Roger Godberd
In 1267, a man named Roger Godberd (who had been outlawed for fighting against the King during the Second Barons' War) took up residence in the Forest of Sherwood, along with a number of other outlaws of whom he was apparently the leader. Roger Godberd grows up every bit a part of the English establishment. Born in Nottingham, during the 1260’s he becomes a loyal member of the Nottingham castle garrison under Lord Robert de Ferrers, the Earl of Derby, in Swannington, Leicestershire. Roger Godberd was a thug and arsonist who led a band of highwaymen who robbed wealthy travellers Half covered in moss and with no headstone, this Warwickshire grave gives no sign of its importance. But an historian has claimed this is the grave of one of the most famous men in English folklore. Roger Godberd Between 1266 and 1272, Nottinghamshire and the neighbouring counties of Derbyshire and Leicestershire, were the target of a crime spree led by Roger Godberd, who was identified as ‘leader and master’. Records of Roger Godberd on Ancestry. Ancestry is a major source of information if you are filling out your Roger Godberd family tree. Many large databases are available to search covering from births, deaths and marriages, military records, census records and immigration records with many other smaller collections too.
Below is a membrane of a court roll of 1278, in which one Richard Coleshill accused a gang of thieves of taking his goods and chattels from the manor of Swannington in Leicestershire.
The gang was led by Roger Godberd, one of the most remarkable gangsters or mob bosses of the thirteenth century. Roger was a prominent Montfortian outlaw during the 1260s and led a gang of robbers in the forests of Charnwood and Sherwood. Finally, after several years of plaguing the Midlands, he was hunted down and captured by Reynold Grey, High Sheriff of Nottingham.
Unsurprisingly, Roger the Dodger has been suggested as the inspiration for the later Robin Hood ballads. He appears as a supporting player in my new novella, Longsword (IV) The Hooded Men, and I will post more on him in the near future.
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