Transcript 

of

Bastard

by

Paul Q. Karkeek

In: Collectanea Curiosa Devoniensia, Trans. Devon. Assoc., 1878, Vol X, pp. 402-403.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The paper, of which this article is part, was presented at the Association’s 1878 Paignton meeting.  The Bastard family has been important in Devon for many centuries.  The first of that name in Devon appears in the Domesday Book, which records one Robert Bastard as  holder of land ("tenant in chief") in Devon in 1086. It has been suggested that he was a son of William the Conqueror. The latter was illegitimate, and sometimes referred to as William the Bastard. It seems more likely that Robert took the "surname" because he too was illegitimate. He clearly was not the son of the Conqueror and his wife Matilda, to whom William is believed to have been unusually faithful. An alternative descent for Robert Bastard is provided on the Kitley House Hotel website (archived copy) suggesting that Robert was descended from the French Bastardiene line. This proposition depends on “Généalogie de la Maison de Bastard”, published in Paris in 1848. The article, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

At the close of the Meeting of the Devonshire Association at Kingsbridge, an excursion was made in a steamboat down the Kingsbridge river, and the luncheon took place at Splatt Cove. In the course of the day Mr. W. A. Jarvis, of Higher Bolberry, related the following local legend relating to the spot:

"The family of Mr. Bastard, of Kitley, Yealmpton, near Plymouth, are supposed to have come over from Normandy with the Conqueror, and the ancestor of the family had command of one of the ships which brought the army across the Channel. The fleet was scattered by a gale, and this particular ship made the shore at the entrance of Salcombe harbour, and the leader and his men landed at the very spot on which we are now assembled. This spot, together with the field, in all about an acre, is still held by the Bastard family; and although their land in this neighbourhood was sold or offered for sale about thirty or thirty-five years ago, this little isolated spot was retained, and it was supposed at the time, by those acquainted with the legend, that the reason for its being retained was the family tradition attached to it"

Now, although the legend is very interesting, there does not appear to be much foundation for it.

No chronicler mentions the gale which is supposed to have scattered the fleet; and even if a landing did take place in Splatt Cove, no one can be expected to believe that the invaders made a stay here, because the conquest of Devon did not take place until 1068, two years after the battle of Hastings. The name of Robert the Bastard does not occur in any of the lists of the Norman heroes who fought at Hastings, though it does in Domesday, and then as holding from the king the following manors; viz., Bachestane, Haroldsore, Dunistanetone, Blackeurde, Fitorde, Stanlius, Bicheton, Merwi. Splatt Cove is situated in the manor of West Portlemouth, in the parish of Malborough, and neither of the manors of Robert the Bastard can be supposed to answer to that of West Portlemouth.

According to Lysons, certain property in the parish of Malborough came into the Bastard family by purchase, after it had been possessed by the families of Haris, Davels, and Batson, and this may have been acquired at the same time.