The Battle Abbey Roll. Vol. II.
by
The Duchess of Cleveland.
Prepared by Michael A. Linton
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Return to Index
Iay : or Gai. "Before 1135 the ancestor of Helias de Jay had been enfeoffed in the Shropshire manor of Bedston; and in 1165 the said Helias held it as a knight's fee under Geoffrey de Vere, then (jure uxoris) Baron of Clun. Helias seems to have married Margery, sister of Gilbert de Buckenhull. She was probably his second wife, and very much younger than himself."—Eyton's Salop. His line was extinguished in the fourth generation, ending with Thomas de Jay, who had died before 1349; but two of the manors dependent upon his Lordship of Bedston, Jay and Beckjay, are still called after him. A cadet of this house, "Brian de Jay, was the last Master of the English Knights Templars: at least he occurs in that office just before the dissolution of the Order in the reign of Edward II."[1]—Ibid. He was the only Englishman of note slain at the battle of Falkirk in 1298: and Trivet tells us that "his fellow Master of the Order in Scotland, fighting along with Jay, was also killed."
In this, as in almost all other cases, the name was far from being confined to one county, or perchance even to one family. Philip Gai is mentioned in 1138 as a kinsman of the Earl of Gloucester (Flor. Wigorn. ii. 109): and may have left descendants in Gloucestershire; for a brass in the church of St. Mary Radcliffe, Bristol, commemorates John Jay, Sheriff of the county in 1472, with his six sons and eight daughters. Robert de Gay was a benefactor of Oseney, Oxford (Mon. ii. 142): the same Sir Robert, of Hampton-Gay in Oxfordshire, who, in the time of Stephen, founded a Cistercian house at Ottley; the fourth monastery of that Order in England. The foundation charter is witnessed by Robert D'Oyly, the King's Constable, and Ralph de Salcey, and D'Oyly's frail wife, Edith Forne, was among the benefactresses. "Before the buildings were, however, complete, the monks deserted Ottley on account of the unwholesomeness of the low, damp situation; and fixed themselves near the Bishop of Lincoln's park at Thame."—Lupton's Thame. The new foundation was thence named Thame Abbey. The monks obtained a confirmation charter from Sir Robert's heirs; of whom three generations are given. His grandson and namesake married Edith D'Oyley. Adam de Gay, no doubt his descendant, held lands in Oxford and Wilts 9 Ed. II.—Testa de Nevill. According to Sir Bernard Burke, the family migrated into Devonshire, and married the heiress of Golds worthy, where they settled in r 420. "John Gay, the poet, was of the Goldsworthy family, the heir male of which, when Lysons wrote, was Mr. Lawrence Gay, of South Molton." Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Gay, alludes to his descent "from an old family that had been long in possession of the manor of Goldsworthy;" but adds that "Goldsworthy does not appear in the Villare:" and Chalmers suggests that Holdsworthy is probably meant. His parents were in poor circumstances; and "being born without prospect of hereditary riches, he was sent to London in his youth, and apprenticed to a silk mercer."