Roger de Busli


Roger de Busli was a Norman baron who participated in the conquest of England in 1066.
Roger de Busli was born in or around 1038. His surname comes from the town now known as Bully in Normandy, and he was likely born there. Busli was given lands in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Strafforth wapentake of Yorkshire. These had previously belonged to a variety of Anglo-Saxons, including Edwin, Earl of Mercia. and Rynold de Wynterwade, patriarch of the Wentworth family.
By the time of the Domesday survey de Busli was tenant-in-chief of 86 manors in Nottinghamshire, 46 in Yorkshire, and others in Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire, plus one in Devon. They became the Honour of Blyth, and within it, de Busli erected numerous castles, at Tickhill, Kimberworth, Laughton-en-le-Morthen and Mexborough.
Much of the de Busli's family's leverage came from their familial relationships with the crown through the Counts of Eu. Roger de Busli's wife Muriel was in favour with the queen, to whom she was probably a lady-in-waiting or a kinswoman, evident in the queen's grant to de Busli of the manor of Sandford upon his marriage. The de Buslis had one son, also called Roger, who died as an infant, thus leaving no heirs. Beatrix, probably Roger's daughter, married William, Count of Eu.
De Busli died in the last years of the 11th century without an heir. His lands were given to Robert de Bellême, but de Bellême lost them in 1102 after he led a rebellion against Henry I. Ernulf de Busli, probably Roger's brother, may then have inherited some of the lands; these were then passed to his son Jordan and grandson Richard de Busli. Richard de Busli was co-founder of Roche Abbey, South Yorkshire with Richard FitzTurgis in 1147.
The male line of the de Busli family ran out in 1213, and the de Busli family holdings passed into the family of Vipont through the marriage of Idonea de Busli with Robert de Vipont.