The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. I.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
-------*--------
Return to Index

Beisin : from Beisin, in Normandy. This family, again, was settled in Shropshire. One of their manors, "Ashfield, must, I think, have been granted to the ancestor of the Beysins at least as early as the time of Henry I. It was a member of their Serjeantry, and held by service of keeping the King's hawks."—Eyton's Shropshire. The first mentioned is Robert de Beysin, deceased before 1194, whose widow, Petronilla, survived him for twenty-six years. Their son, Adam, married a great grand-daughter of Warine de Metz, the first Norman sheriff of the county, Mabel, the eldest co-heiress of the Fitz Warines, who brought him the vill of Broseley, then called Burwardsley. This, with their other estates in Shropshire and Staffordshire, were handed down from father to son till 1630, when Elizabeth, the wife of Sir Roger de Cherlton, was left sole heiress of the Beysins. They held Broseley of the Prior of Wenlock by a singular tenure. "The Lord of the vill was to dine with the Prior on St. Milburg's Day, and carve the principal dish at table. In the time of Edward II. the service was performed on Christmas Day, and the Beysin of that time was to pay a three days' visit to the Prior, and to be entertained, together with his suite, at the Prior's charge."—Ibid.