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

Burdon :

or bourdon, a palmer's staff, which, with his scrip, always received a solemn benediction from the priest before he set out on his journey.^[76] "Les Croises et les Pelerins ne manquaient pas, avant leur depart, d'aller faire benir a l'Eglise leur escarcelle avec leur bourdon, et Saint Louis fit cette ceremonie a S. Denis."—Le Grand Fabliaux: vol. i., p. 310.

This name, no doubt given or assumed in memory of some pilgrimage, was common both in Normandy and England. During the latter half of the twelfth century it occurs several times in the Exchequer Rolls of the Duchy; and William Burdon, according to Duchesne, held of the Honour of Grentemesnil. Four Bourdons—Bourdon de Gramont du Lys, Bourdon du Lys, Bourdon du Quesnay, and Bourdon de Pommeret—were present in the Assembly of the Norman nobles in 1789; the latter had only been enrolled in their ranks the year preceding, and bore D 'argent a trois bourdons de pelerins de gueules.

In the co. Durham we find the family seated very soon after the Conquest. Roger Burdon witnesses a deed in Bishop Flambard's time (1099-1133); and Elfer and Amfrid de Birdan appear in the Domesday of the North, the "Bolden Buke" compiled between 1153 and 1194. The name is retained by two villages in the Parish of Bishop-Wearmouth, East and West Burdon (otherwise Old Burdon and Towne Burdon), and was frequent in the county. In 1320 Hugh Burdon of Ivesley-Burdon left Agnes his daughter and heir. Rowland Burdon of Stockton in 1644 had a certificate "that he is well affected to the Parliament." Eve, daughter of T. Burdon of Old Burdon, was baptized in 1653. "The last descendants of this family," says Surtees, "were Quakers." They bore allusive arms: three palmer's staves, interseme of cross-crosslets. The Burdons of Castle Eden, still represented, descend from a Thomas Burdon who was nine times Mayor of Stockton-on-Tees in the time of Ed. IV.

The family is found in many different parts of the country. Arnulph Burdon held a mansion in Winchester, 1148 (Winton Domesday): and Robert Burdon was Lord of Kingsteignton, Devon, temp. Richard I. (Pole's Devon). Burdon, near High Hampton, retains the name in the county. Robert Burdon was of Yorkshire, in 1255 (Roberts, Excerpta): and at about the same date, or a little later, Roger Burdon of Burdon's Hall, Boscomb, occurs in Wiltshire. His last heir-male died in the time of Ed. III. (Hoare's Wilts). Mapledec or Malebec in Nottinghamshire was "held anciently by the Burdons." John Burdon witnesses a charter of Ameissa (Agnes) the wife of Eustace Fitz John, t. Henry I.: and a second John (probably his son) was a benefactor of Rufford Abbey. "The last of the line was Sir Nicholas Burdon, who fell at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1402, leaving Elizabeth, his daughter and heir, married to Sir Richard Markham, the son of the Judge."—Thoroton's Notts.