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

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Chamberlaine : Camerarius, an official title. We encounter in Domesday a bewildering number of Chamberlains. Besides two mesne-lords, Adeloldus and Girardus (one in Kent, and the other in Gloucester), no fewer than twelve held in capite; Aiulphus in Dorsetshire; Alwold in Berkshire; Albericus (the Queen's Chamberlain) in Wilts and Hampshire; Bernard, Goisfrid, and Herbertus, all three likewise in Hampshire; Gondwinus in Suffolk; Hunfrid in nine different counties; Siric again in Hants; Turstin in Hants, Wiltshire, and Bedfordshire; Willelmus in Bucks, Gloucester, and Beds; and, finally, Odinus in Wilts. From their names, we may judge that two or three of these were of Saxon origin; and Aiulph had been Sheriff under Edward the Confessor. His barony consisted of seventeen manors—one of them named from him Ham Chamberlayne—and Blankney was the head of the honour. Herbert was the ancestor of the Herberts (see Fits Herbert). Goisfrid was the chamberlain of a princess unnoticed by any of our historians, Matilda, the daughter of William the Conqueror. Of the others that held in Hampshire, I can find nothing in Woodward's history of the county, except (as is probable) the following notice should refer to one of their descendants: "About 1296, a leading landowner in the neighbourhood of Southampton was Robert Chamberlain, or de Chaumberlyn, as he is on one record oddly enough called. He held Netley by service of the King's chamber. At Farley-Chamberlyne, by the same service, he held of the King's gift lands worth 40 s. His grandfather Peter Chamberlyne had held three fees temp. Hen. II." Compton-Chamberlyne, in Wilts, took its name from "D'n's Rob'tus le Chaumberlayne." Morant tells us that "before the year 1165 Hen. II. had given the Honour of Eudo Dapifer to Henry, son of Gerold the Chamberlain, who married Ermentruda, daughter and heir of Robert Talebot of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. He left Alice his daughter and sole heir, married to Robert de Lisle, from whom descended the Lisles Lords of Rugemont in Bedfordshire."—History of Essex.