Sir Richard Hoare, in his History of Wilts, gives the following pedigree of this family, taken from an ancient MS. said to have been found among the muniments of Glastonbury Abbey. It derives them (in the female line) from Duke Rollo, fantastically described as “un Sarazin” (then probably the generic term for all heathens) “qi vient hors de Denemarche en ffrance.”

“Richard le tierce, Duke de Normandie fuist le filz Richard le quinte Duke, q’l Richard avoit issue Rob’t le sisme Duke et Elene, Countasse Husees. William Bastard fuist le filz Rob’t, et le septisme Duke de Normandie, et cest William Bastard fuist conquer’ d’ Englete’. La dite Elene file Richard le quint’ Duke et frere Rob’t le sisme Duke avoit issue Hubert Husee, qi fuist le premer q’vient en Englete’ avec le Conquer’ soun cosyn germayn, et icestuy Hubert fuist counstable del hoste le Roy William Conquer’ et mult ayda et soverayment p’sta en la conquest al Roy soun dit cosyn, et icestuy Hubert le premier engendra William Husee. William engendra William Husee. William engendra Geffrey Husee, q’ mult avea, et sovaynement p’fita a soun cosyn Emprice Maude, et a Henry filz Maude en lour querelle encountre le Roy Stevene. Geffrey Husee engendra Henry et Hubert Husee, Roy d’Aubegeys, et eisne frere Saintz William le bon moigne, et X autres fils qui totent fuerunt chivalers, prus et errantz en armes. Henry, eisne frere Roy Hubert, engendra James Husee. James engendra Hubert, q’ fuist marie a la file le Counte de Warwyk, qi avoit issue James Husee et III autrez filz et II files. James engendra Renaud Husee. Renaud engendra Edmund Husee. Edmund engendra Johane q’ fuit mariez a Thomas Hungerford, chivaler, et Maude, q’ fuist mariez a Philip de la Mare.

“Icestuy Hubert Husee Roy d’Aubegeys, fuist tre noble chivaler, et vaillant. Icestuy Hubert al temps qil fuist en jeouene chivaler, a une tornament a arne blanc tomea al Roy de Ffraunce et sakka le Roy de Ffraunce hors de son chival; le graunt feraunt enporta le Roy entre ces bras hors del tornement a son estaundard, et la conq’st se dit Hubert p’ covenant p’ entre le Roy de Ffraunce, et luy p’ devaunt fait le bon cheval le graunt feraunt qi le Roy de Ffraunce fuist montes, et cink mil florenes d’or, et puis icestuy Hubert p’ bataille et champestre conquest, et tua le Duke haine de Antioche a Antioche, et illoq’s conquist le goupyl d’or pour quoi il fuist appelle Sr Hubert Husee le goupil. Et puis icestuy Hubert conquist le isle d’Aubegeys s’ les Sarazins, et c’y p’ g’unt fortz, et g’unt batailles, oue graunte ayde de les vaillantz chivalers ses ffrere, et de soun frere William le bon moigne, le dit Hubert devaunt son departes fuist coronez Roy d’Aubegeys, et plusours auns apres le Roy Hubert vient en Engletere, et oue gunt noblesse p’ estre venu en la pais dont il estoit ne, et come fortune luy voudroit mourust en Engletere, et fuist enterez a Baa (Bath); et icestuy Roy Hubert fist mult des autres preves, et quientises en armes dyvers pais passaunt totes altres chivalers en son temps. Et dauntz William, le bon moigne de Glastonbirie, frere a Roy Hubert, fuist fort et vaillant, et de honeste conversacion, et combata al Soudan de Babyloyne corps a corps a un graunt bataille, q’ fuist entre eux assiz, et le bon moigne occis le Soudan et les Sarazins ove graunt prees et noumbre de peple fauusement encountre lour pinysse, environnerent le bon moigne, et luy tuerent et martizirent, et les oos de luy p’ graunt raunson donez a les Sarazyns de part les freres, et altres del sanke le bon moigne, fuerent emportez a Glastonbiri, et alleq’s enterez,” &c. &c. &c.

I fear we must admit that the element of romance is predominant in this composition. The Lord Constable of England under the Conqueror was, according to Dugdale, not Hubert Hussey, but Walter, the father of Milo, Earl of Hereford; This Milo of Gloucester had succeeded to the office in the time of Henry I.; and his eldest co-heiress, Margery, conveyed it, with the Earldom of Hereford, to the Bohuns. no daughter of any Earl of Warwick is mentioned as having married a Hussey; nor can I even suggest what island in the Mediterranean is disguised under the name of Aubegeys. The Norman princess Ellen, Countess Hussey, sounds equally apocryphal. But the story of the gallant knight-errant crowned King of an unknown kingdom; and the valiant monk, who fought the Soldan single-handed and slew him; with their ten brave brothers, “all of them knights;” has the true ring of the chivalrous age in which it was written.

“The Husseys came from a place a mile North of Rouen, which is now called ‘le Houssel.’ La Houssaie is still a common name in Normandy.”—Lower’s Sussex. They certainly date from the time of the Conquest in this country. Gautier Heusé is on the Dives Roll, and was either the same “Walterius Hosatus” who witnessed a charter of John Bishop of Bath in 1106, or his father. In Domesday, William Hosed or Hosatus held Charlcomb, in Somersetshire, of Bath Abbey, as well as other manors in the county: and the first lords of Bath-Eaton were of this family. They had afterwards estates in Wiltshire and in Sussex, where Harting appears to have been their principal residence; though “one of these lords built much at Shockerwicke, in Somersetshire, and the manor from thence was in succeeding times called the manor of Husei's Court”—Collinson’s Somerset. Standen-Huse retains their name in Wiltshire. Later in the twelfth century, we find two brothers, Henry and Geoffrey, the sons of Henry de Hoese. Geoffrey was Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1181, and one of the Justices Itinerant in 1182. He held under Adam de Port in Berkshire, with several manors in Wiltshire, and died in 1200, probably leaving no son, as 1 Ric. I. he had paid a fine of £23 i6s. ‘‘that he might enjoy his Lands in Peace during his own Life, and dispose of them afterwards to whom he should think fit.” The eldest brother, Henry, held four knight’s fees at Harting and Chithurst, Sussex; and founded a hospital for lepers at Harting, and Dureford Abbey, also in Sussex, in 1163. Henry his son succeeded in 1214. “After him,” says Dugdale, “came another Henry, but not his son;" probably his nephew, who also inherited Geoffrey de Hoese’s property, and was the grand-father of Henry de Hoese, who took part in the Barons’ War, and “had license to enclose, fortify, and crenellate with a wall of stone and lime, his place of Harting.” In the next generation, “Henrico Husee” attended Ed. I. in his wars, and was a baron by writ in 1295. His son succeeded, and died in 1349, leaving a grandson his heir, but “neither he, nor any of his descendants, were ever summoned to parliament” The year before this last baron died, another of the family—but how nearly related we are not told - Roger de Hoese or Husee of Beechworth in Surrey, who also served with distinction in the Scottish wars, had summons as Lord Hoese of Beechworth. This second barony became extinct at his death in 1361. A third followed in 1534, when Sir John Hussey, Chief Butler of England, received the title of Lord Hussey of Sleford. Again we are left in the dark as respects his genealogy. He was the son of Sir William Hussey, Lord Chief Justice of England in 1478, whose coat of arms, with his name “William House” may still be seen in the circular or bay window in Grays’ Inn Hall. Lord Hussey had ample estates in Lincolnshire, and built a grand house at Sleford; but forfeited the whole of his possessions after the celebrated Pilgrimage of Grace. “At that time,” says Froude, “the nobleman who had to answer for the peace of Lincolnshire was Lord Hussey.” At first “he sat still at Sleford: he would give no orders - he would remain passive - waiting to see how events would turn:” and sending messengers to enquire the intentions of the rebels. “He had not the manliness to join the rising— he had not the loyalty to assist in repressing it. He stole away and left the county to its fate.” For thus deserting his post, he was tried by his peers, found guilty of high treason, and beheaded at Lincoln in 1537. In his dying confession he declared he “was never traitor, nor of none counsel of treason against his Grace:” but he admitted that he had spoken against the new religion. Three years before when he, Lord Darcy, and Sir Robert Constable “sate at the board, Lord Darcy said, in good sooth I will be none heretic; and so said I, and likewise Sir Robert Constable; for we would die Christian men.” Though his children were restored in blood by Elizabeth, neither the estate nor honour were granted to his heir. From one of Lord Hussey’s brothers descended the Husseys of Yorkshire; from another Sir Edward Hussey, who received a baronetcy (now extinct) from James I. The arms they bore were not those of the baronial Husseys.

There were many more collateral branches. One of these - claimed by the Glastonbury pedigree as the elder line - ended in the fourteenth century with Reginald Hussey, one of whose daughters became the wife of Philip De La Mare, and the mother of the great De La Mare heiress married to William Paulet, ancestor of the Marquess of Winchester. Another - the Husseys of Shapwick and Tedworth - ended in the seventeenth century. A third was established in Ireland as early as the time of Henry II. About 1171, Sir Hugh Husee there married the daughter of Theobald Fitz Walter, the first Butler of the kingdom, and obtained large grants in Meath from Hugh de Lacy, whose heiress became his son Walter’s wife. From him descended Sir John Husee, one of the King’s council, summoned to parliament as Baron of Galtrim in 1374; and, more remotely, James Hussey, the younger son of one of these barons (living in the seventeenth century) and the ancestor of Edward Hussey of Westown, who achieved his fortune in 1743 by marrying the widowed Duchess of Manchester. She was the eldest of the co-heirs of John, Duke of Montague; and on the death of his father-in-law, Edward Hussey assumed the name and arms of Montague, and was created, first Baron Beaulieu in 1762, and then Earl Beaulieu in 1784. The heiress brought him a son and a daughter; but both of them died unmarried; and his brother Richard—the last heir male—who succeeded to Westown, did the same.

Sir Bernard Burke tells us that two branches of the family still continue; the Husseys of Lyme and Marnhull, in Dorset, and the Husseys of Scotney Castle, in Kent.

A Norman name: Ussé, or Houssaye; a local name