Ancient history of Bartram family
The Bartrams first appear in history as Normans c. 980. The Normans were (largely Danish) Vikings who, in their ravishing of what we now call France, created Normandy. This family was of Danish Viking origin, though no historical record exists of them in that earlier time.
The basis of the deal that allowed the creation of Normandy was that the leader of the Normans (“North men”) recognised the King of France (or Gaul, or Frankia, or whatever it was called at that time) as his lord. The Count (later Duke) of Normandy was therefore not a king and Normandy was not a kingdom. This fact was the cause of many hundreds of years of wars. The first recorded member of this family was Thurstan de Bastemburg.
One of the major problems in identifying people from this period is that surnames had not yet come into existence. That is to say, nobody had the name Bartram. So what I’m discussing at this point are forebears, antecedents, of the people from later in time whom we now know of as Bartrams. Further, I cannot offer a family tree – that is probably impossible, as some generations of the Bartram line were not important enough to warrant any historical record. What I can do is outline something of an early history of the Bartram lineage.
Where the name Bartram came from is debatable. ‘Bartram’ is said to originate from the Danish Viking word for ‘Bright Raven’. Maybe: it is certainly attractive as the raven had special meaning to Vikings. However, maybe it derived from adapting, through time, the name Bastemburg.
Thurstan comes from ‘Thor’s Stone’ and it was the sacrificial stone Vikings placed their enemies on, so that they could then cut out their heart. This Bartram Thurstan built a fortified house on a cliff overlooking the River Risle, which runs north, through Normandy into the (now) English Channel. Thurstan was therefore described as ‘of the fortified house’ hence ‘de Bastemburg’.
What was this chap up to in those early days of Normandy? Well, this was the period when feudalism was being developed. What he was doing was giving his unflinching loyalty to his lord – the Count – and demanding it, in turn, from his own family and their collective followers. That they were now Norman didn’t mean that they had abandoned their Viking ways. Yes, they had adopted early French as their language, but that was as far as assimilation went. What these Normans were doing is furthering the power, influence and wealth of their Danish Viking peoples, as they had done for hundreds of years earlier.
Under Canute, the Danish Vikings had conquered not just Normandy, but the British Isles (England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland) and controlled from Greenland and Iceland, across Britain and Scandinavia. Their influence extended down Russian rivers into the Black Sea, Byzantium and the Mediterranean. The Bartrams were a part of this. Always, there was the problem of inheritance – second and later sons with ambition had to find new lands to conquer. In following centuries, we see these ‘junior’ sons appearing in the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily and Southern Italy, becoming nobles and even, sometimes, Kings of their own, new domains.
So the Bartrams were, basically, warriors. They may own farms, but the labour would have come from their retainers. They were not farmers in any meaningful sense. Thurstan became a feudal baron because he won his own battles and helped win battles for his lord, the Count. These warriors could see that how one survived constant warfare – and it was constant – depended on more than skill and strength. They saw that their God was partly responsible for survival. It therefore became the norm to devote a part of the proceeds of victory to their (newly Christian) church.
It was in this manner that these early Bartrams helped build Mont Saint Michel. Thurstan had a number of sons. His eldest built a castle a little further upstream, on a cliff overlooking the river. I ‘discovered’ it – because it’s not marked – hidden in dense undergrowth, by working out where a good warrior would have wanted it to be. It is a huge fortification; not the sort you’d attack with less than a national army.
This eldest son was therefore known as ‘of the hill fort’ -de Montfort. This is one of the great lineages of all time, in my opinion. Looking at the records of the Bastemburgs/deMontforts/(Bartrams) in Normandy, you can get glimpses of them at war, castle building, donating money to build religious establishments, and rising up the feudal ranking system.
By 1066, the Norman lord William had to assert his right to the English throne and two Bartrams brothers and maybe other family members using different titles, or names), went with William to Hastings and victory. Robert then was made Constable of Dover. Dover then and now is a vital key to the defence of England’s southern shore. It also placed Robert as commander of (now King) William’s household cavalry. His brother was given the job of protecting the north east border of England against the Scottish border (a dangerous no-man’s-land). Clearly, these two were very good warriors.
The name Bartram is now slowly coming into being, but phonetically. Berteram, Barterum, all sorts of spellings, but all one family. The northern branch was spelled Bertram mainly and became Barons of Mitford and numerous hamlets and villages between Newcastle and Scotland. I’m guessing here, but looking at how the barons in this area always stuck together in both civil and international wars, I’d say that the Duke of Northumberland then had been there immediate feudal lord in Normandy. That is to say, they were allies (and probably inter-related) from way back.
The first Bertram there married the daughter of the local Saxon chief. It is from this line that the (recently) famous and notorious Mitfords descend.
(more later)