Elizabeth Maltby

Roger de Mowbray (fl. 1138–1188), son of Nigel d'Aubigny, granted lands in Yorkshire (mesne lordships in Carlton, Silton, Kepwick, Murton, Dale and Hawnby) to Hugh Malebiche early in the 12th century.

Hugh Malbis (Malbiche) was perhaps married to Emma, daughter of Guillaume de Brai (William de Bray). William de Bray was one of William the Conqueror's companions and one of the subscribing witnesses to the charter of the year 1088, conferred by William the Conqueror on the Abbey he had founded in commemoration of his triumph at Hastings. No grant of lands appears however in Domesday Book to the Brays; but that the family supplied sheriffs" to Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Bucks, and some other counties between 1202 and 1273, is fully established.
Hugh Malbiche had two sons, Hugh and William, of whom the former died without issue.

William Malebiche (died 1176) was married to Emma de Percy, an illegitimate daughter of William II. Percy of Acaster. Their son, Richard was one of the greatest of the York landowners in the twelfth century. He succeeded to very large estates in Yorkshire in 1176, but within six years he had become a debtor to Aaron of Lincoln. In 118_ one of his agents records in a Hebrew deed that he had received £4 from "Richard the evil beast " out of his great debt, and the accompanying Latin deed also refers to "the great debt which he owes to my master Aaron."

In March 1190, Clifford’s Tower at York was the site of the massacre of York’s entire Jewish population: 150 men, women and children.

"Anti-Semitism, stirred up by crusading fervour, resulted in riots in many English towns – notably Stamford, Norwich and Lincoln – and at Westminster during the coronation of King Richard I.  A Friday night mob targeted Jews in York, killing some; the remaining Jews gathered together and sought refuge in the royal castle.  They were ushered in for safety, but, somehow, trust broke down.  Fearing betrayal, the Jews made for the wooden Norman keep, barricaded themselves in and locked the royal constable out.  Troops were mobilised, mingled with the baying crowd, and the situation became very ugly.  Thinking they faced enforced baptism and the renouncement of their faith, or death at the hands of the mob, most Jews chose suicide; the men killed their wives and children, then each other.  A fire broke out – we don’t know how – any survivors of the mass suicide either perished in the flames or at the hands of the rioters as they tried to escape.

Jews were not permitted to own land in medieval England, but could accumulate more portable wealth which they were prepared to lend. Gentiles, on the other hand, were advised that lending money with interest was a sin.  So, Jewish moneylenders fulfilled a useful, and mutually beneficial, purpose.  Amongst the mob’s leaders in York that night were men of property who had borrowed from Jews and who saw an opportunity to wipe out their debts."

Richard Malebiche (Malebise) was one of them. Deeply indebted to the Jews, Richard was one of the leaders in the massacre of the Jews. As a punishment for his share in this outrage his lands were seized by the king. Malebysse appears to have been a supporter of Earl John, and in consequence he was one of those who were excommunicated by William de Longchamp in December 1191. In 1193 he paid a fine of twenty marks for the recovery of his lands till the king's return, and eventually paid six hundred marks for full restoration. In June 1199 he, or it may be his brother Hugh, was sent as an envoy to Scotland to William the Lion to demand homage. In July 1200 he had license to fortify Wheldrake Castle, but the permission was withdrawn at the request of the citizens of York. In May 1201 he was sent on a mission to the king of Scots to ask him to defer his answer as to Northumberland till Michaelmas. Malebysse was a justice itinerant for Yorkshire in 1201, and next year sat to acknowledge fines at Westminster. In 1204 he was employed in enforcing the of aids. He was keeper of the forests of Galtres, Derwent, and Wernedale. Richard died in 1209/10, leaving a son John, and a daughter Emma, who married, first, Robert de Maisnil, and, secondly, Robert de Stuteville. His grandson, Hercules Malebysse, is said to have married a Beckwith, daughter of William Bruce of Pickering, and so to have become ancestor of the family of Beckwith of Silksworth and Trimdon, Durham. His brother Hugh survived him, and in 1210 took part in John's Irish expedition as one of the king's household. Richard Malebysse was founder of Newbo Abbey, Lincolnshire, in 1198.
NOTE:  Richard is sometimes made a third son of Hugh (Guisbro' Chartul. [Surt. Soc.], ii, 61 n.), but in a charter granted by him to Rievaulx he speaks of Hugh as his uncle (Rievaulx Chartul. [Surt. Soc.], 214). Besides Maud Countess of Warwick, daughter of William II. Percy gave to her nephew, Richard Malebisse, the service of the fee, which Thomas Darrel held for her and herself in Wheldrake, doing to her and her heirs the service of one knight at some time before 1200.

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* In English law, subinfeudation is the practice by which tenants, holding land under the king or other superior lord, carved out new and distinct tenures in their turn by subletting or alienating a part of their lands. The tenants were termed mesne lords, with regard to those holding from them.