Hugh de Morville, Lord of Cunningham

Hugh de Morville (died 1162) of Appleby in Westmorland, England, hereditary Constable of Scotland, was a Norman knight who made his fortune in the service of David FitzMalcolm (d.1153), Prince of the Cumbrians, later King of Scotland.

Origins

Hugh came from Morville in the Cotentin Peninsula, in northern France. His parentage is unclear, but according to Barrow his father was probably Richard de Morville who in the early twelfth century witnessed charters made by Richard de Redvers relating to Montebourg and the church of St. Mary in the castle of Néhou.^[1]

Enters service of FitzMalcolm

Prince David FitzMalcolm held Cotentin in northern France, given to him by King Henry I of England at some time after 1106, due to which circumstance Hugh came into his service. This feudal relationship indicates that Hugh originated in Normandy and is therefore unlikely to be a son of a Morville already settled to England. Soon after 1106 Hugh joined David's small military retinue in France. In 1113 and following his marriage, Prince David became Earl of Huntingdon and Northampton. He also became Prince of the Cumbrians, having forced his brother King Alexander I of Scotland, to hand over territory in southern Scotland^[2] David achieved this with the help of his French followers^[3]

David endowed Hugh with the estates of Bozeat and Whissendine, within his Huntingdon earldom^[4][5][6] During David's conquest of northern England after 1136, Hugh was also given the lordship of Appleby, essentially northern Westmorland.^[7] These lands later formed the feudal barony of Appleby.^[8] After the death of Edward, Constable of Scotland, almost certainly in 1138 at the Battle of the Standard, Hugh was awarded that office.^[9]

Founds Dryburgh Abbey

In 1150 Hugh made a further mark on the history of southern Scotland by founding Dryburgh Abbey for Premonstratensian canons regular,^[10] where he died as a canon in 1162.^[11]

Marriage & progeny

Hugh married Beatrice de Beauchamp, the heiress of the manor of Houghton Conquest in Bedfordshire.^[12] She is presumed^[13] to be a daughter of Robert de Beauchamp (died pre-1130) (son of Hugh de Beauchamp), but no contemporary documents survive which record her parentage.^[14] By Beatrice he had at least two sons and two daughters, including:^[4]

• Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmorland, who inherited his father's estates in the north of England. He was a principal player in the 1170 murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.^[4] He subsequently fell out of favour with King Henry II who in 1174 confiscated his Lordship of Westmorland (which he had inherited from his father who had received it from David I) and re-granted it to his sister, Maud de Morville, wife of William de Vieuxpont.^[4]
• Richard de Morville, possibly the second son, who inherited his father's Scottish estates and lands in the Honour of Huntingdon. He also successed to the hereditary office of Constable of Scotland.^[4]
• Simon de Moreville (d. 1167), another possible son.^[15] He was seated at Kirkoswald, Cumbria, ward of Leath, Cumberland, and married Ada de Engaine, heiress of the Feudal barony of Burgh by Sands, Cumberland.
• Ada de Morville, who at some time before 1157, married Roger Bertram, lord of Mitford, Northumberland.^[4]
• Grace de Morville, another possible daughter, wife of the Cumbrian magnate Sir Hubert de Vaux, of Gilsland.

Death & burial

Hugh eventually retired as a canon to his foundation at Dryburgh Abbey, where he soon died in 1162.^[11] An ancient memorial to him in the south wall is said to mark his burial-place. His death has been recorded to be in 1204. If he participated in Thomas Becket's death in 1170 he could not have died 1162.

Notes

Bibliography

• Anderson, Alan Orr Scottish Annals from English Chroniclers: AD 500–1286, (London, 1908), republished, Marjorie Anderson (ed.) (Stamford, 1991)
• Barrow, G.W.S., The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History, Oxford, 1980, p. 71n.
• Barrow, G. W. S., "Beginnings of Military Feudalism", in G.W.S. Barrow (ed.), The Kingdom of the Scots, (Edinburgh, 2003), pp. 250–78
• Barrow, G. W. S., (editor) The Scots and the North of England in The Kingdom of the Scots, (Edinburgh, 2003), pp. 130–47
• Duncan, A.A.M., Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom, (Edinburgh, 1975)
• Lawrie, Sir Archibald, Early Scottish Charters Prior to A.D. 1153, (Glasgow, 1905)
• Oram, Richard, David: The King Who Made Scotland, (Gloucestershire, 2004)
• Stringer, Keith, Early Lords of Lauderdale, in Keith Stringer (ed.), Essays on the Nobility of Medieval Scotland, (Edinburgh, 1985), pp. 44–71
• Stringer, Keith, Morville, Hugh de (d. 1162), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 27 Nov 2006
• Watt, D.E.R. & Shead, N.F. (eds.), The Heads of Religious Houses in Scotland from the 12th to the 16th Centuries, The Scottish Records Society, New Series, Volume 24, (Edinburgh, 2001)