The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. II.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Return to Index
Gobion : "from Bretagne, where Guido Gobio witnessed a charter of Geoffrey de Dinan, c. 1070, as one of his knights. (Morice, Hist. Bret. Preuves, i. 430). Hugh Gubion was of Northants 1130 (Rot. Pip.) and in 1165 Richard Gubiun, or Gobio, held fiefs in Bedford and Derby from Beauchamp, and Ferrers Earl of Derby (Liber Niger)."—The Norman People. In Bedfordshire, "Higham-Gobion, a small village about nine miles from Luton, derived its additional name from the family of Gobion, to whom the manor belonged from an early period till the year 1301; when it passed by marriage to the Botelers."—Lysons. Gobions in Herts was another of their manors. Richard Gobion, of that place, and of Knaptoft in Leicestershire, was the last male heir, and died in 1300, leaving two daughters: Hawise, married to Ralph le Boteler of Norbury in Staffordshire; and Elizabeth, married to Sir Robert Paynel, of Boothby-Paynel, Lincolnshire.—Nichol's Leicestershire. I also find Yardley-Gobion in Northamptonshire, where Hugh Gubiun served as Sheriff in 1161 and 1163. Woodhall, in Herts, "heretofore the estate of the Butlers, by marriage, came to the estate of the Gobions: (as this estate, by the same way, passed to Francis Shallcross of Digginsworth)."—Camden's Britannia. Gobions in the parish of Up-Havering, and Gobions in Toppesfield, retain their name in Essex, where they had a considerable estate. "Sir Thomas Gobyon was High-Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire in 1323. John Gobyon is on the list of the Gentry of this country in 1433."—Morant's Essex. Another John Gobion (perhaps his father), who died in 1422, held the estate of Ashwell Hall by the service of finding one spit of wood in the King's kitchen on his Coronation Day. "Gebon, or Gibbon, is a corruption of Gobion, a very considerable family, which held the estate of Le Gibbon's Fee in Bumsted, one at Toppesfield, and others in divers parts of the county."—Ibid. Gobions in Great Lees, Essex, was another of Sir Thomas' manors, as well as Gobions in East Tilbury, held under the Bohuns. He founded a chantry in the latter parish about 1328.
"Sir Hugh Gobyun, of York, occurs about 1300 in Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs. The name was corrupted to Gubbins."—The Norman People.