Note 36 — Chapter XXII

HUGH, lord of GOURNAY, who occupied the frontier district of Brai; an important post for the defence of Normandy. See before, p. 49. We find 'Hugo senex,' in a charter of Hen. I., who retired to and died at Bec; but this was probably a son of the one at Mortemer and Hastings. We may well expect to find him characterised as 'old Hue,' when we see Jehan de Flagy—or whoever wrote the old romance of Garin le Loherain, just published by M. Paris—boldly introducing 'Hues qui Gournay tient,' with 'Anjorrans li sires de Couci,' and 'de Toartois le vis-quens Haimeris,' as meeting 'la pucelle Blancheflors au cler vis,' at the court of Pepin, 'a la cit de Paris.' We find Hugh de Gournay,—probably the son,—a landholder in Essex, Introd. Domesday, i. 431; in the Red book roll is 'Hugo de Gurnayo 12 mil. et omnium reliquorum ad Marchiam.' See the history of this family, and of the junior branches which remained in England, in Burke's English Commoners, i. 484.