpenter as being the elder brother probably for no better reason than it was his heirs and line which he was pursuing but all without any supporting evidence; he may well be correct or just as easily wrong there is no additional evidence to support this claim. (See Appendix vii, for details of Thoroton and his genealogy).
Another source of information concerning the Bissets is to be found in the invaluable series which make up the Victorian County History. (Do not be put off by the title since it has nothing to do with Victoria). These volumes set out English counties by county, the history of each parish and Hundred in that county, written up by historians familiar with each area. What it does is excellent; its only weakness in such a project as the Bissets is that by definition it only deals with those Bissets found in a specific place, since they had no mandate to collate these into a national picture. It does however become possible to account for many of these Bissets into a whole via knowledge of their land holding and where and how these originated.
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