Sheriff of Norfolk
Sheriff of Suffolk
Events
Date of Birth: unknown.
Place of Birth: unknown.
Date of Death: September 1107.
Place of Death: Earsham.
The date is given by Keats-Rohan (p. 396). The place is given by Wareham (ODNB). The Complete Peerage (9:578 b) notes that sources differ as to whether the date was 8 September or 15 September.
Place of Burial: Norwich.
The place is given by Keats-Rohan (p. 396). Wareham (1993, p. 228) describes a struggle over where Roger would be buried.
Relationships
(possible) Father: Robert Bigod (who was a subtenant to the bishop of Bayeux in the Calvados region).
This relationship is given as probable by Wareham (ODNB). Geoffrey White in the Complete Peerage (9:575 b) states that it is possible, but unlikely on chronological grounds. White notes that “Bigot” was (and is) a common surname in Normandy.
Mother: unknown.
Spouse: Adelaide.
This relationship is given by Wareham (ODNB) and by the Complete Peerage (9:577). Keats-Rohan (p. 396) states that "it is fairly clear" that Roger was married only once, to Adelisa de Tosny.
Spouse: Alice de Tosny.
This relationship is given by Wareham (ODNB), by Keats-Rohan (p. 396), and by the Complete Peerage (9:577).
Children (by Adelaide):
(Complete source citations for the children are currently outside of the scope of this project. There is some uncertainty about the maternity of some of the children.)
William Bigod (died 25 November 1120).
Children (by Alice):
Gunnora married (1) Robert fitz Swein, lord of Rayleigh; married (2) Hamon de Saint-Clair.
Hugh (I) Bigod (about 1095 - before 9 March 1176/7), 1st earl of Norfolk, married (1) Juliane, daughter of Aubrey (II) de Vere, lord of Hedingham; married (2) Gundreda, daughter of Roger, earl of Warwick.
Humphrey Bigod.
Maud married William d’Aubigny, Master Butler of the Royal Household.
Cecily “de Belvoir” married William d’Aubigny the Breton.
References
Cawley, Charles. “Roger Bigod” in Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.
Cokayne, George Edward, and Vicary Gibbs; et al. The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant [2nd ed.]. (London: St. Catherine Press, 1910-59) Volume 9.
Keats-Rohan, K.S.B. Domesday People (1999).
“Roger Bigot”, "Roger Bigot" on the Open Domesday site.
Wareham, A.F. “Bigod, Roger (I) (d. 1107)”, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004).
Wareham, Andrew. "The Motives and Politics of the Bigod Family, c. 1066-1177" in Anglo-Norman Studies XVI (1993) pp. 223-242.