Sweyn Godwinson [Swegen Gōdwines sunu of Swein] (*1020 - +1052), Earl of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Somerset; eldest son of Earl Godwin of Wessex, and brother of Harold II of England.

Cnut the Great

1016 – 1035

Harold I. [Harold Harefoot]

1035 – 1040

Knud III Hardeknud [Harthacnut]

1040 – 1042

Edward the Confessor

1042 – 1066

Ralph the Timid [Ralf of Mantes] (?? - +1057) Earl of Hereford between 1051 and 1057

Edward the Confessor

1042 – 1066

Richard Scorpe {Srob} (?? ??), Lord in 1066 of Burford

Osbern Fitz Richard Scorpe; son of Richard Scorpe (?? - ??), Lord in 1086 of Burford, Tenant-in-chief in 1086

Origin of name

The name (pronounced "Scroop") may be derived from the old Anglo-Norman word for "crab" and that it began as a nickname for a club-footed illegitimate son of an English princess by a Norman knight. A crab moves sideways and so the name could fit a child with club feet. Whether far-fetched or not, it is fact that at one stage the family crest was a crab (subsequently five feathers) and that the family motto is still "Devant si je puis" -("forward if I can"), which could have a double meaning as of course a crab can only go sideways.

Early Scropes

One Richard Fitz Scrob (or Fitz Scrope), apparently a Norman knight, was granted lands by Edward the Confessor (1003–05 to 4 or 5 January 1066) before the Norman Conquest, in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire as recorded in the Domesday Book. He built Richard's Castle and Burford, near Ludlow in Shropshire, and is recorded in chronicles of the Conqueror's early years in England as asking for assistance against the Welsh.

His son was Osbern FitzRichard. According to one genealogy, his wife was Nest. This Nest is identified as the daughter of Gruffydd ap Llywelyn by his wife Edith of Mercia, herself granddaughter of Leofric, Earl of Mercia possibly by his wife Godiva (or Godgifu). The evidence for Nest's name comes from charters of her son Hugh granting lands to an abbey, where he declares his parentage; that son, however, is silent about his mother's antecedents. The heiress of this family eventually married into the Mortimer family, famous as Marcher Barons and important players in 14th century English politics. The Mortimer line was eventually merged into the Crown in the person of Edward IV of England. His paternal grandmother was Lady Anne Mortimer, heiress of the Mortimers and heiress of line of her brothers, themselves successively heirs of line of Richard II of England.

The same genealogy states that Osbern's great-grandson was Hugh Le Scrope who, having been born at Richard's Castle, was the first of the family to be granted lands formerly belonging to the Priory of Bridlington, in Yorkshire. However, recent research has shown no clear connection between this Hugh Le Scrope (or his alleged Yorkshire descendants) and Richard FitzScrob, or between Hugh le Scrope and subsequent Yorkshire Scropes.

The first well-documented ancestor of the Yorkshire Scropes appears to be Robert le Scrope (1134-aft.1198), who is described as the son of the aunt of Alice de Gant, Countess of Northampton by her husband Richard le Scrope. The Scrope family appear to be related and allied to the Gant family in the 12th century, and possibly trace their origins to Lincolnshire or Northamptonshire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrope

Harold I. [Harold Godwinson]

1066

Edgar II. [Edgar (the) Ætheling]

(* 1051 – + 1126)

He was proclaimed, but never crowned, King of England in 1066.

William I. [William the Conqueror]

1066 – 1087

William II. [William Rufus]

1087 – 1100

Sir Geoffrey de Cornwall (*?? - †1130) Knight; Baron of Burford.

·         #771 The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fodog and the Ancient Lords of Arwystli, Cedewen and Meirionydd (1881-1887), Lloyd, Jacob Youde William, (6 volumes. London: T. Richards, 1881-1887), FHL book 942.9 D2L; FHL microfilms 990,213-990,214., vol. 4 p. 88.

·         #1843 The Visitation of Shropshire, Taken in the Year 1623 (1889), Treswell, Robert (main author), (Publications of the Harleian Society: Visitations, volumes 28, 29. London: [Harleian Society], 1889), FHL book 942 B4h volumes 28-29; FHL microfilm 162,., vol. 28 p. 172

History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, vol. 4 p. 88

Henry I [Henry Beauclerc]

1100 – 1135

Robert de Mortimer *1140, of Essex, England. The identity of his wife is undetermined. +?

Stephen [Stephen of Blois]

1135 - 1154

Henry II. [Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet]

1154 – 1189