The Baronial Order of Magna Charta
Encyclopedia
The Baronial Order of Magna Charta ("BOMC") is a scholarly, charitable, and lineage society founded in 1898. The BOMC was originally named The Baronial Order of Runnemede, but the name was subsequently changed to better reflect the organization's purposes relating to the Magna Charta and the promulgation of "freedom of man under the rule of law."
501(c)3 corporation with research, charitable, and educational purposes. Among other things, the BOMC, and the related Magna Charta Research Foundation, seek to "encourage the study and practice of the Magna Charta, within its historical context, and the evolution of its meaning as represented in the concepts of self-determination and the rule of law." Towards this end, the BOMC preserves documents and literature relating to the Magna Charta, sponsors scholarships and educational programs, and works with the Magna Charta Trust in the United Kingdom in furtherance of that organization's preservational and educational goals. Notably, since 1993, the BOMC has held a seat on the Board of Trustees of the Magna Charta Trust.
Descendants of the following non-Surety supporters of the Magna Charta are also candidates for membership in the BOMC: William III d'Aubigny, Hubert de Burgh, Alan of Galloway, William Marshall, Sr., and William IV de Warenne. Membership may also be considered for individuals of good moral character who, while not descended from a surety or non-surety supporter, have an interest in the purposes of the BOMC.
The BOMC maintains a partial list of "gateway" immigrants who descend from Magna Charta Barons. Many of these individuals and their descendants played significant roles in the history of the United States. For example, George Washington
's family descend from William d'Aubigny, Lord of Belvoir Castle
.
, Federal Judge and Director of the FBI; Hugh Scott
, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania; Dorsey B. Hardeman, influential Texas politician; and, Martin W. Clement
, 20th century railroad magnate. Recipients of the BOMC's Magna Charta Day Award include Sir Winston Churchill
, General Douglas MacArthur
, President Dwight D. Eisenhower
, and Masters of The Rolls of England Lords Donaldson and Woolf.
Profile
The BOMC is a PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
501(c)3 corporation with research, charitable, and educational purposes. Among other things, the BOMC, and the related Magna Charta Research Foundation, seek to "encourage the study and practice of the Magna Charta, within its historical context, and the evolution of its meaning as represented in the concepts of self-determination and the rule of law." Towards this end, the BOMC preserves documents and literature relating to the Magna Charta, sponsors scholarships and educational programs, and works with the Magna Charta Trust in the United Kingdom in furtherance of that organization's preservational and educational goals. Notably, since 1993, the BOMC has held a seat on the Board of Trustees of the Magna Charta Trust.
Membership Requirements
Membership in the BOMC may be extended to men and women of good moral character who can establish through genealogical proofs (i.e., primary or acceptable secondary sources) their descent from one of the twenty five Magna Charta Surety Barons:- William d'Aubigny, Lord of Belvoir CastleBelvoir CastleBelvoir Castle is a stately home in the English county of Leicestershire, overlooking the Vale of Belvoir . It is a Grade I listed building....
. - Roger BigodRoger Bigod, 2nd Earl of NorfolkRoger Bigod was the son of Hugh Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk and his first wife, Juliana de Vere. Although his father died 1176 or 1177, Roger did not succeed to the earldom of Norfolk until 1189 for his claim had been disputed by his stepmother for her sons by Earl Hugh in the reign of Henry II...
, Earl of NorfolkEarl of NorfolkEarl of Norfolk is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. Created in 1070, the first major dynasty to hold the title was the 12th and 13th century Bigod family, and it then was later held by the Mowbrays, who were also made Dukes of Norfolk...
and SuffolkEarl of SuffolkEarl of Suffolk is a title that has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forfeited by his heir, Ralph de Guader, in 1074...
. - Hugh BigodHugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of NorfolkHugh Bigod was the eldest son of Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk, and for a short time the 3rd Earl of Norfolk.In 1215 he was one of the twenty-five sureties of Magna Carta of King John...
, Heir to the Earldoms of NorfolkEarl of NorfolkEarl of Norfolk is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. Created in 1070, the first major dynasty to hold the title was the 12th and 13th century Bigod family, and it then was later held by the Mowbrays, who were also made Dukes of Norfolk...
and SuffolkEarl of SuffolkEarl of Suffolk is a title that has been created four times in the Peerage of England. The first creation, in tandem with the creation of the title of Earl of Norfolk, came before 1069 in favour of Ralph the Staller; but the title was forfeited by his heir, Ralph de Guader, in 1074...
. - Henry de BohunHenry de Bohun, 1st Earl of HerefordHenry de Bohun, 1st Earl of Hereford was an Anglo-Norman nobleman.He was Earl of Hereford and Hereditary Constable of England from 1199 to 1220.- Lineage :...
, Earl of HerefordEarl of HerefordThe title of Earl of Hereford was created six times in the Peerage of England. See also Duke of Hereford, Viscount Hereford. Dates indicate the years the person held the title for.-Earls of Hereford, First Creation :*Swegen Godwinson...
. - Richard de ClareRichard de Clare, 4th Earl of HertfordRichard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford, 4th Earl of Gloucester jure uxoris was the son of Roger de Clare, 2nd Earl of Hertford and Maud de St. Hilary. More commonly known as the Earl of Clare, he had the majority of the Giffard estates from his ancestor, Rohese...
, Earl of Hertford. - Gilbert de ClareGilbert de Clare, 5th Earl of HertfordGilbert de Clare, 4th Earl of Hertford, 5th Earl of Gloucester was the son of Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford, from whom he inherited the Clare estates. He also inherited from his mother, Amice Fitz William, the estates of Gloucester and the honour of St. Hilary, and from Rohese, an...
, heir to the earldom of Hertford. - John FitzRobertJohn FitzRobertJohn FitzRobert is listed as one of the Surety Barons in Magna Carta where he is described as Lord of Warkworth Castle. He married Ada de Boliol, ca. 1218, daughter of Hugh de Balliol and Cecily de Fontaines. His son was Roger FitzJohn, Lord of Warkworth, who married Isabel de Dunbar daughter of...
, Lord of Warkworth CastleWarkworth CastleWarkworth Castle is a ruined medieval building in the town of the same name in the English county of Northumberland. The town and castle occupy a loop of the River Coquet, less than a mile from England's north-east coast...
. - Robert FitzwalterRobert FitzwalterLord Robert FitzwalterAlso spelled FitzWalter, fitzWalter, etc. was the leader of the baronial opposition against King John of England, and one of the twenty-five sureties of the Magna Carta...
, Lord of Dunmow Castle. - William de FortibusWilliam de Forz, 3rd Earl of AlbemarleWilliam II de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle was an English nobleman. He is described by William Stubbs as "a feudal adventurer of the worst type".-Family background:...
, Earl of AlbemarleEarl of AlbemarleEarl of Albemarle is a title created several times from Norman times onwards. The word Albemarle is the Latinised form of the French county of Aumale in Normandy , other forms being Aubemarle and Aumerle...
. - William Hardell, **Mayor of the City of LondonCity of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
. - William de Huntingfield, Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk.
- John de Lacie, Lord of Pontefract CastlePontefract CastlePontefract Castle is a castle in the town of Pontefract, in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was the site of the demise of Richard II of England, and later the place of a series of famous sieges during the English Civil War-History:...
. - William de LanvalleiWilliam de LanvalleiWilliam de Lanvallei was an English landowner, governor of Colchester Castle, and a Magna Carta surety. He was lord of Walkern.His daughter Hawise married John De Burgh.-Notes:...
, Lord of Standway Castle. - William MaletWilliam Malet (Magna Carta)William Malet was one of the guarantors of Magna Carta. Also known as William II Malet. He was lord of Curry Mallet and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, and served as High Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset for 1209. The precise nature of his relationship to the earlier Malets is disputed. His first wife...
, Sheriff of SomersetSomersetThe ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
and DorsetDorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
. - Geoffrey de MandevilleGeoffrey FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of EssexGeoffrey FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville, 2nd Earl of Essex and 6th Earl of Gloucester was an English peer and member of the House of Lords...
, Earl of EssexEarl of EssexEarl of Essex is a title that has been held by several families and individuals. The earldom was first created in the 12th century for Geoffrey II de Mandeville . Upon the death of the third earl in 1189, the title became dormant or extinct...
and GloucesterEarl of GloucesterThe title of Earl of Gloucester was created several times in the Peerage of England. A fictional earl is also a character in William Shakespeare's play King Lear. See also Duke of Gloucester.-Earls of Gloucester, 1st Creation :...
. - William Marshall Jr, heir to the earldom of PembrokeWilliam Marshal, 2nd Earl of PembrokeWilliam Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke was a medieval English nobleman, and the son of the famous William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke.-Early life:William was born in Normandy probably during the spring of 1190...
. - Roger de MontbegonRoger de MontbegonRoger de Montbegon was a landowner in northern England , Baron of Horneby, and one of the Magna Carta sureties....
, Lord of Hornby Castle, LancashireHornby Castle, LancashireHornby Castle is a country house, developed from a medieval castle, standing to the east of the village of Hornby in the Lune Valley, Lancashire, England. It occupies a position overlooking the village in a curve of the River Wenning...
. - Richard de MontfichetRichard de MontfichetRichard de Montfichet was a Magna Carta surety. He was a landowner in Essex.His father was another Richard de Montfichet whose maternal grandfather was Richard de Luci. His daughter Avelina married William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle.-External...
, Baron. - William de MowbrayMowbrayMowbray is an Anglo-Norman baronial house, derived from Montbrai in Normandy. From this village came Geoffrey de Montbrai who came to be Bishop of Coutances and accompanied Duke William of Normandy at the Conquest of England in 1066....
, Lord of Axholme Castle. - Richard de PercyRichard de PercySir Richard de Percy , 5th Baron Percy, was a Magnate from the North of England, and a participant in the First Barons' War.He was the son of Agnes de Perci, suo jure Baroness Percy, the heiress of the Percy estates, and her husband Joscelin of Louvain, who was styled "brother of the queen"...
, Baron. - Saire/Saher de QuinceySaer de Quincy, 1st Earl of WinchesterSaer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester was one of the leaders of the baronial rebellion against King John of England, and a major figure in both Scotland and England in the decades around the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.Saer de Quincy's immediate background was in the Scottish...
, Earl of WinchesterEarl of WinchesterEarl of Winchester was a title that was created three times in the Peerage of England during the Middle Ages. The first was Saer de Quincy, who received the earldom in 1207/8 after his wife inherited half of the lands of the Beaumont earls of Leicester. This creation became extinct in 1265 upon the...
. - Robert de RoosRobert de RosSir Robert de Ros, or de Roos of Helmsley, , was the grandfather and ancestor of the Barons Ros of Helmsley that was created by writ in 1264. In 1215, Ros joined the confederation of the barons at Stamford...
, Lord of Hamlake Castle. - Geoffrey de SayeGeoffrey de SayeGeoffrey de Say was an English nobleman, and Magna Carta surety.He held land at Edmonton and Sawbridgeworth. He had family claims to larger estates, but they had gone to the kinsman Geoffrey Fitz Peter, 1st Earl of Essex.-Family:...
, Baron. - Robert de VereRobert de Vere, 3rd Earl of OxfordRobert de Vere was the second surviving son of Aubrey de Vere III, first earl of Oxford, and Agnes of Essex. Almost nothing of his life is known until he married in 1207 the widow Isabel de Bolebec, the aunt and co-heiress of his deceased sister-in-law. The couple had one child, a son, Hugh,...
, heir to the earldom of OxfordEarl of OxfordEarl of Oxford is a dormant title in the Peerage of England, held for several centuries by the de Vere family from 1141 until the death of the 20th earl in 1703. The Veres were also hereditary holders of the office of master or Lord Great Chamberlain from 1133 until the death of the 18th Earl in 1625...
. - Eustace de VesciEustace de VesciEustace de Vesci was an English lord of Alnwick Castle, and a Magna Carta surety.-Early life:His parents were William de Vesci and Burga de Stuteville, daughter of Robert III de Stuteville. He paid his relief on coming of age in 2 Richard I . He was with the king Richard I of England in Palestine...
, Lord of Alnwick CastleAlnwick CastleAlnwick Castle is a castle and stately home in the town of the same name in the English county of Northumberland. It is the residence of the Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest, and renovated and remodelled a number of times. It is a Grade I listed building.-History:Alnwick...
.
Descendants of the following non-Surety supporters of the Magna Charta are also candidates for membership in the BOMC: William III d'Aubigny, Hubert de Burgh, Alan of Galloway, William Marshall, Sr., and William IV de Warenne. Membership may also be considered for individuals of good moral character who, while not descended from a surety or non-surety supporter, have an interest in the purposes of the BOMC.
The BOMC maintains a partial list of "gateway" immigrants who descend from Magna Charta Barons. Many of these individuals and their descendants played significant roles in the history of the United States. For example, George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
's family descend from William d'Aubigny, Lord of Belvoir Castle
Belvoir Castle
Belvoir Castle is a stately home in the English county of Leicestershire, overlooking the Vale of Belvoir . It is a Grade I listed building....
.
Notable Members and Award Recipients
Among others, members of the BOMC have included: Frederick H. Winston, diplomat and founder of the law firm Winston & Strawn; Charles W. Darling, Assistant Secretary of the Navy; William S. SessionsWilliam S. Sessions
William Steele Sessions is a civil servant who served as a judge and 4th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation...
, Federal Judge and Director of the FBI; Hugh Scott
Hugh Scott
Hugh Doggett Scott, Jr. was a politician from Pennsylvania who served in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and who also served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee.- Early life :He was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on November 11, 1900...
, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania; Dorsey B. Hardeman, influential Texas politician; and, Martin W. Clement
Martin W. Clement
Martin W. Clement was the 11th president of the Pennsylvania Railroad .He attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, ....
, 20th century railroad magnate. Recipients of the BOMC's Magna Charta Day Award include Sir Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
, President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, and Masters of The Rolls of England Lords Donaldson and Woolf.