(Anglo-French-Latin) Loiterer, Dawdler [French musard; from muser, to muse, loiter]

Ascuit, Hascoit, or Hasculphus Musard, holds a great barony in Domesday. Enisand Musard and Hugh Musard also appear there, the latter holding of the Countess Judith. There is a difference of opinion as to their origin. If, as M. de Ste Marie (Recherches sur le Domesday) conjectures, they belonged to the Musards who were lords of Sauxelles and Issondun-sur-Creuse, in La Marche, up to the seventeenth century, they probably came to England under the banner of Roger de Poitou, who had married the daughter of their feudal suzerain, Audebert, Count de la Marche. The author of the 'Norman People’ (quoting Lobineau, Hist Bret. ii. 117) says they were the sons of Hasculph, Viscount of Nantes in Brittany, and this opinion is supported by the fact that Enisand Musard had vast grants in Yorkshire from Alan le Roux of Brittany, Earl of Richmond, with the feudal dignity of Constable of Richmond. It was his grandson Roald who founded Easby Abbey in 1152 (Mon. ii. 649); and from him, it is suggested, descended the Yorkshire families of Richmond and Burton: the latter name having been taken from the seat of their seigneurie. Hasculph, the elder brother, was seated in Derbyshire, where his son Richard was Baron of Staveley, and his grandson, Hasculph II., on the occasion of the marriage of Henry II.’s daughter, certified that he held fifteen and a half knight’s fees. This latter Hasculph died 33 Henry II., and was succeeded by Ralph, who was High Sheriff of Gloucester 17 John, and continued Sheriff till 9 Henry III. His home was at Misarden or Musarden in that county, which had taken its name from the Musards, and continued in their possession for about two hundred and forty years; that is, from the Conquest till the end of Edward I.’s reign. “He married Isabel, the widow of John de Nevill, without the King’s License, and paid one hundred Marks for his Transgression. He built a Castle at Misarden, and the old ruins of a place in Misarden Park is at this Day called Musard’s Castle. He was a Baron of the Realm, and this Manor, in ancient Records, is called the Barony of Misarden. He dyed 14 Henry III., and was succeeded by Robert his Son, who dying without Issue, Ralph Musard was his Brother and Heir, and being under-age at his Brother’s Death, he was given in Ward to Jeffrey Despencer, who in consideration thereof paid five hundred Marks to the Crown. Ralph dyed 49 Henry III., and left John his Son and Heir, who had Livery of the Manor of Misarden 15 Edward I., and dyed two years after.

“Nicholas Musard, Uncle to John, and younger Brother of Ralph, had Livery of this Manor 17 Ed. I., and dyed without Issue 29 Ed. I.; whereby Sir Nicholas Frescheville, Son of Amicia, his eldest Sister then dead, and Margaret his Sister then living, and Joan, Wife of William de Chelardiston, the Daughter and Heir of Isabel, his third Sister then dead, were his Heirs.”—Atkyn's Gloucestershire.

"Musard” is said to be "an opprobrious cognomen, signifying one who muses; literally a muser, a gaper, and used in the sense of a dull, lazy fellow, until after Chaucer’s time.” - A. S. Ellis.

MUSARD: Hascoit or Hasculfus Musard was a great Domesd. tenant in chief in the shires of Gloucester, Berks, Warwick, Derby, &c. His principal seat was Musarden co. Gloucester. Qu: was that place named after its proprietor, as Hardres in Kent and one or two other places have been? Cotgrave defines the word Musard thus: "a muser, dreamer, or dreamy fellow; one whom a little thing amuses, one that stands gazing at everything; also a pauser, lingerer, deferrer, delayer; one that's long about a businesse; a man of no dispatch."

Musard: Asculphus Musard held a great barony. Enisard and Hugh Musard are also named in Domesday. A nickname signifying a loafer or loiterer. It has become in later times Mussard.