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 [click login on the menu bar]. More articles will be added as they become available. 

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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. This article 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.

 04 – Pedigrees, Power and Clanship: the Genealogical Works of David Sellar 

by Hector L. MacQueen

This article presents an overview and critique of the genealogical writings of the late David Sellar (1941-2019), Lord Lyon King of Arms in Scotland 2008-2014. Sellar focussed on the medieval genealogies of the chiefs of the West Highlands and Islands, especially Somerled and his descendants, the MacDonalds, and the MacDougalls. He was also interested in the Gaelic-Norse descent of the MacLeods and the Nicolsons as well as the possibly British Campbells, while he posited an Irish-Gaelic settlement of the lands of Cowal and Knapdale. While some of his findings have been overturned by more recent scholarship and the findings of DNA research, Sellar was a pioneer in his field who established a genealogical methodology of enduring value and use in the broader context of research, not just in Scotland, but also in other parts of the British Isles and in continental Europe.