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

Lisours :

"The Barons of Lisores, Normandy, were a branch of the Bassetts. Hugh de Lisures granted lands to Thorney Abbey, t. Hen. I. (Mon. i. 247), and 1128 witnessed a charter of Jocelyn Crespin in Normandy (La Roque, ii. 1816). In 1165 Warner de Lisures held a barony in Wilts, and was Sheriff of Dorset and Somerset in 1154, 1156, 1158,1160, and 1161, Robert in Hunts, and R. was forester in fee, Northants (Lib. Nig.)."—The Norman People. They are
first to be met with in South Yorkshire. "Fulk de Lisours," says Hunter, "is supposed to have been a relation of Roger de Busli's. Fulk does not appear as a tenant-in-chief in Domesday, but he is several times incidentally mentioned in that record. He it was who held Sprotborough and its members, and he held also much in the county of Notts. In the time of the sons of the Conqueror appear two brothers, Fulk and Torard, both known by the addition De Lusoriis or De Lizours. Whether they were the sons of the former Fulk, or that this Fulk is the same person, does not appear on the face of any record. Torard was the ancestor of the Lisours of Nottinghamshire, where they continued for some centuries, while Fulk had the land of Sprotborough with a portion of the Nottinghamshire lands. Fulk had a son named Robert, who made an illustrious marriage with the widow of Henry de Laci, Lord of Pontefract, and had one daughter only, who was thus half sister ex parte matrix to the last of the Lacis, and who lived to be his heir, as well as the heir of the paternal line. Her name was Albreda. The birth of this great lady may be referred to about the year 1130." She was twice married: first to Richard Fitz Eustace, Constable of Chester, and feudal Baron of Halton, by whom she had a son, John, who took the name of De Laci, and was the ancestor of the Earls of Lincoln; and secondly, to William Fitz Godric, by whom she had another son, William Fitz William, from whom derive the Earls Fitzwilliam. "Her great inheritance was thus divided. The Laci lands went to the issue of her first husband, the Lisours lands to the issue of. her second. Glover notices a tradition that Albreda designed to bestow the whole upon William, the issue of her second marriage, upon a displeasure conceived against Roger de Laci her grandson, who acquired, we know not how, the. opprobrious cognomen of 'Roger de Hell,' and that 'he was fayne to compound with his uncle'; but this," concludes Hunter, "is not likely."

The first Fulk, who was an under-tenant of his kinsman (some say his brother-in-law) Roger de Busli, "probably had his name from Lisors in the canton of Lyons en Foret (Eure), for it is likely he was no distant neighbour of Roger before they left Normandy.

"This place may have been so called because it was on the lisiere or verge of the Foret de Lyons, a favourite hunting ground of the Dukes, or it may be the name is the same as our leasowes or 'lissouris' (qu. the higher leys), those lawns and grassy spots where the denizens would browse.

"Fulk had other sons, besides daughters, but their names are not recorded."
—A. S. Ellis.

Thorold de Lisours, the progenitor of the Nottinghamshire house, was the earliest subinfeudatory of Hodsoke, in that county, part of the Honour of Tickhill. He and his brother Fulk both witness Roger de Busli's foundation charter of Blyth in 1088, "and this is," says Thoroton, "his last appearance, as far as I am aware, in any public record." The Cressys succeeded him at Hodsoke, but he had other estates in the county, and his descendants continued there till late in the fourteenth century. Nigel de Lisours, sometimes called, from his manor, Nigel de Fleburg (Fledburgh) held three knights' fees of the Bishop of Lincoln t. Hen. II. (Lib. Rubr.); a second Nigel was in possession in the following century (Testa di Nevill), and John de Lisours, his son, was knight of the shire for Nottingham in 1312 and 1316. He was also one of the Commissioners for raising foot soldiers in the latter year. Peter de Lisours, and Joan his wife, occur in 1330; and a second John, Lord of Fledburgh, in 1360, whose son James was married in 1364. From the marriage settlements of the bride it is evident that the line terminated in him; for Fledburgh, and several other manors, then entailed on "the right heirs male of Sir John de Lisours for ever," with remainder to the Bassets of Normanton, had, soon after, passed to the last-named family.

Another branch is found in Northamptonshire. "William de Lusor" is mentioned there in the Pipe Roll of 1130; and his son Fulk, in 1158, had the custody of the forests of Rockingham, Selveston, and Huntingdon. In 1165, Richard de Lisures was Forester of Fee to the King in Northants, and "was by his Office obliged to attend him in his Army, well fitted with Horse and Arms, his Horn hanging about his Neck."—Dugdale. He held his land in right of his grandfather, Richard de Engaine. Dugdale makes no allusion to his posterity; but tells us that Fulk had, by his wife, Alice de Auberville, two sons that successively inherited. William, the eldest, on the accession of Coeur de Lion, gave 200 marks for the Forestership of Northamptonshire, and must have died soon after, as his brother Geoffrey was in possession the following year. There was also a Hugh de Lizures, "by reason of whose Debts to the Exchequer King John, in the fourteenth year of his Reign, granted the Castle of Benifield (in Com. Northampt.) and all his Lands, with the Stock thereon, unto John de Bassingburne, for satisfaction of them."—Ibid.