Research Notes:
Keats-Rohan states [1] that Manasser Biset was the "son of William Biset and Hawisa, tenants in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire of Stephen count of Aumale, lord of Holderness and successor of Dorgo de Beuvrière. He became dapifer to Henry II shortly before his accession to the throne. Manasser received extensive grants of land in Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, Wiltshire and Hampshire from Henry, which thereafter formed the barony of Biset (Sanders, 5-6). He was married to Alice, sister and heiress of Gilbert de Falaise, seigneur of Cany, Seine-Maritime, arr. Yvetot (Chartes Longueville, nos 5, 33), in whose right he held one fee of the honour of Giffard in 1166. His son and heir was Henry Biset, also the name of Manasser's brother. At his death in 1177 Henry was still a minor, coming of age in 1187."
In the description of the Priory of Maiden Bradley, the Wiltshire VCH states, [2]
Manasser Biset, steward of Henry II, was a landowner in five counties in 1158-9, (fn. 1) and his main interests lay in Hampshire and Wiltshire and at Kidderminster (Worcs.). Before 1164 he founded a hospital for leper women a mile north of the village of Bradley in south-west Wiltshire, and gave to it the manor of Bradley, which had been brought to him by his wife, Alice. (fn. 2) He added the reversions of the churches of Rockbourne (Hants) and Kidderminster. (fn. 3) Walter son of Osmund granted a mill to the lepers of Bradley before 1166, in a deed witnessed amongst others by Adam, Manasser's clerk. (fn. 4) Henry II confirmed Manasser's gifts in at least three charters, probably before 1164 and in 1169 and 1170, and granted freedom from forest fines and assarts. (fn. 5) Roger of Gloucester, Bishop of Worcester (1164-79), Richard of Dover, Archbishop of Canterbury (1174-84), and Manasser's son, Henry Biset, also confirmed the grants. (fn. 6) The parish church of Bradley had earlier been granted to Nutley Abbey (Bucks.), (fn. 7) and before Manasser's death, which occurred about 1176, (fn. 8) a chapel was dedicated at Bradley for the hospital, without prejudice to the rights of Nutley Abbey in the parish church. (fn. 9)
1. Pipe R. 1158-9 (Pipe R. Soc.), i, passim.
2. Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Hundred of Mere, 96.
3. Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Hundred of Mere, 97; Cal. Chart. R. 1257-1300, 151.
4. E 210/3033.
5. Cal. Pat. 1334-8, 113; Cal. Chart. R. 1257-1300, 322 (exemplifications); Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Hundred of Mere, 96; Dugd. Mon. vi, 644; R. W. Eyton, Court of Henry II, 131, 135.
6. Dugd. Mon. vi, 644; Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Hundred of Mere, 104.
7. Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Hundred of Mere, 95-96; Dugd. Mon. vi, 278-9.
8. Pipe R. 1176-7 (Pipe R. Soc. xxvi), 165.
9. Hoare, Mod. Wilts. Hundred of Mere, 96.
[1] K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday Descendants, A Prosopography of persons occurring in English documents, 1066-1166: II Pipe Rolls to Cartae Baronum (Boydell Press, 2002), 177.
[2] R. B. Pugh and Elizabeth Crittall, eds., A History of the County of Wiltshire, Vol. 3 (London, 1956), 295, [BritishHistoryOnline].