Johannes Vorstermans (c. 1643-1699^) - A View of Windsor Castle
View of the Round and Devils Towers from the Black Rock

Walter FitzOther (fl. 1086; died after 1099) was a feudal baron of Eton[1] in Buckinghamshire (now in Berkshire) and was the first Constable of Windsor Castle[2] in Berkshire (directly across the River Thames from Eton), a principal royal residence of King William the Conqueror, and was a tenant-in-chief of that king of 21 manors in the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Hampshire and Middlesex, as well as holding a further 17 manors as a mesne tenant in the same counties.[3]

Origins

In the 11th century, the name FitzOther meant simply son of a man named Other. Historian John Langton Sanford and Alfred Webb stated that Walter was the son of "Lord Otho, an honorary Baron of England, said to have been descended from the Gherardini of Florence";[4][5][6][7] The Fitzgeralds and Gherardinis are recorded communicating in letters dating back to 1413 between the Tuscany branch and the Earls of Kildare regarding their kinship.[8] In 1507, Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, the Viceroy of Ireland, was signing his letters as Gerald, Chief in Ireland of the family of the Gherardini.[9]

The Fitzgerald's ancestral seat in Florence was referred by English Renaissance poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in his poem Description and praise of his love, as well as by Medici Florentine Renaissance writer, Cristoforo Landino, on his preface of the Divine Comedy by Dante.[10][11] Historian J. Horace Round, however, considers this claim to be a fabrication of the fifteenth century.[12]

Marriage and children

He married Beatrice and had issue: [13]

Landholdings as tenant-in-chief

His landholdings as a tenant-in-chief as listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 were as follows (manor, hundred, county):[19]

Buckinghamshire

Berkshire

Middlesex

Surrey

Hampshire

Landholdings as mesne tenant

His landholdings as a mesne tenant as listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 were as follows:[21]

Buckinghamshire

Berkshire

Middlesex

Surrey

Hampshire

References

  1. ^ Sanders, I.J. English Baronies, a Study of their Origin and Descent 1086–1327, Oxford, 1960, pp. 116-117
  2. ^ Vivian, p. 133 Vivian, Lt. Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p. 133, pedigree of Carew
  3. ^ "Walter son of Other". opendomesday.org. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  4. ^ Sanford, John Langton and Meredith Townsend. The Great Governing Families of England. 2v. Blackwood & Sons, 1865 (Books for Libraries Press, 1972), p. 133-134
  5. ^ Webb, Alfred. "FitzGerald,Maurice", A Compendium of Irish Biography, Dublin, M.H. Gill & Son, 1878
  6. ^ Fitzgibbon, A. "Appendix to the Unpublished Geraldine Documents: The Gherardini of Tuscany", The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, Fourth Series, Vol. 4, No. 29, 1877
  7. ^ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p. 133, pedigree of Carew
  8. ^ Ponsonby and Murphy (1879). The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland. Fourth series. Vol. IV. The Association of Ireland. pp. 247–257.
  9. ^ Sir John Thomas Gilbert (1865). History of the Viceroys of Ireland: With Notices of the Castle of Dublin and Its Chief Occupants in Former Times. James Duffy. pp. 467–473–474.
  10. ^ Sir John Thomas Gilbert (1865). History of the Viceroys of Ireland: With Notices of the Castle of Dublin and Its Chief Occupants in Former Times. James Duffy. p. 612. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  11. ^ Fitzgibbon, A. (4 August 1877). "Appendix to the Unpublished Geraldine Documents: The Gherardini of Tuscany" (PDF). The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland. 4 (29): 246–263–264. JSTOR 25506713.
  12. ^ "The Origin of the FitzGeralds," The Ancestor, 1 (April 1902), pp. 119 - 125. [1]
  13. ^ Round, J. Horace. "The Origin of the FitzGeralds", The Ancestor: A Quarterly Review of County and Family History, Heraldry and Antiquities, A. Constable & Company, Limited, 1902, p. 123
  14. ^ Sanders, I.J. English Baronies, a Study of their Origin and Descent 1086–1327, Oxford, 1960, pp. 116-117; Vivian, p. 133: "of whom the Lords of Windsor (sic) descend"
  15. ^ Rev. E. Barry, Records of the Barrys of County Cork from the earliest to the present time., Cork, 1902, p. 3; Vivian, p. 133: "Robert of Easton (sic), co. Bucks, quoting The Life of Sir Peter Carew, of Mohun Ottery, co. Devon., by John Hooker (c. 1527–1601), edited by Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (1792-1872), published 1840 in Archaeologia, the journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London
  16. ^ Vivian, pp. 133–145, pedigree of Carew.
  17. ^ Vivian, p. 133, quoting The Life of Sir Peter Carew, of Mohun Ottery, co. Devon., by John Hooker (c. 1527 – 1601), edited by Sir Thomas Phillipps, 1st Baronet (1792–1872), published 1840 in Archaeologia, the journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
  18. ^ Vivian, p. 133, quoting: "Berry's Surrey Pedigrees
  19. ^ "Walter son of Other | Domesday Book".
  20. ^ Sanders, p.116, note 6
  21. ^ "Walter son of Other | Domesday Book".
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