Michael Linton's Bayeux Tapestry: 1066 - A Medieval Mosaic and Puzzles

Dambelton :

This name appears about a century after the Conquest, and is of palpable English origin. It has been variously derived, but is generally believed to be taken from Hamilton in Leicestershire, which "was," says Nichols, "the seat of the antient family of Hamilton, and belonged to the old Earls of Leicester, from whose grant they had this land, and therefore bore for their arms Gules three cinquefoils Ermine, alluding to the said Earl's coat, who bore Gules one cinquefoil Ermine, both which stand together in St. Mary's church in Leicester. Of this house was Sir Gilbert de Hamilton, who, in the reign of Edward II., having slain one of the family of Thomas Despencer, fled into Scotland; and there, marrying with Isabel, daughter of Thomas Randolfe Earl of Murray, planted himself, and was honourably entertained by Robert Bruce King of Scotland, by whose gifts he held lands in Cadzow in Clydesdale." The Scottish genealogists have improved upon this account by suggesting that this Gilbert was the grandson of Robert, second Earl of Leicester, but of this there is no proof whatever. The author of the Norman People traces back the great house of Hamilton to a totally different ancestor, "Jordan de Blosseville, who possessed Newton-Blosseville, and other estates in Bucks, and was Viscount of Lincoln in 1157. He is supposed to have held the office of Seneschal of the great Crown demesne of Hameldon, Bucks, and thence was named De Hameldon, under which name he held lands in 1165 from the see of Durham (Liber Niger)." From the second son of this Jordan came "Gilbert de Blosseville or De Hamilton, who was Lord of Newton Blosseville in 1254, when he sold it to another branch of the family; and holding his lands from the Honour of Huntingdon, and therefore of the Kings of Scotland, received a settlement in Scotland, and in his latter years became an ecclesiastic. (Chart. Paisley.) His elder son Walter Fitz Gilbert de Hameldon was one of the barons of Scotland, and received the barony of Cadzow, afterwards Hamilton." But in neither case can the name claim a place here.