Volume 16 of Foundations is published online. Summaries of articles are shown below. The full articles are in PDF format and can be accessed after login. More articles will be added as they become available. 

Extracts of articles in Volume 16

01 – A proposed reworking of the Debenham pedigree

by Michael Andrews-Reading and Rosie Bevan

Untangling the successive generations of men named Gilbert Debenham who occupied a prominent role in Suffolk local government from the mid-1300s to the late-1400s has long proved a challenge. Authorities from Parkin to Wedgewood have unintentionally presented incorrect pedigrees, including family members and matches who had no historical existence and multiplying four Gilberts into five. Thisarticle traces the origin of the Debenham family, sets out their marriages, and aims to present a corrected pedigree based on primary sources.

02 – Pierre de Grandson and his family – Part 2. Note on Bonvillars & Cicon marriages

by David Williams

Further research has led to me to revise my thinking on the marriages between Grandson and the Bonvillars and Cicon families which I postulated in Foundations 15 (2022), pp. 11–15 and 16–19.

03 – A letter of Henry de Bonvillars, prior of Wenlock?

by David Williams

Authorship of a letter in the National Archives series SC 1/1–1/64, Ancient Correspondence of the Chancery and the Exchequer, has been attributed to William de Grandison, younger brother and deputy of Otho de Grandison, first Justiciar of North Wales. The letter reports on the works carried out at Conwy castle by the constable, William de Cicon, and has been dated variously from c.1284 to c.1288–9. A new analysis of the text and the context in which the letter was composed, inclu¬ding an examination of the role played by Grandison family relationships and affinity networks, leads the author to conclude that it was probably written in 1288 by Henry de Bonvillars, prior of Wenlock, and that William de Grandison was the recipient not the sender. The study also throws more light on extended relationships between the Grandison and Bonvillars families.

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