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

Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Sent Amond : from St. Amand in the Cotentin, a barony held in the fifteenth century by the De Balsacs.—Anselme. Wace mentions the war-cry of Saint Amant! Sire Saint Amant! at the battle of Val-es-dunes. "Almaric de St. Amand witnessed a charter of Henry II. in 1172 (Mon. i. 516.) Ralph de St. Amand held offices in Normandy in 1195 (Magn. Rotul. Scaccar Norman.").—The Norman People. We first hear of them in Gloucestershire. "Guy de St. Amand held estates in South Cerney, Wick, and Cirencester, which came to William de St. Amand, and were purchased of him by Almaric de St. Amand, Governor of St. Briavel's Castle, and Warden of the Forest of Dean."—Rudder's Gloucestershire. The pedigree given by Dugdale commences with this second Almaric and the record of his military services in the reign of Henry III. He was often employed, and amply rewarded, by the King; receiving first the Cornish manor of Liskeard; then Bloxham in Oxfordshire, and, after the Welsh campaign of 1230, the custody of the castles of Kilgarran, Pembroke, and Tymbey, belonging to the Earl Marischal, then in arms against the Crown. He was likewise Constable of Hereford, Sheriff of Herefordshire for six consecutive years; and, as a special mark of Court favour, one of Prince Edward's godfathers at his christening in 1238. His son Ralph married Asceline, the youngest sister and co-heir of Robert de Albini, Baron of Cainho, whose wardship he had obtained, at great cost, five years before: and the next in succession, Almaric III. thus became so considerable an heir, that Paulyn Peyvre ("an active Man in those days") paid one thousand marks for his disposal in marriage. This Almaric left three sons, Guy, Almaric, and John; of whom the two elder died s. p.: Guy shortly after his father. Almaric IV., who succeeded his brother about 1285, was summoned to parliament by Edward I., having served him gallantly in the Scottish and Gascon wars, and been for some time Governor of Bordeaux. He was followed by John, styled, as a professor of the canon law, Magister Johannes de Sancto Amando, who, again, was a baron by writ, summoned in 1313 by Ed. II.; and the father of Almaric V., one of the soldier-peers of the great soldier-King of the time. He was retained by indenture to serve Edward III. in all his wars; and his life was, like his master's, passed in the tented field. In x357 he was named Lord Justice of Ireland, a larger force being assigned to him than had ever before belonged to that great office; and in 1373 was Steward of Rockingham Forest and Captain of Rockingham Castle. His son and successor, Almaric VI., the last Lord St. Amand, had only two daughters, Alianor, the wife of Sir Gerard de Braybroc, who died before him, leaving a son, and her half-sister Ida, married to Sir Thomas West. At his death in 1403, his grandson, Gerard de Brayboc and Ida shared the inheritance; but Ida remained childless, and the whole was eventually vested in her nephew. Sir Gerard, again, had no heir-male. The barony fell into abeyance between his three daughters, and was called out in 1449 in favour of Sir William de Beauchamp, the husband of the eldest.

Collateral branches survived of the St. Amands. In Devonshire, where they held Ipplepen, old Westcott informs us that the name degenerated into Samund.