Frame Family Origins
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FRAME FAMILY ORIGINS Dedicated to the memory of: A. D. WELD FRENCH Author of the "Index Armorial," Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Member of the Scottish History Society, and of the Committee on Heraldry of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, author of Notes on the Family of Frenche, The Antiquary, vol. viii., 1886. INTRODUCTION Frame Family Origins is a 'sketch' of how the family of Frame might have evolved from the Fresnels of Normandy; a series of 'rough notes' that may be useful to others as a starting point of research. These notes are largely based on a scant number of charters that have survived, a written record that can not provide the definitive answers that our modern sensitivities demand. Yet, the Normans left very firm clues as to who they were, for the organisation of their society was based on familial associations: If a great lord held a fief, and had a recorded heir, and that heir and his descendants were served by someone who originated in that fief and his descendants, holding land of them as mesne tenant, and serving them in official capacities, then there is a great probability that the someone was a younger brother of the heir; an association of cousins. The modern sensitivities of seeking certainty I mention are now served by DNA research, which can not be used to disprove the overall authenticity of written records, yet can be used to infer that some records are likely to be incomplete in a very critical way: The 'early' societies we study were full of recorded instances of boys assuming the name of their mother's second or third husband, which can only lead us to suppose a great deal of unrecorded such instances, and in this manner many true male-line descents are hidden. In many instances, therefore, we seek to measure the unmeasurable, and, when we find disparity between the records and DNA results, there is an all too natural tendency to dismiss the record and search for alternative histories of descent, when it would be more relevant to research the existing history more fully, and, if that yields no clue, then to accept that some things are hidden from us. I am not aware of how DNA analysis may or may not validate the written records of the Fresnels, as such as they are, yet, as explained, this may not be relevant, and if such analysis does support in any way what is written then this would be a fortunate event, reflecting an 'open' genealogical record. ETYMOLOGY The surname Frame, at least the one associated with Sir Adam Frame alias Frenche or Franche, can be traced to the canton of Pavilly, situated near Rouen, were a Osbern de Freschenes was tenant in the latter half of the tenth-century. This was the site of a famous monastery associated with Saint Frame[childe] alias Franc[hilde], a seventh-century Frankish princess. The first element of the name, whether given with an interchangeable n or m, referred to the Germanic origin of the Saint; the second element probably meaning noble. The monastery gave rise to the nearby settlement of Freschenes, which derived its name from the same root as that of the Saint, for, by substituting the word chênes for the personal element of the name, we have Franchenes, or simlar, from which, in the tongue of the time, as different from present French as is present English from Chaucer, would have been similar to Fre[yn]sheens; hence the derivative Fresheens, thus Freschenes, further contracted to Fresnes, this latter form being interpretted as pertaining to the ash tree. The termination chênes could have referred specifically to oaks, but is more likely to have been used in the general sense [arbor] to indicate "a wooded settlement of the Franks." Etymologists such as Förstemann interpretted the derivative as a Frisian settlement, specifically the abode of someone named Frisco, yet such a view lacks the historical context in which the name developed. Franche and Framche would have had the same conotation, both meaning "free" - as in Franci [free men] from whom Saint Framechilde descended. This is not to say that all those called Fresne or French, as examples, had origins in Pavilly, or that these names did not exist other than as a contraction of another, yet in the specific case of the ancestors of Sir Adam Frame, that they were otherwise known as Fresne [or Freynsh, Frenshe, Freinche, Frainche] was a result of ancient connections to a site associated with the Franks. I give this example - In 1348, John Freyne, the son and heir of "John Freigne," became seized of Moccas, Marden, etc., as on his father's recent decease. At the last period, a Robert Frensh was seized of other lands in Herefordshire, on whose decease, in 1370, the custody of his estate was committed in wardship, " durante minoritate heredis." Antiquaries wrongly thought that this record was one of the many that evinced the transition from Freyne to French, wherehas, in fact, the contraction Freyne and its like had always been Freynshe and its like. ANCESTRY Earl William FitzOsbern was the son of Osbern FitzHerfast, that is, Osbern the high-steward, who is also sometimes called Osbern de Crepon, from the name of an estate in the neighbourhood of Bayeux. William of Jumieges calls him 'procurator principalis domus', an office which was only concerned with that branch of the stewardship which regulated the internal service of the palace; his father being Herfast de Crepon, brother of Duchess Gunnor, wife of 'Duke' Richard I. Osbern FitzHerfast married Emma, a daughter of Count Rodolf of Ivry, who was a half-brother of the said 'Duke' Richard. Through her he inherited a large property in central Normandy, including the honours of Pacy, Jouy, and Cocherel on the Eure, lands dependant on Breteuil and centred on Ivry, the earliest demesne of the Norman 'dukes' [D.C. Douglas, William the Conqueror, pp. 89-90, 1964].[These lands include the fief of Freschenes]. Their son, William FitzOsbern, was probably raised at the court of his cousin and namesake Duke William, and like his father, became one of the ducal stewards. He founded Franche[land] in the Isle of Wight, named after his fief in Breteuil. William FitzOsbern married first Adeliza de Tosni, daughter of Roger I. de Tosni [David C. Douglas, 'The Ancestors of William Fitz Osbern,' English Historical Review, 59 (1944), 62-79]. Their son was Guillaume, 'Guillelmus fillius Guillelmi' [Chronicon Lyrensis], who married Adeline Montfort-sur-Risle; her kinsman, Hugh de Montfort-sur-Risle, gifted jointly with Guillaume de Francheville [Henry Richards Luard, Annales Monastici, lxiv., 1886], suggesting the Franche[villes] were a cadet of the family of Breteuil. The sister of 'Guillelmus fillius Guillelmi', Emma, was the grandmother of Amicia de Gael, who married Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicestershire. I would reasonably suggest that Osbern de Freschenes was a son of Radulphus de Beaumont [of both Maine, as Viscomte, and Normandy], who took his name from his fief of that name in canton Pavilly, arr. Rouen. This was an era of extreme nepotism, wherein close tenurial associations were based on familial ones, and Osbern de Freschenes, as son of Radulphus de Beaumont, brother of Onfroi de Vieilles, and son of a sister of the Duchess Gunnor, would have been cousin of Osbern FitzHerfast, and his son, Turold de Freschenes, seneschal of Osbern FitzHerfast, would perfectly fit the norm of a junior member of a family assuming an official role in a senior relative's household. The family of Radulphus de Beaumont of Normandy also had a strong familial link to the Bellême family of Maine; his sister, Josseline of Pont-Audemer, married Hugh de Montgomery, of Mont Gomeri, near Lisieux, around which the Crispin family held vast tracts of land; suggesting the Montgomery family to be closely connected to the Crispins. Their son was Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, Arundel, and Chichester, who held Orbec in Normandy [L. C. Loyd, Origins of some Anglo-Norman Families, pp. 68-9, 1975], and who married Mabel Talvas, daughter of William II. [Talvas] de Bellême, son of Guillaume I. de Bellême. The person identified as as Radulphus de Beaumont of Maine married, more likely than not, Godehildis de Bellême, sister of Guillaume I. de Bellême and Avesgaud, Bishop of Le Mans, the latter giving the church of Parigné-l'Evèque and Loué to "unam Hildeburgi sorori suæ primogenitæ et alteram Godehilde germanæ suæ secundæ" by charter dated [1000]. The primary source which confirms her first marriage has not yet been identified. "Rodulfus ... Cenomannus vicecomes ... mee bone coniugis Godehelt … filio Rodulfo" donated property to the abbey of Saint-Victeur du Mans by charter dated to 994 [Château-du-Loir 1, p. I.]. No direct proof has been given that this is the same Godehildis, but it appears likely that this is correct, as later tenurial and familial connections favour [Emile de La Bédollière, Mœurs et vie privée des Français. p. 50, 1835]. Osbern de Freschenes was the ancestor of the family of Ferte-Fresnel, the name suggesting an alliance with the family of Ferte; a title "it is certain which belonged to the house of Bélesme" [Julien Rémy Pesche Dictionnaire topographique, historique et statistique de la Sarthe, p. 314, 1829]; the same source stating that Avesgaud, as above, was the first owner of Ferte, but probably under the auspices of his brother, William. Thus, Bernard de la Ferte of Ferte-Bernard, who succeeded Avesgaud in Ferte, and who gave his name to it, was a most likely son of this William.