ABITOT Urso

Abt 1040 - Abt 1108  (68 years)

• Name	ABITOT Urso
  Birth	Abt 1040	Saint-Jean-d'Abbetot, Seine-Maritime, Upper Normandy, France
  Gender	Male
  Death	Abt 1108
  Notes	Early Norman England The Notorious Sheriff "In the second half of the eleventh century, at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086), the one name most likely to send the chill of fear down the spine of everyone in the County of Worcestershire, young and old, rich and poor, was that of Urso the Sheriff, or simply Urso, or Urse as he was most generally known. Forceful, dynamic and resolute he certainly was." [1] Urse of Abettot, or of Worcester, was an Anglo Norman administrator and land holder in England during the time of the Norman dynasty (1066-1135), who was especially important during the time of William II (William Rufus). One of the most important positions he held was as sheriff of Worcestershire, for which he was appointed by the king.[2] At the time of Domesday Book in 1086 he was a tenant-in-chief in the counties of Hereford, Gloucester, Warwick, and Worcester, and also held other lands as a tenant lord.[2] His tenancy in chief was the basis of the feudal barony Salwarpe.[3] According to Loyd, his first recorded occurrence in England is in 1067.[4][5] However he is an example of a person in this generation whose family can be traced back to France with reasonable confidence. (See below.) Sanders reports that he was sheriff of Worcestershire from about 1069 until his death, and that he died in 1108.[3] Keats-Rohan accepts the estimation of Sanders for the death date.[6] It was in 1108 that he was succeeded in his lands and office by his son Roger.[2] Like many of the first Anglo-Norman sheriffs, and indeed secular lords before 1066, Urse was criticized by clerics for his incursions upon old church land rights. He is for example mentioned in "Hemming's Cartulary".[7] William of Malmesbury recorded a rhyming curse made upon him by Ealdred, the Archbishop of York, for encroaching upon the cemetery of Worcester Cathedral priory: "Hattest thu Urs, haue thu Godes kurs" (you are called Urse, you have god's curse).[2][8] As explained by Keats-Rohan, apart from his own lands in the barony of Salwarde, he appears to have inherited lands and offices in England from his brother Robert the dispenser (or Robert the bursar) after Domesday Book in 1086. Lands from both of the two brothers were inherited by the co-heiresses of Urse.[6] That Urse was heir of his brother Robert within his own lifetime, and in turn had a second daughter who married a Marmion, was proposed by J.H. Round in his Feudal England.[9] It is now accepted for example as the most likely scenario by Complete Peerage, Sanders, and Keats-Rohan as the most likely way in which the Marmion family shared the inheritance of Robert the bursar (or dispensator) together with the Beauchamps.[10] Another probable brother of Urse was Osbert d'Abetot, who was sheriff of Worcester after Urse's son Roger. Osbert was probably the ancestor of the d'Abetots known from records in Worcestershire in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and who are associated with the places Croome d'Abitot and Redmarley d'Abitot.[2] Children and legacy Modern historians believe that he had three children.[6][2] Roger d'Abitot - "Vicecomes de Worcestria" (Sheriff of Worcester). Son and heir. He was banished by King Henry I, about 1110 for killing an officer of King Henry I.[2] The family's possessions passed on via Urse's two apparent daughters. Emmeline d'Abitot, the wife of Walter I de Beauchamp, who received the barony of Salwarpe in 1114, they made their seat at Elmley Castle.[11] Emmeline's name is not known from surviving records, but it was mentioned by William Dugdale in the 17th century, who presumably had access to lost records.[2] The apparent wife of Roger Marmion.[12] Note that there is no record of this person. As discussed above, she was proposed in order to explain the connection between Robert Dispensator and the Marmion family, who inherited his lands.[10] Loyd proposed that there is evidence from France of another son in France, Robert de Abetot, possibly also known as Robert fitz Urse. (See Origins section below.)[4] However Keats-Rohan suggests that this might simply be Urse's known brother, who she refers to as Robert Dispensator.[13] Name His name, which is not unique in this period, simply means "bear" in French (Latin Ursus/Urso etc, Old French Urs/Ors, modern French Ours). As a sign of their descent from him, his descendants the Beauchamps used the bear as a symbol.[2] "Urs" and "Ours" are the first known styling's of this name found in early document's. "Urso" and "Urse" appear to be later influence's of Latin and Norman French, on the language in his time. That he bore the rampant bear cognizance shield, or was at least honored as such, in the frieze on Worcester Cathedral, in the Arms of the Beauchamp family thereafter, and the flags, seals, etc., of the County of Worcestershire itself, is undeniable. Additionally, the Fitz Urse line, who also bore Arms with a bear as one of the charges, have been suggested as being related to Urso, although this is unsubstantiated. However it is not an extremely unusual name (there were several others in Domesday Book) and names based on animals (such as wolves and eagles) were more generally not very unusual until this period, when Frankish names were still much more common in the nobility than "Christian" names, such as John. Origins Loyd showed that there is only one Abbetot in Normandy, and at this place there is record of the name Urse being used by a local landed family.[4] Urse was probably born there.[2] In modern France Saint-Jean d'Abbetot, has postcode 76430 and is part of the commune of La Cerlangue, on the north side of the Seine near the river mouth and the harbour at Le Havre. It is near Tancarville. These lords of Abbetot were the chamberlains of Tancarville in this time, and they appear with the Tancarvilles in some records. In a charter of the future King William, still Duke of Normandy, which as Loyd says cannot be made later than the summer of 1066, "certain gifts to the church of St-Georges-de-Boscherville are stated to have been confirmed by the chamberlain Ralf son of Gerold (of Tancarville), the name of Urso 'de Abetot' as a witness to the confirmation being added in another hand above the line in the cartulary".[4] By a charter of the time of Henry I William the chamberlain of Tancarville gave tithes and church lands in Abbetot to Boscherville, as well as 4 akers of land between the church and Robert son of Urse (in Abetot ecclesiam et decimam et terram pertinentem ecclesiae et quatuor acras quae sunt inter ecclesiam et domum Roberti filii Ursi).[4] Lands in 1086 Urse's Domesday lands (1086), the basis of the barony of Salwarde which mainly went to the Beauchamps: PASE website: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=40044 Opendomesday.org https://opendomesday.org/name/urso-of-abetot/ Urse's brother Robert's lands (1086), later apparently inherited by Urse, and then mostly to the Marmions: PASE website: http://domesday.pase.ac.uk/Domesday?op=5&personkey=39591 Opendomesday.org: https://opendomesday.org/name/robert-the-bursar/ Sources ↑ Eric Smith @ redmarley.org - Urso d’Abitot - Sheriff of Worcestershire ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 J. H. Round, revised by Emma Mason, "Abetot, Urse d' (c. 1040–1108)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. [consulted 2022] ↑ 3.0 3.1 Sanders, I.J., English Baronies, p.75 (Salwarpe) and also see p.145 (Tamworth: Marmion's barony). ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Loyd, Anglo-Norman Families, p.1 (Abetot, Abitot). ↑ Loyd refers to charter no.10 in Davis ed. Regesta regum anglo-normannorum p.3. In a royal charter relevant to Worcester, "Urs minister" is a witness. Fortunately, the charter is dated to 1067. One of the two medieval copies of the charter is in "Hemming's Cartulary", p.414 of the printed edition. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., Domesday People, p.439 (Urse) ↑ See comments for example in Emma Mason's "Change and Continuity in Eleventh-Century Mercia", in: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1985. ↑ William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum Anglorum, p.253. ↑ Round, J.H., Feudal England, pp.194-5. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Cockayne et al., Complete Peerage, 2nd ed., Vol.8, pp.505-6 (Marmion). ↑ Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., Domesday Descendants, pp.314-315 (Beauchamp). ↑ Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., Domesday Descendants, p.1032 (Marmion). ↑ Keats-Rohan, K.S.B., Domesday People, p.383 (Robert Dispensator). See also: “Collections for the History of Worcestershire” (1782), by Dr. R. Treadway Nash Medieval Lands - ABITOT - ST. JEAN d'ABBETOT WASHBURN FAMILY FOUNDATIONS in Normandy, England and America, by Mabel Thacher Rosemary Washburn ... WASHBURN FAMILY FOUNDATIONS A History of the County of Worcester vol 3 .. Parishes: Redmarley d'Abitot 'Parishes: Hindlip', in A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 3 (London, 1913), pp. 398-401. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol3/pp398-401 Urso d’Abitot – Sheriff of Worcestershire, by Eric Smith Redmarley D’Abitot Round: in Old DNB. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Wikipedia - Urse d'Abetot An Historical and Descriptive Account of Croome D'Abitot - Abitot The Heraldry of Worcestershire - Abitot
  Person ID	I60178	Freeman-Smith
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2026

  
  

  Father	TANCARVILLE Almericus,   b. Abt 1015, Tancarville, Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France d. Aft 1066, Saint-Jean-d'Abbetot, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France (Age > 52 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Family ID	F347630	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	UNKNOWN Atheliza,   b. Abt 1047, Derbyshire, England d. Aft 1123, Barley, Hertfordshire, England (Age > 77 years)
  Children	1. ABITOT Unknown,   b. Abt 1076, Coventry, Warwickshire, England d. 1125 (Age 49 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   2. ABITOT Emmeline,   b. Abt 1080, England d. England  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F26709	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	27 Jan 2026