BIGOD Robert

Abt 1030 - Abt 1070  (40 years)

• Name	BIGOD Robert
  Birth	Abt 1030	France
  Gender	Male
  Death	Abt 1070
  Notes	Little is known about Robert himself and most of what is written is connected to the question of how and whether he was related to Roger I Bigod. Morris writes that the literal meaning of the word "bigot" in medieval times, meaning uncouth or boorish, may not be too far from the truth:[1] The first of the Earls' ancestors whom we can identify is Robert Bigod, a Norman knight whose poverty in 1055 was reportedly so acute that emigration in search of a better life seemed to be his only viable option. His luck turned, however, when he was able to reveal a rebellion plot to William the Conqueror; the grateful duke rewarded him with land in western Normandy - albeit not very much. The family's real fortune was made in England, and its founder was Roger I Bigod. Complete Peerage is sceptical: It is perhaps possible, but it seems unlikely, on chronological grounds, that he was the son of Robert le Bigot who is said to have been related to Richard d’Avranches, father of Hugh, Earl of Chester (William of Jumiéges, bk.vii, c. xix, ed. Marx, p. 172 by Orderic). This Robert was in the service of William Werlenc, Count of Mortain, of whose suspected conspiracy he informed Duke William (Idem). He appears to be identical with the Robert Bigot who, with Roger de Beaumont, was with the Duke in 1066 when the latter heard a dispute arising from the gift of one moiety of Vièvre (St. Philibert-sur-Risle) to the church of Avranches by John, Bishop of Avranches (Le Prévost, Notes sur l’Eure,vol. iii, pp. 183-4., where the date is wrongly printed 1076 ; cf. Haskins, Norman Institutions, p. 19, note 58). It may be inferred, with some assurance, from a charter in Delisle’s Chateau et Sires de St. Sauveur (Preuves, p. 30) .and two pieces immediately preceding it, that the fall of William, Count of Mortain, brought about by Robert Bigot’s informing against him, took place after 1055-—possibly in the following year. In his account of the matter Orderic (William of, ]umiéges, ut supra) describes Robert as quidam tiro defamilia sua, which points to his being a young unmarried man. As Roger was presumably a grown man in 1071 (see text), it seems hardly possible that he could have been the son of the tiro of circa 1056. There is an entry in Domesday Book which prima facie appears to refer to his father : “ Terra Wlmari Risebruge . . . In eadem ix acras tenet idem Vlmarus quas inuadauit tempore regis Willelmi de antecessore Radulfi pinel pro xxi solidis et ualet xii d. Vicecomes Rogerius habuit de patre suo herretum.” But it seems impossible to make any sense of this passage if “ suo ” be taken in the proper meaning of his own, and it may be surmised that here the scribe has used it instead of “eius ” or “illius.” Wace, writing a hundred years after the event, and therefore a doubtful authority, includes among those who fought at Hastings “ L’Ancestre Hue le Bigot,” Hugh, son of Roger, being his contemporary and a landowner in the neighbourhood of Bayeux, where Wace was a canon. His ignorance of the name of this ancestor suggests that Wace, with poetic licence, may merely have desired to be complimentary to the family ; on the other hand, in point of date, Roger could well have been present at the battle, and it is possible that his rapid (rise to importance in Norfolk-—otherwise difficult to account for-—may have been due to his services at the time of the invasion. (The poet Wace is generally seen as unreliable concerning who was at Hastings. See Wikipedia. According to Keats-Rohan, there was a Hugh Bigot in Suffolk at Domesday?) Loyd's conclusion about the possible connection to Robert Bigot is similar, and he adds: Roger Bigot was a man of Calvados. His lands in Normandy were of but moderate extent and he made the fortunes of himself and his descendants in England, and through the Conquest. One cannot help suspecting that he was enabled to do this by his Norman overlord, Odo bishop of Bayeux, of whom in 1086 he was holding something like twenty manors in Suffolk. Loyd also examines what can be suggested about the original Bigot lands in Normandy: In the Bayeux Inquest of 1133 is the entry, ' Feodum Hugonis Bigoti in Logis et in Savenayo vavassoria, sed servit pro milite dimidio.'[Rec. Hist. France, xxiii, 701c.] Savenay is in the commune of Courvaudon (Calvados, arr. Vire, cant. Villers-Bocage); in it was a fief known as ' le fief Bigot.'[M. Béziers, Mémoires . . . du diocèse de Bayeux (Soc. Hist. Norm.), ii, 361.] A Domesday under-tenant of Roger Bigot took his name from Savenay.[See SAVENIE.] Les Loges (Calvados, arr. Vire, cant. Aunay-sur-Odon) is 17 kil. W of Courvaudon. In 1453 the fief of Les Loges was held of the bishop of Bayeux as of the barony of La Ferrière-Hareng by the service of a quarter of a knight's fee.[M. Béziers, op. cit., ii , 292. It will be noticed that in 1133 the total service of Savenay and Les Loges was half a knight.] In addition to this vavassoria held of the bishop of Bayeux there is reason to believe that Roger Bigot held lands in the Val d'Auge, including Corbon, probably of the duke in chief.[See CORBUN.] He points out that when Wace mentions the wrong Bigot ancestor being at Hastings, he associates them with Loges. Keats-Rohan notes that in England there is however evidence of Roger I Bigod having a brother William (also in Domesday), a sister Matilda (wife of Hugh de Hosdenc, a tenant of Roger), probably a brother Hugh (in Suffolk also in 1086??) and he... ... "was doubtless related to Earl Hugh of Chester's tenant Bigot of Loges, and to Robert Bigot, son of Norman, lord of Pirou and Cerisy in the Cotentin, benefactor in the 1090s of Sées (Arch. Orne H938, 62b-63, no. cxxxix). This Robert, husband of Emma and father of Richard and Robert, was perhaps the same as Robert Bigot, kinsman of Richard of Avranches (father of Earl Hugh), mentioned by Ord. Vit. in his interpolations of William of Jumièges (ed. van Houts, ii, 126-7)." Sources ↑ Complete Peerage says "“ Bigot ” has at all times been by no means an uncommon name in Normandy, where this form has always continued. The name was changed to Bigod in England." Cockayne et al Complete Peerage, 2nd ed, Vol.9, p.575 Keats-Rohan, Domesday People, p.397 Loyd, Anglo-Norman Families, pp.14-15 Morris, (2005) The Bigod Earls of Norfolk, p.1
  Person ID	I60052	Freeman-Smith
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2026

  
  

  Family	St SAUVEUR Unknown,   b. Abt 1036, Normandy, France d. Abt 1092 (Age 56 years)
  Marriage	1059
  Children	1. BIGOD Roger,   b. Abt 1060, Manche, Normandy, France d. 08 Sep 1107, Earsham, Norfolk, England (Age 47 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F26663	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2026