Aubrey de Vere
1040 – 1112
Vitals
Family
About
Aubrey de Vere came from Ver in the Cotentin and held great estates in Essex, Suffolk and elsewhere of William the Conqueror, chiefly the lands of a dispossessed English thegn named Wulfwine. He died in 1112 and was buried at Colne Priory. The only personal act the record preserves of him is a domestic one: he planted vineyards, at Hedingham and at Lavenham. A whole country changed hands, and the first thing this man is recorded doing with his share of it was putting in vines.
Research notes
✓ DOCUMENTED (CP vol. X pp.193-95, photographed 22 Jul 2026): AUBREY DE VERE I - a Norman taking his name from VER in the Cotentin (not its seigneur), b. probably before 1040; granted by WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR the great estates of the English thegn WULFWINE in Essex, Suffolk and Cambridge; in 1086 held 14 Essex estates in chief; attested 1084 as "Aubrey the Chamberlain"; head of his barony at (Castle) HEDINGHAM, "where he had planted a VINEYARD"; sheriff and justice under Henry I; at his eldest son's dying request gave Kensington church to Abingdon; founded EARLS COLNE PRIORY, assumed the monastic habit there before death; d. 1112 (before 1113), bur. with his wife in the priory church - two Barnack-stone fragments of the tomb slab, one inscribed "Albericus de Ver", recovered in the priory water garden and now at St Stephen's Chapel, Bures. COKAYNE'S CAUTION KEPT (App. J): "proof of identity is wanting" across the 1066/1086/1102 records - "possible that there were 2, or even 3, successive Aubreys" - THIS RUNG GRADED ~ accordingly. The Domesday head of the documented line. Added 22 Jul 2026. [DIRECT ANCESTOR OF THE COMPILER: flag added 24 Jul 2026 by walking the tree from Aynsley, so that this marker is reliable and can be searched.]