Guillaume de la Mare
( William Fitz Norman )

Kilpeck Castle, Herefordshire Photo © Philip Halling, Feb 2006

Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire Photo © Philip Halling, Feb 2006

The "cil de La Mare" of Wace (l. 13555) came from Lamare at St-Opportune, arrondissement of Pont-Audemer, where the castle was built on piles on the border of a lake. Guillaume de la Mare, or Fitz Norman, as he is variously styled, was the son of Norman de La Mare, who lived c. 1030. William came to England at the conquest, a tenant-in-chief in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire; he was head of the house. He appears also as a sub-tenant in Wiltshire and Hertfordshire in 1086 (Domesday), under the name of William de La Mare. He married a daughter of Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester, from whom descended the barons of Braybrooke viscounts Doneraile. Hugh de La Mare, also called Hugh Fitz Norman, lord of Lea, his brother, occurs in a Breton charter in 1070, and also held under Hugh Lupus in Cheshire. His line became extinct with his grandson and his estates reverted to the palatinate barons of Montalt, descended from his brother Ralph, who was the earl's dapifer, and ancestor of this branch of the family. The fourth brother, Roger, is mentioned in a charter of Hugh Fitz Norman to St-Werburgh's abbey, Chester, 1107-20. --(This name appears on the Falaise Roll).

According to the Domesday Book, Kilpeck (Chipeete) was awarded by William the Conqueror to William Fitz Norman. William's son Hugh was responsible for building Kilpeck church and rebuilding Kilpeck castle before his death in 1169.