Hugh de Beauchamp (sometimes Hugh of Beauchamp; died after 1100) was a Norman who held lands in England after the Norman Conquest.
Background Hugh may have been from Beauchamps in Normandy or perhaps from Calvados.Loyd Origins Anglo-Norman Families pp. 20–21 No connection has been established between Hugh and Walter de Beauchamp, founder of the Beauchamp family which later acquired the Earldom of Warwick.Chambers and Fowler "Beauchamps" Bedford Historical Record Society p. 1
Career Hugh was a tenant-in-chief with landholdings in Bedfordshire.Keats-Rohan Domesday People p. 260 These lands have been considered to have made him the first feudal baron of Bedford.Sanders English Baronies p. 10 At the time of the Domesday Book he held 43 manors in Bedfordshire and additional landholdings in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire.Chambers and Fowler "Beauchamps" Bedford Historical Record Society p. 2 The core of Hugh's lands were those held before the Conquest by Eskil of Ware and men sworn to Eskil, with additional lands coming from thegns and sokemen in the county.Fleming Kings & Lords p. 118
Hugh witnessed a charter of King William the Conqueror, which can only be dated to sometime between 1070 and 1089, where he is named as "sheriff", but it is unclear whether he was sheriff of BuckinghamshireGreen English Sheriffs p. 28 or of Bedfordshire. Judith A. Green argues that it is more likely that he was sheriff of Buckinghamshire.Green English Sheriffs p. 25 Frank Barlow also assigns that office to Hugh in the early part of the reign of King William II.Barlow William Rufus p. 62 Katharine Keats-Rohan, however, claims that he was sheriff of Bedfordshire. Hugh also appears in the reign of William II as the sheriff of Buckinghamshire on a charter dating to between 1087 and 1095 as well as a charter from 1087.
Death and legacy Hugh lived into the reign of King Henry I, as Henry's queen, Matilda, gave a manor to Hugh. This grant can only be dated to sometime between 1100 and 1118. Hugh in March 1101 was also a surety for Henry in a treaty between the new king and Robert II, Count of Flanders.Green Henry I p. 62
Hugh married Matilda. She was probably the daughter and heiress of Ralf Tallebosc (or Ralph Taillebois), who was sheriff of Buckinghamshire before Hugh. Hugh probably had two sons – Simon and Robert. Simon was probably the elder son.Faulkner "Beauchamp, de, family" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Matilda is named as Simon's mother in a document dating to around 1124 to 1130.,Chambers and Fowler "Beauchamps" Bedford Historical Record Society p. 3
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