Complete Peerage states, [1]
Hugh de Port,(e) an undertenant of Odo Bishop of Bayeux in Normandy,(a) witnessed before the Conquest a charter of Duke William which probably passed at Bayeux.(b) In Domesday Book he appears as the most important lay tenant-in-chief in Hampshire, holding Basing, Sherborne St. John and 53 other manors in that county; of his Norman overlord, the Bishop of Bayeux, he held 13 manors there and a further 13 in Kent.(c) He was at one time sheriff of Hampshire,(d) and in the address of a royal writ for Hampshire of 1080-81 his name took precedence of that of the sheriff.(e) He was one of the barons present at the King's court in Normandy in 1085.(f) In 1088 during the later stages of the proceedings against William of Saint-Calais, bishop of Durham, he together with the bishop of Winchester and Geoffrey de Trailly was sent to order the bishop to send his monk Geoffrey to answer certain charges in the King's court. (g) In 1091 he attested charters of William II.(h) He m. Orence,(i) and d. as a monk in 1096.(j)
(e) Port-en-Bessin (Calvados, arr. Bayeux, cant. Ryes). The facts that his son founded the priory of Sherborne as a cell of the abbey of St-Vigor-de-Cerisy, which latter is within 13 miles of Port-en-Bessin, and that in 1166 among the English undertenants of the old feoffment of his grandson John de Port was Matthew de Scuris, taking his name from Escures close to Port-en-Bessin (Red Book Exchequer, Rolls Ser., p. 208), establish the provenance of the family. It should be noted that another
Domesday tenant-in-chief in Hampshire, Hubert de Port, the founder of the line of Mapledurwell, also came from Port-en-Bessin, since among the undertenants of Adam de Port, his representative in 1166, are men taking their names from Argouges, Le Fresne and Marigny, all within 4 miles of Port-en-Bessin {Idem, pp. 279, 280). Although express evidence is lacking, Hugh and Hubert may well have been brothers, in which case Hugh was the elder, since the Norman lands were held by his son.
(a) In 1133 his son Henry de Port held 3 knights' fees of the bishopric (see below).
(b) Antiq. Cartul. Eccles. Baiocensis (Soc. Hist. Norm.), vol. i, p. 10. It is unlikely that he was at this time a member of the ducal entourage; he was probably a local witness.
(c) This suggests that he owed his great position in England to the initiative of the Bishop; in Normandy he had obviously not been a man of much importance. For a discussion of his Domesday holdings see Round in F.C.H., Hants, vol. i, pp. 421-24.
(d) See note "j" below. Round thought this probable [loc. cit.).
(e) Davis, Regesta, no. 143.
(f) Idem, no. 207.
(g) De injusta vexatione Willelrm episcopi in Simeon of Durham (Rolls Ser.) vol. i, p. 193.
{h) Davis, Regesta, nos. 315, 319.
(i) The Liber Vitae of the New Minster at Winchester (Hyde Abbey) has the entry, "Hugo de Port. Orence coniunx eius" (ed. Hants. Rec. Soc, p. 73).
(J) Anno Domini millesimo nonagesimo sexto, Hugo de Portu factus monachus vicarius Wintoniae dedit ecclesiae Sancti Petri Gloucestriae Lyteltone in Hamptschire Willelmo rege juniore confirmante. Henricus filius Hugonis de Portu carta sua confirmat donum patris sui (Hut. S. Petri Glouc, Rolls Ser., vol. i, p. 93). A purported charter of William I describes him as "in suo obitu monachus effectus" [Idem, vol. i, p. 334); although it cannot be genuine, there seems no reason to doubt the fact stated, or that Hugh was clothed on his death-bed as a monk of Gloucester, without however entering the monastery. There can be no doubt that "Vicarius Wintoniae" here means sheriff of Hampshire. Hugh had a daughter, whom as "Adelidis soror Henrici de Port" the Liber Winton of 1107-1115 shows as holding a house in Winchester
[Domesday Book, vol. iv, Additamenta, p. 540). Emma de Percy also had a house there (Idem, p. 534); she was the wife of William de Percy, and either a daughter or near relation of Hugh (Ante, vol. x, p. 438, note "a").
[1] George E. Cokayne and Geoffrey H White, ed., The Complete Peerage, rev., Vol. 11, Rickerton to Sisonby (London: St Catherine Press, 1949), 316-318.