Waleran the Hunter (

floruit ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1086) (Latin: ''Waleran Venator'') was an Anglo-Norman magnate who held 51 manors as recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

of 1086, including Whaddon in Wiltshire and several in Hampshire, including West Dean, within the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, fea ...

. His Latin name (perhaps an epithet) as recorded in the Domesday Book, ''Venator'' ("the Hunter"), suggests that he was a hunt-official of that

royal forest A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...

.Hoare, Modern Wiltshire, 'Hundred of Cawden,' iii. 24 Little else is known about him.

Descendants

His descendants assumed the surname ''Waleran'', and Waldron one of the descendants in a junior line of which was Robert Walerand (died 1273), Justiciar to King Henry III. The senior line of the family retained the manor of West Dean until the death of Walter Waleran (d. ''circa'' 1200), who left three daughters and co-heiresses: *Cecily Waleran, wife of John de Monmouth, of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Manston, Maiden Newton, and Sutton Waldron, Dorset, Hewelsfield, Gloucestershire, West Dean (in West Tytherley), Hampshire, Great Wishford and Steeple Langford, Wiltshire, Birtsmorton, Worcestershire, etc., Governor of St. Briavel's Castle, Keeper of New Forest, Justice of South Wales. They had one son, John. *Isabel Waleran, wife of William de Neville. *Aubrey Waleran, wife firstly of Robert de Pole, secondly of John de Ingham and thirdly of William de Botreaux.

Sources

Victoria County History, Vol.4: Hampshire, 1911, pp.519-524, Parishes: West Tytherley with Buckholt, Manors: West Dean

References

Anglo-Normans {{England-bio-stub