Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Richard Fitzscrob
RICHARD FITZSCROB (fl. 1060), Norman baron, came from Normandy to settle in England in the time of Edward the Confessor. He was one of the few Normans who, thanks to their kindliness towards the English, were not expelled by Earl Godwin in 1052 (Flor. Wig. i. 210). One of the others was Richard's father-in-law, Robert the Deacon, whom Mr. Eyton identifies with Robert FitzWimarch. From ‘Domesday’ we find that in the time of King Edward Richard FitzScrob held the manors of Burford in Shropshire, together with four manors in Worcestershire and lands in Herefordshire. He is said to have erected the building known as Richard's Castle in Herefordshire, which was the first regular castle erected on English land. The Herefordshire ‘Domesday’ mentions no such castle, but connects a castle, called Auretone, with Osbern, son of Richard, and one Richard (no doubt Richard FitzScrob) with an adjacent manor. After the conquest Richard adopted the Norman side, and, together with his ‘castellani Herefordenses,’ took the lead in opposing Edric the Wild (ib. ii. 1). He dispossessed the church of Worcester of the manor of Cotheridge (Monast. Angl. i. 594). Richard was dead before the time of Domesday, and his lands were held by his son Osbern. Osbern FitzRichard (fl. 1088) had held lands in Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire in the time of King Edward. In ‘Domesday’ he appears as one of the few tenants-in-chief in the first-named county; he then also held lands in Bedfordshire and Warwickshire. He took part with Earl Roger of Shrewsbury's men in the rebellion of 1088, and was one of the leaders of the force which threatened Worcester, and was repulsed by the curse of Bishop Wulstan (Ord. Vit iii. 270). He gave Boraston in Burford, Shropshire, to the church of Worcester. Freeman seems to be mistaken in identifying Osbern FitzRichard with Osbern Pentecost. Osbern's wife was perhaps Nest, daughter of Gruffydd ap Llewelyn. Her daughter married Bernard (fl. 1093) [q. v.] of Neufmarché, and a son, Hugh FitzOsbern, who married Eustachia de Say, died before 1140. Hugh had two sons: Osbern, who died about 1185; and Hugh de Say, who was ancestor of the Talbots of Richard's Castle and of the Cornwalls of Burford.
It has been conjectured that the great northern family of Scrope was descended from Richard FitzScrob. Richard is called ‘Ricardus Scrupe’ in the Herefordshire ‘Domesday’ (p. 186), and his son Osbern is once called ‘Osbern filius Escrob’ (Hemming, Cartulary, i. 78). In an early charter of Hugh FitzOsbern there is mention of a Richard de Escrop. In 1163 (Pipe Roll, 5 Henry II) a Robert de Scrupa held two knights' fees in Gloucestershire. The Gloucestershire name is also spelt Escropes and Escrupes, and eventually appears as Croupes; the various forms are sufficiently close to suggest a connection between Scrob and Scrope. The Yorkshire family appears to be derived from a Robert Scrope of Lincolnshire in the eleventh century.
[Flor. Wig. (Engl. Hist. Soc.); Domesday, pp. 185–6, 260; Eyton's Antiquities of Shropshire, iv. 302–9, v. 208, 224–6 et alibi; Nash's Hist. of Worsestershire, i. 239–41, 257; Robinson's Castles of Herefordshire and their Lords; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 654; Bristol and Gloucester Archæological Transactions, iii. 351, iv. 157–8, xiv. 307–9; Powlett Scrope's Hist. of Castle Combe; Freeman's Norman Conquest; Round's Feudal England, pp. 320–6; Academy, 26 Oct. 1895, pp. 339–40.]