Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Roumare, William de
ROUMARE, WILLIAM de, Earl of Lincoln (fl. 1140), was son of Roger Fitzgerald and grandson of Gerald, steward of Duke William of Normandy, who about 1064 obtained a fief in the Roumois on condition of rendering service at Neufmarché-en-Lions (Ord. Vit ii. 113); Roger Fitzgerald held Corfe at the time of Domesday. William's mother, Lucy, was daughter and heiress of Ivo de Taillebois, and heiress, through her mother, Lucia, of that Thorold who was sheriff of Lincoln in the reign of Edward the Confessor; it has, however, been contended that there was only one Lucy, and that William's mother was widow of Ivo Taillebois and daughter of Thorold (Genealogist, v. 60–75, &c.; cf. art. Randulph le Meschin). After Roger's death Lucy remarried Randulf le Meschin, earl of Chester (Ord. Vit iv. 422). In 1118–19, during the rebellion of Hugh de Gournay, William de Roumare remained faithful to Henry I, and fought for the king at the battle of Brémule on 20 Aug. 1119 (ib. iv. 322, 346, 357). In November 1120 he was one of the knights who refused to cross over to England in the ‘White Ship’ because it was overcrowded (ib. iv. 412). In 1122 he claimed the lands of his mother in England, which his stepfather Randulf had surrendered to the king; Henry refused his consent, and William withdrew to Normandy. There, after a while, he rebelled and waged war from Neufmarché during two years. In 1127 he was one of the supporters of William Clito, but after that prince's death, on 28 July 1128, was the first to be reconciled to the king (ib. iv. 442, 473, 484–5). Henry gave him as his wife Hawisia (whom Ordericus calls Matilda), daughter of Richard de Redvers, and took him into his friendship [see Redvers, Family of]. William had recovered his English lands before 1130–1.
On Henry's death he was one of the barons who were sent to take charge of the frontiers of Normandy in December 1135, and in 1137 was one of the justiciars to whom Stephen entrusted the duchy (ib. v. 52, 91). About 1138 Stephen made him Earl of Lincoln. But in 1141 William and his half-brother Randulf, earl of Chester, seized Lincoln by a trick, and held it against Stephen (ib. v. 125; John of Hexham, i. 134). William was perhaps reconciled to the king in the spring of 1142 (Round, Geoff. de Mandeville, p. 159), but afterwards he seems to have been deprived of his earldom, which was conferred on Gilbert de Gand, who had married a sister of Earl Randulf. William appears as witness to a charter granted by Henry II, when Duke of Normandy, to Earl Randulf of Chester; and in his later years went on a pilgrimage to Compostella ({sc|Ormerod}}, Cheshire, i. 25). He died before 1168, perhaps about 1153. His obit was observed on 6 Aug. at Bayeux, to which he gave the church of Ver in the Bessin; but at Lincoln, where he confirmed his father's foundation of the prebend of Asgarby, it was kept on 11 Sept. (Lincoln Obituary, ap. Gir. Cambr. vii. 161). William de Roumare founded the Cistercian abbey of Revesby in 1142 or 1143 (Dugdale, Monast. Angl. v. 453; Chron. Louth Park Abbey, p. 31); he also made a bequest to Rouen Cathedral for the souls of himself and his family. Ordericus Vitalis says that he was dissolute in his youth, but, after a severe illness, and at the instance of Archbishop Geoffrey of Rouen (d. 1128), mended his ways and established monks at Neufmarché in 1132 (iv. 485, v. 207–8).
He had one son, William Elias, who died in 1152, having, by Agnes, sister of William, earl of Albemarle, two sons (Robert de Torigni, ap. Chron. Stephen, &c., ii. 167, Rolls Ser.), of whom one, William III of Roumare, is often styled Earl William de Roumare, though he never held the earldom of Lincoln; he died before 1198, without issue.
The dubious reference to a William, earl of Cambridge, under date 1139 (Monast. Angl. vi. 949), most probably is intended for William de Roumare (Round, Feudal England, pp. 184–7).
[Ordericus Vitalis (Soc. de l'Hist. de France). The notices in the Continuation of the pseudo-Ingulph ap. Fulman's Scriptores are untrustworthy. Stapleton's Rot. Scacc. Norm. vol. i. p. cxxxviii, vol. ii. pp. cli–clx; Collectanea Top. et Gen. viii. 155–8; Topographer and Genealogist, i. 17–28 (1846); Genealogist, v. 60–75, 153–73, vi. 129–39, vii. 62, 178–9, vii. 1–5, 81–91, 148–50; Nichols and Bowles's Antiq. of Laycock, pp. 66–79; Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville and Feudal England; G. E. C[okayne]'s Complete Peerage, v. 84–8.]