Even the most cursory examination of Giraldus’s family shows that it was firmly
based in south Wales, and Dyfed in particular, albeit with further footholds across the
Irish Sea after 1169. True, probably shortly before 1160 Giraldus’s father, William
de Barri, made a grant to the Hospitallers of land in Rackenford, a manor in Devon
belonging to the honour of Okehampton.44 It may well be significant that the lords of
Okehampton, William fitz Baldwin (d. 1096) and later his brother Richard (d. 1137),
sought to establish themselves in eastern Dyfed at the end of the eleventh and beginning
of the twelfth centuries: although these attempts were ultimately unsuccessful,
they may provide a context for the arrival in Dyfed of William de Barri’s father,
Odo.45 Whether the family held any land in Devon after William’s grant to the
Hospitallers is unknown, however.46 That it retained some links across the Bristol
Channel is suggested by the foundation by Giraldus’s eldest brother, Philip (d. c.
1199), of a guesthouse at Manorbier, which lay on the sea-route between Milford
Haven in Pembrokeshire and a port in Devon (possibly Barnstaple).47 Unfortunately,
we can only guess how far this act of piety was prompted by the family’s associations
with Devon. Giraldus chose to say nothing about the English background of his
father’s family, emphasizing instead its power in south Wales and claiming that its
name derived from Barry Island, thereby implying a connection with the de Bams
44 F. W. Weaver (ed.), A Cartulary of Buckland Priory in the County of Somerset, Somerset
Record Society 25 (1909), pp. 159-61 (nos. 386-9); Barrow, St Davids Acta (as n. 33) no.
28 and n. On the honour of Okehampton, see William Page (ed.), The Victoria County
History of the County of Devon, Vol. 1, London 1906, pp. 554-5; I. J. Sanders, English
Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford 1960, pp. 69-70.
45 Cf. Lloyd (as n. 3) 2 pp. 401,415, 427. The Devon background of a number of families
prominent in the Norman settlement in Dyfed is pointed up in Rowlands (as n. 1) pp. 149-50.
William de Barri owed a relief of £10 for his father’s estate in the 1130 Pipe Roll:
Joseph Hunter (ed.), Magnum Rotulum Scaccarii, vel Magnum Rotulum Pipae, de Anno
Tricesimo-Primo Henrici Primi, London 1833, p. 137.
46 None of the tenants of the honour of Okehampton in 1166 corresponds obviously to
William de Barri or to any other member of his family: Hall, Red Book (as n. 22) 1 pp.
251 -4. It is worth noting, though, that a Reiner de Barri was a tenant of Warm de la Haule,
lord of Bampton in Devon: ibid. p. 257; cf. Sanders (as n. 44) p. 5. Giraldus’s kinsman
(possibly uncle), William fitz Hay, lord of St Clears in Dyfed, may also have held land in
Devon, if he is the same as the man of that name listed as a tenant of William fitz Robert,
lord of Great Torrington, in 1166: Hall, Red Book (as n. 22) 1 p. 256; Giraldus, Opera 1
pp. 28, 59; cf. Lloyd (as n. 3) 2 p. 502 and n. 64; Sanders (as n. 44) p. 48. The identification
is arguably supported by the later connections between St Clears and Great Torrington
revealed by the grants of lands in the former lordship by William fitz Robert’s son, John,
lord of Great Torrington 1 185-1203, to the Cistercian abbey of Whitland: William Dugdale,
Monasticon Anglicanum, revd. edn. by John Caley et al., 6 vols. in 8, London 1817-30,
5 p. 591; cf. Rowlands (as n. 1) pp. 149, 150. I would like to thank Professor Frank
Barlow, Dr Julia Barrow and Dr Robert Bearman for their helpful answers to my queries
regarding the de Barris’ connections with Devon.
47 Davies, De fnvectionibus (as n. 22) p. 229.
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