From
Barons1:
I now return to the disinherited heir of the second baron of Pulford. The record of 1194 tells us that Osbern Fitz Hugh had three sons, Hugh, Alexander, and Simon, and that the eldest died and was succeeded by his brother Simon Fitz Osbert, whose career I have sketched. No explanation is given why Alexander was thus passed over, although the words of the record make it impossible to question his legitimacy, and difficult to argue that he was the youngest son. We can only infer that at the death of his eldest brother, the third baron of Pulford, which must have taken place towards the end of the troubled reign of Stephen [1154], he was either ousted forcibly by his younger brother, or legally disinherited, perhaps as being born out of England or unfit to perform in person the military service due to the Earl. He seems to have obtained the manorial estates, which his son afterwards held, in Reresby, Stainton, Snelland, Suntorp, and Hyngham, near Lincoln, in marriage with his wife Juliana de Reresby, and not as a subinfeudation out of those two fees in Marton, Holm, Wilfrikeby, Scapewic, Reresby, and Snelland, which his brother Simon Fitz Osbert was holding in 1166. Part of this property is described in his grandson, Ralph de Reresby's, gift to the Abbey of Barlings of "lands and tenements in the townships and territories of Rerisby, Steynton, Snellislund, Sunthorpe, and Hyngham, with his capital messuage in the town of Rerisby, with tofts and crofts, meadows and pastures, moors and marshes; with all homages and services both of free tenants and of cottars, wardships, reliefs, escheats, and all manner of revenues and liberties."
There can, I think, be no doubt that Alexander was in possession of this manor of Reresby with its extents, held of the fee of Steyton though not owing suit of court to it; and that like his son and grandson he held it - not of the lords of Pulford - but under the de Normanvilles, a family which afterwards became united with his own. If this view be correct Alexander was wholly disinherited, and did not receive even a younger son's portion out of the ancestral lands, and yet, in spite of this injustice, he made a fortunate match with an heiress of considerable wealth, and the fortunes of his home were more than restored by the brilliant marriages of his son and grandson. I am not able to give an account of the earlier family of Reresby to which this Juliana belonged, but she seems to have been of the race of the lords of Snelleslund, and was probably nearly related to the William Fitz Endo de Reresby, whose charter and seal I have described on page 19. The court at Chester must have decided against Alexander before 1154, but there is evidence that early in the reign of Henry the Second he was receiving, or at least claiming, service and rent from his cousin Richard de Ormesby, and this seems to indicate that he made an attempt to recover that part of his inheritance which was subject to English law; for he could only have claimed the overlordship of the land at Marton as being heir of Hugh Fitz Osborn. Alexander must have been living as late as in 1174, but I have unfortunately failed to find any charter in which he was concerned either as principal or witness.
Footnotes
[1] The Barons of Pulford in the 11th and 12th Centuries; George Sitwell, Scarborough, 1889; pages xix-xx
Est 1100 - 1194 (~ 74 years)