9838 Individuals
in our Database | |  | | | | Odo Fitzwilliam de Carew Sex: Male | | | |  | | Birth Date | 1125 | | Death Date | 1204 | | Father | William Fitzgerald Baron of Windsor and Pembroke | Born: 1100 | Died: 1173 | | Mother | | Born: | | | Odo Fitzwilliam de Carew
Notes: | About Odo de Carew THE ORIGIN OF THE CAREWS It may have been observed by some that in the Fitzgerald pedigree which I gave at the close of my paper on the origin of that family,1 I followed the example set by Mr. Dimock, when editing Giraldus Cambrensis (Rolls Series), in omitting William Fitzgeralds eldest son Odo, who is claimed as the Carews ancestor. This I did for two reasons. In the first place Giraldus himself, though naming Odo de Kerreu as his cousin (consobrinus)2, nowhere states distinctly who his father was, while he somewhat pointedly ignores him in the Expugnatio Hibernite ; in the second the charter of 1212, restoring Moulsford, Berks, 3 on which the origin of the family has long rested in pedigrees, proves that Odo was a grandson of Gerald Fitz Walter (de Windsor), but does not tell us which of Geralds sons was his father, or indeed prove that he was not merely a maternal grandson. It was safer, therefore, to leave the descent open until it could be absolutely proved.4 Fortunately I have, since then, noted the missing link needed to complete the proof. In the Monasticon (vi. 837), among the endowments of the Hospitallers Commandery at Walinton, we find this entry : Willelmus filius Geraldi et Odo filius ejus dederunt totam villam de Rubard cum omnibus pertinentiis.5 The place is Redbarth, a parish adjoining that of Carew, and the entry is proof positive that Odo was a son, and indeed the heir, of William son of Gerald Fitz Walter.6 1 The Ancestor, ii. 98. 2 Gerald, who prided himself on his Latinity, may have used the term in a strict sense. 3 See p. 24 below. 4 Sir Harris Nicolas, in his Roll of Carlaverock, speaks of the house of Carew as supposed to have sprung from Otho de Windsor, the common ancestor of the illustrious families of Windsor and Fitz-Gerald (p. 154), and Mr. G. T. Clark similarly treats the connexion as open to question (Medieval Military Architecture, i. 116). 5 In the confirmation charter by Anselm, Bishop of St. Davids (1230-1), the place is given as Redeborth. 6 Walinton, the site of the Commandery, was East Walton, Pembrokeshire, some twelve miles north of Carew Castle. With the help of this evidence it will now at length be possible to prove and illustrate the pedigree throughout the twelfth century, the darkest and most difficult period in genealogical research. The pivot on which the story turns is that singular district around Pembroke, that little England beyond Wales, which was destined to form the stepping-stone between England and Ireland. Of this district, with its strange place-names still preserving the memory of Norman or Flemish knights, Pembroke was of course the head; and of Pembroke the constable was Gerald, the patriarch of a spreading race. The neck of the Pembroke peninsula was guarded by Carew on its northern coast and by Manorbier on its southern, and these castles came to be held by grandsons of the lord Gerald.1 A puzzling passage in the work of Giraldus, De rebus a se gestis, relates that, while he was at school (i.e. attending the university) at Paris as a young man, consanguine! ipsius, sc. Willelmus filius Hay,2 Odo de Kerreu,3 et Philippus de Barri,4 frater ejusdem decimas suas . . . longe ante contulerant (i. 28). This would at first sight suggest that Odo de Kerreu was a brother of Philip de Barri ; but the important genealogical passage two pages earlier clears up the matter. After mentioning that * Ricardus filius Tancardi * was a great man in Pembrokeshire, and that he hated Gerald himself and all his folk, Gerald continues: Odo de Kerreu consobrinus Giraldi et Philippus de Barri frater ejusdem Giraldi,5 qui viri probi et magni fuerunt in finibus illis, licet generi praedicti Ricardi, sc. filias suas habentes uxores, tamen acerbe dixerunt illi quod taceret et a stultiloquio temperaret ; quia non tanta vindicta sumpta fuit de alio Giraldo, fratre sc. Odonis primaevo, pro quo dudum a Rosensibus interempto ducenti vlri et plures de eisdem uno die corruerunt (i. 26-7).
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