Vik Haakull Family history
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Roger Bigod, Sheriff Of Suffolk & Norfolk

Roger Bigod, Sheriff Of Suffolk & Norfolk[1]

Male 1060 - 1107  (47 years)


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  • Name Roger Bigod  [2, 3
    Suffix Sheriff Of Suffolk & Norfolk 
    Birth 1060  St. Saveur, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Gender Male 
    Death 8 Sep 1107  Egersham, Norfolk, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Person ID I21021  Cecilie Family
    Last Modified 1 Jan 2010 

    Father Robert Bigod,   b. Abt 1037, Of, St Saveur, , France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1071 (Age 34 years) 
    Mother Miss St. Saveur,   b. Abt 1036, St Sauveur, Manche, Normandy, France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown 
    Marriage Abt 1060 
    Family ID F9272  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Father Robert Bigod,   b. Abt 1037, Of, St Saveur, , France Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 1071 (Age 34 years) 
    Family ID F21819  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Adeliza De Toni,   b. Abt 1072, Of Hinckley, Leicestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Aft 1135, Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 64 years) 
    Marriage Abt 1084  Only Wife Find all individuals with events at this location  [6, 7
    Children 
     1. Maud Bigod,   b. Abt 1080, Of, Belvoir Castle, Belvoir, Leicestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown
     2. Jane Bigod,   b. Abt 1100   d. Yes, date unknown
     3. Cecily Bigod,   b. Abt 1090, Belvoir Castle, Belvoir, Leicestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown
     4. Hugh Bigod, Lord High Steward Of England,   b. Abt 1095, Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 6 Mar 1175, Thatford, Norfolk, England Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 80 years)
     5. William Bigod,   b. Abt 1094, Of, Cambridge & Norf, Norfolk, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 26 Nov 1120 (Age 26 years)
    Family ID F21825  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 2 Jan 2010 

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 1060 - St. Saveur, Normandy, France Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDeath - 8 Sep 1107 - Egersham, Norfolk, England Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Notes 
    • The first of this great family that settled in England was Roger Bigod who, in the Conqueror's time, possessed six lordships in Essex and a hundred and seventeen in Suffolk, besides divers manors in Norfolk. This Roger, adhering to the party that took up arms against William Rufus in the 1st year of that monarch's reign, fortified the castle at Norwich and wasted the country around. At the accession of Henry I, being a witness of the king's laws and staunch in his interests, he obtained Framlingham in Suffolk as a gift from the crown. We find further of him that he founded in 1103, the abbey of Whetford, in Norfolk, and that he was buried there at his decease in four years after, leaving, by Adeliza his wife, dau. and co-heir of Hugh de Grentesmesnil, high steward of England, a son and heir, William Bigod, steward of the household of King Henry I. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 53, Bigod, Earls of Norfolk]

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      Roger Bigod was one of the tight-knit group of second-rank Norman nobles who did well out of the conquest of England. Prominent in the Calvados region before 1064 as an under-tenant of Odo of Bayeux, he rose in ducal and royal service to become, but 1086, one of the leading barons in East Anglia, holding wide estates to which he added Belvoir by marriage and Framlingham by grant of Henry I. His territorial fortune was based on his service in the royal household, where he was a close adviser and agent for the first three Norman kings, and the propitious circumstances of post-Conquest politics. Much of his honour in East Anglia was carved out of lands previously belonging to the dispossessed Archbishop Stigand, his brother Aethelmar of Elham, and the disgraced Earl Ralph of Norfolk and Suffolk. Under Rufus --- if not before --- Roger was one of the king's stewards. Usually in attendance on the king, he regularly witnessed writs but was also sent out to the provinces as a justice or commissioner. Apart from a flirtation with the cause of Robert Curthose in 1088, he remained conspicuously loyal to Rufus and Henry I, for whom he continued to act as steward and to witness charters. The adherence of such men was vital to the Norman kings. Through them central business could be conducted and localities controlled. Small wonder they were well rewarded. Roger established a dynasty which dominated East Anglia from the 1140s, as earls of Norfolk, until 1306. Roger's byname and the subsequent family name was derived from a word (bigot) meaning double-headed instrument such as a pickaxe: a tribute, perhaps to Roger's effectiveness as a royal servant; certainly an apt image of one who worked hard both for his masters and for himself. [Who's Who in Early Medieval England, Christopher Tyerman, Shepheard-Walwyn, Ltd., London, 1996]

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      The following information was contained in a post-em by Curt Hofemann, curt_hofemann@yahoo.com:

      born ca 1060 St. Saveur (sic), Normandy [Ref: McBride] father: possibly Robert le Bigot, but seems unlikely on chronological grounds [Ref: CP IX:575], Robert le Bigot [Ref: Wurts p422] Parentage not certainly known [Ref: CP IX:575] Descended from Sveide The Viking, a Norse King who died 760 [Ref: Holloway p4]

      Research note 1: McBride2 citing Burke's p53 indicates his parents were Wigot de St. Denis & a sister of Turstin Goz:
      "According to Wace, the Bigot family originated in Maletot, near Caen, Canon (chanon) in the arrondissement of Lisieux and either Les Loges, near Aunay, or another commune of the same name, near Falaise. The original name of the family was Wiggott, Wigott, Bygod. The family of Bigot or Wigot, was descended from Wigort de St. Denis, one of the great nobles of Normandy, who made grants to Cerisy abbey in 1042, and in 1050 witnessed a charter of Duke William at the head of the Norman barons. He married*, father of Richard d'Avranches, by whom his younger son, Roger Wigot or Bigot, was ingratiated into the good graces of Duke William of Normandy." (* Note: part of the citation seems to be missing. Since McBride did not indicate which publication of Burke

  • Sources 
    1. [S1328] Schwennicke, Detlev, ES, (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt Verlag, 1980-), 3:705 (Reliability: 3).

    2. [S134] Br, World Family Tree Vol. 16, Ed. 1, (Release date: December 15, 1997), Tree #1366 (Reliability: 3).
      Date of Import: 22 okt 1999

    3. [S40] FTW 16 tree 1366 H.
      Date of Import: 22 okt 1999

    4. [S1635] Newsgroup: soc.genealogy.medieval, at groups - goo, Marie-Claire Bauche, 1 Dec 2000 (Reliability: 3).

    5. [S1630] Magna Charta Sureties 1215, Frederick Lewis Weis,, 155-1 (Reliability: 3).

    6. [S1634] Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great, I:233, XIV:37 (Reliability: 3).

    7. [S1651] Some Corrections and Additions to the Complete Pee, Volume IX, Bigod (Reliability: 3).